Picking up multiple objects

[chase02]

Sorry if this has been suggested before - I did quickly search but didn't turn up anything.

I'd like to suggest some form of auto-pickup of multiple numbers of the same items e.g. I'm trying to move thousands of notes from one room to another and it is slowly driving me insane (and taking me hours of real time, which has barely made 10% progress).

For some items, I think this type of behaviour is realistic. Example: if I need to move a whole pile of notes from my desk at work (true story!) to the recycle bin, I'm not going to pick one up and move it, then do the next. I'm going to scoop them all (or in several scoops) up in my arms and move them. Same with many lighter types of objects. Obviously I wouldn't tend to do this with steel, or sledgehammers.

I'm not sure how this could be implemented without giving thieves too much power, except perhaps if it was only implemented for notes. This would give power to note thieves.. but where do you stop?

Is there a limit to how many notes a character can carry? It seems from my tests so far that there isn't, as they weigh nothing (amirite?), so I don't see any reason this couldn't be implemented for at least notes.

Furthermore (I guess this is a separate suggestion) I'd like to be able to destroy notes by throwing them in a fire pit or fireplace.

[Lefric]

Furthermore (I guess this is a separate suggestion) I'd like to be able to destroy notes by throwing them in a fire pit or fireplace.

Oh, wouldn't that be nice.

[Tiamo]

Chase, have you tried storing notes in envelopes first? I think that would speed things up a little. It certainly does for future handling!

[Gran]

Are you using note stealer techniques? I mean, it doesn't work like moving one by one. In 15 minutes I think I would manage to move 80 notes into a room, it isn't really a big deal. Now, if you are doing in this rate I said then you are with the whole Great Library of Alexandria in there.

[SekoETC]

You can just click on them without giving the page time to refresh. I don't think there should be ways for moving or picking up several things at a time because it's annoying enough that you cannot stop a person from doing that short of dragging them away or killing them, both difficult to do alone. Even telling a person not to pick things up doesn't necessarily help because people are not redirected to the objects page. I wish it was possible to have events and objects displayed side by side so that people could see what's happening while they're picking things up. But this would increase the amount of stuff to reload, unless someone can figure out how to refresh only a part of a page without resorting to frames. I don't think that's possible in php.

[Doug R.]

You can just click on them without giving the page time to refresh.

I do this all the time for objects. Makes things very snappy. Same for dropping objects.

[chase02]

You can just click on them without giving the page time to refresh.

I do this all the time for objects. Makes things very snappy. Same for dropping objects.

Yes, I have been doing this. I even got the error message "You're too fast ", LOL.

I think you underestimate just how many notes I'm dealing with here. IRL hours of doing this has barely scratched the surface of the note pile.

Notes stealing techniques? I'm not sure what those are..

[Gran]

Everything that makes note gathering faster. Mostly just the "get all you can" before the refresh... but if you are doing that than you ARE dealing with a big huge pile of notes. Or at least much more than 180 pieces.

[chase02]

But this would increase the amount of stuff to reload, unless someone can figure out how to refresh only a part of a page without resorting to frames. I don't think that's possible in php.

Yup. AJAX will do that. Also has the added bonuses of reducing server load and reducing lag for the users, as you're only loading the relevant part of the page. Plus it's not that complicated to work into the existing PHP.

[marol]

Yup. AJAX will do that. Also has the added bonuses of reducing server load and reducing lag for the users, as you're only loading the relevant part of the page. Plus it's not that complicated to work into the existing PHP.

It is very complicated due to character encodings. Ajax works only with UTF8, and we have many text in database in random encodings. In example Polish players use their ISO-8859-2 encoding, so we need to convert it to UTF8 before Ajaxing them. The problem is that we don't know what encoding was used when making notes, names etc.

[Chris]

For inventory, we can do operations on multiple notes at once. The same code with a little tweaking could be used for notes on the ground. It would be nice if we didn't have to pick them up to put them in an envelope that is also on the ground.

[SekoETC]

Would it be possible to include a timer, make it a short project? A person could select several objects with one page load but another person could interrupt them.

"You see a man in his twenties start picking up notes."

Progress would be calculated when ever someone who can see the character loads their event page or objects page or if the note picker loads any page that displays the progress or if he's dragged away or dies. The note picker could not leave the location without dropping participation on the project, just like with any project. In a simple version, the notes would be picked up in order of id number, in a more complicated version, the picker could set up priorities themselves. Amount of time since project was started / by total time needed to finish project = progress percentage. Progress percentage * total amount of notes selected = amount of notes picked up (rounded down, equal to total amount of notes selected if percentage is greater than 1). Notes would be moved to the picker's inventory if they're not already there. Although checking if they're already there might be difficult in practice. Record progress during previous update, reduce this from current progress percentage to get amount of notes progressed this time. Use previous total progress to determine the offset. If a note has been picked up by someone else then the project will still attempt to pick up the remaining notes. I can imagine there would be some trouble if two people are picking up the same notes using this.

[Tiamo]

A note gathering project is a nice idea. It would have a gathering rate (number of notes that can/will be picked up per hour/day). Notes would be picked up in random order (sorting takes a lot of time!).
Each game hour the project would be processed and the picked notes would be added to the characters inventory (or an envelope). If the project would be interrupted no notes are collected that hour. If several characters are picking up notes simultaneously and not enough notes are available for both projects the available notes are divided equally amongst them.

At the same time individual notes can still be picked in real time, but just one by one.