Topic: What do Characters do when Players go offline?

[Morgul]

[...]You can schedule to attend a class (book larnin'), then spend time in the simulator. This way, you wouldn't have to be spending all your time online in those areas to advance your skill areas. Also, you don't particularly have to worry about safety - odds are you won't come back and find that someone bombed the school or something. However, the law of diminishing returns takes effect - you can spend more and more time in the class, but you won't be getting nearly as much out of it (until you're actually getting nothing at all by being there). This way, players have to return to gain the practical, real-life aspect of their training and redo their schedule for new classes and simulators.

Well, we could also charge exorbant prices for simulators. You would either have to rent them, or buy them... and then rent/buy the programs. (Unless your character is good enough to write them.) So... all this is going to cost money, and more people will be pretty broke. Hell, the more I stop to think, the more I feel that the average player is going to have to work for a living, instead of just messing around, since they will run out of money pretty quickly. Problem will be when they run out of money to the point where they can't make money... We'll need to think about that situation. (compare it to real life, and see what options are available to people in real life with not money.)

Hmm... the possibilities!

--Chris

[contingencyplan]

Well, as far as simulators, for people in the military, they will have the simulators and classes already done and provided for by their military group. That would be a benefit to joining a larger group like that (whether Terran / League, or a player-started group) - you don't have to pay for things like simulators and classes, as the group provides them to its members (since the group wants its members to be trained as good as possible).

I don't think we should charge exhorbitant rates for simulators and classes, though. Individuals will have to purchase time in them, yes, but the reason to actually return to playing the game is the diminishing returns on simulators and classes, not on the rates charged for them. Yes, they may well go broke, but they may also have their schedule set up where they can either profit or at least break even every time step. High rates will only succeed in pissing people off.

The money issue is something else entirely that we should discuss in the money thread (I'm sure it's floating around here somewhere...) :-).

[Morgul]

OK, good point. Ugggh... I want to get the theme changed for these forums... I liked the other one sooo much better... (don't worry, we're working on it.)

[contingencyplan]

At least we have some forums again. And the features on this one are looking promising.

[Oceanus]

Okay. Before I start I did not read everyones post seing as how they were mostly WAAAAAY to long.

Just to make a list of what the disadvantages and advantages are to doing the player offline thing.

The Good:

1. Players earn more cash.
2. Dont have to keep doing repeditive task.
3. Just a suggestion...Maybe when you pic a skill to level it it takes a certain amount of time to train that skill depeding on other factors.

For example.

Lets take Joe. Joe wants to be able to level up his skill w/o being online. Joe pics a skill and it levels up for him w/o having to kill NPC or other players online while joe is offline. So it will depend on time...not the amount of players Joe kills.

4. Alot more players will play because of this.



The not so good:

1. Bots will ruin game. which equal no fun and just a zombie controlling you.
2. There isnt any challenge left which goes with the first one.
3. Less gamers but those are probably people who want to do it the easy way.
4. Where is the human interaction when there isnt anyone controlling the other player? it will be a zombie filled universe galaxy.



There are exceptions to this thing though.

It cant be used for fighting seing as how bots are faster than the human hand and pressing keys.
But in a way they should be primarily used for mining, Trader runs(Able to attack if being attacked. Defending itself). No one wants to check up on mining.

To solve the account thing of some guy going off and making lots of accounts and botting. Limit eachplayer to one account. With 5 character slots only. This is usually the norm for stopping that. Limit them by the IP. If they want to go out and buy another computer just to bot then I feel sad for them.