A while back (before this conversation had even started) I was traveling with a group in the brech mountain, not hard to do to my character at the time, but I was out of time (already late by 30 minutes) and asked a gm if I could be bailed out. I was then told, "sorry I can't do that because we can't teleport someone out of a danger zone". Which pardon me for saying so, applies for 99% of the deep :p. Now on the other hand I've seen gm that were in the group (down in the deep) log out and bail people out, but what I'm talking here is consistency.
So I think if it's Always possible as stated, it should be made clear to the entire team and that certain situation (like having to log in an urgency) be permitted no matter where you are. Of course that pauses a possible exploit to happen, but I'm sure you guys can track that well enough.
I won't even bother trying to respond to your particular situation, because the context is gone, and as such I clearly don't know what exactly was going on....and it doesn't matter for the sake of this discussion.
In general, however, GMs make calls based on judgment all the time. Sometimes the results may differ. There is no checklist as to when it is and isn't OK to give someone a port. Like I said, it's usually a judgment call. There is no One Absolute Rule.
It is true that we generally will not take someone out of an active combat situation just because they ask. I know I wouldn't. It really goes against the spirit of things, and we would never know if there is truly an "emergency" or if a character is just in over his/her head.
Now, having said that, if there is something urgent, take yourself out of combat and log out. Don't wait around for a GM. Worry about that when it's time to log in again. Post for GM assistance or get onto IRC and ask there. If someone's available, they'll help you out of wherever you are. We do this all the time. We try not to ever penalize players or characters due to the urgencies and interruptions of real life. Many of us have families, jobs, pets possessed by Evil, children and/or any other number of potential interruptions that can happen at a moment's notice. It happens. We get that. Don't worry about it.
So in an emergency, log out. Try not to do this in active combat. There's a number of reasons for this. Get yourself to the side or somewhere known to be safe and log out. This is ultimately no different from the case where someone crashes or has a network failure or whatever. Do not, however, log out to avoid the current, active combat. This is an abuse, and it's mentioned in our rules.
When you're ready to log in again, ask for a GM. We'll help you out if we can.
I think you meant player, not character. It's the player that has the emergency.
I like the idea, though I would probably abuse it. There are times when a group heads off and I know I'm not going to be able to do the entire trip uninterrupted. I'd jump into the fray and play as long as I could, then bail out. This would increase the chances of playing with groups but may not be what the team wants to see in the world.
No, we mean
character, because we want to prevent
characters from using something like this to make an easy escape from...the Deep, for example...laden with gems and ores, then skip happily along to craft up one's take. That would be an abuse. We understand it's the player with the emergency, but it's the character that stands to benefit most from someone who would use this system for no other purpose but to get back quickly and keep playing.
The whole point of this would be to address the complaint that people have about wanting to join excursions like this and not being able to due to the time some groups may take in doing so (i.e. the aforementioned extra loops for a full take of ore and gems). So no, you are incorrect in your analysis of why we would do this (
if we do this) and what it is we want to see.
Chances are, for people like you and others who would want something like this, it wouldn't matter if we limited the character or player from logging in again, because they wouldn't be able to play anyway. But say for example, one person in the group had time to get back but no one else did. That person could still use the system, jump into a new character and keep playing in some way or the other.
The whole point for the delay is to deter the hardcore player from abusing the system by requiring them to give up something they don't want to give up: time. On the flip side, the time matters little to someone who has no more time to spend at the moment, so it works out well overall and prevents the real abuse.
