Auto AFK

[Shaula]

I know it probably makes some people crazy, but I go AFK a lot. I have a lot going on between work, family, extended family, and everything else life throws at me. That's part of the reason I chose a crafter, because I thought it would be safer for this kind of situation. Would it be possible to have an option to go auto AFK after a few minutes? Then when people walk by and see me, they won't try to interact and get left hanging when I'm actually AFK.

If this is frowned on I can try to log out or go somewhere private like my inn room every time I have to go AFK.

[Rias]

It's always good to try and avoid leaving yourself AFK in public, but an auto-AFK feature could be nice.

Any other thoughts on this?

[Rias]

This is now a thing. Characters will be flagged as AFK after a few minutes of inactivity, and will no longer be kicked off the server for being idle.

[Shaula]

Thank you so much!

[Lexx416]

I think the Auto AFK system is good, but I do have a request - I think this should stay in place, but could we bring back the auto-disconnect feature and time it for something like 10-15 minutes of inactivity? It's not a hugely pressing issue, but we do sometimes get people that (seemingly) infinitely AFK-Idle in public places, and I know I've seen a handful of folks asking how to deal, IC, with that.

[Gorth]

I'm in favor of this, but maybe put the timeout to like, thirty minutes or something. I mean, it really doesn't change that much, but still, i'm not sure.

Then again, a short time means less risk of people going AFK in Tarueka and dying (Lukepop).

[Irylia]

If they're already flagged AFK why not just ignore them like most people do with the npc crowds? It's not great for people to do this in public rooms, but I don't really see it as problematic either. And some of us like idling all day so we can keep informed about what's going on while doing other things - like working. In my opinion it would be better to encourage people to be more vigilant of where they go AFK than to force a disconnect. Or maybe make it a toggle option for those who tend to have things come up randomly while playing the game and would prefer to be booted. But to me, it would almost be more awkward for someone to just vanish suddenly if they were AFK in a public space.

[Lexx416]

If they're already flagged AFK why not just ignore them like most people do with the npc crowds? It's not great for people to do this in public rooms, but I don't really see it as problematic either. And some of us like idling all day so we can keep informed about what's going on while doing other things - like working. In my opinion it would be better to encourage people to be more vigilant of where they go AFK than to force a disconnect. Or maybe make it a toggle option for those who tend to have things come up randomly while playing the game and would prefer to be booted. But to me, it would almost be more awkward for someone to just vanish suddenly if they were AFK in a public space.

I largely do ignore them, but Infinite Idling is also a way to bypass the janitor in public rooms, and insisting folks IC ignore them only works if everyone buys in to the social contract of "agree to ignore them" - when people start piping up on the Pendant Network about "that person who's been standing in Balkr Pass for three hours, who is covered in frost bite", it's being brought into IC and tends to cascade.