Communication device

[Amdahl]

Well, I\'ve scanned through the two threads stickied at the top, the first four pages of this forum, and the SourceForge feature request list... if this was discussed already, I apologize, but I couldn\'t find it

Something that\'s always bugged me is that all online RPGs (as far as I know) simply assume that you can instantly communicate with any one person (or any group of people) anywhere in the game world.  This is obviously a mandatory feature - it\'d be no fun playing these games if you can\'t communicate with your friends - but it makes very little sense within the game world.

I would like to see an actual device - an in-game item - whose only purpose is to communicate with people who are not in the player\'s immediate vicinity.  The device itself could be anything - a magic crystal, a magical artifact, an actual technological device... The details of how it works would also depend on how the actual in-game chat system works.  But overall you could think of it as the equivalent of a cell-phone - you can\'t usually talk to your friends at the other end of town without a phone... as for guild chats or private chat rooms, the in-game equivalent could be giving  another player access to the frequency/password/etc. necessary to access that group chat.  I think most features of the chat system could thus actually fit in with the game world.

I would like to see new players have to earn this device before they can communicate with people elsewhere in the game world - be it a fairly simple first quest, or the ability to purcahse it for a very accessible sum of money.  It should probably be attainable within the first game session of any player - otherwise the danger is to make the game harder to just pick up and start playing, which is never good.

And finally, the interface of the device should be entirely transparent.  After you obtain it, you basically just activate the in-game chat, and as long as you have the item in your backpack you can just \"use\" it and forget about its existance - I don\'t think there should be a special chat interface just to belabour the point.

Mainly, I think this would be a relatively easy way to make the game world more immersive and consistent - and, hopefully, provide players with a \"gee, that\'s cool, I haven\'t seen that before!\" moment shortly after they start playing.

Sorry about the long post... but I would love to know what people think

(boy, do I hope this wasn\'t covered before... I\'d feel like an idiot).

- Amdahl

[Zellgadess]

But what could do that? and what in this time could be massproduced for everyone?? The Answer! Type Dont Think

If we can get some ideas that are...  Plausible maby
Also, the use of different races being able to speak in different languages other then common tounge , like my sig, heheh

[Exaero_Fiero]

It would funny to see a new motorolla cellphone laying among the swords, bows and shields...

If in is a magical crystal or sphere, it would be funny to see kran use it, because they just can\'t use magic.

I agree, that this would be something new, but it needs to be thought throughly.

[Moogie]

I\'ve had this idea before, but in much simpler terms. Basically whenever you send a /tell to someone, a short animation is played where the message is carried off into the sky by a \"carrier-pigeon\" type creature. Incoming messages are delivered using the same method. The messages could even lag for a few seconds, for some added realism.

[Merdarion]

Well sounds very like a very good idea, moogie. The lag has to increase with the distance.

Of Topic: Moogie would you possibly be so kind as to post your character info at Fan-Fan-art-project. I would really draw yours (Yes I know that she\'s an Endukai, but not much more...).

[Zellgadess]

lol, But putting lag on it, may be realistic, but would be anoying. The carrier-pigeon idea is good, but i think the tell should be instant. If your trying to talk to someone on the other side of the world how long is it going to take? The Messages already lag, because you have to type them, but if the pigeon left your hand and entered the other persons hand at the same time, they would\'nt know it. Both people would be far away from eachother, but if they were next to each other, the message would be instant anyway. I dont think lag would be helpful, or add realisim, because no one would notice, the convo would just take loooooooooooonnngggerrr. Ta

[Moogie]

Good point, and when you put it that way, I agree.

[Shadowfalcon]

I think that the Kran should be able to use such simple magical devices as a communicating stone, or a light producing crystal, or anything that only uses a tiny bit of magic. Amdahls idea struck a spark in my head, what about a more powerful magical artifact that gives you vision of other places? somthing like a crystal ball sort of thing, that when used creates another camera fairly high in the air, that the player can control. Said camera would move very fast, and have a short life span, just enough to scout the landscape ahead and help to find the best path, or any buildings nearby. The camera CANNOT see any living creatures, so that it cant be used to scout for mobs. The device should be very rare and hard to find, as well as require that a spell be cast to use it. What do you all think?

