Quick PSA about AFK crows

LordGlint

I was testing them abit last night and saw something I dont THINK was stated about them. AFK crows dont appear if you are the last survivor. It's completely removed once it turns into a hatch game for the last guy. Not saying the system is perfect or anything... that was just a point I was seeing getting brought up in youtu.be comment sections and such, so I figured I'd let everyone know who didn't already.

Even tested it by letting someone get 3 crows. The moment hatch spawns, those crows fly off and never come back.

GentlemanFridge

Pretty sure this from the patch notes is referring to that.

Coffeecrashing

@LordGlint said:

I was testing them abit last night and saw something I dont THINK was stated about them. AFK crows dont appear if you are the last survivor. It's completely removed once it turns into a hatch game for the last guy. Not saying the system is perfect or anything... that was just a point I was seeing getting brought up in youtu.be comment sections and such, so I figured I'd let everyone know who didn't already.

Even tested it by letting someone get 3 crows. The moment hatch spawns, those crows fly off and never come back.

That is mentioned in the official patch notes (the last sentence in the above screenshot).

LordGlint

@GentlemanFridge said:

https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/7Q1CAU54EJ0X/image.png

Pretty sure this from the patch notes is referring to that.

People are missing alot of those notes it seems. Either way, just wanted to highlight it since I was seeing it getting brought up.

Afew ppl were agreeing with this guy that a change to make crows disappear after its down to 1 survivor. I guess they didn't know...

Coffeecrashing

There is a lot of misinformation on the internet, about how the AFK Crows and Go Next systems work.

For example, there are multiple people complaining that crows show up after 10 seconds. And I’ve watched streamer videos where they completed botched how the AFK crows work.

And some streamers are purposely making misleading clickbait videos, where they spread misinformation, because dramatic videos = $$$ for them.

100PercentBPMain

there's a lot to unpack with this update, thanks

CrypticGirl

Misinformation tends to happen when the devs omit a lot of information, as shown by Coffeecrashing's post here:

@Coffeecrashing said:

There is a lot of complaining about the New AFK Crows, but it doesn't seem like anyone knows how they actually work, so here are my notes that I've collected so far. This information is good for the sake of discussion, so people can argue if some of the rules feel unfair:

Rules for AFK Crows...
1) 10 second grace period for not doing objectives
2) At 100% AFK point speed = 1/2/3 crows at 60/75/90 seconds
3) At 50% AFK point speed = 1/2/3 crows at 120/150/180 seconds
4) Not doing any objectives and not moving = AFK points happen at 100% speed
5) Being near the killer = AFK points happen at 50% speed
6) Moving (walking back and forth in a line works, because the distance threshold isn't big) = AFK points happen at 50% speed
7) Being in chase a few seconds = removes all crows
8) Repairing a generator for 12/13/15 seconds = removes 1/2/3 crows
9) Repairing a generator when it reaches 100%, regardless of seconds spent repairing = removes all crows
10) Healing a survivor for 12 seconds = removes all crows
11) Healing a survivor when it reaches 100% of a health state, regardless of seconds spent healing = removes all crows
12) Going into the dying state = removes all crows
13) Breaking a totem = removes all crows
14) Unhooking a survivor = does not remove crows!
15) Looking through a Springtrap camera for a few seconds (maybe 12 seconds?) = removes all crows!

16) Opening a chest when it reaches 100% progress, regardless of seconds spent opening a chest = removes all crows

17) Hatch spawns or End Game Collapse is triggered = removes all crows

Things I still haven't figure out:
18) Potential grace period for being unhooked?
19) Potential grace period for being healed one health state after being unhooked?
20) Potential grace period for unhooking a survivor?
21) Healing a survivor from deep wounds to injured, regardless of seconds = removes all crows???
22) Healing a survivor from dying to injured, regardless of seconds = removes all crows???

23) What happens with other killer powers? Does interacting with every killer power remove crows? If I disarm a Trapper trap, does that remove crows?

24) Do flashlight saves, flashbang saves, and pallet saves remove crows?

Concerns about AFK crows:
25) The distance threshold for moving (Rule 5) should be much larger. If survivors want to run long distances to get to a generator, or find totems, or whatever, then give them the 50% AFK point speed. But if they're literally running back and forth in a line, in a corner of map, they should still have a 100% AFK point speed.
26) Looking through a Springtrap camera (Rule 14) shouldn't remove all crows. It's too easy to bypass the AFK crows when Springtrap is the killer.
27) If you start a game, and want to run all the way across the map to repair a generator, you can easily do that because you'll be at 50% AFK point speed.

