AWOL! Deserter!

Its amazing what exploits players come up with when they learn the mechanics in a title. One of the interesting player work-arounds that we have seen in Dust 514 is the AFK MCC Behavior, while fleeing from games that are going badly is a time-honored tradition in most shooters, we see it at an especially high rate in Dust because of the persistence of finite gear.

The thing to remember in these situations is that mercs are accepting contracts for hire in these instances but are essentially going AWOL and Deserting after agreeing to fight for the contract holder. From a lore point of view this has to be resolved. Gameplay has to provide a deterrent for people who try to exploit gameplay mechanics by leaving battles to avoid the loss of assets. It must also address those mercs who accept employment, then refuse to deploy for battle but attempt to reap the rewards afterwards.



We think there are in lore aspects of resolving this and we'd like to see them added by CCP. While we are expecting a fix for AFK farming soon, where are the 'reflections' on a mercs permanent file that the tacnet promises? We think that these are great deterrents to AWOL and Deserter behavior. What merc will wait inside the MCC or red spawn area and refuse to engage the enemy knowing they will not only be denied payment, but an AWOL Occurence will be attached to their permanent file for all future employees to see? Marking Deserters with an instance in their permanent file provides the same incentive for mercs to fulfill their contracts and provide the service they are being paid for. Some employers may provide contract parameters that exclude undependable mercs, and no soldier wants to be excluded from a big payday.