One step to stop server overcrowding. [Square please read]

Step: Auto-disconnect those who AFK to hold spots.

Fixed.

I made a topic about similar issues, but someone brought that one up too. Trying to get it many likes so it grabs some attention (hopefully).
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...re-August-27th.

Thank you for posting this. If they had a damn set up so players who are AFK 10 mins get booted from game!

Liked.

Maybe we will get a comprehensive solution instead of maintenance after maintenance, oh and then a bit more maintenance.

Get the idling players off the servers.

FFXI had auto-disconnect please tell me they didn't overlook something as critical or even useful as that.

Another thing I'm wondering is if the characters who are 3102 like me currently, are also taking up slots? Because that can be an issue as well, because my friends are saying I'm in game, but I cannot log in and keep getting the 3102 error, or the 1017 error

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...28#post1067028

Yep

Its possible 3102 is holding you in the game although what i can gather, and maybe somebody here can better enlighten me, is that when you get 3102'd your character is in limbo between zones, etc. as there was a problem with the hand-off from one server to another.

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Originally Posted by Zoltran

Liked.

Maybe we will get a comprehensive solution instead of maintenance after maintenance, oh and then a bit more maintenance.

Get the idling players off the servers.

FFXI had auto-disconnect please tell me they didn't overlook something as critical or even useful as that.

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FFXI auto-disconnect could be disabled, and was one of the first things I'd disable any time I had to re-install FFXI. Games like WoW are hard-coded to do as much, even going as far as kicking you off of the lobby server if you sit there for too long. This would be ideal. Setting it to something like 10 minutes is too low, but 30-60 minutes would be acceptable, in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Toxictaru

FFXI auto-disconnect could be disabled, and was one of the first things I'd disable any time I had to re-install FFXI. Games like WoW are hard-coded to do as much, even going as far as kicking you off of the lobby server if you sit there for too long. This would be ideal. Setting it to something like 10 minutes is too low, but 30-60 minutes would be acceptable, in my opinion.

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Oh it could definitely be disabled, I should clarify that it would be nice if they had one implemented especially one with a backdoor through which, in cases like this, they could override the players setting and implement their own. IE: a disconnect timer after 30 minutes or whatever of inactivity.

Dumbest idea ever. No offense. Not you, just the idea. I payed for the game just like you. I should be able to AFK all day if I want (I dont do it I am playing the whole time). The problem should be fixed so we can all get on, not by turning the paying costumers against each other for a chance to play a game we all paid for. If I couldn't get in, I wouldn't blame people afking, I would blame SE. Your solution would just let them get away with not providing an entertaining experience for everyone. It's like saying people who go to the bathroom at sporting events shouldn't be allowed back in because other people who couldn't get in want their seats now. Now if all those people paid to get in and couldn't, you dont blame the people not sitting down and watching the whole game, you blame the management for selling more tickets than seats they had.

What I'm missing here is why the hell isn't there a "Queue" server? Nearly every other MMO I have played has one and its a pain in the ass to get the "World is Full" message and go all the way back to click "Start" again, just completely unnecessary. I know people who played WoW on Skullcrusher who were 1000th in line in the Queue server and waited. They maybe weren't happy about waiting but at least you could WAIT with your spot saved so you KNEW you were getting in. This whole World is Full and no number of people playing, queue or kick back to the opening screen is just ridiculous.

I'm blaming both. You paid, I paid, we all paid to play this game at least at this point just for the game as we don't yet have a subscription fee.

People need to make room for others. I suppose you would be cross with somebody who was taking up two seats on a bench when you really wanted to sit down, why not be cross with those people taking up a place in the server when you want a play. You paid for it.

And yes, square needs to address their server limitations, everyone should be able to get on; but that's not a reality now, now its about triage.

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Originally Posted by Gamerfan001

Thank you for posting this. If they had a damn set up so players who are AFK 10 mins get booted from game!

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10 minutes is far too low for an auto-boot and overall is more troublesome than it is useful. Go to the bathroom? Kicked. Then spend an hour getting back in. No.

Anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes is a far more acceptable timeframe, and overall 20-50 minutes doesn't really matter when compared to what is going on now, which is no auto-booting at all.

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Originally Posted by Minahirion

What I'm missing here is why the hell isn't there a "Queue" server? Nearly every other MMO I have played has one and its a pain in the ass to get the "World is Full" message and go all the way back to click "Start" again, just completely unnecessary. I know people who played WoW on Skullcrusher who were 1000th in line in the Queue server and waited. They maybe weren't happy about waiting but at least you could WAIT with your spot saved so you KNEW you were getting in. This whole World is Full and no number of people playing, queue or kick back to the opening screen is just ridiculous.

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They have queues just for the first say 200 people as i've never been more than 200th in line.

I was 248 earlier. For like 3 seconds until world is full.

hell, 30min is a LONG timer, every north american mmo i've ever been on runs off a 15min afk timer, only the asian ones give 30 from what i've seen. and after watching open beta and the first day of early access, where i've been running around areas, come back an hour or two later, and could count the number of people who had NOT moved at all, is a bad sign.

hell, if i had my way, 15min tops, enough time to take a quick bathroom break, grab a snack and come back, chat and eat, go help someone bring in the groceries, ect ect.

