Autopause and Vacation Pauses

[Chenier]

The report before my last utterly vanished (pausing making me lose guild positions)... I've never seen this before. Was there anything wrong with it? It's not marked as fixed, it's just gone without a trace...

[Tom]

split from a topic it had absolutely nothing to do with. why put this question into an important sticky topic, chenier?


Regarding your question - you got any more details, like a number or so?

[fodder]

#0007466 <--- this one? perhaps you haven't set it to show "closed"?

[Chenier]

#0007466 <--- this one? perhaps you haven't set it to show "closed"?

That's the one! I couldn't find it anywhere anymore.

As for why I wrote this where I did... I don't know. Might have been a mistake, might have been sleepy. I can't recall.

[Chenier]

Wait, what? Cold storage removes you from guilds intentionally?

Why on earth?

[fodder]

at the top left of tracker is something called status. click the link will allow you to filter things.. try setting it to "any"... similarly, hide "none"

[Anaris]

Wait, what? Cold storage removes you from guilds intentionally?

Why on earth?

Cold storage is a type of pause that is effectively indistinguishable from disappearing forever.

It must be, because anyone who pauses their character this way—or has it autopaused for them, which uses the same code—cannot be assumed to ever be returning to the game.

It's not fair to people who are actively playing their characters to have valuable elder slots—and other guild positions—taken up by characters who might very well be gone forever.

Put bluntly: If you want to keep anything but your characters' reputations, you need to keep playing them.

[Chenier]

Cold storage is a type of pause that is effectively indistinguishable from disappearing forever.

It must be, because anyone who pauses their character this way—or has it autopaused for them, which uses the same code—cannot be assumed to ever be returning to the game.

It's not fair to people who are actively playing their characters to have valuable elder slots—and other guild positions—taken up by characters who might very well be gone forever.

Put bluntly: If you want to keep anything but your characters' reputations, you need to keep playing them.

So what do I do if I know I'll be unable to play for a month or so, but cannot say for sure if I'll be back in three weeks or in nine?

And is this explicitly stated on the pause page? Because my understanding is that one of the options auto-unpaused on its own, while the other did not.

As for elder slots... That's for the elders above to decide.

[Anaris]

So what do I do if I know I'll be unable to play for a month or so, but cannot say for sure if I'll be back in three weeks or in nine?

You do a cold storage pause, and accept the consequences of being out of the game for an entire month.

And is this explicitly stated on the pause page?

This, I'm not sure. I will check, and if it's not, I will make it very clear.

Because my understanding is that one of the options auto-unpaused on its own, while the other did not.

Yes. The Vacation Pause auto-unpauses at a specified time.

As for elder slots... That's for the elders above to decide.

No, actually, it's not—partly because this includes the top elders in it. If you're the #1 or #2 (with no founder), then what happens if you say you'll be gone for a week, but then don't reappear for another 6 months? Or ever?

[egamma]

What's the max duration for vacation pause?

[Chenier]

I prefer the old pause system...

[egamma]

I prefer the old pause system...

the old pause system is similar to the vacation pause.

[Chenier]

the old pause system is similar to the vacation pause.

Can I unpause early? If so, what's the maximum pause time?

[Anaris]

the old pause system is similar to the vacation pause.

The old pause system was an awful mess. It was not consistent in what was lost between a regular pause and an auto-pause, and not in any way that followed logic (they just used separate code, even though it was supposedly doing the exact same thing).

Furthermore, because the old pause system was trying to cover two very different (but both very common) situations with a single mechanic, it caused problems in both cases.

[Anaris]

Can I unpause early?

Yes. (Though there may still be a bit of cleanup that I haven't yet done regarding that. Should only be cosmetic, though.)

If so, what's the maximum pause time?

(For vacation pause, I presume)

Should be 3 weeks. We went back and forth on the right length of time for a good long while. Remember, though, that vacation pause also keeps things like your estate and army sponsorship, so it can cause a big problem if you're going to be gone for a significant length of time.

In the end, we felt that 3 weeks should be adequate for the vacation pause, and if you are going to be gone from the game longer than that, you really need to use the cold storage pause, and accept the consequences.