Improve the People tab!

[SekoETC]

If it only said working (resting should be differentiated from that), I don't think that would reveal too much because people would still have to check the character's page to see what they were working on. If there was going to be a precise indicator on who's working on what, it would make more sense to put that on the activities page. Actually what sense does it make that people can instantly tell who started a project even if the person isn't currently working on it, yet you can't see who's working on it unless you click info?

[MelloYell]

i would agree if it was not specific.

[masterekat]

Or what if you could spend 20% longer to work on a "hidden" project that wouldn't show up on the people menu?

[RedQueen.exe]

While I think it would be nice, I'm not nearly as concerned with knowing what a person is working on as I am with knowing if they're working. I try to pay attention to how much a char talks too to get a sense of their level of contentment, but that's not always a good indicator. I don't see every conversation since I can't be everywhere at once, and some chars are just naturally quiet.

Really neither by themselves is a perfect indicator, so I try to use them both together.

I really need to know about hungry/healthy though. I don't like to have anyone walking around with so much as a scratch if I can avoid it, and one of my leaders feeds sleepers because they've already watched two of them snap out of a coma like state after being nursed from the brink of starvation over a long stretch.

i dont think it will. i think it will determine who becomes a leader and who doesnt. personally, i have a great deal of respect for leaders who care enough to go through and chek their people. if its made easy, then theres less to distinguish good leaders.

I'm sorry, using busy work (i.e. which player has the most time to waste in front of their computer) to distinguish who is a good leader is a load of malarkey. What makes them a good leader is that they care to check in the first place. If checking is made that much faster, that gives them more time to do other leader things, meaning they can be better leaders. Less clicks also means less server load = faster game.

What would be good is if someone with some html skills could whip up a sample page with the added features.

And I thought about it, as it's currently a distinction between good and bad leaders. Then I thought, well if its not, we'll be judging leaders on something else, and hopefully it will be something more important. I think this raises the bar, not takes it away.

I could maybe put something together, but I won't make promises. I've been strapped for time lately. (Too busy reading individual char pages )

[SekoETC]

You can already have "hidden" projects by making them an hour long and engaging just before the project tick, most likely no one will check just then.

[EchoMan]

I'm for this idea. It could really be something simple as:

Code: Select all

a woman in her thirties   female  [resting][injured]
a man in his twenties     male    [working][hungry][injured]


[RedQueen.exe]

Yeah, I was trying to think of good indicators, but text is probably the best. Pretty easy to interpret, and ultimately less data being sent over the internets. Got to keep those tubes clear so we don't get a call from Ted Stevens.

[Doug R.]

I'm also in favor of (somehow) automatically showing a character's description. I know that now, we can copy/paste their description into your own description box for that person, but I'd like it automatic. Perhaps both fields could be displayed, one in white, the other in another color for clarity.

[EchoMan]

Or your own description as is, and character description in a mouse-over?

[RedQueen.exe]

I'm also in favor of (somehow) automatically showing a character's description. I know that now, we can copy/paste their description into your own description box for that person, but I'd like it automatic. Perhaps both fields could be displayed, one in white, the other in another color for clarity.

I'm torn. On the one hand, it would be a nice way to have people pay more attention to descriptions and incorporate it into their RP. On the other, I worry about cluttering the interface.

The mouseover Echo suggests might not be bad, though that does make it a little less visible again, but its kind of an in-between.

[SekoETC]

If Javascript actually worked reliably, mouseover descriptions would reduce clutter. For short texts on icons, a tool tip is enough, but for longer texts it's important that the text doesn't vanish until the pointer is moved elsewhere since it's annoying if it disappears before you've had time to read it. I wonder why the current hover descriptions are sometimes show in the wrong spot and often don't work at all.

[Doug R.]

You could always have the option to shut on/off the feature it it gets too cluttered. Mouse-over is fine too, except it only works sometimes for me, depending on what computer I'm using. It's not reliable.

[RedQueen.exe]

You could always have the option to shut on/off the feature it it gets too cluttered. Mouse-over is fine too, except it only works sometimes for me, depending on what computer I'm using. It's not reliable.

I would be in favor of this. Customization ftw (within reason). I was going to submit another suggestion to have a customizeable option (ideally per-character) to have the activities tab show ALL projects by default if we wanted, but I didn't want to hog the suggestions forum.

Reason being, there are a lot of times where chars are either working for someone else, or in a collectivist type group, where the majority of the time they're working on projects set up by someone else.

Or maybe, instead of an option to show all projects, show them all by default and have the chars own projects show up at the top either bolded or with a subtle divider between them and the rest.

Is it obvious yet that I hate extra mouse-clicks?

[gejyspa]

Wow! Do you mean to tell me that the only reason this hasn't been done before is because nobody thought of it? I assumed there was good GAB reasons for me to go through lots of hoops to find out what people are doing or not (and yes, I do it, which is a pain with two dozen chars in a location), and whether or not they are about to die from starvation who injuries. (You know, reasons like someone is paying you by the keyclick )

[SekoETC]

Loading information about if people are working and injured and hungry does mean more queries. Most likely the information is put on a separate page to avoid getting too much information peopel might not need.