[DGD] Pet peeves for users in a MUD

[Dread Quixadhal]

Personally, I think many of these problems go away once the player realizes
that dropping connection during combat will NOT get them a free pass.  I've
played several MUDs over the years which do NOT magically whisk you out of
harm's reach, just because you went linkdead, and don't see why people would
expect it to happen anyways?

Let's look at the most successful MMO to date, World of Warcraft.  11
million people don't seem to mind the fact that if you lose your connection,
your character will still be in-game for up to a minute, and if you were in
combat, you stay in combat (now doing only auto-attack and not being able to
change facing).

In short, just stick a timer variable that counts down the time since you
discovered they went link-dead (last time you tried to send them output,
probably), and don't actually kick them off for a minute.  If they're in
combat, tough.... wait for the combat to resolve before you start the
counter.  As long as you're clear about that up front, I doubt anyone BUT
the cheaters will care.

I've actually considered doing that on my game and taking it one step
further... once you DO actualy kick them off, put a statue object with their
description in their place.  I know I'd find it amusing to be wandering
around and find a statue of another player at the edge of the orc
encampment.  It might tell you were the players are "camping" for respawns
too. :)