PC How would you like to see folks quitting and rejoining a game handled?

[WarMongerian]

Recently, I have found that quitting and rejoining my friends game is not possible, so for a brb, I can either stay in game and hope not to get eaten, or I can leave and hope to be able to rejoin later.  Is this something that has been implemented by design, or just a glitch?

I realize that folks have been having issues with the quest system being exploitable, and I guess that might just be a thing, for those that play 7dtd on public servers.  I myself don't ever play on "Public" games, but just solo or with a few select friends.  Last summer, when I had my first experience with a rental server, I discovered that the game couldn't be paused for brb (unlike single player), and so, to keep from dying every time I had to answer natures'  call, I would log out, take care of business, and then log back in.

While doing that, I discovered that my current quest would be reset, again and again and again, and I couldn't hold anymore loot, and the PoI I was working took longer for me to clear/loot/explore than my timespan between brb, so I ended up with more and ever more loot boxes outside the place, trying to hold everything, until I realized what in the heck was going on, and couldn't complete the dang quest.

I, frustrated but amazed at all the loot I was amassing, I told everyone else what was happening, and what I had discovered.

Of course, this was simply the game working as designed, as when a player is interrupted by real life intruding on the game, it is only fair that if you must leave, and your quest is active, but not complete/failed, then it is re-startable upon your rejoining the game.

Now, in a single player game, this isn't a thing, as {Pause} actually works, so there is no need to leave and rejoin.  I did learn, greddy little creep that I am, that the whole quit/rejoin thing does indeed work in single player games as well as multiplayer games.  This leads to massive loot runs on a single PoI, with the player just avoiding completing the quest, and playing that mission over and over again.

Now, two things about this.

1)  Gameplay wise, is it good for the game having folks quitting and rejoining all the time?

2)  If there was a setting in game creation, that allowed you to just set quests to be either repeatable in game, or fail upon exit, would that not be better?

If folks that wanted to build expertise/mastery of any given PoI, they could just do 'practice runs' on a given quest, getting to play/learn a given PoI to their heart's content, if the game had a setting that allowed repeat runs without exiting the game.  Something like this would surely help with #1 above, as there would be no need to keep quitting and rejoining the game. 

If the notional switch was set to "fail on exit", this to would solve problems with folks being able to exploit this, and although they could still quite and rejoin as much as they liked, by removing the rewards from this exploitive play, there would be no need.

The above doesn't address folks keeping a PoI tied up and denying it to others, and is more aimed at single player/low population games, where this kind of thing shouldn't be an issue.  For thoughts about high population games, I'll have to ask others for their thoughts on that, as I have never been in a game with more than 5 folks online at a time.

For me, I personally would love a built in way, to repeat a given PoI (when it is my active quest), over and over again, as much as I want to.  This let's me build experience and eventually, expertise/mastery at clearing a given PoI.  Right now, I can do this, but it means quitting and rejoining my own game, over and over again, which is  a sad waste of playing time.

For folks that object to multi-clearing/looting a PoI, an the grounds that it is 'cheating' and would give folks an advantage, I have to ask, what happens to the guys that spends all day working one single PoI, compared to the guy that clears many missions, and start having access to tier two missions?  If you sped to much time on any one quest, you will fall farther and farther behind someone that is doing things one and done, and on to another one...

 

[theFlu]

The quests don't fail on exit, because bad connections happen. Not that the reset is _much_ better, but at least you don't have to go get a new quest instantly. Doesn't help much if you were mid T5, but mid T2 it's the better option.

Then again, you don't seem to even consider the most powerful use of the reset, get a quest at a good POI: with a free and easy end loot. Loot the end loot and repeat instantly, infinite books, meds and ammo, no killing. Heck, that one place with an ammo box under the sidewalk, lootable from the quest start, might be worth it alone depending on your logout-length.

 

[WarMongerian]

Heh heh, I have a quique perspective, in that I see things in terms of helping others learn what to do, or get better at something that is causing them frustration, and overcoming that hurdle.  This isn't something for everyone, I beginning to understand, but it is something that I enjoy doing.

I don't see looting a partial PoI as being a bad thing, per say, but keep in mind, I'm spending all my time under level 300, and commonly restart if I die, although in my friends game, I just go with the whole re-spawn thing, as he hates restarting.

I helped the Husband (Of the Husband & Wife team), do a PoI, and showed him a video of me doing the PoI, and had him watch me do it, but what finally did the trick, was when I was not playing, but just recording his run through, and then he paused his game, and we broke out the popcorn, and watched his first run-through.

The second time he did this, he had an eye opening experience, because I was able to pause and rewind the video, and replay where he was messing up.  Being free from distractions (like getting eaten) while watching the video, he was quickly able to improve his gameplay, and in just a few run-throughs of that PoI, he rapidly developed better skills, and became a believer in the usefulness of having a friend help him in such a way.

For me, the trade off is about getting a bit of a stockpile early game, to kame it harder for me to up and die, and only then, tyr to play to win.  Do I really want to keep playing my first quest over and over again, or do I want to try out several different PoI, and make quest progression instead.

 

[8_Hussars]

Frankly, I just don't care.

I have my own agency and abide by own restrictions; or those restrictions set by the server admin.

If someone wants to cheese quests let them do so, they are only ruining their own experience.

I generally don't do loot respawn and generally don't do quests at all, so...YMMV

 

[theFlu]

Yeh, people get easily blinded by fear whenever unexpected things happen. Watching oneself playing is great at bypassing that reaction, but in itself it's a skill to master, to stop worrying about the fate of the current avatar. Especially for PvP environments, play a few rounds without giving a crap about the result, just watching "yourself" lose and try to think what you "should" be doing.

 

[Riamus]

I didn't really see it as a problem, though I know some people hate it.  Sure, maybe you find a good POI to quest and it could get you what you really want for loot over and over again (Crack A Book) by don't that, but that just seems a waste to me.  Why play a game if you aren't actually playing the game?

This game isn't a game that has some great end game content that you want to get to ASAP.  Getting to the end more quickly just means starting over more quickly, and likely getting bored more quickly.  But if people want to do it, I don't care.  It doesn't impact my game, even when playing with other players and certainly doesn't impact my solo game.  I'm not in a race with others and don't care if they want to cheese the game.

The current method is useful when you get disconnected or the game crashes (though it is rare that it crashes).  Instead of losing the quest and having to get another (which maybe you can't due to quest limitations), you can start over.

I think leaving things as they are is the best option.  If people don't like people cheesing the game, they can play with different people.  So many people seem to think that they have to play with people who don't play the game the way they think it should be played.  But all you have to do is play with different people.  Maybe it takes some time to find a good group to play the game with if you aren't playing it with people you actually know, but once you find a good group, you'll enjoy it much better than sticking with people who don't play it like you want.