Extensible label on top of char

[Korumak]

Just a thought, something that might be a bit more easier for the dev's. We ran into the situation IC with the loss of a tail, and well brutal punishment for it happening.  Something a simple as a "I have read yours, check to see if its new", like some kind of version system.  This way we don't have "Custom text mis-use".  I don't read every description that passes by me, just the characters my character knows.  Even then once I glanced at it the first time, I only scan for certain bits of information and get to it.

This could be something as simple as a highlighted different name, corresponding to say a buddy list.  Everyone is Green right, NPC's are blue.  Dark green could meed that the description field has changed since we last saw it from someone on our buddy list.  This only appears above the character's head.

After all, we got two lines to glance at to start with... let alone add a third.
Just a thought.

[weltall]

except it's a lot of data in a database...

[Aramara Meibi]

this issue can be resolved by the style of roleplay, couldn't it?

let's say there's been a confrontation, and a dwarf has ben left the victim of serious injury. An Ylian walks onto the scene.

He posts:

A haggered Ylian walks into the tavern, sweat dripping from his brow, "The Crystal is just too much in these Dome summers," he mutters through dry lips and makes his way to the bar to order a drink. He stops to notice a dwarf collapsed in the corner.

The Dwarf:

Urist sits in a peculiar heap, hugging his legs and sobbing. All around him, and covering him head to toe, caught in the neatly combed strands of his beard are the crumbled remains of a fanciful and artistically decorated wedding cake.



Now, tell me everything you can about the ylian and the dwarf without looking at their character descriptions.

[Rigwyn]

Yeah, narrative descriptions like that are good practice IMHO, but there are times when its impractical or when it would *help* to have a visual cue as a hint to other players.

[novacadian]

How about a time stamp in the top of the desc which stamps it with the time and date it was last updated. If the buddies' list could handle another MySQL date stamp (they are fairly mild resource-wise) then stamp the last date and time that that buddy's desc was pulled up by the player. Comparing the two stamps would tell you at a glance if there is anything in the desc you may have missed without having to reread it again.

- Nova

[ Edit : Could give the player the option to sort the buddies list alphabetically or by the time stamp which may also help to know who's desc to recheck. ]

[Gilrond]

This reminds me the Lemmings game with time on the head being a countdown...