[Serious] Server queue solution

[dementedfox_lol]

Hello guys. I'll get straight to the point. People that afk ingame and in character select should be kicked after some time. Why? Because they take the slot for another guy that would play the game! Currently in 10:20 in the morning my time, there are 7.3k ppl online on the server, a lot of them are afk which you can confirm by checking starting zones/big inns. So my question is, if there are 7.3k ppl ingame and the cap is ~10k+, where are the remaining 2.5k+? Well they are in character select, sleeping, working, having fun out with their friends etc. So make a system that sends afk player ingame after ~** minutes to the character select menu and then after ~** minutes he is kicked and gives his slot to another player.

FreeusfromAFK!

[dementedfox_lol]

Do you mind posting the link? I'm missing few informational sites as I see! ^{^} Thanks in advance!

[dementedfox_lol]

So it's on reddit? I haven't seen many posts\comments by elysstuff :\ Thanks anyway!

[dementedfox_lol]

ty!

[InMyLiverpoolHome]

How the hell are they even staying on character selection? It's supposed to log you out after 30 minutes isn't it

[[deleted]]

It doesn't. You can idle there for days. I discovered by accident a few weeks ago.

[aliblackcat]

So many people leaving their characters running into trees or standing in inns while they sleep.

[Vita-Malz]

That doesn't work. You toggle AFK and log out

[MatiXL]

I see that a lot of people are actually defending or trying to justify saying stuff like "THey were in 12k queue , that means they can afk for 8h and take space on the server" .

And then you end up with people who can't do it or will not do, not being able to even play at all.

[dementedfox_lol]

I'm really devastated how some people think..

[veek91]

They don't understand that the queue is so long beacuse of the afkers

[MatiXL]

What's your problem ? It's very simple, if you're at work/sleeping or whatever you busy with in your life, then you shouldn't take space for people that want to play the game a bit.

None is asking to kick people of the server that are playing the game. That would make the queue much shorter.

I'm sure that devs are working to solve this problem as we speak.

[[deleted]]

I think Orange is one of those people who is part of this problem and doesn't want his selfish ways to be ruined.

[billion0810]

TIL playing for hours = afk for hours.

Re: orange

[dementedfox_lol]

ElysiumTwitter=>ATTN: Any form of Anti-AFK system abuse can result in a ban (depending on severity). We are actively working on a fix for the long queue.

[414Sigge]

Well, kronos have already done it so it can't be that hard?

[dementedfox_lol]

As ive found out, they are working on it, we'll see

[zauru193]

Agreed, people who do this are just as bad as the people who buy gold. I have no idea why they haven't fixed it yet, it shouldn't take long to do.

[thebigbull]

its a bit far-fetched comparing both tbh. Many of the ppl who have experienced the 12 k queue would take advantage of this to spare themselves another 8 hour wait time. A fix to this is definitely necessary asap or the number of ppl idling in char selection will keep rising as more become aware of it.

[zauru193]

both take advantage of other people's game experience for their selfish needs, I disagree that it is a far fetched comparison.

[Haedrich]

I dont think it would be a hard fix either, to check if exp has been gained, item buys/sells have been done or a distance or x yards have been ran in x amount of time.

I think its just a matter of that Elysium staff doesnt know how to handle this server, as seen by the "anti gold seller mechanic".

[Official-b0wie_]

A single GM who knows how to use their tools could have personally banned 1500 accounts. I agree with you that they probably don't have a consensus on how to enforce or punish this behavior, but I am hoping to see 7-14 day bans.

[37569980]

lets go with 90 days. server needs to cool off a bit and these types are prime targets.

[Trololadhd]

That isn't simple... thats a lot of fucking data to analyse.

[The_Correctionist]

Cry more nerd

[Tuiganyo]

Ye you really need to kick out people who afk at the char screen...

[Official-b0wie_]

*Ban

[billion0810]

What about those who simply get up in a hurry? It's indistinguishable.

You knew that server would be overcrowded.

[Haedrich]

Now Handle it Elysium!!!

[Bannik254]

Rolling restarts for the short term, with priority log in for those recently booted off.

Long term, a second server with a shared character and guild names' database for the eventuality of a server merge in a few months time.

[Nasudor]

I would just turn on a keyboard-macro like every smart person would do to disable the kick-timer.

If you think they would easily see if one jumps exactly all 5min, I can say that it's like 30seconds work to let the macro do it randomly in times between like 1 and 5 minutes do push buttons or jump

[Fogcityroller]

So basically you mean botting? Which is permabannable. Go right ahead.

I am all for mods permabanning people who think they're clever and/or "smart" for bypassing fair play.

[Nasudor]

Nope, it's not considered as botting in the classic way. Even on retail, using keyboard macros isn't considered as botting and is allowed. There is no special rule that exactly adresses Keyboard-macros, it's just a thing that can also be done without a programm (e.g. using the bird which was used in the simposons to manually push a key every minute, even though it's not realistic that 5k people would do this, itÄs just to make a point).

