Link Loss and going IDLE

[mansa]

fourTwenty:

I'd rather have something coded, than rely on immortals.

[Qzzrbl]

Maybe you should hire a trustworthy guide who will have you follow him to a safe place in a city, and wish up for the Staff to quit you out. Every time you leave the city.

[fourTwenty]

Mansa:

I can understand that. It's just that IMO you shouldn't be able to quit out anywhere.

For example.
If I could quit out anywhere I'd already know -much- more of the map than I do.

I mean that is one of the dangers of being lost. Whether it be the city/desert/moon you have no idea where a safe place to rest is, even if you have been walking for days. And I mean that IG and IRL

[KIA]

What about the thief or raider or assassin who is patiently waiting 3 hours for someone to log in, open their apartment door, so that they can commit horrendous, unthinkably sinister crimes upon them? You're telling me that the game would try to continually log me out over that three hour time?

And what if I've been waiting days and finally the guy shows up and at that moment goes link-dead/idle. I sure as hell am not -always- going to show mercy, though I agree this is good form, and a typical course of action. We are technically allowed to kill people who are link dead, and there are many circumstances where someone is idle and shouldn't be immune or have the option of escape simply by logging out.

Nope! I disagree. Sorry mansa.

[Fathi]

What about the thief or raider or assassin who is patiently waiting 3 hours for someone to log in, open their apartment door, so that they can commit horrendous, unthinkably sinister crimes upon them? You're telling me that the game would try to continually log me out over that three hour time?

There's plenty of stuff you can do during this scenario that doesn't involve straight-up idling.

That and it could be a flag you could set on or off, like nosave arrest and the other nosaves.

[mansa]

What about the thief or raider or assassin who is patiently waiting 3 hours for someone to log in, open their apartment door, so that they can commit horrendous, unthinkably sinister crimes upon them? You're telling me that the game would try to continually log me out over that three hour time?

And what if I've been waiting days and finally the guy shows up and at that moment goes link-dead/idle. I sure as hell am not -always- going to show mercy, though I agree this is good form, and a typical course of action. We are technically allowed to kill people who are link dead, and there are many circumstances where someone is idle and shouldn't be immune or have the option of escape simply by logging out.

Nope! I disagree. Sorry mansa.

Code Select Expand


>
You have been idle for 5 minutes.

>
You have been idle for 10 minutes.  You will be disconnected if you are idle for 15 minutes

>
You have been idle for 15 minutes and have been disconnected.

Code Select Expand


>
You have been idle for 5 minutes.

>
You have been idle for 10 minutes.  You will be disconnected if you are idle for 15 minutes.

>look
ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION
ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION
ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION
ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION
ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION ROOM DESCRIPTION

>
You have been idle for 5 minutes.

[FantasyWriter]

I like the linkdead/idle auto quit timer.
I do not like the not ranger camp unless it takes AT LEAST.

If you want your PC to survive in the wild, make a ranger, or established a "territory for your PC that centers around a quit spot.
I can't think of if VERY few places that are more that ONE spam walking minute from an outdoors quit spot. 
If it is an emergency, one minute is more than likely not going to kill you, but may save your PC.

Tips for non rangers when going out without a guide/ranger:
1.  The "weather <direction>" command (check the room ahead BEFORE you walk into a sandstorm.
2.  Don't let you or your mounts stamina get below half without resting it back up.  "assess <mount>" (in case you didn't know)
        (there have been MANY times where a few more points of stamina would have saved my dead PCs)
3.  If you don't have a mount, go back to the mountseller and get one...
        seriously non rangers should NOT leave the walls without a mount (elves excluded, of course).
3.  Know the quit spots between where you start and where you plan to go.
4.  Stop at all of them to rest, drink, eat.
5.  If you can't see at least two rooms away, head to the nearest quit spot and wait the storm out, or 'way' someone to help.

