I understand Flux orbs have a timer on them... notice i stated "& timers stay the same..."

As for #3 the first part is understood but your wording of the second part imply's that planets can be hacked\scanned while in vacation

ah, now i see that, it wasn't in the orginal post of urs thou, should add it regardless

as per point 3, the 2nd part is based on IF it can be scan/hacked while away. note that #2 is a case of multiple choice(2a, 2b or 2c). If 2c is enacted (either as an advanced payment-required form or just in general) then there is no need for the 2nd part of #3, however, if the other 2 options are selected instead, then both part of #3 is required. just wanna cover all basis here regardless of the choice of #2 plans.

i should adjust the original post lol but i think my brain is melting... to many scenarios & my original post was just for that setup that i listed

Two ideas for vacation mode, borrowed from games I used to play:

1) Your account is effectively suspended.
Maybe your legion can still see you, but to everyone else it is as if you don't exist in the game. No resource production, no upkeep, no energy or shield recharge, your ship and planets are hidden from other players. You also cannot access the game; if you load the game you see a screen saying you are in vacation mode and must exit that mode before you can access the game. There are time restrictions:

• You cannot enter vacation mode if you have performed an offensive action in the last (36 or 48?) hours, similar to a halcyon trap.
• Once activated, you cannot "end" vacation mode for a minimum of 72 hours.
• There is a limit to how long your account can be in vacation mode, so that accounts do not stay in vacation mode indefinitely (3 weeks? 1 month?). After this period of time vacation mode automatically expires: your production/upkeep resumes and people can see your ship and planets again.
• Once you come out of vacation mode, there is a cool-down period in which you cannot enter vacation mode again (1 week?).
• After exiting vacation mode, you may not perform offensive actions against other players or planets for 24 hours.

The "vacation mode" screen you see on loading the game gives you the option of exiting vacation mode (if 72 hours has passed) or else tells you 'you cannot exit vacation mode for X hours'.


2) Your account remains active but you can nominate one friend or legion-mate to manage (babysit) it.
Restrictions:

• Only one player can babysit each account, and each player can only babysit one account.
• The account's owner cannot access the game while his account is being babysat. If the owner wishes to access the game, he must first cancel the babysitter.
• Actions the babysitter may not perform: any "offensive" action against an enemy ship or planet, give minerals or artifacts to another player, share ships or planets, colonize or abandon planets, use or purchase GP, spend energy on missions or NPCs, use "enemy" artifacts.
• Actions the babysitter may perform: spend research points, receive mineral or artifact shipments, sell/scrap minerals or artifacts, use "player" or "your planet" artifacts, install or uninstall ship modules, purchase or sell ship modules, repair ship/ship modules, build defense or population planetary structures, demolish planetary structures, spend energy on the legion base.
• Either the account owner or the babysitter may cancel the babysitting service at any time.
• There is a limit to how long your account can be babysat, so that accounts are not "sat" indefinitely (as above).
• After the "babysitting" mode is cancelled, there is a cool-down period of at least 72 hours (otherwise players can use this mode to enable a friend in another time zone to protect their accounts overnight).

As with (1) above, if the player loads the game while his account is being babysat he sees a screen that gives him the option to cancel the sitter.

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Essentially, in the first case you cease to exist in-game for a period of time. Other players can't find your ship or planets. Someone who already had your planet on his scans won't be able to see the planet while you are in vacation mode, but when you return to the game he will be able to see your planet again. Your ship is in stasis: no resource production, no energy or shield recharge, no upkeep.

In the second case, you are asking a trusted friend or legion-mate to defend your ship and planets. They can't return fire if someone attacks, but they can perform any other defensive action you yourself would have been able to perform. There are built-in limitations to prevent abuse from multis and to stop people using this to protect their ships while they sleep (the latter was an issue when this system was implemented in the game I used to play).

In both cases, the player must manually put his account in vacation mode. It does not automatically kick in (although it may be helpful to implement Dan's suggestion about production and upkeep ceasing after 7 days as well as implementing a vacation mode).

wait can the babysitter kill NPCs?

Not sure. At first I was going to include that in the list of actions they could do, but then I thought that might not be a good idea. The purpose of the babysitter is really to defend your ship/planets, not to play the game for you while you are on vacation... so I thought it made more sense that the only way they can use energy is to donate it to the legion base.

your #1 is close to what i was looking for tho to address some ppls concerns about planets disappearing on them from vacation players perhaps a notification when someones planet comes out of holiday?

nope... your FB terms don't allow it

C'MON PEOPLE WE NEED MORE SUPPORT TO SEE THIS HAPPEN

I support this i was offline for 3 days and it took me a week to recover sometimes internet companies have glitches and internet doesnt always stay connected whether repair's or forgot to pay bill if you are off more than a week at a high rank such as rank 400 your pretty much done may aswell quit

+1 to vacation mode.

