I'm not suggesting this out of spite, ...

Didn't think you were, bud! I was referring solely to my own character flaws.

I shall leave your bank-robbery analogy be, not because it is inapt, but rather for fear of launching myself on a pages-long rant about the SEC and Wall Street. ;)

I am curious, what are the unwanted side effects you see in dropping the SP-per-time thing? I don't really see it that way. I'd still get my SP for supporting my boys, and even occasionally for killing someone; my boys would still get theirs for killing your boys; you and your boys would still get your for killing my dumb ass, etc. The only thing is we'd all get that couple thousand fewer per game, unless they adjusted the rate of WP to SP. (which I think would almost have to go hand-in-hand with losing or reducing the SP-per-seconds thing)

The AFKers annoy me, too. I must confess, removing their ill-gotten SP ex post facto would amuse me, if for no reason other than spite. But I'm doubtful that CCP will implement this, and if they did, I suspect there would be an orgy of complaining, ranting, threats, et cetera. Hell, there might be just in response to your suggestion.

I think perhaps a better solution would be to remove the WP rewarded for time in game, or at least reduce it dramatically.

WP are recorded for time in game? i don't think so. Now, SP and ISK are, and this should be rectified in some way.

I'm against AFK SP farming, too, but how would CCP detect this?
Don't assume they're wizards.

Announcing a date for retroactive AFK SP removal is fine. The point is any idle detector is going to have some holes, and CCP needs to be able to close them retroactively if it wants to have an effectve deterrent. Otherwise people will be constantly hacking it and CCP would have to create a full time team dedicated to the project.

Having said that, people know that AFK SP farming is against the spirit of the game right now. It's rather disengenuous to claim that you had no idea CCP didn't want you doing it when they changed from a daily to a weekly cap to stop it last time and they announced that they were working on the detector.

Stop this witch hunt for AFK farmers. It's not cheating in any way and thus shouldn't be punished in any way.

Maybe CCP didn't intended this to happen, but that doesn't make it cheating. If it was cheating CCP would have said so from the beginning.

So stop this.

You have a valid point, but good luck on any detector or enforcement. With rapid fire controllers, smart keyboards, just holding down the run button, shooting a few people then holding down the run button. There are alot of ways to avoid detection.

The problem I see if the way the game is made, its big, technical and has snipers. How would you detect an AFKer vs a Sniper sitting just off a remote base on overwatch? Both of them will probably have very long periods of complete inactivity.

Option #3 - Don't have the primary source of SP awards be time spent in match. You had [u]zero]/u] AFK'ers until CCP introduced that mechanic.

At minimum invert it so that WP earn 5 SP and seconds in match are on a 1:1 ratio. Make that simple change and there will be a substantial drop in the AFK'ing (tho it will likely continue as long as there's "free SP" to be had simply for spawning.

0.02 ISK
Cross

You have two options:

1) PreventAFK rewards in real time when you can and let the rest go
2) Prevent what you can in real time and get the rest after the fact

The first option will lead to an arms race with CCP constantly playing catch up to the hackers. That will result in significant effort just to stay behind.

The second option will dramatically discourage hacking as all the time and effort spent to circumvent the control may be lost at any time.

wow. hacking, huh?

I'll go with option 3- Ignore your two options.

FWIW- I've spend my time MCC AFK when I get put into a half in the bag match. Why should I keep wasting time bouncing out of matches? Why should I play in a match full of people who have no chance of winning, and put themselves in that place before I even got into the match? Fix that first. Amongst other way more important sorely needed bug fixes.

Someone with pocketrocket in their name tried to nade me in the MCC- only to repeatedly die when i moved at the last second. Was pretty hilarious to see their KD go from 0/5 to 0/11 trying to kill me :D And that right there is the crux of AFK QQers. They tend to be on the bottom of the team and out of frustration with their own shortcomings project it onto the AFKs. Same with people who mess with me when I redline snipe. I'm redline sniping to take out all of their snipers. I'll be #1 or 2 on the team... and here I am getting pestered by some berry with a 1/11 KD. I have never had a top performer mess with me in an MCC or in the redline. Probably because they are too busy killing reds to care. It is always ****** players.

I'm against AFK SP farming, too, but how would CCP detect this?
Don't assume they're wizards.

The problem I see if the way the game is made, its big, technical and has snipers. How would you detect an AFKer vs a Sniper sitting just off a remote base on overwatch? Both of them will probably have very long periods of complete inactivity.

I've stated my opinion that a detector will be dificult to build. It would be nearly impossible to keep up with the AFK hackers, hence the requirement to be able to post process battles when new hacks are identified.

That said, there are probably whole classes of actions that will take care of themselves, such as anything that exposes you to enemy fire (or team killing). For the most part it will probably concentrate on the MCC and your redline.

After a certain point a person manipulating the keyboard or controler will be spending enough attention to the game that they might as well be playing.

Stop this witch hunt for AFK farmers. It's not cheating in any way and thus shouldn't be punished in any way.

Maybe CCP didn't intended this to happen, but that doesn't make it cheating. If it was cheating CCP would have said so from the beginning.

So stop this.

True, it is not cheating. However it is also not fair, and also not sporting.I have never gone AFK to farm isk. And I battle with myself every day knowing there are players out there doing it, and it will put me at a severe disadvantage come PC when I can't afford thousands of protofits to go up against players who have done (such as yourself I assume).

One thing they could do is have a post- game review system for players on you team. Players could either upvote or downvote their teammates, and if a player got a certain aggregate score or lower t hey would forfeit their sp, loot, and isk.

Just a starting point, tweaks could obviously be allowed.