Making the most of limited playing time
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:28 am
I don't work at a job with a computer or much on the job down time. Beyond that at least once a week my job takes me to remote areas where I might not even have cell service for hours on end to sneak a quick read of an events log during a break. Sometimes not being a part of the regular computer access + cantrspy crowd can leave you feeling like an outsider as you play. So how do you get the most enjoyment out of the game if you might not play it for more than a couple hours spread out over the week?
I have a few ideas.
First, don't expect too much from your characters. You're not going to have 15 dynamic town leaders on 3 min a day each. If you play an influential character, then build a way to work around them such as a second person with the keys and authority to act while you're sleeping. Frankly I pick favorites and play them first. They are my most interesting, dynamic, and involved. And if I don't get to my other characters I don't get to them.
Try not to overspawn. I've done this over and over again. When nothing is going on with my characters while I have some free time to play, I make a new one. Then I have an 8 day stretch of heavy real life schedule and I can't keep up with two thirds of my characters. Instead of spawning new characters create a couple self activated characters with little or no responsibilites. Creative characters are good for this. When you have some free time, wake up your bard. Sing and dance, then fall back asleep. The trick is low responsibility, proactive instead of reactive, and fun. An unusual character that can get annoying if you're playing them every day can be enduring if you're doing it once and week.
Ctrl+f is your friend. Say you're in a town that is too busy for you to read everything that 's going on. You click on your character and bam: text wall of relationship drama and and that guy who thinks he is a fish emoting all by himself. If you've been offline for a day or two and your character is working for someone or asked a question before you went offline, then ctrl+f and search your characters name in the events log. There is a very good chance if someone is answering a question or talking to your character they will use your name. I do this all the time when confronted with a wall of text I don't have time to read so I don't have to sit there asking the same question over and over again hoping that the person I need to answer it will be online while I am. That gets really annoying from the other end too. On my sailing characters when I am in a noisy port I search my ship captain's names to see if they are saying or doing anything I should pay attention to (for example saying goodbye and going into the harbor) and I do it to find where I left the conversation off last time I was online ctrl+f "you say"
Event page text wall solution 2: Modify your game skin to make important events stick out. I have mine color coded with CSS, something I knew nothing about when I did it, but now I can scan for purple text (whispers), skip over anything in blue (radio) and jump into action when I see red (attacking, dragging, wait nevermind just a pillow fight). Other's have changed the size of the text or greyed out things they care less about. Resources http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26881, http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18625
Investing some time in making your user interface more user friendly for what you need will save you a bunch of time in the long run.
That's all I got for now.
I have a few ideas.
First, don't expect too much from your characters. You're not going to have 15 dynamic town leaders on 3 min a day each. If you play an influential character, then build a way to work around them such as a second person with the keys and authority to act while you're sleeping. Frankly I pick favorites and play them first. They are my most interesting, dynamic, and involved. And if I don't get to my other characters I don't get to them.
Try not to overspawn. I've done this over and over again. When nothing is going on with my characters while I have some free time to play, I make a new one. Then I have an 8 day stretch of heavy real life schedule and I can't keep up with two thirds of my characters. Instead of spawning new characters create a couple self activated characters with little or no responsibilites. Creative characters are good for this. When you have some free time, wake up your bard. Sing and dance, then fall back asleep. The trick is low responsibility, proactive instead of reactive, and fun. An unusual character that can get annoying if you're playing them every day can be enduring if you're doing it once and week.
Ctrl+f is your friend. Say you're in a town that is too busy for you to read everything that 's going on. You click on your character and bam: text wall of relationship drama and and that guy who thinks he is a fish emoting all by himself. If you've been offline for a day or two and your character is working for someone or asked a question before you went offline, then ctrl+f and search your characters name in the events log. There is a very good chance if someone is answering a question or talking to your character they will use your name. I do this all the time when confronted with a wall of text I don't have time to read so I don't have to sit there asking the same question over and over again hoping that the person I need to answer it will be online while I am. That gets really annoying from the other end too. On my sailing characters when I am in a noisy port I search my ship captain's names to see if they are saying or doing anything I should pay attention to (for example saying goodbye and going into the harbor) and I do it to find where I left the conversation off last time I was online ctrl+f "you say"
Event page text wall solution 2: Modify your game skin to make important events stick out. I have mine color coded with CSS, something I knew nothing about when I did it, but now I can scan for purple text (whispers), skip over anything in blue (radio) and jump into action when I see red (attacking, dragging, wait nevermind just a pillow fight). Other's have changed the size of the text or greyed out things they care less about. Resources http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26881, http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18625
Investing some time in making your user interface more user friendly for what you need will save you a bunch of time in the long run.
That's all I got for now.