sweet/crazy idea with long descs

[daedroug]

Ok, I was going to come to complain about the way that the visibility of the long desc (among other things) works.
However....... I got an idea.....a pretty cool idea.....or a pretty crazy idea.....still deciding.

Anyways here we go. Imagine this. Your character dies. You go to make a new one. You go through the normal things the name, the race, the guild, the background and what not. Then you reach yer long description. Instead of just your normal paragraph, the MUD asks you to submit several lines of description with a max of a line or two. (you'd basicly write a paragraph but it would be seperated into chunks that you get to order however you want) each line would be a description of a wear loc such as the charts arms, head, face, and what not. Then, since the mud would be able to distinguish which parts are which, it would be able to hide the lines that correspond with areas that would be hidden (the line about yer chars mangled face would be hidden by a mask). Anyways this could go on to other complicated things like when you wear a wig it replaces the head text (which would inclue yer hair) to a description about you having hair the color of the wig. I could think of other ways this would be useful but I believe I have rambled on enough. The idea is to keep arms policy of showing the long desc even when hooded or what not.

Tell me what you think.
[edited: fixed a few typos]

[Sholdyn]

Are you sure you're talking about the long desc? Cuz I think you're talking about the main desc.

And to that end, I think I'd rather have the main desc as one paragraph, rather than break it up. Some main descs are really well written and breaking it up into several lines would sorta ruin it for me.

I don't think this is a bad idea, I just don't particularly care for it.

[daedroug]

well I guess I didn't elaborate on that very well you'd be able to make the paragraph how you wanted it and then you'd break up the different parts so it could be just as well written it would just have the benefit of being able to do this.

[Sholdyn]

Oh, well in that case, I think it's a neat idea.  

[Scarborough]

I've seen something similar to this done on a mud I played for a very short time.  Each player have five seperate descriptions, which were used to indicate various levels of dress or undress.  It made more sense considering the theme of that particular mud.  I think it would make more sense to have two completely seperate descriptions here (and not a tiered description): one for normal, and one for veiled.  A veiled desc would indicate build, maybe smell, and a hint of what one might see beyond a hood or veil.  It would obviously be a more brief description.  I've often thought this feature would be really nice.

[daedroug]

yeah except not all things that would hide like that would hide all of your features. Such as if you were wearing a mask, compared to wearing a cloak or hooded robe.

[I]

I've seen something similar to this done on a mud I played for a very short time.  Each player have five seperate descriptions, which were used to indicate various levels of dress or undress.  It made more sense considering the theme of that particular mud.  I think it would make more sense to have two completely seperate descriptions here (and not a tiered description): one for normal, and one for veiled.  A veiled desc would indicate build, maybe smell, and a hint of what one might see beyond a hood or veil.  It would obviously be a more brief description.  I've often thought this feature would be really nice.

I think this is the best idea, it's not complicated and it makes a lot of sense. One description for unhooded which is very detailed and another that doesn't describe anything, just vaguely describing height, weight etc no colours or similar things unless it would be really obvious.

[Hexxaex]

I think this was brought up before, and it was deemed a nighmare to code.  Still a good idea, though.

[Anonymous]

The idea aroused when i was looking at some cloaked NPC's and the fact that you could still see that he was three eyed or had lizard skin seemed unrealistic. I mean there is a reason that they wear the hood.

[RogueWarrior]

I agree with that. And also, in the last thread, they brought up something about writing your paragraph as you normally would, and using tags to seperate the different body parts. eg: <head></head> <arms></arms>

And inside those tags, would be what was hidden. You could even do something to the effect of a <misc></misc> for miscellaneous things... (tattoos, piercings, an eye on your chest instead of a nipple... etc.).

[Scarborough]

I dont' know why this would be a nightmare to code.  Granted, I'm not a coder, but objects with hoods or veils already change the short desc.  These objects that cover the face have a particular flag, and when they are worn, the pfile reacts to the flag and changes the sdesc.  I would imagine it wouldn't be any harder for the object flag to trigger a different desc.  It would just mean modifying pfile templates or something.   Again, I'm not a coder, it's probably more complicated than that, but if an sdesc can miraculously change, a full description ought to be able to with the same ease.

[Hexxaex]

The idea aroused when i was looking at some cloaked NPC's and the fact that you could still see that he was three eyed or had lizard skin seemed unrealistic. I mean there is a reason that they wear the hood.

You could still see the scaled skin if they were wearing the hood.  Hoods should only mask a facial description in the Mdesc.

[daedroug]

Yeah but we're not talking about only hoods we're talking about anything that would hide things including anything from a mask to a full cloak or robe.