Away indication

[Seytra]

While there is an /away command, and the auto-reply indicates this status in it\'s reply, there currently is no way of telling whether a player is /away except by sending a /tell.

This isn\'t very convenient, because in most cases sending a /tell isn\'t appropriate or wanted.

Therefore, I propose to include

1) a different color (yellow) for entries on the buddy list while the player is /away. It may or may not warrant a system message like when a player joins or quits, but this might be personal taste and thus configurable.

2) a visual indication of the model ingame. This is especially important for random encounters which you wish to talk to in normal chat, which sould be the prefered way anyway.
This couls be done by simply having the player go translucent like the inactive windows, but should in the end be designated by the player model doing something special, like sitting down with eyes closed or something like this.

This has been somewhat discussed on a thread asking for AFK shops, but IMO there should be such an indication without setting up a shop, and the two should be different so that shops, should they ever be implemented, don\'t visually conflict with general AFK-ness.

Edit: I know that such an indication might be seen as an invitation to indirect PK, i.e., if you see an AFK player, you can try to get a nonster close to them and hope it will turn on them, but OTOH, this can be prevented by the engine (i.e., a player who is AFK and doesn\'t perform any actions (to prevent abuse of AFK) won\'t be attacked by new monsters (attacks that have been going on before would continue just normally, also to prevent AFK abuse)), and abusive players are able to find out anyway.

[Moogie]

Or people could just be let to die if they\'re silly enough to afk near monster spawns. It\'s so very weird to see players ingame who are \"away\", anyway. Like their spirit has mysteriously left them or something. I don\'t believe we should have any visual indication of this at all- if you talk to someone and they don\'t respond, you can think of them as arrogant or simply too stupid to communicate. If they cared about their RP image, they would idle somewhere that makes sense (i.e. a tavern room where they could be sleeping) or simply log off untill they return.

[Seytra]

Ah, but very often the situation arises that you are somewhere on a path, say to Ojaveda, and you need to be AFK for a while. Usually, it is this time when someone tries to chat with you who just happens to come to that place by that time - Murphy\'s Law.
In these cases a logoff isn\'t warranted since it\'ll not be long. However, we also know that the AFK will occasionally be extended unexpectedly while AFK, and then you\'re not there to log off.

Even if people are standing in the OOC / n00b zone (Hydlaa Plaza), it would be useful to know their AFK status without having to /tell.

The argument of arrogance / stupidity doesn\'t hold if they\'re friends you meet on a road.

[Zan]

Well I think the most \'natural\' and easiest way to see if someone is afk is when they \'re taking a nap. So I \'d like to see your character lay or sit down and get some shuteye .. possibly with some \"ZzZzZ\" text over their heads for making it obvious.

This could be a clear sign that person is AFK and wouldn\'t come over as that odd in the game .. everyone gets tired once in a while.

I think people should be able to die just like if they weren\'t gone though. If you \'re foolish enough to rest near a monster spawn you better pray for a lot of luck. Perhaps monsters could have a harder time seeing you though, since you \'d be sleeping on the ground. And as for luring monsters close to a person hoping it gets killed. Well if I put myself in a beast\'s mind I \'ll go after the guy harassing me and not the one sleeping.

[Mr. Dave]

In another thread, acraig mentioned that he\'s working (slowly) on a players\' character-animation tool. (I say \"slowly\" \'cause he has lots of more-urgent stuff to do as well.) Perhaps you could use that to have your character \"Curl Up For a Nap\" or perhaps \"Stand In Profound Contemplation\".

[shorty13]

putting a character in \"away\" mode would be a great idea.  While in this state, he/she could not do any actions or anything until he is \"back\" and can\'t be attacked, or later, pickpocketed or backstabbed.

[Kiva]

Originally posted by shorty13
putting a character in \"away\" mode would be a great idea.  While in this state, he/she could not do any actions or anything until he is \"back\" and can\'t be attacked, or later, pickpocketed or backstabbed.

Yeah, that\'s a bad idea, you\'re right, because that would let people go away whenever they\'re in trouble, so that\'s a really bad idea, yes it is.

Personally, I\'d go with Zan\'s idea though. Just a few flying Z\'s  above the head to show you\'re somewhat asleep or just really, really bored. Then again, if the server would just kick out people who\'re idle for more than 5 minutes, that would be more beneficial, as there is not unlimited resources on the server, and every single client raises the requirement.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Kiva
Then again, if the server would just kick out people who\'re idle for more than 5 minutes, that would be more beneficial, as there is not unlimited resources on the server, and every single client raises the requirement.

I really don\'t think this makes a big difference. After all, if AFK shops will ever be implemented, these would be more of an incentive to \"unnecessarily\" keep idling. Pure awayness doesn\'t benefit except for a higher spot on the wall of shame, which IMNSHO should be removed anyway.

People are away just as much now as they\'ll be if away indication is implemented, thus resource drain won\'t change. Also, considering server usage, forced logoff should be used only when server resources actually run low, and in that case, idle times should be used: the ones who\'ve been idle for the longest time should be kicked first. However, I don\'t see any serious trouble with resources anytime soon.

[shorty13]

didn\'t think of that, Kiva.  It would be good though if you could do it and have the effect I stated earlier if you went to the tavern or temple first (peaceful areas --and one somewhere in Ojaveda--) and did this.  Then it would be good.

