Freedom for character changes? Eyes and hair.

[RunningMountain]

One thing I've always enjoyed to be able to do on a mud is the ability to change my character as things happen to him/her.

Such as the scar code the empty eyesockets, tattoo code, etc. I've mulled over this for a while, and I think we could apply a better use of code to incorporate eye color and hair style into the assess command, and thus make change of character even more available to the players.  

Instead of having to put eye color and hair in the main description, which you could still do, players would instead input something simple into a line of code

What is your eye color? Blue.
You may choose from the following hair styles.
Pony-tail
Long
Very long
Short
Flat-top
Shaven
Bald
Spiked
You have chosen pony-tail. Now choose a color:
Dark
Black
Red
Blond
Brown
Dark-brown
Sandy-blond
etc.
You have chosen dark.

So when in game if someone uses assess -v man
He has blue eyes.
His hair is dark and in the style of a pony-tail.
He appears young for his race.
He is a bit taller then you.
He is about the same weight as you.
The massive, scar-faced man is in excellent condition.
The massive, scar-faced man not look tired.


The main reason I think this would be cool is you could then have shopkeepers in the cities and outposts which are hair barbers and can change your hair style, and you could also have maybe spells that change your eye color.

This would make it a lot easier for people who are trying to be very shady characters, instead of someone just glancing at your MDESC to see who you are, they'd have to match things up, if you had a pony-tail when you stole from that noble, then go to the barber and get your head shaven, you might have the same sdesc but hopefully they would roleplay properly if they caught you and not be so sure it was you.

And I think overall this would just be very cool to do in-character without having to send in and wait for lengthy periods of time from staff to get a sdesc/mdesc change.  I've also preferred to keep eye color out of my sdesc, and hair color, this would make it even easier, keeping the sdescs constrained to a more body-type, remarkable characteristics instead of seeing a bunch of tall black-eyed humans running around, you'll start seeing more informational spreadout descriptions.

-RM

[Nyard]

I think it's fine how it is, and it would just be too much of a hassle to change things.  I also think that having to choose from a premade list of choices would make people be a lot less creative, and, what else would be left to write in your mdesc, anyway?  You can't do eye color, hair color, or any of that stuff, so you wouldn't really have enough left to write 4 lines.

[jstorrie]

Not a bad idea, but far from critical. There are about 126437869 things I'd rather see coded first.

[Larrath]

I think this will result in either characters looking generic, or ridiculously long lists of options.  There are very many possible styles of hair, especially when Allanaki nobles come into question.  Elves can also have eyes in just about any conceiveable color - and so can magickers.
Mdescs are good, and I don't see how this will be useful.  If you want your character to commit a crime and then immediately cut its hair for the mdesc/sdesc change, email the MUD in advance and set it all up so all you have to do is wish up and let them know you're ready.

[bloodfromstone]

I do like this idea in theory. My character frequently changes between having hair pulled back, braided, bunned, hanging loose, etc, etc, just as a realism thing. Most people change their hair style on some casual level. It would be nice to be able to reflect this without having to frequently throw my PC's current hair style into emotes for newcomers, which gets old for those who were there for the beginning of the scene. But, like some people have said, there are approximately one hundred billion hairstyles that people could come up with and just not have a proper option for.

Good idea in theory. I'm not sure how it would work out in practice, unfortunately.

[Manhattan]

Remember, Armageddon is Diku-based. Not LP. what you're talking about is an attribute of LP Muds.

[Marauder Moe]

I still think the tdesc idea would be best.  For those who haven't heard me or other talk about this, it's a proposed addition to the main description, perhaps 4 lines long, that could be changed by the player using the 'change' command.  It would allow people to have varying hairstyles, injuries, and cleanliness without having to send emails requesting a desc change.  Also it'd show up with the assess command.[/code]

[Nyard]

Well, now that idea sounds pretty good.  But it might be too complicated, I think.  I mean, why go through all of that trouble for this, when there are probably many more important things that need working on?  I mean, it would probably take a long time to code that, right?  It is a good idea, though.