Idle status for LHOs recognized as offline :o

[Glaistig]

Well, I noticed that newbies can still message idle LHOs through the Live Help button. This bugs me for a couple of reason.

1) as far as I can tell (or from what an authority told me), the button will allow a player to contact one LHO for a defined time period, and cycles through the LHOs as to which one can be messaged for each period. This means that a player will have to find other means to find help if the LHO the LH button at that moment messages is idle, or wait until the period ends (which could be pretty lengthy).

2) the LHOs are supposed to be "live," ready to answer immediately. Players can't know whether the person they're trying to message is idle or not, unless they head to where the LHO is, and LHOs are often in areas inaccessible to newbies in tutorial and other players who haven't opened up different lands alike. This means that if a player has a problem/game that inteferes with his ability to play the game, he may wait for a fruitless period of time expecting an answer quickly.. I could imagine frustration.

3) as players do not know whether a LHO they're trying to contact is idle or not, they often flood the LHO's inbox with questions when in fact he isn't there to provide immediate help. This is especially unnecessary if other LHOs are online and active. Personally, I (now) try to log off instead of idle, just to prevent any frustration.. but that sort of punishes, as idle mode has its uses. (I once idled through the night [with Khalz during the first night of the picket] and a newbie became upset with me; since then I've avoided the experience with the tactic of sacrificing idle mode)

I think this could be more or less easily remedied by making the LH button recognize idle mode as offline, thus eliminating the option to message idle LHOs through the button. Or at least that's if the coding is as I imagine.. n_n; *has no experience with programming*

[Ren]

I highly endorse this notion. I hate how it works..

[Chewett]

[Redacted]

Edited December 18, 2012 by Chewett
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[Jonn]

I agree on the problem but I suggest having an I'm-not-LHO-right-now checkbox instead. Check it and you wont recieve Help Request until you uncheck it.