Away Feature

[ed1960]

After being gone for almost a month to help my son's family that was stricken by Covid, I return to the game and find that the "decay" of sentient goods, mana, and seeds are major hardships to the continuation or return to play.

The game needs an "AWAY" button that will pause all decay [see option below] and your ability to play when you have to be away from the game. I would think a week minimum [see option below] would be a good starting point. I think that this would be a fair system to preserve your city while being away and since you can't play the game or collect anything during the "AWAY" time it would not be abused.

Pros
The game now has over half the chapters with "decaying goods" and with the issues of scarcity in sentient goods, this is a critical issue to have your goods decay in a weeks time to a point that returning is not only painful but in some cases ner-to-impossible without spending more time to regain goods and not growing or participating in other events.

Options include full "no decay" or a very reduced "% of decay" for a week to provide the devs leeway.
If the city is re-opened and that would eliminate the week and consider it used and decay returns to normal.

To prevent abuse no more than 2 consecutive weeks and a maximum of X weeks per year.

Cons

While I realize this may be a tough sell due to the needed dev time, I feel this would provide more benefit to INNO from the positive narrative that the change would generate.

In addition, the implementation would require that the support staff take a firm stance on making the user accountable for the proper use and consequences of not using.

The use of the "AWAY" should include a popup that shows the time and result of its use and how it can end, this will require a yes/no button to continue in order to enable or cancel the "away" feature.

There are probably some behind the scene issues that can't be considered or are not fully explained, however, I feel this would be a very good change to be implemented. Some of this may be a positive to INNO and should be considered as such.

[edited for update of idea]

Ed

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

A similar suggestion on the Beta forum, voted on and forwarded to the devs in Aug of 2020. I don't think they liked it. @helya have you heard anything about this one?

https://beta.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/vacation-mode-no-decay-while-you-are-away.14557/

 

[Lelanya]

Welcome back Ed, you were missed. I hope that your family is feeling better.

I was also going to mention the Beta thread.

 

[Soleil Nightbloom]

Welcome back to the forum @ed1960! I empathize with players such as yourself, who had to leave the game due to special circumstances and I hope your family is doing better. I agree, that there should be an “Away” and/or “Pause” button for decaying resources when players have to leave the game.

The only concern I could possibly see is players trying to take advantage of this new feature if this gets implemented. Maybe a way to prevent cheating might be a grace period for after the player wants to resume their gameplay. I’m not sure what a reasonable time period would be, but it might help deter players from taking advantage of this feature.

 

[Sprite1313]

Since it has been over a year since the recommendation was forwarded, maybe @ed1960 should grab the pertinent details from the original recommendation and discussion and update his idea. The beta discussion was very good, though looks like it got a bit truncated before the participants could fully flesh out the idea.

 

[helya]

A similar suggestion on the Beta forum, voted on and forwarded to the devs in Aug of 2020. I don't think they liked it. @helya have you heard anything about this one?

https://beta.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/vacation-mode-no-decay-while-you-are-away.14557/

I do not see this on the suggestions list for 2020 so if it's something you'd like requested, feel free to move forward with the idea.

 

[ed1960]

Since it has been over a year since the recommendation was forwarded, maybe @ed1960 should grab the pertinent details from the original recommendation and discussion and update his idea. The beta discussion was very good, though looks like it got a bit truncated before the participants could fully flesh out the idea.

Since I do not participate in the "beta" I did not see a prior discussion and as I will not join the "beta" and as @helya noted this is something that we can move forward.

As for abuse, I have seen this option in other games that lock the account from play while in "away mode" you are unable to play during that time. I used this option and it worked well if you need more than a week you must come back after the week and reset it to away for another week. This was a great way to preserve the players' accounts and allow for time away.

Ed

 

[defiantoneks]

i like this. if the "away" or "pause" was implemented in a way that locked game play for that period, I think it would be done without being taken advantage of too much. say you set yourself as "away" and select 7 days: decay occurs for the first 2 or 3 and then stops until you log in after your 7 days are up. you would be locked out until that time. no sneaking back in… whatever time period you elect is how long you are locked out. offer up to 30 days. or maybe 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks.

