Re: lookAll topic

[Bogre]

As long as mekillots can hide in plain sight just northeast of you on the featureless salt flats, you can look around as much as you want. It sounds like whatever staff member yelled at you for doing so was just looking for any reason to criticize you. Noone wants to see people emoting looking around every time they step into the next room.

Or when seeing things with scan takes about 20 looks in one direction.

[SmashedTregil]

I was literally trained to look n,e,s,w on patrols in Kurac for my very very first character. That was over a decade ago at least. I've been doing it since. It is a habit that is pummelled into you by pretty much any military clan.

And I agree with Greve. You want realism? Make it impossible for a Building Size Lizard to sneak up on you. If you don't, then let's scratch this off to the necessities of a world made of squares and text.

[MeTekillot]

In the same vein, who really gives a shit? Any impactful action that you're able to take on something that you see with look all is gated by the various delays that we have for all of our skills.

[Night Queen]

I just wanted to make sure everyone was treated the same on this because if something is not allowed it should be the same for everyone and I don't like keeping on seeing people saying they use this - not many seem to know it's not allowed, so it should be written down so it's clear like a bunch of other minor rulings (so there's not the feeling of trying to avoid stepping on an invisible minefield)

The game log should show I was only typing 'look n' every every now and then and not so often to be spammy, nothing like that at all, any storyteller that's observed me would know neither that or "lookall" is something that is happening automatically, I was obviously typing it specifically for that direction - the swivelling stuff wouldn't apply to that since it was in one direction, the message seemed to be against using an alias like this before, when moving (looking around after every room move) since the message was against looking in three cardinal directions in the space of a second which is also a description of what this alias being offered for download on the forum does:

There is a world of difference between using an alias to look in directions once you move into a new room

I agree with this:

If your character is snapping their head around in all directions, emote about it.

but people should know it's expected and not just be using aliases like this if it's not actually allowed so it's the same for everyone.

[Lotion]

The simple solution is to update your lookall alias with an emote about your head swiveling.

[Lotion]

Another potential solution would to wish up every room asking for a staffer to find out what mobs are in the rooms diagonally adjacent to your current room so that you don't get ambushed by a bahamekillot. (do not actually do this)

[Lotion]

[Usiku]

I think it's pretty clear here from the various responses from staff (and players) that a 'lookall' alias is a perfectly fine thing that you are allowed to use. Just avoid spamming it 5 times per second so you don't look like a robot.

[triste]

Usiku's summation is good here.

The elephant in the room here probably has to do with how skill checks work when detecting hidden people. If look spamming allows for multiple chances to detect people, maybe we need to code in some throttling for look or look skill rolls, though throttling in a game like this is probably always a little bit of a PITA to build. And so here we are today.

[Night Queen]

Welllll it is like this:

• "If your character is snapping their head around in all directions, emote about it" (someone)
• " Forcing someone to "emote looks around" as they type all those commands is just adding unnecessary spam" (Halaster)

But then there's this! Don't do it if you are chasing someone??? Or during fights?

I'd have to say if someone was running that for combat or chase purposes, rather than to see what is around when they move into a new room, for instance, I would find it questionable.  I wouldn't consider it much different than a set target PlayerB;autobash type arrangement.

• "perfectly fine thing that you are allowed to use one. Just avoid spamming it 5 times per second" (Usiku on this page)

And sooo now we have a rule that only exists for people that read the forums and anyone else can pretend they didn't see it

- You are not allowed to use Look all if you are chasing another player character

- or spam it 5 times per second but that seems like it's saying don't spam it at all since no one can actually send it 5 times per second and I didn't, then it turns into a wavy line of "how much is too much" And yeah, people have posted about looking a lot with hidden people before yeah - if it's not allowed it should be firmly in the rules (or better yet a code solution like with Contact since it pretty much requires everyone to be watched to enforce Look, or a delay check but at that point you might as well just add a throttle to how much allowed to send the command anyway - short moments can change the direction/end of a character or a plot, but if a verdict on whether something was bad or not comes after IC actions that can't be undone it doesn't help as much - and dissuades people from playing sneaky characters or engaging in that kind of stuff when there's the likelihood people will just cheese it and not get in trouble while it can end the game for the other character - everyone needs to be under the same clear and fair rules basically)

- There's a bunch of stuff like this where some extra rules would clarify things cos I think everyone has their own mental image in their head of how things are done commands vs RP wise with stuff like this

I'm really happy that the cheesy aspects of Contact were removed to stop that but there's a lot of stuff like that left, another example is the grey area of using Contact names to check online/offline - or people who way people entire body descriptions when the body is covered from head to toe and they never met them before - Lots of little things like that would help with some kind of agreement and clarification so everyone is on the same page and no one can say they didn't know when something important and plot-affecting comes up and it doesn't help much to complain after someone already did something (one big aspect is that it can feel like other people are allowed to do stuff because no one's warned them not to yet, like with the old contact cheesing stuff)

[ShaLeah]

I don't understand this discussion.  I have had look aliases for 20 years and no one's ever said anything to me.  Laa [look all around] n e s w u d. Am I to understand we're now required to emote with each coded command?

Maybe I'm confused.

[Veselka]

It sounds like One Staffer had a bee in their bum, one time, with one player, and that is being conflated to "Staff Policy". However, other Staff on this thread have chimed in saying that isn't necessarily Staff Stance/Policy, and further clarify that it is fine as long as it isn't being abused (much as other code is treated).

End of story.

Staff could make a help file or update a help file or we could just move on.