Cooperative Plot Creation Project

[novacadian]

This thread is for development announcements for the Cooperative Plot Creation Project. Any comments, suggestions or flames should be directed to the Cooperative Plot Creation thread.

The Cooperative Plot Creation Project has been created to aid RPers find fellow RPers. This could be for simple to more complex RPs ideas.

Users will first have to register to use the system. An email will then be sent with a password to use to log in to the system.

Users will then be able to submit as many characters as they may want to the database. Once submitted the character will then be available to those searching on different criteria of characters.

Users can search on race, guild, guild position, religion, time zone and character types (fighter, rogue, caster, labourer, merchant and crafter).

There is also a description which players can use to give a deeper aspect to the character.

It is my hope that this project will help to foster RP on PS in a more robust way than such attempts as the [A post for RPers to find Rpers] thread.

Time will tell.  

- Nova

[Geoni]

And how can you prove that [A post for RPers to find Rpers] didn't work? Because it wasn't a plan, it was a statistic. It wasn't a creation, it was data.

What I mean is that you shouldn't down the previous thread, and that your project's title doesn't work.

[novacadian]

Nothing of the kind was intended Geoni. The hope is that the software will offer a more robust [5] search as the number of characters to sort through grows. It is also planned to write a Web Scrape of the online character listing and update a When last found on PS field every ten minutes via a cron task. Something which could not be done on the mentioned thread.

- Nova

[Aiwendil]

http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=36145.0
In the logfiles you can easy check when a player was last online while you ran the script (Or if you run it all the time when the player was last online).
The logfiles are also great for finding alt of players or which GM used to be what player.
The latest version also included the possiblity to keep notes for every char (together with some general infos). It was up to the user to decide if he/she wanted to keep those infos IC only and use it more or less as a char's memory.
Also it uses the server status page to show who is online...so no idea how it is done for GMs who doesn't want to be seen right now, but if they are shown on the statuspage but not in /who the script will still show them.

So for people who don't want to visit webpages frequently and rely on infos typed by others without knowing what can be taken IC and what not this might be a alternative.

[Sangwa]

That sounds interesting. Though the "website" argument doesn't really fit. You'll be using a script anyway, it's just not on a website. I didn't get the note things. So, you're the one making notes for the players, or the players themselves make the notes you read? Because if it's the first thing I mentioned, then this has nothing to do with this thread.

[Aiwendil]

You make the notes...nice for event organization or just to keep some background infos your char learned ICly about another. For the website...just meant that it's nicer for me to have a small window at the edge of the screen than a full browser open. I don't really get what this Cooperative plot creation thing is about...so I guess the script is not to been seen as a substitute for it but as another tool helping to setup events in game. The original idea when I wrote it was to make it easier to keep the IC intelligence infos the outlaws gathered. But it was never used for this as I left the outlaws then...but still helped me a lot in the Red Crystal Organization events. So excuse me if I got the plot creating wrong..thought this is about aiding players in their RPs.

[Sangwa]

Creative Plot Creation is about allowing different players to plan their plots, and asking help to other players with complementing chars.

Imagine I have a blacksmith who believes he's made something pretty value. He has been telling all his friends, but unfortunately when you do that unfriendly people get to know it as well.

Let's call the above situation a plot starter. Or primer, since I study genetics. Well, as PS is sitting, it probably won't happen because at the time it happens there aren't any ruffians around. Still, you'd love it to happen, because it would be fun to roleplay things from there. So, you go to this list, find a ruffian and ask a player if he won't mind to assume his character had the information. That done...

Irdeal, who had heard the conversation between the blacksmith and his friends, began making a plan right away. He summoned his gang and told them they would wait for the blacksmith in an alley. They did so and extracted the item from the blacksmith, who didn't want to get beaten.

But the blacksmith hasn't said his last word. Together with his friends they try to go after the members he remember were in the gang... while the bandits try to sell the item to someone.

Got it now? It's just a way to facilitate the complementation of characters.

[Aiwendil]

Ah okay, got it right then...just can't understand the motivation for it. But then it makes sense to offer an alternative for players who prefer the "Let's see who I meet in game and learn about them ICly then find out to what kind of RP this will lead" over the "I like it better to to just search a weblist of chars for a fitting one and not waste my time looking for one in game as I have a clear idea about the plot already" (Sorry..hope that wasn't too judging on one of the styles). But as I don't play anymore I really have no idea if some of the former mentioned are even still playing this game...so just posted this here in case there are.

[novacadian]

Any system that helps in RP is a good thing (TM) in my estimation. 

Neither the python script nor the Cooperative Plot Creation Project make either redundant. They are different approaches to the same end; aiding and fostering PS RP.

