"Notify"

[Wasteland Raider]

No, not the crappy system in Shadows of Isildur, Harshlands, and Atonement.

I would like a command similar to 'Wish' that is only used to speak with our own personal staff, mainly to OOCly notify them of current happenings they may wish to pay attention to. For example:

>notify Currently meeting with Lord Fancypants and being asked to spy on House Nenyuk.
>notify Leading a patrol out into the desert with the rest of the Byn.
>notify Doing X magickal thing that you would likely want to know about.

I know the staff can already see all of this and I know I can include them in my weekly update, but I'd like a way to hopefully make sure they see it that they could, also, turn on and off if they didn't need to be disturbed - unlike Wish, which is sent to all of them, and I always feel like a putz for using for anything that's not important.

[Medivh]

This idea makes me want an in-game command to write/update your weekly updates on the fly.
Then staffers could look at any time.

I suppose that isn't a weekly update though.

To Wasteland Raiders post...
I like this idea.
Link it to the Monitor and Snoop commands, and I think it could work well.

[Potaje]

Pretty sure if you lead your wish all with Name, rank, house and situation, if there is a member of your staff available they are notified.

Really promotes the player to be clear and more concise with there wishes.

[Spice Spice Baby]

I dig this idea, because I always feel like 90% of my wishes are annoying clutter that everybody but my clan staffer wouldn't really care about.

[Wasteland Raider]

SSB hit the nail on the head. Potaje, I know that's the case, but like I said - I don't want to wish up and go "Hey everyone, just so you know, I'm breaking curfew in the Byn." Most of the staff is too busy to care about something like that, and if my clan staff isn't on, all I did was pollute all their screens with annoying, trivial crap.

Now, sure, if it's something like my entire squadron of Bynners getting killed while we're out in the desert, and I'm all alone? Yeah, I'm gonna wish up and inform them. But for things that nobody but my staff would care about, like leading out a routine (multiple times a week) patrol while in the Fist? I want my staffers updated, but I don't want to spam everyone else.

[Marshmellow]

I'm pretty sure that 'wish all' is sufficient.  I don't think the staff minds all that much getting wishes not directed to them as long as you aren't spamming them.

[lordcooper]

You could also just wish [staffer] at all your clan staff.

[Barsook]

I dig this, but it should be for the clan leader or family member who is leading it.

[Anaiah]

I'm pretty sure that 'wish all' is sufficient.  I don't think the staff minds all that much getting wishes not directed to them as long as you aren't spamming them.

This is the case. We love having reasons to step in and bring the world to life. And if we're busy, we won't. Believe me, there's a ton of stuff that rolls across the screen up here, it's not going to be a huge deal if you wish up like that. In fact, many times it's preferred to not doing so.

[lordcooper]

I'm pretty sure that 'wish all' is sufficient.  I don't think the staff minds all that much getting wishes not directed to them as long as you aren't spamming them.

This is the case. We love having reasons to step in and bring the world to life. And if we're busy, we won't. Believe me, there's a ton of stuff that rolls across the screen up here, it's not going to be a huge deal if you wish up like that. In fact, many times it's preferred to not doing so.

Good to know.

As a rule of thumb, how long should we hang around before assuming there's no staff online or they've decided no response is necessary?

[Cutthroat]

The original idea is good, though 'wish all' is not only sufficient, it helps immensely in situations where multiple clans are involved, and when your clan staff is not available.

If, for example, you are playing a role in which you are compelled to inform staff of going on trips from the city, and you are taking along members of clans not in your clan group (for example: a templar traveling with the Byn and Salarr), then 'wish all' is great.

Even if you need to inform your clan staff specifically, I imagine other staff members would also benefit from knowing, if only to pass the message along to your staff members when they come around.

You could also just wish [staffer] at all your clan staff.

This feature only seems to work if the staff member is visible, by the way.

[Oleupata]

As a rule of thumb, how long should we hang around before assuming there's no staff online or they've decided no response is necessary?

It depends. If it's something that needs staff support, like getting out of your own locked apartment, wait about five minutes before wishing up again. If it's something that should have staff support, like taking a legion of Allanaki soldiers down to terrorize Red Storm, the same applies. (Needless to say, this should if at all possible be set up beforehand, and if you don't get staff support, you're best off going home or gently shifting objectives to something that does not require staff.) If it's something that doesn't require staff, but might be made cooler by us helping out, such as taking a group of hunters out into the Salt Flats, then a simple one-time wish should do, and don't worry about waiting.

[Akaramu]

I would love such a command. Awhile back, I noticed that a clan object had been duplicated, which could possibly cause problems so my clan staff -really- needed to know. I wished up about it, and even though there was no response I assumed it was important enough that someone would let clan staff know. A few days later, to be sure, I opened a request about it... and my clan staff didn't have a clue about the wish I'd made previously.

Two thumbs up for notify, also for other reasons pointed out.

[Potaje]

I would love such a command. Awhile back, I noticed that a clan object had been duplicated, which could possibly cause problems so my clan staff -really- needed to know. I wished up about it, and even though there was no response I assumed it was important enough that someone would let clan staff know. A few days later, to be sure, I opened a request about it... and my clan staff didn't have a clue about the wish I'd made previously.

