FFXIV: People are circumventing the auto-log timer and staying logged in indefinitely

[Icywebs]

I'd like to second the idea of a flush. There have been isolated maintenances in some areas while allowing people to continue to play, and I am not sure how difficult that is. However, with it comes a warning it's going to happen and to leave or logout. If that is done in the middle of the night in, say, the housing district and Kugane (where there's a huge cluster of people around the bells) the queues would be quicker with fewer AFKers logging in. If this were done mid-day and midnight it would render the method useless to people going to work or going to sleep as they'll be DCed anyway and thus discourage the behavior. Ironically, the queues weren't that bad during the early stages of the DDOS attacks when people were getting booted regularly - and I think that was at the height of the population logging in. The option to transfer off is great and all, but waiting 4+ hours to login just to do that is incredibly unattractive.

[Mr_Nice]

Looks like flush is the solution that wins! http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...e73eaba1c52976

[QT_Melon]

I'm not sure I can be on board with this solution due to the fact http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...fter-relogging are still getting issues. Also if the logout happens during a PSN maintenance does it only kick the player to the tile screen or launcher? Because if they do a flush and PS4 players are kicked out of the client then they can't log back on period if PSN has network downtime.

[Besame]

Well, auto-logging me out 1x a day irritates me as I am retired and play a lot. Expand the dang server occupancy size, e.g., get a bigger hamster. I was unaware that you could bypass the 30 min log-out and that explains why so many are crowding the bell.

[Icywebs]

It's annoying, but so is a 4 hour queue. Immediately after the dump it takes 10-20 mins to get back in - the longest part is the bottleneck in place to avoid the server from getting overwhelmed.

This time yesterday, the queue was about 2.5k and it took me 4 1/2 hours to get in.

Today, same time, queue started at 596 exactly 20 minutes ago and I'm almost in at 103.

Thank you, Square, for taking a step (one that no one really wanted but was necessary) to resolve part of the problem.

[QT_Melon]

Yeah but you're on Balmung which is notoriously overcrowded. I think I feel for players that are on smaller servers and having to get forced out. It's not like their server is the problem.

[Katsuragi_]

Looks like flush is the solution that wins! http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...e73eaba1c52976

I find it funny that people are pissed at them allegedly because they do that instead of "upgrading their servers".
To me it reads how stupid people are that they won't stop a little and realize that the issue is far from being the lack of capacity to accommodate the population.

[Kosmos992k]

Yeah but you're on Balmung which is notoriously overcrowded. I think I feel for players that are on smaller servers and having to get forced out. It's not like their server is the problem.

It's not a single server issue. Players in their personal chamber or private house using one of those tactics ties up a transient (created when you enter and torn down when you leave) instance on the instance server that handles all short term instances for the data center as well as tying up a place on the transfer server that handles transferring you from one instance to the next. That impacts smaller worlds as well as larger ones because the instance servers are shared, while the world servers handle the open world zone instances. On Balmung, you could have a zone that is overpopulated in addition to many hundreds of inactive players in transient instances of some kind, such instances not only inclue private house, apartment, personal chambers, Aesthetician, Inn, solo duties and dungeons/trials, etc... so if a significant amount of the server resources are tied up maintaining solo instances for habitual AFKers, it reduces the resources available for duties, which hurts the Queues and slows performance - for everyone in the data center.

Personally, I feel that SE should work on coding better AFK detection, and institute a 3 strikes system after which you are autologged out and locked out of the server for an increasingly long cool down each time you are auto logged out during any given 7 days. Perhaps people will finally be discouraged from pointlessly tying up server resource in the mistaken belief that they need to to ensure their spot on the server is saved.

[Kosmos992k]

Well, auto-logging me out 1x a day irritates me as I am retired and play a lot. Expand the dang server occupancy size, e.g., get a bigger hamster. I was unaware that you could bypass the 30 min log-out and that explains why so many are crowding the bell.

Crowding the bell in an open zone directly impacts the world server, doing it in a private house or personal chamber impacts the instance servers - which is even more anti-social because it hurt everyone on the data center.

[QT_Melon]

It's not a single server issue.

Can you specifically quote me where I said it was? I said you're on a NOTORIOUSLY crowded server. I did not say anything about it being the only server. I only said that smaller servers are being punished because of the behavior of over crowded ones.