Hey,

So, all this marketing buzz has got me thinking. I've decided to try and build something to help us make Flash based logs. Basically, here's how it works :

JMC and some other clients have a feature called "RMA" logging with ANSI color code printouts. They make files that look like this :

p:3812mStart logging: 30.01.2007 23:11
p:1328mop s
p:156mYou open a doorway.

<105%hp 103%m 57%mv 1928tnl (51.80%)> p:1515m
You parry the angry fleshy creature's claw.
You parry the angry fleshy creature's claw.
Your pound <31mhits the angry fleshy creature.[br/>

That's kinda cool. I think it would help a bit to echo the command inputs in a different color, something that stands out from the gray, so you can pick them up at a scan. That's something I do with while playing so I can quickly and easily look back to see my command history in relation to what was going on in the game. Not terribly necessary for playing, but when you're reading someone else's log, it certainly helps a person to follow the flow of actions. Just an idea.

Menilin

I could submit some commented tutorial logs. Character creation, level up, etc.

Can you start by just sending me a dozen or so normal logs of doing random things?

Chatting at the inn. Fighting some mobs using a variety of skills. Pk'ing someone maybe. Etc. Then please email them to me. Make sure you use RMA format with ANSI encoding. I need the color codes and timing.

dcgregorya@gmail.com

You could pretty much comb the log forums Dio's and just add in your colors, couldn't you?

----
If you rack a bear in the nuts, be prepared to die.

I need the mappings to the colors. IE, 34m = red, or whatever.

Also I need various timings to test it. I could theoretically fake the timings, but that'd be more tedious than someone just logging stuff.

PKill montages, sone in the style of CS fragvids.

Single shot ones of rp/pkills situations set to music.

Dramatic stuff while the talking is going on,

snip

Hard stuff for the fighting.

snip

Something for the after pk chatter.


I think this can convey the frenetic nature of CF pking the way nothing else could.

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

That's sort of cool.

I can't decide if that would be enticing or overwhelming to a would-be-newbie though. Thoughts?

To make it work viably in a "YouTube" scenario, you'd have to have someone onhand with video editing capabilities. I could write this in flash, but then making it into a movie would be more of a pain in the ass.

The other issue is what sort of bandwidth limits do you guys have? For a 5 minute log you're talking about a lot of bandwidth. You could stream it, but I highly doubt your host has streaming and since its text it'd sorta have to be high quality.

It lets the newbies see what the game is like right away without going through character creation, telnet/client setup, and so on.

To deal with the coplexity issue, you can break the logs/trailers into two categories

1. Newbish/Educational
2. Advanced/Cool/Epic

Stucture the webpage, so that the newbies would first go into the first section, but there would be an easy link from the first to the second section?

It would be good to have a nice, slow log of someone rolling a character. With all the commands input by the user echo'd to the screen.

I'd suggest some very sensational logs, and if a .wmv can be put together, there is no reason we can't add music...

Also, it would be cool to throw in commentary (in text, not audio) during paused sections of the logs to clue the reader in to what's going on. It could be through the "eyes" of the character who is being logged.

Situations to be logged for various class/cabal/race combos:

Warrior: Showcase each weapon spec in action, along with skills such as shieldcleave, drive, bash, etc.

Thief: Showcase each thief path in action (note - it would be amusing to also show people what can happen with failure to mix a toxin or set a trap).

Ranger: Lots of stuff here. Just pick the coolest.

Assassin: Kotegaeshi, kansetsuwaza, owaza, stalk and assassinate.

Paladin: Strike of Faith, angel's wing, and various virtue abilities.

Anti-Paladin: Cleave, bash, sleep, iceball, fireball, unholy blessing, worldbind.

Necromancer: Lesser golem, animate dead, greater undead, sleep, wall of putrid flesh, power word kill, manifest shadow, gravesight and some of the newer spells.

Transmuter: Quickening/slowing, disruption spells, soften, calcify, mass slowing, accelerate, malleability, duo.

Conjurer: Familiar, elemental, circles of protection, conjure demon/angel (with a teaser about devils and archons), summon mephit, tesseract, clairvoyance and sending.

Invoker: Immolation, iceshards, grease, earthshield (with dirt kick in action), geyser, forked lightning, improved invisibility, rain of stone, buffet, earth ripple.

Berserker: Someone else should chime in here.

Shaman: Summon, blindness, poison, plague, sanctuary, demonfire, aristaeia, wither, rot.

Healer: Create food/water, gate, sanctuary, cleanse, aegis's (appropriate to the log...like fleeing and doing an aegis against fire while fighting someone with a flaming weapon), blade barrier, healing sleep, group teleport.

Druid: Herbal medicine, treeform, thorns, thorn heart, swarm of leeches, liveoak, call of the wild, sunray.

Bard: Someone else do this. Not too familiar with their stuff. Amazing how much you forget when you don't play.

One of the cooler things I've seen lately. I say pursue it man so long as you want.

Could be in concert with a "Log of the Week" contest and posted on the homepage for people to "Sample The Action Now!" Which I think would get people excited, especially with those epic raid defense logs. Perhaps have a way to slow down the action a bit? I don't know, it seems like it's slow enough as is, but then I'm used to full speed.

Again contests of this type don't need any actual reward.

Yeah you can globally adjust the speed.

Another thought is walkthroughs with audio explanations.

I think a well commented log (expert commentary!) would serve as well as audio explanations. Better to have (looping) mood setting music for audio (if any) and some way to step through the log, perhaps from comment to comment.