-1 to limiting it to only 2 weeks at one time in a year.

I have experienced multiple natural disasters this year, plus internet outages. What if there's a mix of natural disasters AND bereavements / big trips or whatever in one year? That is why I disagree with limiting vacation mode because of these circumstances. What I suggest is...

1. You must not engage in any aggressive actions for 72 hours prior to activating vacation mode.

2. Once activated, no production is generated, no upkeep is applied, and the player's ship + planets are taken off BT / scan list or "temporary invincible".

3. You will have to wait 72 hours minimum in vacation mode before de-activating it.

4. You will have to wait a week before activating another vacation mode, plus the 72 hours (as per #1) on top of that.

5. If vacation mode lasts longer than 5 weeks, the account is considered INACTIVE, and all the inactive effects will then apply (invasion success, legion bonus dropping, etc).

This way, people can deal with multiple natural disasters, bereavements, trips, etc. in a year without worrying about losing stuff or having their ship broken from upkeep.

Ya i hope Dan can come up with some sort of a decent compromise about vacation mode where we aint needing to run off and come back to a game unplayable due to bad game development in the upkeep system

Here's an idea about vacations peoples

If going only for few days, then tell your legion mates that you'll be gone and change the settings so that they can't repair you

If going for a month or longer, tell your legion mates that you'll be gone for that long, change settings so that they can't repair you and either uninstall or sell your modules so that you don't have to pay upkeep for them (don't sell NPC mods for obvious reasons)

Now be satisfied, because Dan will most likely never make a vacation mode

Yes, there really should be a vacation mode, since players eventually get extremely high upkeep. I'm rank 454 and have a 3.8 billion upkeep. I recently went on a weekend trip and had to raise 6.1 billion credits from legion mates to ensure my modules didn't take damage while I was away. I plan on a week-long trip next spring to the same place, which doesn't have cell phone service or internet. Without such an option, I'd need to save up over 12 billion credits to ensure modules don't take damage then, even if I switch to builder before then.

+1

i'd say 4 or 5 weeks option, i used to get 4 weeks holiday, and in one job i had to take a 5 week holiday - 4 weeks paid, one week unpaid...

so maybe an option for over 4 weeks would be an option to cover holidays and other occurences which might take you away from a computer for an extended period

and... +1 the whole idea

i think the settings mode should have a vacation mode set in it, so you can set that you're on holiday from 1 day to 35 days
where you don't get upkeep costs, you don't make any resources or anything, you however still contribute to the legion bonus and for the time indicated you can't be attacked or be attacked
but if you cancel the vacation mode before the time expires you lose those days that you said you were going to be on vacation
i also think a leader should have access to peoples vacation mode, so that someone else can activate it if a person can't get to a computer but is still able to get a message to his legion via a mobile phone etc

having to wait to enable vacation mode because of my actions.
NO, i like the ability to play the game right up to the point before i turn vacation mode on.

a Baby Sitter to watch my account.
that means handing someone my face book account name and password to watch my game.
I will not do this.

watched others do this in Star Fleet Commander, it had a back door to play the game out side of face book.
fleets destoried, resources taken, messages placed under their account name that got them suppended, had one show up on the forum board that left the game, came back 3 months later to start over only to find his account still being used by the baby sitter as a cannon fodder.

i did like what star fleet commander had for a vacation mode.
1. after you turned it on, it did not go in to effect for 24 hours.
2. after you turned it on, you were stuck for 24 hours till it activates.
during this time you can be attacked, raided and theirs nothing you can do about it.
had to be in vacation mode for 72 hours before you can turn it off.
and after you turned it off you still had to wait 24 hours before you could start playing.
in all once you turned it on, you were stuck for 5 days unable to do any thing.


i just returned from a 9 day vacation, wish we had the option, it would have been nice to see my account the way i left it.

Glad to see the support for it guys we badly need need a vacation mode in the game to make life a little easier for us all Thanks for the positive suggestions keep it coming

Also christmas is around the corner and a huge majority of all players from all games will be on holiday visiting family it would be nice to see Dan implement something before christmas.

I'd have to imagine losing players is not good for buisness.

i do know certain games employ a cease fire tactic on christmas day this would mean no pvp and no planet hits for the whole day in the spirit of good will

when world wide servers are used often they have a 48 hour cease fire from say -12 hours gmt from begining of christmas day to +12 hours from midnight christmas day to cover the whole world

again rare but some games do this fro new year aswell

just a thought

i think vacation mode is good but it definitely shouldn't have planet protection. It is waste too easy to be abused. Planets in GL are like dungeon controlled by guild in other mmo. They produce extra resources for the player who currently control it.