Posts made by faraday

@thenomain said in How much Code is too much Code?:

And yet, when I made a suggestion to bring more of your game onto the web, you said why bother.

Umm... no? I specifically expressed some implementation concerns about bringing that one particular thing you suggested. That is emphatically not the same to objecting to "bringing more of the game onto the web", which I've done quite a lot of.

It comes down to the philosophy I mentioned earlier: What problem are you trying to solve, and what other problems are you maybe introducing in the process.

@thenomain said in How much Code is too much Code?:

She told me I was being silly.
I bet she has it in game for players like me. I mean, it’s not perfect but at least it’s easier to browse than whatever train wreck style Arx has going on.

Yep. It's 2017. Web is the future. We as a hobby need to move out of the dark ages.

But yes, almost everything is available in-game except the wiki. And that's pretty standard across every game I've been on recently; it's not unique to Ares games.

@three-eyed-crow said in How much Code is too much Code?:

But sometimes, I can't remember the exact command syntax or in some thematic cases the exact spelling, and I want a quick hit (in many cases to copy-paste) that takes 10 seconds and I can insert before a pose.

Doesn't help and help/detail already give you that? I'm a teensy bit confused. They're the same help files.

@tat said in How much Code is too much Code?:

@auspice Yeah, in my experience I LOVE the brief code syntax, but sometimes (especially as I'm learning Ares), I wish those snippets were fuller/better at pointing you to the rest of the related code syntax.

OT here but if you want to PM me I'm curious how you think it can be made fuller/better. There's a line at the bottom "For more help, use help/detail bbs or visit the web portal: http://bsgu.aresmush.com/help/bulletin_boards."

@misadventure said in How much Code is too much Code?:

Has any coder tracked what code gets use, and what doesn't? I am fairly sure who or where etc gets a ton, but what about +hangouts, or +help, or +cookie?

I've never done elaborate metrics, but most of it I think is pretty obvious. Weekly cookie tallies, seeing people port into scenes using 'meetme', seeing events posted or people claimed off the roster... very little code is invisible. (Help being one example that is... but, well, it's not like you're going to do away with your help system even if nobody happens to be using it very often. I hope :))

@wildbaboons said in System dealbreakers:

You can die IN chargen? I'm not familiar with Traveller

Yeah you get to decide how old you are, and for every X years (3? 4? It's been awhile) past 18 you get to roll on the "tour" table to see what happened to you that tour. You can get skills, promotions, money, contacts, etc. But one of the options is "You die. Start over." The idea (in theory) was to keep min/maxers from just rolling endlessly to max out their char.

Yeah some routers it seems are smart (or dumb) enough to ignore the null byte traffic. You have to send something explicit, like @@ or whatever the game's keepalive command is.

@lithium yep understood. In case I wasn’t clear, Ares allows both ways —. @@ (or keepalive or idle ) sent from the client, as well as the server automatically pinging the client (unless you turn it off).

@lithium It also has idle pinging enabled by default.

http://bsgu.aresmush.com/help/keepalive

@lithium there are a variety of keepalive things, including @@.

@rnmissionrun I accidentally posted it in the opt-in code forum. Arkandel was kind enough to move it so more people could see it.

Having a smooth install process is critical, so I'll be sure that's all settled before 1.0 is released.

@packrat said in How do you construct your characters?:

To everyone who finds themselves working from a picture or a 'played by' as a primary part of the process, was this something you started doing recently? Or did you also do that say, eight years ago before character wiki pages or 'played bys' were a common thing, just then not express it to the same degree?

I've been doing it for ages as a crutch for writing descs. Definitely pre-dated wikis. B5 MUSH (1997) was very FC-heavy, a lot of people had PBs from the TV show, and it was a natural leap to pick a PB for an OC too. For Martian Dreams (2001), players could optionally select a profile picture for their (staff-created) web page but not everyone did it. Battlestar:Pacifica (2006) was the first game I played with a player-editable wiki, and the first place I really saw PBs being widespread. It was also the first game I saw using RP log icons. Corbett created them for everybody, and people thought it was neat, so even folks who didn't initially have a PB jumped on the bandwagon. I think my +actors code was first done for that game.

@auspice said in System dealbreakers:

I will worship as a god the person that ever finds a way to streamline that shit.

Streamlining a system like that isn't hard, but streamlining means compromising, and pretty soon it's lost the "feel" of the original. You see that with generic systems all the time. They're simple, but they're also kinda bland.

@arkandel said in System dealbreakers:

What makes a table-top system not good to use for a MUSH?

What Rook said. Also, personally, I think that too much complexity is a bad fit for a MU. I adore Shadowrun tabletop. Even if it were fully coded, I would absolutely dread playing that system on a MU. And usually it isn't, requiring entirely too much effort on the part of players and GMs. I know people use it, but I think it doesn't work so great.

@thenomain said in Code systems that make it easier to get on with the business of roleplaying:

If they don’t have a 1:1 time compression ratio, there isn’t anything BUT Kerran’s out there.

My Penn weather system keys off of the IC time string. It will follow whatever time compression you have, as long as you set up the mapping between what months correspond to what seasons.

