[Suggestion] Show derelict players in /friends list

Hi gang!

I think the friends list is truly one of the more exciting recent features which got added to EMC. And it's probably not much of a surprise when I say that there are quite a few players in my friends list (even though I don't add players casually).

Here's the thing: just like with followers and watched threads on the forums I also go over my friends list every once in a while to see who's in it, who I regularly met and who I hardly see and I make a habit out of cleaning up my profile every once in a while. For example: on the forums I sporadically stop following players when I noticed that they went derelict. It doesn't make much sense to me to follow an in-active player (of course there are exceptions).

So yeah, our friends list already shows a difference between regular players and supporters, so I'm wondering if it could also indicate derelict players?

I think this can help us out a lot. And I'm not only talking about knowing who probably won't be coming back soon, but what about a nice warning that you might want to start voting for your friend so that you can protect them from losing their stuff?

I think you're wrong there.

Had I voted for Palmsugar when she went derelict, it would've helped lots of people. She, I and many others miss her residence. Sure, we have the memories still, but it'd be great to check the place out every once in a while to relive the past and walk around places where great moments happened.

Same with Lasluin.
And I'm sure, same with many others.

I can agree with that, key issue though is if they aren't playing at all or may have simply miscalculated their timing. IMO it depends per player.

It happened to me one or two times where a player went derelict (which I noticed), I voted for them to keep things alive and not much later they came back. In those cases it definitely helps.

Still, I mentioned this as an added option. The main idea is basically to see which players no longer play so that you can opt to remove them from your friends list.

I can understand that "targeting" players like this might not be the best of ideas, but perhaps a "/friends clean" or likewise option could be established to remove derelict players from there?

Agreed, if I had realized she was going derelict I'd probably also have tried to step in. Was kind of a shock to learn that this happened, I just hopped over to SMP5 and indeed

Kinda sad too. Did you know that I picked my SMP5 residence because it was close to Palmsugar's?

But on the other hand the situation also backs up Krysyy's words a bit. I also noticed that Palm is once again derelict Of course that could be related to the first issue, sure, but.. yeah... I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here.

I can see your points here, for both sides, but I'm going to have to say no on this occasion. It would encourage people to vote for people that no longer play, doing that would cause new members to have less places to go to get a new residence. We had to get town expansions because EMC was filling up, so for the reason of allowing new players to have space, I'd have to disagree with this suggestion.

If one of your friends is going to go derelict for a reason, then they should get in contact with the staff for protection as Krysyy aforementioned. If one of your friends left without giving you or anyone else a reason and did not ask for protection, then that was their choice and their res will be reset to allow for those new members to have a place to go.

As I said, I can see your reasons for both sides, but in conclusion, I think it would further encourage people to allow their friend's residences to stay for longer even though the person is no longer using EMC.

I find it hard to agree with you because I had a lot of emotional value attached to the two of these lost residences, but rationally speaking...
what you're saying makes sense.
Thanks for explaining your thoughts!


(this is what I love on EMC, you don't need to take one side and then just bash, you can share thoughts and even change viewpoints while retaining a friendly manner :D)

I understand your points, but unfortunately, emotional value of a res no longer used by the owner is not as important as it is to keep areas clear for new players on the Empire. If a player is not going to be active, then they do not need their res.

I know it's a strange example, but it makes my point - your family's old Volvo. That car was awesome and I am sure that you had emotional value with that car (at least to some extent, a memory), but there was a point where your parents knew that the value of keeping the car was no longer as important as making sure your family had a more economical car. Or, think of a house, sometimes you have to move and you have emotional value to your old house, but at the end of the day, it's a way of life and we have to move on and just keep the memories.

I hope that makes my point quite clear, as I said, I do understand emotional value is important and everything, but if the player has moved on then it's time for the rest to move on too

Wait, voting keeps you from going derelict?

Yes. If you vote then the derelict timer will be reset back to 7 days (if you are below that threshold of course!). SO a vote every week will make sure that your residence sustains.

Of course; a vote every day is even better because you'd build up a streak and there are some nifty bonuses attached to that.

Huh. TIL.

I've actually just been voting every day and not actually logging on (because I'm not updating to 1.10 until Optifine does), thought I'd have to log in before the month was over so I didn't lose all my stuff.

Nope, as long as you vote everyday then you can't go derelict as it will reset the streak, as aforementioned!

Well, that's good to know!

hmm perhaps a better idea than a dereliction message next to a players name in friends list might be just an automatic removal of the friend in question and a message in game about it via /mail perhaps a renamed dirt or grass block nothing special just renamed saying friend <player name> removed - derelict. Now i can see this being exploited in manners like the original suggestion, as in someone gets the message and they vote to keep the res(s) from going away. Which is why perhaps a system where the original 30 days til derelict stays in place but add another layer where if the payer hasn't actively played or voted for 30 days AFTER dereliction they're res(s) automatically reset and went to the OPEN - to claim blah blah blah message (sorry not in game and don't remember the full wording) but yeah maybe do that. when the res(s) go to the Open message if that player was on your list you would get the renamed block informing you of that player being removed. it would kill 2 birds with one stone in freeing up more space in the empire for new minions...erm valued new players =p AND clean up players friends list without having to manually go through and /p <playername> each and everyone on your list which would be handy if you have pages of friends in there

Wait, huh? No
Why would you want to stop being friends with somebody just because they stopped playing on EMC?

thats not really what i was implying. i was simply saying that it could be a thing to clean up the friends list with maybe an option in player settings to turn off the auto-remove thing. and you can always re-add them if they come back.

Voting for someone to save a residence from derelict because it is a friend can go on for few weeks or even months, but will eventually stop. I see no problems there, especially with that many empty and derelict residences.

Some residences are useful and / or have amazing builds and it makes sense to keep them even if the owner is away for months or in same cases years.

Imagine a museum going derelict and being deleted.

It would be good if we could somehow make useful or interesting residences protected. There are not many.

Designs come and go. Tastes change. This is the same with buildings.

Sorry Shel, But I say no. As Krysyy mentioned permanent derelict vouchers exist for a reason as does asking SS for protection. If we all saved friends residences then we would need more town expansions. I have noticed over say the past month alot of new people are joining. The derelict system is in place for a reason and it does its job perfectly, why disturb that?