[request] Appear Offline option

Hi there. I was wanting to request a feature where someone could log in and appear offline when it comes to friend's lists and player lists.

The reasoning for this is that sometimes someone may just want to log in and not be bothered by folks in FC and friends list.

I myself, have some good friends on FFXIV and love to interact with them most of the time, but I also play the game with a significant other, and sometimes just want to play the game with her without people bothering us or assuming we're ERPing when we just simply don't want to dungeon or raid :P.

I know that we can talk to the friends but it's just awkward, especially when it comes up repeatedly. I'd really like the option to just avoid the hassle and the awkwardness and just play with my girlfriend in peace. (Or log in for 5 minutes to check my market board without friends getting excited for me to play)

Also "busy" status doesn't cut it. I'd like to be just plain invisible.

What do you find unacceptable about /busy? It tells people, "Don't bother me." It's not a fault of the system if your friends aren't respectful enough to understand that.

Put simply, it looks rather suspicious when yourself and significant other both put on "busy" status for all the friends to look at.
But besides that, what seems unacceptable about another option? It's not like this would take away or replace anything.

Sometimes you just don’t want to have to talk to people. It’s the equivalent of seeing someone you know on the street and hoping they won’t notice you, because you don’t want to talk OR seem rude by not talking - except in this case, the FC login notifications make sure they know you’re here and there’s no chance of slipping past unnoticed.

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Originally Posted by xbamfo

But besides that, what seems unacceptable about another option? It's not like this would take away or replace anything.

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You made the claim that what we have is unacceptable; it was fair for me to ask why.
It still sounds like the problem is with people who don't understand and respect what it means for you to be /busy, which is not a problem with the system. If you can explain to us here that sometimes you just want to play with your SO, surely you can explain it to your friends as well?

I never stated that Busy status was unacceptable or had a problem with it. It just simply lacks a function that I'd like to have as an alternative. That's what I meant but "doesn't cut it". For it's function, it works fine. I just want a different function from a different status.

Also there is not an issue with explaining it to the friends. It has already been a few times in fact. But it'd be much easier to just stop having to repeatedly explain to people and stop being bothered, while still keeping people on friends list so I can interact with them like normal the rest of the time. It's honestly more of a convenience thing.

Sure, with the condition that all social lists where you are invisible are also invisible to yourself. The offline status should not be used as a tool for stalking.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

Sure, with the condition that all social lists where you are invisible are also invisible to yourself. The offline status should not be used as a tool for stalking.

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That could be a good way to go about it : ). I've seen other games use a similar format. Steam even as a whole doesn't let you view your friends list when in 'incognito' mode sotospeak. And then those that want to interact while invisible can meet before going that way, or set a meeting place.

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Originally Posted by xbamfo

snip... assuming we're ERPing when we just simply don't want to dungeon or raid :P.

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nothing like walking into your private home to idle only to start receiving tells left and right asking who you’re erping with. like man, let me dissociate in my fireplace in peace. i agree there should be an option to be invisible, but like suggested above me there needs to be a counter measure or it can be abused easily.

Why not just make an alt and keep the names between just you and your SO? That way under the currant system you two can have all the time together alone you want and not have to worry about upsetting friends.

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Originally Posted by Aylis

Why not just make an alt and keep the names between just you and your SO? That way under the currant system you two can have all the time together alone you want and not have to worry about upsetting friends.

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I don't really think making people level entirely new characters just to spend some quiet time together with their SO is a better option than simply giving an "offline" status with the above mentioned parameters...

I Been wanting this feature for awhile now, for me personally it'd be one of the greatest QOL additions since job gauges and cross server pf.

In my experience, an appear offline option, even a paid one, results in around 70% of active players using it 100% of the time and the as a result the game appearing dead to new players and result in stagnation at best.

So no, this is a horrible idea. Please keep it away from the game at all costs.

It is possible to not only disable the tell noise, but also filter it out entirely or limit it to specific tabs.

This can be done by going to Character Config > Log Window Settings.

For disabling the ping: Log window Setting > Notification Sounds Tab > Uncheck Tell > Accept > Done.

For filtering out tell completely or to specific tabs: Log window settings > General(very bottom) > Select Chat Tab > Check/Uncheck > Apply > Done

An appear offline option would only hurt the game. These are enough. So if you get tell spammed you can just ignore them entirely or just not look in the tab you have them set to. The same can be done for ANY type of chat log channel(FC, Alliance, Say, etc). The only chat logs that are exempt from these options are GM tells and Game notifications(maintence, emergency maintence, etc).

If this does not satisfy you then I'm sorry, but too bad. You gotta work with what you got.

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Originally Posted by xbamfo

Put simply, it looks rather suspicious when yourself and significant other both put on "busy" status for all the friends to look at.
But besides that, what seems unacceptable about another option? It's not like this would take away or replace anything.

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It does? To me it means "don't bother me atm please"
Bother being sending tells or party invites.

I don't think it's suspicious.

