Custom Descriptions

[Doug R.]

I have to say I'm eagerly anticipating the finalization of this. I got to see the description of a character that travels with mine (when they were briefly visible yesterday), and it's safe to say that this is going to add a whole new level to Cantr, and I'm really excited about it!

Edit: The suggestions forum is not a discussion forum. Moving to General Discussion.

(yes, I moderated myself)

[SumBum]

I'm really excited about this addition and hope it works smoothly so we don't lose it (ie: people not abusing it to the point that PD all jumps off a bridge together). I can't wait to see how some players envision their chars compared to how I think of them.

I've always found it awkward to emote something when you weren't sure how another char looks. And also tiresome to repeat emotes that include somewhat of a self-description every time you encounter a new person. Even just a basic idea of how another char looks will be awesome.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

I'm really, really excited, too.

[Doug R.]

The hard part so far was thinking up descriptions for my minor characters that never had them (in my mind). It was also hard to keep my descriptions unique so people can't figure out that my characters are all played by the same player. I saw in the report that one player used the term "skin tanned by the ocean sun" at least twice. Dead giveaway, so be careful.

I'm wondering if there will be a link between description quality and rp quality of players. So far, mine aren't nearly as good as those of some better rpers mine are around. I just can't do much better. We could put our favorite character descriptions here, kind of like the RP thread.

[Snake_byte]

OMG!!!! It's gonna be awsome!!!! Is there an anticipated date?

[EchoMan]

"skin tanned by the ocean sun"

CRB!!! How can other people see how his skin got tanned?

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Yea, I will have that problem too, Doug. Only one of them right now has a vivid concept in my mind (though it hadn't until recently). That's the only one I've written a description for. And I'd already jotted down some notes about it because I knew I'd have to keep RPing parts of the concept I had.

One of the others I've had a good idea of in the past, but I haven't thought about it much in a long, long time and even though I remember it, she would have gray hair and wrinkles by now. The others are new enough or I never had a good idea anyway. It will be interesting figuring them out though.

That's a good point about being careful with descriptions, because they can be a dead giveaway. But you often can figure out such things from emotes and typing style anyway.

[Doug R.]

"skin tanned by the ocean sun"

CRB!!! How can other people see how his skin got tanned?

If they live by an ocean, it would be pretty obvious.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

"skin tanned by the ocean sun"

CRB!!! How can other people see how his skin got tanned?

Silly.. how else would it get tanned but by the sun (or whatever imagined light there is) anyway? We don't have tanning beds!

[EchoMan]

Seriously, I don't agree with you. There is no way of knowing what the mans past is when I first meet him. But that description tells me that he have lived by the ocean or on the ocean for a length of time. He could just as well have gotten his tan on the top of a mountain.

[Snake_byte]

I went through yesterday and put up descriptions for everyone of my characters. I tried to keep it really simple, even looking at their skills and trying to figure how that may show in a physical description:

1) Quite overweight and much taller than average, Makes him look a little slow moving. As well as having a big burly beard and moustache with soft green eyes.
-He seems much stronger than average.
-Fighting — awkwardly

2) A very Large man - being much taller and a bit more built in the than the average man. He has medium length dark brown hair and facial hair, seeming almost black in the sun, as well as dark brown eyes. He has large forearms paired with big rough hands.
He seems much stronger than average.
Manufacturing tools — expertly
Fighting — skillfully
Hunting — skillfully
Farming — skillfully
Digging — skillfully
Carpentry — efficiently

And I agree with Echo, if your charrie is tanned, just simply state that and not from how. Never how, or when...

Edit: Some of these descriptions will probably change a little over time with skill increases as well. Such as the first becoming a little more fit if his fighting skill increased.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Seriously, I don't agree with you. There is no way of knowing what the mans past is when I first meet him. But that description tells me that he have lived by the ocean or on the ocean for a length of time. He could just as well have gotten his tan on the top of a mountain.

It tells the player that information. It doesn't tell the character that information. As the player, you should play the character accordingly as not knowing why the person is tanned, just that they are. Just like when people emote their character's thoughts to an extreme.

I'm not saying I agree with people putting that sort of extra detail (it is a bit much to have "ocean" in there) in their description, but there will have to be a point at which players reading these descriptions just ignore what their character can't see. We don't go around reporting people that emote their exact thoughts or anything.

As for what snake_byte was mentioning..

The description I have written so far notes my character's eye/hair color and some physical features that are notable. But her skills don't quite play into her look so much just because of what she's been through. Like.. she's strong and good at fighting, but you wouldn't know it to look at the description I wrote. I might would do that on some characters, but it just depends on what they've been through. Looking at those would be a good start though for some characters and often do play into my mental images.

[SekoETC]

When I was reading the first report in the database, I noticed someone included their character's names in three of the descriptions. I don't think that should be done since even though most players know to treat it as if a name was mentioned in an emote, ie. just ignore it until it's said aloud or written, surely some newbie is going to learn the names from the descriptions and use them without actually hearing them.

Also I'd like to point out that currently line breaks are not supported, so if you try to write details as a list using line breaks instead of separating them by commas or using full sentences, it's going to lose the line breaks when you save it. I could allow line breaks though, what do you think? I was concerned someone might enter 500 line breaks and make the page unreasonably long, but exploits like that could be addressed. So maybe line breaks have more potential for good than bad.

[Snake_byte]

You shouldn't really that many breaks... is there a way to set a break limit, aside from the character limit?

[SekoETC]

I suppose it could count them.