- Nova

[Geoni]

In my very honest opinion, this would be better:

Have an archive of players who actually roleplay, and place their characters on a list. Nothing else should be there. No description or history of the character, nothing but the name.

You might be asking, "Why do you think it should be that way, Geoni?"

Well I'll have to tell you what I have observed in roleplay when I was still playing this game. When you run into a character, they will have a physical description of their character, and you learn about internal things (emotions/personality dadadada) when you RP with them. My simple answer. 

[Illysia]

Oh Geoni, leave Nova and his little project alone. This won't be the last time something sounds like scripting to you. One of the tricks of navigating this forum is learning how to catch every other aggravating issue. Don't worry, this game will give you no small amount of things to critique over time. Just catch the next issue.

However, since I'm due to catch a new one here's my input. Nova can trademark a good thing? It would be nice if this database helped foster RP but the problem seems to be less people and more a good plot. People disappeared because there wasn't enough to do. Once Roled started his plot coordination, people started coming out of the woodwork. How about a random plot starter generator kinda like this here but more suited to PS settings. Yes it could lead to cookie cutter plots, but without players filling in details plots will be that way anyway.

[novacadian]

How about a random plot starter generator kinda like this here but more suited to PS settings.

This sounds like a worthwhile tool to add to the Cooperative Plot Creation Project. My guess is that the name is slightly misleading and that plots are not being generated; but instead randomly chosen from a database of such story lines which, themselves, are flagged by category. The programming side would be much more trivial than actually compiling the data. Should anyone be willing to compile the data then the coding to handle them would be done gladly.

Any interested party should compile them using any database software ( Excel, MySQL, etc.) which can handle the exporting of a table into comma delimited text files. Such files can then be imported into the MySQL used in the Cooperative Plot Creation Project.

It is my feeling that even better that such a random story line generator would be a well crafted HOWTO on techniques and ideas of how to put such RP plots together. That would be welcomed for display at the Cooperative Plot Creation Project site as well.

- Nova

Edit 102610 : Some Useful Links have been added to the Project's Main Page. The Storyline HOWTO has a waiting menu placement.

[Sangwa]

I'll try to work on a compatible HOWTO. Due next week.

As far as the current critiques go:  

• Planned plots are always a bit poorer, but they do add up with some material for spontaneous Roleplay, as long as they're consistently played out.
• Aiwendil and Geoni you are saying the same thing and we've already told you this thread is not about what you think, but about a database that contains character information for people willing to plan out some plots.
• Random plot generator is a nice idea. People who are worried with lack of oriented plots, while having little time to spend with inventing every single situation, will then be able to coordinate (i.e. ask for people to help with) plots which will add more relations/situations/material to the game. Just as long as the generator is good though. Looks hard to accomplish, considering the example...

My own critiques: Nova, we shouldn't have a registration required. I believe it should take entries from the already existing [A Post for RPers to find RPers]. This will achieve two things: making use of an already existing feature instead of making it redundant and avoiding to lose lazy people who do not feel like registering once again in the name of planeshift.
Everyone who wanted to would enter the site and look for chars, generate plots, read the howto, etc. and then make their plans and contact the necessary people.
Also this thread has become a thread to discuss stuff. So maybe you should place the news on the website itself and leave this here for the discussion of the project, while we forget the other post made?

EDIT: changed talk about random generator a little, made some stuff more clear.

Also, I don't imagine how hard it might be to take information from the [A Post for RPers to find RPers] thread...

[novacadian]

Nova, we shouldn't have a registration required. I believe it should take entries from the already existing [A Post for RPers to find RPers].

The registration is there to have some control against more malicious uses of the site. The software has ip blocking as well as unique ip and email checking available. At the moment the unique ip blocking is turned off. Do not underestimate the determination of spammers and disgruntled players.

Scraping the data from the  [A Post for RPers to find RPers] thread is on the TODO List. It should be implemented during the set up of the scrape of the online character listing. The plan is to import the data; assigning it to a reserved name player like admin. Should another player, at some future date, happen along and try to submit the same named character; then the older entry would be deleted as the new entry is added to the database.

We can link the HOWTO from the opening page for public consumption. A public search has its pros and cons. Right now it seems more weighted towards the cons in my thinking.

- Nova

[derula]

Bug / feature request list:
- Can't remove characters
- No option to view all characters
- No option for character gender
- No option for "follows no god" (as has been discussed is different from atheist)
- "Athiest" typo
- Line breaks in descriptions aren't converted to HTML linebreaks
- Description field contains a tab character by default
- Search result are ordered by ID instead of name (an "ORDER BY `name`" or something should do)
- All "home" links lead away from the site to the main blog. In order to get back to the welcome page, you need to manually edit the address.

I think that was everything that's immediately obvious. I would have tested for HTML / SQL / Script injections IF characters could be deleted again.