Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

Jan-17-2005 21:43

The old discussions about how many detectives a player should have in a single agency and whether or not detectives can switch in and out of agencies have resurfaced. As of now, here are the rules:

1) The system will not allow a particular detective to join a particular agency more than once inside a 48 hour period. This does not stop a detective from quitting their first agency (agency A) and joining a second one (agency B) immediately, but if they want to return to agency A, they cannot do so within 48 hours of the last time they joined agency A.

2) A single player should not control more than 2 single detectives within any given agency. This has always been the semi-official policy, but I will start to enforce it more regularly.

Just because these limits are now enforced, that does not mean I consider any agencies that previously switched detectives between agencies to have been cheating. Sometimes, it is just necessary to review the strategies being employed and decide whether new rules need to be enacted in order to level the playing field.

Feel free to comment or complain about these rules here, report any related bugs, or share your feelings.

Also, please remember that the treasure hunts are meant to be friendly competitions, and have fun.

Jan-19-2005 05:10

But limiting the number of hunts would block the agencies that are competing to be (er...forgive me) DBest.

I remember Chronestrian saying that he had a goal for ERT to be the first to win 100 hunts. If we all progressed in lockstep - 3 a day, how would we compete against each other?

I would still like to vote for smaller hunts (the missing carkeys or lost dog idea) limited to small agencies since 4 agents can't hope to compete against the big guys and not everybody wants to be in a warehouse.

Jan-19-2005 16:48

What I mean is limit the amount of hunts any 1 agency can solve in any 1 day to 3. Not the amount of hunts a day. If that is what I think your saying.

Jan-20-2005 06:25

I was very interested to read this thread. I have two different unsubscribed detectives and I had no idea there were rules governing how many detectives under your control could be in the same agency. And there was I thinking I might subscribe both characters and set up my own agency with them some day ...

Also from a non-subscriber's point-of-view, I don't think there's enough info on how the game might improve if you (a) subscribe and (b) join an agency. I'd like to see a brief description of how agencies work and how belonging to one could improve my "gaming experience"! Also, if there are to be rules, maybe these should be available to read on the site before you subscribe, just so you know exactly what you're getting.

I think you might be missing a valuable marketing point for subscribing to Sleuth here.

Jan-31-2005 16:01

I would agree with Chloe on that one. A bit of warning once you are eligible for Featured Mysteries that they are different to random ones, I had to change strategy halfway through, ran out of helpful people and had to quit. Also warning that you can't store them in your agency file before you start.

(I would like to apologise now if it's all obviously there and I'm just being dappy)

Jan-31-2005 16:16

There is a lot of information in the Subscription FAQ (bottom of the page), for those considering subscribing for the first time.

Feb-1-2005 06:58

Chloe, in regards to you having two subscribed agents in your agency, that is something many agencies have and we have basically all agreed is fine. I personally have two of my own subscribed agents in my agency.

Feb-4-2005 08:00

I've seen the Subscription FAQ at the bottom of the page. OK, it tells you the basics - but it doesn't SELL subscription, does it? Also, because it's in small type at the bottom of the page, I just assumed it was part of the usual Terms & Conditions info you get on a lot of sites. I tend to ignore these links :-) unless I need them. (In fact, I nearly lost my first detective because I didn't notice the Newbie FAQ links before I started playing.)

So yes, if I finally decided to subscribe, I might have looked there first, but it's not exactly leaping out of the screen, grabbing me by the throat and saying "you WILL enjoy this game more if you subscribe" - if you see what I mean.

BTW - I don't have a Paypal account, so when the time comes, I'm going to have to grovel to my husband to pay the subscription for me. He thinks I spend enough time playing games on my PC as it is ....

Feb-4-2005 08:49

My husband does too. LOL

Feb-4-2005 10:12

While it can take a little work to find the renewal links if you are already subsribed, I think subscribing is fairly well advertised for people without a current subscription. My philosophy has been primarily to confront people with info about subscribing when they try to access content that is subscription only, and not be too pushy otherwise.

Feb-4-2005 10:21

Personally the main reason I DID subscribe was the lack of pushing. It was easy to access the info but not rammed down your throat. Also it is far too cheap!