A Few More Lines?

[Yummri]

Ok, many of you will say "You'll get used to it" or "Why, less is more" or something along those lines. So please don't and give this some thought.

Could we not have a line or two more space to pose or talk? One or two more lines might not sound like a lot but it gives that little extra room for a ouch more detail or so that saying something isn't cut off. Which can mess with the flow of rp. I can't really see a downside to this and a lot of upsides in the grand scheme of things.

If there is some reason why this can't be done, then I'll fully understand. I just thing it would be a good change, make things smoother and maybe wouldn't be too hard.

Thank you.

[Lizzie]

It makes things slower, not smoother. The more you add to a single emote, the less opportunity you give to others to respond to what you're emoting. An emote shouldn't be 3, 4, 5 different actions all grouped together. It should represent a single action. And then everyone else gets to respond (or not respond) to that action, with their own action. I already see a lot of this:

>The brown-haired teen smiles and waves at the tall man, while crossing her legs and pulling her hem down, then waves to the short dwarf, and lifts a glass of ale from the bar, bringing it to her lips, frowning at the rude guy in the corner, with a wry chuckle.

There's no reason, or need, to stuff as much as you can into a single emote. Emotes aren't poses, because Armageddon isn't a mush.

Poses work great in mushes. They don't work great in diku-based games.

There are many slow typists, and there are many slow readers. Longer emotes would pose a problem for both, for opposite reasons.

A slow typist would frustrated faster readers, because we have to sit there and wait for your emote. The slow typist might get frustrated because I type 100wpm and while you're typing out your long emote, I'm already mounted, my blades already drawn, and I'm sitting ready to go riding and you're still trying to emote that you're getting your mount out of the stable.

If you're a slow reader, and I'm a fast typist typing out a long emote, then you're still reading my emote while I'm already on the next one - and you'll never have a chance to respond to what I typed 5 minutes ago.

The longer the emote, the more likely these issues are to occur. This isn't a turn-based game, and longer poses work best in turn-based games where people patiently wait for someone to take their turn. The game itself has coded "live" action built into it. The gith won't wait for your emote before shooting a spear at you, and the silt won't wait for your emote to suck you into its depths.

Consider it an opportunity for you to learn how to break up your thoughts into more concise statements, and learn to use other words in your vocabulary to express longer thoughts. Such as:

>The brown-haired teen glances at the blue-eyed man, as though seeming to challenge his recent statement.

vs.

>The brown-haired teen shoots the blue-eyed man a challenging glance.

Both say the exact same thing. One takes up more real estate on the game screen, one doesn't.

[LittleLady]

>The brown-haired teen smiles and waves at the tall man, while crossing her legs and pulling her hem down, then waves to the short dwarf, and lifts a glass of ale from the bar, bringing it to her lips, frowning at the rude guy in the corner, with a wry chuckle.

I agree that in this example it should have been broken down into more than one emote.

>The brown-haired teen glances at the blue-eyed man, as though seeming to challenge his recent statement.

vs.

>The brown-haired teen shoots the blue-eyed man a challenging glance.

I do not see much of a difference between these two. This comes down to an individuals play style. Everyone is here to play the game, play their character as they imagine it being played, and to express their creativity in doing so.

While I agree that each emote doesn't need to be a novel, telling someone to stifle detail and cutting them off midthought does leave the flow of rp feeling a bit disjointed. Can it be worked around and learned to be dealt with. Yes. Like OP said, it could. Should it have to be? No. I don't think it should.

[Lizzie]

Yes, it does have to be. The topic has come up many times in the past, and the answer has been given many times in the past. Those of us who like longer emotes, have learned to accept the limits, and adjust to them, and work with them. Those of us who like things short and sweet, have learned to accept that some emotes are longer, and have learned to adjust to them, and work with them.

No matter what you do, there will be people who don't like it. It is currently the way it is. Some don't like it. Most everyone accepts it and can work with it just fine. If we change it, there will STILL be some people who don't like it. They will want it shorter again. If we make it shorter, there will be people who want it longer.

Can't please everyone, and really there's nothing wrong with the length it is now, OTHER than the fact that a few people want it longer.

