Quitting After Combat

[Synthesis]

If you kill whatever it is that was just fighting you, it seems like you ought to be able to log out immediately, since the code is there basically to prevent people from logging out to avoid death after a close call.

Caveat: there should be a list of things that you've been fighting recently, and you should only be able to log out immediately if you killed everything you recently fought.  (To prevent people from fleeing away from the pack of raptors, then killing a tregil to get the immediate log-out option.)

[Cale_Knight]

What if you kill Lord Fancypant's aide in her apartment, and then are able to quit out just before his guards arrive, alerted by her frantic waying?

(insert your own scenario here)

[Anonymous]

I agree with Cale, I believe it's also in place to keep you from logging out after attacking and killing something that you would get in trouble for killing.

[jhunter]

I agree with Cale, I believe it's also in place to keep you from logging out after attacking and killing something that you would get in trouble for killing.

Yeah, nice thought in a way though.
It seems to be a very long time since the in game timer was adjusted. It might need to be tweaked a little so that it's not as long of a wait as it currently is. I remember that being unconscious was pretty crazy after the timer adjustment, it seems to be much better now, but maybe that's just me.

[Bestatte]

Why not some criteria included?

If you kill what you're fighting
andif it isn't a PC
andif it doesn't incur a crim-flag on your character
then you can quit sooner than the usual.

A delay is still a good idea, just lessen the duration if your need to quit fits -all- of the above criteria.

[Yokunama]

If you kill whatever it is that was just fighting you, it seems like you ought to be able to log out immediately, since the code is there basically to prevent people from logging out to avoid death after a close call.

Caveat: there should be a list of things that you've been fighting recently, and you should only be able to log out immediately if you killed everything you recently fought.  (To prevent people from fleeing away from the pack of raptors, then killing a tregil to get the immediate log-out option.)

You can quit after you kill something; Pending on how long the fight has carried on. If the fight takes a while, your character would become too excited.

[Hexxaex]

I think the quit-delay shouldn't be on animals in the wilderness, because you can't be crim-flagged for it, and it's only an NPC.  Even if you took someone else's prey when they clearly had it first, and quickly quit out after doing so, the victim could send an e-mail to the staff with the log, or wish up about it.

[Anonymous]

I think the quit-delay shouldn't be on animals in the wilderness, because you can't be crim-flagged for it, and it's only an NPC.  Even if you took someone else's prey when they clearly had it first, and quickly quit out after doing so, the victim could send an e-mail to the staff with the log, or wish up about it.

A raptor has arrived from the west.
A raptor brutally slashes you.

You flee.
A raptor has aarrived from the west.

You depart the land of Zalanthas.

[Bogre]

The scarred, tattoed elf looks down upon the valley, training his bow on a small, green-eyed man.

The scarred, tattoed elf thinks "Ah, that idiot might be able to take down those three tembo, but he's sure going to be hurt, and then I'll take my chance with him."

The small, green-eyed man slashes the tembo on the neck.

Bleeding profusely, the small, green-eyed man kills the last tembo.

The scarred, tattooed elf takes careful aim...

The small, green-eyed man has departed the land of Armageddon.

The scarred, tattooed elf sighs.

[Synthesis]

Hmm, while I admit there are plenty of theoretical situations in which my suggestion would cause a problem but would arise so infrequently as to not warrant serious consideration...allow me to rebut:

1. The instant logout would only be useful for rangers and for people who started the fight in a quit-safe room.  Everyone else would have to walk elsewhere to log out, allowing at least the possibility of apprehension prior to the logout.

2. Regarding the 3-tembo-elf situation (though I'd really rather prefer not to get into the realm of the completely hypothetical): Anyone hunting 3 tembo is more than likely going to start skinning them, which would give the elf the chance to open fire anyway.  And if he didn't kill the guy with the first arrow, the fellow would just mount up and ride away to a safe zone, achieving the same result as the instant logout.

3.  CRW's latest post doesn't apply to my suggestion, since it is clearly outside the realm of what I had considered to be allowable.  (I think he was replying to Hexxaex's somewhat ambiguous post.

4.  I like Bestatte's additional suggestions.

5.  Regarding the apartment situation:  while the guards may be able to code-wise run across town and show up at the apartments lickety-split, in reality it would take them quite some time to hustle through town with their arms and armor, which would realistically give the assassin quite some time to escape after the deed.  This time would probably be in excess of what is ordinarily needed to log out after a fight, thus resulting in the same endstate: a successful logout.

6.  Furthermore, if you're going to claim that the present code exists to prevent people from logging out immediately after killing something that would "get them into trouble," it's logical to extend said code to emotes, tells, psionics--indeed, any other action--since any of these could get you in just as much danger of being killed as actually attacking something.  I hope you'll agree with me that this would simply be ridiculous.

