Time to deal with those hiding in their house to afk

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Maybe they are just RPing working from home? Even the WoL has to phone it in sometimes.

[Soraki-Muppe]

Sounds a bit... stalkish!

The servers are already "stalking" us.

[ScarletDawn]

If people afking had anything to do with the server ques then we would of seen a response from SE by now telling us they will actively police servers. Yes ive seen people Afking in the middle of busy towns by using stuff to avoid the kick out and yet nothing has been done.

Also tell me the difference between botting and using a Macro.

[Viirin]

Dodging a timer isn't against TOS. Using a bot to do it is.

Do we have a working definition of what SE considers a "bot"? I ask because, using a bot, at least what I consider a bot, to dodge an afk timer would be overengineering something that can be done pretty simply. A lot of players have Logitech G keyboards (or an equivalent from some other manufacturer) with macro keys that you could easily configure to keep you from idling for 30 minutes. Is that a bot?

Someone with a fairly basic keyboard could get a small weight and place it on their W key so their character is constantly running forward into a wall. Is that a bot?

A controller user I suppose could tape their analog stick so their character constantly moves.

It's a simple thing to bypass. If it's not actually against the rules to bypass it, it probably should be. If I was using any of those methods, I would expect to get kicked with some sort of temp ban if I was caught - I have no idea if that's what actually happens or not though.

[Divinemights]

I starts to understand why there was a witch hunt in 1450 to 1750....

[Rin_Kuroi]

Do we have a working definition of what SE considers a "bot"? I ask because, using a bot, at least what I consider a bot, to dodge an afk timer would be overengineering something that can be done pretty simply. A lot of players have Logitech G keyboards (or an equivalent from some other manufacturer) with macro keys that you could easily configure to keep you from idling for 30 minutes. Is that a bot?

Someone with a fairly basic keyboard could get a small weight and place it on their W key so their character is constantly running forward into a wall. Is that a bot?

A controller user I suppose could tape their analog stick so their character constantly moves.

It's a simple thing to bypass. If it's not actually against the rules to bypass it, it probably should be. If I was using any of those methods, I would expect to get kicked with some sort of temp ban if I was caught - I have no idea if that's what actually happens or not though.

You make some good points. Dealing with the house afkers seems more like addressing a symptom and not the problem.

[NegativeS]

Also tell me the difference between botting and using a Macro.

From what I understand, it's kind of blurry. Bots can have the capacity to react to their environment, e.g. logging out if they get targeted, while a macro wouldn't be able to.

However, for all other intents and purposes, if you need an external program to do it, it's generally considered botting.

For instance, my mouse has a programmable button that I can attach a macro to to repeat an infinite amount of times. Because this is outside of the game, it is indistinguishable from a bot, and therefore doesn't really differ.

[Fawkes]

Then to enter my house in order to deal with retainers which I like to do inside my house. Took a few tries to get in due to the housing server being under a lot of stress.
Then I did the event and wanted to get into my house again, this time I was unable to due to the same housing server issue.

I don't think this happens when there's too many people in a place, I think it happens when too many people try to go to a place.

The big FATE in Thavnair spawned but I couldn't change instance to get to it because the aetheryte wouldn't let me change instances and gave that error message. The instance I was trying to go to had under 250 people in it. Later I tried going to wait for the Chi FATE, and it happily let me into an instance that already had over 500 people already waiting in it with no problem. And last night when the Starlight event started I wasn't able to teleport to Gridania for a few minutes.

If the problem was people afking in their house then why does it always clear up after a couple minutes? If people afking in their house for hours was keeping you out of yours, then your house would be inaccessible for hours. Not minutes.

[ScarletDawn]

From what I understand, it's kind of blurry. Bots can have the capacity to react to their environment, e.g. logging out if they get targeted, while a macro wouldn't be able to.

However, for all other intents and purposes, if you need an external program to do it, it's generally considered botting.

For instance, my mouse has a programmable button that I can attach a macro to to repeat an infinite amount of times. Because this is outside of the game, it is indistinguishable from a bot, and therefore doesn't really differ.

Im pretty sure you can even use the in game macro to avoid the afk timer, ive not even bothered to see how and dont think I want to, but the tool is even in game.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Im pretty sure you can even use the in game macro to avoid the afk timer, ive not even bothered to see how and dont think I want to, but the tool is even in game.

That wouldn't work, as in game macros aren't key presses, as far as I know