Already a way to game afk timerFollow

Not sure I'd call it an exploit. I'm not subscribed, but if I were... I pay for 30 days of service. Why shouldn't I be able to stay logged in the entire time?

I don't support people going AFK, but people being AFK isn't the issue. Server capacity is the issue. SE needs to fix the issue, not cover it with a bandaid.

You can, if you're playing.

If you get logged out, you can just log back in.

Having the right to stay logged in while you're not around is kind of arbitrary, considering you have the right to actually play whenever you want, without the possibility of being kicked off.

The capacity has been increased already, but this afk timer helps to log players out whom aren't playing. I don't think you understand how difficult and costly it is to exponentially continue to expand the server limits. This afk timer is a tool by SE to have a better guess how much to expand the server capacity. There is a planning phase as any good network designer will tell you. They don't just flip the switch and add another 1,000 slots. SE will adjust accordingly based on the demand for further upgrades. It would be foolhardy to automatically assume other more cost preventive measures won't solve the issue. It's not a bandaid fix either. I understand your confusion though, it seems simple, but it's not.

Edited, Sep 18th 2013 11:29pm by ShadowedgeFFXI

I know they increased capacity, but it's clearly not enough if they are forcing people to log out. As you said, any good network designer knows there's a planning phase. Did they just skip that part? Wouldn't have made more sense to have the character creation limits and the afk timer at the front end and throttled back as servers settled in?

Too much to ask I guess.

I propose an afk timer for the ZAM threads, it will go as follows:

If someone posts a thread/reply that gets rated down to oblivion, then that person has to stay "afk" for 30 minutes to an hour before being able to post again.

Yes it does. When your character is idle, it is still using a lot of the servers resources. The server still has to constantly verify your location, be prepared to receive action at a moments notice, log chat, and a host of other things of which I am unaware. It isn't just a "slot" on the server, though it is that as well. The overall gameplay is improved by booting AFKers that are sucking up resources and forcing a render draw every time someone else sees them. I hate being near sanctuaries in the higher level areas because it is thousands of people just standing around doing nothing. I know there are people that are playing among them waiting for DF or what have you, but a lot of them are AFK and my PC has to render every last one of them. If all of the AFK people suddenly vanished, I bet my FPS would jump up by 20 or 30 frames and latency in the area would improve drastically.

The fact of the matter is this; being AFK is a drain on EVERYONE around you, just so you can save yourself a few seconds of inconvenience? If 30 whole minutes passes without a single interaction from you, then you are NOT playing the game and should GTFO! I can't even believe we live in a world where this is a polarizing topic.

FWP FTW!

While people staying online uses server resources, the actions people are taking to circumvent the AFK timer is using more on top of that, so what you're now left with is cutting off an arm to cure a hangnail.

This might be the stupidest, laziest thing I've ever read, seriously.

If your not actually playing do everyone else a favor and just ******* log out. I played WoW for 7+ years and never once had a problem with their AFK timer. I can't think of one good reason at this point you would need to leave your character logged in for any extended period of time while your not actually "playing" (as in actually doing something) the game. It just makes sense that they would want to reduce the stress on their servers by not having 10000 characters just standing around. If that bothers you then honestly your just selfish.

Waiting for a dungeon Que? Just move your character every so often, I mean I know its pretty hard to work up the effort to push a button every 10 mins or so.

There was no logical reason to request and implement an AFK Timer at all, so I think we can both agree that the "smart and reasonable" demographic is on vacation.

I agree. An additional annoyance is if you have a second account for whatever reason. I dual-box and my second account I use for fishing, storing stuff and crafting. Now instead of her being ready and available whenver i need her, she's always being logged out. Having to relog in like 5-10 times every night gets old after a few days. >.<

1-2 hours would be fine and still accomplish the goal of not having people logged in while sleeping or at work.

Edited, Sep 19th 2013 2:53pm by rikkuotaku

Well, by your logic, SE should just assume that we are all playing 24 hours a day. Up the infrastructure based on that, and of course increase the billing accordingly.

Capacity planning is an issue with IT resources. When do you spend too much, and when is it not enough. From a players perspective, it would be ideal that they had enough capacity to hold every character created active for any number of hours. But from a resource/business perspective that is just an obscene waste of money.

So, to keep costs down, they attempt to predict how much will be used, without being wasted. Translation, end users will not be happy. By the very nature of the process, you under plan, and scale accordingly. And this is done simply because it is cheaper to buy more equipment than it is to offload equipment you bought and don't need.

Again, just like with being semi-afk while in the duty finder... twitch your damn character once every 30 minutes you lazy toads! If you a multi-boxing then it should not be ANY hassle to simply make your other character move every so often. You even get a big pop up for the last few minutes warning you that you are about to be logged out. Even if the character is logged out because you got sidetracked, then take the minute or two to log back in and redouble your efforts to suck less in the future. If you are actually fishing and such on that character then you won't be logged out because you are DOING something! So basically you want a slot on the server and a % of the resources we ALL share just so you can have a mule up at all times?