28) Being able to remove all crows by opening a chest, seems questionable? If the killer doesn't have the Human Greed perk, do survivors really need to be opening chests?

29) If only two survivors are alive, and one of the survivors is in the dying state, the other survivor maybe should have their AFK point speed paused. Otherwise, killers might be further encouragers to slug for the 4k, hoping the last survivor will get AFK crows before the slugged survivor bleeds out.

30) Hex totems might be an issue, as some survivors might legitimately need over 2 minutes to find a totem. Hex totems might need to always show their aura to survivors in at least a 16 meter radius, or they might need to be loud like boons, or maybe something else might need to happen, to reduce the maximum time survivors need to find a hex totem. Also, this aura reveal might need to be immune to the blindness status effect.

31) Finding generators might be an issue at some MMR levels, as some survivors might legitimately need over 2 minutes to find a generator, especially if the generator is indoors and might not easily be viewable at far distances. Maybe if the survivor has been moving a large distance for 40 seconds, the closest 3 generators can be aura revealed, and this aura reveal is immune to blindness? An alternate trigger might be a certain AFK threshold (i.e. the survivor has 3 generator auras revealed when they reach 2/3 the AFK points needed for the first crow).

32) Are there any other times where AFK points should be paused? Oni during blood rush? Myers during (non-infinite) Tier 3? Haunted grounds during the 60 seconds of exposed? Are survivors expected to repair generators during these times?

33) I'm worried the PTB AFK Crows are just going to be a knowledge check, where people that know how to loophole the system will be able to excessively hide, and the people that don't know how to loophole the system will get AFK crows.

34) If a survivor is injured with Self Care, can they move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds, heal for 12 seconds, move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds, heal for 12 seconds, move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds, heal for 12 seconds, move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds, heal for 10 seconds (hitting 100% of the healing state resets AFK crows), move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds, open a chest, and move around the corner of the map for 120-150 seconds? And if blessing totems resets AFK crows (I forgot to check before the PTB closed), can a survivor just bless a totem every 120 seconds, to have an infinite way to reset AFK crows that doesn't alert the killer?

35) When totems or Jigsaw boxes are interrupted by a scream, can the survivor have a grace period to continue the interaction? Because it would be extra unfun to get interrupted by a scream AND get AFK crows because the survivor didn't complete the interaction. Because if Jigsaw boxes had a grace period, then the AFK crow rules could be "Completing a Jigsaw box search resets AFK points". But if screaming is going to interrupt Jigsaw boxes, then the AFK crow rule might need to be "Searching a Jigsaw box for 12 seconds resets AFK points".

36) Sadako tapes and TVs are more complicated. Turning off a TV probably shouldn't reset AFK points. But if inserting a tape always removed AFK points, then someone could just run tapes over and over, to excessively hide. Maybe the AFK crow rule could be "If a survivor inserts a tape, and it removes at least 2 stacks, reset AFK points"? Would that be too confusing, or would it be expected that survivors wouldn't normally inset a tape unless they had at least 2 stacks?

37) Victor will be able to start chases next patch, and I’m assuming this is so Victor can reset AFK points. This is a huge nerf for Victor, and it would be much better if being within a certain distance of Victor reset AFK crows, so that he wouldn’t need to start chases. Victor relies on not having chase music so he can avoid pallet stuns, because he can currently hear if a survivor ran past an undropped pallet, or if they stopped running right after the undropped pallet. Remember that Victor getting pallet stunned is much more punishing that of any other killer got pallet stunned, because it completely removes Victor, and places Victor on a long cooldown, and Charlotte is often somewhere far away at that point and has wasted a bunch of time. Twins are easy has a really low pick rate, and we don’t need to make it worse, by removing Victor’s ability to avoid pallet stuns.

38) Should AFK points be paused when a generator is blocked? If Grim Embrace blocks all generators for 40 seconds, then AFK points really should be paused. But what if Dead Man’s Switch blocks a generator that a survivor was recently repairing. Are they be expected to find another generator, or should their AFK points be paused so they wait for the generator to be unblocked?

39) Invocations have a progress rule, where somewhere between 12 and 15 seconds of progress, remove all crows. So you don't need to complete the entire invocation to remove crows.

40) AFK points should be paused, after 5 generators have been competed, while exit gates are blocked. Survivors should not be expect to progress the game (work on exit gates), when the exit gates are literally blocked.

Most of these rules were not listed in the patch notes, so it's no wonder people don't fully understand how they work.