Kicked for Idling?

[BeLlSiBuB]

Hi,

So i was playing Field x on Saturday and the server was full. I was repairing the war factory which was getting hamered. It wasn't that long and my repair gun was on thoughout the time I was in there.

I then got kicked for idling.

Can you give me a clear definition of what the idling rules are as this got me very confused.

[Fffreak9999]

Idle kicking is a automatic system within the game.

 

Its meant to detect people who have not done any inputs and mark them for AFK, then if they remain AFK for a length of time, they get automatic kicked from the server.

 

i think the timer is set to about 3 minutes at the moment, although there was changes to it in the latest patch if I recall, so I don’t know exactly how it is performing at the moment, if it is working as intended or otherwise.

[BeLlSiBuB]

I was kicked once when I went for a bathroom break, which is expected, but this was my first while being on active repair duty. Up until then I was quite active usually down the left side in a tank or repairing a tank. I will be thinking twice on repairing buildings on a full server in future..

[NodSaibot]

The timer can be adjusted or the checker can be adjusted as required. Ideally it would not kick people who are indirectly contributing to the team while afk, and people shouldn't be punished for leaving for a few minutes. We all have lives to tend to.

[BeLlSiBuB]

I think 3 mins is ok but perhaps the system should be tweaked more to take into account what the player is doing at the time of being kicked. I used to wonder why some repairers go crazy in the buildings moving forwards and backwards as if dodging a bullet. Maybe they do this becuase they don't want to be kicked.

[JoeBrogan7]

On 8/11/2019 at 6:42 AM, BeLlSiBuB said:

I think 3 mins is ok but perhaps the system should be tweaked more to take into account what the player is doing at the time of being kicked. I used to wonder why some repairers go crazy in the buildings moving forwards and backwards as if dodging a bullet. Maybe they do this becuase they don't want to be kicked.

I do that sometimes, but it's because I'm bored, and I know if I leave the building I'm repairing it will most likely be destroyed. AFAIK, a single tap on any of the keys on the keyboard is enough to reset the AFK timer.

I do agree it would be nice if the AFK timer could differentiate between a normal AFK and an AFK repairing a building. Like if the kicker ignored you as long as you keep earning points. Or at the very least, allow a longer period of inactivity while afk repping (10 minutes instead of 3 if startfire is on, for example.)

Repping buildings is one of the most important aspects of the game, but it's also one of the most boring. Such a tweak would make it more bearable to devote time to repairing a building without having to worry about getting kicked and potentially losing your spot in the server (not to mention maybe even losing the building once you're kicked and are no longer there to repair it.)

[isupreme]

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allow a longer period of inactivity while afk repping (10 minutes instead of 3 if startfire is on, for example.)

An excellent suggestion.    maybe 10 min is too long? .....    each repair action resets the timer?  ?   ?

[Handepsilon]

I've set it up so that anytime players get score, their afk timer resets, that includes repping. So if you are startfire repping and your building is fine, then you might get marked as AFK

 

I do not remember adding an autokicker though. Iirc I did add the ability to instakick players flagged as AFK

[TomUjain]

Hey guys,

At one point AFKing was becoming a huge problem and a battle we were losing, which is why we introduced the AFK timer feature to try and remedy the problem. It was not uncommon for players to go AFK for several hours on long sessions and we were constantly flooded with mod requests about it.

I am included to agree that we went a bit heavy on the issue and I see no harm in increasing the timer. AFK repair was something we allowed in the past, but from my experience all that does is encourage the people who do AFK freqently to continue to AFK. I see no harm in people that want to quickly nip out to get a snack or go to the loo; its the people who are gone for upwards of 30 mins that we were targetting.

I noticed this is pretty common when key buildings are lost, aka the Hand Of Nod -- that is when AFK tended to spike (I assume these people were waiting for the game to end?)

[Goku]

Would be good if you are actually repairing damage it marked you as still active.

As for the setting for FPI as Tom mentions the complaints about AFK are too damn high and something needed to be done.

We started actually policing this manually at peak times but people still kept coming back and idling or giving us abuse for it. So really enabling the auto kick was the logical next step.

Im open to other options and/or fixes as im sure the devs are.

[isupreme]

Quote

I assume these people were waiting for the game to end?)

be my bet.

[vandal33]

I got autokicked once when I was repairing the WF, it was getting bombarded every minute so I stayed there to repair which I find boring but somebody needs to stay and repair it so I volunteered and got booted. I can imagine how frustrating it is if someone is the last hotwire and gets kicked for grabbing a drink while startfire repairing.

[TomUjain]

I believe the timer is 3 mins (need to double check) as I said I don't see any harm in bumping it upto say 6 mins but turning the AFK kick off would revolt to our old problem (which I touched up on above) and be 10 times worse.

I do fully understand the reason behind AFKing, some matches are generally dull and hopless; and after 3 hours been stuck on it people get fed up and want the next session to roll on. Going AFK though isn't a healthy long term solution.

As I said above we are not targetting the people who want to grab a quick drink, go for a pee or quickly tab out to play a song - we were targetting the people were were going AFK constantly for upwards of 30 mins.