What ARE you doing?

[Galdun]

It's been a King's Age since I've made a code suggestion, but this recently occurred to me as something easy to code.

My character's profession, and I'm sure many of you can relate, requires that he lurk/stand around for long periods of time in a room without much PC traffic.  Whether he's stalking somebody, watching a particular location, sussing out a social scene...it always strikes me that somebody watching from above (i.e. mindworms and Immortals) might wonder what the hell he's doing.

Now a days in Armageddon, we have all these neat little temporary modifiers.

To name a few:

- Change mood
- Change ldesc
- Change tdesc
- Change objective

These are all wonderful and I'm certain that plenty of players utilize them to their fullest extent.  However, I think it'd be awesome to have one more in the mix.  Something like 'change mood' but for the task your character is seeing to currently.  So for instance if you were spying on somebody at the bar or waiting on a street corner to mug somebody, you could type...

'change currently gathering information from Chosen Lord Blaybermouthe'
'change currently laying in wait for a wealthy passerby to mug'

Yielding (somewhere in your status or score)...

You are currently gathering information from Chosen Lord Blaybermouth.
You are currently laying in wait for a wealthy passerby to mug.

This would come in handy when you aren't necessarily inclined to emote descriptively what exactly you're doing for fear that it might expose you to your target, and it eliminates the redundancy of having to think over and over again what your current goal is to shed some light for whoever may be prying into your mind or into the objectives of your character.  Its also a nice supplement to change objective, because I've always viewed that command as a more over-arching thing, something that would take your character months or at least several tasks to complete.  My suggested command would be more for day by day tasks or tasks that popped up in between your long term objective.  You could even put a timer on it to reset it after 90 minutes or one Zalanthan day...or at logout, similar to change mood.

I know this isn't essential code, but it definitely seems doable and it might make things easier for IMMs who may want to figure out what everyone is really doing in certain social situations or on the shadowy streets of the 'Rinth.  Also, could prove useful to those of us who tend to forget exactly what their characters are supposed to be doing after one too many days spent in the same damned tavern.

Let me know what you fellers think.

[Gimfalisette]

I like it. I'd love to be able to set something that just says "spending one day foraging" or "hanging out in the Gaj in case Amos comes along" or whatever, and not have to feel like every other think or feel should be some kind of preventive/CYA information so that those who may be watching aren't unnecessarily confused or dismayed. Then I could let my character's mind truly wander where it will, instead.

[Galdun]

Yes.  Exactly.

Hilarious to know that others are plagued at times by the same kind obsessive/informative behind the scenes RP.

[Cutthroat]

Code Select Expand

change status @tek going on a patrol of ur streets, love u man

But really, I like the idea too. For many reasons, including:

- It resembles an idea that someone (I think Synthesis) mentioned about setting a note or reminder for yourself.
- One might contend that objective already allows for this, but I think this would be more "temporary" while objective is a broad-spanning goal of your PC.

[janeshephard]

I use objective for this -- mostly. Sometimes I put in a long term objective but they're usually short ones.

[musashi]

This idea has my stamp of approval. I think maybe folk could use change objective for this already, but I'd want to check with staff first to make sure that's how they'd like the objective thing used.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I love the idea. I would use it constantly, where I rarely use an objective, since I view objectives as sort of being long term and this would be something I would use often. Plus it would give imms that only take a peep in a chance to have a better idea what you're doing, where you may have an objective set that would take 10-15+ steps to complete and it would seem like you were just dicking around for whatever reason. I dunno, I'm rambling. But I'm 100% behind this.

[spawnloser]

Those sound like objectives to me.  Objectives don't have to be the ultimate goal your character wants to achieve before they die.  It can be IC or OOC too.

[jhunter]

I like the idea because then you can have a more long-term objective -and- utilize this for what's currently going on at that point in time.

[Reiloth]

I like the idea because then you can have a more long-term objective -and- utilize this for what's currently going on at that point in time.

I think this is an excellent idea.

I do not like changing my objectives often, because they are usually long-term goals. This would give perhaps a bit of focus to my play, in the same way that 'change mood' does. I think it could also provide Staff with an idea of 'what you are up to' in the moment, without needing to catch up on feels and thinks and context.

[tortall]

I like the idea because then you can have a more long-term objective -and- utilize this for what's currently going on at that point in time.

I think this is an excellent idea.

I do not like changing my objectives often, because they are usually long-term goals. This would give perhaps a bit of focus to my play, in the same way that 'change mood' does. I think it could also provide Staff with an idea of 'what you are up to' in the moment, without needing to catch up on feels and thinks and context.

