New AFK Timer not working properly. [Merged]

[Raseus.2543]

Tried the new afk timer to see how it triggers with 3 scenarios.
1. Combat -> Dead, I got no timeout message after 5 minutes.
2. Combat -> Enemy getting killed -> out of combat. I did not get a timeout message after 5 Minutes.
3. Combat for 5 Minutes. I got no timeout message.

All 3 tests where down without ever attacking not even auto attack, just minions and no moving. Please fix it anet because it could be good for both anti afk farms and event leechers.

[DarkShadow.7104]

I don't really get how the new system works either. From what I've read, you can be AFK x amount of minutes (from 0 to 98907419832758912735) and only after entering combat you should be kicked 5 minutes later.

I don't know if I'm stupid or if Anet decided to go with an unclear way of saying how this work to prevent people from having workarounds since the patch release and annoy them a couple of days until they figure out how to continue having toxic behaviour.

[Raseus.2543]

1 minute ago, DarkShadow.7104 said:

I don't really get how the new system works either. From what I've read, you can be AFK x amount of minutes (from 0 to 98907419832758912735) and only after entering combat you should be kicked 5 minutes later.

I don't know if I'm stupid or if Anet decided to go with an unclear way of saying how this work to prevent people from having workarounds since the patch release and annoy them a couple of days until they figure out how to continue having toxic behaviour.

There is already a anti afk timer that you can stop by moving, using skills, changing gear and chatting. That is around one hour. The new timer is supposed to kick in after 5 minutes of entering combat and then not moving or skill input. Skill input is the important part here at least that makes it sound like auto attack does not stop the timer. 

[bq pd.2148]

1 hour ago, Raseus.2543 said:

3. Combat for 5 Minutes. I got no timeout message.

just for clarification, was it interrupted combat or uninterrupted?
the notes say the timer is 'reduced' to 5 min when entering combat, i would not be surprised if it actually was set to 5 min when entering combat so that every time those afk farmers get out of combat for a second, they get to reset the timer back to 5 min.

[Raseus.2543]

Just now, bq pd.2148 said:

just for clarification, was it interrupted combat or uninterrupted?
the notes say the timer is 'reduced' to 5 min when entering combat, i would not be surprised if it actually was set to 5 min when entering combat so that every time those afk farmers get out of combat for a second, they get to reset the timer back to 5 min.

Case 2 was interrupted, as in got into combat, mob was killed and i was out of combat again, Case 3 was uninterrupted. 

[bq pd.2148]

4 minutes ago, Raseus.2543 said:

Case 2 was interrupted, as in got into combat, mob was killed and i was out of combat again, Case 3 was uninterrupted. 

did you actively go into combat? the only thing i can imagine otherwise would be that you need to afk timer running already when you first get into combat for it to get reduced to 5min.

so kill mob and 'afk', then when the respawn puts you in combat you should get kicked 5min after.

or ofc it doesnt work at all

[Raseus.2543]

8 minutes ago, bq pd.2148 said:

did you actively go into combat? the only thing i can imagine otherwise would be that you need to afk timer running already when you first get into combat for it to get reduced to 5min.

so kill mob and 'afk', then when the respawn puts you in combat you should get kicked 5min after.

or ofc it doesnt work at all

Did not try cause it didn't make sense from the description of it. But maybe will test it tomorrow. 

[bq pd.2148]

tested now uninterrupted combat started passively:  cleared enemies and stand still on herald with heal+elite facet on for passive sustain spamm.
about 75s after combat i got hit again by a respawn, then watched for a bit over 7 more minutes and no kick to character screen before i got too bored.

might still try later for interrupted combat, but i dont think the afk farmers get out of combat on every spot so already its not working as it should.

[DarkShadow.7104]

I believe this is intended for actual AFK people who wait for a certain event to spawn, get killed, and 5 min of being dead later get kicked out to character selection. That's something that wasn't tested by any of you two I guess and it would make sense. Basically focussing on saving resources/server costs (which is kinda smart). Otherwise, I don't really know if might be another thing or it's just bugged.

 

Edited July 16 by DarkShadow.7104

[Sobx.1758]

Yeah, tried it 3 times with mech and it doesn't seem to work at all.

[Raseus.2543]

5 hours ago, DarkShadow.7104 said:

I believe this is intended for actual AFK people who wait for a certain event to spawn, get killed, and 5 min of being dead later get kicked out to character selection. That's something that wasn't tested by any of you two I guess and it would make sense. Basically focussing on saving resources/server costs (which is kinda smart). Otherwise, I don't really know if might be another thing or it's just bugged.

 

I did test it. I got into combat, was killed by an enemy and was dead for more than 5 minutes. That was case test number 1. 

