[Mobeer]

I started a PvE match with 4 vastly more powerful allies, who destroyed everything in sight before my level 22 cruiser could get involved. At the end I got a "AFK penalty" and now can't participate in PvE for 2 hours.

Can anyone explain what this penalty is? What did I do to get it?

[Solace]

AFK penalties are given out when the game deems you were "not playing" during the match. This has been known to happen before, when your team mates killed everything very quickly you did not hit the minimum "time played" amount or threshold.

The game thought you were AFK hence why you were given the penalty.

[Three of Seven]

What queue where you doing at the time?

The AFK Penalty system was added to prevent players from doing nothing in a match and still getting rewarded for it, however there have been cases similar to yourself where someone was contributing but didn't meet a system threshold. It happens to those who might be outgunned (like yourself) or those providing healing support, it seems to be based on the amount of damage a player deals in a certain amount of time.

My advice would be to team up with people around your level if you can to try and prevent this happening in future, or seek some advice on beefing up your ship as you level, we have people around who can give advice on that