Replacing Inactive-Removal Script

Suggestions Open
1

Now that we have Empire Seen Data, the plan was to bring back the inactive-removal script.

The script would delete players if:

  1. their empire is tagged by the leader as inactive
  2. their empire is actually inactive. as in, has not had any interaction with the game in the last x hours

This is how it was before except it worked on last-login, not last-seen. It was also a mix of automated and manual scripts, which was a pain to manage. The automated script ran once a day.

I was working on updating and bringing it back when it occurred to me: why do we want this to be handled by a script anyway?

Why not put the removal in the direct control of the family?

Current (disabled) Inactive-Removal Script

  • checks once per day
  • if empire trips the checks, empire is deleted
  • any non home-planet planets become re-explorable
  • all empire resources are removed

Proposed Inactive Status Effect

  • no scripts are needed
  • if empire trips the checks, the game sees the empire as “actually inactive”
  • non home-planet planets become “re-claimable”.
    • defenses stand down if attacked by family member, no infra lost regardless of size difference
  • all current and incoming empire resources are sent to family leader
  • when the empire’s last planet is removed, they are removed from the family

Again, to be extra clear, this would only be for empires that are actually inactive. This would not be a tool to force players out. If they’re playing, this wouldn’t work on them even if the leader tags them as inactive.

The way it was before, the empire just got blasted into nothing, and newly-explorable planets left the family vulnerable to vultures. It was a 2-hit punch.

The proposal here would allow the family to recoup their investment, while also preventing them from losing territory. It would help mitigate the pain caused by inactives, not compound on it.

This isn’t an unsurmountable amount of work, and I’m in the code anyway so now would be a good time to consider it.

What do you all think? Am I overlooking any potential issues or exploits?

3 Likes
2

This is solid gold.

3

Maybe in rounds with huge starting res, there could be abuse if one joined just to go inactive and be replaced by another (drafted) empire. Fam would get the inactives res plus the new draftee res.

2 Likes
4

No they wouldn’t. The script works for empires that did absolutely nothing.

5

He’s got a point; it could be exploited by drafting a multi and letting them die off for the resources. There’s a threshold at which starting rez would be high enough to make it worth it.

I don’t think that’s enough to not do it currently, but we should keep it in mind.

1 Like
6

Sounds good

7

This has been completed: