This is probably my only objection as a lot of people who play this game have RL things that can frequently pull them away such as kids. There have been days that I log on only to get pulled away 15 mins later. Some times I can come back in a couple of minutes and some times it might be an hour or more. Playing time is limited and having to go through the process of logging my toons back in every time might be the deciding factor between continuing to play this game and switching to something that I can hit pause on and come back to when RL allows. I agree people should not afk in places that block NPC's, doors or are an overall disruption to others gameplay. For anyone having difficulty targeting an npc keybind target nearest npc and it will be a non issue. You could stack every player on the server on an npc and still target that npc without a problem. Now it you have to click the npc that might create an issue.
new, tangential idea : need line command or hail text to interact with NPCs. Yes, [Banker] Yonni, I would like to check my [storage]. /deal
Sounds like your play time is indeed limited - if you’re dragged away for an hour or more, then you did not have the playtime anyway. Either you have the time to play, or you don’t. Usually you know whether your do or not, but just because you think you do doesn’t, as you point out, mean you actually do. There’s no reason for you to be logged in after a 30 minute AFK anyway. AFK for a few minutes, sure. Hour? Why were you still logged in again?
If you log people out after a timer then everyone will just set themselves to autorun into the wall. You really dont want that.
Hard to do that while dealing with life’s enforced AFK. Besides, if you are actually able to get back to teh keyboard every 25 minutes, you’d circumvent a 30 minute timer.
You obviously don't have kids or you have never had to deal with being responsible for them. If my kids are in need the last thing I am concerned about is my characters being logged into the game sitting afk in a non combat zone. Why anyone else should be concerned if my toons are parked afk in my neighborhood while I deal with RL is well beyond me. What I don't have time for is coming back to log in just to play for a short period of time every time I get pulled away and I know I don't speak for myself here. Retaining casuals and those who have to focus more attention to RL than EQ is important for the longevity of this game. Our accounts do add up and help contribute to the pot. Make changes that simply make it unpractical for us to play and you just lost a group of players that this game cant afford to lose.
It sounds to me like LIFE is making it impractical to play. That said, you’re acting as though you’d have to turn the computer on, boot up EQ, and log into the server, then pick your character. That’s not what’s been suggested at all - merely being sent to CHARACTER SELECT. You can stay at character select indefinitely. Its being sent to Server Select that has a time limit (wait too long and you get booted effectively completely). So ... cumulatively less lag for the people who are logged in playing, at a cost of 10ish seconds (maybe 30ish for slow computers/connections?) for the people who go truly AFK (no keystrokes) for a half hour or longer. Sounds like a good idea to me, even if I am one of the ones who gets called away for more than a half an hour ... which does happen on rare occasion.
I still say eliminating player collision with shields/whatever is causing it is the solution. Forcing people out of the game world seems a bit overkill to me.
Anchors work just fine. Define AFK? I may not have moved my mouse because I'm watching netflix, but I'm at the keyboard. There is nothing wrong with guild lobby. Talk to your server, maybe they can move the lag pile elsewhere, or you can buy a real computer.
It sounds to me like sluggish machines or the inability of players to communicate on their respective servers and come up with a solution is the problem. I run 8 accounts at the same time usually and outside of the initial throttle of encountering the toon pile I can run circles around it with all 8 toons without a hiccup. As far as LIFE goes entertainment is a part of life and EQ fills a huge void in that department. I don't needed the added hassle of getting booted out just because others feel like they are deserving of all the real estate in game. As a paying customer to a game that operates 24/7 with exception to down times I should be able to log in for any amount of time as I wish without someone else telling me I need the boot because I am not at my machine as long as I am not violating the EULA in regards to afk game play, blocking an entrance, preventing others from utilizing an item or npc and so forth. This is not a developer issue its a player made issue. Sure they could create a new area in POK or GL and encourage the lag pile to move there which I would be ok with but booting people is uncalled for. All this will do is encourage creative means to circumvent these mechanics which can easily be done with any modern keyboard or mouse.
I get it. You dislike the solution I (and others, oops like) suggest. It still seems to me to be the best solution available. Unless you’d rather buffs count down in PoK/Lobby/everywhere-but-GH again? Because that’s the other solution I see to the lag pile problem presented in this thread. Moving the pile isn’t an answer, getting rid of it is. Got a better, actually-implementable solution? Because I haven’t seen one, merely complaints that the 30 minute of no input boot to character select is harsh and unfairly hurts those for whom RL prevents playing anyway. And by the way, if you’re afk you’re not playing the game, so “afk game play” is a contradiction in terms.
So communication on each server between the players who are mostly adults to move to an area that will create less lag is not a solution? This is a player made issue and should be handled by the players like grown adults. No need to change mechanics that affect people that go afk but mostly do so in areas not related to this issue. FYI you can have active players affected by this also. The alt sitting outside a raid for possible raid rots, the tradeskill mule, buff bots, bazaar traders and any other utility toon people utilize. How much have you actually advocated on your server for people to move? If you are just a forum warrior wanting an easy fix from the devs but are a silent knight on your server that's your problem. Talk to the people doing the buffs. If you can get them to move the heard will follow. Once again this mechanic would be so simple to work around by anyone with a modern mouse or keyboard so your efforts here would be wasted mostly if you got your way. The average player is smarter than an anti afk mechanic.
IMO the easist solution to getting through, but not lag is to make it so you can MGB tiny terror. The lag pile is still there, but shrunken people are more like pebbles, rather than walls.
A lot of this boils down to the misconception years ago that the longer one was logged in then the more Veterans Rewards and Loyalty Points and DBC one received. So everyone stayed logged in to achieve the highest amount of in game time. Then it was straightened out that Veteran Rewards were based on years played and Loyalty Points were based how long the account is active (as in being played) and DBC is a reward for just having a paid account. Wasn't called DBC back then though. So now it is clear that you do not have to stay logged in but like most things in life people don't pay attention. Like those same players in the guild lobby asking for buffs over and over and over but when you target them it shows they are full buffs. Try playing without buffs! OMG! Yes it is possible.
It’s not a solution when it’s been ineffective for years, no. Do you really think that I haven’t tried? Lol
I have no clue if you have tried. Maybe your methods are flawed or there are just not enough people that share in your opinion about moving. Either way this is a player made issue not a developer issue. There are enough broken things in game that need fixing and this should fall on the shoulders of the players not the developers. If you are a crafter and are annoyed by the lag try abysmal sea or CR. Abysmal sea is basically POK on a boat and CR provides many of the same vendors as POK and work stations without all this crazy lag some people are reporting. You can adjust your settings if you must use POK. There are several things people who are complaining can do to improve their own situation but instead you want big brother to get involved and fix something that you see as a problem while creating problems for others. Personally I think the GL is the best place for mass buffs on the side opposite the neighborhood gate. There is literally no reason to go to that side so it makes perfect sense for mass groups of players to sit there afk if they so choose to. Encourage people that are offering buffs in general to only offer them in that area and eventually people will move if you get the buffers on your side.
