Players Online

[Lavalamps]

Hey, I was just wondering, maybe on the home page, under where it says the telnet port and stuff, we could have a little thing that says how many players there are online at the moment?
That way, in off-peak times, we could see if it's worth it to log on or not.
Also, it could also encourage new players to join, because they could see how many others are currently enjoying the game.
Just a suggestion?

[Northlander]

A blurb like this should include 'most players online the past day'-number, to show we're not as abandoned as off-peak would have one believe. Or an updating graph, like the thrice-damned ever-better-coded SoI.

I'm also worried we have so few players that newbies'd be unable to see the diamond for the flaw and so scared off from creating a character.

[Tlaloc]

I don't really like this idea, mostly because I don't think the 'who' list should ever be the deciding factor of whether you should log in, or not. As I've said many times, the old 'log in, look around, log out' factor is one of the worst habits anyone can get into, and actually keeps numbers down, rather than increasing them.

As I've posted many times before, when I was running the Byn, there were many times when I was just waiting to start something and create some 'fun', but nobody would log in and stay long enough (or go to their posts) to gather enough Troops to start anything. People would log in, decide nobody was on, and leave.

I would hate to see people deterred from logging in, without even getting through the mantis screen, heh.

If you're off-peak, I suggest the following:

1) Be ready to log in and make your own fun. I used to play off peak hours a ton, and learning to entertain myself and/or find the few pockets of interaction I could were handy.

2) Start recruiting more Crackageddon Addicts in your area. It can work...at one point, 'peak' was about as popular as 'off peak' is now.

[Cegar]

I have noticed a steady incline in numbers in the past year, even during the summer. I remember at one point we usually had 70-80 at peak times.

[Anonymous]

and never forget that big brother might be watching.

I've had interesting times when there happened to be bored staff on with me during non-peak. -shrugs- YMMV - but as they say, optimists may be seldom rewarded, but pessimists are never rewarded if they don't try.

[Angela Christine]

I like the idea of having the daily or weekly peak displayed, but not how many people are on right now.


Remember when the IG time  was displayed in the corner of the GDB for a while?  But whenever the game crashed or the game server became unavailable for some reason, it meant that the GDB also became almost unusable, because it would wait for the query to ginka to time out before it would display a page.  Icky.  I'd hate to see something similar happening because of needing to constantly query the game about how many people are on right now.


AC

[Anonymous]

This mud has a heathy player base and it seems to be growing,  its off-peek numbers are similar to alot of other muds peek numbers. I remember when you'd only get 40 around peek time with is about 8-9 my time, now you can log on at noon and find those numbers and at peek times its anywhere 50-70+ depending the night.

I find myself logging on a little more on off-peek times though, i found it a little overwhelming staying at bars with 10-15 plus people all talking and emoting.

[Lonely Kank]

I don't really like this idea, mostly because I don't think the 'who' list should ever be the deciding factor of whether you should log in, or not. As I've said many times, the old 'log in, look around, log out' factor is one of the worst habits anyone can get into.

May I ask what the staff thinks of PCs who log on, see 35+ players logged in, cant find anyone in a tavern because of the HRPT, and log off? I have at times waited 3 hours to even see one other PC, and then they sometimes just come into a tavern to log off. There are a lot less recruiters available. Lets assume I play a starting merchant, and I have to rely on getting a job or at the very least seeing active PCs to earn the sid for survival. If I have to constantly wait hours to even just see another PC briefly, and hunger / thirst keeps ticking, my PC will starve sooner or later when realistically they should be able to get a job.

What is the staff opinion on this problem?

[John]

Be ready to log in and make your own fun. I used to play off peak hours a ton, and learning to entertain myself and/or find the few pockets of interaction I could were handy.

It's hard. It's damn hard. It's really, really, really hard Especially with the extended HRPT on (not that I would want to see the extended HRPT finished prematurely. I'm loving it, despite the side-effect it has had). But having said that, it is possible.

Here's a question: How open are staff to having players e-mail them and say "I'm stumped. I can't think of anything my PC can do to generate either solo activities for me or a mini-plot. Any suggestions?" (either to your clan imms or to the unclanned imms). Because sometimes I will find myself bereft of any ideas for OOC weeks at a time.

2) Start recruiting more Crackageddon Addicts in your area. It can work...at one point, 'peak' was about as popular as 'off peak' is now.

What's the point to recruiting addicts within Tuluk when they're already playing.... oh! You mean real life area

[Quirk]

May I ask what the staff thinks of PCs who log on, see 35+ players logged in, cant find anyone in a tavern because of the HRPT, and log off? I have at times waited 3 hours to even see one other PC, and then they sometimes just come into a tavern to log off. There are a lot less recruiters available. Lets assume I play a starting merchant, and I have to rely on getting a job or at the very least seeing active PCs to earn the sid for survival. If I have to constantly wait hours to even just see another PC briefly, and hunger / thirst keeps ticking, my PC will starve sooner or later when realistically they should be able to get a job.

