Avlis policy on: Logging out dying, community membership

Post by **Orleron** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 3:23 pm

Ok, here's the deal. We have a recurring problem here that is a result of the way NWN works. In other games like UO, you can't log out when in trouble because your body stays in the game for 10 minutes after you log out, unless you are in your house or camping. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this with the NWN engine, so we need to set some things straight.

** First, we will probably never be able to get rid of this problem alltogether, so you'll have to just accept it sometimes.

** Second, these things should be handled by HONEST roleplaying as much as possible. If you are truly roleplaying an IC confrontation, and you get taken down to negative hitpoints and you happen to disconnect during that time, you should immediately log in and give all your stuff to your killer. This is to simulate them taking what they want from your corpse while you were prone and bleeding, or even dead. That's the honest thing to do. If you get taken to negative hitpoints and log out and then log back in later to avoid the kill, and you refuse to give up your stuff, then you are not being an upstanding member of this community.

** Third, OOC information should not be used IC to kill someone, however also keep in mind that a persons character can know things the player of the character knows in some situations, certainly if they took the trouble to find out IC. So don't fault someone if they legitimately found out something that they knew OOC before. It all boils down to good roleplaying.

** Fourth, logging out when you see someone log in is bad form and bad manners, but there isn't any way we have the power to do anything about it. Just don't cry to me when the Avlis community starts thinking less of you.

And finally, the Avlis application process is very lenient. We let just about anyone and everyone in. Why? Because I designed this game to give everyone a chance and to not judge people before we let them show their colors.

HOWEVER, as Avlis' population grows, it will become necessary to start taking care of the community like you would a pet or a plant. That means that eventually we will have to start "trimming the fat" by banning people who though they may not have necessarily done anything wrong, they just aren't fitting in with the community very well. Once you fill out your application, you are getting a chance. If you blow that chance, or you prove that you aren't helping advance the Avlis community, you should be taken out of the game. Other servers will reject you outright, we at least gave you a chance to give it a shot.

SO, keep that in mind when you do stuff like logging out during tough situations, or when using OOC information to kill somebody. It may not be controllable by us, however we will take these things into account when we go to "prune" our membership. So beware. The same also goes for the borderline exploits.

Strangg · Post by **Strangg** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 4:19 pm

AMEN!

~S

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 7:54 pm

Much agreed...
This raises an almost slightly off topic question though...
Lately... as in, only in the last two days... I have been
getting crashes BAD... I've never had Neverwinter actually
freeze on me... but lately it has been. I run Win2k, so
normally Dr. Watson grabs a hold of it, and I get back to
my desktop... but this is the worst kind of freeze... the kind
that requires a reboot.

Strange enough though, this happened while fighting a Druid
of Verosa last night... and when I came back, the Druid was
dead... Meaning, my character was still there for a short time.
How should this had been handled if I was the one who died
during my crash period, instead of the druid? Should I have
paged a DM? Should I have posted for restore? Or should I
have just accepted my plight and grunt ahead to replace my
stuff?

And before I am done rambling... is there any recent addition
to the world that might be causing this? Because I have not
changed anything on my system, including not installing anything
recently... and this has never happened before...

-Themicles

choraldances · Post by **choraldances** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 8:26 pm

Themicles wrote:Much agreed...
This raises an almost slightly off topic question though...
Lately... as in, only in the last two days... I have been
getting crashes BAD... I've never had Neverwinter actually
freeze on me... but lately it has been. I run Win2k, so
normally Dr. Watson grabs a hold of it, and I get back to
my desktop... but this is the worst kind of freeze... the kind
that requires a reboot.

Like all "big" games, this will happen if you play it TOO much. And I get this too a lot, when that happens, I just do this, uninstall, Scandisk, defrag, and install. And the performace is a lot better after that.

I usually scandisk and defrag at least once every two weeks, and it has helped lately.

Strange enough though, this happened while fighting a Druid
of Verosa last night... and when I came back, the Druid was
dead... Meaning, my character was still there for a short time.
How should this had been handled if I was the one who died
during my crash period, instead of the druid? Should I have
paged a DM? Should I have posted for restore? Or should I
have just accepted my plight and grunt ahead to replace my
stuff?

Sure, blame on Verossa

Why is someone blaming Verossa everytime there is a "destruction" problem. Hmm, wait, Verossa IS a goddess of Natural Destruction.

But what you should do when your charcter is dead is that, like you always do, take the bullet and make the run.

And before I am done rambling... is there any recent addition
to the world that might be causing this? Because I have not
changed anything on my system, including not installing anything
recently... and this has never happened before...

