Holiday mode for Characters

[Addicted]

For single characters I vote no to Doug's sugestion of unspawning simply because it would be misused (if they keep everything). If they drop everything then it seems why do it. And when they reappear in the town I now run and have keys to, in my building and are empty handed...who gets the lollies?

Hibernating sounds better as per EchoMan's suggestion, in that they won't starve, can't work and no events are seen as if the character died, and then they wake at a given time. I'm not sold on a random delay if you want back in early. Maybe a set delay? But that's trivial. Then they take the risk of being killed etc for the keys.

I would like a way to keep all characters on ice for a limited time, more then individual ones, I guess. And I think there would be less ways to misuse. But it defeats the purpose of cutting down on characters due to lack of time.

[EchoMan]

I'll have to check the other thread to see if it's suitable for merging, since this topic isn't entirely about hibernation.

My suggestion for individual hibernation gives a possibility to RP the hibernation, preparing for it, give your stuff away etc. If there is a button to hibernate all of your characters I don't think there would be much RP or prep?

[Doug R.]

I'm in full support of EchoMan's proposal. Also, let's not call it hibernation (stasis is better). That's one of the things that got the old thread hung up - Piscator started talking about woodchucks and cocoons and it derailed the whole thing.

[SumBum]

If the issue is simply that people can't stand seeing a lit up char, then maybe it would be easier to have a checkbox next to each char name on the list. Let that toggle whether or not the char turns white on new events.

[EchoMan]

I believe there's a little more to the issue, as has been described above. Instead of having your chars die of starvation and poor RP when you are busy in life, put some of them in stasis for 50 days or until you think you'll have more time.

Instead of sleeping and dying, they prepare for - and enter - stasis. All RP'd IC.

[Doug R.]

If the issue is simply that people can't stand seeing a lit up char, then maybe it would be easier to have a checkbox next to each char name on the list. Let that toggle whether or not the char turns white on new events.

The players need to be prevented from even checking the character. It's not just a matter of them not lighting up, because they'll still know things are going on and look.

[Piscator]

I support EchoMan's suggestion.

I would appreciate it though if we would keep this an OOC thing and allow characters to come up with an own explanation why a char has become irresponsive (Hibernation, meditation, a new form of sleeping sickness etc.).

I'm also not sure if we need a random emergency wake up duration. A fixed duration would probably work equally well.

[Doug R.]

I have no objections to what you said, though, for internal purposes, we need to call it something, even if we don't call it anything in-game. I still like stasis. There would be nothing preventing characters from coming up with their own terms/explanations.

[SekoETC]

If it was explained as going traveling in the area between roads, that would make sense. And it might even explain why you'd have to leave all your stuff behind. Maybe you could only enter while carrying 0 grams. It would make more sense than being turned into a statue or turning invisible. Maybe there could be random sightings of somebody moving in the outskirts of the town while someone was on vacation on that area, letting the townspeople know that one day someone might return.

[IvanicDiazinum]

This all seems very... unnecessary.

Chars who don't so much as say a word for a decade easily survive in some places, depending on social status and local friendliness. I don't see the necessity of allowing them to survive without food, it's all very unrealistic anyway.

Realistically, it's not very difficult to arrange for a very long sleep with a little prep time. Fifteen kilos of raw potatoes is well over three IG years of food, and it's another year before starvation. Locking one's things up is not too difficult.

In the end, I think it boils down to this: how much power do we want to give individual players, versus allow for social interaction as a solution? This is only a 'problem' for an individual who has no social connections that will support a long sleep. Any char with a few decent friends will get fed, so long as they trust he/she will wake again. Same goes for watching their stuff and keeping them unharmed. In the real world, would you be able to live in a hibernated state for an extended period of time with no food? Of course not. But could you enter into a state of no work and few words, while someone who loves you makes sure your needs are taken care of until you are back to your old self? Of course, happens all the time.

If we make the world too easy (as it is right now, I'd argue many other factors are set to make living too easy, but that's another topic for another time), it will be the death of whatever sparse society exists right now.

[Doug R.]

If it was explained as going traveling in the area between roads, that would make sense. And it might even explain why you'd have to leave all your stuff behind. Maybe you could only enter while carrying 0 grams. It would make more sense than being turned into a statue or turning invisible. Maybe there could be random sightings of somebody moving in the outskirts of the town while someone was on vacation on that area, letting the townspeople know that one day someone might return.

I don't like this at all.