[Yummri]

People who read faster are always sat waiting for a slow typist as it sits so this doesn't make a whole llot of difference. How does allotting an extra line or even a few more character lengths not make things smoother?

Even with a short emote and a long says it can still cut off. And some people for rp's sake do need to add more detail to what they are saying to get it said as quickly as possible. Have to see someone's pose or say cut of with .... And then wait for them to figure out where they left off and quickly amend it to make it shorter or add yet another pose to include it makes things a lot more clunky. One more line fixes that problem. Especially as most are good with the current limit so that extra line where they'd normally be cut off only makes things neater and easier.

Would it bother the people who don't like it more? It shouldn't especially since they didn't like it to begin with. Lease this way cuts down on the spam marginally. Would people like it more, they should it means they don't get cut off.

Most people have to put multiple actions into one pose in order to deal with the fast passed world and all the people in it. Then people can respond as they need too. A turn based order isn't needed and it can be worked out naturally easy enough.  I'm not asking for the ability to write 3 paragraphs worth of emote on a screen. I'm asking for 1 line that could stop people from being ut off and creating yet more lines. Better for everyone. No one is forcing people to use it. But it is better to have the option.

[Harmless]

I hear your complaint, I think I used to care about this more and over time my style adapted to the shorter line length so I rarely breach it now (save for dialogue with long ( )'s.

I would think it'd be a cool feature to increase the length for say, tell, and talk, (but not whisper), so that you can say the same amount of text each time with an additional ( ) for the emote tied to it. But that's all I'd want changed.

As for how the ...'s look to others, as far as I know, nobody is bothered by them. Just like I think many mature players look over typos and misdirected emotes, nobody minds that you had too much to say and need to break it up into two parts. Just part of the limitations of the DIKU engine I wager.

[ale six]

I like the limit. It encourages shorter, more rapid emotes vs. "did that guy go idle, or has he been typing his latest emote for the last 5 minutes?" style RP that you can find elsewhere.

What I think might be nice is if there was a setting to kick your commands back to you before they get posted, if they're over the limit. So for example:

Code Select Expand

> emote this is a really long emote that alesix has spent many many hours mastercrafting. Wow, it is great. Such depth. Many adverbs. Multiple sentences. Alliteration. Such hidden symbolisms. Wow. And then now she's writing an entire second sentence that has nothing to do with the first one because her character is basically Superman and can move at lightning speed. Also check out her awesome cowboy hat. Wow.

Your command has exceeded the character limit, please shorten it.


I dub this proposed feature "brief mudsex".

[Tenua]

I dub this proposed feature "brief mudsex".

+1

[Malken]

I dub this proposed feature "brief mudsex".

+1

[KankWhisperer]

I'm amazed anyone blind can play sometimes. On the other hand, my old roomate used to say there were blind players playing Avatar which was super  spammy.

[LauraMars]

I'm fine with the character limit.

What I'd love is if the mud would stop auto-shortening and auto-sending too-long emotes - this is spammy and annoying.

I'd rather that, upon writing an emote or say that is too long, the mud just...didn't send it, and said something like "Hey, this is too long - shorten it by X amount of characters."

[RogueGunslinger]

I'm fine with the character limit.

What I'd love is if the mud would stop auto-shortening and auto-sending too-long emotes - this is spammy and annoying.

I'd rather that, upon writing an emote or say that is too long, the mud just...didn't send it, and said something like "Hey, this is too long - shorten it by X amount of characters."

Yes please.

[Barsook]

I dub this proposed feature "brief mudsex".

+1

Er, please check that image.  The man is beating down my avatar not the horse.

[RogueGunslinger]

lmao

A large portion of your posts are just "+1" or a quote of some other poster. That picture is Malkens way of making fun of that. You've become your own meme on the GDB, congrats.

[Barsook]

Oh, I didn't know.  But hey, I'm cool with it.

[valeria]

I wouldn't mind another line or two.  This primarily comes up when I'm playing a crafting character, where I want to get very detailed in what I'm doing with something, and I'm almost certainly solo-emoting.  But I get why some people wouldn't want it longer, so I don't have a huge preference.

