Horns

[Razorlance]

Just as a note, I can't see of any good way to use a 'binary signalling method' with a simple horn. Imagine:

1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.

Was that a long or a short pause between the first and the second? There are schemes you could rig up, but none of them are binary, and all of them are pretty low bandwidth. On the scale of bits-per-game-hour.

I like the horn idea. And for those concerned with messaging schemes, making it a bit of fatigue should settle it as well.

Sav

Sho was probably thinking more like long and short blows of the horn, like morse code. It's the sound not the silence that counts.

(Situation fictional.)

Umm, okay.

[Doodle_Jack]

Just as a note, I can't see of any good way to use a 'binary signalling method' with a simple horn. Imagine:

1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.
1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.

Was that a long or a short pause between the first and the second? There are schemes you could rig up, but none of them are binary, and all of them are pretty low bandwidth. On the scale of bits-per-game-hour.

I like the horn idea. And for those concerned with messaging schemes, making it a bit of fatigue should settle it as well.

Sav

Sho was probably thinking more like long and short blows of the horn, like morse code. It's the sound not the silence that counts.

No, no, no... He ment it like this:

1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Bee from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Bee from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.

This way you can create a binairy system.

[Razorlance]

What? long and short blows can't be a binary system? and are you suggesting that every horn made, all over Cantr, would have a distinctive sound?

[Doodle_Jack]

What? long and short blows can't be a binary system?

We were talking about events like:

1975-0: You hear a horn from the north.

Can you tell me whether that was a long or a short blow?

and are you suggesting that every horn made, all over Cantr, would have a distinctive sound?

I'm not suggesting anything. It was Seeker's idea!

eg. The villigers hear the Horn of the Raven.
I'm thinking that people would hear the horn in a certain radius around you, and it could say something like: "You hear the Horn of Kwor coming from the north."

Anyway, we don't want a binary system!!! That would clog up the event list! We only want a horn which tells us trouble is ahead. For instance you hear the Horn of Kwor blowing and you know help is needed in Kwor.

[melbi]

How about making blowing a horn work like hunting?

What I mean is: when you blow a horn, you can pick how hard you will blow (100% obviously being the hardest you can blow, and 0% the softest). AND, the resulting sound will depend on your strength. So just like when you go to hit someone with all your might and you see that you missed! Oh! So if you're weak and you blow the horn, you just make a fart-like sound. But if you're strong and you blow the horn, you get a rock-shivering sound.

[Nixit]

Alright, a fine idea, but what about the annoying n00bs who take any opportunity to blow on it.

[Seeker]

Alright, a fine idea, but what about the annoying n00bs who take any opportunity to blow on it.

Simple, they won't be holding the horn. The leader of the city or his personal guard might have the horn.
Now, as to what they are made out of, I would suggest either shell or bone...but lots of it and it should take time, we don't want noobs running around the world blowing their horns.

[Racetyme]

I was thinking that this would be a mounted object, like the beast one in helms deep in the second lord of the rings. This would prevent noobs from making their own, and laws could be instituted to keep them from blowing the horns.

[Nixit]

I have to agree with more of Racetyme's proposal in that respect.

[Seeker]

I was thinking that this would be a mounted object, like the beast one in helms deep in the second lord of the rings. This would prevent noobs from making their own, and laws could be instituted to keep them from blowing the horns.

In that case it should be possible to attach it to ships and the like.

[Racetyme]

Sure, why not? I was thinking it would be like building a building, which obviously can be done out in the open, on a boat, etc.

[Sho]

Whether on buildings, built as stationary machines or handheld, horns must have some way to prevent abuse of the type I described (not very well, clearly; Doodle_Jack has it right with his example.)

1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Bee from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Bee from the north.
1975-0: You hear the horn of Aa from the north.

The idea of making all horns sound the same seems to have fallen flat. The only viable alternative would seem to be to put a limit on horn-blowing (once a day, for example). That would also effectively eliminate the problem of "horn spam" as described by Nixit to a level where local laws could do the rest.

Also, I'm not sure if I made this clear: Horn sounds must either be indistinguishable ("you hear a horn coming from the north") or dynamically named ("you hear a horn coming from the north," where "a horn" is a dynamic-naming link; you could then set it to show "you hear the Horn of Kwor coming from the north"). It is unrealistic for characters to be able to hear a horn for the first time and know its name.

[Racetyme]

I said that earlier Sho. I mean the naming issue.

[Seeker]

Ok, so here's the summery so far:
-Horns are built like buildings, you can put locks on them etc.
-The sound of the horn travels in a certain radius around the building.
-Horns can be built on boats.
-You need to name the horn, if you hear it the first time you simply hear a horn.
-Naming the building and naming the sound are the same thing, if you go into town and name the Actual Horn you can recognise it when you hear it. (this makes it slightly easier, it would prevent people from having to ask someone to blow the horn so they can recognise it in the future).


All we need to finalize now is how we make the horn, I would suggest either bone or shell but we might need more seeing as it's made like a building.

[Jur Schagen]

The horn will not be needed... it would be obsolete immediatly after a new implementation that is in the works.

Jur.