The AFK logout timer is being implemented.

[Magis]

Hmm, I liked how in XI you weren't kicked for being AFK. Wish there was a way for them to fix the issue w.o resorting to removing it. Oh well.

[RavenL]

Or......... put a rubber band on the RS to make the camera spin.

If they did like most other games you would need actual key presses. Putting a rubber band on the control stick would still count as no movement/key strokes.

[Amiabelle]

I'm surprised (and a bit disappointed) that in 4 pages of all these great responses, no one has said Thank You to Catharsis for starting this thread and getting a rough translation done.

Thanks, Catharsis!

And, with regard to the AFK timer, I'm delighted to see they're finally going to get it done. It was (and still is) much needed.

[iMark521]

I don't understand why it's so difficult for some people to simply log out, and then log in again when they are ready to play... It takes less than 2 minutes.

[ArkhamNative]

... like they had in FFXI. Once a server was too full they would lock it down to new character creations, but say you had friends on the server one of them could buy a code in game and give it to you. You could then use that code so you could create your character on that server to play with them.

Ah, yes, the World Pass system. (IIRC, FFXI "randomly" assigned a world to new characters at first (at least for NA/EU). Using the Gold World Pass at character creation selected that specific world instead.)

For ARR, a World Pass could unblock the "full" world you wanted to create on, and that would be useful. However, a lot of the problem in ARR is that people have existing characters they want to transfer to other worlds.

Maybe SE could have a similar system for transfers: you could only transfer to worlds accepting transfers unless you had a World Pass code from someone on a "full" world. Of course, allowing dozens or hundreds to move to a "full" world is a problem SE would want to avoid. No easy solutions with so many groups of players scattered on so many worlds.

If they did like most other games you would need actual key presses. Putting a rubber band on the control stick would still count as no movement/key strokes.

Either way could technically be viewed as 'botting' by SE and there are penalties for that.

[Seregil]

I don't understand why it's so difficult for some people to simply log out, and then log in again when they are ready to play... It takes less than 2 minutes.

As long as SquareEnix banishes the dreaded 1017 error for most players, people won't be so inclined to AFK for long periods of time (to sleep, go to work, etc). The 1017 error is why most do so, though. Why log off when there might be a chance you can't log back in later when you are ready to play?

As it stands, the 1017 error seems to have been held at bay for the time being since yesterday's maintenance, but who's to say how long that will last before people are afraid to log off again? Especially when they re-open digital sales...

[ReplicaX]

I keep forgetting that everyone on this forum is obviously a highly experienced Network and Data Center Engineer specializing in MMOs. That an afk timer is the universal solution to all server load, pipeline, and bandwidth issues surrounding this game. I appreciate all your knowledge and contributions.

[MaiyaBeaumont]

ps3 users will be SoL...you would need a machine to physically move the sticks

Rubber bands around joystick. I dont DO this, but it's not ROCKET SCIENCE.

EDIT:

no one is spamming the forums with "QQ i cant log in" anymore...

why we need an afk log out thingy when everyone can log in just fine now?

Oh, give it time. I'm sure SOMETHING will happen to give them something else to whine about, lol. But I honestly think the patch DID help, but thats my opinion.

[MagusVandel]

Thank you for the info Catharsis. I am glad they are implementing the afk kick. I have not personally dealt with 1017 since the server upgrade, but a few people on my linkshell have. It is not the monster it was before, but it still exists and having the kick for afk (even if they are only 10% as some people have suggested; based on what I see in towns though, I can safely assume 10% is an incredible understatement) will help greatly. Plus once people get the hang of just being on when they are playing, I feel like those complaining about the kick will stop complaining and just settle into the 5 minutes it takes to log on.

[Shujinkou]

translation part 1:

FF14 ARR Urgent News in regards to game play environment enhancement.

This is FF14 ARR producer/director Yoshida.

Players are experiencing inconviniences due to severe limitation to char creation / log in. As of today 9/4, we have managed to increase the concurrent capacity by 60k players.
With the exception of new worlds that were added recently, each world is currently of handling about 7300 ~ 7800 concurrent log-ins, and if we were to increase that number it may result in massive lag so we are monitoring the server load in real time.

to be continued...