Would it be feasible to add a Pause Queue feature?

[Shurrikhan]

So, this is for anyone who happens to have some knowledge about how queues might work in cross-server high-population settings such as XIV.

Would it be feasible to allow players to pause their positions in queue, allowing other players to pass them while they take care of irl business so they don't have to risk the queue popping over the comparatively brief time they're absent and the entirety of their progress being wasted?

Alternatively... if it turns out that such would be possible... would anyone like this feature?




Responses:

Problems I'm seeing is like many things, it can be abused causing huge problems with the DF queues. Pausing to run to the restroom sounds ideal, but then again there are those who just pause it and take a nap, cook dinner, cut the grass, hoping that when they come back they can take pause off and have less of a wait time.

Putting aside the unlikelihood of having no limit to the maximum pause time, or frequency of pauses, available, this is still a non-issue. So you have more people using the queue who otherwise could not have and fewer failed pops (where you're held in suspense for 45 seconds, are disappointed, and repeat until a DPS hasn't gone off somewhere amid their 30-minute queue). How is that any worse than just having, say, a larger playerbase who more rarely leave their computers? At worst, roles in need get more instant while the roles least in need have a higher maximum queue number, identically to simply having more players using the Duty Finder, since... that's all that's effectively happening.


By the time you're in position #1, your queue will have already popped. You cannot hit pause then and literally break the queue system. So I'm not sure what you're worried about here.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if a player starts a queue when they get home, among cooking and answering emails and whatever else, pausing their queue whenever they leave their computer or wouldn't have time to complete the full run, and gradually making their way up the queue over the next 90 minutes; at worst, some people will enter the dungeon when still at queue position #7 because in-role positions #2 through #6 happen to be paused, which looks odd, but... is entirely harmless. But, if we wish to take issue with that, it's as simple as putting in a max number of time per pause, pauses per hour or day, and/or total time paused per hour or day.