Crowd control

[Spoon]

With all the changes to sneaky behaviour, being aware of your surroundings has become more important than ever.

I was wondering if a simple 'crowd' command could tell a player how crowded a room is, as it's not always obvious in the room description. It could work just like the weather command, and I'm sure the Imms already have rooms flagged with crowded, tightly crowded, loosely crowded, empty etc...

I'm sure this would give sneaky types a great deal of information in simply roleplaying what they are doing, especially with the new semote command. Also, I'm sure it would benefit all players in terms of being aware of their surroundings.

Good idea, bad idea, anything to add?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I like it. I think that adding it to the info you get when you look room would work fine.

[Nao]

nah, no need to put that all in the info. But I'd love a crowd command - easy way for the palyers to see whether a room is full or not without having to change all the room descriptions that don't have it mentioned already.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

There would be no change to the room's desc. It would be an appendange, much like the condition of a PC or NPC when you look at them.

The Gaj
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
There are many people here.

Additionally, it would only be available upon the specific command look room, which is different than just look.

[Ava]

Speaking of which...it would be pretty neat if the crowds thinned out some at night.  To the extent that normally-populated areas would occasionally (randomly?) be unpopulated.

Code Select Expand

Stonecarver's Road
...
Large crowds move along the road here.

(...you idle for a while after dusk...)
Someone draws an obsidian dagger.
> look
The area is empty.
> think Oh crap...



It's way too safe to walk around Allanak at all hours of the night because the sneakies know they'll get insta-busted if they mess with you. ;-) I'd like the harshness-dial turned up just a wee bit.

[Maybe42or54]

I love that idea. I don't know about having the most traveled roads completely emptied, but I could see the smaller side roads go completely empty at night.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Amen.

Empty could mean a 0 percent of the crime code kicking in unless there is a NPC in the room.
Sparce could mean a 25 percent chance of the crime code kicking in unless there is a NPC in the room.
Medium could mean a 50 percent chance of the crime code kicking in unless there is a NPC in the room.
Busy could mean a 75 percent chance of the crime code kicking in unless there is a NPC in the room.
Crowded could mean a 100 percent chance of the crime code kicking in unless there is a NPC in the room.

City Rooms could be assigned a number of value slots equal to the hours in a day, and those values filled in with whatever the Staff Member feels is the correct value for that particular hour.

If this happened, then I would recommend that NPC wandering speed up a little, or that more NPCs be assigned a traveler tag, which would move the NPC every 1-5 seconds. That way, an empty street would not be a death trap, but more of a really rickety bridge. The victim would have the danger of not getting help, and the criminal the danger of getting caught.

[mansa]

"Rooms" already have a flag to see how many people are in there.  We are calling for a command for us players to notice it?

I think it should be pretty obvious in the room description, and that we shouldn't have this command in.  We should push to have the room descriptions better described, rather than have a code to tell us which flag is on the individual rooms that we are in.

[Ava]

City Rooms could be assigned a number of value slots equal to the hours in a day, and those values filled in with whatever the Staff Member feels is the correct value for that particular hour.

I was about to suggest that the slots needed to be randomized...but your travelling-NPC idea really negates that need.  (It also lets a would-be mugger do realistic things like have lookouts, etc.)

I think it should be pretty obvious in the room description, and that we shouldn't have this command in. We should push to have the room descriptions better described, rather than have a code to tell us which flag is on the individual rooms that we are in.

If it's true that you can always tell from the rdesc whether a room is virtually populated or not, that's probably okay...makes us actually read 'em carefully, I guess.  (My impression was that this is not the case currently...a room might be populated even if no one is mentioned in the description.)  The only problem is that I'd like the population-status to change from time to time, and separating that from the description probably makes it less staff labor-intensive.

[amoeba]

I like this item, but only for select locations.  One trival thing that has always irked me is that there is no variablity in the population of certian areas like the Gaj.  The place is -always- packed? 9/11?  The same is true for every tavern and commonly frequented public place, no variablity.  

Some methodology to represent that each place is a dynamic changing place with natural ebbs and flows of people would be nice.  It could be a tag like suggested, or even possibly different room descriptions reflecting that status.  Coding notwhishstanding, one problem I see though is denoting the transitions.  No place goes from full to near empty in a heartbeat  normally.

[Many Faces]

I am so in support of this idea that I can't even really fully express it.

I would love to see the criminal element have more ability to properly judge when they can and can't pull shit off.

Personally I would like to see it just be a 'crowd' command instead of something that you'd see normally.

[Seeker]

I favor the "look room" command to include a tagline describing the population density.


Seeker

[John]

Shouldn't this really just be noticable based on the desc of the room? Perhaps ask an Imm to make it a project of theirs to go about adding a "crowd portion" to room descs that don't currently have one (and should).

[Ghost]

Wait a second...

especially with the new semote command. Also, I'm sure it would benefit all players in terms of being aware of their surroundings.

...

......

WHAT?!?!?!?

Semote?!  Is that actually coded?  I am about to french kiss my screen!  Someone answer me!

EDIT:  I just checked the helpfiles of hemote and semote, and I am speechless!  IT IS CODED!  Morgenes, you ROCK!

P.S:  Yes, I french kissed my screen.

[Nao]

It would me much more work to check every room description in the city for hints about  how crowded they are, then make them change according to the times of the day (some do already, but that would mean checking two or more descriptions for that room - ack!) than to just add a flag that already exists to a look room or crowd command...

Is this somewhat randomized right now or always the same, no matter the time of the day?

EDIT: typos.

[John]

t would me much more work to check every room description in the city for hints about  how crowded they are, then make them change according to the times of the day (some do already, but that would mean checking two or more descriptions for that room - ack!) than to just add a flag that already exists to a look room or crowd command...

Half your first sentence seems to be missing. For the "it's too much effort for the player" point, I personally just say "suck it up."

[Nao]

The only thing missing there is an I, sorry, I make typos.

And I wasn't talking about the effort for the player, I was talking about the effort to implement this. rewriting room descriptions is much more effort than just making a flag that already exists show up with a command or 'look room'.

[John]

And I wasn't talking about the effort for the player, I was talking about the effort to implement this. rewriting room descriptions is much more effort than just making a flag that already exists show up with a command or 'look room'.

Aaah okay, well yeah. Whatever the Imms want (they might want to leave it as it is ). I think a rewriting of the rooms that need it (are there many of these? I was always under the impression most were fairly good about this) is better, but adding the code could be easier.

[Agent_137]

"Rooms" already have a flag to see how many people are in there.  We are calling for a command for us players to notice it?

I think it should be pretty obvious in the room description, and that we shouldn't have this command in.  We should push to have the room descriptions better described, rather than have a code to tell us which flag is on the individual rooms that we are in.

Nah, we have the code ability to become a straight mud now, our mushy roots aren't important.

[/sarcasm]