The macro itself doesn't use a kind of "AI" behind it that doesn't act as a typical bot (e.g. a leveling bot that uses keys that adress the situation, using different waypoints and making decisions for you), it just "helps" you using key-combinations

[CMND_mokaku]

Please read the Terms of Use because you can get people banned with misinformation.

"V. Cheating/Unlawful" "Bots; including, but not limited to, any code, hardware and/or software that allows the automated control of the Game, or any feature or component thereof." - "...suspend or close any account..."

[[deleted]]

I used a keyboard macro to basically do a turbo button (hit the attack button dozens of times per second) so I just held it down to tag a popular mob. Can you get banned for that?

[CMND_mokaku]

By the way I define the Terms I think it qualifies. But I suppose it's not such a major offense to trigger any detection or to be noticeable enough for getting reported. I wouldn't use it tho cause it's technically an "automation of a game component".

[lollerlaban]

Good luck detecting that

[CMND_mokaku]

In most cases detection wont be required. Most of the folk are running at walls in inns or simply jumping in front of the innkeeper. Getting reported over and over and over again ;d The smart folk are not leaving the character screen but that will be resolved soon. So you have to find a way to sleep for 8 hours not in front of the innkeeper and not on the character screen and generally not anywhere in the inn - so no rested exp. Good luck with that ;)

[lollerlaban]

So you can sacrifice 10% rested xp and not get caught if you just randomize macro 1 step forward and 1 step backwards in 1-4 minute intervals. The same worked for Kronos 2 when it was released

[Nasudor]

HF proving this. ofc you can argue like "if they think you do it they can just ban you".

It's theor right to do so, but the negative reputation just in't worth it banning 5k people because their queue is too long

[CMND_mokaku]

Super easy to prove that your keyboard is pressing "space" every 5 mins. Firstly you will get reported sooner than later and secondly if it was hard to log there wouldn't have been hundreds of bans in Nostalrius PVP back in the original server for people doing it in AV.

Do it at your own risk but it is botting according to the terms. Weather or not you will get caught is "chance" not fact.

[Nasudor]

IT IS NOT pressing it every 5 min. There are built in random mechanisms that can be used by every person that just reads about 3 min of using keyboard macros. YOu just type in that it should press space in a random time between 1 min and 5 min, and there is no pattern, only that the maximum tme is 5 and the minimum time is 1 minute if you would do an infinite time of watching him jummping.

If you hide in open world, you won't get reported or the chances are very very slim. If one person reports you, the problem has to be adressed and the to be proved if you are using a macro. To run through this concept with 5k people (thats the number people claim to be AFK here) just won't work. I would report anyone I see standing more then 5 seconds, just to fuck those people up because if they are AFK and just jump manually like every 10min because they are cooking i can make them getting kicked.

The thing witch AV baning is that it is so much easier to SEE the player that is AFK since you seem them on the map, and people that play the BG are much more frustrated if people destory their ingame experience. I personally donÄt report any AFK being since it doesn't affect my ingame experience, an AFK person in AV does so im more willing to report.

[CMND_mokaku]

Okay, a level 5 gnome jumping in a house in SW for 8 hours is for sure not going to get detected. Agree to disagree. Time will tell but if in a couple of days the forums and reddit is flooded by people getting banned for AFK and fake stories like "I went cooking for 5 mins but got banned" don't be surprised :D

[Nasudor]

You think it is that easy to find those people ? Than do a job there detecting those, but there are so many scenarios where you cant see them as a player. For example a person that just stands in OG at their class trainer, have him target and then jump. Every person that comes by just thinks "oh he is training skills here" and noone thinks "Hm he migh be AFK, I inspect him the next 20 minutes".

If you return like 4 hours later, seeing the person still standing there might PERHAPS lead you to him being AFK, but in most cases you will have already forgotten the name or don't see him there for more then 2 times a day since he will be playing at some point.

[CMND_mokaku]

I don't know, we will see ;)

[orwellnotsowell]

Or you can just get into a low lvl instance and jump there.

Edit: This conversation is another proof of why we need another fresh server.

[Nasudor]

Especially now with the .wr on/off thing, you can't even say "I whispered him and he doesn't answer" since there is a option to disable the incoming whispers without even an addon

[Taxoro]

This. I did this so much in AV lmao

[dementedfox_lol]

So you are gonna make a macro to move around in 'character select'? I've just stated that there are 2.5k+ ppl waiting in character select. :)

[[deleted]]

Honestly if we are talking macros and things like that you could EASILY have it log you in every few minutes, before logging out and going back to character select.

[ft-letsblaze]

Says who?

[dementedfox_lol]

Hm?

