banding together

[Lumin]

Disclaimer: I have no clue whatsoever how feasible this would be from a programming standpoint. I just had an idea and I'm putting it up here for discussion.

With all of my characters on the road I've had plenty of time during the last couple of days to reflect on just how tedious and boring travelling is. There's nothing to do, nothing to see; though you occasionally come across other travellers there's almost no point in talking to them since they're likely to be out of range before they can respond.

Even when travelling with someone you lose sight of them, unless you just happen to leave at the exact same time and be carrying the same weight. Either that or get lucky when fiddling with your walking speed, though I've never had much success with that.

So this is where my idea comes in. Say you and three friends are going to another town to trade. They're all asleep, so you let them know you'll be waiting for them and step out on the road, setting your speed to zero.

Over the next few hours they wake up one by one and come out to meet you on the road, also setting their speed to zero. Then they join your travelling project (the same for any other project) and when you log back in you see they're ready and set out at your normal walking speed.

Note that when you start to walk it triggers the project, but no matter what each person has their speed set to after this point, everyone automatically travels at the highest possible speed of the slowest person in the group.

It's a long trip, but since your friends are right there with you the whole time there's plenty of talk and RP, and it doesn't become one of those cases where you abandon your character for eight days straight because they're not doing anything more exciting than eating potatoes. Also I'm thinking it would provide employment for people serving as bodyguards, and would probably be good for trading caravans, soldiers, bandits, etc.

I know there's probably plenty of holes that can be poked into this, but I just thought I'd see what other people thought. The first thing I thought of that could cause a problem was if you were being chased by someone; in that case obviously you don't want them joining your band and killing you at their leisure. That's why I figured it would require everyone's speed to be at zero. (Not to mention the fact that you need everybody in the same place to work on a project together to begin with.) Additionally it would be a good idea for the initiator to have the ability to boot someone from the band, but again, no idea how feasible that would be.

[formerly known as hf]

To be honest, I don't like the idea of someone being able to control the projects of other characters that aren't theirs - that's the only problem... That the travelling project starts when you aren't in control...

I agree that fiddling with walking speeds is annoying and difficult, but it can be done usually...

[Lumin]

I considered that, but then again by joining the project in the first place you give your consent to start whenever the initiator is ready. The project would automatically end when they got to the next town, and preferably there'd be an option to stop participating if you changed your mind. It would work basically the same as mining stone together or any other project, except you'd all be moving.

[wichita]

So it would work kind of like a dragging project then? Sounds convenient enough. I haven't seemed to have so much trouble travelling mayself and a few of my characters have had their most pleasant roleplay interactions on the road once they finally have gotten away from the deafening whispering of the city. Actually the way you described it would seem like more work than fiddling with the speeds, or maybe it just sounded that way with all the stopping and then people coming in later. I don't know.

Travelling wouldn't be quite as boring if more people simply checked their characters while on the road. I don't think that the out of range issue is quite as big a deal as people simply not checking the characters at all. I have shouted hellos at a lot of people on the road and gotten lots of responses.

[Jetlag]

Maybe this is a daft idea, I haven't really though it through. How about, if you're on the same road as someone else, you can click on them and then click "p" like you might for dragging, and it automatically adjusts your speed faster/slower until you're next to them, and then it adjusts your speed to match theirs. Of course, it wouldn't work if you're behind them and they're going too fast for you to catch up, but they'd be able to slow down and wait for you. And for those that don't like automation, well, there's still the old fashioned way of fiddling with speeds manually.

[Lumin]

Well, it's just that usually you tell someone you want to travel with, "Okay I'm heading out, follow me whenever you wake up." Then you leave, having no idea when they're going to check their character next, and probably arrive at the next town hours or even a day ahead of them, meaning you have to stand around and wait for them to catch up; only to repeat the whole process again when heading to the next town. (And if you decide not to wait because you both know the route, you just keep getting farther and farther apart and might wind up waiting even longer at the final location...)

Or maybe I've just had really bad luck with my travelling companions, I don't know. Still, I think a way for everyone to start off at the same time and travel at the same speed would be useful.

Maybe a little too useful for armies or bandits, actually, but even if everyone shows up at a town at the same time there's no guarantee there'll be enough of them awake for an organized attack...

[Lumin]

Maybe this is a daft idea, I haven't really though it through. How about, if you're on the same road as someone else, you can click on them and then click "p" like you might for dragging, and it automatically adjusts your speed faster/slower until you're next to them, and then it adjusts your speed to match theirs. Of course, it wouldn't work if you're behind them and they're going too fast for you to catch up, but they'd be able to slow down and wait for you. And for those that don't like automation, well, there's still the old fashioned way of fiddling with speeds manually.

Jetlag, I like that idea, but the problem I see is that what if the person who uses it is the town guard or saber-wielding maniac who's trying to murder you?

That's why I put in the 'zero speed' restriction; it makes things a little more complicated, but by taking that extra step I think it would assure that any groups are formed by consent only.

[Yo_Yo]

I like your Idea, although more for the militant perspective.

Think of the initiator of the project as the leader eh?

[Nick]

Bad idea, IMO.
And I'm quite sure it will never be implemented, as automation is something that is frowned upon.

[Lumin]

Bad idea, IMO.

Care to elaborate? Discussion is always good, especially when I'm bored.

And I'm quite sure it will never be implemented, as automation is something that is frowned upon.

I'm pretty sure as well; there isn't much chance of anything major being changed after just one suggestion, or at least not anytime soon because it would probably be a pain to program and need to be balances besides. But I'm not sure what you mean by automation? Because as far as I can see, every project is automated. You click the little button and it continues on with no further input, same as with this.

[Slowness_Incarnate]

Gotta Agree with Nick here. No @ this.

[Jos Elkink]

I like Jetlag's idea the most, I think. It's elegantly simple ... And it could even be simplified, I think - just one button that matches your speed with that of the other, keeping your maximum speed in mind. The fact that you can see the button already means you're close, so no reason to catch up first ...