So I was reading to this tread about AFK activities and I came up with an idea of offline activities instead.
I got the idea from a new game Grimmwood, currently in open beta! so try it out!, a survival game in table-top game style. Fractured will have survival elements aswell and in Grimmwood you can set up what your character will do offline.
So my idea is for guild settlements only to start with. If you log off at your guild settlement you can create a NPC copy of your character. If you log off you have this log-off window with options what your character will do offline:
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If your guild settlement has a guildhall/or barraks you can set your offline copy on guard duty, patrolling the settlement (limited guard spots depending on buildings in settlement). You can choose if your offline copy wears your gear (you loose items), guard duty uniform (costs little from guildbank) or no gear (free). Besides patrolling you can also assign your character to towers or siege weapons on walls. Your character will automaticly attack any enemy and anyone that engages him. You can choose it give your guard an alarm warhorm (costs some extra resources), so it will agro all other guard NPC's in the settlement that are patrolling (so not guards in towers and on siege weapons.
If you log on any guildmember can check a log in the guildhall window of all offline combat. You can see the enemy names with guildtags that attacked your guards. This is to see if any guild is preparing/scouting to siege your settlement. If characters of guildX have only attacked one guard or a gatherer in the far away forest it might be a random encounter. But if your see that guildX has attacked guards all around your settlement, you know they are atleast very hostile and might be checking if they will siege you or not. So the offline guards provide valuble info during the hours most of your guild is offline. So anyone that loggs on the next day can check what enemies where around and who is not to be trusted!
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If your guild settlement has storage room your offline character can collect firewood (for survival on expeditions). You can set if your character stays near settlement walls, wonders off further of go to nearest forest. Offline characters don't engage in combat but flee back to settlement to drop resources. If your character stays near settlement he will find nothing but firewood. But if your character goes further, you have a higher chance for it to bring back small ammount of crafting wood (risk vs reward).
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If your guild settlement has a cooking station your character can collect food from the surrounding area. You can set if your character stays near settlement walls, wonders off further of go to nearest forest, lake or cave. Offline characters don't engage in combat but flee back to settlement to drop resources. If your character stays near settlement he will find nothing but roots, nuts and berries. But if your character goes further, you have a higher chance for it to bring back small ammount of cooking ingredients such as meat, fish or potatoes (risk vs reward). Fishing is only possible if lake or river is near the settlement. If you collect water or not is depending how near the water is to your settlement. So if your settlement is next to a river, collecting water can be done while staying near settlement walls.
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If your guild settlement has an alchamy station your character can collect herbs from the surrounding area. You can set if your character stays near settlement walls, wonders off further of go to nearest forest, lake or cave. Offline characters don't engage in combat but flee back to settlement to drop resources. If your character stays near settlement he will find nothing but common herbs for some very situational potions. But if your character goes further, you have a higher chance for it to bring back small ammount of ingredients for health potions or other often used potions.
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A guild can give any guildmember (can also be an alt) the rank of guildcrafter. A character with the rank of guildcrafter can set up an offline shop (similar to afk shop). You can choose to place the offline shop inside a guild building (so it will be only for guildmembers), or inside the walls of the guild settlement (so any friendly character can have access to it), or outside the settlement walls (so anyone passing by can buy stuff from it to survive in the wild). This last one will probbaly be uncommon on Tartaros. Having a guild choose who can open shops prevents a settlement to become full with offline shops like in other games.
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If the guild settlement has Barraks (or a building just for medical purposes) you can station a character there to attend to the wounded. Wich basicly comes down to respawn rate of your offline character. So take another look at setting your offline character to wearing your gear, guard duty gear or no gear (see 1.) if you go on two week holiday, might be costly 
The more characters are stationed at the barraks (or other building for this purpose) the faster your offline character respawn at your settlement.
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Be the bard! Play some music inside the settlement. Cashshop options to buy other music?
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Any other offline character activities? Plz tell me
So I also had some idea's for offline character progression (has nothing to do with your online character in any way!). I think all offline characters should start out as simple meat shields. Only doing the first of your eight abilities and low hp and energy. Doing offline activities might lvl your character up so they use more of the eight abilities from your build (you can use the resting abilities before logging off to choose a build that makes your gathering character flee/run very fast ) A starting low lvl offline character can be killed in 3 strong attacks, while a high lvl one becomes like a very strong mob.
I choose this idea for guild settlements to make sure guild settlements always look alive, and not like ghost towns during the night. It also encourages guildmembers to returns to the settlement. So when guild members log on it's easier to team up with guildmates.
If owning a guild settlement is limited in the world of Fractured. I suggest a guild can place a small camp site or supply camp wich is basicly nothing more then a campfire with some crates or chests around it and has limited options for offline character activities. This can have several strategic decisions, it reveals where a guild is logged off, enemies could be waiting if you logg on. You can place a camp so that it intervenes with the offline characters that are collecting food/water/herbs so they don't have the option to gather wood at nearest forest, because they will run into your offline guards that are patrolling your campsite.
Edit: @muker Your character won't move from point A to point B offline. Your offline character is a copy, a NPC, nothing more. You will always logg on in the same place.
@Finland offline gathering is no substitute to online gathering, it just adds a little ammount. It is fully optional to participate in offline activities.
@FibS The rule is that your character logs off inside the settlement, and your offline character always spawns in from of Guild Hall and goes to their offline activity from there.
@FibS If you log one character on, you have no offline activity on any alt character.
So do you like these idea's?
And plz don't forget to try out Grimmwood open beta
) then your fireball and the song you took will perform quite poor due to your lack of attributes they need to function better (even if they would be OP for someone who took affiliated attributes for one of those, for you it will not be).