Knockers

[Agar]

I have to characters with seperate knocking problems.

In one town, the prisoner is trying to be polite and talk his way out of jail, so is being polite and only knocking in moderation, only twice at most so far.

In another town, the prisioner is PISSED, and knocking alot. He's also so screwed and going to have company if I can help it. I dread to imagine the knocking that will happen then.

I would like a guideline for how much knocking should be tolerated before reporting a character to PD. We can try to limit thier ability to knock in charcter by killing them, but that's a rather slow project as of late. I don't expect a nice hard number, like more than 4 times in an hour, but some guidance from the players department would be appreciated.

[wulf]

If it's possible to limit things like hunting groups of animals to once a day, how about limiting knocking to once an hour (or even less frequently)?

Wulf

[Bear]

Well, there are IC ways to deal with knockers such as letting them out or killing them.

[Agar]

Well, the limiting knocking through programming is not a bad idea, but it eliminates the ability to use knocks as a non verbal code. It also is not something I'd like to programmers to concern themselves with for some time, untill more important matters have been resolved.

As I mentioned, IC ways of limiting are much much slower theses days, as they have been "improved"

I'm trying to get an idea of what the Players Department would consider "crossing the line" from desperate knocking to exploiting game features for the sole purpose of irritating other players.

[wulf]

I'm assuming it should be fairly easy to implement some kind of limit, since there are other examples of similar restrictions (eg. hunting). It does depend how it's been put together but hopefully there's potential for code reuse.

Wulf

[Lord_Igor]

... exploiting game features for the sole purpose of irritating other players.

The way I see it is that the character irritates other characters. No exploiting game features. Limiting it would be like setting a rule that you may not harass other characters. Though, if you knock a thousand times on a door then perhaps you should get tired.

[Snake_byte]

lol When I read the forum title I thought it was about somthing else...

[SekoETC]

Having had a character locked up and too wounded to drag notes, you start desperately looking for ways to communicate. Just knocking once is not enough, maybe they're talking a lot out there and no one hears. Or maybe they just went inside and will come right back. Maybe they're all dead and I'm left to die in here all alone with these corpses? Ok I didn't knock loads but usually in short series. Click-click-click. Also shouting to the door helps even though no one could hear.

[mortaine]

I have no idea why anyone would consider this a PD issue. It's not a rules-breach. It's annoying, sure, but so is being locked up!

[Agar]

Well, one problem was solved *much* sooner than I though (kisses his sabers blade) and the other one was the nice guy.

I thought this might fall under the same kind of halo as spawn and run thieves, but they aren't knocking because they want to die, they're knocking because they don't.

Anyhow, I see the point, case closed.

[nitefyre]

No, no, Agar, you are right. Knocking excessively is most definitely a game exploitation issue. When not used moderately or reasonably, it is used to irritate the players into having to check their accounts as their characters light up. Especially if it is to hurry the town up to kill them. This is the same concept as behind note bombs or stealing notes.

A programming lock to it, is not a good idea, as sometimes knocking is used as code during operations...etc.

I think for a criminal, in a prison, 2 knocks per hour, with a maximum of 8 per day would be the maximum amount to incur character irritation, before it starts phasing into player annoyance.

[Nixit]

I have no idea why anyone would consider this a PD issue. It's not a rules-breach. It's annoying, sure, but so is being locked up!

Unless you deserved to be locked up.

[Appleide]

No, no, Agar, you are right. Knocking excessively is most definitely a game exploitation issue. When not used moderately or reasonably, it is used to irritate the players into having to check their accounts as their characters light up. Especially if it is to hurry the town up to kill them. This is the same concept as behind note bombs or stealing notes.

A programming lock to it, is not a good idea, as sometimes knocking is used as code during operations...etc.

I think for a criminal, in a prison, 2 knocks per hour, with a maximum of 8 per day would be the maximum amount to incur character irritation, before it starts phasing into player annoyance.

What if your characters use like a' morse code' system?

[nitefyre]

No, no, Agar, you are right. Knocking excessively is most definitely a game exploitation issue. When not used moderately or reasonably, it is used to irritate the players into having to check their accounts as their characters light up. Especially if it is to hurry the town up to kill them. This is the same concept as behind note bombs or stealing notes.

A programming lock to it, is not a good idea, as sometimes knocking is used as code during operations...etc.*

I think for a criminal, in a prison, 2 knocks per hour, with a maximum of 8 per day would be the maximum amount to incur character irritation, before it starts phasing into player annoyance.

What if your characters use like a' morse code' system?

*That's exactly what I meant by that statement.

[Sparkle]

Well, this is not a breach. Irratating? Yes.

The only thing I tell everyone to resolve this it to put them in a room inside the prison or jail. It is their right to knock and irratate you just like it is your right to lock them up and irratate them. We get letters from people who complain about getting locked up as well. What would you say if we decided to put a limit on annoyance. In that case it would be a limit on how long you keep someone locked up, reasons why people are locked up, and limits on how many people you can lock up/have locked up per day... Do you guys see where I'm going with this...It just wouldn't work.