Possible timer for open world AFK'ers?

[Renius]

Only place I have run into a problem is Quarrymill when lots are AFK so i simply do not go AFK myself there if you AFK in a "quiet" corner it does not affect anything or anyone. As long as you do not AFK the server very very very seldom will kick you. Plus I would really like to see a server that has 100's of people AFK at the same time. A bit of an exaggeration?

[Yasuhiro]

Anyone else find unnerving as hell when you see that one guy afk for days on end? Kinda worry about them to be honest.
Used to know a person on Gilgamesh who'd be in Mor Dhona just afk for an eternity even being in the exact same spot after maintenance, in fact I can't say I even knew them, they were always afk! It's pretty spooky.

As for the OP.
I think this as a user mentioned is only really a problem when a new patch or expansion is out though I may be having technical difficulties on my end because I've not got the best provider but it's worth mentioning that I've had these issues on new patch days so I don't know, could go either way.

[Seig345]

Can't say I've ever experienced regular disconnects; typically when I do experience connection issues, it IS on my end, or it's a server issue that's affecting everyone connected.

This was definitely a gripe back at 2.0 launch before they implemented the AFK timer for awhile; however, you still had some creative people who used third party software or macgyver'd something together to press their controller/keyboard and keep them "active" while they were away at school/work/whatever.

You might knock a few afk people out by putting the timer on full time, but more likely than not you'll just turn them into dancing puppets.

[Renik]

macgyver'd something together to press their controller/keyboard and keep them "active" while they were away at school/work/whatever.

This, it sucked having to go to the store or just to make food and find the game kicked you, forcing you to the log in process for a 3rd time...

AFK players have nothing to do with random kicks, this is a problem on your side, bandwidth, cable, wifi, router, or your isp routing, you can't "guarantee" it's not on your side, that word only shows how little you know about it, i suggest you to find a real solution instead of trying to punish inocent players.

[JunseiKei]

This was definitely a gripe back at 2.0 launch before they implemented the AFK timer for awhile; however, you still had some creative people who used third party software or macgyver'd something together to press their controller/keyboard and keep them "active" while they were away at school/work/whatever.

You don't even need to do that. Originally, you could just talk to an NPC to keep the game from kicking you. Another method was to just leave up your HUD customization and you wouldn't get kicked. Used this trick all the time, even when the feature was present; don't like getting kicked from the game. Sucks when you go and do something like load the dishwasher, come back and find yourself kicked and take 30+ minutes to an hour or more to log in (back in 2.0).

[Raynar]

Every MMO has done this in the past and then removed it because of the long term issues with other players. This Game had it at launch to deal with Login queue times and they have now disable since the game has leveled out for nearly all servers. Yes there are times when new patch drops and Queue times are hell. But AFK timer does more But Currently from what I'm seeing on Swagatanas the game server pop is low during the Pre 3.5 cause everyone is either playing FF15 or other games and waiting for 3.5 or 4.0 to be release.
I still get random kicks and D/Cs but I don't care relogin is not a big deal.

[MistakeNot]

Every MMO has done this in the past and then removed it because of the long term issues with other players.

Actually, no. Most other MMOs kick out players after they have been AFK for too long. Few people have a problem with it elsewhere, so I do not understand why it would be a problem here.

[Raynar]

Actually, no. Most other MMOs kick out players after they have been AFK for too long. Few people have a problem with it elsewhere, so I do not understand why it would be a problem here.

To name a game that issues in the long term was NCSOFT's Aion they ended up removing it cause people were QQing about D/Cing and Community Team justed didn't want to deal with which was random D/Cs and Force D/Cs. For Example. You and I may not see it that as issue but others do. I like stated Earlier I don't see problem of just relogin period.

[JCharms]

Actually, no. Most other MMOs kick out players after they have been AFK for too long. Few people have a problem with it elsewhere, so I do not understand why it would be a problem here.

I was going to reply to this as well, and add that this is the only game i've played that doesn't have a timer. GW2, STO, SWTOR, ESO and I'm sure someone told me WoW has as well.

[Alenaar]

YES, PLEASE.

This is an online game, it requires a constant and stable connection. Through the years, us players had the chance to experience all sorts of issues: full worlds, long load times, lag, disconnects - granted, there are many factors that contribute to these, but why leave in one that could be helped? Also through the years, we have heard the devs themselves citing network infrastructure and everything related as causes of various issues, or reasons for why certain things can not be done.

Yet, despite all these, everyone seems to think that logging in and going AFK is perfectly fine?? And no, this isn't about a few 10 minutes, this is about characters rooted to the same spot with the little red chair next to their names for 4-6-10-16 hours. Sometimes even a day or two - I have seen such myself. These are just extreme and should not be allowed.

There is no valid reason why anyone should be AFK for more than hour; if that's the case, they probably have something much more important that's come up than a videogame. However little it may seem, the load on the servers could be lessened with the AFK autokick active. It needs to be there, it IS there in every online game with a bit of common sense, it needs to be able to detect "clever" circumvention attempts, such as inactive crafting or running against a wall. At the very least it needs to kick people who are idle for more than an hour.