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

Right now the queues are barely going down in number. In large part that's due to many people not logging out at all. Methods to get around the afk auto-log out system have been getting shared by players en mass. This is bad because it isn't letting people who want to actively play log in and pressures more people to do the same as this becomes common knowledge. It's getting to the point that the auto-log mechanism isn't even there anymore.

Purposefully getting around a system like this is against the ToS but I think it's something that needs a patch...

To my knowledge people are doing it by:

-Staying at the retainer bell having their retainer active (which explains the large, never moving crowds around these bells).
-Opening a crafting window then just staying like that.
-Getting into a cutscene then just leaving it.

Please patch these things SE so the queue line can get moving again. It's not fair to those of us who are playing by the rules and logging out appropriately.

I was actually just getting on the forums to find out if there were any threads on this yet as I was about to make one. Thank you Morphiana. I'm sure the dev's are well aware of this but it can only help to see the community speaking out and pressuring them to come up with a solution ASAP. I haven't played in a few days due to company visiting. But I am actively keeping up with community discussions and this is by far the biggest issue in regards to server congestion. Obviously DDoS attacks, among other things, do not help. But if the auto log out feature is addressed, it can have a massive impact on queue times and hopefully reduce congestion by a large amount.

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Originally Posted by Morphiana

Right now the queues are barely going down in number. In large part that's due to many people not logging out at all. Methods to get around the afk auto-log out system have been getting shared by players en mass. This is bad because it isn't letting people who want to actively play log in and pressures more people to do the same as this becomes common knowledge. It's getting to the point that the auto-log mechanism isn't even there anymore.

Purposefully getting around a system like this is against the ToS but I think it's something that needs a patch...

To my knowledge people are doing it by:

-Staying at the retainer bell having their retainer active (which explains the large, never moving crowds around these bells).
-Opening a crafting window then just staying like that.
-Getting into a cutscene then just leaving it.

Please patch these things SE so the queue line can get moving again. It's not fair to those of us who are playing by the rules and logging out appropriately.

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This is what I said in a different post...

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Originally Posted by HyperSMB

Seems a little...weird of a response.

You know, some of us are on servers where we don't have to worry about getting AFK booted. Hell happened to me three times today for idling outside my apartment while watching professional league matches. Managed to instantly log back in everytime.

I am going to have to assume you AFK exploit based on your response tone.

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Originally Posted by Ayer2015

I know I did. Nearly everyone was in Balmung. The community is a large part of the continued problem.

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Originally Posted by Mazora_Espeon

It's not a weird response, it's called a scolding. And just as Ayer had said above, I too have no problem admitting that I have exploited the AFK Timer Penalty, but it was to make lunch, use the restroom, take a shower. At the most, I would be gone for an hour and then come back to play again non-stop for 3-5 hours or even longer since I currently have the time. What I don't do is leave my character logged in overnight because unlike those people, I actually do enjoy my sleep and I wake up early the next morning to login and play the game. And because of the state on things on Balmung, this is what it has come down to with everyone exploiting the AFK Timer Penalty to avoid having to get stuck in the long 3k+ queue cause by an influx of people trying to login.

And exploitation of the AFK Timer Penalty isn't the only problem. That's only one part of the situation. The other problem lies with SE's part to limit the number of people that can be online at a given time and moderating the rate at which people log into the game to avoid causing stress on the servers and preventing them from having a meltdown. And the grievance is the players who dislike having this kind of restriction place on them coupled with the fact that Square Enix should have solved the problem long time ago. Unfortunately, their means of resolving the issue is to get people to move off the large populated servers. Except, doing such a thing lies an even bigger problem. It has been over four years since the launch of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn and within that four years, these large populated server have become a developed community (kinda like a developed country/world). People has since build connections, made friends and even some have considered each other "family" (to whatever extent that sense of family is to them). And grant it, this may be a game, but the people sitting on the other side of the screen is real. There feelings, emotions and thoughts. IT'S ALL REAL.

So like others have said, it's basically Square Enix giving other people a huge slap to the face saying... "Get the **** out or deal with it!" And so the people exploiting the AFK Timer Penalty is there way of dealing with this. Some people in the Balmung community feel that it's because of the people on the server's fault for the long login queue, while others feel that it is Square Enix fault for not taking care of these issues/problems to begin with and had allow the server to get this far. And I would guess that it was Square Enix's reason to not stop letting people transfer because they may have wanted people to play with their friends. Not to mention that they were getting money for the transfers anyway so it was a win for them. But now... what you're seeing the consequences of allowing server transfers with little to no limitations. In the end, the question who's fault is it that's causing this issue and where the blame of responsibility lie in this situation. The truth of the answer would be no one since both parties would be guilty.

