valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Is there any chance for this to be changed so that it requires the first two letters of the mob of character for it to work, mainly to avoid confusion and carelessness?

Failing in that, might it be possible to have room directions checked before mobs, so 'look s(outh)' comes before 'look s(tag)'?

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

NT

i would love to see colored room titles. just green or blue or anything / toggleable. I find in the areas i'm very used to i don't have to look, but when exploring (or running for your life) colored titles would be great to separate the desc from the (at the moment) important title line. It might be a crutch i developed from other muds but i've been playing CF on and off (mostly off until recently) since i read a great article on this MUD from an Ultima Online Board about 4 years ago.

great mud, thanks!

I find running for your life with brief not turned on is nearly impossible.

Rog

Addendum: Don't use brief while exploring a new place! Area writers hate that, and you might find it gets you killed on occasion.

Thanks for a well-written post.

A: Adding a carriage return marker to the prompt.

I could see this as an option to the 'prompt' command, though I would not want it on by default. Personally, it would increase the rate of scroll too much for my tastes, but there is no reason not to offer it as something you could add if you wanted.

B: Indentation at the beginning of the description's initial paragraph, to give a sense of seperation - otherwise, it's almost instinctive for me to look over a messy blob of text.

Room descriptions and objects on the ground already do this. Being that you only see PC/NPC/object full descriptions right after a directed 'look' command, this seems less important to me.

C: Adding enriched color schemes that aren't blindingly vibrant or overwhelming, but add a sense of area seperation and emphasis. (even a good way to point out clues without being annoyingly obvious.)

We've discussed this internally a bit, and the staff consensus is that low-color is the way to go. Personally, I find excessive color distracting- we use it minimally because we want:

1) Communication is important, and we want it to stand out. All communication except emote is colored. Emote isn't colored because we want it to 'blend in' with things like socials or the effects of skills and other commands.
2) I find any color in descriptions obnoxious. I've been on MUDs where the area writers feel the need to color the word 'tree' green, or color every room by terrain type. To be honest, it felt like reading a children's book. Part of our Area Team's goal is to create places that don't need colored text to capture an image.
3) Saturation is a problem. The more you add, the less people pay attention to it. I want color to stand out- when I'm doing a quest, or a direct interaction (as in, as my immortal character, not as a farmer or what have you) with a mortal, I tend to use a good bit of color. The intention is to hit them with something striking, since it's a rare event to be addressed directly by a god, or witness a critical historical event. If there's color smeared all over everything else, bigger events can get washed out.

D: Though I've only travelled briefly between Hamsah, Galadon, Arkham, and Udgaard, I've found the atmosphere room descriptions provide to be sub-par in this immediate, heavily-newbie-travelled area. It really spoiled my initial impression of the MUD, looking to be involved in heavy RP as much as a healthy(massive) amount of PK.

One reason I'm not visible so often is that I supervise a large section of our area work. I agree we have some areas that aren't up to our modern standards. One of the changes of direction that has occurred while I've held my current responsibilities is to focus less on expansion, and more on rebuilding our core. This is intended both to feed our PK dynamic (too many areas means a diluted population and low PC-PC interaction) and our RP dynamic (the oldest areas are often unappealing).

For examples of the most recent areas, see 'help area recent'. 'help newbie2' gives some basic directions to several. I'm a pennant-waving Kastellyn-area fan, so I'll toss in a recommendation for the Temple of Loch Grynmear, but I'm pleased with all of the new ones.

So, area updates are an ongoing process. We're aware of the issues, but we have a huge (~24,000 location) world, and we need a little time to make everything the way we want it. If you have specific concerns, you can email me to make sure it's on my bulldozer operator's list.

E: A "format" command for both 'role' and 'description' to automatically wrap lines to, at the most, 80 characters/line.

Descriptions cannot be made with more than 79 characters/line. We've discussed some other enhancements for this- I agree the current system is somewhat clunky.

Also, a 'remove' or 'edit' command for previous, possibly typo'ed entries into 'role' after they've been completed with the 'role add' command.

This we're not interested in. A role is between you and any observing immortals. We're not worried about typos- we want a brief synopsis of your character that will guide any interactions and give insight into the meanings behind your actions. Also, we dont want people able to 'backtrack' and erase previous roles.

F: A step towards convenience - permitting shorthanded handles of object/mob/player keywords. There is nothing more frustrating than having to fully type out long names and descriptors over, and over, and over.

One drawback of this convenience is that it can lead to OOC accidents that are difficult to explain IC. Like why your paladin attacked Konner the storm giant in the kobold cave. It's why most experienced players discourage the use of pure "numbered" targeting ("kill 2.") outside of desperate measures.

I'll put it up for internal discussion, however, and see what the staff thinks.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Prompt: I forgot to specify - I agree, it shouldn't be default, but it should be an option. Not something of great importance, but it's a simple thing.


Color:

Communication is important, and we want it to stand out. All communication except emote is colored. Emote isn't colored because we want it to 'blend in' with things like socials or the effects of skills and other commands.

I've always felt communication stands out due to it's merit/individual meaning instead of merely it's contrast to the surroundings. I, personally, would still overlook communication no matter how vibrantly it stands out if I wasn't intent on following it. If I was, then even the MUD's complete grayscale wouldn't be enough to sway me from attentiveness.

