A Request to the Playerbase

[Beux]

Because if you see a wavering image of them in your head,

Is this a normal way occurance?

[spawnloser]

Not common, Beux, but it happens.  Most times it is simply because the person trying to way to you is too drunk to get anything through, but you feel them pushing at you.  Just like if they get the thoughts through, you see the sdesc, this is how you see the sdesc when they can't think straight.

[Beux]

Weird. I'm sure I've had this happen while someone was 'connected' with me.

[spawnloser]

You don't hang out with the cool kids that get drunk then, do you?

[Yang]

I have had an experience where the person didn't even look at my character, weren't even in the same room, they just must have typed 'contact hooded' after I was well away from the scene, and started railing on me for doing something wrong to them. It's pretty jarring when you've just executed a fairly perfect score, and you're targetted for wearing a common hood.

My advice to sneaky-types is to be utterly ruthless, and apply the code within the limits of reasonable usage: practicing your barrier is a good idea, but also, once you get away from a mark, just lower/remove the hood or switch to a new one or 'flip it over' like a two-faced cloak... which I don't think exists, but whatever, you can emulate them with the code in some cases. Invent ways to avoid being identified easily, even use your keyword/desc changes strategically during your career.

Players of thieves/spies/assassins/raiders: don't feel guilty for playing smart and making sure you are unidentifiable. Invest the time and energy into this, using your own wit, and your coded skill. But if you're cloaked and facewrapped all the time, and enter rooms where other people will find that suspicious, don't you dare blame anyone for using contact on you where they can. If your char is always done-up like that, he should be a master at barrier, too.

Those concerns addressed, if people are going to be lame with contact, take measures to protect yourself, until this loophole in the contact code is properly fixed by some advanced alien civilization in the distant future.

[Rhyden]

I remember bringing this same arguement up a long time ago. I think one side of the arguement asked how you knew the 'figure' you contacted would be the correct one. Secondly, when you see a hooded figure in a cloak, you could possibly still see their face unless they're wearing a facewrap.

Personally, I hate how people do this sometimes. I've been guilty of doing it, but I don't anymore.

[spawnloser]

Well, there is a GOOD reason for being able to contact hooded folks...because a lot of people used to run around without EVER pulling down their hood, thus negating most any chance of anyone ever contacting them.

I agree that people contacting for the sdesc is kinda chauncy IF AND ONLY IF they use that information EXCEPT to be able to recognize you when they contact you again.

[Rawr]

I think it goes both ways.

For those who keep their hoods up, I think they do it to hide their sdescs (which is - to me - seem to be purely an ooc motive). Because if you're trying to be inconspirious (or however the hell you spell it), won't leaving your hood up make you stand out even -more-? I know I would notice that hooded guy sitting in the shady corner more than the scar-faced guy sitting at the bar.

Pinging sucks. It's totally ooc to do that (to me anyway). Why would you -want- to contact some hooded/cloaked/facewrapped guy out of the blues when there's about a dozen other VNPCs around you who might be hooded/cloaked/facewrapped as well (ok, they probably won't be, but that isn't my point)? Pinging also pretty much reminds me of the people who look at any PCs that walked into the tavern without so much as an emote. Come on, it's a pretty busy tavern, ok? There's gotta be a dozen more VNPCs walking in and out every few minutes.

So I don't really like 'pinging' (as I think it's pretty OOC to do so). It sucks.

...

Yeah.