Log Out Timer - Avoid Accidental Death

After reading a post today, and a few others in the past, as well as in game chat, it has become apparent that there is a delay between the time one exits PoE, and when the log out procedure actually completes.

In some of these cases, some players in HC have died AFTER logging out, and log back in to find their characters has been moved to the Default League.

I feel the addition of a timer to the log out process could help prevent this.

For example :

Let's say the over all log out and save procedure takes a total of 7 seconds from the time of clicking exit, to the disconnection from PoE servers.

Once a player would click the option to exit, they would be prompted with a 10 second timer, counting down to client exit. During this time, data sending is completed with the PoE server.

Beneath the timer would be a 'Cancel Log Out' option.

The purpose to this 'Cancel Log Out' would be in the case of an approaching mob during the log out procedure. A player could then cancel the log out request, kill said mob, and then reinitialize the log out.

Thus allowing for proper time to communicate with the servers, and provide the ability to actually see an approaching mob during the process, and avoid unforeseen death.

If this has been mentioned before, please feel free to close/remove this thread. I did search, as well as read the sticky about common suggestions. However, the search returned over 6600 posts, I love PoE, but not enough to spend the next 4 days reading before posting.

I feel, even if the event of accidental death during log out is rare, it is still an issue that could cost a player a substantial amount of time, progress, and items.

Whether I play HC or not, I hope this suggestion gets serious consideration.

I have implemented such features into past projects and it has worked out very efficiently.

However, depending on database and server configuration there are vulnerabilities that come with, but can easily be avoided. But that is a concern after the potential function is addressed.

Please feel free to leave feed back, as well as personal experiences if you have encountered such an issue. Experiences help gain attention to needed functions.

I usually dislike this feature when it is implemented.

When I want to log out, I found it annoying that I had to waste couple seconds waiting for a silly timer. Especially when you just want to quickly change characters 'real fast'.

I think I've been taking that feature for granted and it's come to bite me in the ass. I'm quite convinced my HC character died accidentally. I logged out as a living HC character and hours later, logged back on to find him in the Default League.

Here is my experience in more detail.
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/43094


The slain HC character was not high level and it's not a major deal, but it has taught me appreciate the log out timer feature. I think Squeaky did a good job of describing the feature working ideally. I would like this feature implemented.

Just to play devil's advocate: To an extent, I enjoyed being able to quickly exit the game, especially if you are trying to cheat death. During my D2 days, it was such an adrenaline rush when I was in a situation where my health is plummeting to zero faster than I can react or get out; I would panic and try to exit the game (alt+F4) or log out(esc + click) before my character was slain. The moment you GTFO; it's always usually really intense and you never know really know if you made it out alive until a couple seconds later. You are either going to be extremely glad that you're still alive or extremely .. dead.

If a logout timer is not implemented than something else has to be done so that HC characters are not being slain due to circumstances they truly cannot control. Maybe this might be a little far fetched, but what if our characters get an invulnerability buff the moment we logout and we can bind logout to a key. That would be the ultimate "OH SHIT" button. Not having a logout timer will give players an option to view people logging out as their ultimate-panic-gtfo move. And if that playing behavior is something that is not condemned, why not make it dope and fun? Does not necessary mean we don't have to buff it, but here is an idea.

Panicked Flask of GTFO
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+Invulnerability for 3 seconds.
+Logs your character out immediately.
Charges: 20
Each drink uses 20 charges.
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Killing Monsters do not recharge this flask. You drop gems into it and each gem will give it +1 charge.

This would be nice if the game implemented a logout timer for any character trying to log out but is not in town. So you can still log out and run from a fight if you can gain some distance on the mobs and buy couple seconds to log out. But logging out is not really a good viable panic button for you, if you are dying.. unless obviously you have a fully charged Panicked Flask of GTFO. The idea is that having a panic buttoned is endorsed because it's fun to cheat death but every time you use it, you burn 20 gems. Does not have to be Gems, any sort of currency would work; my aim is share the conceptual idea, the balancing details is insignificant.

I think I rambled a bit and got a little off track. Timer or no timer, doesn't really matter. Ultimately, you cannot give players the illusion that their character is logged off when in fact the character lingers around in-game a little longer then the player thinks. It's better if the login screen doesn't instantly pop up like the status quo, but instead we see up to the very last moments of your character. I think players would like to see to the very last moments of their character in game. They say seeing is believing, and players might feel deceived if they were put under the impression that they have already successfully logged out then later find out later that their character was actually still in game dying.

TL;D Proofread

While I love the name of Panicked Flask of GTFO, the use of an instant exit as an escape feature would simply be even more reason to implement a timer, especially once PvP is fully available.

The use of the fast exit as such an escape option is most definitely a mechanic/design exploit.

It also increases the possibility of communication glitches resulting in duplicated items and so on. Though, on this note, it seems GGG is ahead of the curve in preventing dupes.

In regards to a fast escape method considered a design flaw or exploot.
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I'm not 100% certain that a fast escape option is a mechanic or design exploit.

I mean if you feel that exploit means taking advantage of an unfair situation, can you share why you feel that this might be unfair?

As a hardcore player, I would advise to other players to equip at least 1 evasive skill (leap out, dash out, etc) to get out of a sticky situation.

A fast exit method (if available to all players) might be rather far, wouldn't you agree?
The fact that it is kind of cheesy and overpowered if abused frequently is IMO, really lame. Especially when PvP, I would hate to see people frequently leaving the game.

However, if a cooldown or currency or some good balancing mechanic, was required to use such a flask (or fast exit option), we won't be seeing much of it in PvP since players are killing and getting killed all the time.

And if I was about to slay another player and he used the flask, I may possibly feel just as satisfied knowing that he just burnt 20 gems to dodge the death.

The player would have to make the decision for themselves at the time of the event: Is it worth it to burn these 20 gems, or just take the death consequence.

The real power of the a fast exit
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Depending on the consequences of death in softcore, the use of such an escape method at such a price maybe very minimal. Because of this the rest of this post will only focus on the HC aspect.

Obviously in HC, we will burn the 20 gems.

How would this affect PvP?
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One might argue that: wouldn't that make players not want to do PvP hardcore unless their flask is full? Yes, I definitely agree that this will motivate players to only HC PvP when their flask is full.

But does that mean players will not do HC PvP unless their flask is full?
I don't think so. HC PvP is not for the weak hearted. There will still be people who are going to do it. However, I think a player who had no intentions to try HC PvP would now have second thoughts about trying it with a full flask to lower the risk. This maybe a good feature that drives a player to try this very hardcore mode.

Risk of duping and glitching
When the flasked is used, you actually do not log out any faster then you already do. It instantly puts a shield on you so that you are safe until your character is actually really logged out (as opposed to your screen telling you are logged out but your character is actually still in game).

Due to the fact that it does not actually make you log out faster then you already do, I don't see how it can increase the possibility of communication glitches that may result in bad terrible things like item 'D-word'ing. But this software/ networking/ glitch topic is not my area of expertise and you can be right. Although perhaps every little thing added to this game may possibly create some sort of loophole that can be exploited, I would not like an feature implemented that can be easily abused in such a way.

Let me know what you think!