Writing

[The Scribe]

I was just getting into writing IC.  Not the bulletin boards.  The real stuff.  And I discovered that once you stop writing on a piece of paper, you can't add any more.  This, to me, seems ridiculous.  If you have a large piece of paper, and you write two words on it, and then hit the tilde key, you can't ever again write any more.  There has got to be a way around this, because it makes no sense.  I can understand once you've written a lengthy note that the page should be full.

Furthermore, I think the concept of books should be implemented.  Something along the lines of:

write pen book <page number>

and

read book <page number>

Or something like that.  In this manner, one can keep records without having a huge stack of paper.  As paper is quite expensive, books would be even more so.

Thoughts?

[mansa]

Books exist.  And it's just ">write book pen".
You can't pick which page number you're writing on.  You just got to go with the flow.

[Bestatte]

I don't know how it would be coded in Arm.....

But in another game, a page is an object that holds "x" character's worth of data. You can add to it as needed, whenever, and it will continue to allow you to add to it til the page is full. It would be great to have an "append" feature in the Arm writing system. That way you could add things to existing paper/parchment documents in the game, though you wouldn't be able to edit anything already written.

I think the idea has merit. Anyone else have a thought about this, or some concerns that would make it a bad idea?

[Tamarin]

Now that my idea has been accepted, I can reveal myself  But yes, I agree with Bestatette, the notes should only be able to append, not edited because they most likely have been written in indelible ink.  

About the books, though, what should happen if they are lengthy and you read them?  Would you not just get a monstrous screen scroll?  I hate those.
I think you should be able to make a table of contents (i.e. you write a list of page numbers on the first page and keep track of it yourself if you want to), and then read the appropriate pages accordingly.

[Twilight]

Armageddon's editor is...not the best.  By any stretch.  And I think the problems you talk about are all pretty much linked to how they implemented the editor.

I've used another editor on another DIKU based MUD that beats this one to hell.  I'm sure many other people can say the same, and it wouldn't really matter, except...Jhalavar (yes, this Jhalavar) coded there, you would have thought he would have stolen a decent editor  

[Delirium]

There are books.

'write book pen', and you automatically write on the next blank page within the book, no matter how full the previous page is.

Also, books always have 12 pages each. No matter how big or small they're described as being. So they're.. uh.. really, really short books.

I would love to see a better text editor. Being able to choose which page I'm writing on within a book (say I want to hide something in the back of the book, or on a certain page, etc) and being able to 'append' to a scroll, paper, or page within a book would... make my year. Oh yeah, and being able to have books of varying lengths - twenty five to, say, fifty pages would rock. No more stuffing things into three separate volumes. Whee.

I wrote up an idea about being able to title books so that you can >title book Diary, then 'get diary shelf', but there's some quirk within the code that prevents you from appending on a keyword or title to a single object ingame - it would append that same keyword to ALL the same book objects. So you would have to make a custom item each time you want to have a book that has a title. I wish it were possible to title though, it would make libraries much more feasible.

Maybe someday a brave Immortal soul will undertake such a project as "a better text editor for Armageddon".

[Tamarin]

Delerium, you just made my day.  I love when people agree with me....so IMMs.....please please pretty please can we have this idea please?

[Stroker]

I completely and utterly disagree with uberjazz.

[Tamarin]

And why would that be?  Quite frankly, if we are trying to simulate reality (which in some respects I believe we are), then why is a better note system and better coded books a problem?  I think there are enough people in-game with the appropriate aptitude for this to be a huge benefit.  It could add so much depth.

[Delirium]

I've pondered bringing the subject up to the mud account before, but never really knew if the note code got used regularly by anybody but me and a select few others. I still don't know how often it's used by other players, but I'd still like to see organized IC libraries be a feasible idea. I've been brainstorming for a while, and have little ideas written up in notepad that I'll get around to submitting in the near future, but the system is still limited at best. I guess the thing to consider is whether or not the amount of work that would go into remaking the note code would be worth the benefits it adds.

And... I think Dirr was just being a commie bastard, Uber.

Dirr, I ban you to the derailment thread. Shooo.

[Carnage]

Also, books always have 12 pages each. No matter how big or small they're described as being. So they're.. uh.. really, really short books.

They can be longer/bigger.

[Delirium]

If so, good!

I was told that books can only be 12 coded pages long by an Imm. Perhaps I remember incorrectly, but all the same, I've never seen one bigger (or shorter) than 12 pages.

[Stroker]

And... I think Dirr was just being a commie bastard, Uber.

Yes, yes I was, but I do believe I have a father. His name is Lenin.