When logging into EFUSL, it should show what DM's are on, and if they've been active in the last half-hour.
I like the fact that you don't always know and cannot check like this.
It stops people from doing stuff they wouldn't normally do because they know there are no DM's on. I'd wager thats the reason its been like this the whole time.
Except for recently, it has never been too hard to get a DM to do anything, so I think it's fine as it is, tbh.
The silly thing is that you can just log in and look at the player screen for a DM or DM-possessed critter anyway. I heard that the team would do away with that if they could, but since they can't, why not just put them on EFUSL anyway and make it feel less like we're cheating when we do it the old fashioned way?
This has come up a few times over the years I've been here, and the answer is that the DM's hide their presence by choice. Sometimes they may just want to jump into the game quickly to test or fix something and don't want to be swamped with tells or DM channel requests.
That, and there's always the little bit of mystery when you never know if a DM may be looking over your shoulder. ;)
Oh.. and do they always show up in the player listing when you're connecting with the NWN client? I'm not certain that's the case but would like to know for sure.
I believe they only show up when they are possessing a creature or when they aren't possessing a creature but visible. I am not sure about this, though.
In response to Ommadawn: DMs are always on the player list if they are on.
In response to Cruzel: No players should go out and do things specifically because a DM is not on. This is cheating. These players get caught. Implying that making it easier to see if a DM is on or not, is going to encourage cheating, seems to be a silly argument to me. ExileStrife is like a ninja. He knows things!
I'm mostly ambivalent, but leaning toward yes on this. Would be nice for those times when you're planning something, such as PvP or a possession, and wondering if you should bother or not.
Yes. I often just jump on with a silly request for a DM to wand me or something technical and would appricate knowing if I can find one or not before I fire up nwn. Or conversely, sometimes I need to know if a -specific- DM is on, for IC reasons and hate bombarding the whole of the DM team on the channel only to find out that the person I'm looking for isn't there. In regards to cheating, I know there are scripts in place that will bust you whether a DM is on or not anyway.
I think most of us are vets now and could handle knowing if a dm is on or not responsibly. Minus DrD of course.
Dr.D can handle DM's just fine.
<.<
I think it would be nice to know if DMs are on. I've been trying off and on for the last 12 hours to get one to have like a 10 minute conversation with an NPC, and never got any response. I guess DMs take Sundays off ;).
I can't vote yes on this enough.
I think any argument against this is irrelevant simply because, as pointed out, you can check to see which DM's are online at the character selection screen. This is how I find out.
I cannot count the number of times I've needed a -specific- DM, or the number of times I've logged off to check the NWN Player list when I've needed a DM and didn't get a response through the DM channel. (Rather than spamming it constantly, I like to know if a DM is actually there or not, or if I can guesstimate if a DM is missing my message because he/she is busy.)
It is very easy to figure out if there is a DM or not. If you do not want to bother logging in, just compare the !s number to the EFUSL number, and if it doens't match up, either a DM is on or someone is in the starting screen!
Quote from: Sandstorm;95843It is very easy to figure out if there is a DM or not. If you do not want to bother logging in, just compare the !s number to the EFUSL number, and if it doesn't match up, either a DM is on or someone is in the starting screen!
I've been tempted to make it so this "trick" doesn't work for a long time, but never was bothered enough to do it. As for the suggestion in general, I do see and hear the support in this thread, and it is incredibly trivial to add to EFUSL (DMs already see DMs), but I'm still not sold on the reasoning. It's a modification to the whole "role playing philosophy" on the server, as stupid as it sounds. I don't want to be the one to call it.
I'm not sure what your saying Exile. If I understand correctly the reason it hasn't happened yet is because it would somehow impact role playing? If I am correct in that understanding, I'm not sure how that argument even works.
The simple fact is EFUSL, like the forums and like IRC are OOC tools primarily used to stay in touch and organize. If I know I'm trying to meet up with someone in game, and I have no other reason to be in game at the moment, I might use EFUSL to keep an eye out for that person before I log in. Or I might use IRC to ensure that we're both logging in at the same time. I use it in the same way for arranging to be on or around when certain DM's are on for various reasons.
Maybe I'm just being one sided or don't see the full picture because I haven't been a DM, but I can only see potential benefit for both DM's and players. As it stands if a DM and I are trying to arrange to be around at the same time to do something in game I rely much more on the DM to tell me when they're around. If I could see what DM's were on by using EFUSL a DM wouldn't need to remember to meet with me to do something IG, it could become my responsibility.
But you know, maybe I'm biased and don't see the downside. :p
(EDIT NOTE: I'm not specifically addressing this to Exile, but rather anyone (particularly a DM) who opposes the idea. I am just curious to know if there are any negatives that I don't see, and if those negatives outweigh the potential positive benefits.)
I am just not sold on the reasons given. For instance, if this went in, what next? Showing player locations on EFUSL to regular players? That would definitely be a helpful feature "used to stay in touch and organize." We could also start showing information like current class or alignment distribution across the server that could be helpful for planning groups and concepts.
These aren't ridiculous ideas, but I hope you can see how these suggestions influence a different kind of role-playing paradigm. We have the ability to give out loads and loads of OOC information that would be very, very helpful, but does that mean we should?
Indeed not, Exile. But bear in mind if you're really want to check if there's a dm on, you don't even need to use the !s/!efusl trick as they are still showing in the player list when you log on. What I mean is, this information is -already- widely available, adding it to Efusl would just make it easier, I.e., just opening a browser window and go to the right link instead of starting nwn and going through the steps to get to the character creation screen.
I don't think it's that type of slippery slope. There are many cases when we need to know when a certain DM is around, or even if there is a DM around at all.
As Oskar points out this information is already available to anyone who wants to know, and I frequently do what he just outlined. So the reality is, we're not getting more information that we don't already have access to, it's just being made more accessible.