Cloaks which hide identity.

[zanzibar]

What about cloaks that hide your identity and guild when the hood is up?  To see who the person is, you would have to look at them and make a roll.  The modifier would be a combination of the mental skills such as intelligence and wisdom.  If you win, then you learn the identy and guild of the person (unless it\'s a secret guild).  The information would appear once in the dialogue window.

This would also add more aesthetics and interest to the game.  People would be more concious of how they appear, if there\'s a reason for them to hide their identity.  Since we want to make planeshift more based on player interaction that killing rats, I\'m sure that hiding your identity will eventually find some use.  Perhaps we\'ll have pick  pockets in the plaza who will be cloacked, so that when they fail a roll, instead of saying \"X tried to pick Y\'s pockets, but failed!\", it might say \"A cloaked figure tried to pick Y\'s pockets, but failed!\"  That will mean the theif will have to make a quick getaway, but he or she will have his identity and reputation intact.

[zanzibar]

Hmm.  I was sure that this would get more of a reaction from people!

[Zan]

Actually I rather like this idea.

[John_Thazer]

Actually not bad idea...No matter how it\'s annoying not to be able to know who passed you by, but then you can maybe confront them or something, it\'s a valuable RP tool...

[shorty13]

Yes, i like.  Also, if someone successsfully uses the skill -hide in shadows- this would take affect too.

[TheRedMonk]

The idea can be nice, even though it\'s not of great importance to implement it right now.

What bothers me is the fact that IC you are not supposed to know who a person is until you\'ve asked his or her name, or have had somebody speak it to you. So if you get robbed by \"John Doe\" from \"N00bz united\" your character should not be able to know his name, unless it is already known to him. (That\'s if you are a good RP:er)
You get my point? :/

[wormking]

I agree with RedMonk I think that you shouldn\'t know people\'s names until you ask them or someone else tells you.

[buddha]

I\'m hoping that the illusion schools of magic will have disguise spells.

I disagree about the name thing, though I\'ve said this before.  I take as something cultural.  In many societies, people wore coats of arms to identify themselves.  I take the name above the heads as nametags that we wear in our culture.  That way i don\'t to talk to Klown Killerz or whatever.  I urge you all to adopt this convention, as there are NO OTHER IDENTIFIERS IN THE GAME

[derwoodly]

I agree with Buddha,

You need the names.  I would argue more, but I am confident that the names are here to stay.  There is a reason *every* MMORPG displays names.

[TheRedMonk]

Yes, the names should be known to us OOC. But our characters should not be aware of them before they have asked for it. Think about how it works IRL...

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by derwoodly
I agree with Buddha,

You need the names.  I would argue more, but I am confident that the names are here to stay.  There is a reason *every* MMORPG displays names.

Isn\'t PS supposed to be different from all other mmorpgs though?

[derwoodly]

If you wish to role play that is just fine.  However when someone sends me a tell, shouts to the zone, or finds someway to exploit the system, I want to know who it is.  I do not want to see -- A cloaked figure shouts \"You loosers need to stop playing with your johnsons\" or something worse.

As Buddha points out. Names are the identifiers in the game.  That is why two people can not have the same one.  Red Monk likes to talk about IRL, well in real life you can have several male human friends named Mike, but still tell them apart.

I really like the different chat channels that most MMORPGs have.  It is not \"realistic\" to have a telepathic link to all of my guild members, but it is fun.  

I would also like to point out that haveing your name stuck above your head is just like having it pinned to your chest.  There is a reason nametags are used in real life, just as there is a reason they are used in a MMORPG.

[darkerdreams]

I like the idea.  obviously it should be way off in development, but the idea that some pieces of information would be cloaked (changing the name above their head to \"cloaked figure,\" and regular say bits coming from some only slightly more identifying piece would be good) while others aren\'t (tells would be silly to cloak, and cloaking shouts just beggs for abuse).

as for the \"knowing people\'s names\" I assume you learn people\'s names through 2 methods (aside from the standard hi, my name is) that cover for the floating id syndrome;
description and reputation.  Joe may look like joe in real life, but I don\'t have any idea how to tell people apart on facial features in game.  There are huge tracks of my character\'s life I\'ve never played (how often does your  character use the restroom?  I\'ve been to the sewers, but where are the toilets anyway?).  I assume some interactions just go unplayed (talking to the landlord that doesn\'t exist about the room my character can\'t get to) and in these interactions I hear about some of the more noteable people (or people who I talked to because they were there and forgot to ask names from- something that happens to me irl fairly often).  The other side is exactly what was noted before- people in the past (and present to some degree) often wore things that identify who they are and who they are wish (gang signs and army/police uniforms are examples of modern items- the aforementioned coat of arms was for the same purpose).

generally- \"nametags\" don\'t bother me, but I don\'t see any reason why we shouldn\'t allow people to \"hide\" them on occasion- especially if doing so encourages RP.

[zanzibar]

Cloaks wouldn\'t completely hide things.  When someone speaks for instance, you might recognize their voice.  If you look at someone, maybe a dice roll based on intelligence will determine if you can identify them.


Cloaks could also hide things other than names.  Imagine trying to rob someone on the road, only for him or her to throw down a soiled cloak to reveal a full suit of rune armour.

[buddha]

A \"disguise\" spell could allow you to change your name and appearance to that of another player, for instance.  People would get the ubiquitous saving throw against it, but how cool would that be for espionage?  I\'m all tingly with excitement at the thought of it!

A cloak could allow you to re-write part of your description as well.