Hey, all. Like I've been meaning to for a while, I've started work in earnest on a new commentary system. The new system runs a hell of a lot faster, and has more support for extensions.

Right now the icons and online indicators and such are implemented via a module whose hook fires once per line of commentary, resulting in a database lookup for each unique player in the commentary area. The new system has an extra column in the database for a serialized information array into which we can put our icons and such. It gathers the data for every visible line of chat, sends that data through a hook, and then outputs the comments with icons, clan info, and so forth as separate entities joined up.

Of course, to the player, there's no visible difference except that the game runs a damn sight faster.

Oh, and the race, donations, and weapon information is stored at the time of posting a comment, rather than being looked up when the comment is viewed. That means that if you're roleplaying as a Midget and then become a Joker later that day, the commentary you posted earlier in Midget Chav Dialect won't look as though it was said by an unusually foul-mouthed Joker. This is something that a lot of players have wanted for a while, but I had to keep saying "Look, a change like that would mean I'd have to completely rewrite the commentary system." So I completely rewrote the commentary system. We should be going live with it some time next week.

And the point of this thread, ladies and gentlemen, is this: what other information, if anything, would you like to see in the commentary icons? Hats, levels, DKs (remember that all of this information can be turned on or off in your Preferences)? Or maybe have minimal information in the commentary area itself, and then more stuff that comes up when you mouse-over a player? We can do these things, now. Ideas?

*gasp* Ooh... ooh! Can we set our own mouse-over?

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"Censure acquits the Raven, but pursues the Dove." "So, that means i'm -always- innocent, right?"

That's lovely. Excellent news.

What else would I like to see? Well as a very small preference, since you ask, then armour is more interesting to me than weapons, since that is what my character can see. But that's a very small thing off the top of my head, (although I'd be interested to see what, if any, icon might be thought appropriate for 'nude') I can't think of anything else. It tells me pretty much exactly what I want to know as it is.

Yes, what Reverb says, for people playing exotic species, a one or two word description, centipedemorph or what have you might be helpful.

If we end up doing a CSS mouseover (like the one in the forum centreblock here) then I'd imagine it'd be pretty much a slimmed-down version of the Bio.

I wanted to originally do armour pictures too, but given that we've got very limited height, how do we do that? Just show an arm?

Welll, seeing as armors tend have a defining characteristic, maybe something with the materials? IE, a strip of bacon for the Bacon Suit? A pair of robot arms for the Servo-Assisted-SEALED-POWER-SUIT.

Or, hey, how about putting it in the mouse-over bio there? It would probably be easier than putting in one of those custom avatars for them, yeah? It doesn't have to be too big, right, it can be scaled down like the weapons, but if it's part of the mouse-over it would probably have more room to play(exist.)

Seperate options in the preferences for turning off the race and weapon icons. I think they should be seperate - I'm sure everythime someone is a race which the character isn't (in some cases, like chimental, every race) they turn off the race icon. But would often be happy with the weapon icon to remain there.

Also, will it remember what weapon they had as well? I've noticed a couple of incidents in the Raven Inn where someone tries to carve something onto the tables with a spork, but their weapon is a screwdriver.

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A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a trombone; what else does a man need to be happy?

Yup - the only thing that'll get looked up rather than stored is their online/offline/nearby status.

I personally prefer clean 'n simple interfaces without a lot of clutter, so I have most icons turned off in my commentary view. I like Cousjava's idea of making each icon a separate option. Then you could add as many mini indicators or mouseovers as you like, and people could easily decide which, if any, they want to display. Maybe add radio buttons for each icon, asking if you want to view other people's, show yours, or hide all of them?

What about an option to display your favorite badge? What about an option to display the rank you're currently working on? Maybe a button for writing a quick Distraction? The possibilities are endless (except that I can't think of many buttons/icons I'd want to display). And I'm assuming that titles and colorized names will also be stored, because that would be super awesome.

Any chance of choosing your default colour for writing text, save a valuable few characters?

That would be just plain awesome.


Alot of the time I wind up forgetting to change my color, 'specially in Location 4.

I never bother changing my colors in L4, since it's already OOC... but to each his own, I suppose.

