Listen Skill Fix

[moab]

Ok, we all know the frustrations of standing in a quiet room right next to a table at which two or more people are loudly debating using the talk command.  No matter how quiet the room is, no matter how excited the conversation gets, as long as they use the talk command and as long as you don't have the listen skill, you're pooched, you can't hear a darn thing.

In RL, it doesn't work this way and I have a suggestion that may add a bit more realism to this situation.

Have certain rooms flagged as "loud" (lots of ambient noise) or "quiet" (little or no ambient noise).  You'll need the listen skill to make out a conversation at a table in a loud room, but in a quiet room, you could probably make out most if not all the conversation.

What do you think?

[Marauder Moe]

I prefer making listen a targeted skill, like

>listen table

to listen to a conversation at a certain table or

>listen room

to try and catch whispers.

[Anonymous]

I prefer making listen a targeted skill

Same here.  Listen in it's current incarnation is pretty unbalancing if you ask me, resulting in people preferring to go stand on a rickety bridge, in a busy street or in sewage than have a hushed discussion over a table in a rowdy tavern.

The last thing we need is more people able to listen.

[Revelations]

I think it's fine as it is, but I do agree something could be done about talking at tables in near silent rooms. Maybe folks should just use say in these circumstances? That solves the problem. (yeah, I've tried to make things realistic by suggesting change to code before, but I don't think it tends to work unless it's a big problem or good for -everyone- in general) Good idea though.

[Cindrak]

I think this is a great idea, but I would take it a step further: instead of rooms being either "loud" or "quiet," assign them a "volume" from 0 to 10, and have all rooms default to 5. Builders could then assign specific volumes to their rooms where necessary. The volume factor of a room could be combined with the idea described here:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13397

... to increase or decrease the percentage of garbling that happened when using listen. People without the listen skill could still try to listen, they just wouldn't be able to hear much except in very quiet rooms (rooms with a volume of 0, for instance, I would think anyone could hear most of what was said.)

-Cindrak

[Delirium]

^  Pretty damn good idea, though I shudder to think of having to go through all the rooms in the database and set volume levels.  

Perhaps wilderness rooms could have a default level of (for example) 1, and city rooms a default level of 3, to help with that.

[Armaddict]

...I still don't see what's incredibly broken about listen as is.  There's a lot of other stuff I'd rather see first.

[Larrath]

Listen is pretty much the single most useful skill as far as day-to-day city life is concerned, bar none.  People say many things.

[Marauder Moe]

Second only to Sirihish, of course.

[Larrath]

Second only to Sirihish, of course.

Well, you inevitably learn Sirihish over time if you hang around people often enough.

[John]

resulting in people preferring to go stand on a rickety bridge, in a busy street or in sewage than have a hushed discussion over a table in a rowdy tavern.

Lots of people IRL do prefer to have sneaky conversations there then in a tavern. They'll often go to parks, bridges, etc.

[Anonymous]

Lots of people IRL do prefer to have sneaky conversations there then in a tavern. They'll often go to parks, bridges, etc.

Lots of people IRL do prefer to have sneaky conversations at loud taverns where it's hard to be overheard.  The listen skill affects people's behavior in a way that I don't think is realistic.  Making it targetted only would at least help there be a small chance people wouldn't want to go on a trek around the world to talk about the least little shady topic.

[Armaddict]

There are so many threads on this.  Can't you guys go back and read those?

[John]

standing in a quiet room right next to a table at which two or more people are loudly debating using the talk command.  No matter how quiet the room is, no matter how excited the conversation gets, as long as they use the talk command and as long as you don't have the listen skill, you're pooched, you can't hear a darn thing.

Actually, if you're standing right next to it, "stand at <table>" will be fine (IMO). If they kick up a stink, they're OOCly playing poorly (in that they're ignoring the fact you're standing right there even if you aren't codedly, and that they're making you have a boring time).

[moab]

Huh. Didn't even know about the stand at <table>
Heh. I'll try it.  Shortly after I bet I'll app my next character.
:-D

Thanks, John

[Zharal]

I personally think lisen if just fine, though I do like the targeting a table idea.  As for all you crying about not being able to hear, take a class that has lisen...Problem solved.