Zzzzs

[VenomousFiligree]

Is the idle image (Zzz) a help or a hindrance?

At it's worst it is a massive arrow pointing to the Player saying "He's not paying attention!"
At it's best it's an indication that a Player is afk.

Does the GM want to know if a Player's not paying attention? Usually a Player tells the GM if he's going afk briefly....

I "threw my toys out of the pram" in a game I was GMing today, and seeing Zzzs was definitely a (the?) provoking factor. Would I have been better off not knowing that Players might have been doing something else? *shrugs*

Thoughts?

(Apologies to my Players, but I was one frustrated GM)

Edit:
Just noticed its in the wrong forum :(

[Moon Wizard]

I don't actually pay attention to the Zzzzs in my games.

Looking at the code, since the idle time on the timer is only 1 minute, it seems like it might be a false positive anyway.

Regards,
JPG

P.S. What forum do you want this thread in?

[VenomousFiligree]

It is sometimes hard *not* to pay attention...

(JPG, Tavern would be good)

[Valarian]

The Zzzzs come up even if you pause, rather than surf, during exchanges between other players or npcs. Ironically, the surfing players are probably the ones that don't get the Zzzzs coming up.

[mr_h]

The Zzzzz does get annoying to me sometimes, epically if it's set to only a minute (a player taking a time out to look something up in a book easily triggers it).

I'd be happy if we could right click on portraits and set 'AFK' or 'Restroom' or 'Kidnapped by Aliens, may miss my next turn'.

[CAPryde]

Sometimes I like the "Zzzz" effect, because I know someone is AFK, as opposed to ignoring me. I also find the "bell" tool useful in those circumstances.

[VenomousFiligree]

Sometimes I like the "Zzzz" effect, because I know someone is AFK, as opposed to ignoring me. I also find the "bell" tool useful in those circumstances.
Can you clarify your statement? How would you differentiate between some that was ignoring you or was afk?

and yes I used the bell to "gain attention", and it worked... but should I have to use it?

[Phystus]

Does mouse activity keep the Z's from showing, as well as keyboard activity? I always assumed it did, but I've never actually tested it.

As a GM I too tend to take it as an indication that the player is off doing something else. But over time I've realized that isn't always the case, and tried to mellow out a little about it.

One other trick I've learned is that taking a 5-10 minute break every hour greatly reduces the incidence of sudden AFK's in the middle of combat. If everyone knows they'll have a chance to pee and grab a fresh soda in ten minutes, they're not as likely to wander off right before their turn.

One minute of inactivity does seem too short, though. Could it be made customizable?

~P

[Moon Wizard]

It's both mouse activity and keyboard activity (only when on the FG window). When I noticed the one minute time-out on it a few weeks ago while working on v2.8, I was thinking it was too small an amount. One minute of inactivity at the gaming table is nothing.

I'm planning on starting a new poll on this topic, as soon as I get the next cycle of testing for v2.8 out in the next few days.

Regards,
JPG

[Griogre]

When I was playing in an all text game 1 minute would have been a long time. In a game with voice it seems to come up much more often.

[VenomousFiligree]

I'm planning on starting a new poll on this topic, as soon as I get the next cycle of testing for v2.8 out in the next few days.

Regards,
JPG
I'll make sure to vote! :)

[CAPryde]

Can you clarify your statement? How would you differentiate between some that was ignoring you or was afk?

and yes I used the bell to "gain attention", and it worked... but should I have to use it?

Apologies for never having responded here. I don't actually have any evidence that someone is AFK versus ignoring me, but I just kind of default to the former because the latter would irritate me without my being able to do anything useful about it. Plus I'm a pretty low-impact GM, owing to the fact that the friends I learned to play with never took gaming very seriously and tended to screw around a lot at the table.

EDIT: Actually, in all honesty, I also tend to screw around a lot at the gaming table.

[dlinacre]

As a player in your games, I will tend to write out my actions in OpenOffice - especially so in the turn-based PDQ-HJotSS where descriptive text is important - and I do this while other people are having their turns, occasionally glancing back into FGII to keep up with events.

I find it easier to see what I'm writing on an A4 page rather than the tiny line we get inside FGII. I guess this would trigger Zzzs for me, when in actuality I'm hard at work! Maybe our other players do this too?

In my limited experience as a FGII GM however, I too would get very frustrated at extended periods of Zzzs, as I would feel my players may be growing bored etc. But a few minutes at a time I'd actually be grateful for every now and then, as my games have been fast and furious on my poor little fingers and I often struggle to keep up!

You do a great job Murgh! Your games are quite excellent, so thankyou. :-)

[Moon Wizard]

I started a poll for this one. Please head over and vote.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14771

Cheers,
JPG