Given the recent influx of new players...

[Arrius]

While I am one of these new players, I don't see why people are complaining so much about the queues. Even with a queue over 100 I've never had the game take more than 3 minutes to log me in. I don't see why you're all so impatient. I'm just glad to see worlds that are so populated.

And we are fine with the new players coming around, don't misunderstand.
But yesterday, for instance, on the EU server at their evening, the queues were up in a 4-digit area which caused a lot of players to wait for over 30 minutes to get logged in. There were also issues that the server wouldn't read character data properly and made renaming/fantasia use difficult.

While the rush of new players did affect the queue, it's mostly that quite a few players remain logged in the game, afk, and clog up the servers for others, who want to play the content or with friends.

[Atreides]

While the rush of new players did affect the queue, it's mostly that quite a few players remain logged in the game, afk, and clog up the servers for others, who want to play the content or with friends.

But dancing in Lisa Lomasa and racking up /playtime is important, gotta hit the 20k! /sarcasm checks out

[DontReadThis]

I'm actually surprised this wasn't something that was already in-game. I always just assumed there was already an afk logout timer like other MMOs.
Hopefully this will dramatically shorten the wait time for people getting those 5-digit queues.

[Krotoan]

And we are fine with the new players coming around, don't misunderstand.
But yesterday, for instance, on the EU server at their evening, the queues were up in a 4-digit area which caused a lot of players to wait for over 30 minutes to get logged in. There were also issues that the server wouldn't read character data properly and made renaming/fantasia use difficult.

While the rush of new players did affect the queue, it's mostly that quite a few players remain logged in the game, afk, and clog up the servers for others, who want to play the content or with friends.

I think there were actual technical difficulties that weren't just because of server load?

Like the huge queues weren't because it wasn't able to handle everyone logging in or playing, it was that people were getting stuck in queue and it was just building.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...3d8c81fb5ca046

[Arrius]

I think there were actual technical difficulties that weren't just because of server load?

Like the huge queues weren't because it wasn't able to handle everyone logging in or playing, it was that people were getting stuck in queue and it was just building.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...3d8c81fb5ca046

That was the cause since the queue thing is data center wide. So once Zodiark was back, everyone wanted to get back on there and caused the bottleneck on that evening.

So you can see it's very delicate with such a population right now, so I welcome the decision to ease up the queue problem by adding the afk filter back, it helps to smoothen such problems when they happen again.
And keep in mind, that was on a Monday. Can't imagine how it would've been at the more busy days.

[Losara]

Well good news is the AFK timer is back in after the most recent patch update.

[Sebazy]

If the issue was actually the load on the zone servers, this might actually achieve something. But it won't. My assumption is that it's SE acting so they don't look like they are ignoring the issue.

The issue is and usually has always been the login and character data servers aka the infrastructure that both allows you to log in in a timely fashion, and also loads in your current character data and passes it between the relevant instance and world servers. AFK players have zero impact on this. This is why zoning can be problematic during an expansion's release window even if you're not in a congested area.

If AFKers were truly an issue, hotspots like Limsa would be unplayable with significant action delays, yet they aren't a problem at all. The quality of some player's music is all the proof that's needed to demonstrate this. The Playback tempo would be all over the place if the zone was overloaded.

[Naoki34]

Hooray for less AFK showing off, but more AFK retainers or crafting.

FFXIV is a victim of their scripts that prevent you from manually disconnecting during crafts and exchanges of any kind.
But less posers in mounts near tribal quests and show-offs with their glowing weapons is already very cool

[Wavaryen]

All they did was make people go to the normal anti afk spots now and use tools that help them not do it. Pointless change, but i guess if it helps a little maybe not so pointless who knows.

[Jeeqbit]

Honestly, I agree that this feature should be permanent.

I'm actually impressed that it's not permanent. When I saw it get removed after an expansion it was just one of those things that showed me they don't want to inconvenience or frustrate their players for no reason and having an auto-logout when it's not needed for server stability doesn't make any sense.

All they did was make people go to the normal anti afk spots now and use tools that help them not do it. Pointless change, but i guess if it helps a little maybe not so pointless who knows.

Some people will, but plenty of people won't. Even those who know how to prevent it will forget to sometimes and get logged out.