Institute Temporary AFK Kick Timer

I 100% endorse this idea.

Honestly I think the afk kick would be a great tool for these troubled times. Most of us are tired of this stupid as hell crap of being forced to wait to login. I myself look forward to a little play time here and there in-between work, yet instead we are stuck fighting for a spot on our server. Many people may be content making a new character on a different server or spamming their login but I'm not. My time was spent on my old character and it's my old character I would like to play. At least for the time being they should implement this function to help reduce the waiting.

Another possible option is allow a free server transfer option for players in these congested servers, giving people the choice to spread out and again reduce traffic further. To hell if they are legacy or not, this biggest issue atm is being able to have players actually play. Really this entire situation is a mess and needs some fixes.

Cant get in the servers now because people go to sleep or to work with their characters still logged in. Need 'ta boot em.

Just do us a server reset so the present people can enter.

Wow. This is a big topic of butthurt. I'm on Lamia and have experienced the 1017 issue just like you all have but not in the same volume. Lately I've been able to sign in and go with out little wait. Strange. But on topic yes I support this idea. Hopefully they'll get around to implementing it.

-1 once more lol

Seriously though, I don't know how you guys are unable to log in, I play on ragnarok, granted I afk for an hour or 2 sometimes to run to the store or eat dinner with the fam, but I play on PS3 and I don't like to stress out my system when I hear the fan kick into overdrive I turn it off for a good hour, and have no issues logging back in, or when the wife goes to bed I move my ps3 to a different room and have no issues logging in, sans a loggin cue of maybe 10 minutes. I honestly think you all are over exaggerating this cant log in business at this point

I got it, but watch I get a 90000 followed by 1017 lol.

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Originally Posted by Amenian

That's not true. There are a lot of things you can do in game for 45 minutes that don't involve earning exp. The RP community in particular will tell you that. For non-RPers, farming lower level mats, exploring for hidden things(after your map has been fully filled out), low level duties, hanging around talking to friends, waiting on duty finder as a dps, and a myriad other things. For instance, I spent two hours this morning killing low level monsters that I get no exp for as part of a project to fill out a database of what creatures drop what items. In short, I couldn't disagree with your proposal more. I'd be getting kicked often while actively playing the game.

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Simple solution: Spend 30 seconds crafting an item once every 45 minutes. Now you're fine.

I've been able to login to Leviathan every day. Sometimes it takes 30 mins of login spam and sometimes it takes less. But I get in eventually every time. It would be nice if instead of having to spam, I could get put in a queue so I can go do chores without having to sit in front of my computer hitting a button for a while, but I'll deal with it as long as it gets better soon. I understand some people may not be willing to do that and I can't blame them for getting frustrated. Just saying that if you wanna play, you can. As long as you have a char on the server that is.

I don't understand though why the AFK timer will not be implemented till server upgrades are done. With an AFK timer you may not even have constant full worlds thus not need to upgrade current servers/add new worlds. Although I suppose SE has data that might indicate otherwise. I do hope they don't go nuts with new servers though. I will deal with 30-45 minute login processes right now to have healthier servers 3 months from now.

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Originally Posted by Amenian

That's just a bad solution. Institute an AFK kick timer sure, but only a small fraction of people will even know how to make a movement script and even less of them will bother to do so. It's ridiculous to institute a function that punishes innocent people because they weren't watching a clock to see they needed to make a bronze ingot fast or be booted from the game.

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I agree with your standpoint (because who wants to be forced to craft/fight something every 45 minutes...even though for most it just happens to naturally happen lol) but an AFK timer is definitely needed.

45 minutes is way to short imo. I would suggest maybe a 2-3 hour kick. People who are afk for an hr or so just to pick up something or to eat aren't the problem. Its the ones who go to bed/school/work/etc. and will be AFK for hours and hours because they are afraid to log off. I dont know if this is possible but when you haven't been actively doing something (moving, chatting, getting exp, etc.) a pop up box could come up after the 2 hours of inactivity just to make sure you are there. If you dont respond to the pop up box after 60-120 seconds, you get kicked. This way if they cant include chat or moving as 'activity' and RPers/Explores/Market Watchers/etc, who can potentially be unfairly kicked, have a chance to react so they can stay on. :D

Win-Win no?

i would love an afk timer aswell

I think their "Wait and See" approach is beyond ridiculous, seems like they don't value their playerbase.

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Originally Posted by SirDiscoFrog

45 minutes is way to short imo

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Realistically, if the AFK timer is set to 45 min, the argument for people getting food is null anyway.

Think about it:

You've already reduced the load of all the people who AFK for 5+ hours. People will be able to get in anyway.

And even if you are grabbing a bite to eat, why not let someone else log in? Since we're assuming most of the traffic issues are now prolific AFKers, leaving for an hour in the game and coming back probably will not affect you as much as you'd think.

I do like your idea for a warning to pop up for the person to move around though(it is sort of like the shutdown message on PS3). Personally, I believe if they have been crafting for 45 minutes straight without moving around, they need to get out of their physical house, let alone move their characters for 2 seconds.

