Code Idea: Notification of when you broke your hide skill

[Harmless]

It has always struck me as really odd that some actions taken while hidden break hide when I can't see those things being particularly noisy or attention-grabbing. Some involve minimal movement. The way it works seems to go with more on "does it have an echo" versus a realistic emulation of the amount of noise and activity of the action itself.

Luckily we have palm and slip and so on as ways to codify this, but what I would like is a notification sent to the player that whatever they just did broke their hide or not.

This is built in for sleight of hand, but for the new player in particular who's learning the game I feel like it'd be really useful to know when I broke my hide by doing something.

This would also remove the need for threads on the GDB asking things like "what breaks hide?" It'd just tell you in the game.

[musashi]

I like this idea. Some of the things that do/don't break hide are not very intuitive.

[Barsook]

I dig it.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I would actually love this. It could even be something as unobtrusive as an option to put in your prompt like the flying/invis options for prompts, if people don't like the idea of having it echo. A huge barrier to my trying to play certain stealth roles has been a constant worry that what I'm doing is breaking hide. It would also be neat if the 'vis' command could be used to break hide, because, you know, you're making yourself visible.

[musashi]

Just as an FYI you can break your hide any time you want by typing stand or sit. A change of positions will always break hide. Vis will not, that's only for magick. But anywho-

The one downside I can see to that kind of addition (the one you suggested) is that it would let people know when they have and have not successfully hidden, and that's not really cool.

Hence, I think the echo AFTER your hide is already broken is a better option than a prompt indicator saying whether or not you're currently hiding successfully.

[Bacon]

I think just an echo when you perform an action that breaks hide is sufficient. Otherwise, you shouldn't really know for sure or not.

[AmandaGreathouse]

you can break your hide any time you want by typing stand or sit. A change of positions will always break hide. Vis will not

Yeah. I wish you could use 'vis' to become visible when hidden. I know it does not currently work that way. I think it would be great if it did though, so that you could say, set your ldesc then 'vis' and start interacting with it set already and such. I have interesting character ideas that may or may not depend on something where you can break hide quietly and subtly without having to type 'sit' or 'stand' and thus changing the ldesc you've meticulously set.

The one downside I can see to that kind of addition (the one you suggested) is that it would let people know when they have and have not successfully hidden, and that's not really cool.

I didn't mean it to function that way exactly, but I've played very few stealth roles and none of them long-lived, so I really have no idea how that would work. The code for being hidden and how that would work in a prompt is a mystery to me. I was mostly throwing the other idea out there because I liked this one and it seemed like it could be an interesting alternative to making a bunch of commands send you an echo after checking to see if you were actively hiding first.

Hence, I think the echo AFTER your hide is already broken is a better option than a prompt indicator saying whether or not you're currently hiding successfully.

Now that I have a better grasp of the how and why of it, it does sound like a better option to go with the original, unless it just read 'attempting to hide' vs 'visible' or something so that you wouldn't know for damn sure if you were hidden, but you'd know if you did something that suddenly made it where you would be more visible. I dunno.

[X-D]

Actually, Vis works for hide.

It just does not give you an echo.

[AmandaGreathouse]

Actually, Vis works for hide.

It just does not give you an echo.

It does? Holy balls, I'm gonna have to try that the next time I play a sneaky type. Thank you, X-D!

I think last time I tried that, I got a message of something like 'But you're already visible.' and just assumed.

[X-D]

Yes, I have tested it like, thousands of times. If you are not a mage, you simply get no echo at all, so it does not tell you it works but, it does.

[RogueGunslinger]

I think just an echo when you perform an action that breaks hide is sufficient. Otherwise, you shouldn't really know for sure or not.

I'd love this.

[Fredd]

Yes, I have tested it like, thousands of times. If you are not a mage, you simply get no echo at all, so it does not tell you it works but, it does.

Confused, but I really want to know...

[Vwest]

Does using the OOC command break hide?

I was in a situation about a month ago where I was hidden and observing... something... that required OOC permissions to proceed. I didn't know if using it would break hide or not, and knowing how wacky people get when there is someone in the room they can't/shouldn't look at, I decided not to risk it.

Just a basic prompt letting us know when something breaks hide, or will break hide for newer players, would be handy.

[maxid]

It does not.

[Sephiroto]

I think that revising which commands break hide and which ones do not, while providing more context or even a list of the ones that break it in the "skill_hide" help file would be the best course of action.  I don't think people should be warned if their hide is broken though.