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Congrats on the new forums!

This is more a question, but I am sure others wuill have suggestions based off it -- what happens to items that players place, then log off and never come back to the game again, ever? It seems that there could be a LOT of perma-clutter building up over time. I don't know a good solution for that, but it might be an issue best worked out in advance?

Hey Brash!

Thanks, been working on getting this up over the last few days. I had to dredge up my long lost php knowledge to get the forum's authentication calling against the main Lugdunon auth server.

Please mind the icons, buttons, and other style gremlins as they will be replaced soon.

Abandoned clutter is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed, and one that I have been thinking on a bit in the back of my mind. A couple of things could be done to lessen the impact:

• Implementation of safe zones (such as spawn, and places that are important to the narrative that the GMs are creating) that would prevent normal players from placing items or modifying the terrain in any way.
• Cleanup scripts that could be run periodically that would remove items placed by players whose activity falls below a certain threshold.
• Expire placeable objects that have been placed by guest accounts after they log off.

lugdunon wrote:

• Implementation of safe zones (such as spawn, and places that are important to the narrative that the GMs are creating) that would prevent normal players from placing items or modifying the terrain in any way.
• Cleanup scripts that could be run periodically that would remove items placed by players whose activity falls below a certain threshold.
• Expire placeable objects that have been placed by guest accounts after they log off.

That sounds nice. There's also the option to implement decay, damaging the item daily after some set period that no activity of the player has been detected, and different item categories (not sure how/if you classify items like this) could decay slower or faster.
Containers and high value items (like houses) could decay slower than fences and workstations, for instance.

lugdunon wrote:

• Cleanup scripts that could be run periodically that would remove items placed by players whose activity falls below a certain threshold.

Cleanup scripts could just run NPCs that wander around picking up and removing stuff? Makes the world seem a bit more alive.
Removing stuff that belonged to a former player is a bit riskier. If someone has built upon something a former player created then that will also be destroyed.

gabeux wrote:There's also the option to implement decay, damaging the item daily after some set period that no activity of the player has been detected, and different item categories (not sure how/if you classify items like this) could decay slower or faster.

Decay is fine and all, but constantly running around fixing stuff thats low on durability will get boring. I suggest a "rot" system instead; clutter on the ground will be covered in soil (sand/dirt/moss) which will be possible to retrieve with a shovel or another similar tool at a later time (archeology). Buildings will deteriorate when not used (this will regenerate when used), creating ruins.

Example of this system:
A group of players decide to set up their own town, but after a while they all leave the town for various reasons. 2 years later a player wanders into the desolated town which now only consists of the stonework of the houses that once stood there. Nature has regained most of the area as wild trees, moss and other plants have sprung up through the streets and buildings.

You raise some very valid points WondahFish. This is a tricky problem to address, which is why I haven't tackled it yet. It is on my todo list though, so I'll get around something eventually.