Expansions to Change Ldesc

[nauta]

I love change ldesc.  In the wilderness especially, where rooms are one league by one league (usually) it can be very useful to tell those from a distance where you are -- are you up in the tree, or sitting on a ridge, or standing right next to them?  It is also useful, of course, for telling people what you are doing.  Especially in the wilderness, it can set the scene, in the same way as a movement command emote sets the tone of the scene.

That said, here are some ideas about change ldesc:

1. Eliminate the 'craft/forage' override (or prepend it to the ldesc: Foraging, the figure digs about among the rocks.)

2. Allow: change ldesc beetle: allows you to set your mount's ldesc.

3. Allow: change ldesc while mounted.

4. Do not allow change ldesc to override: (a) position (rest, stand, sit, sleep); (b) whether you are mounted; (c) stamina (very tired, etc.); (d) health (lightly bleeding, etc.)  These I think should be appended or prepended, so you'd have something like (where italics are the ldesc):

Looking very tired, and seated, the figure sits upon the baobab's branch.
Mounted, the figure watches a hawk fly in the sky above.
Looking exhausted, and resting, the war beetle rests up near the cliff.

5. I wouldn't mind the length of 'change ldesc' to be bumped up a bit, perhaps to the same as 'arrange'.  I wouldn't want to have to parse massive ldescs, though.

[Delirium]

I love this - also goes for being asleep as well.

Unconscious and bleeding heavily, the figure in a facewrap is sprawled on the ground.

[bardlyone]

Love it.

[Delirium]

On thought, though, it would be easier to parse and make more grammatical sense if the modifier were post-pended.


The figure in a facewrap is sprawled at the base of the cliff, unconscious and bleeding heavily.

[Riev]

I'd be fine with just being able to edit your ldesc when its being overridden by a seated/mounted position.

I used to have Sergeant Creek sit in a chair outside the Sanctuary all the time, to keep his eyes on the road looking for damned 'Nakkis... and people would constantly ask why I was "sitting in a chair in the middle of the road". I'd set an ldesc, but if I wanted to actually be SITTING in the chair, my ldesc didn't matter. It was very confusing.

[nauta]

I'd be fine with just being able to edit your ldesc when its being overridden by a seated/mounted position.

I used to have Sergeant Creek sit in a chair outside the Sanctuary all the time, to keep his eyes on the road looking for damned 'Nakkis... and people would constantly ask why I was "sitting in a chair in the middle of the road". I'd set an ldesc, but if I wanted to actually be SITTING in the chair, my ldesc didn't matter. It was very confusing.

I thought about that one, but it is a little trickier and there's an easy work-around: virtual chairs.  It is trickier because we'd still want (see #4) people to not use change ldesc to get around the coded reality of things, and if we post-pended or pre-pended the object you are seated on, it'd get pretty long.  So, for instance:

The figure is seated on a chair near the entrance of the bar, and seated on a sleek agafari arm chair.

Perhaps this isn't too long... I dunno.

The work-around, as you mentioned, is to just take advantage of some freedom we have with virtual objects.  So, rather than sitting on a coded sleeping mat in the tent, you can just do 'change ldesc is seated here on a sleeping mat cross-legged.'

That said, I do think it is confusing, because if you use prompt %L it will still tell you that you have an ldesc set, even though it is being over-ridden by the object.  So I think an error message should result (at least): You cannot change your ldesc while seated at the agafari bar.  Sorry!

[solera]

Yes, please, particularly the crafting/foraging which I've wanted ever since I found out ldesc were overridden by forage. I would like to set the ldesc once, then forage/craft and emote away.
Second on my list is bars and tables, standing or sitting?

And of course, just a few more words, please.   

[RogueGunslinger]

Wait... Can you not already change ldesc while sleeping or sitting? Im confused.

[Riev]

Wait... Can you not already change ldesc while sleeping or sitting? Im confused.

If you're knocked out or sleeping on the ground? Yes.

If you're sleeping on a bed, or sitting on a chair? Like your action is ON or AT something? No. The coded ldesc takes over. Hence why Creek, despite "change ldesc sits in a chair against the outer tavern wall" was always just "some dumbass is sitting in a chair, here"

[RogueGunslinger]

My whole life is a lie.

[nauta]

Moreover, you can do crafty things like 'change ldesc is standing here bright-eyed and bushy tailed' even if asleep, and nobody will know the difference unless they assess.  Hence, post-pending or pre-pending your 'position' status (including sleep) I think would be nice.

[Delirium]

Well, you can do a lot of really dumb things with emotes, too. I don't think that's much of an issue.

[bardlyone]

Maybe if you force it to keep position but not include furniture, and append it if it's not included like:

Code Select Expand


You sit at the bar.
change ldesc sits at the end of the bar.

The example pc sits at the end of the bar.

You rest.
change ldesc is slouched off the side of the road here.

The example pc is slouched off the side of the road here, resting.


Of course, you'd want to include variables for wording that would keep it from being appended at the end, so sitting position might include 'sits', 'sit', sitting', and 'seated', and if your new ldesc doesn't include one of those words, it tacks on ', sitting' to the end.

[Harmless]

My whole life is a lie.

lol! this was how I felt when I first discovered the override.

Nauta, I love all of your suggestions. I particularly love the change about not losing an ldesc you made because you did some action, but I have learned to get around that one (I just don't work as hard, and hence all my characters are broke)

[chrisdcoulombe]

I didn't know some of those things got overridden either.

[Miradus]

If you put ldesc in your prompt you can see what overrides it and what doesn't.

Like Nauta, I use(abuse) the hell out of changing ldesc to set a scene.

I always find myself wanting to use objects in my ldesc.

DesertPunk sits by ~beetle, sharpening his ~dagger while whistling a tune.