Tides of War

I've just realised something terrible and I have no idea how we would get around it. Take this hypothetical sub hunt multiplayer example.

Captain Codfish and his fleet of DEs and Corvettes come across an Imperial Sub lurking perilously close to allied shipping lanes. Being the zelous Captain that he is Captain Codifsh orders his Corvettes to begin hunting the submarine while his other vessles set up a perimeter. Depth charge bombs blow the water in to the air and the Sub Captain desperately attempts to avoid the falling canisters of death. He suceeds and Captain Codfish gives the order to hunt the submarine to exhaustion. So the surface vessels quietly mill about on the surface listening and keeping an eye on the submerged metal tube. The imperial CO decides he only has about 5 minutes of air left. Maybe surfacing would be a good idea. But he knows that half of the Royal Navy is circling above just waiting to blow off his sail and take his crew captive. Or just plain blow him out of the water. What should he do? How can he get out of this horrible situation? crazy:

The honourable person would play it to the end. Surface, raise the white flag and surrender. But there will be the kinds of people out there who will go. "Opps I just pulled my internet connection out of the wall." Or "Let me see i'll just press ctrl alt delete." And poof the submarine is gone and Captain Codfish is fuming because the blasted hun submarine has disappeared off the face of the planet. >;(

How could we prevent this and other similar things? notify:

persistant ships, if you leave the game the AI sets sail for the next harbour or does whatever you order it to do after you leave.

Ships should only appear / disappear at Harbour facilities.

-edit-

thats how I think this problem can be solved, I don't know if its really solved that way

How about if you are within 20,000 yards of an enemy vessel and dissconnect, then you loose a lot of points and it counts as a kill for the nearest enemy, but if you're more than 20,000 yards from an enemy you survive? They probably already have a solution for this, its an obvious issue.

persistant ships, if you leave the game the AI sets sail for the next harbour or does whatever you order it to do after you leave.

Bingo. That is what will happen. The AI will take over command and fight from there on, and if you come back and your ship is sunk you start over from port in a new ship. I asked East about this during the voice chat we had a month or so ago, and that was his reply.

I think that I remember East saying something about.

If you leave the game, on purpose pr not (quit or disconnect or ctrl+alt+del)

Your XO will take over the control of your vessel.

Before you leave you can order him to sail to a specific location (maybe he succeds or maybe he wont).

Incase you get d/c'd I would think that your XO takes over and acts the best he can.

Also the minimum safe distance is around 6KM before you can quit without penalty. (which for the obvious reasons of battleships should be changed).

Dont hang me if these intel reports are slightly wrong or totally off for that matter. WWI/II intels wasnt always accurate

I agree Jesper, 6km is WAY too little. Like I said, 20,000 yards is better.

You may not be hanged, Jesper, but you will find my torpedoes in your hull if you prove unreliable...

There is an old IW term for the scenario you describe:

popeye (v.) To disappear without trace at a critical moment of the battle

/bux

Anyway its a commun problem when you start to play online, and the problem isn't only with Enigma.

The ole Popeye manuever... LOL Bux...dat was a lame thing to do...good question

Other MMO games (e.g EverQuest) get around this by having a 30 second period of inactivity (i.e. not in combat) before you can safely log off.

If you go Link Dead, possibly AI can take over?

/bux