Jail time

[Zethanon]

I was recently jailed on an alt, and I could find nowhere (qlog, score, affects) to determine how much time I had left to spend. Is there any easy way to make it a qbit that tells you how much time you have in the slammer? Or maybe an affect, or something small in the scoresheet that says something like:

• You have xxx hours remaining for your sentence.

• You have a quarter of a day left for your sentence.

• You have less than a quarter of a day left for your sentence.

Just something that indicates time? It could also currently be available and I just don't know where to look to see how much time is left. In my particular case, I had been tossed in jail, tried to leave, had the sentence doubled. I logged out for a day, came back, nothing happened, so I tried leaving again and was thrown back and the same thing, my sentence doubled.

[Raona]

There is a qbit that tracks your sentence, and another that tracks your time served. The code does compare the two regularly. It would not be hard to make it echo the difference. There is a wrinkle, though: one is often jailed for multiple crimes at once, and you serve the sentences sequentially. So one might well end and then another start.

I believe that in all cases you are actively released once you have served all of your time (?). Perhaps a helpfile note to this effect would be helpful?

[Lirith]

Correct, you are actively released when you're due to be released. If you leave before a guard comes to release you, then that will be considered as escaping if you are caught.

[Raona]

Correct, you are actively released when you're due to be released. If you leave before a guard comes to release you, then that will be considered as escaping if you are caught.

Excellent, thanks! (I, um, don't have a lot of experience with this.) I've tried to clarify the JAIL helpfile to make this clearer. Hopefully that will help!

[Algon]

There is a...umm...registry, for lack of a better word, that is usually around the jail somewhere that shows the crime list and how many crimes you have committed. Would it be possible to have a list like this added inside the jail cells, I know it would seem a little strange ICly to have it there, but it would help the people there knowing how long they will be in for. Just a thought!

[Gwain]

There is a...umm...registry, for lack of a better word, that is usually around the jail somewhere that shows the crime list and how many crimes you have committed. Would it be possible to have a list like this added inside the jail cells, I know it would seem a little strange ICly to have it there, but it would help the people there knowing how long they will be in for. Just a thought!

Easiest ic way to convey this is making scratchings on the wall that track chars amount of time remaining, so when you study them you see:
1 day = I
2 days = II
3 days = III

as time goes by you see:
1 day down from two = IX
2 days down from three= IIX
etc.

If its possible to code, or something similar.

[Raona]

I like the second of these ideas, for sure. Does the qlog currently tell you what you are in for, or how long your sentence is?

[Harroghty]

It's not that simple because there is no standard for these various areas; some use QBITs and some do not, though they all function as parts of the justice system. e.g. Waterdeep and Berdusk have QBITs that could be used, Daggerford and Zhentil Keep do not.

I could potentially add bits to all those areas with dungeons without QBITs, but that's not a practical use of my time (and there is no guarantee that they have bits available). The other option is for Mask to edit the justice system code. In the end, my short term answer is that jail sucks because jail is supposed to suck. My take is that the justice system can be arbitrary and dreary, but it keeps powerful PCs from treating cities like Waterdeep (which employ large bodies of watch and soldiers alike) as banana republics to be exploited.

All that to say that I don't see a really worthwhile fix here right now.

[Lirith]

Nothing shows up in qlog when you are in jail. Most sentences seem to vary from between 1-2 hours and it's worth stating that this time doesn't have to be spent logged in. You can log out, go do something else, play a different character, then when you log in with the jailed character, if there has been enough time, you will be released within a few minutes of logging in.
I like the idea of marks on the wall to signify how much time is left, but I agree with Harroghty that there are better things he could be doing. The current sentences aren't long enough to mean that you could be waiting several days with nothing to do.

Don't ask how I know so much about jailtime. Tra la la.