PlaneShift
Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: StitchedChin on December 03, 2008, 09:51:42 pm
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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.
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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.
I absolutely see the benefits of this. An extension of the /me command, with a lasting effect, so that one doesn't have to retype it with every newcomer. Very useful in general, even more so while not all anims are implemented (sleeping, repairing, reading a book, etc.)
For how it is seen by others, I'd expect something as simple as possible. It would actually stay in the Main tab, so as to avoid complicating the chat with new tabs. A different color, maybe, the way it is done already. No need to scroll back in the tab to read it.
Plus, no need to click on a character either. The text would be displayed when getting in range of each character, as with the /say command. Let's say the command is called /appears, player AAA types "/appears to be sleeping". Player BBB comes in range and sees "AAA appears to be sleeping" in the main tab. BBB leaves, comes back later and the same message is shown again. When AAA is done sleeping, he types "/appears" with no extra word, and the message is turned off. He should perhaps add "/me wakes up" if there are people around, to notify them of the change.
I think this keeps the essence of your idea without extra complication. If I missed things, please explain their part again, for I didn't see the benefits of new tabs, splits, and so on, but only their drawback.
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Sounds like a nice idea, though I didn't read most. I'm thinking it would work well like Khoridor said, a continuous "/me" (example: "/cme") that would add entries to a list (that could be on top of the description that pops up once you double click a character to see what's up with it.)
One should be able to delete entries either by typing a command (example: "/rcme") to remove the oldest entry or by accessing the list (in the description place) and deleting them with two clicks (they'd include the list somewhere around there). That'd be good enough.
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Personally I think this is a great idea since now i have to continuously edit my description and i don't think people read the descriptions of people they know that often. So it would save me a lot of effort and improve on roleplay.
Also it would help immerse people who are new since they walk around and see people actually doing odd things as he goes.
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I'm experiementing with the chat window, seeing if there is a way to organize it the way I'm imagining and if it will even turn out to be practical. And the more I'm thinking of it, the more I see it could be a pain like you said Khoridor, too many frames and tabs isn't good, it is already a bit of a pain now. Hopefully I'll have a visual example of what I'm thinking someday, just need to learn a little more about wigets and XML :).
My basic thoughts were to be able to quick a visual description quickly of our surroundings without interrupting the action and dialog in the Main tab. So it wouldn't have real important information that needed to flow exactly with the Main tab, but it gives you a better visual so that the Main tab didn't get interrupted as much. And it wouldn't really be a tab, but more like a visual section that is shown with the Main tab, maybe not even clickable so it doesn't get in the way. I like the automatic idea, so new players would wander around and get some feedback on what others are doing atuomatically, and that can be customized to being turned off or set to manual by a shortcut like /glance. I like Sangwa's idea of not having it permanent, too, so maybe they can last 10-20 seconds and then disappear from the description section after some time. That way you can take a quick "glance" around the room, get a sense of what everyone is doing and it wouldn't interrupt your Main tab. Then the message's fade away, your description tab is clean and you can re-glance around the room a bit later.
I keep thinking of how this may work in different situations too, like the plaza, Kada-Els, or even a big GM event with 50-70 people standing close by. It would need a way to keep it from becoming too crazy. Having it automatic is good for some things, but also having a /glance command so you can do it at your leisure would be nice as some people like to keep their head to the ground, not really looking around all the time. Plus, the relevenace of the message, so if I typed something a few hours ago and forgot to update it, you wouldn't want that still locked in there. You show up to a GM event with 50 people around, you get flooded with 50 random messages of things people were doing an hour ago. You'd want to keep it relevant, so maybe it wipes itself out when you move your /pos a certain amount. Tricky indeed, but fun.
Thanks for the inputs! I don't roleplay much, so if this sounds like a good idea for some good roleplayers, then even better. If PS wants to be the premiere roleplay game, it'd be good to have an interface that could help that out as much as possible. This of course does seem like it would be outdated if the graphics ever took over, sleeping players, repairing weapons, frowns, smiles, etc.
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keep in mind that your mod might not work due to lack of code support. for design i would recommend you draw it out before trying it with the xml. I would also recommend you take a look at http://www.hydlaa.com/doc/index.php?title=GUIDesign and you can also check out #planeshift-mods on freenode for further help most people there have done some mods and can help you if you run into issues.
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Thanks Caarrie! Yep, I've been keeping an eye on your mods, seeing how the xml works with the backend code. I did notice that back end coding will be an issue, but might be able to work with it to get a little taste of it, if I can learn enough. Getting over that learning curve is the trick :D. I'll take a look your tips, thanks!