Offline, but really Online [COMMAND]

ArchivedUser

There are times when you want to play the game without actually alerting everyone that you are online.  It's great to have your friends list and guildies see you pop online on a specific character (maybe even account), but there are times and a myriad of reasons when you may just want to be left alone for a little bit.  Star Wars Galaxies had a great feature/command that players could toggle at will that would let you log in and play incognito.  The game wouldn't alert anyone that you were actually online, even if they did a character search, unless the happened to run into you in the game world, or sent you a random /tell, then they would never know you were playing.  

I hope that the Ashes team implements something similar.  It was a fantastic feature, and there are plenty times when you may need to log in and use it. 

Example:  Let's say for instance you didn't have a lot of play time, and are only checking/doing some stuff real quick, but you certainly don't have time to answer 20/20 questions from the 15 people all trying to send you tells and trying to meet up.

/thoughts?

ArchivedUser

Depends on how the bounty system is implemented. SWG came up with that command because people abused the friend request system. If you had a player bounty you could friend request them which would show you when they were online, even when they had not accepted the request. As long as the command can't be used to circumvent game systems to get an unintended effect I am all for it.

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

Depends on how the bounty system is implemented. SWG came up with that command because people abused the friend request system. If you had a player bounty you could friend request them which would show you when they were online, even when they had not accepted the request. As long as the command can't be used to circumvent game systems to get an unintended effect I am all for it.

While that is definitely a good point, that too, in my opinion could be construed as a form of abuse towards the player.  Let's say that someone has built up corruption, but not necessarily as a result of  real ganking, and/or let's take our feelings (pro/con) on ganking out of the equation for a moment.  Now that person will then have his/her game play time effectively "abused",  by having multiple players knowing when and where he/she has logged in at, to essentially be "gank farmed" until they lose enough corruption.  So now we would be subjecting someone to the exact same behavior that we are trying to dissuade, and the same behavior the devs are actively trying to design out of the system.  Quite the conundrum. 

ArchivedUser

Yep, will be interesting to see how they address it. Standard "we will see during testing" comments apply.

ArchivedUser

If you were willing to risk gaining corruption shouldn't you be willing to risk dealing with it even when you don't want to?
I mean, that's how you got it right?

I'm all for a "nobody can see my name on the server mode" but hiding from corruption or playing in an 'offline' type environment that somehow prevents you from being subjected to PvP doesn't seem to fit into Ashes very well.
*I know nobody suggested this*

ArchivedUser

They could very well make it so that while corrupted those options are not available. They have already stated that the system considers you a "monster" in regards to the flagging system, wouldn't be too hard to make that encompass chat commands also. Just like an active friends list is part of the flagging system, chat command options could also be limited in that state.

ArchivedUser

While I dont we should be able to 'hide' from players in the game but maybe disable our names from the player list, obviously corrupted players would have these options disabled since that would just allow them to hide from players effectively.

ArchivedUser

Seems like the mechanic would disable names from popping up but not the ability to track Corrupted. Bounty Hunters don't need to know the names of the Corrupted as long as their locations show up on the map.

Even though I spend most of my time soloing in MMORPGs, I find it hard to imagine wanting my main to remain incognito in Ashes. Probably because I expect to be always working towards progressing the node and would always want the citizens of the node to be aware of what I'm doing.
And I want the citizens of the node to be able to easily alert me if/when there is some form of attack.

ArchivedUser

The devs like to give players "risk/reward" choices.  They spell out very clearly how you become corrupted.  At that point, I'm sure it is their intention for you to have to live with your choice.  I can't see them giving a hiding mode at all for corrupted players.  I can see the option being available for non-corrupted players. 

ArchivedUser

A /Do Not Disturb feature where tells are turned off would seem sufficient to let friends, guildmates, and others know you need a little "me time" or are otherwise unavailable.  

Complete incognito type features like /anon that Dark Age of Camelot had as far back as 2001 which make your character unsearchable and appear totally 'offline' unless as you said you can actually see the character are intrinsically contrary to the nature of MMORPGs as social games and ripe for abuse.  Even leaving the Corruption system totally out of the discussion, a general /appear-offline mode conflicts with the guild and Node city community cooperation and warfare focus of Ashes of Creation.

Taking on a guild leadership position or being an in-demand crafter/raider/etc. often does involve fielding the inevitably unceasing requests for your attention and time.  Managing those things and others expectations are part of the gameplay. (Even if you manage that by having another totally unassociated character you play at such times.) 

From a guild management perspective having the ability to see when members who have joined the guild are online or not or when they were last online is a reasonable expectation.  Especially in a competitive PvP focused game where cooperation, coordination, espionage, infiltration, and even sabotage will very much be a part of the gameplay.  Having an '/invisible mode' to entirely circumvent those kinds of guild roster features would be unfair to players who step up as community organizers whose ability to manage the typical herd of cats is difficult enough.  

ArchivedUser

I suppose if you really wanted a 'get a way from it all" character you could try another server?  Surely a toon on another server would not show up on a guild search that was on a different server, especially if you are unguilded.