Author Topic: When AFK - advice  (Read 2758 times)

Telkar

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When AFK - advice
« on: August 14, 2010, 02:56:36 PM »
I've always found it annoying when people are AFK without announcing it, but they of course can't announce it to newcomers when they're already AFK.

My advice is, when you go AFK, to have a piece of parchment ready to place on the ground by your character that says: "//ooc: afk" or something like that. I more often just try to log out myself though.

Avatar6666

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2010, 03:23:00 PM »
I wish you could port to the OOC area when you go afk. then just port back to where you left.


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Dhark

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2010, 03:28:55 PM »
Yes having this in the rest menu would be fantastic ......tough could cause complications when dungeoning , so it would have to be diisabled in those areas

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2010, 03:47:07 PM »
Yes having this in the rest menu would be fantastic ......tough could cause complications when dungeoning , so it would have to be disabled in those areas

You can access the ooc area from any safe rest location such as inn rooms, common resting rooms in certain places like Dvergenheim or Degawwny and other similar locations scattered around the server.  Allowing open and easy access to ooc area porting (even outside of dungeons) could lead to a lot of abuse by people avoiding situations they shouldn't be able to from an ic pov, via a rest menu and a click of a button.  Going afk in high traffic areas like the ourskirts with an ooc note just seems........eh well why not just log off or go to an inn room.  Butterflies around the heads of afk pcs (which was suggested in another thread) are better suited imo to action oriented servers with little to no rp where such a clear 'immersion breaker' isn't going to be an issue. 



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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2010, 06:01:12 PM »
You can access the ooc area from any safe rest location such as inn rooms, common resting rooms in certain places like Dvergenheim or Degawwny and other similar locations scattered around the server.  Allowing open and easy access to ooc area porting (even outside of dungeons) could lead to a lot of abuse by people avoiding situations they shouldn't be able to from an ic pov, via a rest menu and a click of a button.  Going afk in high traffic areas like the ourskirts with an ooc note just seems........eh well why not just log off or go to an inn room.  Butterflies around the heads of afk pcs (which was suggested in another thread) are better suited imo to action oriented servers with little to no rp where such a clear 'immersion breaker' isn't going to be an issue. 

When I go AFK it is usually due to an RL event that must be seen after IMMEDIATELY and could take anywhere from 20 seconds to 10 minutes to complete and I usually get no warning ahead of time.
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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2010, 06:04:05 PM »
I leave the keyboard frequently, and anything like making a parchment and laying down at the characters feet would be more trouble than its worth.
If someone was emoting near the character when i come back, I always apologize to the player with a quick tell. Its not a big deal, its a consequence of playing while there is possibility of interruption.  For me there is about only 4 hours a day that I can do /anything/ without distraction. So, when I come across AFK, I usually just AFK with them and be patient.
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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2010, 06:37:43 PM »
Well of course things happen in reality you get no warning from.  In six years + playing this game I've seen people bothering to type such things as "the baby fell!" or "Popcorn (a parrot) is walking all over my pizza brb!".  It sort of seemed well, odd to me why take the time to type there was an emergency if it was that immediate/dire, when logging off takes less time.

  Usually in high traffic areas/during rp  there are other pcs not afk who can give others a head up in ooc talk that the player will be right back if new pcs wander in after an afk message was given, which I've seen and done and would say works rather well.


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Avatar6666

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2010, 11:54:57 PM »

You can access the ooc area from any safe rest location such as inn rooms, common resting rooms in certain places like Dvergenheim or Degawwny and other similar locations scattered around the server.  Allowing open and easy access to ooc area porting (even outside of dungeons) could lead to a lot of abuse by people avoiding situations they shouldn't be able to from an ic pov, via a rest menu and a click of a button.  Going afk in high traffic areas like the ourskirts with an ooc note just seems........eh well why not just log off or go to an inn room.  Butterflies around the heads of afk pcs (which was suggested in another thread) are better suited imo to action oriented servers with little to no rp where such a clear 'immersion breaker' isn't going to be an issue. 


Well if put in the rest area , you can not get to the rest menu if thier were enemies about, So i am not sure what abuse you are talking about? This is where i would place the AFK port. you have to get far enough away from  a hostiled enemy to use it. If people abuse this thier is always screenshots to the CC. I Personally have gone afk , it turned dark and come back to a MPC sucking on my Character. Now that has not happen recently so dont worry about. I am just saying it would be nice to safely go to a AFK\OOC area if you need to for an emergency.