@IvanicDiazinum - You missed the point entirely.

It seems to me that many players, possibly the majority, tend to kill off characters when they are going to enter a period in their lives that won't allow them to play these characters adequately. They say that they have to, because if they're there on their screen, and they light up, they'll have to check them. .

This suggestion has nothing to do with anything you mentioned.

[IvanicDiazinum]

@IvanicDiazinum - You missed the point entirely.

O...kay, that's very helpful. Good to see this discussion is moving along productively.

Would you care to describe why a feature like this would be beneficial for the game?

[SekoETC]

I assume it's because established characters are valuable through their personality and life experience, and if the other alternative is unsubbing, people would rather take a certified way to get back to the environment they left behind rather than having to rely on their friends to keep them fed for years with no instant gratification. But whether it was feeding for years or not having to do anything to ensure a character's survival, I think most people someone used to know would be dead, and most of the rest would be emotionally detached, having found new friends/lovers/business partners. So even though people might use the feature if it was available, it wouldn't stop them from unsubbing a few days after coming back once they realize that the world has moved on. A lot of people unsub and come back. Maybe it's healthier to start over every once in a while rather than having an account full of very old people.

I think what I wrote earlier made sense, but if you think it's completely unrelated then I won't post about it anymore.

Oh, except if you meant that they would respawn in their 20s. Then it would be completely different.

[Doug R.]

@IvanicDiazinum - You missed the point entirely.

O...kay, that's very helpful. Good to see this discussion is moving along productively.

Would you care to describe why a feature like this would be beneficial for the game?

Because it's highly disruptive for the game for someone to starve off characters, then come back three months later, start a slew of new characters, half of which they don't even play, then lament on the forums how they really wish there was a way that they didn't have to kill those old characters off. I have spoken to people like this. It has nothing to do with getting your friends to feed you. It has everything to do with - "I'm so addicted to this game, that if I don't kill off these characters, I won't get this very important thing done irl that I absolutely need to get done." I know people, right now, that are planning on killing characters in the next month that would use this feature if available. This is why I suggested it.

If you don't think the phenomenon I describe is disruptive, see one of my essays on why Cantr characters are fundamentally untrustworthy and how that undermines the society simulator aspect.

@Seko - I don't like the fabricated idea of wandering off into inaccessable places. What if it's not in-character for someone to travel (a prisoner, for example)? I'm with Piscator, in that it should be left to the characters to decide what it is they're actually doing.

[Doug R.]

Ok, just to try to keep this moving:

We could allow the Cantrian race the ability to hibernate. They would still be killable, and drop everything (except clothes?). They would have to make sure they have a relatively secure area to hibernate in. Doing it in the open would probably be bad for health.

There could be an option to set the number of days you wouldlike to hibernate. You would not be able to view events or anything, it would be like a game lock for that particular character. If you come back before the time you have specified, there is a set penalty period -Doug

This idea has a solid +2 from Piscator and I.

It seems that the majority of the opposition to this idea came from a lack of understanding of why it was being proposed:

It seems to me that many players, possibly the majority, tend to kill off characters when they are going to enter a period in their lives that won't allow them to play these characters adequately. They say that they have to, because if they're there on their screen, and they light up, they'll have to check them.

Because it's highly disruptive for the game for someone to starve off characters, then come back three months later, start a slew of new characters, half of which they don't even play, then lament on the forums how they really wish there was a way that they didn't have to kill those old characters off. I have spoken to people like this. It has nothing to do with getting your friends to feed you. It has everything to do with - "I'm so addicted to this game, that if I don't kill off these characters, I won't get this very important thing done irl that I absolutely need to get done." I know people, right now, that are planning on killing characters in the next month that would use this feature if available. This is why I suggested it.

Instead of having your chars die of starvation and poor RP when you are busy in life, put some of them in stasis for 50 days or until you think you'll have more time.

Instead of sleeping and dying, they prepare for - and enter - stasis. All RP'd IC.

Seko suggested that it may never be used as intended, as players would come back, find everything changed, and unsub anyway. As there's no evidence to support this, and it's a very broad generalization, I don't think it can be used as an argument against implementing it.

Seko's alternate proposal involves the character disappearing "between roads". The benefit of this is that there's no body to harm. The downside is that it's extremely limiting both physically and circumstantially: Physically in that you'd need to be outside, circumstantially in that wandering off into the wilderness may be very out-of-character, and then the character would have to fabricate some kind of experience since they weren't technically unconscious.