I can understand not wanting people to abuse the vacation system, however, as the game grows bigger, you might find that people will simply stop playing if their account is deleted because they've been on vacation for a week. Or if everything they've worked for goes down the tubes because they couldn't really sell things while gone. I'm sure the abuse issue could be dealt with. A couple suggestions:
1. Encourage people to sell off as much of their stores prior to leaving by issuing a 'time penalty' upon their return. Realistically, you can't keep most goods in storage indefinitely. Foods and natural items (leather, etc) go bad, metals rust, etc. Upon return, 50% of goods in the warehouse are lost due to extended time in storage. This will encourage people to put as much as they can on the market before they leave and will discourage people from going into vacation mode just to take advantage of a better market later.
or
2. When people return from vacation, there is a X rt day waiting period before goods can be sold on the market. This would keep people from trying to take advantage of a good market, since they'd have to wait to sell. It wouldn't be as effective as #1 above, but it's still a worthwhile idea tho.
I understand the challenges of instituting a vacation system. I think it's something that should really be seriously considered though. If someone goes on vacation or otherwise can't play for a couple weeks and their holding bankrupts, they've got no real incentive to start again.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope you guys take them into consideration.
Trin
