Extensible label on top of char

[Rigwyn]

(Before someone looks at the registered date on my account, I played for over a year)

Problem:

There are times when its important to let other role players know that your description should be checked. For example, if your character is in a state that would normally be quite obvious - visually. For example, your character is a child, your character is visibly upset, manic, disheveled, cloaked,  reeks like sewage, or is covered in bright green paint.

(For those who are incapable of reading between the lines, the thing about the bright green paint is there only to reinforce my point - its not something that is likely to happen ...*rolls eyes*)

In cases like this, especially when one's appearance/description has suddenly changed,its not uncommon for people to not notice the change. Checking people's description every time you run into them gets tiring - especially when the other person has a page and a half description and you are rushing to keep up with the conversation at the same time.

Solution

Allow the player to add a tiny string just above their name tag. This way they can add a tiny note to alert other players to their changed appearance.

For example, a player might add a simple word like "smiling, frowning, child, injured, cloaked, painted(again, refer to note above), wet, floured, unconscious, please_read, or whatever to quickly convey some useful info about the state of their character.

I do realize that this could be abused... Surely some nitwit will set it to something like "--=( I'm dope,yo? )=--", "justin beeber" or n00bl3t sp3ak but the ability to use this could also be revoked, so I don't see it being a huge issue. On the contrary, if I see people put dumb stuff there, it will serve to let me know that I need not bother trying to rp with them as no serious role player would do something like that.

If allowing a word or tiny phrase is too much, then how about just allowing the player to flip on a flag - putting a "!" above their head - or a shebang "#!" If the bang is too wowish o_O.

I think this is.a fairly simple and generic solution. For those who hate it, perhaps it could be hidden in options?

Whisper Bless!

[Karlyle]

I have had similar ideas myself, just have not put any of the ideas to words. I do think it could help with many RP issues.

[Jilata]

Heh I like that idea.
I already joked around that I need a sign above Oele's head saying "6 year old" cause sometimes I am not sure if those I meet for the first time even look in the desc or not. It at least would solve that problem

[LigH]

From the point of a programmer, a "string overhead" is something completely different, just not text above someone's head... — I believe the title you meant was something like "Extensible label"?

[Rigwyn]

From the point of a programmer, a "string overhead" is something completely different, just not text above someone's head... — I believe the title you meant was something like "Extensible label"?

LOL Ligh, thats called a hook!   
I did that just to draw attention to the post and partly as a pun or "play on words."

But in all seriousness, I think something like that could be very useful in alerting other players to things that would normally stick out. While you can usually narrate such details, I think there are times when it would just help out to have some sort of visual indicator present.

[Gilrond]

Yes, string overhead sounds to me like problems with non optimal strings concatenation I'd just call it custom title.

[Rigwyn]

Heh heh .. more important than naming the damn thing - what do you think of the idea? From the lack of comment on the actual subject of the post, I get the impression its not really of much interest to you?

[Gilrond]

The idea is useful, but the engine can have issues with that probably.

[Karlyle]

Us players don't worry about the SMALL stuff 

[miomo]

I think this is a great idea Rigwyn. I wouldn't worry about abuse since players could already abuse their description. Let the players have their freedom and let the community police it as it always had.

It also seems, on the face of it like the general infrastructure is already in place with the guild string below the name. I'd imagine a new entry in the player database to hold said string and a new TLV in the communications protocol to send it, again, taking from the guild string code as much as possible.

Perhaps it would be considered too cluttered to some. In this case an alternative could be to put the single character flag (I prefer the *), and when the player opens up the character description, remove the flag until the next time this player updates the flag. Maybe the most complex part of this is the GUI enhancements necessary to use it.

[bilbous]

Just have a user selectable set of pictographs that get superimposed on the characters chest and back area. Have a forum contest to come up with new designs to incorporate into the game.

Everyone needs a super hero crest to tell people who and what they are at a glance.

[shrapnel]

Heh I like that idea.
I already joked around that I need a sign above Oele's head saying "6 year old" cause sometimes I am not sure if those I meet for the first time even look in the desc or not. It at least would solve that problem

Oele, Willhelm told me all about that...  ... I think what would help you is if there was a way to actually scale the size of a character, based on a given and percieved age range per race. I can't say I know enough about CS to know for certain, but an educated guess tells me they should be able to scale any given sprite, billboard, or model as needed. For that matter, our monsters that have bounced between various sizes shows that this scaling *could* be done.


EDIT: Oh, elsewhere they said they couldn't do it because of how the models are cloned and placed on the map... So, I guess nevermind. 

[Candy]

That's a great idea. I've definitely been in situations where it would've been nifty to have that tag/hook/whatever before.

[Rigwyn]

If I may toss in one more possible use for this... perhaps for those who do not wish to role play ( ie, those coming over from EZPC, or for those who for some reason do not wish to role play at the moment, they might set this field to [OOC]  to indicate that they are currently out of character. Some might not like this idea, but its a possible use and may help to ease friction between strict role players who expect people to always be in character, and those who do not wish to role play. Just a thought.

[Cirerey]

I really would like to be able to set the label to cloaked when I don't want people to recognize me. Other useful choices would be drunk, zombie, child, injured, filthy, fearful...

A shortcut to get the rp on the right track while we read the desc. I'm all for anything that makes successful RP easier.