AFK button.

[Jovue]

Would be nice to have for those quick breaks.   
Could show next to name in lobby.

 = Mike

[Aerotheos]

Along these same lines, It would be nice if there was a button in battle that would require all players to press an "i'm still here" button within a certain amount of time, or be kicked.  This is especially useful in a match without a time limit, as an AFK opponent basically forces you to quit eventually, and therefore post a loss.  Also, (this may already happen, i haven't investigated) if a player does nothing on two consecutive turns, can that player be kicked?  It is very time consuming to slowly hunt down stagnant heros.

-John

[Ross Przybylski]

Thanks, these are some excellent suggestions!  We will pool your feedback and come up with some ideas for implementing this in game.  Keep posting suggestions as everyone's input is important to us.

[Finjinimo]

Yep, an idle or afk setting in chat would be grand.

As to implementing an "im still here" option in game... I would be happy for something along the lines of an auto-boot system if you are unresponsive within a certain amount of time.

[maerrick]

Well, usually, people play the games with time limits on turns. Failure to be responsive will have a high likelihood of losing. I could see it being useful if you have it set to unlimited time duration for turns, but I don't think most people use that option except in teaching a new player how to play.

[Finjinimo]

Yeah, my thoughts on auto-booting come from the my experiences in other online turn based games. Someone loses their prized unit early on, so they walk away from the computer. You are then forced to play out the game alone, and sit through the turn timer during the opposition turn, while they make themselves a sandwich.

In this game, these types of scenarios would be over quite quickly enough I am sure, but it is still a frustration which will occur as the game grows in popularity. There are a lot of tools out there, and we all know that they will turn up here eventually. I think having measures in place to minimize the kind of bitter gameplay I've seen elsewhere would prove fruitful here.

I think if you are unresponsive for 2 turns in a row, then you should automatically forfiet. I think part of what is great about this game is the ability to get in and play a game quickly.  I'm all for measures that insure we can do that.

[maerrick]

Hmm...I suppose anything between 2 minutes and 5 minutes could certainly add up if they don't do anything for several turns. It's worth looking into.