Extended Vacation

[Rob Maule]

I plan to take a six month or so vacation of sorts, starting in three or four weeks. I'll have extremely limited internet access throughout. I've been thinking about this for a long time and thought I'd throw some thoughts and questions out there to the general consensus.

As a player, unsubscribe or no? I'd hate to lose another whole account of characters, but I know that's the nature of taking a break from Cantr. You lose some, you make some more. Vacation mode? I don't know exactly how it works, so I don't know if I can turn it off halfway through and then turn it back on again. What's the timeout period of not logging in if I don't use vacation mode?

As a character, should and how should I inform other characters I'm involved with, be it individuals or towns? A blanket OCC message seems a horrible option. Don't mention anything? Treat it like a planned or suspected upcoming coma or sickness? Just ask others to look in on me and feed me?

[Dudel]

IC I notice most people use the "I'm sick" technique and it seems to fly 90% of the time.

OOCally, you should ask yourself some easy question (though maybe difficult to answer) "After six months of whatever my vacation was will I remember my characters enough to play them? Will I even WANT to play after six months?" and "How much investment has there been to my characters in order to strive for keeping them?"

Honestly, I'd suggest pruning down your characters if you've more then say.... eight. Then make those characters "ill" or "sleepy" and throw the thing on vacation mode for your six month period. If/when you come back if you still want to play the BIG characters that you liked are still there (provided you remembered to give them enough food). If they entice you to keep playing, so be it... but at this point both IC and OOC most wont will really care and/or notice if those that you kept finally die.

[Rob Maule]

I have nine characters. About five of them I'd be really sad if they died. But I fully suspect some to die of starvation because they don't have people in the location that will make sure they're fed. I think that after six months, I'd still want to play those favorite five and remember most of what was going on (I'll have plenty of time to think). Also, I think there's a significant amount of time and thought put into those characters. I'd say I play pretty hardcore. I check Cantr probably a dozen times a day, via PC and cellphone. Only one, though, probably has enough food to last a long time by themselves. And one is in a location without easily obtained food.

[Dudel]

Well I'd dwindle down to those 5, to start with then start looking at who's the least favorite after they are the only ones left. I'd do this during your 3 weeks before the actual vacation then start making in character arrangements to keep the important people fed. OR at least in order to transfer over power, or whatever, as a sleepy leader for even six months isn't responsible as a player let alone character.

[Cdls]

Yes, you can turn off the vacation mode at any time.


And damn man, six months being without Cantr...talk about horrible! Don't make the mistake I did after my accident last year. I was told that I was not gonna be able to even get out of bed for six months, so I ended up killin my account from my phone (at the time, it was not easy to play Cantr via my phone) and totally regretted it when I was in a brace and able to move to my computer chair within two weeks (although I certainly thank god that it happened that quickly)

Anyways, throw it on vacation and know they will be waiting for you to come back. You can even log in and then put them on vacation again if the need arises or you get access.

[Rob Maule]

Yes, you can turn off the vacation mode at any time.

Sweet. I was worried that maybe it would lock me out and I'd miss out on a rare connection because I was in vacation mode.

[SekoETC]

As far as I can remember, the max vacation time is 90 days so you'd have to log in and reset it a couple of times during your vacation or it'll time out.

[Doug R.]

Regarding keeping your characters fed in lonely places, you can just set up large, repeating food projects. Measure how much room food takes up in your inventory, and set up 99 repeats on a project for 20% less than that amount. When you run out of food, you'll get filled up the next repeat. When you log back in, you'll have a mountain of food next to you (minus rot).

Do make IC arrangements for power sharing. Nothing is more irritating than a sleeping leader.