a book

Threads moved from the Suggestions forum after implementation

Moderators: Public Relations Department, Players Department

User avatar
Nakranoth
Posts: 1054
Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:49 am
Location: What if I were in a hypothetical situation?

Postby Nakranoth » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:07 pm

This would need ProgD input... so it's pretty much backburnered for the moment.
Scratch and sniff text
User avatar
Surly
Posts: 4087
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2003 7:33 pm
Location: London, England

Postby Surly » Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:07 pm

I've been thinking very hard about this recently, since I think it would really help increase the recording of history in Cantr. And, at this stage, Cantr has alot of history which is an appealing part of the game. How many of use have had librarians with a library that just consists of notes and envelopes all over the floor? Published books might make things a little bit more realistic... and I know for a fact that Lupus Black had 3 or 4 times the information put in the map, but the other parts of his work are probably stuffed in an envelope somewhere named "trash". Frustrating indeed.


The way I would like books to be implemented is as follows (please feel free to develop my ideas below):

1) Be required to make a cover. 100g of leather/hemp cloth/hide... whatever. Not much material though, and not more than .25 or .5 days to build.

2) An item would be created, along the lines of "Book type" Book titled "Book name" where "Book type" would be hemp-bound, leather-bound etc. and "Book name" would be editable. The item would have the following button options: Drop/Give/Edit/Read

3) Replace the "Use" button on notes with "Bind" or similar. This would, similarly to envelopes, put the note into the book.

Editing a book

Like the envelope sub-screen, there should be a book editing subscreen. Once the notes are placed into the book, they should show up on this screen with the options: Remove/Edit/Read. There would need to be a way to define the order of the notes, although the "last in, last read" option would work as a bodge job. It may be necessary to limit the number of notes which can be put in a book.

This screen should have an editable bar at the top to alter the name of the book, "book name" as above.

The sub-screen would need the buttons "Back to inventory screen", "Update order" and "Publish/bind".

Viewing a book

Once a book is "Published/bound" as above, it needs to be able to view the book. Viewing a book should not be possible until the book is bound, and post-binding the edit sub-screen should not be accessible again.

All I suggest for viewing is the same as viewing an ordinary note, but with the option at the bottom of the note to "View previous"/"Return to inventory"/"View next".


Programming required: Initially it wasn't going to be much, however I seem to have got carried away abit...

Thoughts, anyone? Especially ideas that would reduce the programming required.
Formerly known as "The Surly Cantrian"
Former CD chair, former MD chair, former RD member, former Personnel Officer, former GAB member.
User avatar
Piscator
Administrator Emeritus
Posts: 6843
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:06 pm
Location: Known Space

Postby Piscator » Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:36 pm

Can we not just have notes with multiple pages and an option to merge notes? Everything you want to put in a book can be put into a note too. The difference ist that it doesn't feel like a book.

Alternatively, an option to sort and browse notes in envelopes would give a sufficiently bookish feel, too.
Pretty in pink.
User avatar
Doug R.
Posts: 14857
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:56 pm
Contact:

Postby Doug R. » Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:38 pm

I can see the attractiveness in keeping is simple, but the idea of putting a cover on the book holds a lot of attractiveness as well. There's something about the feel of a book in your hands, and bound notes would be in a way special, because someone put effort into binding them. Multi paged notes would eliminate the need for books, but they'd always be multipaged notes, not books.
Hamsters is nice. ~Kaylee, Firefly
User avatar
Rob Maule
Posts: 441
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:15 pm
Location: Florida, USA
Contact:

Postby Rob Maule » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:07 pm

I think a good representation of a book would be as follows:
    1. write or collect notes to be included
    2. put them in an envelope
    3. click a 'make book' button on the envelope
    4. add hide, leather, wood, or cloth to project
    5. work on it for an hour
    6. click the 'read' button
    7. choose the page (note) you'd like to view

They would be copyable (just add cover). A "published" date would be included automatically, as well as the name of the publisher. Also, they would not be editable, but you could copy individual pages and make your own book.
User avatar
Genevieve
Posts: 2114
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:31 pm
Location: Palm Springs, CA
Contact:

Postby Genevieve » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:31 pm

Great idea Rob
User avatar
Piscator
Administrator Emeritus
Posts: 6843
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:06 pm
Location: Known Space

Postby Piscator » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:35 pm

So basically a book would be an evelope, set to uneditable by using some resources. (Provided that a way to browse envelopes is added first.)
Pretty in pink.
User avatar
Rob Maule
Posts: 441
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:15 pm
Location: Florida, USA
Contact:

Postby Rob Maule » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:41 pm

Piscator wrote:So basically a book would be an evelope, set to uneditable by using some resources. (Provided that a way to browse envelopes is added first.)