ETA: The weather code is not great or anything. It only allows for one global weather, it has a relatively trivial progression from one weather pattern to the next, and it doesn't have fancy flowery descs like Keran's. But it is, in fact, a simple virtual weather system.

@thenomain said in How much Code is too much Code?:

I want to note how much I hate RP rooms with their generic names and hanging off the OOC nexus. Whatever I can do to get rid of them, I will try to do.

Copy my scene system, lol It makes RP rooms superfluous. The whole idea is to change the paradigm of how we view MU* RP by making it about "a scene" and not "a location". The location is secondary to a scene, and a scene may span multiple locations.

Probably veering too much off onto a tangent here but I couldn't resist.

@arkandel said in How much Code is too much Code?:

What I've noticed in similar situations in the past is that RP tends to 'spill out of' temp rooms once you incentivize the practice.

Yeah like @Three-Eyed-Crow said it's really not a matter of incentivising RP out of the temp rooms. The temp rooms are an integral part of how scenes are done.

Personally I prefer them because I feel it mixes the best of both grid rooms and RP rooms. You have the pre-set descs and locations of a grid, but you can feel free to go beyond those to any location while still clearly marking your scene as public for any to join. I also personally prefer expressly seeing a scene marked as <PUBLIC> because it always felt weird to be paging people all: "Hey do you mind if I join?" Especially when you're staff and it's like... what, are they gonna say no? Or am I just going to crash in and ruin their fun.

@sg said in How much Code is too much Code?:

Yeah, it's stupid. It's not you, it's me. I think I have this sticky idea of awesome temp rooms being for plots, hangout/casual scenes are for grid that I can't shake for some reason. I'm sure I'll get over it one of these days.

You're not the only one who's mentioned it though, so I really don't think it's just you! It's all good - wasn't a criticism just an observation of how the changes you think are most innocuous can sometimes mess with peoples' fun.

@auspice said in Code systems that make it easier to get on with the business of roleplaying:

This is the thing that makes me sad. I'd love to see a good weather code someday, but I'm also aware what a bitch it is.

My old Penn codebase has weather. So does Ares. They're not as grand as Keran's system so I dunno if you'd consider them "good", but they should be reasonably easy to set up.

I'm personally proud of my scene system, which @Auspice already mentioned (thanks btw). To be fair with due credit that was inspired by stuff that @ixokai and @skew did with repose and scene capturing. I just improved on it. The quotecolor code was inspired by @Avarice.

The FS3 combat system enables storytelling in mass combats if that's your jam.

I know some people hate it, but I adore meetme code.

@surreality said in How much Code is too much Code?:

To me, it feels like homework and paperwork work-work.

Yeah for me a lot of it just feels like busy work. OMG I need to remember to spend my XP / do my +tasks / feed my harvesters / do whatever +job foo is necessary to earn my paycheck / sit for 10 minutes on a +shuttle…. ARRRGH. No. I just want to tell stories with other people. Get all that other junk out of my way.

(This is not a knock against anyone who likes that stuff. To each their own. I just intensely dislike it personally.)

@arkandel said in How much Code is too much Code?:

In a way and from a certain point of view a lot of code butts up against actual RP in ways that can't always be predicted.

Very true. Though I think anything that directly impacts the characters, not the players (such as XP in your example) is always going to butt up against RP. What blindsides me sometimes are subtle things like @SG (I think it was) saying that they didn’t like to RP any more on BSGU because people were mostly using scene temprooms instead of grid rooms. Which is a valid point, but my experience was the exact opposite. So I agree - code can impact the game in surprising ways.

@thenomain said in How much Code is too much Code?:

To help staff and players facilitate gameplay. Not "have fun", because as above it's subjective…

I would go a step further and specify "facilitate the gameplay the staff wants to foster". There’s nothing wrong with telling folks ‘no’ because a requested command doesn’t fit your vision for the game, even if that might please 8 (or even 80) players.

@thenomain said in How much Code is too much Code?:

@ashen-shugar said in How much Code is too much Code?:

That's when you tell them to just screw off and go away right?

Yeah, like either you or I are any good at that.

Apparently I’ve honed that craft more than you guys

@ashen-shugar said in How much Code is too much Code?:

This essentially sets anyone connecting from the matching sites FUBAR and SLAVE, which disables every single command (including LOGOUT and QUIT) that the player can issue while on your game.
They find it annoying. Fancy that!

That really works? It boggles my mind that it would irritate anyone any more or less than being sitelocked. Like… you just click the disconnect button? Goes back to: people never cease to surprise in the ways they interact with code.

@arkandel said in How much Code is too much Code?:

1. Allow for better record-keeping. ... 2) Expedite menial tasks.

Oh yeah, I should have clarified. My "I hate code" sentiment was in regards to code that butts up against actual RP. Starships, economy, crafting, etc. OOC tools to enhance the community or make it easier to facilitate getting people together? Go wild. But even then, always consider what problem is this solving and what problems is this creating.

I hate coded systems. (Ironic, yeah?) I much prefer just freeform storytelling.

The only time I code a system for my game is when it makes it easier to tell stories. The FS3 combat system enables you to RP out stories involving epic battles that would otherwise take for-freaking-ever to play out. Skills system allow players to easily resolve disputes without needing a judge, to keep things from devolving into cops and robbers "I got you!" "No you didn't!"