I would argue for the timer to be no more than an hour, with a ten minute call time on the warning system.

Agreed. The only people complaining are the ones abusing the fact that there is no timer. WoW implements the same thing and there are no complaints or issues with it. I think 30 minutes to an hour is sufficient, with a warning ten minutes prior. I've seen far too many AFK players in towns, it's not fair when there's a player cap. If SE doesn't implement a timer I think I'll lose a lot of respect for them.. They are putting more value in a small group of players (Ones that AFK to take up server space), rather than the large one that wants to actively enjoy the game.

Simple solution: Pop up timer warnings. Now you're fine.

Please implement this in as unobtrusive a manner as possible! I agree that an AFK kicker under heavy server load is a good idea, but when the server is not under heavy load (in the future), an AFK kicker would be really annoying.

A good fix would be "When the server is full and new players can't get on, kick the person who has been AFK the longest ONLY WHEN a new player trys to log in."

That would allow people to AFK as long as they wanted, unless the server was full, and at that point, it would only kick people as often as people attempted to sign in.

It also would mean that once server traffic decreases in the future, the afk kicker would still be there, but would not be active, since the servers wouldn't be under as much load.

In normal circumstances, an AFK kicker is incredibly annoying. These are not normal circumstances. As long as people can't get in because of AFKers, I support such an AFK kicker, but once that's not an issue, please, please don't leave a kicker active.

I love Yoshida, you know, but coming back home after 10 hours of work trying to login in and seeing "world full" is just soo frustrating... ._.

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Originally Posted by MagusVandel

Realistically, if the AFK timer is set to 45 min, the argument for people getting food is null anyway.

Think about it:
You've already reduced the load of all the people who AFK for 5+ hours. People will be able to get in anyway.

And even if you are grabbing a bite to eat, why not let someone else log in? Since we're assuming most of the traffic issues are now prolific AFKers, leaving for an hour in the game and coming back probably will not affect you as much as you'd think.

I do like your idea for a warning to pop up for the person to move around though(it is sort of like the shutdown message on PS3). Personally, I believe if they have been crafting for 45 minutes straight without moving around, they need to get out of their physical house, let alone move their characters for 2 seconds.

I would argue for the timer to be no more than an hour, with a ten minute call time on the warning system.

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Personally I wouldnt mind logging off to eat but if you think it will be quick it would just be more convenient to stay logged in but thats just me. I would be more concerned with those who are RPing or even the people who might have to all of a sudden walk their pet. It shoundlt take that long but things do happen that could prolong these things.

I could agree with you though that maybe 2 hours is too long, I was being generous. And hr to an hr and a half tops would be optimum. So long as something happens (and it includes the warning timer) I'm happy with it. I'm just tired of seeing tons of people just in the city AFK looking like additional NPCs lol

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Originally Posted by Llewelyn

Please implement this in as unobtrusive a manner as possible! I agree that an AFK kicker under heavy server load is a good idea, but when the server is not under heavy load (in the future), an AFK kicker would be really annoying.

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In normal circumstances, an AFK kicker is incredibly annoying. These are not normal circumstances. As long as people can't get in because of AFKers, I support such an AFK kicker, but once that's not an issue, please, please don't leave a kicker active.

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Agreed. I understand why folks want this today, but hopefully next week it'll be a non-issue. As bad as congestion has been this week, I have not had to spam login for more than 20-30 mins (and most of the time its 10 min or less) at a time in order to play even during peak hours (6-10PM US Central Time) periods. Assuming the planned server upgrades are successful, I'd be willing to bet the normal server queue system will do the trick.

I'd rather the datacenter problems get the priority than an afk timer that will be situational at best. Implement it, don't implement it, I don't care. Just don't put in a fix for an effect before fixing the actual cause.

Personally I'm glad they aren't rushing into this. It was never in place for FFXI or 1.0. I, myself, do log out at night and I do not log in before work to reserve my spot. We shouldn't have to. THAT needs to be fixed and it sounds like it will. But I don't ever want to ne kicked for inactivity. EVER. If they implement it I would be ok if it was like 2-3 hours at least. JMO. :)

I would only agree to an AFK timer if there was an option to turn it off.

Everyone agrees... please add this ASAP!

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Originally Posted by Hairspray

Everyone agrees... please add this ASAP!

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Not I, don't speak for me.

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Originally Posted by Invz

I would only agree to an AFK timer if there was an option to turn it off.

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So you're against AFK logout timers and for people who aren't actually playing the game going AFK the entire day and occupying a server slot that an active user could be accessing.

Thanks, got it.

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Originally Posted by BoomerOU

I'd rather the datacenter problems get the priority than an afk timer that will be situational at best. Implement it, don't implement it, I don't care. Just don't put in a fix for an effect before fixing the actual cause.

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Agreed fix the real issue.