-Themicles

Like I said, this will happen when you play too much of the game, try what I suggested, it has helped me

jadeia · Post by **jadeia** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 5:23 am

Totally agree here.

IMHO, the scariest thing when RP'ing is: "I know I am trying to RP to the best and mosy honest of my ability, but will that person also do his fair share, and not attack me/kill me/etc with ooc information..."

But I can speak for the majority of players here, that we all try our best to have fun, be fair, and only uce IC information.

As Choral said, you should defrag/scan disk/ etc as often as possible. Set it up as an auto schedule to run at least once a day for scan disk, and once a month for Defreag - run them during the night when your asleep - or in my case, while im at work, because I dont sleep at night, Im usually on Avlis...

Remember, us Perth people have to reverse our lives so we can RP when the rest of you do ;(

Melakin Skywieder · Post by **Melakin Skywieder** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 8:32 pm

/quote....
And before I am done rambling... is there any recent addition
to the world that might be causing this? Because I have not
changed anything on my system, including not installing anything
recently... and this has never happened before...

-Themicles[/quote]

I'm new to the online version of NWN but have had a problem with the game freezing while loading new (or old) areas. I thought it would be better online but in fact it seems to be worse. I do not believe I have yet (in about 3 day of playing) left the game on my own accord. In fact the freezing is such that I cannot recover at all and must reboot my computer. If anyone else had this problem and knows of a solution I would be interested in it (unless it is format the HD which I will not do for a single game issue).

And a big thankyou to all who have helped me so far.

Melakin

Drakken Talbey · Post by **Drakken Talbey** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 8:39 pm

An uninstall and reinstall of the game, then patching to the latest version is always a good thing to try when encountering numerous crashes and freezes.

storminj · Post by **storminj** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 8:59 pm

I had a loading problem when my drivers were not up to date. I am not saying this is you problem but my OEM sound card has been a pain in my NWN ass.

Storm

storminj · Post by **storminj** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 9:09 pm

I have a confession to make about logging in and out. I was playing in the wilderness by Elysia and ran into some titanian nymphs that whooped my ass. I died and got brought back in Equiloria keep by mikona. I managed to get help and was on the way through the fighting zones when my computer went down. Well it was late, I was frustrated with my computer and my wife was grumpy with me so I logged out of Wilderness and into Elysia and went to my body from there becasue it is alot shorter. I just got some stuff I didn't want to lose and the wilderness server was shaky of late. I am sorry that I did this and realize that it was wrong.

Storm

Vanor · Post by **Vanor** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 9:18 pm

storminj wrote:I have a confession to make about logging in and out. I was playing in the wilderness by Elysia and ran into some titanian nymphs that whooped my ass. I died and got brought back in Equiloria keep by mikona.

What you did isn't the same thing at all.

The problem is when people log out to avoid death. What you did was hop to the elysia server to get your stuff back after dieing.

Due to how things work on the wilderness mod, what you did I wouldn't consider wrong, idealy you'd respawn back in someplace in T'Nashi, not in M'Chek after dieing.

storminj · Post by **storminj** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 9:58 pm

It made me feel dirty. I have never logged off when dying. I got thrown off a couple times when I started out just to come back and find my stuff gone. Some of it was computer problems and part server crashes. Otherwise I always sit there yelling at the computer when I lose another hit point and waiting for it to stop. I am kindof addicted to it really. There is a adreniline rush that if you dont' stop bleeding you are going to have to make the naked run.

Storm

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:28 am

I must say that I've not had a reason to log out when dying anyway.
Why? Because I have been extremely friggin lucky. In the four times
I have died since I got passed level 1, I got down to -8 at the lowest,
then started recovering... thats a heck of a wait.

As for the reinstalls. Aye, I can agree on that working. In fact,
spent 4 hours doing that to another machine on my network last night.
As for the defrag and scandisk in Windows 2000:

A) Scandisk on Windows 2000 has been known to corrupt system
files, thus forcing a complete "refry" Besides, I have been running
scandisk due to system crashes, and everything is fine.

B) The defrag that is built in to Win2k SUCKS! No, wait, my science
teacher always said nothing sucks, so I must say that it BLOWS...
heh
If a drive is above 15% fragmented, you can expect it to stay that
way with the Win2k defrag..

Example:
A drive is 40% fragmented. You run disk defrag. It gets it down to 30%
Now, normally, in say, Win98, you run defrag again, and it gets better...
Not here. Run defrag as many times as you want after that initial run,
and it wont move.

So, on that note, anyone have any suggestions as to which retail
defrag replacement for Win2k works the best? My fiance works at a
Comp USA, so we can get a discount. Just don't want to end up buying
each one, before finding which one is the best.

-Themicles

Actually · Post by **Actually** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 5:50 am

The Jet Defrag tool that comes with Ontrack's FixIt utilities is pretty handy.

Bye Now,
Jerry Cornelius - We love you Fosi, wherever you are.

Drakken Talbey · Post by **Drakken Talbey** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 2:45 pm

Themicles wrote: anyone have any suggestions as to which retail defrag replacement for Win2k works the best?
-Themicles

None of the Windows platforms have had a good, stable defragmentation utility. -My opinion- They all have been extremely slow as well.

The defrag utility that has worked the best for me, (I have tried many), is a product from Executive Software called Diskeeper.

Publisher's main page:

http://www.executive.com/coverpage.asp

Download page on ZDNet:

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-209 ... tag=launch

Free trial, 30US to purchase.
This one will defrag your HD about as well as it can be and does so in a speedy manner.

Note: I have used with 98(both first and second ed.), Me, and XP. Not 2k.

Cameron Klym · Post by **Cameron Klym** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 11:57 pm

I agree with the Avlis team's view on logging out when dying , etc. Unfortunately I have been forced to do just that by my wife ( I am not using my wife as an excuse or making her into the bad person here , she just gets ..um..excited( you could say) sometimes.I love my wife( and kids) more than I love being alive , and I have been married for about 17 years( been to gether for 19). So , when the wife comes to me and says ( in that certain tone of voice, you married guys know what I mean) time to get off , I am expected to get off that very second , if not sooner . I sorry for this , but , thats part of married life. I have only had to do this once(twice at the very most ) , but I still feel bad about it . Anyways if any Dm's want to penalize me for this , then feel free to do so . I was forced to shut down last night( 22:30 hrs , 17 march 2003) when Tor was in the beastlands( what is up with the beastlands replacing arborea , has Tor changed alignments or something I do not know about , thats funny, LOL).
I have also been having problems with the old computer locking up or , crashing , or, how about this one: All of a sudden the computer exits on its own! I am not kidding or BSing here , I am dead serious!! I have had it looked at by a couple of people who trouble shoot computers for a living and they do not know why it does this. Strange, is all they could say( well the rest of what they said is not fit to print here). I mean that one moment I am playing Tor on Avlis and then all of a sudden the exit menu pops up and it goes through the exit routine all by it self. When I try to stop or countermand it , nothing changes. I know people may not believe me , but thats their problem . I think it may have to do with my bioeletric field my body puts out. I may kil every electric watch that I have ever owned just by wearing them( they all stopped working in less then a month and putting in a new battery does not fix the watch ( wierd). I have tried wearing a grounding cable but it seems to not help. If anyone has any ideas , I would like to hear them. Ok sorry to ramble on here, thanks for listening.

Cameron/Tor

Jorio Alerian · Post by **Jorio Alerian** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 12:05 am

Cameron Klym wrote:So , when the wife comes to me and says ( in that certain tone of voice, you married guys know what I mean) time to get off , I am expected to get off that very second , if not sooner .

I feel your pain. Every night I feel your pain. I get those "looks" and that "tone of voice" often.

Any chance we can get another new board started for a support group?

.

Heronimous Fox · Post by **Heronimous Fox** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 8:01 am

I luckily dont get those looks....the comments yes....but my 3 year old keeps wanting daddy to play something noisy...

"Daddy come on, hurry up" echo's from the living room

regards

and bye

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 8:12 am

Jorio Alerian wrote:Any chance we can get another new board started for a support group?

.

AAA
Avlis Addicts Anonymous
rofl

Sorry for the off topic. I couldn't resist that cheesy one.

-Themicles

Aradan Kir · Post by **Aradan Kir** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 9:39 am

The thing I hate most is when I've died and I'm doing the naked run back to get my stuff, and then my wife complains that I've been playing too long, and it's time for her to get some attention ....... knowing that if I leave now, there's no way my stuff will be there when I next return.

Tis a tough choice ...... lose my +2 plate armour, or lose my marriage?

I have tried explaining that it's not like FIFA, where the game can just be paused, and I've tried explaining the naked mile thing - but I'm not sure she understands.

I also think her views have been clouded by seeing me sat butt naked in the Rompin Romini baths chatting to 2 similarly attired young ladies !!

Umbrata Velvet · Post by **Umbrata Velvet** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 10:00 am

Well, ever since 1.28 possesion bug had become a lot more rampant. This is the only reason I log out in a fight. I am bugged, and can't control my char anymore, creating mayhem in my party etc by that.

The other reason I may disapear is due to laggig out and disconnecting in a fight. Not my choice, either.

Hopefully either of these instances can be detected by the search routine. Else, auto search for those who chicken out may catch a lot of people who don't. (No critic, I simply don't know what your script covers).

Bioware may never find the possesion bug despite all their searching because with thier inhouse-testing they neve play over a real-life transatlantic connection. (Yesterday I read an article on NWN vault concerning possesion bug with commentary from bioware guys.)

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 1:38 pm

Well, ever since 1.28 possesion bug had become a lot more rampant. This is the only reason I log out in a fight. I am bugged, and can't control my char anymore, creating mayhem in my party etc by that.

The other reason I may disapear is due to lagging out and disconnecting in a fight. Not my choice, either.

I agree - these both happen to me as well. I would not logout during an encounter except for these reasons and I log back in again asap.

denor firefly · Post by **denor firefly** » Sun Mar 23, 2003 10:41 am

ooc I'm tottaly agreed with thze things you said Orleron
*murmling*
Druid Of Verosa aren't that some kind of dog shaping nature lovers...

Alanon Baldor

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 4:51 am

While we are on the subject of community membership...

I would like to ask the players to please if you feel like there is a problem with a DM/Team Member, then use the PM and contact them about it.

When contacting them, try to not go into attack mode, and try to state your problem and resons/suggestions etc in a calm clear manner.

If this does not resolve things, or if you feel that you cant go this route, them please by all means contact a Senior DM, Major DM, or send to the anonymous email.

Lets all try to have fun here, and keep in mind that ont the other side of the monitor is a person, a person who will get defensive if you attack them, get offended if you are rude to them, and who is also wanting to have some fun.

-Alexandru Stanicu
Avlis Team, Senior DM

SSH83 · Post by **SSH83** » Thu Apr 24, 2003 7:24 pm

Orleron wrote: SO, keep that in mind when you do stuff like logging out during tough situations... It may not be controllable by us, however we will take these things into account when we go to "prune" our membership. So beware. The same also goes for the borderline exploits.

I did that so many times.

But that's mainly because with my ping, there is no point trying to run away by moving in-game. Not trying to justify it or anything, but I'll try to stop doing that.

And now the original reason why I went to this place:
Do I need to submit anything before making a new character? Cuz my current one is a lawful evil rogue/monk, and it's kind of hard to play murderous evil when the character is so weak. (Nobody selling the magical kama that this character heavily depends on.)

My new character will be a true neutral half-orc barbarian/fighter, with an emphasis on walking balance between nature and money.

izyk · Post by **izyk** » Thu Apr 24, 2003 7:56 pm

I did that so many times. But that's mainly because with my ping, there is no point trying to run away by moving in-game. Not trying to justify it or anything, but I'll try to stop doing that.

If your problem is really high ping times, then you may find combat difficult no matter what character you play. That usually a good time to stay away from mass hand to hand battles, and focus on archery.

I play a LOT. Lag is rarely ever so bad that I die because of it. If you experience plenty of lag, try turning down your graphics settings, eliminate shadows and even reduce your resolution. See if that helps.

Do I need to submit anything before making a new character? Cuz my current one is a lawful evil rogue/monk, and it's kind of hard to play murderous evil when the character is so weak. (Nobody selling the magical kama that this character heavily depends on.)

No, just make your new character and play him. BUT

If your character relies on a magical item of some sort, you are going to have a very hard time in Avlis. There should be no problem playing a murderous monk, but you will be weak for a long way.

It wont matter how magical your Kama is...try to kill off Glocknall Heartcrusher or Yvarra on your first few days in Avlis, and I want to be there to giggle while they make you knock your own teeth out, and eat them.

That doesnt mean you can't play a murderous monk / rogue. But if you want to go killing characters right away, I recommend traps, powderkegs, subterfuge, eavesdropping and manipulating more powerful characters as a mean to an end. Anyone can kill a commoner and loot the body. It takes an artist to make a paladin kill that commoner for you :->

I would hate to lose a lawful evil monk in preference for another half-orc barbarian. Monks are less powerful, they die in combat more than fighters, and they don't get much in the way of mystical weapons. But you can't disarm a monk, loot me him of his fists or armor, and if a monk manages to stun you, well .. game over.

Whatever you do, keep it in character.

The World of Avlis

Avlis policy on: Logging out dying, community membership

Avlis policy on: Logging out dying, community membership

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