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Originally Posted by gyugotsugo

I was 248 earlier. For like 3 seconds until world is full.

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I was recently 89 then I was 88 and following that i was 87. Then i was 1017'd (and thats not the number i was in line.)

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Originally Posted by gyugotsugo

I was 248 earlier. For like 3 seconds until world is full.

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Wait so you can get the Server is Full error when you're in a queue? So what's the point of the freaking Queue?

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Originally Posted by Polantaris

Wait so you can get the Server is Full error when you're in a queue? So what's the point of the freaking Queue?

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there's a small saying that goes something like "you never go full retard, Squeenix just went full retard."

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Originally Posted by Polantaris

Wait so you can get the Server is Full error when you're in a queue? So what's the point of the freaking Queue?

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Im assuming (somebody else may be able to shed more light on this, hopefully a dev. No wait they dont talk.) that there is a hand-off between the queue server(s) and the game servers; like many lanes of traffic merging into one lane. Were in the lane of traffic, in the 20th place, but so are 9 other people in their respective lanes. And as they take one person from each lane the server fills up gradually and your 20th place is more like 200th place, since there are 10 lanes. It fills to capacity and you get 1017'd.

Just a thought, maybe its different. Maybe a dev could comment eh? ;) ;)

The Problem is if someone wants to stay online while afk he'll always find a way - afk-kick-timer? - we'll just see a lot of afk'ers running against walls because their users put a weight on the w key :(

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Originally Posted by evilsohn

The Problem is if someone wants to stay online while afk he'll always find a way - afk-kick-timer? - we'll just see a lot of afk'ers running against walls because their users put a weight on the w key :(

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Im sure, but ill take my chances. If it successfully kicks 50% of those AFKing to hold a spot it did a better job than square is doing with maintenance and login restrictions.

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Originally Posted by evilsohn

The Problem is if someone wants to stay online while afk he'll always find a way - afk-kick-timer? - we'll just see a lot of afk'ers running against walls because their users put a weight on the w key :(

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This isn't the case on other games. Very few people go afk and intend to stay afk for extended periods of time while attempting to remain logged in. I'm sure it does indeed happen, but the vast majority of people who go afk are not thinking about how to stay online while they're gone.

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Originally Posted by Toxictaru

This isn't the case on other games. Very few people go afk and intend to stay afk for extended periods of time while attempting to remain logged in. I'm sure it does indeed happen, but the vast majority of people who go afk are not thinking about how to stay online while they're gone.

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I'm sure in the vast majority of other games that's true. But at the same time the vast majority of other games are not experiencing these problems now.

I'm saying that as a result of the login restrictions (which have been published by square numerous times in the news section) players are staying logged in to avoid queues and server full messages.

It's the nature of these login restrictions that keep players logged in. I believe in this case a large proportion (maybe not a majority) of players are staying logged in to keep their place on the server.

This is why i'm questioning squares solution and proposing one of my own with the hopes somebody who is responsible for these fixes within square reads this and thinks about a comprehensive approach to solving the overcrowding issue rather than the multitude of linear approaches we have experienced since the start of beta 4.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just expecting the worst and that's what I came up with, of course (almost) no one does this in other games, but that's because You can always log back in right away.
But true, it's worth a try. Not everyone will resort to such sneaky tactics.

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Originally Posted by ArkirTulum

Dumbest idea ever. No offense. Not you, just the idea. I payed for the game just like you. I should be able to AFK all day if I want (I dont do it I am playing the whole time). The problem should be fixed so we can all get on, not by turning the paying costumers against each other for a chance to play a game we all paid for. If I couldn't get in, I wouldn't blame people afking, I would blame SE. Your solution would just let them get away with not providing an entertaining experience for everyone. It's like saying people who go to the bathroom at sporting events shouldn't be allowed back in because other people who couldn't get in want their seats now. Now if all those people paid to get in and couldn't, you dont blame the people not sitting down and watching the whole game, you blame the management for selling more tickets than seats they had.

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Wait... What???

Most games have that Anti-AFK system, and none of them had any problem with that, ppl did not stop playing because of that, ppl learned either how to counter it, or just don't go afk for more than 20~30 minutes... Your making a wrong comparison there... It's more like ppl leaving the sporting events to do whatever they wanted to do for say... an hour and then wanting to go back... Or going to a movie, leave it in the middle of the session and just go back in another session like 3 hours later to see the rest of the movie, just cause you paid for it...

Well, whatever... Just my 2 cents.

A timer will help. It won't correct the problem 100%, but maybe it can reduce the login delays down from several hours, to something more reasonable. This is not about people idling to use the rest room, getting a snack, answering the phone, etc... this is about people who stop playing and do something else, leaving the game idling sometimes for hours, simply so they can play again at a later time. Kick all these people off and I'm sure nobody will have to wait as long as we have been to login.