[jorrit]

Originally posted by Moogie
Or people could just be let to die if they\'re silly enough to afk near monster spawns. It\'s so very weird to see players ingame who are \"away\", anyway. Like their spirit has mysteriously left them or something. I don\'t believe we should have any visual indication of this at all- if you talk to someone and they don\'t respond, you can think of them as arrogant or simply too stupid to communicate. If they cared about their RP image, they would idle somewhere that makes sense (i.e. a tavern room where they could be sleeping) or simply log off untill they return.

I don\'t agree with that. From time to time when I play PS I get a phone call or one of my children starts crying and I have no time to go to a suitable place to be afk. Sometimes that can result in me being afk for a long time.

Personally I would like an /away option that temporarily suspends you from the game so that nothing can attack you (and possibly you are no longer visible either). i.e. this is also realistic. You are no longer in the PS world as you are tending to Real Life things. So a temporary suspend would work nicely here.

Greetings,

[Kiva]

Personally I would like an /away option that temporarily suspends you from the game so that nothing can attack you (and possibly you are no longer visible either). i.e. this is also realistic. You are no longer in the PS world as you are tending to Real Life things. So a temporary suspend would work nicely here.

I thought that was what Alt+F4 was for, but then again, I could be mistaken. After all, I\'m not a dev, so my Alt+F4 might work in a diffrent way than your Alt+F4 does.

After all, if AFK shops will ever be implemented, these would be more of an incentive to \"unnecessarily\" keep idling.

Not trying to get way off-topic here, I\'ll just tell of what I\'ve heard. Plans might have changed since back then (after all, it\'s quite a while ago), but initially, AFK shops might be there, but eventually people will have to rent a booth or get a shop somewhere if they wish to sell their stuff without doing anything. If not, they\'ll have to sell it on their own, with the whole \"Come see this great sword blablabla\" deal. And besides, going AFK in a game shouldn\'t be encouraged, as noone really benefits from it. If you\'re not around, you can close your client, or just be there, open to monster attacks and whatnot, just like if you were there, and don\'t give me that \"It takes so long to log in again\", because it doesn\'t. Surely you can waste that one minute of your life on logging in. After all, you just left the game for something which was obviously a lot more important than your character since you didn\'t log out.

(I\'m not sure that last bit made any sense... Oh well)

[jorrit]

I thought that was what Alt+F4 was for, but then again, I could be mistaken. After all, I\'m not a dev, so my Alt+F4 might work in a diffrent way than your Alt+F4 does.

I don\'t want to exit game just to be brb.

Greetings,

[Seytra]

Originally posted by jorrit
Personally I would like an /away option that temporarily suspends you from the game so that nothing can attack you (and possibly you are no longer visible either). i.e. this is also realistic. You are no longer in the PS world as you are tending to Real Life things. So a temporary suspend would work nicely here.

That\'d be alright, too. However, I\'d still wish for the buddy list color becoming yellow in that case to indicate that. After all, the PS world itself doesn\'t have your presence, and the information of your presence isn\'t important to most people (since it only indicates your position, anyway), but the buddy list is totally OOC and thus the information is important (because it indicates if you\'re ingame or brb, instead of being gone for potentially years).

Originally posted by Kiva
I thought that was what Alt+F4 was for, but then again, I could be mistaken. After all, I\'m not a dev, so my Alt+F4 might work in a diffrent way than your Alt+F4 does.

As Jorrit said, I\'m not going to /quit and relogin to get a drink or other necessary things, but I also don\'t want people to in vain stand before my idling char trying to interact with me.
If I know I\'ll be offline for 30 minutes or more, /quit is appropriate, but not for things that take half as long as quitting and relogging.

Originally posted by Kiva
And besides, going AFK in a game shouldn\'t be encouraged, as noone really benefits from it.

The problem is that it still stays a game, and there are a load of RL things that simply happen which are a whole lot more important than the game, we cannot ignore that. Unnecessary AFK shouldn\'t be encouraged, but going AFK must also be easily and freely doable, because otherwise people would be AFK without any indication, which will be more disruptive.
If you\'re playing a game of chess or whatnot, you\'re going to tend to important RL things if they come up, no? You\'re not stuffing away the board (noting positions of pieces), which would equal /quit if you\'re just going to fetch some food.

[Kiva]

Originally posted by Seytra
If you\'re playing a game of chess or whatnot, you\'re going to tend to important RL things if they come up, no? You\'re not stuffing away the board (noting positions of pieces), which would equal /quit if you\'re just going to fetch some food.

When playing chess, you don\'t have a server that requires to keep track of lots of clients at the same time, and you can agree with your opponent to take a small break. In a MMOG you can\'t agree with the world that you should all just take a small break to go get food, you just do it anyway.

Seriously, how could you ever compare chess to PS? On the other hand, let\'s try this as an example. Pretend you are a server, and you watch two friends play a game of chess, and suddenly you all decide to get some food. Now you have two options:

1) Write down where all the pieces are, and put the game away or
2) Put all the information into your head and keep remembering where all the pieces are, and put the game away for an undefined amount of time.

#1 is called /quit, and #2 is called /away. Which would you rather do?

The more you want the server to keep remembering, the more stressed it\'ll be.

[Phinehas]

Kiva, that illustration with a server and chess really made no sense whatsoever. lol

You don\'t seriously expect people to log out to go the bathroom when it takes forever to log back in, do you?