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Originally Posted by Kaoru_Nagisa

I don't really think making people level entirely new characters just to spend some quiet time together with their SO is a better option than simply giving an "offline" status with the above mentioned parameters...

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Is it ideal? No, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and make sacrifices to get private alone quiet time with whats available to use. They don't like to use the /busy option because they don't want awkwardness with friends and that's understandable, so the next available escape is to make atls to get away from everything. I'm not against an offline status, but requesting something doesn't always mean they will add it either ever or in a timely fashion.

This is a feature in XI, and it is great. Sometimes you just want to play the game in peace and quiet without interruptions or pressure.

There is no harm in having this implemented, and those who find /busy to be sufficient can continue using it.

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Originally Posted by Sacred_Nym

In my experience, an appear offline option, even a paid one, results in around 70% of active players using it 100% of the time and the as a result the game appearing dead to new players and result in stagnation at best.

So no, this is a horrible idea. Please keep it away from the game at all costs.

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How would it appear dead to new players? If I understand correctly, all the function would do is show your online status as offline in lists like friendslist, FC, LS etc.
It wouldnt hide your character model in the open world or something like that - just make it less visible for your self-picked social circles.
FCs would still want to appear "active", so I would imagine a good chunck of people there not using it 100% of the time.

I dont think that new players impression of the game would be truely influenced by this.

Yes please. Would like appear offline.

Perhaps there needs to be an offline timer, so essentially you can only appear offline for a certain period of time and only a certain number of times per day to avoid it being in constant use. So let's say you are given an hour to appear offline twice a day, otherwise there is the Busy status as well to use in-between.

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Originally Posted by Kurando

Perhaps there needs to be an offline timer, so essentially you can only appear offline for a certain period of time and only a certain number of times per day to avoid it being in constant use. So let's say you are given an hour to appear offline twice a day, otherwise there is the Busy status as well to use in-between.

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And what excatly would be the issue with the constant use? (As long as you appearing offline would mean you cant check other people online status, as already established)
What negative impact would the constant use have on anyone?

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Originally Posted by Vidu

snip

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It was merely a theory in response to the person who was concerned that the game would appear dead if too many players utilised an offline status option.

Honestly I think the Busy status is more than sufficient, but to each their own.

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Originally Posted by Zomkei

nothing like walking into your private home to idle only to start receiving tells left and right asking who you’re erping with.

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Balmung.txt

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Originally Posted by Emstidor

Balmung.txt

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It gets old @.@

I can't tell you how many times I've had this joke tossed at me. I don't RP, I'm married and not looking to pick up any new guys, and STILL I'll get /tells alluding to ERPing in my house. Have mercy on my poor soul if I have a friend in the house when another randomly decides to visit.

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Originally Posted by xbamfo

Hi there. I was wanting to request a feature where someone could log in and appear offline when it comes to friend's lists and player lists.

The reasoning for this is that sometimes someone may just want to log in and not be bothered by folks in FC and friends list.

I myself, have some good friends on FFXIV and love to interact with them most of the time, but I also play the game with a significant other, and sometimes just want to play the game with her without people bothering us or assuming we're ERPing when we just simply don't want to dungeon or raid :P.

I know that we can talk to the friends but it's just awkward, especially when it comes up repeatedly. I'd really like the option to just avoid the hassle and the awkwardness and just play with my girlfriend in peace. (Or log in for 5 minutes to check my market board without friends getting excited for me to play)

Also "busy" status doesn't cut it. I'd like to be just plain invisible.

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Just so you know, the game treats online and offline players the same. So appearing offline, or appearing busy would have the exact same application. The client just doesn't have "last seen" information for players that haven't logged in since you logged in.

They would have complicate the online/offline tracking to make "appear offline" actually look offline. However that would have far reaching consequences when you encounter them on the overworld or in other content, since "offline" would need to make their names not appear to anyone or it would defeat the purpose.

If I could appear offline, I would never be online again. I would permanently keep it on.

I though we already have this option. The same way I though we had so many BASIC functions...
This is a basic function a lot of MMO have, and it's awesome.
+1

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Originally Posted by Aylis

Why not just make an alt and keep the names between just you and your SO? That way under the currant system you two can have all the time together alone you want and not have to worry about upsetting friends.

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Because we have built a lot together where we are, along with the friends that we are with. We don't want to start over from scratch, nor separate alone time from everything we have built. That and we're on Balmung so it'd be impossible to even be within the same server.

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Originally Posted by SomeRandomHuman

It is possible to not only disable the tell noise, but also filter it out entirely or limit it to specific tabs.

This can be done by going to Character Config > Log Window Settings.

For disabling the ping: Log window Setting > Notification Sounds Tab > Uncheck Tell > Accept > Done.

For filtering out tell completely or to specific tabs: Log window settings > General(very bottom) > Select Chat Tab > Check/Uncheck > Apply > Done

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Wanting to *sometimes* want to be alone isn't worth making it so that I cannot interact with any of the friends I've made ever. Also that makes it look like I'm actively ignoring friends who normally I would want to interact with, which creates a bad atmosphere for later.