Here's a possible solution: KICK WHOEVER AFKs FOR MORE THAN 15 MINUTES

I agree with this! kick users who are afk for 15-20mins

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Originally Posted by Negotiator

lol I just got in and soon as I stepped out of the INN, it crashed and now back to log in spam.

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That seriously made me laugh out loud. I needed that. Takes away the cold, bitter, sting of injustice of not being able to play. Likes for you, sir!

Yes, there are hundreds of people who are just sitting there AFK, probably for fear they won't be able to log in again. Next time you're logged in (ha! that's a little SE humor there) do a player search and just look at all the AFK people.

Not that I can really blame those players for doing so, much as it sucks for the next guy...

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Originally Posted by Gedrah

I pay the same monthly rate for the game as you do. I have a right to be connected whenever I want, even if I'm idle. When I'm connected it's my business what I do, even if i'm idle. I may appear to YOU to be idling but I may be discussing strategy with my linkshell. Kicking people off for being "Idle"? Nonsense! Square simply over-sold this game by a large margin and now they're scrambling to add more hardware to support all the demand. You people are asking for ignorant things in your panic because you just "wanna play right now" and blame people who appear to be idle for your inability to do so. But remember that the login caps are artificial and intentionally added by SE to cover for their lack of sufficient infrastructure to support demand for the game while they try to add more hardware.

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While this idea sounds good in theory, I still have to disagree. This is like buying and insuring a car, and then parking it in the middle of a highway. Sure, the car belongs to you, but the highway doesn't, and other people besides you use that highway.

You may have payed for the game client, and a subscription to use their service, but the servers don't belong to you. Being idle is only blocking traffic.

Driving your car is a privilege, not a right. The same should apply here with MMO's.


However, on the other hand, I also agree that measures like this should not be necessary. There should be enough servers to handle us all, even if we are idle. If the problem is that there are too many people on any particular servers, then offer us free transfers to another one that is less crowded, I'm sure there are some that will make the move and free up space where it's needed.

Really? That cheap trick? I disagree. Being a Neverwinter player myself I find such an idea to be rubbish- mostly because there's no such thing as queue in Neverwinter... That's a bad thing, mind you. (Thanks, PWE. /sarcasm)

Why? People then turn into absolute nervous wrecks unable to function outside of the game, constantly tapping their keyboard in between daily activities for fear of being logged and queued.(Yes, some people are that obessed) It's merely a big bandage to cover up a larger problem. Increase server capacity and work on improving the infrastructure and stability.

IF such drastic measures are taken then it should only be temporary until the issues are ironed out. Then it'd be perfectly a-ok!

im surprised SE didnt have any counter-measures for this problem. its a common thing in MMOs to kick idling players, so i assumed its the norm to implement this.
but 15 mins is too short, mayb 1 hour?
or mayb make exp boost for RESTING is 300%?
so far its not worth logging out, and i get y ppl idle.


was thinking of getting the 90days subs, if i have to face this prob for 90 more days......i dunno.

I completely agree. Boot for afk'ing for a prolonged period of time is normal in most WESTERN mmos. HOWEVER! It's far from normal in ASIAN mmos.

You'd be surprised of how many asian mmos out there doesn't have the afk auto-kick function implemented.

Still, THOSE GAMES HAVE MECHANICS THAT REQUIRE YOUR TOON TO BE ONLINE ALMOST ALL THE TIME. This game does NOT have anything that requires you to stay logged in permanently.

As i said though, i completely agree with the OP. This game needs an auto-kick system that kicks afk'ers after 15-20 minutes. If you need to do stuff and you won't be playing, why on earth bother staying online? It's not like you'll get anywhere by being idle in this game. No awesome rewards like in the generic F2P mmorpg flops being spewed out every 6 months where you get rewarded the longer you stay online.

