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Kereth · 06-10-2010, 03:59 PM

Okay, in Sasca's defense, I've played NW too, during and after the beta, and I encountered similar issues (Can't comment on the advancing thing in the South, 'cuz I never played that side). Now, maybe Sasca had the same situation I did, logging in during a low traffic time zone, but when the mud would reboot, it'd take several hours before the population got back over 60% or so, and most of that was in the first few seconds, with people who had autoreconnects set on their client. It was a bit tricky to find people awake and doing stuff sometimes, but then again, I was playing on European time, and I suspect most the players were from the States, so they might all have been sleeping and the game was probably much more lively the rest of the day.

I also never got kicked out for being idle too long. Is that a new feature? I previously idled overnight, sometimes over 24 hours, without ever getting booted, nor did it ever affect the counter to my next roleplay bonus, whether I was awake and at the keyboard or not. The amount of the bonus was also pretty transparently calculated from the character level, without regards to how much time was spent idle. People spent a lot of time sleeping. I did too, at times. You could go into the immigrants' and typically find at least one out in the general area and then several more napping in the serf lounge. The sleeping quarters in the main guilds were more crowded. Again, take my time zone into account here.

Now, this isn't totally a bad thing, from my perspective. Your character does have to sleep sometimes, and with the way people are at each other's throats so much in that game, you've got to provide away for people to murder one another in their sleep. If you're away and inattentive, you're sleeping, and your character acts accordingly, similarly people are mostly resigning their idle time to sleeping quarters, with a flag to say they're asleep, which reaffirms the sentiment, unlike if they were sleeping in the street or at the pub. Where it got sketchy was just for some characters who, while not roleplaying as lazy slackers, spent far over 8 hours a day idle (understandable from out-of-game circumstances, of course), and when people would often address possibly-sleeping others with questions like "Are you aware?" which was a sloppy coverup for "Are you unidle?" (It's -possible- that those people just kept typoing "awake" too me rather often, but after hearing that question so many times. . .)

The game as a whole? Not too bad, if a little on the quiet side during my hours, but I liked it mostly for the community (in a "plenty of people to roleplay with" sense, not that they were necessarily exceptional roleplayers or nice people), not the game mechanics or world, which I found a little dry. Would I play again? Yeah, I might go back someday, if the urge takes me. Roleplay is fun, wherever you do it.

But in summary, Sasca's comments seem a fairly accurate reflection of the game as I saw it, though perhaps showing those facets as more significant deal breakers than I did. If the bonuses given by NewWorlds no longer qualify as idle exp, it's probably been due to fairly recent mods. It has been almost a year since I played there last, after all.

06-10-2010, 03:59 PM	#23
Kereth Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Home MUD: www.retromud.org Posts: 61	Re: Idle exp Okay, in Sasca's defense, I've played NW too, during and after the beta, and I encountered similar issues (Can't comment on the advancing thing in the South, 'cuz I never played that side). Now, maybe Sasca had the same situation I did, logging in during a low traffic time zone, but when the mud would reboot, it'd take several hours before the population got back over 60% or so, and most of that was in the first few seconds, with people who had autoreconnects set on their client. It was a bit tricky to find people awake and doing stuff sometimes, but then again, I was playing on European time, and I suspect most the players were from the States, so they might all have been sleeping and the game was probably much more lively the rest of the day. I also never got kicked out for being idle too long. Is that a new feature? I previously idled overnight, sometimes over 24 hours, without ever getting booted, nor did it ever affect the counter to my next roleplay bonus, whether I was awake and at the keyboard or not. The amount of the bonus was also pretty transparently calculated from the character level, without regards to how much time was spent idle. People spent a lot of time sleeping. I did too, at times. You could go into the immigrants' and typically find at least one out in the general area and then several more napping in the serf lounge. The sleeping quarters in the main guilds were more crowded. Again, take my time zone into account here. Now, this isn't totally a bad thing, from my perspective. Your character does have to sleep sometimes, and with the way people are at each other's throats so much in that game, you've got to provide away for people to murder one another in their sleep. If you're away and inattentive, you're sleeping, and your character acts accordingly, similarly people are mostly resigning their idle time to sleeping quarters, with a flag to say they're asleep, which reaffirms the sentiment, unlike if they were sleeping in the street or at the pub. Where it got sketchy was just for some characters who, while not roleplaying as lazy slackers, spent far over 8 hours a day idle (understandable from out-of-game circumstances, of course), and when people would often address possibly-sleeping others with questions like "Are you aware?" which was a sloppy coverup for "Are you unidle?" (It's -possible- that those people just kept typoing "awake" too me rather often, but after hearing that question so many times. . .) The game as a whole? Not too bad, if a little on the quiet side during my hours, but I liked it mostly for the community (in a "plenty of people to roleplay with" sense, not that they were necessarily exceptional roleplayers or nice people), not the game mechanics or world, which I found a little dry. Would I play again? Yeah, I might go back someday, if the urge takes me. Roleplay is fun, wherever you do it. But in summary, Sasca's comments seem a fairly accurate reflection of the game as I saw it, though perhaps showing those facets as more significant deal breakers than I did. If the bonuses given by NewWorlds no longer qualify as idle exp, it's probably been due to fairly recent mods. It has been almost a year since I played there last, after all.