Online marking...

[Pirog]

I think it would be good if you could somehow see the active characters in the location. (the ones with logged in players)

I think it would promote more discussion with people you haven't talked to before, and would of course be a good thing for those characters that you like to small talk with occasionally.

What do you think?

[InsaneIrony]

Hmm... If it were to show 'awake' and 'asleep' then assassins and thieves and such would know when to attack. So then the thing of an army killing a sleeping town would be rather real.

[Nick]

I like this idea a lot, it could really improve gamplay.
And one of the rare original ones I've seen on this forum...

[Báng]

If there was a 'asleep' and 'awake' button to see who was active that would be good. When you log on your chars automatically waken, but then could change their status to sleeping, gaurds could pretend to be sleeping and then jump on the theif...although this may defeat the whole purpose of the idea...so balls to that.

[kroner]

The problem with this is that the game can't tell when someone is on or not, only when someone does an action. The only way this awake/asleep thing could work would be if it automatically showed your character awake for a given period of time, like 5 minutes maybe, after each action. But then it would show people awake for 5 minutes after they go to sleep.
Anyway, I don't really like the idea. It's been mentioned that it would make it really easy for criminals to know just when to strike. Sometimes I also find it useful to pretend I'm asleep when I don't want to respond to someone (good for politician characters ).

[mrsE]

The problem with this is that the game can't tell when someone is on or not, only when someone does an action. The only way this awake/asleep thing could work would be if it automatically showed your character awake for a given period of time, like 5 minutes maybe, after each action. But then it would show people awake for 5 minutes after they go to sleep.
Anyway, I don't really like the idea. It's been mentioned that it would make it really easy for criminals to know just when to strike. Sometimes I also find it useful to pretend I'm asleep when I don't want to respond to someone (good for politician characters ).

But the game keeps track of my time. Should that be able to connect to some sort of "online alert" thing?

[nitefyre]

So it'd be from the time you log in and then for 5 minutes afterwards? That'd make someone's name light up on the people's menu?

Sounds interesting, but to avoid any argumentation, I will not express my opinion. =\

[kroner]

But the game keeps track of my time. Should that be able to connect to some sort of "online alert" thing?

the way it works I think is that when ever you click something, it figures out the amount of time since the last click on that login session and deducts the time. There isn't any running timer. For instance, if you login and then do nothing for 100 minutes, when you click something it subtracts 100 minutes, but as long as you do nothing, no time is deducted and so you can login again before doing anything so that you don't lose all that time.

[rklenseth]

Yes, Kroner, is correct.

[mrsE]

But the game keeps track of my time. Should that be able to connect to some sort of "online alert" thing?

the way it works I think is that when ever you click something, it figures out the amount of time since the last click on that login session and deducts the time. There isn't any running timer. For instance, if you login and then do nothing for 100 minutes, when you click something it subtracts 100 minutes, but as long as you do nothing, no time is deducted and so you can login again before doing anything so that you don't lose all that time.

Ok, so the only thing would be some sort of "these people did something last"

[Jos Elkink]

Guys, the game is really not at all designed to be a real-time thing. It is supposed to be a relatively slow-paced game. We are definitely not going to program features that stimulate playing the game like a real-time one ...

[UloDeTero]

I realise that the game is not meant to be real-time, but it would be good, if possible (in my opinion), if I had the chance to have a proper IC chat with someone who will actually respond sometime soon.
How about integrating some kind of chat server so that people can see who's online right now and talk to them one-on-one without having to wait and wonder.
By the way, this wouldn't make the whole game real-time, just the conversation. And of course it would be optional, so people could easily play without it if they wish.

Personally, I think this is a great idea, especially as I thought of the same thing myself!

[Sho]

IRC? (well, if it weren't broken, anyway)

[creepyguyinblack]

It would be interesting if people who planned on having an indepth one on one conversation had an option to open up some sort of chat/IM window so as to avoid the annoying page of
"You see so and so talk whoosit
You see whoosit talk to so and so
...
...
..."
and so on. The main problem is that if there was an indicator displating a character's player's online/logged in status, that this would lead to abuse and people waiting deliberately for people to be logged off to commit crimes.
Perhaps when a character speaks directly to you, you would have the option (perhaps within a certain time limit) to click a chat button appended to the talk message to open this dialogue.

[UloDeTero]

I realise that the game is not meant to be real-time, but it would be good, if possible (in my opinion), if I had the chance to have a proper IC chat with someone who will actually respond sometime soon.
How about integrating some kind of chat server so that people can see who's online right now and talk to them one-on-one without having to wait and wonder.
By the way, this wouldn't make the whole game real-time, just the conversation. And of course it would be optional, so people could easily play without it if they wish.

Personally, I think this is a great idea, especially as I thought of the same thing myself!

{SORRY FOR DOUBLE POST! PLEASE DELETE THIS!}