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- SacredWest 6m
- Baguette 51s waow
- QueenZombean 5m
- spungkbubble 1m
- notloose 3m
- zxq 1m
- Napoleon 1h
a Mench 6h Doing a bit of everything.
And 21 more hiding and/or disguised
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Guests
...and the fact they can't see squat.

I've spoken about this to a couple of GMs in my time but have never actually made a formal comment about it.

Have any of you logged in recently as a guest?
He has no skills, no stats. He is injured (due to falling from the sky in front of the Drome). He can't understand speech unless it's English.

...but that's less important than the fact he can hardly hear anybody say anything, anyway.

Standing in the Drome, Tristan is audible, and any characters who address the guest... but nothing else. There is no "watch" feature because he doesn't have the stats to achieve that.

While I can see this does prevent OOC stuff, it does mean that potential visitors to the game are seeing a relatively silent world, or one-sided conversations, or bartenders randomly replying and handing over drinks. I don't think any of those are particularly desired elements of the game, do you?

I'm not suggesting that he suddenly becomes uber, with boosted skills and stats that enable him to run around and survive jumping off rooftops and the like, but something a little better than "blind" would be grand.

Thoughts?
Should Sam_Guest (or Hafu or Gaijin or whoever) have some basic skills? Even just ...perception, is it? So he can see things and observe conversations... I'd just like the poor thing to be able to almost interact like a normal member of society :P

(PS: Hi!) ;)

You raise an excellent point that we've overlooked. We'll take a look at them and what the experience is like. I can't promise that we'll raise their perception though, because then might be ab-usable for spying.


But they already survive jumping off rooftops! They do it all the time!
Personally I've always thought speech should default to the M* norm ("speak loudly" is it or something like that?) with the option to switch to softly.

Generally speaking in a normal sized room in RL, if people are talking, I can hear them unless they choose to make what they're saying private and lower their voice. Strikes me as more normal, user-friendly and intuitive to have it that way in the game.

Slightly off topic. but hey...

Quote: from Rastus2 on 5:58 am on Mar. 8, 2008[br]Personally I've always thought speech should default to the M* norm ("speak loudly" is it or something like that?) with the option to switch to softly.

That would actually be a very good way around the topic - and it would (theoretically) prevent the abuse that was mentioned earlier, as anybody saying things that needed to be kept secret would be able to do so. At the same time, ordering drinks and such would be audible to everybody in the bar, which would be a fairly realistic.

...and yes, I know that not all guests log in and head to the Drome, but it's the best illustration of the fact they can't hear anything ;)

Quote: from Rastus2 on 1:28 pm on Mar. 7, 2008[br]Personally I've always thought speech should default to the M* norm ("speak loudly" is it or something like that?) with the option to switch to softly.

Generally speaking in a normal sized room in RL, if people are talking, I can hear them unless they choose to make what they're saying private and lower their voice. Strikes me as more normal, user-friendly and intuitive to have it that way in the game.

Slightly off topic. but hey...

In a normal size room thats crowded with others who are talking amoungst themselves? The reason the guest can't hear anyone in the drome is in the description ...

This place is a single narrow space with a bar down one side and tables along the other, thick with pimps and handlers and an arcane array of dealers. ... Through the doors to the north you see the swells of the passing crowd. ... Crowds of people mill around the long oak bar that stretches the full length of the room, ordering drinks, chattering or just relaxing.

In a room with less ambient population, they hear other people just fine.

Kind of related, if there's only two people in an empty room, can you really talk quietly into your progia and have them not hear?

I always try to talk "to" the phone regardless if it's only two people, but I tend to slip up. But I think quiet talk should be harder to accomplish in closed areas.

Quote: from Johnny on 6:16 pm on Mar. 8, 2008[br]
In a room with less ambient population, they hear other people just fine.

It uses ambpop? Neato.

I'm still a little concerned about how intuitive it is for a new player though. I've had at least a few occasions where I've been rambling and presume now that it just went completely unheard (or maybe everyone just ignored me, I'm kinda used to that ;))

Perhaps it should be brought to the new players attention sooner too, getting the prompt to read help on the games speech system the first three (?) times you say something isn't necessarily the best time to find out it's more complex than anywhere else. Finding out speech isn't working for you the first time a you meet someone and they stick a gun in your face isn't exactly a pleasant experience...

How about changing the "queue into the dome" where you have 5-6 (y/n) prompts into a mini interactive IC tutorial with a basic intro to a few select topics?

(Off topic about guests again, but I suppose it kinda covers guests becoming players for the first time. As far as first impressions go, a dead area walk in and a stack of (y/n) prompts isn't very indicative of what the game has to offer.)

Oh, and you coulda just said it uses ambpop y'know? No need for the patronising explanation, I did create ambpop remember? ;)

(Edited by Rastus2 at 4:54 am on Mar. 9, 2008)

Quote: from Rastus2 on 4:48 am on Mar. 9,
Oh, and you coulda just said it uses ambpop y'know? No need for the patronising explanation, I did create ambpop remember? ;)

But not everyone who is gonna read this thread knows what ambpop is. :)