How do you manage staying fully active in the game with a full time job?

[Kytrin]

It's about managing your time more than anything. For example... maybe you could get into game in the early morning before work. If you have to get to work at 8:30 and leave your house by 8, then maybe set the alarm for 6 so you can get an hour or hour and a half worth of gaming in while you have breakfast before you have to run get ready and go.

If you have kids and/or a S/O, then spend time with them immediately after work and log into game a couple of hours later if it's not a date night or something. You should be able to get a couple of hours in no problem that way. And hey, if your S/O plays you can always play together! If you have to go fix dinner, then do something non-combat or beast tribes or something so it's not an issue if you afk for a while. Maybe also consider saving bigger and more time consuming things like 24 mans or savage/extremes for the weekend when you should have a little more flex on your time.

For me, other than finding a static that can function around my schedule, I don't really have any problems doing most content that way.

As for your FC... I haven't found any FCs so far that have fits over their leader's life changing. I'm sure they exist, but if your FC mates know you then they shouldn't have a problem with the general reduction in hours. And if they do, they can talk to you about it individually. Presumably you have officers of some variety as well, so they can deal with the little things and bring things you absolutely should know about to your attention. In my FC we have a discord chat channel just for the officers where we talk about ideas, problems, events, etc. and it works pretty well.

Don't feel like you're letting them down just because you can't game 10 or 12 hours a day anymore. IRL responsibility trumps game every time, and if they're good FC mates they'll understand that and work with you.

[Saefinn]

I work full time, 9 to 5:30. My commute is 45 mins to an hour each way, I cook my own meals, run an FC and still play the game and other games too. It’s an RP FC I run and the stuff we run works with my time, but most of the content I do in the week is casual, but it’s good for catching up on dailies and socialising with FC members. But I’m also single without kids and don’t have other commitments to draw me away and to me it’s something I can wind down with after a day’s work.

It’s not detrimental to my FC, especially as I already worked full time when I started playing, so it had to work around that from the start. I just can’t dedicate stupid hours into statics like I did in SWTOR and FFXI when I didn’t have a full time job.

[Melichoir]

I do a few roulletes each day and I also run a FC but I don’t even know what to do with that anymore, now that I’m working full time I feel like I have even less time to play now and there’s other games I want to play too, is it possible to work 8 hours day plus drive 45 minutes both ways and still have a lot of time for this game and other games or am I just trying to push myself too hard? It just starting to feel like a burden logging in somedays and I don’t want to do a disservice to my FC either

You dont have to be on every single day for hours. If you have a proper officer core and youre on for a little bit most days and keep things rolling in your FC, youll be fine. As a point, Lets say you get off at 6 PM, and are able to be online by 7 PM after traffic. Play for a few hours (2 hours) then log for the night and do an hour or two of another game that youre interested in. Log in 3-4 days during the 'weekdays' and put a good solid block of time in on a 'weekend' day and youll find its not so much a burden. Coordinate wtih your officers too to make sure stuff is happening and people are taken care of.

Its also mindset. If you feel like its a burden, than youll treat it as such. Remember, youre logging on to hang with people and do some fun nonsense, not collect a paycheck or manage a business. Go in to relax and have a bit of social fun with your fc.

[Brightamethyst]

That depends entirely on what you consider "fully active." For some people that's logging in every day and doing all the things. For others it's logging in 2-3 times a week and doing nothing but roulettes and crafting. There's no right or wrong answer here. Just play how and when you want.

[Rasikko]

All I know is, this game is hard to play when you're married. I strongly prefer to do anything that requires a ton of time (like MSQ roulette -.-) when I am home alone, because when I'm not, my attention becomes divided, I'm not gonna curveball my marriage over this game, nope.

Also I had a full time job for all the years FFXI been out, and it was easy because I didn't go anywhere when I got off of work. 11-7(nightshift) and play during the day til about 4pm.

[Ssmiley_Bjakkzz]

Helluuuuuu

[Sated]

I lose 55 hours a week to work/lunch/commute, but still play two characters pretty effectively I think? I'm more than happy, anyway.

Mostly I get on one and set up retainers and do 9~12 beast tribe quests while I queue for EX. Then I get on my main main and do retainers, gardening, and mess around with various projects until FC mates log in and we do roulettes. Usually leaves me with a few hours to do whatever afterwords, but by then I'm pretty tired and usually just wander around looking at houses or do some gathering.

I try to save raids and projects for weekends when I can dedicate more time and energy to them. I'm not sure what other tasks you might need to fit in running an FC though; I run the submarines for ours, and do roulettes every night and maps on Sunday with them but otherwise not much to manage since we don't actively recruit or anything.

The problem I have is that I like this game so much I don't make time for other hobbies. I still haven't finished FE3H, and I haven't drawn at home in months.

[Raldo]

To me, it sounds like the OP is less concerned about the game itself, and more concerned about the repercussions of spending less time online as an FC leader.

Ultimately, it's going to depend on your FC. From my experience, the FC leader isn't any more important to have online than any other FC rando, so long as other people have permissions to put FC buffs up. I'm sure that varies wildly from FC to FC though, so I doubt anyone here can give you any advice better than your own judgement.

Don't run yourself ragged about any perceived in-game obligations. Your FC members are perfectly capable of entertaining themselves.

[Saefinn]

To me, it sounds like the OP is less concerned about the game itself, and more concerned about the repercussions of spending less time online as an FC leader.

Ultimately, it's going to depend on your FC. From my experience, the FC leader isn't any more important to have online than any other FC rando, so long as other people have permissions to put FC buffs up. I'm sure that varies wildly from FC to FC though, so I doubt anyone here can give you any advice better than your own judgement.

Don't run yourself ragged about any perceived in-game obligations. Your FC members are perfectly capable of entertaining themselves.

I think on this note, a fair concern and I think if they haven't already, it's definitely worth having other people you can rely on in your FC, like officers and a second in command. I run mine with a 2nd in command and 4 officers. Though being around all the time isn't necessary as rightly said, people will take care of themselves. Plus people can get me on Discord if I'm really needed, I have the app on my phone. Plus I have people I can trust to help manage things, heck, even without the full time job, I recommend it, because the spreading of responsibilities is healthy to an FC, plus people who want to see the FC to do well will also want to help and feel a part of how it's run. Plus they can be eyes and ears. If you already have them OP, then they'll no doubt be happy to help spread any duties you might not be able to accommodate for.

[SerLuke]

Well I did just have a talk with some of the more active members via Discord text chat they were actually happy with the way things are with a nice chill drama free environment where they can login and people are friendly and willing to help if need be so... I guess I might have been worrying a bit too much, sure the chat might be a bit quite at sometimes but o guess that might just be part of our FC identity and that’s okay!