Room Descriptions

[Mitch79]

I don't like the idea of it being a time taking project though, the character description isn't, why should room description be any different. It's just a "this is what you see" not a project to be done.

That being said, I suppose if it was a day long project it would help deter idiots from changing it and screwing it up just to be a pain in the ass and cause trouble if there was no other way to handle it.

[EchoMan]

The reason I though of was that only the character itself can change a character description, while we don't want anyone to be able to instantly change a room description. I guess we could do it so it requires that you have a key for the lock if any, but what about public/open/lock-less rooms?

[Doug R.]

Well, wikis are user-moderated and they work just fine, so maybe we can trust the players not to muck things up too terribly with instant descriptions.

[Mitch79]

MOST people aren't out to mess everything up for everyone else. You may be right Doug. I would say to just add a description box like the character descriptions to the rooms and test it out, see how it goes.

[EchoMan]

Well, wikis are user-moderated and they work just fine, so maybe we can trust the players not to muck things up too terribly with instant descriptions.

Wikis also have change history, revert functionality, spam filters etc. And I always assume the worst, professional habit I guess.

[SekoETC]

How about if the room has a lock, the description can only be edited by a keyholder, while if it doesn't, it can be edited by anybody? There could be a limit to how many edits you can do in a day. That way a random troll would be outnumbered in any town that has more than one active person.

[Vega]

I love this, but I'd rather prefer to be edited to everyone, not just the keyholder, even if it's a project...

I remember one RP, a loooot of time ago, when my char came alone to a room with a destructive rage inside. I'd like to be able to "exteriorize it" with my char but there is no way to tell everybody else that my char went there and broke things or made a mess...

[Doug R.]

I had a prisoner leave claw marks in the cell door. Couldn't do that using this mechanism if she needed to hold the key.

[Vega]

It's more or less what I was saying...

[curious]

I suppose people could just leave a note describing any results their activity may leave on the room, in good faith that the editor would transfer this information to the room description, but open editing would be more affective.

I just know that at some point a damp and miserable prison cell will suddenly turn into a sunny meadow atmosphere, with poppies and butterflies.
I guess it's all about how much we have faith that people will treat it as intended in-game.

[Rumaan]

If the description is supposed to describe the room/building then a change in description can happen only when there is a change to the building itself. So, creating a description or changing it has to be a project requiring the materials that the building is made of. The project initiator should be able to create/change the description.

[Rebma]

I think it'd be fine to trust the players. Have reports of the changes go somewhere, for records in case something goes wrong. If someone messes with it in a way that isn't right, PD or something can step in and be like, screw off.

And then someone else can just change it back to normal. No biggie.

[Cogliostro]

Let's have it as a message that you see when you enter the room. "You enter Building: cute desc here", and editable to everyone anytime, but with certain rules just like the custom character description that say you should not abuse it.

So claw marks on the cell walls would be fine, but writing *abusive content* would be considered an out-of-character abuse.

[Chroma Key]

I am not keen on the message being displayed every time you enter a room - if you have to go in an out of buildings multiple times, I think it would get quite annoying. Could the buildings menu have a description button like the characters have? So maybe just like when you want to see what a character looks like, you could check the description of the buildings.
As for who can edit it, I am wary of the abuse issue, too. I'll think about that further.

[Cogliostro]

I think the message could trigger and set a cookie (or similar technique) so that if you enter/exit the same place within a timeframe, you don't see the message annoyingly repeating itself.