[spawnloser]

I like the idea because then you can have a more long-term objective -and- utilize this for what's currently going on at that point in time.

> change objective long term: kill tektolnes, short term: waiting in that stupid burglar's place to kill him when he shows up

[AmandaGreathouse]

Your objective is too long.

[Synthesis]

Increasing the size of the objective space sounds like an easy code fix.

[FantasyWriter]

Increasing the size of the objective space sounds like an easy code fix.

I agree.

[Vanth]

Couldn't you just use a biography entry titled 'long term objective' or 'focus' for your long-term plans and objective for short term?

[Gimfalisette]

Couldn't you just use a biography entry titled 'long term objective' or 'focus' for your long-term plans and objective for short term?

I think the problem here is that players don't know whether or not we can do that. The help files are not much help in answering this question:

Your objective is what your character is currently working towards. You can set your object from the main menu, or in game with the change command.


Use this if you would like staff interaction, such as requesting an NPC to be played by a staff member or as a reminder that you are waiting on something already detailed in email. You can also use this to let us know what your character's main purpose is in life.

Most of us have read that as stating that the objective is for a long-term goal.

[Gimfalisette]

Also:

What your character wants in life, or what they need in life, is their focus. Your character's focus can be placed in your objective, which is altered by the "change objective <objective>" syntax. While almost all races have some ideal they are trying to work towards, one of the most well known is the dwarven race. Dwarves have a unique tendency amongst themselves to select an objective and stick to that objective--through thick and thin--until it is completed, at which point they select a new and more challenging goal.

Again, I am led to believe that the objective is for long-term goals.

[Lizzie]

I use objective for both long term and short, depending on what's needed. Often I don't set it at all, if I've already e-mailed staff that I have a vague long-term goal for my character but aren't actively doing anything to pursue it at the moment.

Examples of objectives I've had:

1. Have George assassinated, get promoted to Senior. (example of both long and short term that I'm actively working on)

2. Waiting for mastery confirmation; learn to drive a wagon (example of OOC short-term reminder for staff, combined with long-term IC goal)

3. Find a Senior to release me from service (a combination IC/OOC request that could be an IC goal to find a PC senior, OR an OOC request to staff to animate a senior NPC, whichever comes first)

4. Promote Joe to Second Hunter, sex up Lord Templar Floppyballs (general, but specific IC goals that the staff might want to know about)

[mansa]

Couldn't you just use a biography entry titled 'long term objective' or 'focus' for your long-term plans and objective for short term?

You can, true.  But you must stay in-character with your bio entries.

I think the OP I was hoping for something more Out-Of-Character.

:edit:

Vanth's idea's pretty simple and works.  You can always edit a bio entry and modify it, if you want.

[spawnloser]

To comment on the "we have to stay IC in bios"... well, I have to disagree.  It can be told from an OOC standpoint as long as it is about IC stuff.  You could make a biography entry named '"Focus/Long-term goals" and then put in it:

Focus: take down house Kurac
Long-term goals: find a mate, join house Kurac to take it apart from the inside, find good allies/enemies-of-Kurac to secretly ally with
Short-term goals: find a good place to hang out during down times, find a good gullible Kuraci

...and then put in your objective something about what you're actually currently doing?  I think that'd be totally cool.

[Jingo]

I usually just use thinks for this.

Think Going out to find some salt/grub/kootchie.

I guess I wouldn't be against a short term objective command. I just don't see a need for it.

[Vanth]

I guess I can't figure out what kinds of goals would be OOC rather than IC.  If they're not your PC's in-character goals, then why is your PC pursuing them?

[spawnloser]

Well, I can admit that sometimes a player has an idea of what the character will do in later life, even if the character wouldn't, because the character doesn't have as good an understanding of the world around them as the player does.  The character might want something, so that's the character's goal, but the player may know that such is impossible and fully intends for the character to go another path because of the unrealistic goals the character has.

[Reiloth]

I usually just use thinks for this.

Think Going out to find some salt/grub/kootchie.

I guess I wouldn't be against a short term objective command. I just don't see a need for it.

It might make it easier for Staff that jump into a scene so they don't need to run backwards and see what you've thought/felt/emoted.

[solera]

I've just started using Change Objective this way and I'm quite surprised at the difference it makes. I can forget about
                                                       

What ARE you doing?

and my PC is free to think random, apparently meaningless thoughts to her hearts content.