Will the AFK timer be coming back at Heavensward early access & launch?

[Quesse]

I should hope so. I fail to understand why it was removed in the first place, to be honest. See people idling away hours - mornings/afternoons - whole damn days in the same spot, without even moving. Just sick of it. Boot them all please. 30min should be more than enough for anyone to take care of whatever comes up to be taken care of; and if not, might as well log out anyway.

Are you paying more than these people? Is there some "right" way to play the game that I'm missing? If I want, and I often do, to sit myself down and enjoy the scenery, listen to my FC chat, while I do other things, I shouldn't be booted for doing so.

Having it be an option for those like yourself that feel its a moral responsibility to exit the game when not running a dungeon (or some other 'approved' activity) is enough.

[BreathlessTao]

Are you paying more than these people? Is there some "right" way to play the game that I'm missing? If I want, and I often do, to sit myself down and enjoy the scenery, listen to my FC chat, while I do other things, I shouldn't be booted for doing so.

Having it be an option for those like yourself that feel its a moral responsibility to exit the game when not running a dungeon (or some other 'approved' activity) is enough.

No, I'm paying the same amount as you. For which I should be able to access the server and play the game just the same way as you. But when people like you (and there are quite a few around) contribute to me being locked out, because the world is full; or making me unable to interact with interaction points because a given area is so overcrowded they can't be seen or don't even load - I'm not getting that. And in that case, it's my turn to ask: are you paying more than me, to just be logged in and do nothing?

Yes, it should well be a "moral responsibility". This isn't a single player game, where you only have to think of yourself. There are other people you should be considerate about. If you want to enjoy the scenery - take screenshots and use them as wallpapers. If you want to listen to friends talk (not sure how valid that is, reading text while doing whatever else outside the game) - use an appropriate platform. I can't decide if there's a "right" way to play the game, but at the same time, it isn't your personal screensaver/e-reader either.

On a sidenote: I don't think characters rooted to a retainer bell or market board or (vendor) NPC or a certain node, with the AFK icon next to their names, for several hours, represent people who do what you described either.

[StouterTaru]

I'm not a fan of sitting in queue for 10-20 mins like at the launch of ARR on my server but to each their own.

Wasn't that caused by the lobby servers being overloaded with logins/character creation, which forced logout didn't help one bit?

[Magistrella]

Wasn't that caused by the lobby servers being overloaded with logins/character creation, which forced logout didn't help one bit?

Lobby Server Problems were fixed in the first week after Headstart. After that we had ques of thousands of people at some time in the evenings before they added the afk auto-logout feature - read as: At one point i waited 6 hours so i could log in half an hour before i had to head to bed due to work.

After the 30 min timeout those problems vanished instantly, longest que i had after that was 1-2 minutes tops. Seeing how the number of players went up over the course since 2.0 and based on the active accounts that are reported i really hope i wont be sitting in front of my screen staring at a number counting down because some douches decide to stay logged in all day even tho they are at work or w/e

At least we wont have one problem what we had at headstart: Many people who want to create a new character but arent able to do that on the server where all their friends play - that was even worse for them then the login for others :/

[AsahinaMyLove]

I hope they will bring back the auto-boot on heavensward!

Or else it will be a fiasco like the 1st week when this game came out on 2013 o-o;
The people who wanted to play could not login.. while the afkers are around doing nothing -.-

[Adire]

I think I should switch off Balmung after reading this. The login queues here are going to be murder. I don't roleplay and don't have many friends here anyways, so....the only thing I enjoy here is the life and the lack of RMT spam.

Good thing I'm always poor and under 1m, that'll make switching easier!

Edit: I also love how some are saying it's okay for AFKers to idle away and block people from logging in. Only in Ameri.....errr, on the official forums....

[AdamuKun322]

I'm sure the Devs are discussing all possibilities to make Heavensward a good launch. At least, I hope so.

[myahele]

AFK timers will be nice to have, but in the end it's easy for people to bypass it.

I'm more curious as to why people still AFK for hours on end rather than log out. Waiting for FATEs to spawn is one thing, but why do it in MB?

[Viridiana]

I'd like to see this to be honest. It was a pretty big problem at 2.0 launch with AFK players and all. People didn't want to lose their "spot" because they had to go to work/school, then run against a wall for hours on end until they get home. I know there's not really a way to stop that (or is there?), and the changes to the servers and the addition of queues helped a bit. Maybe it'll help get some people on that are waiting to get in.

The problem at 2.0 launch was largely because the queue system was pretty much non-existent at the time. If there was a queue beyond a certain tiny size, instead of being placed in the queue you were sent back to the title screen. Nobody wanted to fight this objectively crappy system, so people were staying logged in 24/7. With the current, much-improved, queue system, even a return to 2.0 levels of players should not result in abysmal queue times, and fewer people will afk 24/7.

[LunaHoshino]

I would like to see this if only because it would make loading into Mor Dhona and Limsa less of a pain-- those two areas always take much longer than any other place in the game to load because so many people AFK there. Go in to MD at any point during the day and you'll be greeted by a sea of red chairs. I once counted over 50 people AFKing in Revenant's Toll alone.