Well, this does sound like an excellent time to expand your knowledge of ways to make sid on Arm. This will in the long run be good for you; in my experience, independents have much more fun than most clanned characters. I wrote a post a little while ago where I listed some of the ways my independents make sid, it's to be found here:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=216396#216396

With merchant skills, you should be able to find some way of turning a profit almost anywhere even if the PCs round you suck. It may even be possible to make reasonable money without exposing yourself to any risk whatsoever, though I wouldn't count on it.

[Cegar]

May I ask what the staff thinks of PCs who log on, see 35+ players logged in, cant find anyone in a tavern because of the HRPT, and log off? I have at times waited 3 hours to even see one other PC, and then they sometimes just come into a tavern to log off. There are a lot less recruiters available. Lets assume I play a starting merchant, and I have to rely on getting a job or at the very least seeing active PCs to earn the sid for survival. If I have to constantly wait hours to even just see another PC briefly, and hunger / thirst keeps ticking, my PC will starve sooner or later when realistically they should be able to get a job.

Well, this does sound like an excellent time to expand your knowledge of ways to make sid on Arm. This will in the long run be good for you; in my experience, independents have much more fun than most clanned characters. I wrote a post a little while ago where I listed some of the ways my independents make sid, it's to be found here:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=216396#216396

With merchant skills, you should be able to find some way of turning a profit almost anywhere even if the PCs round you suck. It may even be possible to make reasonable money without exposing yourself to any risk whatsoever, though I wouldn't count on it.

Quirk, I really do agree with you here.

[Lonely Kank]

[Well, this does sound like an excellent time to expand your knowledge of ways to make sid on Arm. This will in the long run be good for you; in my experience, independents have much more fun than most clanned characters. I wrote a post a little while ago where I listed some of the ways my independents make sid, it's to be found here:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=216396#216396

With merchant skills, you should be able to find some way of turning a profit almost anywhere even if the PCs round you suck.

To clarify, I don't have merchant skills. I only used the merchant as an exaple, as I'd rather not give away what / who I play. You make excellent suggestions, but they require certain skills or having PC interaction. PC interaction is exactly what is lacking because of the HRPT. I also know how to make 'sid... but I'd like to stay IC. Would a frail aide who is terribly scared of the desert go out to hunt? I also don't play an aide... this was just another example.  

Any staff opinion on the issue would be appreciated. I was assuming that I am not being twinkish if I just log on to check if anyone is in taverns, then log off because the HRPT is drawing the PC population that realistically should be there away from the cities. But maybe I'm wrong.

[Djarjak]

My personal opinion about this - and the other staff may or may not feel the same way, is:

If you log in, do a quick look, then log off, you are guaranteed to miss the people who -are- online and in the city. Just because they don't happen to be in the taverns at that moment does not mean that they will not in five minutes... ten minutes.. fifteen, or that there aren't other people roaming about the city.

I've been on staff on other muds where I see one guy logged in, and he logs out -seconds- before another guy logs in. The end result of the former having no patience or willingness to entertain himself with something else ultimately deprived three people of the opportunity to role-play (me, and both players).

Personally, I tend to make an effort, if I am not building, to involve players who are not otherwise interacting. But, sometimes I need time to do so. It might be that I need time to find the right NPC in the database - or that I need to read up on an NPC who is already in the room so that I can animate him consistently.

Patience really is the best course of action, in my opinion.

[Lonely Kank]

If you log in, do a quick look, then log off, you are guaranteed to miss the people who -are- online and in the city. Just because they don't happen to be in the taverns at that moment does not mean that they will not in five minutes... ten minutes.. fifteen, or that there aren't other people roaming about the city.

I have at times waited 3 hours to even see one other PC, and then they sometimes just come into a tavern to log off.

I agree, though... when I can do something else OOCly with my time while I wait around, I try to.

[Halaster]

May I ask what the staff thinks of PCs who log on, see 35+ players logged in, cant find anyone in a tavern because of the HRPT, and log off? ...
What is the staff opinion on this problem?

We think it sucks.  We think you suck for doing it.  There is much sucking going on when this occurs.  

I'll speak for myself only, on this.  When I notice someone doing this, I form a conclusion in my mind that said player isn't reliable. I therefore tend to overlook said player for a number of things.  I don't think they're some horrible player who can never get karma or anything like that, but I do skip them and think "Well, there are other players who ARE online that I'll spend my time with, instead of that other guy who logged in, typed who, and left".

But really, you're just robbing yourself.  If you want to do that, fine, it's your loss.