I find any color in descriptions obnoxious. I've been on MUDs where the area writers feel the need to color the word 'tree' green, or color every room by terrain type. To be honest, it felt like reading a children's book. Part of our Area Team's goal is to create places that don't need colored text to capture an image.

Color should never be used as a crutch for giving an atmosphere to an area, I agree. But, in my opinion, it shouldn't be shunned for extra support. If you walk through a rather well written area, it's always been my experience that something well colored (even if "tree" is green or "water" is blue) only adds to the atmosphere in a positive manner. I always found color, when used as a polish instead of a crutch, is irreplaceable. Not only for just the aesthetic pleasure, but area seperation. On a MUD like this - atleast that I've travelled to newbie-saturated points like cities and sub-20 levelling areas - cities aren't drastically seperated from wilderness or roads. It's a linear path, and with that you succumb to area blending. A player who's gone through it once will end up feeling no seperation between city, country road, and city again. Or forest path, and cavern, and underwater lake. So on, so forth. It's a real drag, atleast to me, as a player. However, my opinion is probably of the minority. Just thought it'd be healthy to catch everyone's opinions to atleast put my curiousities to rest.

Saturation is a problem. The more you add, the less people pay attention to it. I want color to stand out- when I'm doing a quest, or a direct interaction (as in, as my immortal character, not as a farmer or what have you) with a mortal, I tend to use a good bit of color. The intention is to hit them with something striking, since it's a rare event to be addressed directly by a god, or witness a critical historical event. If there's color smeared all over everything else, bigger events can get washed out.

The nature of color itself is contrast. A bright red will always stand out in an area (as long as builders don't go that childs-book direction and build areas all in bright colors). If you look at one end of the spectrum - saturation - you have to look at the other end of it. Personally, the only color I've seen is says. You leave a person so absent of atmospheric and impressive color, that frankly, after a certain point of yearning for it - they give up, and don't want it anymore. This is from experiences I've seen elsewhere, atleast. When you come out with those vibrant colors, they find it a more obnoxious and distracting attempt at granduer than anything else, instead of the soothing impressiveness of immortal interaction. If color was added, then an impressive and creative color scheme to the interaction would give you that spark. Bigger events stand based upon their merit and the meat of it - not how much it contrasts a drab environment.

And so there is no mistake, I'm not trying to argue, incase anyone gets that idea. I'm merely being an advocate in a debate to perhaps open up some paths for new ideas. I also like to remind everyone this is from limited experience on Carrion Fields - having travelled (most probably) earlier built areas, and newbie-intensive travel zones only. So I'm not condemning or praising any possible new areas, just immediate zones and my impressions of the MUD and that of possibly any newer player that would enter - zones which are on the slate for updating anyway.

I pray he will get to heaven, a good hour before the devil finds out he's dead.

And here in my eagerness to go watch college football in all it's glory, I forgot to comment on the shorthand handles.

Any error emulated by shorthand handles and carelessness in handling them, would be exponential with 1. and 2. Anyone careless enough to make errors with short handles deserves the awkwardness and IC consequences, and if they're rare enough, can easily avoid IC consequences if subsequently handled. Prayers for reimbursement due to any errors of this convenient modification can't be much more than the amount currently recieved. And, in relation to the few and rare errors this would cause, it's sheer convenience (toward a player like me) is infinitely outweighing.

...and henceforth, I shall never use 'hand' again.

I pray he will get to heaven, a good hour before the devil finds out he's dead.

Prayers for reimbursement due to any errors of this convenient modification can't be much more than the amount currently recieved.

That would be 'zero'. You're responsible for the consequences your own actions. Any other policy is too vulnerable to being exploited.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Oh...of course. I understand that. Hell, I've yet to find a MUD -with- reimbursement like that. I meant harrassing spam-prayers of newbies as a downside to the change.

I pray he will get to heaven, a good hour before the devil finds out he's dead.

One drawback of this convenience is that it can lead to OOC accidents that are difficult to explain IC. Like why your paladin attacked Konner the storm giant in the kobold cave. It's why most experienced players discourage the use of pure "numbered" targeting ("kill 2.") outside of desperate measures.

I remember as pre-Chancellor Urden, Dullameh and I were chasing a
villager down the eastern road. I was juggling about four names in my
copy/paste method (no, I've never got the hang of tab completions), and
I opted for "c pebble 1." and just waited for Dull to summon. Well,
the rager walked out very quick and I chucked the rock at Dullameh, who
volleyed at me, which bounced off of my earthshield! WHEW! It all could
have ended for Urden right there. I don't really know why I am
bringing that up, but I guess it was to reinforce your point.

Bizarro I'm helping!

I was asked to help the scions with my arial whip spec. Some maran was in the chasm but I knew he'd need to flee.

Anyway, I started spamming "lash 1." so that I'd get him when he entered the room. Unfortunately I just lashed my groupmate instead and wrecked the whole thing. heh.

Having tab-completion would certainly mitigate the need for a targeting system, thus {possibly} evening the playing field some.

Newer areas tend to be much much better in this respect. Unfortunately, newer areas tend to be on the outer reaches of the mud (relative to the central trunk of Galadon/Hamsah).

If you want areas with atmosphere and a consistent theme, try finding Kteng's Laboratory, for example. Agreed, it is not a newbie area, but it is a good example of what some areas are like. The new high tower of sorcery is better than the old one too.