/signed

There are other players bragging in forums about how they just /afk before they leave their homes or when their not playing. They are all Lv 50, because of this. Why would FFX allow this to happen while I'm stuck here on my day off... starring at ERROR 1017, or 2002. I'm rdy to sell this game for most of my purchase & cancel my subscription.

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Originally Posted by Gedrah

I pay the same monthly rate for the game as you do. I have a right to be connected whenever I want, even if I'm idle. .

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no, actually, you dont, and eventually SE will put in a timer so you'll be kicked after a certain time. just because you pay for something doesnt give you exclusive access to it 24/7.

dbag.

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Originally Posted by Riguel

Kicking the very low amount of idler's is not going to solve the issue with what's going on. Afker's cause actual minimal stress to the server due to the client not being active, .

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thats not the point, jerk. the point is selfish dbags taking up space while they are sleeping, out, doing something, NOT playing the game while others (like myself) have been waiting for almost a week to play since beta because world is full.

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Originally Posted by Gedrah

I pay the same monthly rate for the game as you do. I have a right to be connected whenever I want, even if I'm idle.

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You're right, I am paying the same as you. Except I can't connect and you are AFK because you are asleep.

Won't people just make their chars automatically jump then? That's what people did in Aion during events where you got items for being online.

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Originally Posted by Byolith

Won't people just make their chars automatically jump then? That's what people did in Aion during events where you got items for being online.

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that would be botting and it would most certainly get you a ban,

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Originally Posted by Byolith

Won't people just make their chars automatically jump then? That's what people did in Aion during events where you got items for being online.

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If they are super lazy in how they design it sure. I can't believe that they don't already have this in game. It won't solve the problem by itself but it would help alleviate the issue.

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Originally Posted by Gedrah

I pay the same monthly rate for the game as you do. I have a right to be connected whenever I want, even if I'm idle..

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ATM no one is paying and "free" is being extended. Just log off and let everyone else utilize the free time. After all everyone else has "right" to enjoy what NO ONE is paying for and all should have the opportunity to become "friends" with 1017 ;)

I know it sucks, but at this point it's a zero-sum game (literally). Giving up your spot now means waiting 4+ hours to get back in. Nobody is going to do it.

Idle means u're out from the PC and leave your char logged in doing nothing. this is idle, and most of the mmo's have this system working.... so stop complaining and do a favor for the ppl who wants to log in when u're out..

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Originally Posted by Izcroft

B: If they log off they might not be able to log back in again.

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That's the scariest thing. And believe me, i'll try to do the same and NEVER log out until i'm kicked. I can't waste any more time, wich i don't have much at all, fighting vs a login feature

Establishing auto-kick won't solve the issue of the server infrastructure being insufficient. Most people are afking because they know if they log out they have to play 1017 lottery for 5+ hours just to get back in. Fixing that will solve the majority of the AFK issues.

As far as auto-kick, I think one does need to be implemented as other MMOS have it, but it shouldn't be a priority for the reasons above. Also, I think 15 mins is too low, 30 mins is probably a lot better.

Yeah 15 mins is waaaaay too short. 30 mins at least.
I'm surprised for an MMO in 2013, they never had such a core function. Alerts on playtime and auto-logging out are a must!

Also imo, even if there was an auto-logout, we might still be in the very same situation where there's just not enough player space on the servers.
Cause it'd still be full of Non-AFK players.

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Originally Posted by ZeroEx

Also imo, even if there was an auto-logout, we might still be in the very same situation where there's just not enough player space on the servers.
Cause it'd still be full of Non-AFK players.

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Agree, this is why this isn't a solution to the login problems. The solution is fixing the infrastructure.

I agree with an AFK-kick function, but it will do very little to deal with the problems we are all having now. That will be handled by the changes already outlined for next week.

That being said, 15 minutes is definitely too short. Most people in this thread seem worried about folks who stay logged in over night, go to work or fall asleep while playing. Those examples are a far cry from being away from you computer/console for 15 minutes. It should be 30 minutes at a minimum.