If you are stuck outside the walls for an OOC reason: rough magicker/escaped slave, etc.:
1.  Find a secluded quit spot near food and water, make it your hermitage. (eliminates the IC reasons to need to travel far)
2.  When you do need to go on a long journey, follow all the tips tips in the first list.
3.  Make a friend... even your spec app Sorcerer-Nilazi combo defiler will get lonely from time to time.
4.  Have your friend bring you supplies or escort you to the nearest village to get them.

[Rahnevyn]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

[Gimfalisette]

That is so awesome. Thanks, staff. I know of at least a couple PCs who have died from hunger/starvation in a safe location, and this code change would have prevented that. No more! Rock on.

[AmandaGreathouse]

W00t. Thank you staff. My ISP is crappy. A couple of times a year, they randomly close down the area over night with no warning. Thank you for saving us Zalanthas people whose players have crappy ISP's.

[KIA]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

That's a brilliant solution to an age old problem.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

Wow.

A-Ok.

[Taven]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

Wow.

A-Ok.

I believe the correct response is actually "Rav, I want your babies!"

Bonus points if you're a filthy gemmer who plans to eat them. Everyone knows gemmers eat babies.

[FantasyWriter]

Lots to be thankful for today! here's another!!!

[Dar]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

I like that change. If only it came in 13 days earlier.

[musashi]

Sounds cool!

[Kryos]

Hmmm.  I would suggest a tiered system here.   Idle for <time> leads to <link dead>  Any link dead characters are insta-booted from the world.  With this system, camping in the wilds is not required, but still somewhat valuable.  I think a 1 minute timer for logout, that requires you not be acted upon in a negative fashion(read combat) is more then reasonable for both sides.  Dying because you lost your internet in a storm, etc, is not role play enhancing, fun, or reasonable. 

[Synthesis]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

So now to survive being caught in vicious sandstorms, you no longer need a tent or a safe place to hunker down...you can just suck it up for an hour, then wait indefinitely for the storm to clear while watching reruns of the Colbert Report?

[Synthesis]

After much discussion on the IDB, I am happy to announce to you all that characters who are idle over 1 hour will no longer suffer affects of hunger and thirst. (You will get hungrier and thirstier for one hour, and then stop after that until you become unidle.) This should mean the end of deaths of characters who die of dehydration after being left idle on a city street all night.

So now to survive being caught in vicious sandstorms, you no longer need a tent or a safe place to hunker down...you can just suck it up for an hour, then wait indefinitely for the storm to clear while watching reruns of the Colbert Report?

Proposed solution:

When the MUD recognizes a character as being idle/linkdead, it stops sending all text to that connection in addition to turning off the hunger/thirst timers, until the player a) logs back in or b) starts sending more text to the MUD.  This way, if you wanted to "game" the idle code, you'd a) be incurring the significant risk that someone might find you there, and you'd be unable to respond and b) be unaware of when the storm had actually cleared, so you'd have to start re-sending text periodically, which would reset the 1-hour idle timer. 

You'd still be able to game the system, but it would be harder to do, and would be significantly riskier.  This would also prevent people from tavern-idling while waiting for someone to log in:  under the current system, it seems like you could avoid racking up hunger and thirst penalties by simply declining to respond to anyone for hours on end until your target arrived. 

Idle/linkdead characters would be unaffected, because if you're -truly- linkdead, you wouldn't be receiving the text anyway.

[KIA]

When the MUD recognizes a character as being idle/linkdead, it stops sending all text to that connection in addition to turning off the hunger/thirst timers, until the player a) logs back in or b) starts sending more text to the MUD. 

I like this proposal because it prevents people from idling (to a certain extent) in order to learn accents, which I've seen aplenty. That is, if there's any interest in preventing this type of skill-gaming.

[Sephiroto]

I was thinking that we could turn on the "Merchant Flee" script on any persons idle over 30 minutes or link dead persons so that as soon as they are attacked they disappear.  Prior to this happening their location is saved.  When they log back in they reload where they last saved and then the flag is turned off.