Suggestion on fixing the 24/7 afks for now

Till the congestion is taken care of, it's not fair for people who are courteous that logout when not playing to see people saying "I get frustrated trying to login, so I never logout". Since an afk timer isn't doable right now. I have a solution.

Till the server issue is fixed, do random rolling restarts about 3 times a day. Once in the early morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the late evening. This way, everyone would be on even footing, and people who currently AFK for 24/7 will no longer bother contributing to the problem.

It is a fix that I was thinking needed to occur as well, gives everyone a fair shot of getting on the servers. There are clearly so many people simply 24/7 afk'ing now that it has become nigh on impossible for others to get on the servers.

You realise that your solution would create problems for the login server with thousands of people hammering it trying to get back in which would take the login server down three times a day. It's bad enough trying to get to the lobby server now, let alone with the thousands of people who are not trying to log in hitting the lobby server.

Because there weren't enough people complaining about emergency maintenance, now you want them to do random server restarts. What? What if people are doing a long instance?

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Originally Posted by Vaer

Because there weren't enough people complaining about emergency maintenance, now you want them to do random server restarts. What? What if people are doing a long instance?

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Hence why I said early morning, afternoon, and late evening. If they did restarts every 8 hours starting at around 5am PDT it would be basically 5am -> 1pm - 9pm ->5am. Would it be a slight inconvenience? Sure. But a far less inconvenience than having some 2,500+ players afk for near 12-15 hours a day every day. If the community can't come together to regulate itself in the wake of known issues which will be addressed soon, then yeah, time for a more heavy handed approach.

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Originally Posted by Blackweaver

Till the congestion is taken care of, it's not fair for people who are courteous that logout when not playing to see people saying "I get frustrated trying to login, so I never logout". Since an afk timer isn't doable right now. I have a solution.

Till the server issue is fixed, do random rolling restarts about 3 times a day. Once in the early morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the late evening. This way, everyone would be on even footing, and people who currently AFK for 24/7 will no longer bother contributing to the problem.

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I have been suggesting this on another thread for hours now and I 100% agree with you! If they can't have AFK times, reset the servers randomly throughout the day or 2-3 set times thoughout.

Or they could simply add a function that tracks whether or not a player has taken an action in the past X minutes. If X minutes exceeds a limit (10 minutes or so?) the games automatically boots the player from the world. There are a handful of other games that ALREADY do this so I doubt it would be hard to implement.

Rolling restarts would put a large amount of stress on the log-in servers as those people booted off will instantly try to get back on.

I agree OP.

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

You realise that your solution would create problems for the login server with thousands of people hammering it trying to get back in which would take the login server down three times a day. It's bad enough trying to get to the lobby server now, let alone with the thousands of people who are not trying to log in hitting the lobby server.

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The server is "hammered" 24/7. Since most are FULL of a wide range of timezones from Europe to Western Americas.

Even with afk timers I'm sure it will only slightly help. It won't take longer than a week for someone to develop a tool that makes there character move or something every 15 mins or w/e the idle limit is.

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Originally Posted by Tricksy

I agree OP.



The server is "hammered" 24/7. Since most are FULL of a wide range of timezones from Europe to Western Americas.

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It was stated that the servers can take 4,000 people at once, there are 50 servers. Take down the log in server and you have 200,000 extra people hammering the servers to get back in the game rather than the (more manageable) few thousand that are hammering them at the moment, you don't solve a problem by creating a totally new one.

They need a confirm activity random button to confirm AFK timer. People will have auto scribts running to simulate input, so a base inactivity system is useless.

PS enough people can trigger a DC. Wink.

Login restarts can be handy, with a regulation of re logins.

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Originally Posted by RicharuLucaru

Even with afk timers I'm sure it will only slightly help. It won't take longer than a week for someone to develop a tool that makes there character move or something every 15 mins or w/e the idle limit is.

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yeah, well in a "week" they're suppose to have all this fix.. so what would it matter at that point. What's better.. to have a bunch of active players, who can't play now unhappy or leave a bunch of afkers who aren't even around and have to come back whenever they feel like it and try to get back in unhappy.

So if I have the day off, and I manage to log on - you want me to then intentionally get disconnected at least twice that day and fight yet again to get on? I would rage. If I make it on, I better not get booted off again for anything less than emergency maintenance or an ISP hiccup on my end. No thanks, stick with AFK timers.

i completely disagree. i say this as someone that is polite enough to sign out when not playing and i still dislike the idea completely.

I personally am all for server restart. I'm in game right now, and I have no problem with them doing a server restart to kick all the afk players offline. They have already stated they are not even going to look into putting in a afk kick timer until after they implement their current plans. And god knows when that will be. Please, for the love of god, do server restart and kick all those people that are afking forever off.

this is a great idea this morning at round 10am i spent till 12 constantly doing the login cycle got in was playing till 5 min ago when my internet hiccupd ... now im stuck yet again humping the login button the worst part of all this is when i was in playing i had to do dungeons for the main storyline and queue for that lasted 30 min thinking of all the current afkers in town they are taking space of what could be live people and my dungeon may have queued up faster this problem is starting to ruin my gamplay along with alot of other peoples gameplay.

login sever conjestion may last for what 20 min i think that just a wee better than spending 2 or 3 hours zombified pressing the login cycle

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Originally Posted by Blackweaver

Till the congestion is taken care of, it's not fair for people who are courteous that logout when not playing to see people saying "I get frustrated trying to login, so I never logout". Since an afk timer isn't doable right now. I have a solution.

Till the server issue is fixed, do random rolling restarts about 3 times a day. Once in the early morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the late evening. This way, everyone would be on even footing, and people who currently AFK for 24/7 will no longer bother contributing to the problem.

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Making everyone log in at the same time multiple times a day every day would be more likely to bring the servers down completely. Sorry, but this is a really bad idea. Doing anything is not better than doing nothing when it makes the problem worse.

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Originally Posted by AmesArlann

Or they could simply add a function that tracks whether or not a player has taken an action in the past X minutes. If X minutes exceeds a limit (10 minutes or so?) the games automatically boots the player from the world. There are a handful of other games that ALREADY do this so I doubt it would be hard to implement.

Rolling restarts would put a large amount of stress on the log-in servers as those people booted off will instantly try to get back on.

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it's easy to circumvent that. Maybe unique actions. But I imagine they'd find a way to get around that, too.

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

You realise that your solution would create problems for the login server with thousands of people hammering it trying to get back in which would take the login server down three times a day. It's bad enough trying to get to the lobby server now, let alone with the thousands of people who are not trying to log in hitting the lobby server.

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Clearly, the only people who are so adamantly against any form of population controls (AFK kicks, server restarts) are the very same people who are causing the problem: AFK'ers.

Listen, if you don't like the ideas proposed, then either suggest something better, or keep your keyboard as idle as it is most of the time while you are logged in (AFK). We all know you hold your ability to AFK indefinitely so precious, but you don't have to shove it in our faces that you abuse it. If you aren't playing, logout and let someone else play. Simple as that. Quit being part of the problem and be part of the solution.

Define early morning. What's early morning for me isn't early morning for someone in many parts of Russia. If I remember correctly from my time living there, there are 9.

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Originally Posted by Scarletyoshi

Making everyone log in at the same time multiple times a day every day would be more likely to bring the servers down completely. Sorry, but this is a really bad idea. Doing anything is not better than doing nothing when it makes the problem worse.

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Wrong! How wrong you are! If this were true, then every time they have maintenance and bring all the servers down and back up again, the servers would be crashing ad infinitum due to everyone trying to log back in from the maintenance.

Get over yourselves. You are creating a problem and ticking off a lot of people with your indefinite AFK periods. LOGOFF and let someone else play.

While a rolling restart in theory sounds good, it would just be harder on the servers than needed. Though its near impossible to get logged in anymore, even I have thought about keeping it on if I just plan to be gone for a couple hours. I used to be able to get on in the early mornings easy, now by 7am PST I have to start my first round of 0 pounding. After 11am, forget about it, you're done for the day if you logged out. It's really unfair. This needs to get fixed... fast. I have to level my weaver!!! :D

I'm not sure about how hard it would be to implement the afk kick, but that seems like the most logical choice. Everything else affects people who are actively playing the game. 15 minutes to me is a little short. You could be eating or something in that time. I think you want to go after the long term afk'ers, on a case by case basis. If you're afk for say, 1 hour without meaningful action, doing damage, taking damage, healing, crafting, or receiving experience, you should have some kind of an icon, and a GM can msg you. If you don't respond, you're kicked. You "could" make some kind of mod that does all those things, but then, you'd be playing the game which would be indistinguishable from a live person anyhow.

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Originally Posted by Blackweaver

Hence why I said early morning, afternoon, and late evening. If they did restarts every 8 hours starting at around 5am PDT it would be basically 5am -> 1pm - 9pm ->5am. Would it be a slight inconvenience? Sure. But a far less inconvenience than having some 2,500+ players afk for near 12-15 hours a day every day. If the community can't come together to regulate itself in the wake of known issues which will be addressed soon, then yeah, time for a more heavy handed approach.

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If the times are random, it's a terrible idea. If the times are not random, it's a terrible idea.

I can schedule a macro to log me in while AFK if I know when the times are. I can be in the middle of a long dungeon and lose all my progress to a restart if I don't know when the times are.

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Originally Posted by Arkard

If the times are random, it's a terrible idea. If the times are not random, it's a terrible idea.

I can schedule a macro to log me in while AFK if I know when the times are. I can be in the middle of a long dungeon and lose all my progress to a restart if I don't know when the times are.

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Not everyone that leaves there character logged in will go the extra length to have a macro log them in if they know the time servers come up. I dare say over 90% of the afkers wouldn't do. You my good sir, are a minority in that aspect.

some could of just went to the fridge or, looking through their menus, or in a dungeon, or sending tells to FC or LS. I know on PSN you cannot stay on all night inactive, no matter where you are. If Im away I think its like 2hrs I get a warning first its shutting down, if I do not respond theres an auto shut down of my console & TV turn off. Its great if you falll asleep playing a game.

Stupid idea. Yeah, let's just kick people off every few hours. That'll fix the problem. I have a better idea. Once you log on, don't log off. That's the best plan. Its worked for me.

Hard to stay logged in when the server error 90000's you when trying to change zones. Maybe if more of us just log in and sit there to take up a slot they might do something about it.

I was thinking of something just like this. If they do the restarts at set times people can't complain about being booted from an instance.

This is better than nothing

According to one friend last night the servers had did a restart, probably why I got in. And another friend just now said the servers are going down. If SE actually took the suggestion then it is totally time for some:

Celebration!

It all comes down to this. If you are actually playing or roleplaying in game, awesome. But if you are AFK for over half the day while you sleep and goto work, you are just taking up space. So until the fixes come in, random reboots will help ensure that everyone has a chance to play. It is only right that all customers get some sort of shot at logging in. Not possible when the servers are full of afkers. This morning in Ul'dah, every area of that city had afkers sitting on benches, in the street, or wherever, doing absolutely nothing. It was ridiculous.

Well, I'll agree it's a pain to get in game atm, but that will resolve itself once subs official kick in and the moochers leave, but I for one have a life, and like a real human I'll need to do some things for about 10-20 minutes each time, it will just be a pain, and not worth it, having to log back in every time I need to go AFK, now, of course for the 24 hour afkers, yeah, add a timer for about an hour, no need for someone to afk that long. Everyone is just getting huffy about not being able to log in when they want to, and calling for an afk timer, but what if they listen and add one for 5 minutes, even when the problems are resolved, you'll be out of luck when you have an urge to use the restroom and it takes you longer than expected, but you had been doing something in-game that you would lose if you logged out.

Random server restarts wont fix it, an afk implementation would...of course the real source of the problem is the simple fact...most people cant handle being mature anymore...guess a lot of people missed that day of class where they had to learn to share toys.

My fix is simple....every account that shows their character has been logged on for longer than 18 hours straight is fined in some fashion...like a hit to exp gains or something, it might urge people to stop being jack asses...probably not tho..

I know myself ive had to afk for maybe 20 minutes one time for my dog and that's reasonable...afk for sleep and work reasons is a bit absurd and should be hit with a stick of some type.

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Originally Posted by PureEclipse

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Actually till the fixes kick in, the random restarts will help. Because the ones that are afk while asleep or at work, they wont be home to relog in when the servers come back up. This leaves the doors open for people who are trying to login and legitimately play.

Those of you saying, "OMG this would flood the login servers OMG the game would crash."

Uh... Rolling restarts = 1 server coming down after another. That isn't 50 servers x 4000 people at once. That's 4000 people at once every restart. If the login server can't handle 4k-ish people at once then SE is more fail then they're showing us currently.

I realize the OP said bring them all down, but anyone in their right mind would never bring down all their servers at once. That just doesn't happen in the IT world. But, it's a very simple thing to roll-reset them all. Hell, even chunks of them at a time if you wanted.

All this is in lieu of a simple AFK timer. I don't care if someone figures out a script to stay in game. That's still better than allowing EVERY moron to just stop playing, leave their char sitting in town and walk away.

We only need it to work for a few days anyway, until they finally get their crap together and get more hardware going.

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Originally Posted by Exmortis

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Yeah I meant rolling restarts that would effect all servers. Even I know no one could bring them all down at the same time. Also you are off by 1k. Yoshi said max is 5k per server.

The way they handle this is almost disgusting..they really need to do *something*

Logging in is the worst part of the game

Actually quite a good idea, OP. I hope someone working on the servers sees this thread.

Wow, am I reading this right? yall want random server restarts? You don't see yourself playing staying long do you? If you did you would be worried about those hour or more long raids, and when the server kicked in it's random restart your whole raid would lose it's progress and have to start over, lol. The main problem is the Gill Sellers, how many characters without any real sounding names do you think were created just as the game became live and are in-game right this moment spamming people with tells. Anything done at this point is just going to punish normal players while the gill sellers remain un-phased.

Who said "Random" the OP clearly stated a plan to do them on a schedule. So you would know not to do anything extended.

Also, even if it was random, I'd rather be able to play or do SOMETHING other than watch AutoHotkey try to log me in...

Even if it's just sitting in town crafting in case of a restart... I'm cool with that.