Idle Times and Surveillance Networks

I have started to notice that some characters with surveillance networks seem to "ALWAYS" be connected.

What is staff doing, if anything, to ensure that players aren't leaving their characters connected and logging everything?

I am bringing this up because when I first started playing, I asked on Game-Help about staying connected. I was explicitly told to not remain logged in indefinitely. I was told that unless I am actively 'playing' my character, either walking around the city or interacting with other characters, that I should not be logged in.

Tangentially,

Since I have started paying attention to this, I've noticed that at any given time, about half the game is idle for 10m or more.

For example, right now as I type this, there are 50 characters connected and 23 of them idle for more than 10m. That's ~50% who are idle and probably not interacting with other characters. 8 of them (16% of the player base) has been idle for over an hour.

(10m might be too close to the 'legitimate' line. There have been plenty of times when I have been RPing with someone who needed to go AFK / OOC to deal with RL for 10m or so. But even though, I'm probably going to check my @stats, or WHO to see if anyone else I want to talk to is on SIC, or maybe I'll even LOOK at something there in the room.)

-Anonymous- 10m -i- @invis is the biz!

Strummer 11m -i-

-Anonymous- 11m -i- @invis is the biz!

BCingyou 15m -i-

-Anonymous- 16m -i- @invis is the biz!

-Anonymous- 21m -i- @invis is the biz!

Hivemind 21m -i-

ZaCyril 22m -i-

-Anonymous- 23m -i- @invis is the biz!

-Anonymous- 24m -i- @invis is the biz!

Baguette 27m -i- live fast eat ass

daedelus 28m -i-

-Anonymous- 37m -i- @invis is the biz!

-Anonymous- 43m -i- @invis is the biz!

sinmailer 1h -i-

SomeoneLoveable 1h -i-

-Anonymous- 1h -i- @invis is the biz!

Paullove 1h -i-

-Anonymous- 2h -i- @invis is the biz!

-Anonymous- 3h -i- @invis is the biz!

Stiza13 5h -i-

-Anonymous- 9h -i- @invis is the biz!

By Hek at Aug 1, 2020 8:02 AM

I'm missing how this relates to people having surveillance networks... You can idle for up to an hour regardless, I believe, and the majority of that list is less than an hour.

By BigArg at Aug 1, 2020 8:13 AM

I feel like maybe after an hour of inactivity, a character could be "zoned out" and not hearing/seeing anything around them or receiving SIC messages.

That would get around the idle time issue and be pretty easy to detect people who are just using scripts to avoid "dozing."

Maaaaybe could even remove them from SIC listings, as if they're actually "asleep enough" that their SIC turns off ICly.

I've read that most humans IRL can't stay awake longer than 45 minutes without doing something.

By ynk at Aug 1, 2020 10:47 AM

I think this example is quite specific, since most players don't owe security networks and the few who do, makes sense for them to be watching said feed, and most of the time its going to be quiet, so it makes even more sense for someone to idle in front of the cameras.

1 hour seems fair, 8 hours or more seems borderline abusive and probably detrimental to both the game and said player. And if these wealthy players want hours and hours of recorded footage without idling, they just need to be less tacky and upgrade their network to do so.

The game should boot you after X time of idling and if this code is being circumvented purposely or not, you'd expect the staff to investigate and get involved eventually.

Maybe send them a mail @ help, with your concerns and they will be more receptive about them than posting them on the forums.

By GhostInTheMachine at Aug 1, 2020 11:04 AM

I think there's a pretty simple and themely fix for this...

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/ideas/sleep-deprivation-consequences-2090/

By ReeferMadness at Aug 1, 2020 2:39 PM

I don't have strong feelings on this either way, but I wanted to chime in and note that security systems can be set up in such a way that others - your employees and contacts - are able to help watch them for you.

There are RP-promoting ways to get better camera coverage, and if you're in a wealth/influence position to have a camnet, I'd recommend taking advantage of them.

By Rhicora at Aug 1, 2020 3:07 PM

As @TalonCzar pointed out, the current rules allow for 24 hours of idling.

That rule is fine for 99% of the characters out there.

For the 1% who have amassed the power of a wide ranging surveillance network, the way the rule is currently written allows them an unfair advantage if they can leave their character idle, amass a whole slew of valuable intelligence, then comb through the backscroll to collect it.

As the saying goes, "With great power comes great responsibility."

When it comes to surveillance networks, I suggest that there needs to be a modicum of policing character idle times so that it doesn't turn what is already a win more mechanic into an insurmountable obstacle for the 80% of the playerbase who do not have unfettered access to them.

As @Rhicora mentioned, characters who have built the networks have the resources to pay others to monitor them. I am fully aligned with that suggestion. If the characters are too paranoid to bring others into the operation, there are other ways to achieve persistence surveillance when the paranoid character needs to sleep.

By Hek at Aug 1, 2020 5:46 PM

-	Sivartas	34s	I make the Grinch look happy.
-	Rillem	1m
-	Fogchild1	3m
-	baewulf	1m
-	McChicken697	1h
-	Enven	13m
-	Thrillimanjaro	13m
-	daedelus	26s	Wow! Wits! Wisdom!
-	adrognik	9s
-	Majere_Draven	1m
-	JMo	27s	All death is certain.
-	Burgerwolf	13m	PANCAKES
a	Mench	46m	Doing a bit of everything.
-	zxq	32m
-	Emily	38m	I lost myself, in the dark charade.
And 29 more hiding and/or disguised