[ShaLeah]

I'm a slow typer. In the beginning I'd get cut off a lot trying to emote something while my character spoke. Now I still get cut off every once in a while but notoriously it seems like the people who come from muds where you emote and speak (and think) all at once are the only ones who get cut off all the time and I've watched them learn the system and go from cut off all the time to seamlessly blending into the environment.

That said, I wouldn't mind a few more characters. I wouldn't be disappointed if they chose not to add them though.

[Fujikoma]

I would like just a line, maybe two more, but I'm getting used to it and I very rarely get cut off now. I do like the idea of instead of it auto-sending a truncated emote or say or whatever, if it sent back a message asking you to shorten it.

I would like walk-strings, which support ~amosa actions or whatever as well, and maybe longer change ldesc options, but I can see how this would have the potential to be spammy so I'm really not going to argue about that.

[ShaLeah]

So help me God when I see this all I think of is 1980's cocaine boom ala American Psycho.

[RogueGunslinger]

So help me God when I see this all I think of is 1980's cocaine boom ala American Psycho.

Glad I'm not the only one.

[Refugee]

I feel hurried with this MUD, still.  Pressured to be both quick and brief.  I'm impressed by the skill some of you have to eloquently describe what your PC is doing in just a few lines, and so quickly!  I feel that I often just give up and pass over trying to emote, because I'd need more time to get it right in so little space before the other PCs go on talking or posing, and the moment's past.

I think I'm slowly adapting.  I still miss having more lines most in one-on-one private interactions, where outside influences are unlikely to make me feel pressured to be fast.

What I don't miss is guys throwing emotes you have to scroll to read, or having their PCs speak forever and you don't have time to read and respond before the next huge piece of text rolls in.  Good grief!  but a couple more lines would be great.

Travel strings - I like them all right.  But keep them very short.  Reading three lines of just how someone's beautiful red hair bounces with each step and the scent of roses wafting...every room you and your large war party moves through in the wilderness....no.  I much prefer doing without them entirely.

[KankWhisperer]

There is a large disconnect between tavern sitting and the unforgiving combat code. I'm not doing three line emotes ever but especially not while Mek is charging, weezer is swarming, or hax gith is run and gunning.

[Dalmeth]

I'm a firm believer that few people have the discipline to communicate clearly in the English language in units longer than three lines.

[LittleLady]

I still miss having more lines most in one-on-one private interactions, where outside influences are unlikely to make me feel pressured to be fast.

This is basically what I mean. When speaking or interacting with someone in a one-on-one conversation, it can feel very disjointed. This isn't the case in a tavern where lots of people are talking and emoting all at once, and I would never try to fill more lines in that case. However, privately when there is less spam, less distraction, and no need to rush, it would be nice to be able to fit in a little bit extra for the sake of rp.

[Fujikoma]

Nothing spoils the moment like getting your thingy truncated.

[Malken]

Just five more characters would allow for an extra penis tossed in there, think about it.

[MeTekillot]

I've seen muthafuckas use all 3.5 lines of an emote to rest their cheek in their hand. Increase it to 5-6 lines? Nah son.

[James de Monet]

Just five more characters would allow for an extra penis tossed in there, think about it.

Man, if you aren't satisfied with the, like, 27 penises that you can fit in one emote, I don't think that extra one is gonna make the difference for you.

[ale six]

Just five more characters would allow for an extra penis tossed in there, think about it.

Man, if you aren't satisfied with the, like, 27 penises that you can fit in one emote, I don't think that extra one is gonna make the difference for you.

But you need to send "%28.man penis" to the emote, so it's actually like 11 extra characters you need.

[Malken]

[RogueGunslinger]

ROFL that fucking gif just did me in.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Same.

Hotdogs to the face.

Pow!

[Incognito]

I don't think more lines/spaces need to be added to emote limits.

However, a few extra characters in the pose (i.e. change sdesc) command will be welcome. The current limit isn't even one whole line.

If your PC's sdesc is the full 35 character limit, this severely limits your change sdesc options.

for example, you cannot even change sdesc to something as simple as : "is here sitting at the bar with his legs raised on top of the table top, and hands behind his head"

However, NPCs have much longer descs.