Log in Screen Idea

[Xerokine]

I was just thinking that it might be useful and helpful to the players if maybe there was a line of text upon the log in screen, or perhaps in the screen that you see when you've logged into your account that tells the IC time and day and what not. That way you can see what time it is, decide if you want to play at that specified time without having to log in and check.. What do you think?

[Delirium]

http://www.armageddon.org/cgi-bin/help_index/timeline.cgi

Scroll all the way down to the bottom. :)

[Tmp]

Yes, very nice webpage, but Xerokine's suggestion is still a good one. Just because information is available publicly somewhere doesn't mean it's easily accessible. Go ask the poor people of Earth who got destroyed because they didn't lodge a protest.

[Bestatte]

I agree, and this is another one of those webpages that are hidden in obscurity, that shouldn't be.

If I want to know what time it is in the game right now - why would I, as a brand-spanking newbie, magickally know to look in the help files? And why would I know that the helpfile I'm looking for is the timeline helpfile? Timelines, in other games, summarize the history of the world - and don't detail anything about the actual "time" itself. It tells you about what has happened, not what time it is.

One more reason to re-write the home page of armageddon.org so it shows a more logical method of looking stuff up.

And - definitely - add a "search engine" to the HOME page that will allow the user to search the pages that are -not- help files. If I'm looking for something in the help files, and it isn't in the help files, a search engine for the help files isn't gonna help me at all.

[Gilvar]

Two-clicks (General Information > History of Zalanthas) from the main-page is hardly 'hidden in obscurity.' if that were the case everything not on the front-page would apply.

Anyways, with that aside Im against the idea because it propagates the "oh, its not dawn yet,  better not log in" playing style. Similar to the log-in, check 'who' and log-off playing style. Which I think is why the idea to see how many players are online from the menu was denied.

Just my opinion and not the official staff-view. The information is already easily viewable, and I don't think its healthy to make it any easier. If you want to play, log in.

[Trenidor]

Is the reason you don't want to get on because you don't want to Rp something at that time?

C'mon just get online, who cares about what time it is, there's always something good going on.  

[Anonymous]

Two-clicks (General Information > History of Zalanthas) from the main-page is hardly 'hidden in obscurity.' if that were the case everything not on the front-page would apply.

As an aside while I agree with what you say in principle, in practice, for whatever reason, the webpage layout is counterintuitive.  Proof enough of this is how often players who have been here for years are surprised to learn the existence of a document.  I really think the website layout is fine, but the categories and links could do with some reorganization and/or renaming.

[Angela Christine]

Is the reason you don't want to get on because you don't want to Rp something at that time?

C'mon just get online, who cares about what time it is,

There are valid reasons to want to wait ten or twenty minutes, if the IC time will be inconvient.  Here are a couple off the top of my head:

1)  You quit out in the wilderness.  If it is night time, then there is an excellent chance that you won't be able to see, but any agressive creatures in the area will still be able see/smell you and attack!  Being attacked by a creature you can't see as soon as you log in is bad, so when I quit out in the wilderness I try to login durring daylight hours.

2)  You are in a clan with a strict schedual and a hardass boss.  In this case logging in durring the middle of the night is not a problem, but logging in at late morning or late afternoon might be.  You pop into the barracks just before the sergeant walks in, and now he wants to know why you are goofing off in the barracks when you are supposed to be <somewhere>.  You are left making some lame excuse like you slept in, you aren't feeling well, you just got out of the latrine, or you thought you left your <item> under your bunk and just came back for it.  Nobody wants that, so if I'm in a strictly schedualed clan I prefer to log in at a transition time.


Again, the IC doesn't make me not log in at all, but I might wait as much as 20 minutes to make a smoother transition into the IC world.  


AC

[Laeris]

1)  You quit out in the wilderness.  If it is night time, then there is an excellent chance that you won't be able to see, but any agressive creatures in the area will still be able see/smell you and attack!  Being attacked by a creature you can't see as soon as you log in is bad, so when I quit out in the wilderness I try to login durring daylight hours.

This is not a valid reason.  This is akin to logging on, contacting the assassin that's been hunting you down, finding out he's online, and logging off.  They're both OOC motivations that are inappropriate.  If you're concerned about logging on in the wilderness only to be immediately attacked by a wild animal, the obvious solution is to find a safer place to quit out.

[Forest Junkie]

OOC motivations that still have IC reasons, Laeris.

IC'ly your ranger would know not to walk around at night. Therefore, it would be perfectly feasible IMO to wait until daylight to log on, in this instance. Though, I do agree with your other example of using ooc means to contact someone to see if they are on, then logging off. Just bad, that is.

[Angela Christine]

1)  You quit out in the wilderness.  If it is night time, then there is an excellent chance that you won't be able to see, but any agressive creatures in the area will still be able see/smell you and attack!  Being attacked by a creature you can't see as soon as you log in is bad, so when I quit out in the wilderness I try to login durring daylight hours.

This is not a valid reason.  This is akin to logging on, contacting the assassin that's been hunting you down, finding out he's online, and logging off.  They're both OOC motivations that are inappropriate.  If you're concerned about logging on in the wilderness only to be immediately attacked by a wild animal, the obvious solution is to find a safer place to quit out.

I respectfully disagree.  Waiting 20 minutes to log in at a sensible time is nothing like logging off if you are able to contact an enemy.

Many NPCs, even humanoid NPCs, do not have the same vision resrictions as PCs (soldier NPCs can unerringly spot and arrest PCs durring a blinding nighttime sandstorm, a feat that no non-magickal PC could acomplish).  Even scent-hunters should have some trouble tracking you down in a sandstorm, but they don't.  So a PC can't see what they are fighting, or see to run away sensibly, but the agressive creature can easily follow them.  Waiting 20 minutes is unlikely to make a difference as to whether or not there is a aggressive animal in the area, it simply puts the PC on a level playing field.


Logging in, and out, is an entirely OOC decision.  Sometimes I choose not to log in because I'm cooking my dinner and I can't type well while eating, an OOC decision.  Even in a safe wilderness quit location, it is dull to be alone in the wilderness durring the IC night.  You can't move around, you can't do anything, you just sit there, thinking your thinks and waiting for dawn.  That does not amuse me, so I rarely choose to roleplay through situations like that.  Being a 'rinthi pickpocket doesn't amuse me, so I rarely choose to roleplay that either.

It isn't about trying to win the game or get an unfair advantage.  It is about spending your online time doing things you enjoy within the parameters of the game world.


AC

[jhunter]

I think having the current game time on the board here just under the uptime clock would be nice.

[Tmp]

Two-clicks (General Information > History of Zalanthas) from the main-page is hardly 'hidden in obscurity.' if that were the case everything not on the front-page would apply.

I'm sorry, but this had me laughing until I nearly fell out of my chairseat. General Information > History of Zalanthas ... to know the CURRENT time? If that's not counter intuitive, I don't know what is.

You can't measure how inaccessible something is by just applying a simple click count metric.  

[Agent_137]

everything not on the front page is hidden in obscurity because the labels and links barely make sense. The webpage needs to be revamped. Dead horse.


As far as logging in and logging out, it's a minor concern. Just bookmark the timeline page if you really need to know. Or set it up as an event bound to "welcome to armageddon" it fires out the link, you double click it, check the time, good to go.

This is one of those things you should deal with yourself. But i wouldn't complain if it did happen to end up on the login screen.