However, the subject I'm talking about isn't about login queues, it's about people complaining about not having a more strict AFK Timer Penalty and then coming back around after things have all settled to complain about the AFK Timer Penalty, saying how they don't want that kind of restriction. This is what happened during the FFXIV: ARR launch. People dislike the AFK Timer Penalty especially those who played a DPS class because those people would go AFK while waiting for their instance to popped since it can take possibly hours for them to queue up. Of course, this was also because of the lack of people doing old previous content. And so now... This is where the status of the situation is at. SO... in conclusion, my point is that no one better complain about something and then come back and saying they want to take it back. That is what I'm saying. And no offense to you, but you're not even on Balmung so I would personally appreciate if you get off my back. Please and thank you! :):D:cool:

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So that being said... What do you say about those who actually have a lot of free time and can play all the time? And furthermore, I'm pretty sure there are people in your Free Company that have exploited this feature too so what do you have to say about them? :confused:

Yes, this is a big issue. In fact, the situation is so bad, when I can play after three hours of waiting I can't even enter my apartment in the Mist because so many people are Afk'ing. When you can't even enter your own home, you know there's a problem. So now people can't play, people are upset and transferring off (completely understandable) and it's not fair considering we all pay the sub for this game. This needs to be dealt with ASAP.

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Originally Posted by Mazora_Espeon

What do you say about those who actually have a lot of free time and can play all the time? And furthermore, I'm pretty sure there are people in your Free Company that have exploited this feature too so what do you have to say about them? :confused:

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If they have a lot of free time and are actively playing then I don't see a problem. It is what it is there.

The problem comes when you have people at work, sleeping, etc. essentially doing things that keep them away from their PC for hours / days at a time yet staying logged in none the less. That's a spot an active player could be utilizing as opposed to an inactive one.

Patching this problem so no one else could use it would be sufficient, nothing has to be done to anyone in terms of punishment. It doesn't need to become dramatic, just needs to be fixed.

Huge problem on all the larger servers. On Balmung my friend has been in queue for 4 hours, and it's been 4k+ the entire time. There are hundreds if not thousands of players exploiting the hell out of this, and keeping others from being able to play.

I like how I said something along these lines by one of the people sitting in craft stance that "If I don't like it, I should log off and let someone else have my spot." even thought I was you know, actually playing and in a duty finder queue.

People are butts.

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Originally Posted by Morphiana

To my knowledge people are doing it by:

-Staying at the retainer bell having their retainer active (which explains the large, never moving crowds around these bells).
-Opening a crafting window then just staying like that.
-Getting into a cutscene then just leaving it.

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Autologout is essentially the game entering /logout and selecting "Yes" for you after a certain amount of inactivity. Pretty much any interaction that locks your movement prevents logout.

Changing the way it works would require coding that bypasses safeguards and could result in unforeseen bugs and new exploits. Easier solution is just to have brief emergency maintenance during low activity periods to flush everyone out.

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Originally Posted by Morphiana

Snippity

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You're only addressing half of the problem. You can be upset at the players, but when it comes down to it, no one wants to sit in a 3 hour long login que. I go to work, pay my taxes, but when I get home, I want to play my favorite game, not hang out on the login screen. So while I have sentiment towards the plight of others, I'm not going to stop craft-afking so I can stay in game to enjoy my hobby when I am allowed the time....

Honestly...you're playing on Balmung. Even before this you should have jumped ship. You think everyone laughs and pokes fun at Balmung for no reason? It's a server known for it's less than favorable opinion and it's chokka blok. An expansion drops and you're surprised? The only thing he forum is surprised about is the fact that you didn't see this coming. Transfer or queue. Bye.

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.

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

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.

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. :mad:

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Nice

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by 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. :mad:

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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.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

It's not a single server issue.

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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.

Yeah I see the same group of people posing in limsa 24/7 in the same spot.
I wonder what will become of them now that they be cracking hard on 3rd party mods.

Please SE, give us necromancer class

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Originally Posted by Thorio

Yeah I see the same group of people posing in limsa 24/7 in the same spot.
I wonder what will become of them now that they be cracking hard on 3rd party mods.

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Nothing you can use your keyboard's built-in software to achieve this effect.

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

Changing the way it works would require coding that bypasses safeguards and could result in unforeseen bugs and new exploits. Easier solution is just to have brief emergency maintenance during low activity periods to flush everyone out.

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Not realy. Forced logouts are very disruptive because you essentialy prevent people from doing any dungeon 30 minutes before that timer as otherwise they risk getting kicked out during one.

Normaly 1 hour without any interaction is already more than enough already to say someone is afk. Even if they are in a dialog window, it makes no sense to keep it open for 1 hour without doing anything. This is very basic afk detection. This system must bypass those things. And on that it can have a very simple mechanic to trigger a timer restart, in such way its nearly impossible to not trigger a logout by accident. A single mouse or keyboard press could be enough to refresh. For cutscenes, in automatic mode, each time the cutscene does a click, it counts as a player click.

But yes, some people will install an autoclicker for that, or even use a physical method that behaves like one (yes, they exist and even involve randomized timing). So for proper afk detection additional mechanics would be needed. But usualy those would already be complex enough to fall under 3rd party software usage, which for most players is enough to not use these.