Seizing people (- when they run too fast to be dragged)

[SekoETC]

A situation you see far too often in big places: A newspawn starts running in and out of buildings, you try to talk to him but he's usually left the room by the time you click the speak button, or if they're around they might still run a bit more before realizing someone said something. If a child was going hyper you'd naturally grab them and hold them to speak some sense into them but this is Cantr, no can do.

Solution, seizing. The button is available and works even if the target is in another room, provided there are no locked doors between. I'd also like it to work for people on unlocked vehicles (even if there's too much weight to get another person inside) and for people who are 0% travelling. What it does is move the target into the same space with the seizer, kinda cancelling the last enter a building or start travelling click.

To limit this action, I suggest putting in a time limit. For example 5 minutes. It sounds quite short but would be useful. If there is no time limit it's possible to drag people out of unlocked buildings (or locked too if you have the key) after they've been there for a while, probably working on projects, chatting with people, now in that kind of a situation you might as well drag. If you try to seize someone who hasn't been in your location for over the time limit, you get "Error: Location of target uncertain".

After you've seized someone, you're engaged in a project "holding". You can't seize other people or do other stuff until you've cancelled it. While being held, the target cannot leave the current location. Ok the target should have a chance of freeing himself but success should be random, and first attempts of freeing yourself would automatically give "struggles in vain" so kids would have a chance to calm down.

This is a realtime solution to a realtime problem. Cantr is a slowpaced game but picking up things and running is fast paced. Currently the only way of stopping someone is to kill them (impossible to do fast unless there's at least two well equipped, strong characters online at the same time) or to drag them into a locked building (impossible if the target has already jumped on a road 5 seconds ago or if they just entered a building). The other way would be to put a delay to entering buildings, leaving town, picking up things, locking doors... ok it would be realistic but for people with a dial-up connection it would be royal pain.

[T-shirt]

A solution could be to make any action, besides talking, a project. Moving into a building could be a very short project of say 5 minutes. Only problem is the timeflow of Cantr where - as far as I know - an hour is the shortest period of time of a project.

[SekoETC]

Yeah I said that in the end. But if you don't have solid fees on your web connection but have to pay for every minute then having to wait five minutes after every move (or to switch between characters/tasks) would be extremely annoying and causing extra costs.

[The Sociologist]

Moving into a building could be a very short project of say 5 minutes.

I take it you don't have any charries who are town-leader or "Jo Jo" types. Sorry, but what you suggest is just not on.

And as for the topic, if a thief is slippery enough, good for him.

[Talapus]

Thieves already have a near impossible time of making it clear with stolen goods in many cities. Besides, a change like this would prevent people from being able to play their characters quickly (10 or 15 min), and I know some people don't have as much time to play as you or I.

[Black Canyon]

No

Sorry, but what you suggest is just not on.And as for the topic, if a thief is slippery enough, good for him.

I have to agree. Although it is annoying to have a would-be thief running in and out of buildings too quickly to drag, I would be concerned that any code-based solutions to address this could backfire and instead be used for evil purposes.

Or be so tedious as to be intolerable. I certainly do not want entering and exiting buildings to require any additional effort or time. I am shuddering at the thought.

[Snake_byte]

Instead, there could be a type of "struggle" for a person being dragged. Being able to leave a dragging without even knowing you were being dragged wouldn't happen in RL. So maybe if you're being dragged and you tryed to move to a different area you could get some kind of message or brought to a diferent window where you had the choice to fight it or not. Make it a project or somthing.

[SekoETC]

But the thing is the "thief" might not even realize they're stealing. It's easier to explain things to a newbie if you can stop them from running around, poking your machinery, picking up everything and so on - gosh that's annoying, like a three-year-old with ADHD high on sugar.

I don't know what is it with the discussion always going off tracks. I didn't suggest making entering buildings a project, that was T-shirt. Knowing that suggestion is out of question, let's concentrate on the original suggestion shall we?

If you could seize people, that would give more chance to a bloodless solution to stopping a thief because if they can't get on a road or can be dragged back from a road, there's no need to hit them. There's still a chance to escape, you just need to run when no one is watching (online).

[SekoETC]

I added a poll, hoping people will finally realize the benefits of this system.