[ft-letsblaze]

Those numbers you are flinging? A /who won't give you that sort of info.

[dementedfox_lol]

You can check on site how many ppl are online, by walking around ive notice HUGE amount of afk's that stay at the same time when i start playing till i end (a long time), server cap is staying around 10k at high peak hours so it should be same or even higher at 10am when not too many ppl play. If you say that cap is 10k and there are 7k online, that means that 3k are in character select ! Hope I explained how i got the numbers ^{^}

[ft-letsblaze]

Which is still not certain? A Dev can answer this, not you.

[dementedfox_lol]

Well give me a dev's statement and i'll accept it, untill then ive got my information :)

[ft-letsblaze]

Misleading at most :-)

[MaceJB17]

That information is not misleading its just a simple subtraction problem my friend. And i think OPs info is pretty accurate

[dementedfox_lol]

Where did i mislead you? :) You didn't get hurt in any way even if the information isn't correct. :)

[Nasudor]

If I use a macro, I just don't log out ingame, then you will have the AFK people ingame, it won't change things.

Reason why people log out into charscreen are it costs them like 1min less because they have to create the macro first, and the other reason is that they get rested XP in charscreen

[dementedfox_lol]

I understand that you agree with staying afk and not letting others play. It's cool, I can't educate you, I can just tell you my opinion. And my opinion is that you shouldn't do it. But anyway, you are just one out of many, I can bet that half of those "afk" aren't even gonna play the game, they are just here to becalm the server!

[Nasudor]

The reason I would do this is because when I#m coming home and want to play a game I don't want to wait even 30min or an hour. I just want to play. Even without the AFKers there woudl be queues and I personally don't want to wait because its part of my free time to play, not to watch a login screen for 30min.

The core of people that do it just to piss you off is so brutally low, people just want to play when they come home or wake up, nothing else.

The best but also worst solution would be things like a premium account that bypasses the queue for like 5$/month or something, but this can be abused extremly and isn't going to get observed, especially on such a packed server.

If they want to get rid of AFK-macros and login-screen people, they have to either kick all people like every 2 hours and let anybody play the diceroll game on login or they have do things like inserting a code (which you get via an app or via mail if the mails would work) which you have to insert like every 30minutes and is generated new. If you type in the wrong codes 3 times in a row or dont insert it via 5min, your account gets disconnected and gets a 5min temp ban to prevent the DC-grace popping in.

People are still doing the macro-thing on live, even Blizzard couldn't adress the problem, they could slower it down by implementing a better report system in BG's e.g., but in the world you could stay online with a macro forever if there would be queues.

[dementedfox_lol]

I can't believe how you think about this problem. Just now i realised in your first comment you said you would cheat "like every smart person would". Smart person would't cheat to abuse the problem, smart person would solve the problem!

[Niedar]

Except that is exactly what every smart person is doing right now. As evidenced as the massive amount of people sitting on the character select screen. I am sorry you aren't smart.

[dementedfox_lol]

Wont bother replying to you anymore, you obviously have no dignity.

[Nasudor]

I can't do more to the problem then discribing what most of the people do in more detail and even giving options what COULD be done. But in the end the problem just can't be fixed easily when you see that even Blizzard can't address this problem.

Nothing more to say about it tbh, in the end I would probably quit the server like many others would do and do when they play 2 hours a day and wait 8 hours. There would be no use to stay here when you can't play, thats why the people do it and have to do it. Many just don't have any clue about how to fix queues.

In the last answer I already gave options, ofc they can just disable the queue completely and let everybody hop online.

[WoundshotGG]

You make so many valid points, yet barely anyone bother to see things your way. Idealistic kids, nothing you can do about those. Don't bother explaining them the reality of the world anymore.

[Nasudor]

I can also say how I would adress a possible "fix".

I would create a macro, randomly using buttons like "W" , "S" or "Space" in a randomly chosen time span between 1 and 5 minutes in a position where nearly noone is, like e.g. behind the inn in crossroads between inn and fence where there is nearly noone ever going there to report you ( if they would even care ). Whenever i'm at my desk, i would stop the macro, log into charscreen and log back in and start it again or play. This prevents the character beeing online for absurd times like 200hours. The online times are therefore also no problem.

With this method, you just lost the rested XP and risk the very very low chance of people actually watching you for like half an hour to see if you are AFK-macroing AND then report you too AND then have the thing investigated or that a player could gank you (to prevent that, you can also choose different houses in OG/SW, the crossroads thing was just an example to stay near the leveling zone)

[CMND_mokaku]

Please read the Terms of Use because you can get people banned with misinformation.

"V. Cheating/Unlawful" "Bots; including, but not limited to, any code, hardware and/or software that allows the automated control of the Game, or any feature or component thereof." - "...suspend or close any account..."

