/follow command

[rauz]

Hi!

Been playing PS yesterday eve, and it\'s a really nice game. I was offered a guided tour by a player, which I really appreciated.

Though, what bothered me, is that I had to follow him manually. Couldn\'t I just type /follow \'player\' to follow him automatically? That way I could look around with the camera much better and chat in the meantime.

Hope it gets implemented.

[Drey]

child, thats just plain lazy. is it really too much effort to look at the screen as you play?

[hramrach]

But looking at the screen is exactly the reason why /follow was suggested.

In reality, following someone (or walking next to someone) does not require much concentration, even if you do not hold your guide\'s hand (or paw or whatewer).

However, in games it can get a quite tricky as the view angle tends to be quite narrow. Also your guide can stop for a while to say something but you cannot do the same as you would stop following and get lost. And you cannot look sideways for the same reason.

And if you choose to be a guide it means you choose the path and the people who follow you do not have to think about it which /follow would express quite nicely.

Now in PS you can probably improve the situation a bit by choosing the right camera mode (before you start following). But I guess it still does not  make it that much better. I cannot try right now as with the hardware here I cannot see anything more than two steps ahead.

[Nilrem]

http://www.planeshift3d.com/wbboard/thread.php?threadid=16831&boardid=11

It\'s a post about how pure carbon can become diamond under the right temperatures and pressure.
I thought it could be of help.

[fken]

Im sure I spoke about a follow command before... and moreover Im sure anyome spoke about it before...
I recognize its long time ago... but be sure there is no thread in search section...

I think the follow command could be very interesting... its very useful, Drey.

[rauz]

Originally posted by Drey
child, thats just plain lazy. is it really too much effort to look at the screen as you play?

no, I can follow people just fine and I actually like to look at the screen while I play.

However, as hramrach pointed out, when you walk/travel with a group IRL, someone is usually the \'leader\', whom the rest follows. I usually have some sort of confidence in the \'leader\', and I don\'t really have to actively follow him, I can just talk, look around, eat stuff, look something up, take something from my jacket, etc.

Implementing a follow command in PS could simulate the same thing. I mean when travelling with a guide/leader I would like to check my inventory, look at my stats, chat a bit, etc, all while the guide/leader just walks where he wants without having to worry if his followers are not too far behind.

[Keyaz]

next you will want a command to fight monsters with, then one to level your stats automatically, then one to pick your nose for you, hey, why not do the washing up?

play the game, its why its there

[Bnm85]

I agree that /follow command would be great! I play Anarchy Online and such command is in that game. No one has ever complained about it but, if asked, would agree that it\'s extremely useful. Not to mention all the custom macros one can make to help be more efficient in teams. Sheesh, some of the peoples\' replies here... It\'s a wonder they ever accepted the use of computers in the first place...

[odd2k]

I agree that a /follow command should be implemented. It\'s not about laziness, it\'s actually about realism. Think about it, in real life you don\'t need to focus all your attention on walking. You can talk, have a look around, rummage in your pockets etc. while walking. Currently this is impossible in PS because you would need 4 hands for that.

So, by not having a /follow command the game actually loses some realism as people are unable to talk while walking. I guess that doesnt solve the problem for people not using the follow command though. Hm, I guess the only possible solution to talking and walking would be to use voice transfer for talking, but that\'s just silly. I guess the realism has to stop somewhere

[DaveG]

Originally posted by odd2k
I agree that a /follow command should be implemented. It\'s not about laziness, it\'s actually about realism. Think about it, in real life you don\'t need to focus all your attention on walking. You can talk, have a look around, rummage in your pockets etc. while walking. Currently this is impossible in PS because you would need 4 hands for that.

I don\'t normally like to \"put my 2 tria\" in to these beating-a-dead-horse threads... but I just need to agree 100% with this statement.

TOOOOO often things are deemed \"un-realistic\", regardless of the many other vastly un-realistic things already in the game.  Even if you\'re using mouse-run or auto-run, you need to keep adjusting your heading, because it only goes in straight lines... and roads don\'t.  If you ever see me walk flat into a wall, it was probably because I was trying to talk to the guy next to me.    It is un-realistic that we are controlling our characters through keyboards and mice, whereas we would do these things normally through natural movement of our legs, arms, mouths, etc.  If we want \"realism\" aka immersiveness, we need to add things to compensate for these unavoidable problems.

Some sort of \"/follow\" command (with various AFK abuse protections as rambled about somewhere else) is necessary to add realism to the game.

[Pyrodiver]

I don\'t see a single problem with the system as-is. The inventory is translucent, so you can look at what\'s inside while walking.. As for talking.. Yeah, I can see that.. Maybe arrow keys, since they don\'t really do anything with it, could be freed up when the chat window is open, so that you can type, and still move. I\'ll be honest with you though, I\'ve never seen a \"good\" follow script. You usually wind up with a train of people, chugging along.. It\'s kinda pathetic really.. But extremely hard to improve. I for one, am glad the PS devs have group members walking on their own.

[DaveG]

Originally posted by Pyrodiver
I\'ll be honest with you though, I\'ve never seen a \"good\" follow script.

Yeah... that is the problem, isn\'t it?...

The main reason to automate walking slightly, is that walking in real life is already somewhat automated.  I\'m not thinking: \"right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot...\" and I can talk while walking without interrupting my movement.  With a game, however, you\'re using your 2 hands to control everything.  If I\'m using my hands for typing, I can\'t control my walking that well.

But yes, there are problems with the idea.  Like the potential for abuse, aka laziness... (here\'s a link to the other thread on the subject)  But, in spite of potential problems, it\'s a needed feature.

[Keyaz]

so to improve realism you want to remove control of your character while you do something else so someone can take you somewhere...

no, its rubbish, its just for PL parties and laziness, get used to the planeshift controls, or even better customize them!

with a little practice you can look around, look in your rucksack for that lost apple and still walk


just. takes. practice.

[DaveG]

Real:
Mouth and feet are independent; walking is handled by fairly automated processes within the brain

Game:
Movement and chatting are both done with hands on a keyboard; while you can learn to do both intuitively, they won\'t be at the same time


You can\'t walk in anything other than a straight line and talk at the same time.  You might be able to learn how to type fast one-handed and mirror the movement keys onto the arrows or something like that, but that would still be very annoying.  (And sadly, half the people in this game can barely type two-handed...)  Like it or not, this is a game played on a computer, and you can\'t get away from that fact.  The \"realism\" is already gone via the keyboard; I\'d like to find a way to get some of it back.

On the subject of laziness... yeah, I know.  This could be a big problem.  A \"/follow\" command should only be allowed for short periods of time, in conjunction with an automatic AFK-booter.  And frankly, I think a way points based auto-run would be less problematic.  But, in a game where we\'re trying to emphasize RPing, we need ways to walk and talk at the same time effortlessly.

[Valbrandr]

How about instead of the /follow command, we have the devs make all the roads strait.  Then we can run strait and no one would know the difference .