who cares if the game is easy for newbies?  once they are hooked you can make it harder.

Whatever happened to the globalization of the focus cmd?  It started out as a good idea but seemed to have gone to the wayside or no one has put forward any effort of updated the rooms prior to the cmd.  How about tweaking the cmd to query if the room has add_item or whatever u guys use on MD.  I think this would help alot with exploration.  In an age where graphical stimulation is king, it’s rough to sit there and try to read a 2 paragraph description of a room then try to pick out what is ‘exa’able or not.

that would be nice… very nice.. i think “focus” was spose to help with that.. but thats not in every room.. mostly just new ones

that would help out a ton.. next step.. command that tells the syntax! most the time it does say somthing like.. “maybe you should push it?” “maybe you should open it” “it looks like it could be moved” which is awsome when thats the syntax but sometimes is just.. somthing looks loose.. exa somthing… it looks loose.. let the guessing begain

yes.. i am bitching a little bit.. but honistly it really isnt that bad now a days.. and abbot said if there is somthing that you think needs to be changed to tweeked in reguards to syntaxs let him know and he will look at it.

but.. oh ya.. something that listed whats exa-able would be great.. cept the only problem i see that is the whole questing exa this.. which leads to you exaing somthing else.. to somthing else to get where you need to get too. which is why im guessing they went the focus route

I agree some syntax is a mess.  I have tried to keep it pretty simple or guide people to the correct syntax, but everyone thinks differently. 

The syntax that drives me nuts and is used quite commonly is “exa sign".."Perhaps you should try <read>ing the sign” .  I have used it myself a few times early on, but decided it was a waste.

Some rooms have no examines at all in them in the older code, where as I tried to have something for every item in a room that could be examined.  I also use to add searches for most of them.  Personally, I don;t like searching a wall that has a portrait on it and getting back, you find nothing special, when there is clearly a protrait on it.  That’s just me though, I was in the minority for how many examines and searches should be in a room, I liked a lot of them

One thing I think most of us try to do now though is keep a room desc pretty simple and expand on it through examines and searches.  I like to keep my room desc as short as possible (not that I have coded a room in a while, but when I did code rooms, that is what I liked to do:) )

Some drawbacks, and these are my opinions only, to the suggestion of having a command that tells you the examinable items, is that items can be added through code when an action is done, such as a search that reveals something hidden.  Another thing is I think it would take out the fun aspect of exploration.  As a player I use to enjoy entering areas I had never been and seing if I could figure everything out. if there was a command that just told me what was examinable, I don’t think I would have enjoyed exploring as much because I would never have read the descriptions.

Just a few thoughts on the subject in a completely random order

i dont know.. im a meat and potatos guy.. if theres a portrait on the wall.. and its useless (not hiding anything, not leading me to another clue or something usefull) i dont need any more desc.. otherwise i think there is somthing then im looking for hours trying to figure out what i missed and where its at and what to do.. when its nothing.. and tarmon is sitting there laughing at me.

It’s just not an efficient use of our time to go back and add focus to really old rooms if they don’t need it.  If an old room does require it, then we trust you guys to *bug* it.  A good example of this was Malal bugging a room near Vlad.  I wouldn’t have noticed that the room didn’t have a focus unless someone bugged it.

As for rooms, I’m trying to make descriptions shorter and less detailed, while still conveying the spirit and feel of the room.  It’s tough, but hopefully it helps strike the balance between an environment that stimulates your imagination without wasting your time examining four-layers of description on a wall.  You’ve probably noticed part of this effort in terms of the crates/ barrels/ chests that are in some new rooms.  Rather than hiding things in searches, the more obvious and easy items are in crates.  There are still some of the more important items in searches though.  I took as my model for this games like Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights. Ubiquitous potions and smeltable equipment is in crates, but Task things are in searches.  My hope is that this gives the casual/ new player things to gather via crates, and the Pro-player gets those plus the searched items.

how bout all lost limbs are healed back to injured at boot?

or healing lights in the newb area, finding healing as a newb can be daunting (especially if don’t want to be annoying).

As for descriptions, i’d like to see them be more literal.  If the description of a peasant says ‘wearing tattered pants and a dirty shirt’ then when i kill him he damn well better have those things on him.  Also how bout some decency codes on some of these npcs, they’re all running around naked.  Guards in indel wearing nothing but bracers and leggings, sounds like something out of a bad pron.

Belegost - 29 May 2008 08:02 AM

It’s just not an efficient use of our time to go back and add focus to really old rooms if they don’t need it.  If an old room does require it, then we trust you guys to *bug* it.  A good example of this was Malal bugging a room near Vlad.  I wouldn’t have noticed that the room didn’t have a focus unless someone bugged it.

As for rooms, I’m trying to make descriptions shorter and less detailed, while still conveying the spirit and feel of the room.  It’s tough, but hopefully it helps strike the balance between an environment that stimulates your imagination without wasting your time examining four-layers of description on a wall.  You’ve probably noticed part of this effort in terms of the crates/ barrels/ chests that are in some new rooms.  Rather than hiding things in searches, the more obvious and easy items are in crates.  There are still some of the more important items in searches though.  I took as my model for this games like Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights. Ubiquitous potions and smeltable equipment is in crates, but Task things are in searches.  My hope is that this gives the casual/ new player things to gather via crates, and the Pro-player gets those plus the searched items.

that’s all I wanted to know.  It’s just for me, I haven’t been exploring in ages and my old noggin can’t process these room descs like the old days.  I remember back when we were overloaded with information and no way of deciphering if it was part of a quest or just useless junk.  and by what I meant with the focus cmd showing what’s exa’able or searchable, I did not mean for everything, just back to the idea of the focus cmd supposed to lead us to doing something if there is anything worth doing in the area/room.  Thanks for the clarification Belly.