I suggest a device/option in craftmanu/ voice action to make you in AFK mode.

I have seen this on another server and it seems nice idea.

On that server, you use some ring (Although, could be implemented in many ways) and butterflies fly upon your head indicating you're afk (Gives you no protection at all from NPC monsters, so its good for RP but can't be exploitable, I think)

I think this discussion has come up before. It was whittled down to "why don't you log off instead?" and ended there.

Hmmm seems reasonable enough (Although I've seen someone who was afk for several hours without being disconnected =S )

I'm probably tired (And still sick) and should get some sleep.

I bet it was coldburn...

I would rather like an AFK option. Maybe one that just lets you sit still unhindered for about 15 minutes and then boots you. Just for quick bathroom breaks when you're at an inn, so people don't get put off when you don't answer them. Maybe a floating text to those who come near you that broadcasts "<playername> will return in x (where x <= 15) minutes or be booted from the server. Has been gone for y (where y = 0 < y < 15) minutes"

15 just being used tentatively, as a suggested number.

I personally think being able to go AFK for several minutes without logging off is important. For example, you're involved in a real-time developing plot and you need a quick bathroom break; logging off might mean you can't get back on the server if the server is full.

Two visual cues I can think of...

How about an AFK toggle that turns you to stone?

It would provide a visual cue that a person was AFK, since a character turned to stone doesn't move (as opposed to a character with stoneskin, which would still have animated movement while idle). I'm assuming, here, that a person turned to stone can still be damaged.

A similar (but more visually distracting) possibility is a toggle that puts your character into a "hold person" state.

In either scenario, the character would not automatically engage in combat if attacked (in my opinion, automatic retaliation is an exploit of the AI for an AFK person).

If you are going to be afk for say, 5 minutes for some reason thats fine really and I don't see why you need a tag for such a short time.

BUT... if you are going to afk for say 15, 20, 30 minutes plus just log off. I mean the server can become full and someone else might just want to play.

I like the idea of an AFK option. I think Alogen's suggestion of an AFK state sounds really good

alogen

(Gives you no protection at all from NPC monsters, so its good for RP but can't be exploitable, I think)

I can't really see anything bad with it...

Kotenku

Maybe one that just lets you sit still unhindered for about 15 minutes and then boots you.

I like this idea too. Although I am quite certain that very few people stays AFK for more than 15 minutes...

Twilight_Shadow Although I am quite certain that very few people stays AFK for more than 15 minutes...

AFK is not useful unless it boots you automatically from the server if you're AFK for more than five minutes.

If you need to be gone longer--log out.

Definitely a good idea. Just for things like going to grab a glass of water, quickly let someone in the front door, a bathroom break etc. People don't log off for this and shouldn't have to - it's just a few minutes. I think you should be able to respond to being attacked, though, as it is not really IC for the char to just stand there and die to a rat because you aren't there. Though perhaps making it so that PVP cannot be initiated against someone in this mode? To stop griefers. Or at very least it should ping the DMs, and be a bootable offence. A full stoneskin effect probably isn't needed. Just the butterflies or little blue sparks or something, and a text saying '<Character name> is afk' above the head.

If you are going to be afk for say, 5 minutes for some reason thats fine really and I don't see why you need a tag for such a short time.

Haven't you ever gone to the bathroom and got back to find someone tried to talk to you while you were gone? It's just a little OOC courtesy so people don't end up thinking you're snubbing them (either IC or OOC).

Would it be possible to make this very easy to trigger, just one or two button presses? If there's someone at the door or the phone is ringing or you're desperate for the loo, you don't want to have to go through 6 conversation boxes to set it and what will probably result is that people don't bother and make the whole thing redundant.

I really likes the voice commands so: /c afk will do the trick, no?

I personally used: [Party] BRB. AFK.

Never had many issues with that.

True Thrawn, but what about in public places, the only option is to go and find somewhere to hide your PC while you're out.

Public places are bad times to go AFK.

If you are going to be afk for say, 5 minutes for some reason thats fine really and I don't see why you need a tag for such a short time.

As spawnofweevil pointed out, it's more of a courtesy for other players than the person who is AFK.

AFK is not useful unless it boots you automatically from the server if you're AFK for more than five minutes.

If you need to be gone longer--log out.

Mostly, it would be nice for when you're leveling up, or changing your game settings, or re-arranging your inventory, where you're logged in and active, but may not wish to be interrupted or would not necessarily notice someone trying to RP with you for a few minutes. They would have a visual cue to know you're character is currently unavailable for RP.

When someone has an urgent need to use the bathroom, or some similar urgent matter (sudden need to puke), you don't really know beforehand how long it's going to take, and 5 minutes may be just shy of the time needed to be AFK. As I said earlier, the AFK person could be involved in an immediate plotline, and logging off might mean they can't get back on potentially affecting several other players. 5 minutes seems just barely too short, though 15 minutes seems to me a more-than-reasonable cutoff time.