Could implement a feature like XI where you could choose how long until you get kicked from server for idle. But SE should have the default on 30mins or so and have the option to change it greyed out until they are confident the servers are stable and then let players choose to turn it off or adjust time.

15 minutes is too short but I'd totally agree with a 30 minute timer. There is no reason for people to be connected if they're afk for long periods of time because this game have no Bazaar system in place. People who are afk for that long are doing nothing but taking up useful space for players who are actually available to play at the time.

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Originally Posted by Lenny

I doubt there are HUNDREDS of players in Eorzea just SITTING around doing NOTHING but AFK. Really....this will not help as much as you would like it to.

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Maybe you should start by paying more attention around you, there are alot of AFK'ers around the sanctuaries.

it is kind of a problem caused by another problem. Right now everyone knows that there are issues with logging in during peak time so some people log in early in the morning so they can make sure they can play and others just never log out.

Some of my Free Company members NEVER log out of the game unless they know they are unable to play that day at all. I do agree that adding this will not fix the issue but every little bit helps.

I feel like this a long with optimizing each server to handle more players on at one would work wonders. Of course I know nothing about managing servers so I won't talk like I am some sort of expert.

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Originally Posted by Jayplex

it is kind of a problem caused by another problem. Right now everyone knows that there are issues with logging in during peak time so some people log in early in the morning so they can make sure they can play and others just never log out.

Some of my Free Company members NEVER log out of the game unless they know they are unable to play that day at all. I do agree that adding this will not fix the issue but every little bit helps.

I feel like this a long with optimizing each server to handle more players on at one would work wonders. Of course I know nothing about managing servers so I won't talk like I am some sort of expert.

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I would immagine that the reason it isnt implemented into a final fantasy game is because there is likely end game or in game content that requires you be pretty much afk for 30 minutes (or days in ffxi) in order to even attempt.

Honestly it's to be expected given the current tragedy of the commons situation. People are trying to obtain the product they were promised and paid for. The fair and legitimate methods available to them would leave them with nothing in many cases. for a lot of people he amount of time they have available to play is shorter that the amount of time they would spend waiting in login lottery.

And...As someone noted earlier, idle characters are actually very light on the servers. If they actually had idle logoffs and every character online was actively questing/fighting/crafting they would probably have to LOWER the character limit to compensate because it would increase actual server load.

This whole discussion is the equivalent of neighbors standing around waiting for the fire dept to respond to a fire and arguing about whether the homeowner is violating lawn watering codes by using the garden hose on the fire. Once the real solution is in place there's no reason this even needs to be looked at, everyone can just log in and out or stay in 24/7, whatever they want, and it wont matter either way. There are any number of reasons a person might not want to log off and they shouldn't be forced to. Certainly not because of a temporary problem that will be resolved soon.

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Originally Posted by Gedrah

I pay the same monthly rate for the game as you do. I have a right to be connected whenever I want, even if I'm idle. When I'm connected it's my business what I do, even if i'm idle. I may appear to YOU to be idling but I may be discussing strategy with my linkshell. Kicking people off for being "Idle"? Nonsense! Square simply over-sold this game by a large margin and now they're scrambling to add more hardware to support all the demand. You people are asking for ignorant things in your panic because you just "wanna play right now" and blame people who appear to be idle for your inability to do so. But remember that the login caps are artificial and intentionally added by SE to cover for their lack of sufficient infrastructure to support demand for the game while they try to add more hardware.

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To correct you on this, the game would recognize if you are just talking on the linkshell as a form of not being idle. So it still stands you need to get booted for no action at all.

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Originally Posted by Byolith

Won't people just make their chars automatically jump then? That's what people did in Aion during events where you got items for being online.

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That's the thing though, there's absolutely no benefits whatsoever from staying online, idling 24/7 in this game.

The auto-kick function won't solve the major issues which lies with their hardware, software sadly as well as serverpark location, but it'd help a lot.