Idle/AFK Indication

[Syrena Exan]

I would like to see something implemented that shows when someone is AFK or has gone idle. A different icon above the head, or a faint color around the body. Something small, but enough to let you know they aren't just typing.

This would be useful in a few ways. For one, it can be awkward when you see someone meditating, speak to them, but find out they're AFK. Realistically, that person probably would've heard you. If we had a way of knowing they weren't there, we could avoid that sort of awkwardness and just continue on by. Two, it would let us know who is actually paying attention in classes, lessons, or missions.

I do believe something like this is possible, as JA+ would place a protection bubble around you when you were idle for too long. The bubble itself would be a bad idea though, as its huge, ugly, and it breaks you out of whatever animation you are currently doing. Surely we could find a better way?

[Azrael]

I used to change the JEDI in my tags to AFK in the past whenever i stepped away from the keyboard. Stopped doing it however after being told not to. /shrug

[Amoné Fayden]

I agree with the suggestion.

As a pre-emptive disclaimer, we know it'd be easier to say "Just don't AFK" or "An admin should kick them to lobby" but in reality that won't fix the issue.
I think having some tell-tale sign that somebody hasn't touched their keyboard and mouse would be a good thing on several fronts as Syrena mentioned.

It would encourage people to be more active when on the server as the threat of public embarrassment is usually enough to give people that kick up the rear to pay attention or at least contribute with some text.

There's also times where people need to legitmately go AFK such as phone calls, background distractions or door pests. It would be a "soft" way of letting people know not to hover around waiting for you to interact with them.

I suggest a unique icon above the head. Something small and unobtrusive. I think having a GFX like a light aura would give way to people bringing it into the RP. For example:
"Master Azra'el has a weird aura around him when he stands at his desk in the Archives".

[Arukh Bakh'tor]

For example: "Master Azra'el has a weird aura around him when he stands at his desk in the Archives".

On a more relevant note, I think this is a great idea. An aura or a bubble that appears would be more than useful in many situations where I have to go AFK on account of phonecalls etc.

[Alehk Thol]

We all remember the green bubble that used to pop up when people went AFK. I'm presuming that the server is simply set to disable that particular function. In theory, it should be relatively straight forward to change how that appears. I guess something relatively similar to the chat icon would suffice. I'll poke it, no promise on results. o_o

I'm bad at this "not here" stuff.

[Desma Marr]

Well I don't know about an automatic way to do it, but there's a command to give yourself a blue aura when you want to be a hologram, so it shouldn't be that difficult to add the exact same thing except call it /afk and make them green or something.

[Syrena Exan]

I wouldn't want anything like a full overlay. It'd need to be something subtle.

[Desma Marr]

Well if there's a way to lower the opacity on the overlay, you could make it a barely visible green sheen around them.

[Ahkro Cerinla]

Issue is, it's useful perhaps in active classes, rather than waiting for people all the time. But AFK effects are usually triggered by lack of movement in the three-dimensional space, rather than turning on the spot or not chatting.

Although I think the idea ON ITS OWN is a nice one, considering it may weed out time spent wasted on people that go AFK in the middle of a movement-heavy class and keep up the rest, it wouldn't work as well in an idle-sitting class like MED and sometimes FTM, and could rather enhance the idea that some people just sit there doing nothing, while they are either making notes for themselves, or actually there just reading.

[Desma Marr]

Could there then be some sort of script that sends a check say, every minute to the client? I'm not sure on the specifics but it could check every minute for certain conditions, and if they meet one of them then that client passes the check. It could check for if there has been any movement of the client in the 3D space, or if they have used any of the different chat commands, and possibly if they have moved their reticule since the last check. And if they fail this check then it tallies them up and after two or three failed checks (2-3 minutes) it changes their state to AFK.

[Ahkro Cerinla]

I think that's impossible with the engine's build, but certainty should come from Alehk or Soh.

[Delmi N'jork]

Support 100%. Use the famous green bubble from JA+ and add a script that "pings" to players to see if they have typed or moved in x amount of time. Even if you're sitting around in class, you can still rp loosing interest, boredom, agreeing, not understanding, etc.

[Syrena Exan]

The big green bubble would be far too much of an eyesore. Its huge! I would find this very RP breaking. Not to mention I don't think it's compatible with any animations, further breaking immersion.

[Desma Marr]

You could possibly change the asset the default script calls on to one a little less painful to look at.

[Syrena Exan]

What would be ideal would be a secondary chat bubble, but I'm not sure that is possible, unless you can make the bubbles animation appear only above the head.