Basically. Except that envelopes already can be browsed (sort of). Almost like emptying the envelope, but instead of clicking a checkbox to remove a note, you click on the note's name to read it.
User avatar
SekoETC
Posts: 15523
Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 11:07 am
Location: Finland
Contact:

Postby SekoETC » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:50 pm

The envelope idea is a cool one since it simplifies things, but I would also like to see the option to put the pages in a certain order and currently notes are probably sorted by their id...
Not-so-sad panda
User avatar
Doug R.
Posts: 14857
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:56 pm
Contact:

Postby Doug R. » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:08 pm

Yes, they are sorted by ID. I'd like the ability to turn pages within the note. I don't want to have to back out and go to the next page.
Hamsters is nice. ~Kaylee, Firefly
User avatar
Piscator
Administrator Emeritus
Posts: 6843
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:06 pm
Location: Known Space

Postby Piscator » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:23 pm

So I guess we have to do the following things.

1.) Devise a way of reading notes without taking them out of the envelope.

2.) Add buttons for switching to the next/previous note in an envelope

3.) Add the option to sort notes in an envelope.

4.) Implement a mechanism to turn an envelope into a book.
Pretty in pink.
User avatar
Joshuamonkey
Owner/GAB Chair/HR Chair/ProgD
Posts: 4527
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 3:17 am
Location: Quahaki, U. S. A.
Contact:

Postby Joshuamonkey » Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:42 pm

I +1 this.

ImageImage
Also, maybe it should take string or some sort of glue?
Has anyone here read the book Inkheart?
Would they be repairable objects?
Joshuamonkey's Blog
http://doryiskom.myminicity.com/
https://writealyze.com
"Don't be afraid to be different, but be as good as you can be." - President James E. Faust
I'm LDS, play the cello, and run.
User avatar
Trapaças
Posts: 822
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:43 pm
Location: Algures no Alentejo

Postby Trapaças » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:08 am

Let me see if I understood the idea...
So basically the book is like an envelope with the option to read notes directly without having to take the notes out, there will be also an option to turn page/note/whatever and there will be a maximum number of notes allowed per book and also a maximum number of characters/lines per note(because a single page can only have one sentence, but could also be full of words, in order to make the book readable and somewhat realistic it should have a limit of lines or characters, that would be the maximum number of characters/lines writable before reaching the end of the page)

Oh, and you will need resources to make the book...

Have I got the proposed idea? :?
Rumaan
Posts: 196
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: a book

Postby Rumaan » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:52 pm

Rumaan wrote:Need books to organize notes in a logical and sequential order. Each page of a book would be a note.

Books would differ from envelopes in that when a book is open, one can view one page/note in it at a time (just like in real books). The viewing screen would have buttons to go to the next page, to go to the previous page and a box to enter a page number to go to directly (just like in any standard pdf viewer) and a button to close the book. When a book is opened from the inventory the contents page is displayed. It would be something similar to the view when an envelope is opened, that is it lists all the other notes in the book in sequential order. The contents page would have links to the notes which when clicked the relevant page/note is displayed along with the buttons and boxes mentioned earlier. Alternatively, one can navigate to the note that would be page 2 using the next page button.

Envelopes, though good to organize notes are very annoying to actually use -pulling out the notes, reading them and putting them back in the envelope. I think books would be a better way to organize the notes and it also not very tough to implement.
User avatar
Keegan Ingrassia
Posts: 180
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 2:32 am
Location: Texas, USA

Re: a book

Postby Keegan Ingrassia » Sun Jul 25, 2010 2:09 am

Now this, I like!

Along with adding something more substantial to the literary world of Cantr, it could open the door to other tech tree projects for the sim players.

For example:
Clasps, to lock books.
Bookshelves.
Pedestals, for the religious types to put their holy tomes on.
Chained books, as in rare libraries, to ensure they will not be stolen.

Just to name a few.

Return to “Implemented Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest