To the people who are logged in overnight

[Ruprect]

Put in an afk timer, and it won't matter how many people try to stay logged in. This should be a common sense solution, no matter how band-aid it might be right now. IMO, there should be an afk timer even after the fix/upgrade coming Tuesday.

Edit:


I see people post this, and yet there is provided no good reason why this is a terrible solution. I think it's a great solution, and cannot understand why it didn't come out of the box with an AFK timer. There's no legitimate reason why a character has to stay logged in for hours on end without the player being present.

I can give you one straight away:

I am playing and suddenly I have to get up to take care of something other than a video game (you know RL). I come back 10 minutes later to see I have been automatically logged out and am not able to get back in because of a huge queue.

[Straiya]

I can give you one straight away:

I am playing and suddenly I have to get up to take care of something other than a video game (you know RL). I come back 10 minutes later to see I have been automatically logged out and am not able to get back in because of a huge queue.

I certainly wouldn't suggest a 10 minute timer; that's way too short. I agree, people have things come up that need attending to, even as simple as bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, attending to children, and the like. I'm talking about a 30 minute AFK timer, no shorter than that. If life requires one attend to it instead of the game for a period of time that exceeds 30 minutes, then that person should be logged out. If an afk timer existed there would be nowhere near this problem with logging in. It wouldn't solve the problem, but it would begin to address it. AFK timer, login queue, and server infrastructure upgrades are the requisite steps.

[Ruprect]

I certainly wouldn't suggest a 10 minute timer; that's way too short. I agree, people have things come up that need attending to, even as simple as bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, attending to children, and the like. snip

An AFK timer does not fix anything. If you have half a brain all you have to do is set a macro to cast something every few minutes. 30 minutes to me is too short, I could deal with 1 hour, but it still would not fix anything. I have done this in numerous games so I do not get AFK kicked from the game, I think this is why they do not do AFK timers, because it is too easy to bypass anyway, why waste the time and effort to implement one.

[BKPiazza]

An AFK timer does not fix anything. If you have half a brain all you have to do is set a macro to cast something every few minutes. 30 minutes to me is too short, I could deal with 1 hour, but it still would not fix anything. I have done this in numerous games so I do not get AFK kicked from the game, I think this is why they do not do AFK timers, because it is too easy to bypass anyway, why waste the time and effort to implement one.

This is ridiculous. 80-90% of players would not think to do this or know how until someone like you posts it in a forum. Why make murder illegal when everyone would just try to hide the body and get away with it? Extreme metaphor but you get the point.

[kingofheartskj]

I understand what you mean Ruprect but as you well know the knowledge of MMOers varies greatly. If only half the people actually staying afk for hours on end decided to or knew how to set a macro to perform an action every 30 minutes on every server then you have that many more players able to login actively. While it is not a solution or a band-aid even really it's like a weak pain reliever to remove some tension.

On the subject though ive been informed (without looking into it myself) that there is currently no way to set an infinite loop macro up in-game which is a preferred method to avoid afk kicks.

[Gramul]

Why waste the time and effort to implement one.

Why waste the time and effort to implement pets?
Why waste the time and effort to implement new dyes?
Why waste the time and effort to implement a new battle system?
Why waste the time and effort to implement a new story, sexes, races, classes, jobs, NE/EU servers, remade zones, a housing system, companies, a way to see your recipes, or new graphics system?
Why waste the time and effort to implement anything?

Most people wouldn't bother to circumvent the timer, but at the very least it would help to clear space for those who would actually play the game.

[Ruprect]

Why waste the time and effort to implement pets?
Why waste the time and effort to implement new dyes?
Why waste the time and effort to implement a new battle system?
Why waste the time and effort to implement a new story, sexes, races, classes, jobs, NE/EU servers, remade zones, a housing system, companies, a way to see your recipes, or new graphics system?
Why waste the time and effort to implement anything?

Most people wouldn't bother to circumvent the timer, but at the very least it would help to clear space for those who would actually play the game.

Because an AFK times can easily be circumvented. Pets, dyes, battle systems, etc cannot be easily circumvented.

I logged out last night in an effort to be nice and let someone else play as I knew the server was full. I try to get back on today and no go for 4 hours. I WILL NEVER LOG OFF AGAIN unless forced. I don't blame anyone for not logging out. This is an SE fail problem not a selfish player problem.

[SkyeWindbinder]

I remember a couple of days ago after I logged out. I couldn't get on for over 24 hours. Not that I tried for that long, mind. I do have a life, after all, and not being able to get on just meant I had extra time to do other things, like watch a movie, clean my house, talk on the phone, you know, enjoy life. And while I wasn't playing, I knew someone else could, which is cool with me. Until the servers problem is fixed, I want to do what I can to let everyone else get a chance to play the game. Why should I stay logged in 24/7 when I don't play the game 24/7? And if it takes a while to get logged back in, that's more time I have for other things. Also, I know I will eventually get back into the game. So, basically, I have too much maturity, empathy, patience, and just too much of a life to keep my computer logged into a game out of fear that I might have to wait to log back in if I log out. Just my $0.02.

[Flarestar]

words

While that's a nice story, and I'm sure you feel all warm and fuzzy about telling us how noble and mature you are to willingly not play a game you paid to be able to play, it's also fairly irrelevant.

The answer to this should have been doing capacity testing during beta 4, rather than early access, so this was never this much of a problem. Or failing that, to shut the whole damn thing down during Early Access when they realized this was going to be a massive problem and fix the infrastructure in the meantime. Basically just delay the launch a week or two. People would've been ok with that. Instead, they're letting a problem sit out there that's garnering a massive amount of negative attention - not because they didn't plan capacity properly, but because so far every method they've used to handle it displays very poor design and decision-making on SE's part.

[RaidenTaichou]

I remember a couple of days ago after I logged out. I couldn't get on for over 24 hours. Not that I tried for that long, mind. I do have a life, after all, and not being able to get on just meant I had extra time to do other things, like watch a movie, clean my house, talk on the phone, you know, enjoy life. And while I wasn't playing, I knew someone else could, which is cool with me. Until the servers problem is fixed, I want to do what I can to let everyone else get a chance to play the game. Why should I stay logged in 24/7 when I don't play the game 24/7? And if it takes a while to get logged back in, that's more time I have for other things. Also, I know I will eventually get back into the game. So, basically, I have too much maturity, empathy, patience, and just too much of a life to keep my computer logged into a game out of fear that I might have to wait to log back in if I log out. Just my $0.02.

Cool story bro, heres a cookie.