Musician Archive
Thread: From your Correspondent: inviting suggestions on AFK'ing
Wow... lots of interest in this thread. I haven't read all 11 pages (sorry) but I did skim a lot of them.
Some thing that I think we need to remember is that the game has no reliable way of telling if you are AFK or not. It never has and it never will. In game commands can account for this and if they get coded out then the players will just use external programs. So any solution to AFK'ing that starts with "When the server realizes you are AFK..." is doomed to failure.
However, we can fix AFK'ing by making it more useful if you are at the keyboard... and no I don't have a specific solution, but I have some ideas and constraints:
1 - You can't force people to be ATK by making them target someone... macros exist that will automatically do that.
2 - You can't force people to be ATK via pop-ups for the same reason
3 - You can encourage people to be ATK... but almost anything you do can then be used by AFK'ers... so you have to make sure that your encouragement doesn't result in more experience. Maybe have it result in better socializing and visual effects? Just a thought, but if it was more fun to be ATK then that might help.
Some other thoughts:
I would like to see a command so a band could boot someone to some corner of the cantina if they were AFK and in the way... don't kick them out... but moving them out of the performance area would make it possible to have performances again. Make it a voting system of some kind... and don't require them to be in your group. You can prevent griefing of this by allowing it to impact a player only once every two hours or so... if someone it ATK, then they can just come back to the stage... if they are AFK they are obviously not going to come back.
Tholena
hello everyone.
i've spent about the last hour or so going through the first few pages when i realized that this thread is about 6 months old. so i've now skipped to the end. i just want to through my 2 cent's in quick and see what others think.
it seems to me that biggest problem from games like this are people who have totally forgotten about common courtesy. alot of people anymore simply do not care at all about anyone else in the game.
i've only started my career as a musician last night and to 100% honest, it was only because the holocron told me too.
I"m sure that alot of you proud musicians are going to classify me as a lower level player than yourselves, and i don't blame you. if i was a player who chose to play a musician and had skills to actually do a decent job at putting together a good band and make the music sound good i would surely look down on people who are only doing this job because the holocron told them too.
so i keep this in mind. unlike several people in these games anymore, I actually think about what other people feel and try to avoid ticking them off and annoying for no reason.
last night i was in the cantina for a few hours but was active. i was up and about to get drinks and bio breaks but for the most part i was actually there. then, when it was bed time i logged out. i didn't run my macro all night.
this morning i knew i was going to be macroing alot so i did that at my house so that there wasn't anyone to annoy. this only gives me a little exp, but i'm fine with that for what i need.
tonight i will be going back to the cantina but will actually be there.
the biggest problem I see is the continuous spamming. anyone with a 30 second "tip me" macro needs something done. everyone coming into the cantina knows that you should tip them. they don't need to be reminded constantly. and there shouldn't be any reason for them to advertise wares.
why not make it so that /say's or /yell's are ONLY heard inside that cantina? think about it. if this were RL and i drove past the local bar i'm not going to hear the guy inside screaming to buy his stuff, or to visit something. i'd have to be inside to hear it. so why have it like that in game?
This may cut down on some of the spam at least which i find to be the worst part of the entertainer professions.
i'm sorry i don't really have much of an opinion about stopping the AFK'ing. and if the little I do is still "bad form" i appoligize. i will be done shortly and out of everyone's hair, then i look forward to seeing some of the real shows that a good dancer and musican can put together, because god knows i can't do it myself.
I like the idea of the pop up boxes. To be honest, I do use a macro but I am usually right at the keyboard. It's hard to type to people and prove I'm not afk AND invite people AND send tells AND etc when I'm stuck pushing flourish buttons, but at the same time, I don't leave my char running while I'm sleeping. The pop up boxes are a great idea 
Also remeber a lot of people "punish" AFKers by NOT tipping them/watching them. Most people ask "who needs xp" ect to screen AFKers. While the best way to level up is the right way, let's not be too harsh, or group all people who use a macros into the same category.
Just my suggestion. Thanks.
The issue is not that people perform while afk. The issue is that afk'ers crowd the cantinas and all too often spam spatial w/ useless chatter. The answer comes in players adopting a new code of conduct. When a performer joins the group, if they are planning on going afk, the others in the group could strongly encourage that he/she goes to a back room and gets out of the way of the live performers. That would solve it right there. The issue is the way in which afk'ing is utilized by players, not the afk'ing itself. Don't confuse the two issues, please.
Also, with the abominable holo-grind phase almost gone, hopefully cantinas will see fewer afk'ing ex-commandos who have no interest in performing to begin with. That is a large contributing factor to this issue.
BUT...,
life would be so much more pleasant if AFK performers could not speak! Add something that prevents people who are /afk from /shout, /whisper, /say! Quiet AFKers never bother me. It's the spammers that ruin it. That's just my opinion.
Also, it would be nice to isolate the Cantina so that the "noise" from it isn't heard all the way to the Starports. I hate shopping at the bazaar, healing at the Med Center or waiting for the shuttle to arrive and having to hear "watch me plz" spammed every 10 seconds from a Cantina miles away.
The real problem with AFK musicians is that they lock the other musicians into whatever song was playing when the player went AFK. After playing the same song for four hours straight due to an afk musician, I was almost to the poiint of screaming in frustration. The group leader would not remove him, he did not respond to tells or any other inquiry.
