Just reading my deletion thread this morning and thought of an idea that seems simple but may not be simple to code or do so I thought I would throw it out and see what you think of it.

To improve communicaton for characters seeking Imm feedback on a task or quest they have been set either for a Tattoo, empowerment or induction into the patron's cabal it can often happen that login times varey too greatly and characters lose hope (eg Dusatoit recently)

Now Imms are supposed to be omnipotent beings looking over the lands of Thera and hearing all prayers destined for their ears but we as players realise this is not the case and sometimes a mortal and an Immortal can be like ships in the night, passing unnoticed. The Imm doesn't want to send a note because that ruins a little of the mystique and it is also a little ruination if you log in the next day to find out you are empowered when you completed the quest because it is better to be annointed by your Immortal patron (that said I still think it is better than nothing!)

So how easy would it be to code something similar to the dream mob where, for example, Thror sees that logins are not meshing but he doesn't want the mortal to lose faith and so on the mortals next login Thror has a mob called the Avatar of Thror (or whatever he wants to call it) that comes to Dusatoit in his guild or wherever and says to him 'Keep the Faith Skjald, The Thane enjoyed your works and has not forgotten his devout!' Words I made up but each Imm with their RP muscles flexing could have the description and name and words catered to their follower to that effect.

I guess it is almost like an out of office reply but it could help bridge a small gap when RL is kicking an Imm's ass or vice versa.

I'm sure there has been a lot of changes since I was kicking around up there but there was a lot we could do. Normaly you will never miss a pray because if you're not around you can search a log of them later on. I would often search for my name, or symbol or cabal I was part of when I logged in. That way I could get a feel for who was praying for me and when they were.

Granted, dream mob is a cool tool to use, though not sure how much work it would be for Zulg and others to make a que to allow it to fire upon logging in. Plus you then have the problem with that person instantly running to your shrine and thinking you are on and want more interaction. When none is given, they think they are being ignored or didnt follow the instructions correctly.

I'm probably the only one but I've never considered the gods of Thera to be omnipotent at all. I've always approached it as using examples from other religions that have had a pantheon of gods rather than a single one omnipresent deity.

In Greek and Roman mythology the gods were not omnipotent. They didn't know everything. And you could sneak stuff past them almost all the time. Sure they would find out eventually but that's because the gods always had agents/allies/etc who would pass along information to them.

An example of this would be when Hades kidnapped Persephone and her mother, Demeter, had to search for her daughter because she didn't know where she was. When she couldn't find her she made all the crops dry up and Zeus was the one who had to go find her.

But that's just me. So I guess if people look at it from that perspective then it makes sense that your god may not know who you are until they actually meet you. And you can use notes/email to coordinate this.

EDIT: Additionally if you read the mythology of CF you'll see that this perspective is how you should look at it. Especially when the IMMs run easter egg hunts.

"I am an omnipotent god that knows all and sees all.... now where'd my eggs go?"

Don't think the system would work otherwise.

I think I may need a little more information, because looking at it form the imm-side of things, I don't understand why this is helpful.

If I haven't caught you on in a billion hours, then the problem isn't that I don't have a way to leave you a message, it's that I don't know you and therefore I don't have anything to say. I don't think this would help that.

If I'm impressed and need to give you something that I've already picked out (immortal experience, a title, more empowerment juice, general 'attaboy!" peptalk, etc.) I have plenty of options. I can get one of my imm buds to pull the strings for me or I can leave you a detailed note (and we have even more toys in our "note" toolbox than we used to.)

If the issue is more that you want to know we're logging on (when you're not) and feel bad about never seeing you vs. we've gotten hit by a bus and/or have no idea you exist...then that's kind of what the dormant wizlist list and emailing immortals for problems catching them in game are about. We've recently (though I'm not sure it's implemented) even discussed ways to keep the wizlist more up-to-date than it sometimes gets.

>If I'm impressed and need to give you something that I've
>already picked out (immortal experience, a title, more
>empowerment juice, general 'attaboy!" peptalk, etc.) I have
>plenty of options. I can get one of my imm buds to pull the
>strings for me or I can leave you a detailed note (and we have
>even more toys in our "note" toolbox than we used to.)

