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

[Stigmar]

You know ffix had the right idea of manually setting this regardless of input invisible, away and online that's all you need but tbh why don't they run a poll or something instead of fucking around with the ui first then fixing it later or fix some of the other problems like yellow damage markers on yellow sand hint hint though the mind is boggled by how they are patching in standard features in that should on been done day one and before you say it I know they had a hell of development cycle but its almost a year old now how bout adding more important features like alliances pre made or even for fates

[Raaz-cc]

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."

I would agree that this would ofc be the optimal thing, but I have a feeling that it might be difficult to integrate such an option, and hence is why I said it should be possible to toggle /tells "on" or "off" while busy. This way the ppl that wanne recieve tells must accept the negative side of it (gil seller-tells), and the ppl that don't wanne recieve tells must accept the "negative" side of not getting any tells from anyone.

When reading this discussion thread I feel ppl are not very objective. Having an option to show others that one is busy (either doing stuff in game or watching telly or whatever else, but not really afk per say) and then decide if one wants to receive tells or not while being busy should satisfy everyone's needs because:

1. those that used "afk" instead of "busy" will now be able to show ppl that they can't do stuff, but are not shut out of getting messages.
   
2. those that use "busy" to be shut off from everyone entirely will still be able to do so
   
3. "afk" will now actually mean that ppl are "afk" instead of "i don't wanne do stuff or be bothered, but I'm still here".

I really can't see the downside of having an "on/off"-option for /tells on "busy"-status. Everyone that like the new "afk"-situation will still have that, and those that don't like it will then have another option to use (which in reality would prolly be the status they would've used in the first place had the option of /tells been there from the beginning). An option like this won't affect ppl that like the statuses as they are now, but will benefit for those that are having issues with the new un-afk-situation.

As for the unintentional un-afk (by for example accidently moving your mouse/pushing a single button/etc), it could easily be avoided by putting in a 5 second delay before un-afk happens. If your mouse or keyboard is used more than 5 secs I'm pretty sure you're not afk anymore.

[Souljacker]

The easier solution is to do what every other game does. This "auto-return" should have been a toggle option players could turn on or off if they so chose.

All of this arguing of semantics is little more than an attempt to bully players into playing the way that YOU think they should. It shouldn't matter if I am sitting at my keyboard on another window on my computer. I am effectively away from the GAME'S keyboard. It's no one's business why - whether I am what they would consider "busy" or if I am out on a beer run and physically away. /away is /away is /away and SE along with the handful of you saying "no no NO if you aren't actively playing the game you can't touch your computer AT ALL" is absolutely obnoxious. Sometimes I like to have the window minimized so that I can do some schoolwork, and then open it up to see if anything interesting is happening quickly. It doesn't mean I'm actively back in the game. It just means I'm checking in and didn't want to exit entirely because it's a freaking PROCESS to log out and then back in when my pc is more than adequate to run multiple applications. I can respond to any /tells that may have come in and decide if I'm ready to go back to playing.

Change the "Feature" to a toggle like other games have to auto-clear the away mode if that is what the player prefers, but don't render a feature entirely unusable just because a few folks apparently can't see the huge red chair in the middle of their screen indicating they are still in /away mode and some others want to dictate how something so innocuous as /away is used.

[Nicobo]

IMO the AFK function has been improved, it is good that there is a state for indicating the player really AFK,
previoulsy I feel weird when I saw AFKed players running around and doing many things. ^^;

TBH, at the beginning myself also not get use with the new style,
but then I feel comfortable that FC members or friends now will know I am really AFK but not intended to ignore them.

[Camate]

Greetings,

The following is a comment from Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the automatic away feature.

We’ve been receiving questions from both Yoshi-P and the rest of the development team if something can be done with the automatic away feature as the determination for when players return is too sensitive. As such, the UI team is currently looking into a way to make adjustments to this.

The UI lead had originally planned for the loose requirements for removing the away status to be character movement or action input, which means that your away status would be preserved even if you move the camera around.

However, once we started discussing the implementation of this with the programmer, it was discovered that there would be issues with updating players’ online statuses when their characters are moved to instances via the Duty Finder and such, and it would not be possible to switch to the appropriate status. Due to this, we had to change the way the system functions.

We’re currently testing whether we can make an exception for mouse cursor movement for a future adjustment.

As there are multiple types of devices that control the cursor, we’ll need to test everything for implementation. Due to this, it will take us a bit of time to address.

[mbncd]

Greetings,

The following is a comment from Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the automatic away feature.

It seems that they were originally aiming for what several of us have asked for in this thread, that the status only changed based on actual signals sent to the server rather than random interactions with the computer that didn't have anything to do with the game. Shame there was that DF bug but I really hope they'll be able to find a work around.

Currently, I use an /afk macro with a wait command (as a very helpful person previously recommended in this thread) whenever I want to minimise the window without racing for the button like a clumsy madwoman. It's not ideal but it does work as a temporary work around on this end until they can fix things on theirs.

I'm curious how gathering bots are running around chopping and mining with their AFK flags flying high though. Always figured they just mimicked mouse and keyboard inputs but if that was the case it'd dismiss the AFK status, wouldn't it? Odd. Perhaps something that they're doing could help the devs figure out the work around..? I dunno, just a thought.

[Enthy]

This is kind of off-topic but still has to do with the Auto Away feature;

Could we have an option to turn off the icon that displays next to other characters names when they are AFK?

I see the little red chair icon next to everyones name who is AFK as screen clutter. I don't really care to know what random people I walk by are AFK so right now I have Other PC names turned off (when I'd really actually like to see them). Why would I want to see Other Players names in the first place you may ask, well because this is an MMORPG and I'd like to be able to recognize people I may have encountered before but are not on my friends list. It would also be great if I could turn off the FC name next to everyones name but that is entirely off-topic for this thread.

[Rex]

This is kind of off-topic but still has to do with the Auto Away feature;

Could we have an option to turn off the icon that displays next to other characters names when they are AFK?

I see the little red chair icon next to everyones name who is AFK as screen clutter. I don't really care to know what random people I walk by are AFK so right now I have Other PC names turned off (when I'd really actually like to see them). Why would I want to see Other Players names in the first place you may ask, well because this is an MMORPG and I'd like to be able to recognize people I may have encountered before but are not on my friends list. It would also be great if I could turn off the FC name next to everyones name but that is entirely off-topic for this thread.

Then you'll be mad when someone doesn't respond because they got rid of the AFK icon next to their name and you can't tell if they're away or not.

[Enthy]

Then you'll be mad when someone doesn't respond because they got rid of the AFK icon next to their name and you can't tell if they're away or not.

If someone doesn't answer their phone do you think they are actually there just because there wasn't an answering machine telling you they are indeed not able to answer the phone? o_O

I would just like some options to make my screen less jam-packed full of UI/player icons/and info I don't care/need to see. :/

[Nakiamiie]

This is kind of off-topic but still has to do with the Auto Away feature;

Could we have an option to turn off the icon that displays next to other characters names when they are AFK?

I see the little red chair icon next to everyones name who is AFK as screen clutter. I don't really care to know what random people I walk by are AFK so right now I have Other PC names turned off (when I'd really actually like to see them). Why would I want to see Other Players names in the first place you may ask, well because this is an MMORPG and I'd like to be able to recognize people I may have encountered before but are not on my friends list. It would also be great if I could turn off the FC name next to everyones name but that is entirely off-topic for this thread.

Instead of the little red chair, the names could simply become very transluscent or simply fade away. That way, there would be no name clutter from AFK players.