[Seytra]

There has been the suggestion of some special commands that can be used on known persons. Mind link and magic link, AFAIR. The first one would allow talking and the other would allow nowledge of some basic stats (current HP, MP) or something like that.

In light of this, I like to think that every char is telepathic in at least a basic way, and that /tell is a temporary mental link. The same is for a party, in which all members form a closer and more powerful and permanent link that allows them to sense their important stats and to communicate (guild channel). At least that\'s what I\'m going to RP if there isn\'t another description.
The pidgeon seems very strange, as they just appear out of nowhere and you also have so many of them going everywhere all the time, you\'d not see the crystal anymore.

[Amdahl]

I love the pigeon idea :p I think it would get really annoying to have any kind of communication lag, but I just find the mental image of pigeons flying all over the place hilarious.

Seytra, I agree that assuming some sort of telepathy for everyone in the game world is the only way to justify it...  I\'d just like to see an RPG that actually addresses the issue for once, instead of ignoring it entirely.

The item really could be anything... if we\'re thinking telepathic links, it could be, for example, a circlet that activates the telepathic powers latent in every character.

I\'m hoping someone more familiar with the game world can come up with some interesting ideas

Shadowfalcon, I think that\'s an awesome idea as well.  It shouldn\'t unbalance the game, especially if it can\'t see mobs.  It would be fun to use, especially when you\'re lost.  It also shouldn\'t be too hard to implement.  The only problem might be performance - when you\'re up that high you\'re going to see a LOT more polygons, and that might bring some machines to their knees.  If the devs can make it work I think it\'d be a great feature.

[Madouc]

Introducing:

a little insectiod creature who has some magic from itself wich it uses to transport the souds it hears to other creatures.

in the wild they would sent it to all the other creatures but these are trained to only send your voice to the creature that\'s with the person you\'r trying to reach.

they can even be instructed to return a message when you\'re away.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Amdahl
Seytra, I agree that assuming some sort of telepathy for everyone in the game world is the only way to justify it...  I\'d just like to see an RPG that actually addresses the issue for once, instead of ignoring it entirely.

The item really could be anything... if we\'re thinking telepathic links, it could be, for example, a circlet that activates the telepathic powers latent in every character.

Well, I don\'t know it there is need for an actual device or something at all. After all, every char already has magic, wether they are mages or fighters, they\'re born with it. So why would they not simply be born with that telepathic ability, too? They\'d have learned to control and use it just as speech. We might even get rid of speech entirely and only use telepatic communications...

If it were a device, we could make it a symbiotic creature, but this would be impossible for Kran... However, the idea of Madouc has a problem: if it transfers sound, then that sound needs to be generated first, which would mean that other chars would hear it when they are near to the generating char.

[Kiva]

Originally posted by Madouc
a little insectiod creature who has some magic from itself wich it uses to transport the souds it hears to other creatures.

That kinda made me think of Douglas Adam\'s version of the Babelfish...

Anyway, I guess some rather worthless device that simply acts as something that you use to tell why you can send tells is a fine idea, but making it all complicated, like for guild chats and so on is just... Well, that\'s one of the useless little details that can be added some day in many years when noone has anything to do, but until then a simple magic crystal or something should be fine as a message sender.

[Zellgadess]

Hey, but Gronomist, if you have the Babelfish no god\'s can exist!, so there goes your guild

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Zellgadess
Hey, but Gronomist, if you have the Babelfish no god\'s can exist!, so there goes your guild

This is correct only if you define \"god\" in a certain way.
The gods of PS can exist perfectly well despite the babelfish, as they aren\'t defined in this way. In fact, the gods in PS aren\'t even close to it and also not to my personal definition of \"god\", but so isn\'t any other god (including RL ones) that has been brought to my attention. In summary, if you base your creation of your god(s) on different definitions, they don\'t have the babelfish problem.