To add to my original post:

I would like to see the logout time liberalized to accomodate persons who share their PCs with other people, or who use public terminals, or who have busy schedules and can only MUD while doing something else more important, or who have erratic schedules where things may suddenly come up that need looking after.  These people (I myself am one of them, currently) essentially have to put their real lives on pause for quite some time (at least, it -seems- like quite some time, when someone is waiting on you over "that stupid game again") while they wait around for the fight timer to expire.  Personally, I've worn the "Hold on, I just got randomly attacked by this scrab and I have to wait 10 minutes to log out before I can do <x>" excuse pretty thin.

(Edited to add point #6.)

[Kalden]

Sounds difficult to code. Just deal with it. Heh.

[Jherlen]

If you know you may need to leave on short notice, don't enter combat or put yourself in a situation where you may get attacked (probably best to stay in a city.)

I think the timer is fine, I've never experienced problems with at least a semi-combat-oriented PC. There would be too much potential for abuse with a change.

[Cenghiz]

[Hypotetical]You are a d-elf. You found out a Krathi is defiling your lands, killing the creatures not for eating them, but for experimenting his taint. (Hypotetical, as I said before) You track him from afar, aware that his taint is strong. Then you see that Mother Earth sent one of her servants to give a lesson to the tainted. A tembo rushed in and started fighting. You don't want to take changes, but if he gets wounded badly, you'll rush for aid.
The krathi kills the tembo, but the blood pooling aside his feet is visible even from leagues away. You ready your weapons and he walks west into the Oasis. You start running, fearing he may be wishing to defile the life source of your tribe. You rush, there's nothing around. Nothing. Now OOCly you know he logged off.[/Hypotetical]

Lesson: Killing even a skeet or a jozhal may be considered a criminal act for some folks. So if you kill, you wait to see if someone got nervous with your killing. Causing something's death is one of the strongest reasons for someone to have unfinished work with you.

[Hypotetical]
The 'Grudge' tells you in Sirihish:
       "Jus' wait here and when he comes by, get at him. Jus' try to hit'im, we'll arrive too soon. 'Skinner' will find out our mind when he starts trotting along the road."
The 'Grudge' tells you in Sirihish:
       "Skinner will be holding the other side of the road. So perhaps we'll manage to drive him southwards, where the master awaits."
>emote nods silently, readying his blade.
>draw bastard
>watch e
change ldesc is standing here, weapon readied in his hands.
....
Far to the east, the 'Grudge' slashes the victim on his head.
Far to the east, the 'Grudge' slashes the victim on his body.
The victim bludgeons the 'grudge' on his head, doing horrendeus damage.
The 'grudge's eyes roll back bla bla..
The 'grudge' cries out in pain.
>think Damn...
>run
>e;e
North Road [SEW]
......
To the east, victim walks south. (And so he leaves the road to a quitsafe place for a ranger)
>
North Road [SEW]
>l s
Nothing is seen
>s
Scrub Plains
>l w;l e;l s;
Nothing is seen
Someone tells you in Sirihish:
     "He killed 'Grudge'?"
>say (voice shaky) I'll find him, master!
>hunt
Someone says, OOC:
     "Don't bother, he logged out. I'm wondering if this should be counted as abuse or not. Maybe he didn't see us waiting and just logged out."
[/Hypotetical]

[/Hypotetical]
You're in a two-room cave, foraging for some agate. The defiler against whom you tried your arrows two years ago, when he was weak sees you inside.
In hopes for a fun revenge, he magickally seeks towards a nearby tembo he caught sight of. He summons the tembo right to the entrance of the cave, then subdues it with his magickal strength which's unresistable. He forces the tembo inside and rushes a bit away, still close enough to watch, maybe even get involved.
Furious with the wind's hauling and the defiler's grasp, the tembo sees you foraging unaware and leaps towards you with all his might. You can barely kill the tembo, then decide you should quit a bit to stop your hands trembling and drink some water - not for abuse, being unaware of the defiler. The defiler's character thinks "Damned twink." and mails the MUD with a log.
[/Hypotetical]

Lesson repeated: If you kill anything, there may be consequences to be played out. Killing everything attacking you may not be the whole solution. Killing is a strong manipulation to the world. When a hunter just runs to the quitsafe room and logs out, you can ignore it. But when a hunter kills something and logs out before you can react, it's not going to be too nice.
It's better not to have such a distinguishing code which would steal the precious time of the coders and bother waiting a little even when you're 100% safe.

[Savak]

What I'm hearing here is "I want to be able to log out faster after a fight," and lots of reasons why doing so could be misused or people could miss out.  But no real argument FOR insta-quitting after a fight.

It has been exceptionally rare that people wish up with those rare sudden circumstances which require them to quit out immediately, but they can't because either they're too excited or they're nowhere near a quit-safe room.  On the other hand, it's almost a minutely occurance that someone tries to escape or chase someone else immediately after a fight.

That said, I'm inclined to play the odds and not change anything.

-Savak