[DarkShadow.7104]

2 hours ago, Raseus.2543 said:

I did test it. I got into combat, was killed by an enemy and was dead for more than 5 minutes. That was case test number 1. 

Yup, I read your first post again and saw I missed the "dead" part. My bad.

Edited July 17 by DarkShadow.7104

[MrSmith.9643]

I thought the timer was a more than decent solution so i checked a spot I know is always infested by afk farmers [Aquanarium Hydropost]. Long story short, nothing changed, farmers are back like usual 🤕

[DeanBB.4268]

3 hours ago, MrSmith.9643 said:

I thought the timer was a more than decent solution so i checked a spot I know is always infested by afk farmers [Aquanarium Hydropost]. Long story short, nothing changed, farmers are back like usual 🤕

Maybe that means they are only semi-AFK? They only have to move or use a skill every 5 minutes to avoid the new limit.

[Widebody.5071]

It's kind of late to worry about AFK farmers seeing the market is already saturated with items. Also have WVW got to the point where they have to force people to engage in combat or risk being kicked, does this put another nail in the coffin for defense participation? What's next after this? Defense is dead or dying, non combat is being penalized, wizards vault rewards linked to WVW and PVP what's in the cards for 7 months from now being locked out of our accounts for not utilizing certain game modes?

There's something said about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results every time. 

[Virdo.1540]

Now, after todays fix its still not working properly.

 
The usual minion reapers (Minions + Gs4 autocast) do get kicked now after 5min when having entered combat once.
Afk farm engineers with turrets & Hammer2 Autocast dont get kicked. The turrets itself last for 5min already. So you can just plant them, leave them (and hammer2) for full duration of 5minutes & dont get put into the new afk kick timer. 

[BelleroPhone.4238]

7 hours ago, Virdo.1540 said:

Now, after todays fix its still not working properly.

So I also did some of my own testing and it all boils down to the result that the 5-minute timer is started once you enter combat - I tested this trough falling damage, attacking yellow mobs and getting attacked by regular enemies. If you don't do anything after starting combat, you will get a 60 second warning after 4 minutes, counting down in decrements of 10 seconds. Any of the described actions (skill usage, movement) is enough to deactivate the countdown (and the silent timer at all, for that matter, if you perform the action after starting combat). However, I have found that one deactivation of the timer is enough for the whole combat phase - even if you afk for more than 5 minutes during that fight. I have this one NPC here trying to kill me for... 44 minutes now and I only got one afk warning from the beginning of the fight, after which I just moved a bit to the side.

However, if you leave combat (e.g. by killing the enemy) and reenter it (e.g. by getting hit by a respawning enemy), you will need to "disable" the afk timer again - consistent with the above, since a "new" fight started.

[BelleroPhone.4238]

What is broken: The 5 minute AFK timer triggers 5 minutes after combat start, but not every 5 minutes without input during combat.

Expected behavior: Enter combat, don't perform any inputs, get kicked after 5 minutes from the start of combat and after every 5 minutes of inactivity during combat.

What you can do to replicate:

1. Go somewhere into the open world with an autohealing build (Soothing MIst Elementalist, that kind of thing).
2. Get hit by an enemy.
3. After 4 minutes, you get the 60 second warning that you will be kicked. <-- this works as intended
4. Use a skill or move while staying in combat (not killing the enemy)
5. After another 4 minutes, there is no new warning <-- this seems unintentional
6. Stay im combat without doing anything until the "big" AFK timer triggers after 60 minutes.

Just as a sanity check, I'm not expecting anything unreasonable here, right? The system should not work like this and actually ask an afk player to perform an action every 5 minutes, correct? In the current iteration, you begin combat, perform one input for the entire combat and as long as you don't leave combat, you are good for 1 hour.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

What changed in the AFK timer? I did not see it mentioned in the patch notes.

[Mike.7983]

Kourna and other maps still have afk farm bots, reaper/engi's not much changed.

[BelleroPhone.4238]

16 minutes ago, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

What changed in the AFK timer? I did not see it mentioned in the patch notes.

• Quote

  Updated the behavior of the away-from-keyboard timer that returns players to the character-select screen after extended periods of inactivity. In open-world maps, the time remaining before a player who has not manually moved their character or performed any skill inputs is returned to character select is now reduced to 5 minutes if the player enters combat.

[BelleroPhone.4238]

Just now, Mike.7983 said:

Kourna and other maps still have afk farm bots, reaper/engi's not much changed.

To be fair, if these were bots before, they of course will still be there now. There is no difficulty in having the bot press a button every X seconds.

The point is rather that this makes the distinction between "slow gameplay" players and actual botters more distinct and it will kick the true afk farmers who don't want to go into third party software territory when before they could just park their characters on autocast and leave.

[Mike.7983]

Would it not make sense for anet to go there and consider everyone in blob a bot and mass ban wave them at once then.