Post#18 » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:39 am
Even if we did get a GH port item that was easier to obtain, it wouldn't necessarily fix this problem. As I suggested above, a lot of players like to AFK almost as a demonstration of their group/guild/armour/shiny weapons. So they'd probably still want to AFK in the forest. Whilst I'm sure that one of the causes for multiple AFK characters in the forest is because they don't want to spend the time moving to the GH and prefer to fire and forget, most of these players will be AFK in the cave or at the re-spawn point, causing little-to-no disruption for anyone else. Furthermore, these players opt to gate to the forest because it's the fastest gate option, so adding a GH port would need to match the same ease of use (something that isn't likely to occur as already mentioned above).
Either offer a bonus for AFKing in the GH for players who simply must remain in the game, as mentioned above, or just add a timer script to remove players to the GH automatically; or both. It's a given that not everyone is in a guild, but what percentage of characters AFK in the forest do these consist of? To do anything past Tier 1/2 you need to be guilded. For the small percentage who aren't guilded, they can be ported to the bazaar.
It doesn't need to be fancy; a shorter timer (10 minutes, or so) for characters in close proximity to any NPC and a longer timer (up to 1 hour) for characters who aren't (both scripts would be excluding players who have engaged the dummies). A warning at 1-5 minutes will allow players who (in very rare cases) weren't actually AFK for an hour.
For players simply too close to an NPC, moving away will cancel the script. For players who have been in the zone for almost an hour, they can cancel the port by engaging a dummy or getting on with the game elsewhere. There really isn't any legitimate requirement, excluding AFK skill ups, to remain in the forest for that length of time.
In simpler terms, I don't think a solution along these lines would punish anyone or cause them any disruption.