Save and Exit? Yes, No, Sometimes?

[HanShotFirst]

Here is the situation: My rabid summoning druid “Scampers”, who was made for the single player “Peasant’s Tournament” (not really important, just providing context) had just entered Hell and was up against Blood Raven. Being a “peasant” Scampers was having a horrible time finishing off zombies (the merc died and the wolves weren’t doing much better) so he ended up doing a lot of hit and run attacks on Blood Raven. About 10 minutes into the battle an interesting opportunity presented itself . . . Blood Raven had run into a corner behind the Crypt and seemed to be trapped. Scampers ran into the corner to try and make the best of his 5% CB and was making great progress but the wolves were getting killed and the zombies were closing in and threatening to trap Scampers too (exhibit a). Scampers tp’ed out of the corner and bought some more potions in town intending to return to the Burial Grounds from the Cold Plains WP but Scampers forgot that the tp was very very hot and went back through it (exhibit b). Scampers attempted to reopen some tp’s but they were on the wrong side of Blood Raven. Scampers was now trapped. Killing the zombies fast enough was impossible. Killing Blood Raven before the zombies killed Scampers was also impossible. Scampers had ~1800 life and only two zombies and Blood Raven had access to him, so death was coming, but very slowly. Wolves were resummoned, full juvies were used, and then (in what felt like a moment of weakness) the Escape button was used to escape (exhibit c). Because of how slowly Scampers was being killed I had plenty of time to debate whether I should Save and Exit (preserving my hours of effort) or die on the battlefield (preserving my hc honor). Obviously that did (and should) disqualify Scampers from the tournament.

The question is: Given the choice between death or using the Save and Exit feature . . . what would (or do) you choose to do? Do your feelings change depending on rather it is single player or multiplayer, twinked or untwinked, you were rushed or you walked . . . just wondering where popular sentiment stands these days.

Cheers,

Han

[Dahkar]

Multiplayer always

Singleplayers, usually the tournament specifies no S and E, however because it's instant in Single player I usually say no to it.

[MrBill]

Personally I think you have a case (subject to the decision of whomever is running the tournament), since it is patently unreasonable for a tournament organizer to expect a participant to simply sit back and watch his / her character get killed (either instantly or slowly) due to bugs or other shortcomings in the game mechanics, as opposed to due to avoidable mistakes that the player made.

In this case -- and it's a situation that I have run into myself, before -- there seems to be some algorithm built within D2 that disallows Town Portals to be created in certain areas, no matter how many TPs you try to use and no matter where your character is pointing, when it tries to fire off a TP.

One of the most frustrating such areas is in Lower Kurast, in the little hut with the one or two chests (it's always to the north and east of the longer hut with the 'uber chest' in it, due north of the campfire), and a weapon rack in the north west corner of the hut. If you are standing too close to the weapon rack at the time when you pop it, you can be "stuck" there behind the rack, you can neither move out of the rack, nor can you cast a TP, because the TP always appears just too far for your character to access it -- this looks very similar to the situation that your Druid found himself in. If you aren't a Sorceress with Teleport (or a Barbarian with Leap), there's no way out of this predicament, other than "Save and Exit".

The point is that your character should have had access to using a Town Portal in this case, but because of the limitations of the TP mechanism in D2, although he could throw a TP, he couldn't go through it. Expecting a character that had otherwise complied with the rules of the tournament, to just sit back and get killed for a reason like that, to me seems unwarranted. (Does that mean that if you get lagged, you just have to watch your character die to that, too? The fact is that computers and the Internet don't always work properly. Some allowance should be made for that fact.)

It's not my tournament, of course, but that's how I see it.

Cheers

Mr. Bill

[MrKaxe]

...If you are standing too close to the weapon rack at the time when you pop it, you can be "stuck" there behind the rack, you can neither move out of the rack, nor can you cast a TP, because the TP always appears just too far for your character to access it -- this looks very similar to the situation that your Druid found himself in. If you aren't a Sorceress with Teleport (or a Barbarian with Leap), there's no way out of this predicament, other than "Save and Exit"...

There is another situation like this one in the tombs in Act 2 where 3 rats nests sit in a triangle behind an enclosure of shelves, if you pop the back one you get stuck behind it and the wall, with TP's having the same effect you outlined dude, but weirdly I have only seemed to trigger it with an Assassin...

[Insane Wayne]

If it's a tournament, I will fight to death, as opposed to withdrawing. Mainly because I wouldn't have any interest resuming a character outside of the tournament parameters (most tournament characters are weird underpowered restricted builds.) In one case, I had a character file backed up shortly before her death, but I truly felt no desire to continue playing her, despite the fact she was a fun build and I was upset at her death.

Another time, I had a wacky Iron-woman Zon (single-pass, no town visits/vendors/repairs allowed), and she got pinned by Hell Fangskin's horde at the level 2 entrance. I entered/exited the stairs again and again, swinging Butcher's Pupil, trying in vain to break through, until I ran out of potions and died. It sucked because I knew she was doomed, but the alternative (S/E and playing outside of tourney) didn't appeal to me. If it appeals to you, I see no harm in it, because you honored the rule and withdrew your character.

[Veilan]

I think I only hit S&E when I noticed blackwalls / lags etc..

Silly as that is, since an S&E won't really help you if you're lagging out... but at least it gives you the illusion of doing something, heh.