Who C

[Xio]

(pretty sure that c stood for clan, so i'ma be using that terminology)
For certain 'clans', this isn't a necessity. But for people in the militias, if you come across a situation where you absolutely need a higher ranked soldier or templar, and there could be anywhere from 4-6 of them who exist but only 1 of them is actually on, if your stun/contact isn't that great you'd have to get lucky to actually find the mind of someone who can help you out. Not to say this isn't useful for other 'clans', but if someone cuts a bloody swathe out of their jail cell and is making a break for one the citygates, and you don't have the ability to order those gates closed you'd have a better chance finding the mind of a templar or senior soldier and letting them know whats going on and what needs to be closed. Cycling through 6 possibilities drastically narrows the chances of getting through in time. Seeing as I consider PCs to turn into VPCs when then log off, I took 'who c' to be a list of people your char had seen out and about while in their virtual state before you assumed control again, mixed with communication (both active and passive, aka overhearing things) near vnpcs to discover people are around and available.

[mansa]

You could wish up and have an immortal jump into a soldier / templar.

[FantasyWriter]

You could wish up and have an immortal jump into a soldier / templar.

IF one is available, has the time that might be needed, and willing.

[titansfan]

I rather interact with a PC than an animated NPC, if the PC's are around. Who C was very helpful in order to involve certain people in things on an efficient basis whenever I have been in any clan.

[Thunkkin]

I like things that increase interaction and work against isolation.

[Majikal]

Every clan should have who c IMO, would help things move alot smoother. Some d-elf clans have who c while the others don't, makes me curious why certain clans are left in the dark and others get the benefit of the command. Think it should be an all or nothing sort of thing.

Just my thoughts.

[brytta.leofa]

Staffpeoples, I get that people do indeed log on, hit "who -c", and log off when they see no one.  I'm not so sure that's as bad a thing as it's made out to be.

People may well be logging on when they have a strictly limited amount of time to spend and the following plan: "If there's somebody on, I can do a quick half-hour of interaction.  If not, it'll likely take me half that time just to run into someone, especially if my clan's on a schedule."  Here, "who -c" is allowing them to play in a focused way and make use of a time slot in which they otherwise would not have bothered to log on at all.

Likewise, it's possible that you're undercounting the people who engage in the same sort of behavior, but using a quick string of contacts or a tavern-sweep to determine if there's "anything worth doing."

Whosee can easily cut a good 10-15 minutes off the dreaded Time to First Interaction, and that's pretty significant for some of us.  You can take this either way: if all clans got it, clan-joining would be my first stop with just about any PC.

[FantasyWriter]

Can we just have the "notify clan" command that I remember from some other RPI back years ago when I first tried mudding?

You can't see who's online.  Instead, it's like you "ping" everyone in the clan and then they know that you're somewhere in the world looking for interaction.  Anyone who wants to play ball can just ping you back.  Abusers are fed to halflings. 

Easy.

I think this would be a wonderful idea to implement and can't really see a way that it can be abused, either.

[Malken]

I think this would be a wonderful idea to implement and can't really see a way that it can be abused, either.

As long as you can disable it, it's fine.. On the other RPI mud that I play, you can't disable it, and it gets annoying to see the same people notifying your area of play every 20 minutes or so.

I also like the fact that it tells you how many players there are in the popular gathering areas of the city you are in when you type 'who'.

Something like:

In Tuluk, there are 7 players.
In the Sanctuary, there are 3 players.

[Delstro]

I really loved Who C. It worked so well in the Militias. I think that is the only one it should be in.

[a strange shadow]

People may well be logging on when they have a strictly limited amount of time to spend and the following plan: "If there's somebody on, I can do a quick half-hour of interaction.  If not, it'll likely take me half that time just to run into someone, especially if my clan's on a schedule."  Here, "who -c" is allowing them to play in a focused way and make use of a time slot in which they otherwise would not have bothered to log on at all.

This is exactly my situation.

[Winterless]

I think every clan should get it. There are more than just militias that need to get ahold of others/help/bosses who have playtime constraints and need to get things RP'd in a timely fashion.

[WarriorPoet]

This is a terrible call by staff in my opinion. I wouldn't care to see it for -all- clans but definately for tight-knit tribes and the like.

If the whole 'who c... no one, log off' problem is why it's gone, I think it's an even more wretched decision. People will just spam-contact and log off anyway. Meh.

[mansa]

The only clan I was a part of that had 'Who clan' was the militia of the city states, and even with that, I didn't even know it existed.


