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Why has a solution for afks not been created yet?

ShrimpleyPibbles·5/11/2016, 2:15:54 AM·4 votes·1,248 views

I'm positive we've all had our games ruined by afks at some point or another. Even though it is possible to win a 4v5, it is rarely done and never enjoyable to play. I want to know why Riot has not implemented a system to alleviate at least a little of the pain caused by afks. One example for this would be taking a page from Heros of the Storm's book and replacing afk players with an AI to replace them until they return. Seeing as it is a completely possible solution and this game has been around for nearly 7 years now, I am hugely disappointed in Riot for not coming up with a way to fix this ongoing problem. I'm aware that you are able to report players after the game is over for going afk, but that still affects the people originally playing with the afk. Especially in ranked, an afk will cost you anywhere from 10-18 lp depending on the match. Seeing as it is a situation beyond the players control and that there is no way of communicating with an afk player, how does Riot find it fair to harm players ranks due to one person ruining the entire game for the other 4.

End of salt rant. If you have other possible solutions for afk players, please tell me!

Sincerely, a player who has had afk players in 5 ranked games in the past week aloneitem 3070

26 Comments

Smileyface5/11/2016, 2:19:28 AM1 votes

Although I do agree with you on the fact that AFKs are a huge problem in the community, I do not believe having an AI will fix much. AIs tend to be buggy, or bad. Maybe even feed even more. I believe that if there is an AFK, you should at least get LP back.

xl Kirito lx5/11/2016, 2:20:25 AM1 votes

They have one on the PBE. Still ironing out the kinks. Realistically thou, do you want an AI on your team? An AFK player is more beneficial to your team then a AI is.

RIP your luck though, it's bad RNG. I've had one afk in the last 10-ish games, and it was on the enemy team.

justaminorthreat5/11/2016, 2:30:25 AM1 votes

Well I can think of a way of motivating people not to DC from ranked, if the players name is red in end game lobby take all the LP lost by the team and give the net loss to the DC leaving the other members as if the game never happened, with modern day equipment there is very little in terms of excuses for disconnecting. How ever there is no way to transfer this to other game modes. I'm just saying what ever comes to mind, and I don't play ranked so I probably shouldn't make suggestions on that in the first place but I will anyways just in case someone likes it. :/

AI not such a good idea in my opinion as AI tends to either be really stompy or really easy. Its hard to mimic player mistakes, actions, and moments of brilliance.

Only other idea I can think of is giving remaining allies a buff that is given when AFKs are deteccted, that would try to even out the playing field.

Kaleidos5/11/2016, 2:42:06 AM1 votes

The AI replacement system in HotS exists, not because the AI's participation is wanted, but because losing a body to soak EXP with is a dramatic handicap for your team.

Not a single person in HotS thinks "Oh cool, we have an AI, that should help with teamfights a bit", they think "Oh, we have an AI, guess I'll tell it to split push all game so that the enemy doesn't farm it for free kills."

And conversely, there's no reason to have an AI replacement here since League uses individual EXP and not shared EXP, all you're left with it a body that actually steals EXP and gold from the remaining players on the team and acts as a source of resource income for the opposing team, so in other words it's an implementation that only serves to harm you rather than help.

The most advanced AI we've gotten were the AI used to pilot the Doom Bots, and those things were only a threat because of their Doom Bot bodies and not their AI.

Riot hasn't fixed the AFK problem because it's not a problem that any game in this genre has managed to solve remotely effectively, all the compensation attempts I've seen have always been half-baked, easily exploitable for "gaming" your losses, or are just flat out useless, even the current aid Riot implemented on the PBE only affects AFKs that happen at the start of the match rather than when someone would quit after the game had already gone into full swing.

Gotted5/11/2016, 2:50:08 AM1 votes

Oh man, DOZENS or SCORES or even HUNDREDS of solutions have been come up with. Just that zero have been implemented.

Went 5-2 the other day but both losses were 4v5s that I popped off in :/ its fine. Just 80lp I wont get back without doing extra work.

masterdragon4815/11/2016, 3:01:21 AM1 votes

I would love to see a system implemented where a player that disconnected from the game loses 60+ LP while the rest of that players team receives loss forgiven. Originally, I would have said it would only apply to games that could end in a 4 person vote or less, meaning the player had actually disconnected. I can, however, see a world where it was possible to detect disconnects and reconnects (of some predetermined minimum amount of time) and punish those the same way.

As an example, if your jungler disconnects from the game for 10 minutes and the enemy team takes baron, dragon, and 3 towers in that interval, its safe to say that that disconnect lost your team the game. Of course, in the case where a player just simply never connects to a game, its pretty obvious to see why that game is a loss as well.

In both of these situations, it isn't fair to punish the losing team for a teammate disconnecting because they had no control over that occurring. And I am personally of the opinion that when queuing up for ranked, one assumes responsibility for their internet connection; playing ranked with an unstable internet connection is not an excuse.

While the 60+ lp loss may seem harsh, it would discourage cheating and people "taking one for the team" mentality that could occur without it. And as for abuse of this, I don't think it would really be possible. But if someone wonders why, I'd be happy to reply in a later post (this one is long enough). Long story short, there are solutions to the bigger problem, but Riot seems rather slow to move on them (not sure why) and I do believe that this would fix the problem almost perfectly.

Emerald Fang5/11/2016, 3:55:21 AM1 votes

I have heard rumors that something is coming, but it may not be until S7, so IDK.

Emerald Fang5/11/2016, 4:02:37 AM1 votes

But then the satisfying feeling of winning 4v5 would be gone...

Lol just kidding. My friend played his first LoL game, his ENTIRE TEAM was afk. No joke. He held them down for a surprising 19 minutes.