 

[ed1960]

i like this. if the "away" or "pause" was implemented in a way that locked game play for that period, I think it would be done without being taken advantage of too much. say you set yourself as "away" and select 7 days: decay occurs for the first 2 or 3 and then stops until you log in after your 7 days are up. you would be locked out until that time. no sneaking back in… whatever time period you elect is how long you are locked out. offer up to 30 days. or maybe 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks.

That's an option, but would require more programming by the "dev's" I think it is best to "Keep It Simple" A fixed number of days is a single option to program.

Ed

 

[Alram]

Which chapter do Orcs decay in?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

One thing to consider with a new version of this idea is that Inno has finally gotten the auto-move working again and you can no longer block the game from moving your cities. And after a certain amount of time you will be automatically moved out of the more populated areas because you are inactive while away. And when you come back, you will have a crappy neighborhood. So being away completely for more than a short time would be a bad thing, beyond even all the decay. Also, with the new Perks system, more Fellowships expect their members to be more active, so being away for several weeks or months will mean some players will be looking for new fellowships when they return to play.

 

[Sprite1313]

One thing to consider with a new version of this idea is that Inno has finally gotten the auto-move working again and you can no longer block the game from moving your cities. And after a certain amount of time you will be automatically moved out of the more populated areas because you are inactive while away. And when you come back, you will have a crappy neighborhood. So being away completely for more than a short time would be a bad thing, beyond even all the decay. Also, with the new Perks system, more Fellowships expect their members to be more active, so being away for several weeks or months will mean some players will be looking for new fellowships when they return to play.

True, but that still leaves more options for return. At least you won't be having to overcome a seeds/mana/sentients shortfall in addition to looking for a new FS. And moves seem to be happening pretty quickly with the automove feature fixed. So the pain would, hopefully, be short-lived. Much shorter than trying to build up everything else.

I really like this idea. I think it would give players a chance for a real vacation, or to take care of family or medical difficulties.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I really like this idea. I think it would give players a chance for a real vacation, or to take care of family or medical difficulties.

Maybe, but maybe the original Beta idea was not liked by the devs and bosses at Inno because it would go against getting more people to download the app and use that when they are not around their PC. I have a cheap smartphone that runs the game just fine, so I can load up for a few minutes wherever I happen to be. People do a lot of less productive things on their phones than spending a few minutes here and there on this game. Some of the people who reject playing this on their phones are instead probably wasting their time on mindless puzzle games like Candy Crush or Wordle. lol

 

[ed1960]

Maybe, but maybe the original Beta idea was not liked by the devs and bosses at Inno because it would go against getting more people to download the app and use that when they are not around their PC. I have a cheap smartphone that runs the game just fine, so I can load up for a few minutes wherever I happen to be. People do a lot of less productive things on their phones than spending a few minutes here and there on this game. Some of the people who reject playing this on their phones are instead probably wasting their time on mindless puzzle games like Candy Crush or Wordle. lol

@Enevhar Aldarion If your only objection is that INNO expects players to participate every day, when even INNO's Employees get vacation time, is not logical, are they required to take their laptops with them to do work each day of their vacation? I think not. Also, there are times in life when spending time playing a game is not a priority, as one can imagine over the last 2 years.

This is an idea that protects players' cities and would be a massive boon to players rather than coming back to a city that is crippled. Which do you think a player is going to engender more playtime, a crippled city or one that is just as you left it before your week camping in the wilderness?

As for FS activity, Only1 FS kicked me out during my absence and I only notified a couple of what happened and that I was out for an unknown timeframe. That covers 11 cities over multiple servers, and it was also my smallest city that was kicked.

None of my cities was moved and that would not affect a city that much in the short run, and is also out of the players control, however, I could agree that a condition of "AWAY" is to not move a city because of inactivity.

