Any way to disable this new smart un-away system?

[Erana]

I think that many people here are forgetting what AFK means: Away From Keyboard.

Yes, "Keyboard". Not "Away from this window". It signifies "I got up and walked away from my keyboard." This shouldn't care whether your keyboard press or mouse movement registered in the game window or out. It still means you're at your keyboard, regardless of what you're doing. In 99% of cases, walking away from the keyboard will not result in a random earthquake, pet, or act of god magically moving the mouse a millimeter to make people think you actually are at your keyboard for 10 minutes or so.

If you've got the game minimized while you're doing something else entirely on your computer, use Busy. That's what it's for. You're busy either doing something you don't want interrupted within the game or doing something on your computer but outside of the game.

If you're going to stand up and walk away from the computer, use Away. That's what it's for. It'll un-away you when you move something because, hey, you're at your keyboard again.

This, although I tend to /away by habit when doing other stuff anyway (gotta start using /busy).
Also if you are changing to another window whilst /away is on, just press that little windows button on your keyboard. It's simple... if you're not stubborn.

[Rubeus_Carcer]

I like the system as it is, partially. If you advocate for "making busy let you still see tells", you really need to specify "from my LS or FC or friends list."

This is SE. Be careful what you wish for, or in your next update they'll remove "busy = no tells" completely and you'll be flooded with your RMT spam all over again and have only yourselves to blame for that change. If you're at your keyboard, you aren't AFK. Maybe you're "away" and "AFK" should be its own status, and that I'll agree with, but you're not "AFK."

If I'm "away" and my FC wants to know if I want to run brayflox, it's nice to know that and I want to be asked even if I'm just watching Hulu. If I'm in the middle of an exam then I'm "Busy" and DON'T want to be asked, although why you'd keep the game open in such a case is beyond me considering the resources it pulls, even on a strong computer. If I'm AFK you shouldn't bother asking because, like "Busy", I'm not around.

My 2 cents.

[mbncd]

I do still think that if the automated un-AFK system must remain in place that it should be tweaked to at least require some sort of actual interaction with the game itself. Moving the mouse to minimise the game or using alt+tab a second too late should not take you out of the away status you just purposely set. Fine if they want talking, moving, interacting, etc to cancel it but at least make it only be cancelled when something is sent to the server, not something client side only.

[Ransu]

I still don't see what the big deal is. Don't wanna talk to anyone? Don't reply to them...Its that simple. Naturally people will assume you are just AFK. Why do you need some status to say so? If I walk away from the keyboard and don't respond? Guess what, I'm not there, get over it. I don't need to set myself to "away" just to make others feel better about being ignored (which if that's really an issue then there is more problems to be dealt with personally.)

[Souljacker]

I still don't see what the big deal is. Don't wanna talk to anyone? Don't reply to them...Its that simple.

You don't see a big deal with not being able to use a game feature? The /away mode is there so that your friends can see at a glance whether you are there or not. It's not there so we can decide not to use it because "well, if I just don't reply they will assume I'm afk anyway so who cares!" If it doesn't affect you, great. It affects other people who want to use the feature and can no longer do so. I don't see why it's such a big deal to YOU that we are asking for its original functionality to be returned.

[Ransu]

You don't see a big deal with not being able to use a game feature? The /away mode is there so that your friends can see at a glance whether you are there or not. It's not there so we can decide not to use it because "well, if I just don't reply they will assume I'm afk anyway so who cares!" If it doesn't affect you, great. It affects other people who want to use the feature and can no longer do so. I don't see why it's such a big deal to YOU that we are asking for its original functionality to be returned.

Its not a big deal. I just find it silly to complain about it. Most people that are complaining want to play while being afk. You're not actually afk at that point. It's just silly to me. If you truly don't want to be bothered then go /busy.

[Themis]

You don't see a big deal with not being able to use a game feature? The /away mode is there so that your friends can see at a glance whether you are there or not. It's not there so we can decide not to use it because "well, if I just don't reply they will assume I'm afk anyway so who cares!" If it doesn't affect you, great. It affects other people who want to use the feature and can no longer do so. I don't see why it's such a big deal to YOU that we are asking for its original functionality to be returned.

The way I see it, "away" means you are currently away and when you get back and do something you are no longer "away". If you are doing something else, and aren't currently able to play the game (but you're staying logged in for x reason), then you are "busy", so you should set yourself to "busy". I don't think it was ever intended that you use /away to mean you aren't actually away or busy, but just doing something else whilst waiting for x thing to happen.

Seems like a case of "what was actually intended" vs "what players actually did with it".

[yahhzoo]

I like this new feature. When I am actually away from keyboard I go away, when I get back I'm automatically back. Simple & easy. If you don't want to be bugged when you are there but not paying attention to in game just use /busy.

[Rex]

You don't even need to type /away, OP. Just let it do it on it's own. Are you that worried about people /telling you and you not responding?

I like this new feature. When I am actually away from keyboard I go away, when I get back I'm automatically back. Simple & easy. If you don't want to be bugged when you are there but not paying attention to in game just use /busy.

Those eyes in your sig. ,_,

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

i am surprised nobody mentioned to make macro. (i only skimmed through the posts. maybe it was over-looked.) it would solve the issue. maybe in-directly. but it certainly will work.

i play on the PS4. and when going AFK i like to hide the User Interface to help cut down on Image Retention. however manually typing /afk and then hiding the UI causes my status to be changed back to normal. i made a macro for /afk and use it after hiding the UI. works great. (actually on the PS4 with gamepad there seems to be a very small grace period before changing the status back. but i would rather not take the chance. not actually being able to see the UI n' all.)



what is happening is that the game is still in the foreground. so it is still detecting user input.

so for the PC you will to add a /wait timer. if your status is changed while the game is in the background. the game will no longer detect user input. and should also not automatically change your status. not till you come back to the game for real at least.