Random encounters for players sitting or doing nothing.

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Burdi, Jun 21, 2022.

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  1. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Lock the thread & throw the whole thing into the incinerator at the maximum possible heat until it has been destroyed at a sub-atomic level.

    Toxicity even Chernobyl cannot match.

    Whoever summoned MechaGodzillaKaren needs a good slap
    Corwyhn Lionheart, Ozon and Nennius like this.
  2. Nennius Curmudgeon

    You have waxed poetic.

    But, as bad as the idea of coercing folks into interacting is, the goal of encouraging more interaction is NOT a bad one. More interaction in this game of increasing numbers of anti-social boxing armies could be a key to helping EQ live a long time more.
    Sancus and Burdi like this.
  3. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I am not seeing anything "encouraging" when players are straight up asking for punitive measures for going AFK.

    "you guys ignored me, so bad things should happen to you"
  4. OldTimeNewbie Journeyman

    This is one of the most bizarre ideas and thinking I have seen in a while.

    Burdi, you seem to not grasp the concept of AFK. It stands for Away From Keyboard. Do you somehow think that just because characters are sitting in GL doing nothing means that the players are also sitting at the keyboard staring into space?

    It is irrelevant how many characters are in their GL or GH. The concern should only be with how many players are actively playing the game and are available to group with, and more people in GH or GL does not mean fewer to group with. There is no difference between these players being in GH / GL and those same players being offline. So why not penalize every player who has an account and is not in a combat zone, even if they are offline? They should be available to group with you dammit!
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  5. Nennius Curmudgeon

    Which is why I think that talking about encouraging is a more useful approach.
  6. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Thanks for the laugh, oh the visuals of us all just sitting around staring into space!!! But then it went downhill cause I know half of us are only wearing underwear.

    [IMG]


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  7. Iven Antonius Bayle

    I have to disagree. PoK and guild lobby are full of inactive PCs and it is not possible to hide them completely. It does destroy immersion and is a weird experience to must see large crowds of zombie PCs that do look like blade fiends with the proper hidemodels command. There are two things that could be done to fix that:
    • Hide AFK PCs completely by improving /hidemodels
    • Autocamp AFK PCs after an hour.
    However I know about players, mostly the notorious Krono traders that are lurking around the PoK banks, that do use bot programs which do prevent that their PCs will ever go into an AFK status so that they are always fully visibile even when being up 24/7 for weeks.

    It is very interesting that they have those tools already. Maybe they just do not use them on the live servers because the PoK and guild lobby zones would then have ~75% less PCs up and would appear even more dead. It is in Daybreaks interest to make the world (the zones) to appear populated and alive but doing that by just making use of AFK crowds is a bad method. Something has to be done to solve the AFK player problem and the first thing would be to recognize that it is a problem.
  8. Svann2 The Magnificent

    Can we use it to spawn loot?
  9. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    How exactly does players sitting around doing nothing break immersion? That doesn't make sense to me at all. And they already have tools to remove afk players that only get used on tlp servers. If they wanted to have afk players not staying logged in they could easily do it but seeing how they don't shows they don't care if you afk in those zones.


    Why would they care if a non combat zone appeared "dead" or not? The fact is that they don't care if people stay logged in while afk as long as it is not preventing others from logging on.
    Nennius likes this.
  10. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    This thread sucks.
    Stymie and Skuz like this.
  11. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor

    Make it like Mearatas, where if the AFK player dies it’ll spawn more mobs.
    Nennius likes this.
  12. Nennius Curmudgeon

    It sucked you in.
  13. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Because the game is meant to be the simulation of a living world and not the simulation of a dead world.
  14. Nennius Curmudgeon

    I see lots of people in the real world standing and sitting who appear to be doing nothing. As such, those folks who are AFK actually help simulate a certain part of the real world. And in any case, this a game and actually not the the real, living, world. It is highly artificial and completely subjective in it's concept, construction, and outcomes.
    Skuz and Corwyhn Lionheart like this.
  15. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Norrath is meant to be an unique living world. It is not there to simulate earth and its smartphone zombies. This does mean that the AFK toons are not helping with anything. They are just lifeless and displaced obstacles that nobody does need in the simulation of a living world. It is upon the devs to fix this design flaw. It wasn't recognized as a problem in the past but now that the percentual AFK PCs do increase in size it is becoming more and more obvious which does mean that to some point it is not being noticed as a problem by the players but this point has been passed since a long time. Not for everyone of course as people have different perceptions.

    NPCs are differently as they have been placed at the right spots and only can act as intended by their AI routines. And sure many of them do act like being lifeless too. An example for bad design is the entrance area of ToV Eastern Wastes where a whole bunch of NPCs is only standing around like robots. No roaming NPCs and relaxed design there to make it appear living.
  16. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    And a living world includes people that are not out doing things, there is nothing wrong with people standing around doing nothing it is a part of every world.
    Skuz, Corwyhn Lionheart and Khat_Nip like this.
  17. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    And the devs have shown no problems with people sitting around doing nothing and being afk. The rules allow for it in noncombat zones and they don't use the tools they have to remove afk players from the world.
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  18. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Those people here did thought the same. Then their faces turned blue, yours too ? :D

  19. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Those people are doing something, you can be sitting in a single place and still be doing something.
    Skuz likes this.
  20. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Just because the pixels making up a toon are doing nothing does NOT mean that the player is doing nothing.

    They could be:

    1) playing overseer
    2) playing gems
    3) chatting with folks
    4) making something to eat
    5) taking a crap
    6) taking a nap and too lazy to log out and back in (that would be me)
    7) doing it just to tick you off
    8) tradeskills
    9) minding there own damn business and playing how they want to play with a game they pay for even if it means standing in one spot for days on end because they get to choose what they do not some person with a hair up there backside about not being able to get a group.

    Or you know... many other reasons that honestly do not really concern you.

    But now that you have shown how empathetic you are to others play styles I am sure even more groups will be coming your way so mission accomplished.

    Maybe... maybe and I am just spit balling here but ideas to encourage grouping that do not punish others might be a better idea. You know more carrot and less stick.

    P.S. if that comes off snarky I haven't had any sleep in a couple of days. But to be fair it probably would have come out the same even if I had gotten some sleep. :)
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