Temporary Retirement

[Adanu]

We do not want to encourage throwaway characters in any form, this is simply one insurance if your new concept did, in the end, not work out as you hoped / planned. But we still hope that the normal, and focused on, case is to find a successful new character to enjoy ALFA with.

It isn't about throwaway characters. If you retire a character to play something else and get a feel for if you want to continue with that character, you will, very likely, find a concept that you don't like and stop playing it. At which point you will go back to what you had. Then, once your time is up again, you can try something and and see if that clicks more. This scenario would be good for time limits.

You could argue those are throwaways with this logic I suppose, but the point of the above is that the person is trying to find something fun, and not feel stuck on playing something because of this restriction.

This *is* better then nothing, but your 'this is insurance'... feels like shoehorning.

[danielmn]

We do not want to encourage throwaway characters in any form, this is simply one insurance if your new concept did, in the end, not work out as you hoped / planned. But we still hope that the normal, and focused on, case is to find a successful new character to enjoy ALFA with.

It isn't about throwaway characters. If you retire a character to play something else and get a feel for if you want to continue with that character, you will, very likely, find a concept that you don't like and stop playing it. At which point you will go back to what you had. Then, once your time is up again, you can try something and and see if that clicks more. This scenario would be good for time limits.

You could argue those are throwaways with this logic I suppose, but the point of the above is that the person is trying to find something fun, and not feel stuck on playing something because of this restriction.


This *is* better then nothing, but your 'this is insurance'... feels like shoehorning.

Something to bring up with the next PA.

[Veilan]

Depending how this pans out, a "recharge time" like Ronan suggested might well be something to discuss in six months, when we have data for use patterns and requests.

[Hialmar]

Lvl 4 requirement is now effective in the tool.

[Regas]

It has come to my attention that it is ongoing policy of the admin and HDMs to grant exceptions to the temp retirement policy in special situation. I have amended the policy to reflective that members have a right to request exceptions to insure members are aware they have the right to ask. This right in no way insures the request will be granted and will be handled by the admin on a case by case basis.

Please be aware the Temp retirement policy is still under review and will likely continue to be fine tuned.

Thanks
Regas

[t-ice]

Umm, amended the policy where? Which one of the requirements from the OP here is now considered to be open for exceptions?
- the character must at least possess an effective character level of 4
- the retiring character must be clear with the house (as determined by the applicable active server's DM team)
- no more than one character may be in temporary retirement at the same time
- no character may be temporarily retired more than once

[Veilan]

Basically,

my understanding is the amendment aims to somehow formalise what ALFA has been done since the days of NWN 1 - allow "unretirement" under exceptional circumstances. Such as "rage retirements" or genuinely having made a mistake. I remember both Mikayla and Rotku allowing such in the past, and the authority to do that stems from the power to impose the rule in the first place. It's a little superfluous to point that out, but, yeah, it means that if you omg permanently retired your character in a huff of rage, then ran around with a new one, and wake up the next morning realising it was a mistake, you might not face a wall of indifference.

I'd quite think all the requirements will still be considered, just perhaps not the date or in case someone failed to hit temp-retire properly but announced a permanent retirement.

So, this ain't news at all.

Cheers,

[Brokenbone]

Case by case are great words, but what are the criteria that will tend to push towards a grant of the request, or push away from a grant of the request?

I gather that any past history on this topic was all in NWN1, I have been around for a long while but I cannot think of any actual examples. They may have been done on a hush-hush (or buddy-buddy?) basis, or simply predate something like 2005 when I joined so I'd have never known anyhow.

There's people who ask for vault wipes for efficiency / clutter reasons (perhaps extensive backups are kept though no matter what a player's regular vault looks like), there's people who willingly grant NPC "rights" to a DM team to make their ex-PC pop up in plots, there's gotta be people who chose a blaze of glory or "take a gamble, no story anyhow, who cares" solo death in years gone by rather than the equally permanent retirement as it was then viewed.

Drawing a line for no retroactive application seemed like a very good idea in the initially announced policy, it set aside all those kinds of questions, setting the rule nice and clear for going forward, no "why'd this guy get special treatment and not me" issues.

Optics will be poor if "grants" start getting made without the criteria being spelled out in some way more than a word like "discretion" or "case by case" or "on application", etc. Optics would worsen as well if requests start getting denied.

[Brokenbone]

I think I'd suggested some wording at least in IRC of really only a maximum of "one" past PC might be asked for "unretirement" eligibility. As if they were the one on ice all along.

There have been groups and individuals who've retired multiple successful PCs. Can't put fingers on names, but think "bunch of Aurilites... bunch of Tiamatans... bunch of Thayans...", maybe there were some deaths in the mix, but there were also certainly retirements. I'd imagine the idea would be if someone had an Aurilite, and a Tiamatan, and a Thayan in permanently retired status, they could ask to have a maximum of one of those reconsidered to be promoted back to Live status. Not bring one back, die, then ask for another.

Maybe that is all part of the fine tuning though.

[Castano]

My understanding is you aren't permanently retired until you roll a new PC and enter it into the game, no matter what you say on the forums or do in irc etc. As for the standards exceptions to this rule are granted on, who knows, since it's an exception it depends on who was in office at the time. All I remember is Bonita's case, where she was not allowed to un-retire and a handful of cases where the PC was in game for like a day or so and were allowed to un-retire.

[Rotku]

The only case I can remember clearly was an exception Mikayla granted, when Ethbaal retired his PC. Over the next few months he'd played his second PC for less than an hour. I do seem to recall, like Veilan suggests, making a similar ruling, however can't remember the details.

Good call though, Regas.

[Heero]

Can I un-retire my warlock?

[Stormbring3r]

I don't see an issue.. As long as both PC's are never on the same server. In my PnP Character folder there are like 40 or so PC's I have played over the years. All Various levels with different loot and Gold. So what is the issue?

Is everyone afraid of them passing off stuff to thier other PC?


If so tag items like in Guild Wars if possible.

[Castano]

passing off items is impossible unless both are active at the same time and the risk is not greater than using a friend to do so. The database tracks item acquisition and loss so even if I was retiring and dumped all Biddle's gear on say Heero and rolled a new PC and got it from Heero, that would be seen.

Un-retirement has more to do with plot issues. Say I unretired my super evil PC that everyone was after, or my paladin that had half of the sharran sect after it...that would create a major disruption on a server team's plots. Anyways that's the criteria I would use as an HDM if I were ever asked to support a bid to un-retire someone - basically how much, if any, of a mess will this create.

[Stormbring3r]

I understand....but..... So why does E.G. and R.A.S keep bringing back El and Dr'zzt (sp?)?

They are both ubber PC's that have retired, like what, 3 or more times over the years?

Even the new hero's need help from old hero's once in a while.. Same goes for villian's as well. And if you retire a good PC like a Pally with half the Thayian Enclave after him he will not last long because they will eventually find him and kill him.


So just make sure your toon has deposited enough gold with the local temple and have them cast True Resurrection and your alive again..


why retire just earn the gold and live forever.