Long conversations

[Meh]

There has been a few complaints here and there about long two way conversations.

It doen't bother me when a few or many people whisper to each other repeatively.

But if we wanted to do something about it there should be a "long conversation" button.

For the two people in the private conversation everything would be as normal for others it would look like this:

PersonA and PersonB start conversing.

As long as there were no other events all new whispers between the two would not be visible to others.

However even if any other event were to happen in view of all and the conversation continued others would see:

PersonA and PersonB keep conversing

This preseves the intent of the notification of whispers that others see while reducing the number of events that are seen. This help bandwidth and for other people just checking in alot.

[thingnumber2]

It would also be nice, if it did that for when people are giving lots of items to eac other...like you see a man in his 20's begin trading notes with man in his twenties...

[rklenseth]

Naw, I would rather see if that people are having long conversations that way my characters can determine whether or not those characters are conspiring against them . Short conversations are innocent. Long conversations is a conspiracy against my character .

Doing this to items would allow someone to pass a sabre without anyone noticing. It would make it to easy for people to plan out take overs to easily. They could pass a trowel and the events would say they are passinf items and actually be passing some heavy weaponry and protection.

[thingnumber2]

I mean only if the items are the same...like notes or weapons or resources...like you see a man in his twenties passing notes-weapons-resources-tools-etc...

[rklenseth]

But there is a big difference between passing a hunting bow and a crossbow.

[kroner]

I agree with rklenseth that it's often helpful to have as much information about what others are doing as possible. Sometimes, it's annoying, but sometimes it's very important. I don't think I would want the actions abbreviated, just in case.

[Rob Maule]

Giving objects/resources:

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You see John give some iron to Jane twice.
You see Jane give two stone hammers, some iron, and some carrots to John.
You see John give wood to Jane, Joe, and Bob.

Talking:

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You see John talking to Jane three times, Jane talking to John once, then John talking to Jane once.
You see Jane talking to John, Bob, and Joe.

Events:

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You see John enter Town Hall, and return, twice.
You see John enter Town Hall, Library, and General Store, then returning to Drojf.
You see John, Jane, and Bob attack Joe, with bare hands, a sabre, and bare hands (respectively).

[Meh]

I like it. Meets both needs.

[rklenseth]

Problem is, I don't see how it will work programming wise. Can this be even programmed? If it is programmed the way I think then there could be some fatal flaws. If the computer waits to show the event until you are done giving stuff out then could hand out weapons to another person and while the other person is still handing out weapons but the events is telling anyone anything then the people getting weapons could slaughter everyone because you do not see someone handing them weapons. I'm not sure if this is such a good idea.

[Rob Maule]

That was a little confusing, but I think I know what you mean. I'll try to expand my idea to make it clearer.

When someone gives out a hammer, it's tell everyone: "You see Rob give a hammer to Richard." Anyone who logs on sees that. If I were to give you another hammer, the text would change to "You see Rob give two hammers to Richard." Since the events page is just a textual representation of your character's memory, it would not matter that the text was changed by the game.

But if it were changed, your character name on the Player page would become white again. And perhaps an asterik would be placed next to the text. Or become another color in which players know that that is what has been updated.

If a character were to interrupt an events string, as I will refer to it, then the interruptor would have his/her text displayed and the event string would become broken, surrounding the interruption. Example:

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432-1 You see Rob give Richard a hammer and a shovel.
432-1 You see Billy Bob enter the Outhouse.
432-1 You see Rob give Richard a hammer.

Very similar to what happens now. No one would miss a thing. And character actions would be grouped together to allow easier reading for players, which is what the point of this all is. And to save a tiny bit of space.

Oh yeah, should event strings be grouped together over different turns? I would have to say no. Keeps things in order that way.

And programming would not be a problem. Nothing's impossible. It's only figuring out a way to implement things.

[swymir]

Maybe instead of all that programming there could be a feature for giving multiple items to someone. So you oculd give a hammer, trowel, hunting bow, and whatever else to someone at once and on the events it would say "You gave a hammer, trowel, hunting bow, and whatever else to Billy Bob." That would accomplish the same thing except make it weasier to program. At least I think it would be.

[Rob Maule]

Forget about programmers. They're smart dudes. You have to think about what you as the end-user want to see when you log on and notice that there are ten pages worth of: "You see John talking to Jane." and "You see Jane talking to John." Just once is enough. Just add a few words that says how many times this happened in a row. No need to wait five minutes on a dial-up for no new information.

But I see nothing wrong with giving multiple objects to someone at one time. It's just that it's a different subject. A good one, though. The thing with this post is that people talk, enter buildings, give/drop/take objects, whatever several times in a row. Shortening what players read about all of this could be helpful. At least I think it could be a little.

[Meh]

And don't forget....

You hear someone knocking 113 times.

Do that one first please.