Two thumbs up for notify, also for other reasons pointed out.

In stead of making another coded line of communication, why didn't you just support your wish all with an immediate request entry. As far as I can tell from the post of the topic, Notify is no different than wish all with the exception of being sent to only one group of Staffers for a specific clan. And so would have fallen into the same situation as your original issue. Also, as far as duplicates go, if you could pick it up you could junk it, unless you couldn't pick it up, then I might could see the issue.

I think there are already avenues for our needs set in place with out such little things as Notify set there to clutter up the coders time for more important things. So you have to take a few extra steps, open another window, or be more specific in the original wish all.
Fact is, if your staffers around, wish all will reach them, if there not, well notify will not change that.

[Akaramu]

Because notify would be much less of a hassle than opening a report for such things.

It seems I misunderstood the intention of the command - I thought it would work like a 'pinboard' of sorts, where notify messages of clan PCs would be visible for some time. Maybe 24 hours. Small things, about the size of tweets or text messages for urgent small matters the staff might not see in time if it was in a report. For instance: "I am going to try and backstab Amos two hours from now".

I believe staff prefers less requests overall, especially for such small things.

[Marshmellow]

"Notify" would only be less hassle than opening a request if it automatically opened a request.  Just because "notify" only sends to staffers for that clan doesn't mean that those staffers are logged in.

[valeria]

... I thought it would work like a 'pinboard' of sorts, where notify messages of clan PCs would be visible for some time. Maybe 24 hours. ...

The way I read it, the idea is that staffers who aren't logged in could like, >notify check or something, and see all the notifies that have gone up from their clan in the last 24 hour period.  It would be less hassle than opening a report because you have to open a new window to go to a report (I can't be the only person who hates window-switching while mudding), and because the vast majority of the time, they wouldn't be things that would be responded to.

And I don't think it would be any kind of substitute for a character report, because the character report theoretically includes more than just a short description of an event like stabbing Amos, but maybe includes the background, rationale, and subsequent character development.

[mansa]

alias notify change objective

[maxid]

alias notify change objective

So your Clanstaff are automatically alerted to your objective changes?

So if you stay our past curfew, your characters objective should be 'To stay out past curfew!!!!'

It's like you didn't even read the thread.

[Lizzie]

I used the request tool to explain a bug in similar clan items, that -should- have been similar in certain criteria, but weren't. This was causing me to have to decide whether to pick one for OOC reasons of character useability, or IC reasons, which would have resulted in less useability but make more IC sense. (encumbrance vs. stamina).

I was informed in response, to send in a bug report in game.

Around a month before, I had sent in a bug report about something, and was instructed to send it via request tool. A few weeks before that, I used the wish command to notify staff of something that was going on "right now" and was instructed to send the info via request tool. Which - I didn't bother, because an hour from now, no one's going to give a shit.

So really, because there is no consistency, it doesn't matter if they implemented a notify command or not.

[Adhira]

Wish all works for letting staff know about things that are happening in the game, at that moment.  If your staff are on they will see it, other staff will see it too, and that's a good thing.  Sometimes what you are doing will impact other clans and those staff can take the time to look in, or let other staff know how their clan will react.   Sometimes your staff aren't able to help out, but someone else is.  Sometimes no one is able to help but we still like to know that so and so is riding out with a  group to Y.

All other staff notifications should go in the request tool. Yes it may be a pain in the ass for you to open up a web browser and do that, but it'd be much more of a pain in the ass for staff to have yet another place they need to check for updates and notifications of what is happening for their clans.

[Praetorian]

I'd tweak the current system instead of making a new command.

> wish Morgenes I just killed a templar and you can't stop me!  muuuhahahaha!

If Morgenes was on, then they would get the message immediately and know to promptly destroy the puny mortal.

If Morgenes wasn't on, then as soon as they logged on:

"Random-Noob sent a wish 3 hours ago 'I just killed a templar and you can't stop me!  muuuhahahaha!'

Basically I wonder how hard it would be to just tweak the wish system so that it buffered single-target wishes for delivery if the applicable staff member wasn't on at the time to receive it?  Seems like it would accomplish what people are after without making a new command.  Just my 2 cents.

[Saellyn]

Well, lemme throw my two cents in.

I like the request tool. It's also a hassle. I like using wish all, which is also sometimes a hassle. So, really, all of us should agree we aren't going to be happy and just use the request tool unless it's something that needs doing now.

[Marshmellow]

Have the wish sent only to the staffer listed in the wish whenever that staffer logs in is a poor substitute.  If you are doing something that staff might want to be there for, you should 'wish all' immediately so that you have a witness to what you've done.  Sure, a staffer that's can do something or will do something may not be around, but they're witness to your awesome and that you did things with the world in mind.  You then send a report that backs it up afterwards to make sure the correct staffers get the information.  Problem solved.

Doing it as Praetorian has suggested means that you aren't getting a witness that can comment on your report, backing up how awesome you are.