So, my suggestion is this. AFK is ignored for purposes of changing songs. If the afk musician cannot play the new song, tough. If they can, they would be automatically switched to whatever was selected.
Simply change the process so that anyone AFK does not count as "current song," and so, does not lock the group into whatever they are playing. And shut them down if they are not capable of playing whatever is selected, clashing music is really, really painful. :-)
Ramala, Eclipse, Tatooine, Bestine and Mos Casia
LilacMwe-Lo wrote:I agree with Auraveda. The minute the server recognizes you are AFK, you no longer gain XP and your ability to heal others mind wounds and battle fatigue goes bye bye. I would also say that entertainers should go AFK quicker if they are skill animating and not doing any keystrokes--perhaps if you don't issue a keystroke for 1 minute you go AFK.
That would be at least a start on a solution.
I think the whole going AFK after a minute of not typing is a bad idea. I'm usually at my keyboard whenever I am entertaining, but I can tell you that I never hit the keys all the time every minute. I let a macro run my flourishes and when I get tired I rest. Also, I don't think the idea of not getting experience when you are AFK should be considered. There are people who live in areas and have lives that can't allow them to be on during the prime hours, when they can get the most xp. I think that a person who is not AFK should get an XP boost when they heal someone's Mind or BF. And if you really want to eliminate AFKing, take all the entertainment professions out as a Holocron option. I mean, then only people who really want to be an Entertainer will be the one's grinding out the XP. Heck, this might fix itself when the holocron path goes byebye anyway.
Besides, I don't think that we should punish people who are just starting out as Entertainers. It takes a long time to get the XP you need to get up the trees. And even in a group, your Dancing or Musician XP is capped after a certain amount. Unlike the combat professions, there is no going and finding a bigger baddie to get more xp. You you guys may be masters now, but think how you got there. Did you ever go AFK while dancing because of dinner, homework doing, or other things? There should be incentives for not going AFK, penatlies. But then again, that's just my opinion.
Darniaq wrote:My answer to all AFKing is somewhat simplistic:
Turn off the /ui action toolBar command.
While the concept is good, turning it off would hurt other professions. I use a macroed command as a TKA to take armor on and off. "Why not just do it in your inventory lazy?" Some people will ask me. Well, the times when I use the macro, nine times out of ten, it's becuase I get ambushed while resting afte a battle. Heck, crafters will raise all kinds of noise becuase that would eliminate their macors, for which they are not AFK for.
Another problem I am seeing with a lot of the solutions is what about player cities? Their cantinas son't get a lot of business. Are all of you anti-AFK people willing to populate every player city cantina at all hours of the day? My guild has an entertainer who AFK's in his off hours so we can have healing during non-prime hours (pretty much from 1am central to server down time. "Well, then you should travel if you want healing." Would probably be a statement some would make. Say I just get to Lok and get ambushed by some Pirates and get owned severely and since I just got to the planet, I haven't been able to clone yet. Well, from most of my experience on Lok, there isn't an entertainer that's actually at the keyboard on the whole freaking planet. So now I'm expected to go Theed or Coronet to get healing and then come back to Lok? That's a waste of time.
I can understand the anger towards the AFKer's. I see how they can be stealing xp from you. But personally, I usually choose non-AFK entertainers when I can. I feel that their dedication to their profession should be rewarded and therefore give them the xp. But at the same time, I don't think destroying AFK Macroing, destroying the /ui action toolbarSlot command, or anything other than adding a bounus XP boost to the entertainer who is not AFK and give the healee some form of incentive to watch non-afk people will work. If Fred wants to sit in a Cantina on Lok and Macro his heart out let him, because the XP he's getting is not going to affect yours. I think what should really be used to set AFKers appart should be the buffing issue. Get bonus healing xp and music XP for doing buffs on people. They pay you, you get xp, they get buffs, everyone wins. But then, that's just my opinion on that.
Kagura wrote:The real problem with AFK musicians is that they lock the other musicians into whatever song was playing when the player went AFK. After playing the same song for four hours straight due to an afk musician, I was almost to the poiint of screaming in frustration. The group leader would not remove him, he did not respond to tells or any other inquiry.
So, my suggestion is this. AFK is ignored for purposes of changing songs. If the afk musician cannot play the new song, tough. If they can, they would be automatically switched to whatever was selected.
Simply change the process so that anyone AFK does not count as "current song," and so, does not lock the group into whatever they are playing. And shut them down if they are not capable of playing whatever is selected, clashing music is really, really painful. :-)
Ramala, Eclipse, Tatooine, Bestine and Mos Casia
Yeah, the changebandmusic command that anyone in the group can use will allow to change the music and if the AFKer isn't able to play it, they just stop playing. I can understand the problem though, after two hours of starwars2, I'm ready to scream.
The best idea I can think up 'piggy-backs' off of an idea posted here. After about 30 minutes of AFK macroing (key word: macroing), you will be given a dialogue box that says you have been AFK for an extended period of time and will be stopped/kicked unless you click the confirmation.
Make this timer independent of the normal AFK timer, so it's invulnerable from the AFK toggling. Obviously make it so there's no typed command to accept it. Perhaps even have it at a random time near the 30 minute (or whatever) time limit so people can't just come back to their keyboards and click it.
I'm not myself innocent of AFK macroing, but I wish I was. It's not a very nice thing to do.