Ed

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I have been playing this game a long time and I understand how all the decay stuff works, so if I have to be away for a while, I expect all that to happen. I got caught up on the chapters back when 14 was new, so each time I reached the end of a chapter, and knew it would be a while until a new one was added and the decaying goods would be needed again, I did not stress over everything decaying while I waited for a new chapter. If this type of thing were around at those times, I could have gamed the system and saved my decaying goods and taken a couple of weeks, or more, off from the game. So while something like an Away feature that freezes your account for a set minimum amount of time is good for people with emergencies, that is the only reason I see it should be used. If you can figure out a way to make this suggestion not abusable, then go for it.

On a totally separate line, I also wonder how the EU privacy laws, that all the servers have to follow, play into why the 2020 suggestion went nowhere because making a system where the players are required to tell Inno why they need to be Away may be giving them more private information than the laws allow.

 

[Sprite1313]

I have been playing this game a long time and I understand how all the decay stuff works, so if I have to be away for a while, I expect all that to happen. I got caught up on the chapters back when 14 was new, so each time I reached the end of a chapter, and knew it would be a while until a new one was added and the decaying goods would be needed again, I did not stress over everything decaying while I waited for a new chapter. If this type of thing were around at those times, I could have gamed the system and saved my decaying goods and taken a couple of weeks, or more, off from the game. So while something like an Away feature that freezes your account for a set minimum amount of time is good for people with emergencies, that is the only reason I see it should be used. If you can figure out a way to make this suggestion not abusable, then go for it.

On a totally separate line, I also wonder how the EU privacy laws, that all the servers have to follow, play into why the 2020 suggestion went nowhere because making a system where the players are required to tell Inno why they need to be Away may be giving them more private information than the laws allow.

I don't think the @ed1960's suggestion included telling Inno why you are going to be gone; nor would I propose such a change. Who cares if it is because you are ill or going to climb Mount Everest? You activate this option (premium or free is still something to discuss) and head off to do whatever it is that is taking you away from the game. Inno shouldn't care, or need to know, why you are stepping away.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don't think the @ed1960's suggestion included telling Inno why you are going to be gone; nor would I propose such a change. Who cares if it is because you are ill or going to climb Mount Everest? You activate this option (premium or free is still something to discuss) and head off to do whatever it is that is taking you away from the game. Inno shouldn't care, or need to know, why you are stepping away.

This is Inno and the overly complex EU privacy laws we are talking about. They are not even allowed to tell us a last log-in time for players because that violates their privacy. Do we think they are going to do something that will show everyone on the server that you are Away from the game, whether they ask us for a reason or not? Now that I think about that, this is probably why the original idea died. So this has to include a way to do this without it showing to the rest of the server unless we want it to.

 

[Iyapo1]

There wouldn't be any reason for this to have any type of display feature that notifies other players of your away status.

A player can do that themselves in the city name.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

There wouldn't be any reason for this to have any type of display feature that notifies other players of your away status.

A player can do that themselves in the city name.

That is voluntary, so they are willingly voiding the privacy law when they do that. Anything that is not voluntary cannot be done by Inno without breaking the law. For Inno to even consider it, it has to be done so that only Inno can see your Away status without you volunteering the info in your city name. I know a lot of people think all this privacy stuff is silly and unimportant in a game like this, but in this high-tech age, a stalker can find you because you log into a game server, trace your IP, find your home address, all that scary stuff. All they have to know is you play the game and what your log-in is.

 

[ed1960]

@Enevhar Aldarion as was stated just the user clicking a button or toggling a switch to engage "AWAY" for example 7 days, and if you fear abuse then the devs can limit it to "x" number of uses or consecutive uses. There is no Privacy issue here, just a game freeze for a specific time and just like your inactive MFG's the other users will see nothing different.

Consider the don't move me switch recently taken away, just change the wording to "AWAY" and poof you are on vacation for 7 days. Simple as that and nothing further need be done. Once you logoff you are done and set you cant log back in for 7 days, or if you can you get a notice that you cannot play until "x" date and time just the same as you cant join an FS or participate in a tourney/spire until a specific time. Seems very simple and efficient.
[edited to add]
There is no permission needed by INNO this would be a USER controlled feature.

Ed