You've never heard of that person.

[Delirium]

A random thought.

I'd like to see the 'offline' message changed to 'their mind is inacessable' or something similar. Why? To reflect the difference between 'dead' and 'busy' (i.e. offline.)

Or would that be too much OOC knowledge? Really, I would figure if a person exists in the world, you'd know, and if they were dead, you'd be able to notice the void in the .. mindstuff.. or.. whatever it is. Yeah.

You'd still have no way of knowing HOW they died, or where, or why.

The reason I came up with this is because when I first started playing, that particular point really confused me until some kind soul pointed it out to me. I figured I was typing the name wrong or something, because I'd see them later and wonder just what was going on.

[Plazgoth]

Your idea of it being too much OOC is correct. A while back someone posted about having a plot spoiled by someone finding out through OOC means that someone else is dead. It will go along those lines. Just imagine if the person who died was killed by a defiler who took over the body and wanted to impersonate the person for a while. If you knew OOCly that the person is really dead the Defiler is SOL in trying to fool anyone.

[Delirium]

Point made. I didn't really think of that, admittedly. But I agree.

Nevermind.

[Kronus]

Still, it would be nice if 'You've never heard of that person.' got changed to something a little more... mmm, how shall we say, "true"? If you're trying to reach someone over the Way, there's a pretty darn good chance that you've heard of them, and more likely, have met them and spoken to them face to face.
While it's handy the way it's set up right now to be able to determine if the person is even online or not, and saves you the hassle of running around looking for them, that particular message has bugged me for a long while.

>contact employer

You've never heard of that person.

>think Huh? I -work- for her!



Changing it to something like 'Their mind is difficult to find at the moment' would be better. And if they're dead? Their mind will still be difficult to find

[creeper386]

Acctaully, I've kind of thought the same way myself. The only problem is if you tried to contact someone, if they were dead, it'd certainly be different then if they were alive. And thats IC information not OOC information. The problem with saying this would ruin plots, well, it'd be IC information, that defiler KILLED the person, may have took his form but DIDN'T take his mind.

But then again, if there was a message put in death would be alot less a mystery and would really suck. So I don't see anyways that you could tell if they are just offline without also telling you if they are dead or not. I'd be happier acctually if someone was dead you got the, "you are unable to reach their mind" myself, just because it'd be more interesting. Hehehe. And that'd mean that'd work alot better because it'd be like saying their mind is still in the world after death but isn't reachable by still living people.

Creeper who's just devious.

[Delirium]

Yeah, if the 'You've never heard of that person' message simply got changed to 'Their mind is too difficult for you to find' or something along those lines (for both cases, dead or offline) I'd be happy.

Just less confusing, I think.