Vat Naps
Zzz..

First and foremost, I think it's important to highlight that there is nothing wrong with taking some time in between a death and cloning out. People need to catch their breath, let bleed subside to prepare for the emotional or tense roleplay that may come after cloning out, and of course everyone has OOC obligations that may not lend to the time required to get everything in order after the fact.

Though it would appear to me there is an issue. There is a precedent in regards to the 'bad form' that is dodging follow-up RP via various mechanics, such as vacations, which in its helpfile states rather plainly one should not vacation their character after a high stakes event. Vacations are six month long stints in which a character is taken out of the game world, and sometimes people stay months in the vat and even get close to approaching that length of time, so one might conclude it isn't much different in terms of being 'bad form' to do so.

One could even argue the vat nap is more egregious, as the vacation is a mostly IC event where your character leaves the city. Staying in the vat is an odd, only vaguely explained, phenomenon that forces players to dance around the subject of it in an awkward fashion IC. Sprinkle on that this can follow any death and result in what one might deem a repeat offender, potentially involve convenient and arguably meta-tinged return times, and is readily available to any without the admin oversight a vacation might garner.

No one wants to get permed or chain-vatted for the most part, and not logging in is the best way to avoid that. That said, I feel most of the community does its best to facilitate more RP as opposed to cutting it short through said means. I think it is in the interest of all to let things play out with the hope we stick to our 'cooperative competition' guns, and I am wondering if others feel the same or differently.

Sure it can be frustrating, but if they have been vatted. Which I've been plenty of times. Take a step back and take a breather, connect some with the family and just.. Rest.

It's important for both RP and mental health and keeping a positive attitude.

I've been prone to bleeding in the past, much better around it nowadays due to said prolonged 'vat naps'.

So many people say 'I'm really sorry have to afk a few' or 'I need to brb, I'm sorry'

IRL before Game. Behind everyscreen is a human person, with emotions.

Be it GM's, Admins or Players. We are just humans, and frankly. This is a game. A wonderful game, but a game.

In terms of lore, it was always my understanding (perhaps incorrectly) that the perception of time passing is totally all over the place. Whether you pop out the vats five minutes later or five months later. Your character experiences the same prompts in the same time period.

Perhaps that's a really cool hook for your character when they come out the vats a week later. "Holy shit I thought I was in there for five minutes!"

I am not sure it is really that big a topic IC to warrant a mechanics and policy change over it.

The solid part for me is that Sindome is a game and should only ever be played if and when someone wants. Sure, this can impact IC (especially if you fail to communicate with staff as I have before) but usually it's just a matter of maybe losing the job and having to get it, or a new one, back when you play again.

So I am 100% against anything that punishes someone for not playing. For any reason. I don't care if it's because you had surgery or just didn't want to. I don't even care if it's for a malicious reason as now you're getting into intent and good luck proving anything. And proving malicious intent will require staff getting involved into player's lives more than they already do and I don't like how involved they get already.

The more initial thoughts bit... THis one's tough to express without coming off overly judgemental so I want to stress these are just my thoughts and very sketchy ones at that. Likely to change as I hear other people's thoughts.

Sure. We as players might be able to track exactly how long it takes before a particular PC comes out of the vats. Sure. We might see that roommate asleep in our pad every time we enter room X and because some of us play A LOT or have IC devices that can even report on things that happen 24/7.

But I think it's something we can OOCly choose not to have our players focus on or nitpick over.We should for sure look at ways to help improve the game so we don't HAVE to but it will never be perfect so we as players might have to make some effort to maintain a fairly cohesive level of immersion for us and others.

For example, I have a roommate who hasn't signed in for two weeks. I'm the only one who knows that they are asleep in the bedroom this whole time. When people ask me about my roommate, I don't have to say that they are in a coma. I can just say they seem to be away a lot or real busy. That I am not their keeper and don't track their every move.

Still, it's great to look at possible solutions. For example I'd love to see the coffins changed. Put a pay gate in front of them like most bars have. Charge a low rate to get through. Like a bit less than a cheap hotel. Immies don't have to pay for two weeks. Everyone else does. Why? So that when I plan on being gone for a bit I can just go into one of these coffins and I'm not a body in the game now.

Just some initial thoughts. I think in the end we should focus on ways we can improve the game to make someone not playing for a while less impactful and easier to RP around. Or ways we can improve as players so accomplish the same. Not on if someone should have to play or not.