I am not affraid of AFK cloakers. I fly ships, I can afford to loose. I realy think about being AFK in game and what effects it has on players.

No, its a crap idea which has been suggested by dozens, if not hundreds of people like you - people who are scared of a player who is not even playing the game.

Hmmm, somehow, I dont quite believe you.

EDIT: FTFY - ISD Type40.

yes its' a good idea
you go "afk" after 20 minutes of not touching anything, but also you can set "afk" yourself, and the only way to get rid of it is to turn it off or relog.
so when you log in if you want you can set yourself afk and play as normally just because you can.

But remember, the op wants you to have a 30 second period where you cannot do anything once you return to your keyboard. So basically, you have to either type in a random chat every 30 minutes. Why do I see an increase in sales of the toy bird homer Simpson used in the episode where he gained weight to work at home.

So what do you think? Do we need AFK indicator? Imagine you could tell if someone is AFK or not. How much would this feature change your EVE experience?

Just stick to high sec, nullbear.

lolz. There's already server down. Think of it as a 23 hour afk flag.

Seriously? A 30 second cooldown before you can act? Someone is afraid of something in local channel.

Personally I think it would be cool if nullsec entities had to have some sort of infrastructure set up to even get local channel in null.

I remember one of my very first thoughts logging into EVE. "WTF is this local channel crap?"

Guys, think about idea, not about numbers. But some people will always play dumb and decide to throw away whole idea cause one number is not ok. Clap clap. Forget numbers, play with ideas. Look for solutions. If you want to decline idea, state reason based on more than just a model number. And at last, this thread is not about cloaky afkers. Its about AFK flag in general. Not only for tactical purpose, but also for social purpose.

You seem too attached to this so called good idea. You talk about looking for solutions, to what? If people are afk, why does it matter to you? Why are you suggesting the additional load on the server because every so often the server has to check if people are present? What social value is there? If my friend is afk, he won't respond to my chat. No need to add extra code.

Also, as pointed out, there are simple ways to make it seem like someone is present.

So really, instead of asking us to talk about ideas, give us a valid reason to have an afk flag, a valid reason tgat justifies the code time required and any extra overhead in server checks this would impose.

Also, if this is not about afk cloakers, then would your solution still be fine if having any active module negated the afk flag?

Lastly, what gives you the right to know if I am afk or not? Sure, you may argue it is a useful bit of knowledge, however what gives you the right to that knowledge? Perhaps I went off to the bathroom and don't want an afk flag indicating it was a long break? What if I do not want the war target camping me in station to know I stopped playing to watch tv. Perhaps I find it useful for them to waste their time camping me in. If they know when I'm present, I can't as easily bore them into dropping the war dec.

So really, by what right do you claim this knowledge should be available to all?

there is absolutely no way EVE can tell if someone is actually AFK or not without a webcam on every monitor and someone watching each cam.
the idea is not only silly but inherently unenforcable.

in fact, it would serve to benefit to 'afk' people who are in fact not afk since their targets would assume they are not at the screen.

Remove local..................

Players should not affect PvP game life when not playing.

All online multiplayer games I have ever played have AFK indicator, so why not EVE?

*I don't want to start another threat about cloaky AFKers in null. No, this is not about being cloaky and AFK. This is about being AFK in general*

Tactical advantage of being AFK without others knowing it is quite powerfull tool. You can greatly affect gameplay of others and you don't have to play at all. So is it valid tactics? Is it ok, that EVE life and real life are so connected? Not everyone can have his computer online all day. Not everyone will do it even if they could for many reason starting with energy consumption and ending with greener planet

So what do you think? Do we need AFK indicator? Imagine you could tell if someone is AFK or not. How much would this feature change your EVE experience?