I've never used this command.  I never relied on it.  It doesn't affect my playing of the game.  It's an OOC tool to tell you when your friends are also playing the game.  And now the select few clans that still have it don't, which makes it a very fair decision.



I'm sure the Immortals have noticed a correlation between clans that have 'who clan' and the frequency that the players log in and off.  If you compare clans like the Jul Tavan or the Arabet to the Tan Muark, there will be a noticable difference between how often the characters interact with other characters based solely on the fuctions and frequency of the usage of the 'who clan' command.  Halaster has stated this in the past, saying that more clans used to have this function, but had it stripped away when the players wouldn't play with the rest of the playerbase, but would only play with the members within their own clans, and only when they were visible in the 'who clan' command.  Otherwise, they would log out.


to repost:

Meh...I feel we're fine without it.

Big problem you'd see is:

Login.
Who -c.
<no names besides your own>
Logout.

Believe that was occuring fairly often in clans that had access.  While you may like it from an OOC standpoint since you don't 'waste your time' (if arm is ever a waste of time), it also makes a new OOC problem of people not sticking around to get stuff done because they think nothing's going on.

He's right.  There have been clans who used to have the who c command, but because of this very thing, we removed it from those clans.

[FantasyWriter]

I think it tells of you the five hundred clan members who are virtually there, these are the three that you can expect two way interaction with.

[Eloran]

This is a terrible call by staff in my opinion.

If the whole 'who c... no one, log off' problem is why it's gone, I think it's an even more wretched decision. People will just spam-contact and log off anyway.

[titansfan]

Well, I'm not gonna go as far as bashing the Imms about it, but I would politely ask for it back. Because I see no reason why it shouldn't be used. That's my 2 cents.

[Eloran]

Well, I'm not gonna go as far as bashing the Imms about it, but I would politely ask for it back. Because I see no reason why it shouldn't be used. That's my 2 cents.

No one is bashing the staff. Some of us just think it was a bad, bad decision. There's no harm in disagreeing.

[titansfan]

Understood, wasn't meaning to blame you, just saying...:p

[Ampere]

Can I?

Taking away what few tools exist to better facilitate roleplay reflects poorly on the 'administration'.  When someone treats another like an idiot, they're usually the ones who come out looking stupid.  'Because I told you so' wasn't a viable excuse when I was four, and that hasn't changed.

[aruna]

From another thread:

Maybe if you are in a freaking iso tribe, you should stick closer to the safety of your tribe and travel around -together-.

The only clan I've played in with 'who c' is the Tan Muark, and I would go so far as to say that the removal of who c would make what you suggest as a solution harder, due to the huge amount of moving around that happens.  But this change bums me out most because of this:

People may well be logging on when they have a strictly limited amount of time to spend and the following plan: "If there's somebody on, I can do a quick half-hour of interaction.  If not, it'll likely take me half that time just to run into someone, especially if my clan's on a schedule."  Here, "who -c" is allowing them to play in a focused way and make use of a time slot in which they otherwise would not have bothered to log on at all.

This has been my situation also more times than I can count.

[staggerlee]

From another thread:

Maybe if you are in a freaking iso tribe, you should stick closer to the safety of your tribe and travel around -together-.

The only clan I've played in with 'who c' is the Tan Muark, and I would go so far as to say that the removal of who c would make what you suggest as a solution harder, due to the huge amount of moving around that happens.  But this change bums me out most because of this:

People may well be logging on when they have a strictly limited amount of time to spend and the following plan: "If there's somebody on, I can do a quick half-hour of interaction.  If not, it'll likely take me half that time just to run into someone, especially if my clan's on a schedule."  Here, "who -c" is allowing them to play in a focused way and make use of a time slot in which they otherwise would not have bothered to log on at all.

This has been my situation also more times than I can count.

It will certainly hit the people who play infrequently the hardest of all.
For those who play all day it honestly shouldn't be much of an issue, they can afford to idle where they know people will show up, and those in their clan will know they can be reached with a contact.

[SMuz]

I guess staff are the only ones who see how others are (ab)using it. It's their call and they have full view of what happens with it.

[Myhrrn]

I won't lie, I'm a bit lost without it, it was an excellent way for me to interact with underlings, usually I'm too busy to doing other things to spam contact.
It's staff's choice though.. we'll see.

[titansfan]

Question: How can you abuse it? It just narrows down the contact order for me and saves me time....seriously....