code idea: nickname

[650Booger]

Hi everybody!  So what if we had the coded ability to give PCs nicknames, and then whenever that PC spoke or emoted we would see them titled as that nickname, rather than seeing the SDESC every time.  I for one get pretty damn confused about who is who in this game, and am constantly having to refer to my notes to see which 'swarthy, statuesque redhead' Im currently speaking to.

The swarthy, statuesque redhead says to you, in sirihish: "Hi, my name is Amos!"
>Nick swarthy amos
Dabbing at his forehead, Amos says to you, in sirihish: "It sure is hot today!"

[Grapes]

Usually if I'm wondering who someone is and they're not hooded or facewrapped, or if it's someone I WOULD know even hooded and/or facewrapped, then I type k for keyword, then my hunch for who it is. This may not be a good idea if you've made the mistake of aliasing k to kill, but then it's only one key from l for look so aliasing k is already a bad idea.

[Molten Heart]

.

[Grogerif]

I get great enjoyment out of mistaking one person for someone else.  I'd like the idea more if it was temporary or a nosave option.  Put on a disguise, turn off nosave nick.

[Lizzie]

Most mud clients with triggers setup can do this, however if you ever run into someone with the same short description you might get them confused with Amos, and maybe that's realistic.

Not realistic, and in some cases not even believable.

the tall dark man = Amos
the tall dark man = Malik

Same sdescs, easy to confuse the two, right? Except - check out their mdescs:

the tall dark man
This tall brown-skinned guy has brown hair that curls down
to his shoulders, green eyes, and puckered scars on his chin,
elbows, knees, and the backs of his hands. He's well-built
and somewhat muscular, and sports a mustache.

the dark tall man
This tall brown-skinned guy has close-cropped light blonde hair
and bright blue eyes,  He's on the thin side, with no noticeable
scars to speak of. He's willowy rather than muscular, and has a
baby-face with no facial hair at all.

There's no way anyone could ever confuse Malik with Amos in the examples above. Unfortunately we deal with sdescs that we rely on even at a distance. In the same room though, there's really no reason why anyone would confuse the two even if they both had their hoods up.

[chrisdcoulombe]

I don't like the idea of doing this in game, you could however gag their sdesc and replace it with the nick name in your client.

[ShaLeah]

You can do this client side I think. Great until you have someone with the same sdesc.

[TheGoose]

I kinda like it. A server-side nick's utility would be that it'd function in-room, but the sdesc would still show at range, or if the person is otherwise obscured.

[Mercy]

I'm not a huge fan of this, as a new player. Part of what entices me to the game is the lack of seeing a bunch of names running around. Granted it's an optional feature I don't have to use.

Which in turn makes me ask, how much is it the player's responsibility to remember what their character "should" know.

Personally, I took to making a list of things my character knows which I reference religiously and decide when they would or would not recall such information. Granted sometimes I just never look forget things my character probably would've remembered. But flubbing is a thing. Most people don't have memories like a vicegrip.

I think sdescs, hoods and facewraps lead to realistic flubbing. Besides, it's supposed to be hard to tell who someone is when they're hooded/wrapped up isn't it?

[Hauwke]

The whole hooded thing, is why I just about refuse to recognize who they are if the hood is up. Unless its a really memorable hood or mask or something I will not recognize the person for the most part.

[TheGoose]

I look at them and check if there's a facewrap. A hood alone wouldn't be enough.

[evilcabbage]

no.

just no.

[Synthesis]

I think a long time ago, I might've agreed with this idea, because I started MUDding on an H&S that only had nicknames.

Over time, I've come to appreciate sdescs as an element of style.

I don't even like the idea of client-side gags, because I think you should be capable of forgetting names in-game, just like in real life.

[Nao]

People that I've seen once a year ago probably shouldn't recognize me. Please don't do this, it would ruin some things for OOC convenience.

[The Lonely Hunter]

I have an absolutely horrible memory irl - I have to keep notes about everything. My characters might not have such a bad memory so I need some way of keeping track of people's names and such without checking my spreadsheet each time. So, I use a trigger. People my PC would remember, I "substitute" their sdesc string with information my PC would know. For example...

The average guy

substitute: The average guy (Amos - AoD Private)

I use CMud and it is very easy to do.

[CodeMaster]

My own idiosyncrasy is using the game's built-in aliases to keep a people list, so I'd have

alias alice contact short.stout.dwarf

alias bob contact tall.scarred.elf

Makes it easy to contact people (just type their name), forces you to forget faces (this system limits you to ten or fewer so you're always deleting people you don't see) and serves as a crude sdesc store (just type alias).