I would really like the option to display my race without my weapon, since I always role-play my race but none of the game's weapons fit my character.

A button next to the character's name (i.e. where the various Site Supporter icons are now) for quick distractions would be very useful, especially in NH, IC and L4 where newbies always need distractions.

Also, the option to only display certain of other people's icons would be handy. I don't necessarily always want to see that someone's weapon is a Custom Four-Foot Katana Inscribed with Magical Symbols that Make It Invincible And Also Awesome and have to scan halfway across the page just to find where their speech/action starts. And possibly do the same with titles? Then again, people might get upset if we have the option to ignore their well-earned and ridiculous custom items/titles.

I would vastly prefer some mouse-over text on a person's name to making the set of icons any more cluttered. I almost never have any of them on because, well, that's my preference. I'm more interested in the text than seeing someone's axe handle going halfway across the screen. I like the idea of having the weapons icons, I like seeing the graphics, but in practice it just gets too messy.

Honestly, very often what someone's wearing or wielding according to game mechanics is not what they're wearing and wielding according to their bio. Me, for example. Beeker for another, Skidge for a third, off the top of my head. I could go take a quick rundown skim of contestant bios and I'd probably add fifty percent of the names I look at to that list. Heck, some people (me again, for the moment) don't even play according to the race they've told the game they are. More icons that hook into the game mechanics for their information are going to be more icons that I'm going to have to request can't be seen when someone looks at my character.

Now that idea for a short mouse-over text over a person's name...is intriguing. I mean, having the option for some text that says "Human swashbuckler with a big fancy musketeer hat and a ready grin" would probably be faster for people to read than say...the two paragraphs I have on what my character's wearing. In addition, from a log-grabber's standpoint, I could start including whatever the player had chosen for their hover-text the first time they appear in the log, which would make anyone coming to read the Enquirer after the character's changed how they look a bit less confused.

I'd like to see some sort of Charm readout, maybe a rating from "Hideously Ugly" to "Bwuuuuhr..." in relation to their percentile in the HoF.

This would, of course, need to be optional if your character's appearance doesn't correspond to his/her charm level.

Mouseover bio mousover bio!

Preferably with the ability to set a short custom race notification. And maybe gender, for those of us who have gotten stuck as the wrong one.

(i speak for friends, not ferryn)

-on an utterly unrelated aside, it makes me gleeful to apparently be noticable enough to have been mentioned as an example. woo me!

Of course you're noticable Ferryn, I'd say that you're one of the well known characters about the Island. I even know that you're not now titled centipedemorph, and haven't been for some while. It's kittybug at the moment isn't it?

Yup.

umm ... I often fail to notice the arrival of distractions, and used to do so far more often when I was new ... er. Becuase ... it's like ... waaay up there at the top, and I'm engrossed in plot/chat waaay down ... well you get the picture.

So ... an indicator of a new distraction in or next to the chat space ... or somewhere ... low.

Probably make it easier to get the attention of rookies in need of guidance before they trip over whatever's going on, etc.

Just, you know ... sayin'.

Oh ... and just had another thought ... (That's like ... 3 this week ... I'm on a roll.)

Perhaps a Raven Inn type chat space, that only appears in the Laboratory occupied by the Drive.

A chance for 'famous last words' by contestants.

Oh! Oh! I had a thought...! (Yes, yes, shush in the peanut gallery there.)

... if it's not too late ...

... so long as you're re-writing the comment system anyway ...

... Would it be possible to allow a code similar in function to ":" except that if used as the very first character in a comment it would also suppress the space after the character's name? A single-quote would be the most natural choice.

It seems like such a tiny change, but among other things, it would allow people to use the possessive case in their comments, so they could seamlessly write things like, "Zolotisty's minion [does such-and-so to torment Ebenezer]," or "Chimental's cloak ripples ominously," or "Bernard's housekeeper Phyllis raises her broom."

People do this now, of course, but everyone reading must agree to avert their eyes and pretend very hard that inserted space does not exist. It would be just lovely to have a way of getting rid of it!

Yes, yes we should do that. Other things, like new colour controls and so forth, will have to wait 'til I rewrite the output system.

Although I might as well rewrite the output system concurrently... Hmm...