Really, to me, AFK is all about courtesy to other players, and not about the person who is AFK. Otherwise I'd say, "just log off". I rarely use AFK when I'm not in engaged in RP or a quest -- I usually just log off. The only time I tend to use "AFK" is when other players are involved, or if something unexpected happens that should only take a moment to address (like a knock at the door or dropping my pizza on the floor ).

Thrawn Public places are bad times to go AFK.

Yes but regrettably real life must take presidence over IG. Henceforth the telephone or the door or the girlfriend may VICIOUSLY WRENCH our attentions away from efu for anytime up to and including 8 minutes

You may take those milliseconds before rushing to the door to press:

ALT + F4 for windows

or

Apple + Q for Macs

Both are sufficiently fast and beat typing Enter / a f k Enter

I just don't see the need for a tool to show you are AFK. A five minute afk should not spark huge amounts of IC conversation that you may have missed and going afk somewhere you might have a crap load of interaction is poor playing IMHO.

You just need to use your brain a bit. I just see this promoting long AFKs because "it's ok since it's a built in fuction of the server!" crap type excuses.

And as Thrawn said... "/party afk a second guys door/phone/etc" has always and will continue to work well for me.

If you HAVE to be gone that long log out, plain and simple.

I've been meaning to post this forever. I am totally with this sense, If you log, you cannot read what is in the chat log so you can't catch up on the conversation ((which. If you're gonna be longer than 15 minutes, log off. Besides, it's not cool when people just suddenly log off then come back 10 miuntes later demanding there pay when you htought they crashed and didn't even tell you that you are AFK or BrB. Maybe when you toggle a /c brb thing, your charctor automatically pops a message syaing "//brb" or "//afk."

I don't see any need for this.

A separate AFK area, accessible by some widget, would be exploitable and would mean you wouldn't be hearing the dialogue.

A petrification visual or something to that effect would break the immersion for other characters, at least as much as excess OOC talk does -- and as a matter of fact, it too would be exploitable: just switch to AFK mode if you have to wait for something or someone in an area where hostile PCs would be out to get you and voila, you have a foolproof solution versus any potential attackers.

Any other kind of AFK-mode wouldn't really differ from 1) simply letting others know you're AFK or 2) logging out.

I can't see how this could be used as bad thing =S If a player is afk at the moment, it would be the exact same thing, no?

The concern is that it would be tantamount to logging to avoid death, I believe. That is, turning AFK mode on in combat to avoid getting hit. Or to evade people trying to kill you when you know they're around.

This is why I proposed having a timer on it, so you can't stay AFK indefinitely. Maybe also a check for Hostile enemies in the area anywhere nearby.

You know, when I go AFK I move my character to a quiet spot, let people know via a quick "//AFK" message, and log if it's going to be for than about a minute.

I don't think we really need modes for AFK, especially if they involve too much work! Such little gain.

If "//afk for a few" doesn't do the job in whatever situation you're in, you should log out. EfU is an always active, always moving enviroment, and whatever your character is doing is what your character is doing. That includes, standing there, not responding to the people that walk around. I like to see as much as possible done to not break immersion for the players, so creating a system for breaking immersion seems counterproductive, even if it is trivial.

Mostly, it would be nice for when you're leveling up, or changing your game settings, or re-arranging your inventory, where you're logged in and active, but may not wish to be interrupted or would not necessarily notice someone trying to RP with you for a few minutes. They would have a visual cue to know you're character is currently unavailable for RP.

Just in case someone missed the above, I thought I'd repeat it. People are just often saying "AFK" not because they're actually away from their keyboard, but because their character is unavailable temporarily for RP. Perhaps they're in the middle of an important exchange with a DM, for example.

It breaks immersion no matter what an AFK person does to indicate it, so might as well have a visual cue to save everyone time. In fact, I think such a visual cue would actually cut down on ruining immersion, so you could avoid the following:

So, did you find it, Frodo? *pause* Frodo? *pause* Cat got your tongue? *pause* Earl got your tongue? *pause*

//tell Carl, is Frodo AFK? //tell I think so, he said his TV just caught fire. //tell OMG! For real? //tell Naw, just kidding :-P I think he's leveling. //tell Oh, ok, thanks.

//tell Oh, sorry, I was leveling. //tell No problem, I was just asking your character if he found the golden idol. //tell Oh, well, he would've said, yes, it was in the garbage pile. //tell Was that the garbage pile at the Rock, or the Crone? //tell Um, why don't you come back up and we'll start this conversation over?

I would like this. I have in fact die twice to being AFK. Once I ran off for about 30 seconds to go to the toilet before raiding *spoiler*, and i'm in the fugue plane. And before that, ages ago, I went to answer the door in the sewers (hunting rats), and I came back to find myself on badly wounded with a human happily hacking away at me with his great sword.

Log off, bieng in an afk mode on a quest won't stop npcs hitting you. You'd Still get fugued