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Originally Posted by JillyBean

Personally I'm glad they aren't rushing into this. It was never in place for FFXI or 1.0. I, myself, do log out at night and I do not log in before work to reserve my spot. We shouldn't have to. THAT needs to be fixed and it sounds like it will. But I don't ever want to ne kicked for inactivity. EVER. If they implement it I would be ok if it was like 2-3 hours at least. JMO. :)

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I believe FFXI did have an inactivity timer but you could turn it off

heck afk timer as a temporary measure. make it even something along the lines of 4-5 hours afk it boots ya and it would have a great effect. been sitting here for 4 hours trying to log in.

I'm going to say no too.. sorry. And someone saying it took them three days to finally log in. I find it hard to believe. Yesterday i logged in and out 4 times, 1st tries got in..

I don't really get why some people need to be on for over an hour doing nothing.
Why would it be so bad to just log on again? Why do you need to fill that slot while not playing? What's the advantage here?

Was doing a date and saw someone AFKing at the Amaljaa encampment. They definitely need a timer to combat this.

In the meantime while you're contemplating whether or not an afk timer will or will not be added why don't you at least remove the 1017 gate and simply put us in a que? I wouldn't mind if I was #1000 in the que; just knowing that my login actually counted is a bit of reassurance rather than just saying "try again later". If I play the click-click-login game anymore I'm gonna break my mouse. An immediate temporary solution is in demand: The que system needs to be consistent to ALL login attempts rather than the random dice roll that it is currently.

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Originally Posted by w0ng3r

Not I, don't speak for me.

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Okay let me rephrase... most sane people wouldn't mind having this implemented.

If we are AFK, we are just holding space on the server unnecessarily and for no reason other then to make sure we can play later rather then logging off... an AFK timer would make this a non-issue... therefore we have no reason to be against said timer unless we just want to be douchebags.

An AFK timer would be amazing. Even if the world still fills up and I can't log on, at least I know there's turnover happening and others can play in lieu of those that are AFKing for too long.

People forget FFXI had this.... it was set to Auto-Disconnect after 15 minutes by default... you could turn it off but most people didn't know how, so it kept the concurrent connections to the server manageable. Why would anyone be opposed to this?

I stood by SE and justified every problem they had, but the fact that they wont code in an afk timer is just lazy. We paid money for a product that isnt working after official launch. If I thought fixing the que was easier than simply adding an afk timer, I would say to do that. Saying "we'll do it next week, maybe" is a lazy and insulting response to the biggest problem your game currently faces. Basically you dont want to take the time to try a simple solution now, in an attempt to appease your player base. You want to devote your man hours to frivolous balancing issues and wait until next week when it will most likley still be an issue.

The gaming community is watching you take a game that could have been amazing, from something that was reviewed as total trash, and thanks to poor technical planning and now putting off your number one problem of logging in, will forever put yet another black eye on the FFMMO and SE names.

Because for many, XIV is as much a chat client as it is a game?

An FFXI style configurable auto disconnect would make sense but fixing the queue system would make far more sense. I can only assume that it's hosted on the same cluster that handles exchanging characters between the various zone and duty servers (The weak link that by my reckoning, caused all the early access failures and character lockouts in P4), hence why it's been dialled down to near nothing.

Please try to remember that not once has in-zone performance been an issue even in Ul'dah where the idle players are at their highest ratio.

Oh and 8pm BST, I just logged into Ragnarok first try, no 1017, no queue. Go me :)

When they do the "adjustments" next week, whatever they may be, and the issue of server congestion becomes non-existent, then an AFK Auto Disconnect would become inconsequential. That would mean they just wasted $2000 that could have been spent on something else (the $2000 is just a guess based on an average developers pay and time that would be spent, my guess would be around 8 hours. And that's IF it works properly the first time). Waiting for next week to see if this is something they will need for the long term is a good decision. It's crappy for the people who can't get in but they have already stopped people from buying digital downloads to help with this issue and spending money on something risky is...well, risky. I own a business of my own and I understand some of these decisions and I would only ask that you also try to understand why they are doing what they do.

This is damn ridiculous now. I just want to play the game I have pre-paid for and already pre-subbed! Can I please log in to the damn game already? Is that too much to ask? You have my money now give me my product. I feel like I drove 1,017 miles to a resort hotel I already had booked and paid for and them telling me when I get there that they have no vacancies. This is frustrating as hell! I'm not one of those cry babies that whine about "this game is too easy" or "the grass doesn't look real enough" or "bards suck" or "we need SSM in the game". I'm just a simple paying customer and I want to be treated like one.

ok, rant over. I guess I'll get back to the log-in clickety-click-game *crosses fingers*

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Originally Posted by Grift3r

The gaming community is watching you take a game that could have been amazing, from something that was reviewed as total trash, and thanks to poor technical planning and now putting off your number one problem of logging in, will forever put yet another black eye on the FFMMO and SE names.

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http://tinyurl.com/nky2r6p

Everyone will be getting more free time.

A server forced AFK logout, while there are restrictions on how many people can be logged on, makes things more fair so that more people have a chance to play until SE can "hopefully" fix the problem.