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Possible Fix For AFK Problems

Ritterbug·3/4/2016, 5:33:01 AM·2 votes·610 views

So, we've all had games where a teammate has left for reasons out of our control whether it be a rage quit, power outage, computer failure, etc. The fact of the matter is they happen to both your team and your opponents. The question then becomes how is that fair one team should be given an unfair advantage because someone was unable to continue playing? Though 4v5s are definitely winnable I don't believe the win-rate is very high and it is not preferred. It especially sucks in ranked games, sometimes costing people promos and delaying their climb. The point is, it's not fair that one team should be essentially punished and handicapped for an afk they couldn't control. It's not a mistake that cost them the game, they got paired with a random stranger and it could have happened to anyone. So how do we fix this? I've seen suggestions saying perhaps have a bot replace the players champion and continue playing for them but what if it's a temporary disconnection and the bot has wasted gold building an item the player wouldn't have, or ends up giving up kills to the enemy team? There are too many variables for that to be a viable option otherwise I'm sure Riot would have already implemented it.

That's where my idea comes in. It dawned on me randomly in one of my late night thought adventures, the barrier that prevents players from leaving base at the beginning of the game could be a crucial part of this workaround. My idea is that if a player disconnects the enemy team has a barrier spawn at their base that prevents as many people from leaving the base as are missing from the enemy team. (I.e. There is always an equal number of active players.) It would work on a rotation, teammates would tag each other in/out. The first champion back to base after the AFK would have to remain inside this "barrier" until someone else either dies or returns to base, whichever comes first, at which point the player who was previously unable to leave may now do so. Then the next person who died or entered base would become the "benched" player until the previous conditions were met. This would mean that an AFK would no longer give the enemy team an unfair advantage as there would always be the same number of players playing.

Now I know a lot of you are going to say "Why do I have to be punished because someone on the enemy team disconnected, it's not my fault." You're right, it's not your fault. It's also not anyone's fault on the other team either that their teammate left the game and now they have to play at a disadvantage. At the same time, if you were the team with an AFK, chances are you wouldn't want to be facing a full team either where someone has a free lane and the enemy can freely push objectives. Also, with the rotation, it's not just one person who is excluded from the game (like the current AFK system in Player vs AI games where one bot sits out if someone AFKs) it would still give everyone a chance to play. This would inevitably give the team with a "benched" player a gold/xp disadvantage so my idea to counter that would be a slight buff that increases xp/gold gained for all players or give the "benched" player a base amount of gold/xp per second based on a variable such as game time, average level of their team mates, their current level, etc. As for champions with global ults or summoner spells, all spells would be deactivated for that champion while having the "benched" status to prevent them from assisting their team from the sidelines or teleporting out.

It's nothing more than a rough idea that could possibly balance games containing AFK/Disconnects. For a long time now people have been trying to find a way to make these games less of a free win for the enemy team and I believe this has potential. It would also fix any future drop hacks that may occur such as the infamous "[player] has unpaused the game" in season 5. Any feedback and suggestions for the idea would be appreciated.

TLDR: If someone AFKs, the enemy team benches the same number of players, who must remain in base until they are "tagged in" by a teammate via death or returning to base. The teammate who tags them in then becomes the "benched" player. That way there are always an equal amount of active players on each side. A possible gold/xp over-time buff could be given to the "benched" player in order to compensate for time lost farming. All spells are deactivated for the "benched" player to prevent use of global ults/summoner spells to escape.

(Please no negative comments, if you don't like the idea a simple down-vote will suffice).

4 Comments

Zero Skill Tank3/4/2016, 6:17:14 AM3 votes

The problem is not how to compensate for missing teammate, but the fact of compensation at all. Riot is convinced it would make players harass teammates who happen to do poorly even more than they do now, to make them leave game and get the buff instead.

And with your idea, let's be honest - if someone on my team is 0-12 removing them to remove someone from enemy team sounds worth it.

67chrome3/4/2016, 5:47:22 AM2 votes

That's not a bad idea, I could see some games actually implementing something like this.

It would be kind of frustrating to get the hang of though, standing around doing nothing isn't particularly exciting, and evening out a game so 4 people are just as likely of winning as 5 people kind of sucks for the 5 people, as you're dealing with 1 more person that's down because they lost or 1 less person that's excited because they won.

Also: forced tagging in and out would allow the 4-man team to farm up gold/EXP at maximum efficiency for all 4 remaining members, where constantly splitting gold/EXP between 5 players means the 4-man team that's out would actually be at a slight disadvantage.

You could also run into weird issues concerning global ultimates, and indirectly buff global-ult champions through their capacity to actually have some agency in bringing out a win even if they're stuck on the bench.

All that said - interesting idea.

Dreadlocks3/4/2016, 6:12:10 AM2 votes

Interesting idea, but you still have the same problem as every other suggestion..: We're losing, someone DC. and BAM you've just abused every DC suggestion made.

There is no perfect way around DC's, in DOTA 2, they give increased gold and XP to the handicapped team, but even then sometimes it favors the team of 4 more than you would think. Idk how this would work on league, but i feel like with the way League is, it would probably be much harder to balance than it is on DOTA 2.

Ritterbug3/4/2016, 3:58:21 PM1 votes

Hmmm valid points... I suppose I left out the idea of a team mate doing poorly and being harassed to leave, as we all know that happens a lot more than it should, and was instead thinking of someone who has internet stability problems or an average player who was making regular contributions to the success of the team and their disconnection being the difference between a win or loss due to now being down a player. Perhaps there never will be a viable compensation system and losing from afks will just remain a built-in feature of league :(