The RP Convenant thread made me think of this, but this is a wish for an "interactive descriptive window" (not sure of the name), bu something to compliment the chat tab window.  I'm thinking it would help with the whole RP rules discussions and players get over the RP hurdle quicker.  I may add this to a Feature Request, but since I'm not much of  RPer, thought I'd see if others would had any input on it.  This would make some changes to the chat GUI, so not sure if that is a no-no topic as well.

My wish is for an interaction window that would help the game be more descriptive/visual.  Right clicking and reading someone's life story has been discussed as too informative, but I think the window should have a descriptive section and an audible section separated, either horizontal or vertically.  It would probably need to be a bit bigger, but the purpose is help describe what I am suppose to be seeing without clogging up the audible part.

A descriptive section can be defined as what I should be seeing, either when I click on something to look directly at it, or just in casual glances, haven't figured that out yet, but mainly all the /me and /my type of descriptions.  The audible section is what I should be hearing, basically what the chat tab is now.  So as I walk around town and "look" at people, the descriptive section will update with what I should be seeing.  This is updated by the player depending on their preference, but it will bring more relevance compared to the right-click description part.  An example is if I'm whistling, /me whistles a slow tune, it stays in my quick "view" description setting so whenever someone clicks on me, their descriptive section of their interaction window updates so they "see" that I am whistling.  This way as someone new comes along, I don't have to retype /me whistles for them to know that I am whistling.

An example of why I think this will help is if I stumble upon a group of players in the sewers standing around and they are roleplaying, I have no idea what is going on.  If they want to include me, we spend 5 minutes discussing in OOC chat of what the scene is suppose to look like.  With the descriptive section, I can click on each player (look at them in otherwords) and I can find out that they are hooded, clothes are torn up, tied up, bleeding from the nose, barely visible (or roll 100 sided dice, if greater than 70, you see me), etc., what have you.  This may make things go more smoothly instead of getting yelled at for interrupting their roleplay when I ask them if they know where I can find some rats and they complain that you can't see us, or are you sure you want to ask a bunch of hoodlum bandits that or I'm knocked unconscious, duhhh!  I know what I am suppose to be seeing around them without interrupting them.

I think this will also help for people that want to be approachable visually, so instead of right clicking on someone to see if they are a person you can talk to or talking to someone that could be afk or busy with something else, you can just update your quick description to /me looks around the plaza with a smile on his face, nodding to the passer byers, or /me hammers out another sword, plopping it down next to an Auction Sign.  Then maybe new players won't be so timid in asking that person some questions when what they "see" is automatically relayed to them in their description section when they simply select the character.  Also, people looking to RP can set up their quick description for anyone walking by to "see" that they may need help instead of having to "fish" for passer-bys to help them out with continuous /me commands.

This may not be too tough to test out and try after looking at some of Caarrie's great mods.  Since /say, /tell, /guild can go to their respective tabs, there can be another code like /des or continue to use /me and /my which will be separated into a description section.  Then just enlarge the chat window and split it, so you can put the sections into different areas within one window, like frames.  Each person can customize it, so they can split it horizontally, in fours, vertically, etc., and show more info in one window instead of having to click around each tab.  Having a System Tab and Guild Tab open side by side for people training and chatting, or a description and Main tab to make a window that may be more favorable for roleplaying.  I'm also thinking that there should be a RP tab and a Main tab, so the whole brackets discussion can be done with.

The discussions on roleplaying and the rules on it are good, but they don't help anyone new in the game when the interface isn't laid out as such.  Maybe if the interface helps support the rules, then it is easier to follow and may improve the experience.  And yes I know people will still type OOC things in the RP window and vice versa, but trying to accomplish multiple things in a Main tab doesn't help with the learning curve for new players.  Long winded, so I'll stop here.

NPC monster attack on the cities, maybe not that often, a couple times a month, maybe during peak player periods.  But, a herd or whatever a big group of Tefusangs or Ulbernauts are called or even a rat stampede, but something to get everyone involved, let people use shout for something fun in game.  A warning can hit everyone's system menu giving them 1 minute to either run for their lives or rush to help.  Can be different scenerios, monsters have broken through the gates, and all help is needed in the plaza or there is a monster riot in the Arena or a Consumer infestation, but something that allows the "heroes" to strut their stuff and keeps everyone on their toes and gives them a sense that the world coming alive.  Course, there are probably issues with lag and everyone will complain that they stepped away from their keyboard for 5 minutes and find themselves in the Death Realm as an Ulbernaut took off their head, but I thought it could be fun to try out a few times.

Obviously I'm new to Linux and Ubuntu.  I'm on Gutsy 7.10 64 bit, and been trying to figure out how to go to the desktop so I can search through the chat log file.  I hit some key combos, but it screwed up PS, changed the resolution and made it scroll around all funky.  I had to restart the game.  Just wondering if it is a PS thing that doesn't allow to switch to the desktop or what I may be missing.  I found some posts on Ubuntu's site about installing a Windows Manager, which I guess Gutsy doesn't have one with this capability?  Just wanted to get some help if others are using some technique to refer to their chat log file without having to shut PS down and come back in.

Thanks!