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Telkar

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2010, 12:56:14 AM »
I leave the keyboard frequently, and anything like making a parchment and laying down at the characters feet would be more trouble than its worth.
If someone was emoting near the character when i come back, I always apologize to the player with a quick tell. Its not a big deal, its a consequence of playing while there is possibility of interruption.  For me there is about only 4 hours a day that I can do /anything/ without distraction. So, when I come across AFK, I usually just AFK with them and be patient.

Not worth the trouble? Come on...  :|

It's easy to @write title on a parchment and then always have it there to use. It may take less time opening inventory, find parchment, right click on it, drop. And that way you don't have to apologize to those who wasted their time trying to RP with you. They wouldn't have wasted their time trying to do that if they saw the parchment either.

Sorry, I just do a big sigh when I do two long emotes and get nothing in return, realizing a person is AFK. Of course there are situations I find myself compelled to wait, like for a character I RP with on regular basis, and that my character knows fairly well. But as for the others, such a thing just kills my willingness to stay....fast. I'm so out of there.

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2010, 02:06:35 AM »
Real life comes first. If one goes afk is because he needs to. If I find anyone and I emote and I don't have a reply, I move on. I'm not so rp-starved to insist at emoting around a character who's CLEARLY afk. Your trouble at seeing, for instance, me afk is equal to the trouble others cause to me (for instance an excess of // OOC messages). I think it's common courtesy leaving afk in not crowded areas, so apologising for the temporary absence: it's also common courtesy knowing if one is afk has probably some reasons to.
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Telkar

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2010, 08:46:37 AM »
Okay, well...I like better knowing beforehand that emoting won't give me any. It's pretty much a personal preference of how we want to spend our time, so I can't much argue with that. I at least got my advice out for those who care, not that it's a big issue or anything. It's just convenience. I've got some questions I'm curious about though:

How can one know if someone is afk right away?

Why don't people log out if they're in a non-crowded area in the first place? (esc -> Exit game, quickest way there is)

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2010, 10:06:30 AM »
I've always found it annoying when people are AFK without announcing it, but they of course can't announce it to newcomers when they're already AFK.

My advice is, when you go AFK, to have a piece of parchment ready to place on the ground by your character that says: "//ooc: afk" or something like that. I more often just try to log out myself though.

there is no need for that. there is a graphic/effect already in the CEP packs of the word "AFK" circling your character. the Devs should just implement it into the rest menu

Telkar

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2010, 10:17:23 AM »
Interesting. I'm curious to see how that actually looks like. I hope it isn't too distracting.

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2010, 10:48:45 AM »
Or people could just take a seat, or even sleep in some places.  I always go a little =/ when people are standing on top of the bedrolls in the W.O. Coming Dawn Sanctuary for an extended period of time.
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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2010, 02:06:57 PM »
I frequently have to go afk with little or no time to give notice. Somebody brilliantly suggested I quickslot the macro "@follow". Expanding on that thought I've also quick slotted "//AFK" right next to "@follow" for situation when I have no time to explain I'm needed AFK. It's very useful, all I need to do is two quick mouse clicks or hit F9 and F10 and I'm gone, people know I'm AFK, and I'm following the nearest party member. Sometimes though, AFKing in a hurry and without notice really is unavoidable, no matter the inconvenience, and all we can do is be courteous, patient and try not to let it spoil the gaming fun.  :)

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #15 on: August 15, 2010, 02:14:25 PM »
I've always found it annoying when people are AFK without announcing it, but they of course can't announce it to newcomers when they're already AFK.

My advice is, when you go AFK, to have a piece of parchment ready to place on the ground by your character that says: "//ooc: afk" or something like that. I more often just try to log out myself though.

there is no need for that. there is a graphic/effect already in the CEP packs of the word "AFK" circling your character. the Devs should just implement it into the rest menu
I have also seen afk flags that the char equips. But i like this idea of Strats the best.

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Re: When AFK - advice
« Reply #16 on: August 15, 2010, 07:32:11 PM »
Emergencies aside, I've had a few myself and they are unavoidable. Be that as it may I assume that this is the exception and not the norm. What erks me the most about people going AFK are those who do so for hours on end. I mean real life hours to. Worst case I ever saw was a PC that was AFK for near on 8hrs real life time, could have been longer but it was late and I had to log to get some much needed sleep. Personly I've created a note for Asta for when I need to go AFK for extensive preiods and it's really not that hard to impliment. Although I never use it as I find just logging quicker in the end anyway.

Notifying everybody you need to go AFK is all well and good for those who are currently present in a area. However what about those who enter after the fact, consider that all those who are in the know have left and so the newcomer is left with emoting and chatting to a none responsive PC. It's kinda annoying when it happens as my chatter box halfing has discovered.

All this being said, I like the AFK notice being added to the rest menu... Would like to see this implimented ;)