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Custom Descriptions

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:51 pm
by theguy
My suggestion is for a space on our different characters pages to write a small description of things that we want people to be able to see about our character. Just a short space but completely open to the role player

e.g.

She is in her twenties. she has long brown hair extending to her shoulders and is quite short, her left eye is half closed and a large deep scar extends across her eye. She seems to have average strength. She wears:
etc.

Something as open as this would mean the player could describe almost anything about themselves, the could also say something like "he holds a sign which has the words "Dennis's Cars, Best Deals in town" or anything, it might remove the need for alot of other suggestions about being able to design badges to put of your clothes and some roleplay items.

It doesn't change anything in game either because currently if you want to do anything like this you just have to put it in emotes.

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:21 pm
by joo
http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?t=16965

And, uh, there's another, much longer topic I'm thinking of that I didn't find (as well as several others).

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:22 pm
by Piscator
This has been suggested multiple times before, but I do agree wholeheartedly.

I'm well aware of concerns about potential abuse and being able to recognize the language of a player, but the potential benefits outweigh these problems in my opinion.

edit: Thanks, joo. edit2: Although that thread is more about items, not people.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:49 am
by Snake_byte
I agree. there are things that happen to charries IG that leave stuff behind... Namely, scars for one - They cannot be seen outright and must be rp'd or you have to mention it yourself every time you meet someone which is a huge pain in the ass...

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:30 pm
by Doug R.
I'm willing to trust the characters. If new/changed character descriptions were entered into a daily report that the PD read, it would virtually eliminate the risk of abuse.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:34 pm
by SekoETC
Oh, that's an awesome idea, Doug. I don't know why no one suggested that when this was last discussed. It would mean that descriptions wouldn't have to be pre-approved, but records would be kept and abuse could be spotted easily. If the box was made big enough, people could write the description in a couple of languages if they knew how.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:54 pm
by Doug R.
I'll take this to GAB for discussion. I'd personally love to see this.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:48 pm
by Piscator
I don't know how practical it would be, but maybe you could enter a separate description for every language. That way you wouldn't reveal you language to strangers. People of your own LG would see your discription, but strangers would only see what you choose them to see. That is, either a descripition in their language, a description in your language (if you're not afraid to reveal your ethnicity) or simply a blank page (which would at best be a indication, but no proof of being a foreigner).

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:12 pm
by catpurr
If a character writes his description in all languages of the game, I don't see a problem with it. Otherwise this might be unlogic, that someone of a different language group does not "see" this description.

Additionally if someone continously checks if written desriptions match with ingame mechanics, like "her long brown her curls down her shoulder matching her brown jacket", she must wear a jacket.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:58 pm
by Dudel
Eh, that wont work unless people know EVERY Cantr language.

You STILL give yourself away.

I know a few players that like to kill bilingual player characters so I think that's just as bad. :lol:

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:11 pm
by catpurr
Dudel wrote:Eh, that wont work unless people know EVERY Cantr language.


Master of the obvious.

I know a few players that like to kill bilingual player characters so I think that's just as bad. :lol:


CRB! Unless some *character* likes to kill bilingual players, which I consider pretty shitty as well.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:29 pm
by Voltenion
So what if people don't see descriptions of foreigners? Most of the times when you meet someone from another language people don't even interact or just quit after a while, since they can't understand each other. So, if it's okay to ignore someone, why is it not okay to ignore someone's description? And If I had a character who, for example, was Portuguese but lived in an English town, I would add the same description in English. Very simple I think.

If you think it's bad because you'd know someone's character nationality, then you are wrong. It's you who knows, not your character. You character only sees the descriptions, it doesn't see the language in which it was written. So rejecting this idea because of that calls for a locking on the "I Am..." thread.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:52 pm
by Doug R.
The infrastructure already exists to support language-specific translations. The change that would need to be made would involve redesigning it for player use in a way that doesn't bugger the current staff system, or allow players to translate anything other than their character description.

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:58 pm
by catpurr
Doug R. wrote:The infrastructure already exists to support language-specific translations. The change that would need to be made would involve redesigning it for player use in a way that doesn't bugger the current staff system, or allow players to translate anything other than their character description.


Well it would be needed to be able to translate *others* character description.

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:29 am
by Doug R.
catpurr wrote:
Doug R. wrote:The infrastructure already exists to support language-specific translations. The change that would need to be made would involve redesigning it for player use in a way that doesn't bugger the current staff system, or allow players to translate anything other than their character description.


Well it would be needed to be able to translate *others* character description.


No. Not necessary.