Hon, you and the immstaff are limiting yourself here in this respect. You could do amazing things (Inception-style) automatically that would blow the mind of the player. Like, the next time they log in *and* go to sleep, start a dream sequence. Make it so they can't wake up and are "protected by an unseen force" and/or give a custom description to let players around them know something special is happening just to that player. If the note structure for 2.4 is *anything* like 2.3, then the coding shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.

But I digress. Just trying to say there's no need for you to get other imms to pull strings for you when you're not around, and this would add amazing flavor to the empowerment classes. One of the things that keeps me from playing empowerment characters is that I hate to pray for hours on end with 0 interaction. It's happened plenty of times before. However, if there was something in place that would ease the kind of frustration mentioned by the original poster, all that would do is enrich CF.

But my major point is...if we're never logged on at the same time, I don't know you. If I don't know you, I don't want to give you presents/cool things, etc. I may not care if you get a dream, but if I don't know you, I can't customize a dream for you. So it's not a tool limitation, it's a a "pssst...I'm not really omniscience, (but don't tell anybody)" limitation.

I've never thought, oh man...if I could just queue up some echoes for this guy, I'd totally rock his world! I've thought...huh, I wonder if this guy is any good. Wish our times meshed better so I could watch him and chat with him to see if he's any good.


I'm also curious...how often are you guys seeing dreammobs used? I kind of forgot they existed until sometime last week and I busted one out for a follower (who then ran off and got himself killed... sorry, guy!)

I've had dreams. Not sure what you mean by dreammob. Sounds neat. So, for me, probably never.

You don't know him, but yet you can show that you hear his payers and you care for the player, and probably appoint time or something like that.

Often all that is required is a sign that our effort is not going unnoticed.

Also, there are offline empowerments. This mechanics may make them more interesting in RP wise much more entertaining for both and imm, and a player.

Sometimes you actually know player, but your playing time do not match - and you have something to tell/give/remove to/from the player, but you cannot catch him in his playing time. In this situation, it would help too.

I've been empowered many times, and I personally had situations when my imm been looking for me and couldn't catch me during 3 weeks (and thats a LOT). So it is useful for both sides.

Keep in mind I don't know CF's code ofcourse ...

Have a 'upon log in' check that displays all buffered messages, targeted to you.

(As a receiver, I suppose you could be put in ghost status for as long as the text is scrolling by (similar to the new post-crash thing).)

As the sender, it could be just like a note (with only one (non-cabal) receiver):

dream to Dusatoit

dream yellow + The clouds part and a bright light pierces through.
dream cyan + As the light envelops you, you feel invigorated.

dream send

Sort of a delayed note with a destructive autoread.

Skeleton should be similar.

Assuming that the note structure of 2.3 and 2.4 (even modified, why add a bunch of complication to the note system??), it would be really easy to set this up via their note.c file.

In fact, looking at it, there's potential here for them to do some REALLY cool stuff, if they were up to it. Not just "sending dreams" to the players, but delayed imm experience (like if an imm was about to reward it and the player quit out) or smackdown, a bit of automated immteraction, or whatever their imaginations come up with. And execution looks easy as hell.

I know it's not going to happen, but thinking about the possibilities gets me giddy. Custom-made automated imm quests delivered via pre-programmed avatar... God, that would be cool.

This would be great until some bug caused the Avatar of Thror to spam me with dreams. GET OUT OF MY MIND.

But then they won't be able to say, "Oh I can't believe you deleted, I know it's been 600 hours of us ignoring you but was just about to give you *Insert super awesome thing*!"

That which does not kill us,
makes us stronger.

The Avatar of Thror says, 'Yer cryin' like a lily-arsed pig herder intead o' bein one o' the mightiest warriors o' Thera!'

The Avatar of Thror punts you to the Sea of Despair!!!!


The Sea of Despair
Surrounding you on all sides is a great deal of salty water, reminiscent of the tears you shed as a child in your mother's lap.

And this is good too, yes, and would be very interesting as well.

nt

It would save me from deletion many times, and would make gameplay much more enjoyable.

I remember when I've deleted my paladin after 40 hours of praying and found afterwards that Imm was looking for me and our playing time didn't match at all (at that time I think there were no offline empowerments, or this particular imm didn't do it for RP reasons).

And I remember there were a big flame about one shaman (forgot his name) who deleted/reactivated because of the same time problem (afaik).