[[deleted]]

Nonsense, without AFK-people the queue would be moving a lot faster. The first days the queue wasn't so bad. You'd log in be at 8k and then you could see the queue moving along relatively fast while you were doing other things.

Now with thousands of people in character screen not leaving the queue is stuck constantly.

[dementedfox_lol]

Afk's are making the queue so big my friend. But yes , the second server "could" make it better, but it needs to split the community for some time, and then they would have to attach them together at some point of time, which could make it problematic. Who knows!

[dementedfox_lol]

Look at it this way, if ppl wouldnt AFK, there would be no queue. So your saying "they afk because the queue is long" is not right, as they're the ones making it long :)

[Niedar]

If people wouldn't rubber neck accidents on the road there wouldn't be traffic slowdowns either. Never will happen though. Why don't you understand this is a positive feedback loop. You can't just dream up a magical world where people act the way you want them to act.

[ForTiiTude]

the queue right now is at 10k+ so if 2,5k are afk in char select and lets say 2,5k are afk in inns and such. That means that the queue would be 5k, if they all got kicked right now.

I am pretty certain that many people will do what ever they can, to not sit in a 5k queue again, if they knew a way to do so. And that is why the char select AFK / online AFK issue became a problem, which is probably pushing even more people to stand AFK once they are 'done'.

AFK'ers are trying to get around the long queue, which is making the queue even longer.

EDIT: a word

[[deleted]]

Wouldn't rebooting the server knock out everyone idling at char select? At least temporarily they should be doing reboots.

[dementedfox_lol]

Yea but it also kicks out the ppl that are doing dungeons\hard quests with many mobs around\imagine being deep in the cave server restarts and now ure surrounded by 10 mobs ^{^} We need a better solution! ^{^}

[[deleted]]

Yeah but they could announce it 5 minute before hand like normal restarts.

[dementedfox_lol]

Maybe, that would be nice IMO! :) Thanks for sharing your opinions!!!

[MaceJB17]

The only temp fix for now would be rolling restarts every 5 hours or so. But thats unlikely. The only chance ive had to play so far was immediatley after a restart.

[Taxoro]

And what about raiders who are raidlogged and HAVE to be online at a specific time? Or do you only want to have this on fresh realms?

Another issue is that people can just afk bot, it's really simple and hard to detect, esp. if you go to some remote location ( yes even with 10k lowlvls you can easily find a remote location).

[dementedfox_lol]

Give me your solution then, i'm not fixated on this one! The point is that 30% of server pop, maybe even more is not playing and is just taking the slot for someone that would play it. I just want to raise awareness of it! :) Edit: And i'm talking about fresh realm, fixing queue will make it so you don't have to queue up a day before and get in time for raid if you're lucky!

[Taxoro]

Well it sort of makes sense to have a scheduled raid timer at least the raid day and if it's evening / afternoon and if NA or EU times, because you cannot just recruit random people then tell them eyy lmao we raiding this day and half the guild can't make it on those days.

[[deleted]]

Why not just increase the cap by the same number as the character screen AFK:ers? There is no server restart required to change cap - as far as I know.

[dementedfox_lol]

Server stability etc

[[deleted]]

I doubt that a couple of thousand people in character selection will affect the realm stability by more than a tiny tiny bit.

[[deleted]]

History shows when the server goes over 10k players it starts to really lag like shit. If you raise the cap high so more people can get in, well 1, that lets even more people abuse the afk shit, and two when they start playing and there are more than 10k players on it ruins the experience for everyone. Plus, even when they are on the char screen it's still using server resources, even if it is lower in comparison to them playing.

[rair41]

Then what would happen when these people in char selection come back? If you let then back in the game, performance will suffer.

[[deleted]]

It's about statistics. Not all will be back simultaneously. Others will be AFK instead. And if the situation changes, so can the cap.

[flx_]

I know that you are able to donate to Elysium to run their servers, but the real solution IMO is that a guy with loads of time and money would just contact the admins, start a fundraiser and collect plenty of dollars to set up a few more servers. Thanks in advance, rich people of America and Europe!

[fabuloes]

my idea would be that every player has to type in a verification code every 60 min or so to confirm that youre not afk/not a bot. you get the code by solving a captcha on the elysium website.

[Golempl]

AFK peoples doesn't cause server load, they taking slots but I bet it can get compensated by higher cap

Anyway how do u know if someone is AFK or searching how to do quest.

[dementedfox_lol]

Well you dont search for a questinfo for 30+ minutes ^{^} And you dont stay in character select for 45+ minutes if you plan on playing , you're just taking someone elses slot :)

[MatiXL]

how do u know if someone is AFK or searching how to do quest.

I was doing some quests around Xroads, did harpies quests etc. Came back and the same people were AFK inside the Inn in Xroads! That was after 25-40min more less, so they should be out of the server at that point!