[Discuss] delayed scouts active

[Christopher Subich]

Philippe Veillette wrote:
> Then, I just tough about it, if the problem is about the number of time 
> someone can log in.  Then why not just limit it???

This is not a good idea.  Adding bondage and discipline to the player 
never works, because players will generally seek to exploit their 
capabilities to their fullest.  Arbitrary restrictions are just 
annoying, and cause frustration, UnFun (tm, pat. pending), and a hunt 
for workarounds.

This is also the problem with delayed scout reports.  The problem was 
that "giving players the time-varying state of a region is too 
powerful."  This is what caused requests for early/mid/late/every 15 min 
scout reports.

The currently implemented solution amounts to preventing the players 
from /getting/ the "too powerful" information.  It allows only one 
effective scout report of a region (the last one posted) and delays the 
information neigh unto uselessness.  The combination is frustrating, 
because it makes the game work opposite to player intuition and expected 
behaviour.

It violates the principle of least surprise, and that is why most 
reaction to the change on the D-list is negative.  It also doesn't fix 
the underlying problem, and that is why the "spies are much more 
powerful now" criticism is highly valid.