I'll keep this short and to the point.
I think it would be good to disconnect away from keyboard players, as it puts unnecessary strain on the server and skews the stats. I suggest 10 minutes limit for people who need to go to the bathroom or make some tea, but as far as i am concerned, if you don't move in vendetta universe (chatting should not count as activity) you should be disconnected after set time.
Post your thoughts, I think this one is easy to do and would clean up the list of "active" players a bit.

Well... What if I'm hanging out in sector 3 to protect home base? I need to move around so I'm not disconnected?
I can think of several reasons why this will need hours and hours of tweaking for it to work.

Do we really want to tie up devtime on THIS?

-
Demonen

What about BountyBot? Besides, if they're instation it's not that much strain, just chat.

As long as you active (ie flying around, shooting things) you will be fine. So if you are hanging in sector 3 it's good as long as you are turning left or right every 10 minutes. Is that too much to ask?

BountyBot? how about bots set up by one person on every team to get money from caps? how about SpyOnTeamXRouteTeamMessagesToSomebodyElse bot? How about people who sit in station for days without doing anything?

This will have to be addressed sooner or later, so why not address it now. Especially since it's so easy to do now. (if no packet received from player in last 10 minutes that was not chat packet, disconnect player).

Let's remember, vendetta is not irc channel. And your "just chat" is packets that I have to download over already narrow connection and your chit chat is traffic I have to pay for.

I got it! How about you make it like this:


int keyboardpeople (char *name, int *packet, int numpackets)
{
for(int i=0; i<numpackets; i++)
{
if packet = chatpacket()
{
disconnect();
return 1;
}
else
{
ping();
}
}
}

Really, people are gonna chat, and they're gonna do it in station. Lemme make some GOOD examples:

1) The battle commander
SITUATION: There is a spy on your nation, but you're capping anyway
SOLUTION: All communications with GIANT cap group must be in msg's
EXECUTION: One player docks in station and sets him/herself up as commander. They recieve msg's from cap team members and send others out, ensuring safe execution

2) The blocaded person
SITUATION: Pirates have blocaded you inside a station, 30 sectors away from anyone else
SOLUTION: Call repeatedly for help
EXECUTION: Run and dock, calling repeatedly for help. You will be stranded for 10 minutes or more

3) The UPS Guy
SITUATION: While playing, the doorbell rings. It's the UPS guy, who loves to chat
SOLUTION: Dock
EXECUTION: However, you are getting lots of important messages and waiting for delivery of money. You don't know how long you'll be away.


Hmmm?

1.Battle Commander
Dear commander, please stay in your home sector OUTSIDE of station and type your poems to your group while flying towards infinity.

2.Stranded
Call for help, if your help is not here in 10 minutes go out of station and check whether it is still occupied. How else do you know that they are waiting for you after 10 minutes?

3.Ups guy
Well I am sorry but this is perfect scenario when you should get disconnected. If you are waiting for money from the cap, you have done nothing in last 10 minutes to help make this possible. If you waiting for important messages they will still be there when you get disconnected. Actually, chances are you are more likely to be able to read those messages if you get disconnected after 10 minutes. Screen buffer is limited you know. And whenever you get disconnected you can always bring up the console and see the last things that happened.

Let me come up with examples like yours.
4.Futurama
SITUATION: You want to watch your favourite Bender and Zoidberg show but don't want to miss out on cap money. Show runs for 30 minutes.
SOLUTION: Dock and sit in station waiting for your "well deserved" money.
EXECUTION: You get disconnected if you don't come back to the game during ad breaks.

5.Sick Stomach (pms, food/alcohol poisoning)
SITUATION: You are ill and need to see the doctor, but don't want to miss on the latest StarFreeze giveaway. You have to guess number 1-10 every 2 minutes, but find it difficult to control your ship and throw up in a bucket at the same time.
SOLUTION: Dock
EXECUTION: If you don't get better soon and don't regain control of your ship you get disconnected. Go and see your doctor.

Bottom line - if you are away from controlling your ship and exploring Vendetta universe for 10 minutes you should be disconnected.

EDIT: Your C code segment is very buggy. For loop doesn't get executed properly at all, variable "i" gets reinitialised every time function is entered, player gets disconnected every time chat packet is detected. Is that Microsoft Vendetta you writing there? ;)

I beg to differ...let people stay connected.

The i doesn't get re-initialized... and that's supposed to be a parody of all the many people that have said in this forum and others that chat is bad. I've played other MMORPGs where people chat, and where people don't. The community is much better where people chat.

randomize - it's a huge tactical disadvantage for a battle commander to be flying around in space where they are vulnerable while focusing on coordinating an assault through /msg'ing. Why not let them coordinate the assault from the safety of a base? "Flying out to infinity" can actually cause a great deal of lag and has been known to crash certain sectors.

If someone is stranded in a station disconnecting them on top of that is just cruel in my opinion.

On a more practical note - when a player is docked at a station, are they really capable of causing a great amount of lag? If they are chatting or spamming yes, but in that case the problem would be chat and not docking at a station. I really see no problem with just letting a player sit in a station if they feel so inclined. (feel free to prove me wrong)

As for players who sit docked at a station waiting for cap money to roll in... that is a separate issue that must be dealt with.

I say 15min limit, 15min is when mines time out.

For your sick stomach thing:

Do you realize you have to make an appointment with a doctor, yes since your sick you get higher priority over normal check up people but you still need to wait a couple hours.

Yes, flying out in infinity has crashed sectors, silicon did this, a dev needed to restart the sector.

I say, no disconnect, it's just wrong. Lets say, your talking to people on vendetta helping newbies by telling them what to do, then some one using AIM wants to talk to you, you switch vendetta into window mode and dock, talking to your freind and helping the newbie, then the newbie asks you a question, before you can respond "Your connection has been terminated"

if you talk, then you should be ok...

I agree with The_Kid, if you're talking, it should be quite okay to stay connected, even if you're not moving around. Talking is an action. Players that are actually AFK generally don't talk much.

Ok, I agree with you people, players who chat in this 10 or 15 minutes should stay connected. If they are spammers, that should be dealt with by different fix.
Consensus has being reached, disconnect AFK chars who don't participate in the game.
Woohoo!

of course, except dev specified chars (bountybot, etc).

If devs want to spend time adding an extra flag to user data and as long as devs don't specify chars that exploit the game, which I doubt they will
- fine by me :)

They already have dev and guide flags, a "don't boot" flag seems easy enough to implement.