Contact Suggestion

[NinjaFruitSalad]

Contact is already said to be rife with OOC abuse and metagaming, but one thing that really confuses me is why an ability that is a mental link is accessible via one's physical description?

Here's a hot take: that should only work if you're in the same room with that person and can see them.

Otherwise, if you want to Contact someone that is not in the same location as you, you need to use their full/real name. And in doing so, they learn your name as well. Don't know the name of that thief you want to threaten and harass (or check if they're online)? Too bad, hire some spies to find out.

[Dresan]

I think contact is a necessary evil.

As your character becomes well know you may find you can spend a lot of time in a remote corner chatting the time away. This is determental to the game but no easy solutions since contact generates a lot of interactions between characters.

In regards to the idea, i had at least one instance where my character's name was the same as another player and i would sometimes get messages meant for then over the way so sometimes sdesc is needed

I dont think the idea will solve much other than not allow someone to guess the sdesc of a cloaked figure that just passed by or trying to contact the only elf logged in the game after finding elf tracks.

If we weighing the good against the benefits of contact, the idea may end up doing a bit more harm than good, imo.

One a side note, one thing i would like to see implemented is a service to allow players to leave short messages to each other through npc. This would facilitate more player interactions across time zones.

[mansa]

Currently:

When you contact someone, the message says:
You contact someone through the way.

The person you contact receives:
Someone has contacted you.


You cannot trust that the person you're contacting is the correct person you want to contact.  You only know that the keywords you used matched.  The more keywords you use, the better the match is.  If you use a name, it's an even better match.  However, you still don't know that you've hit the right person.

After you are in contact with someone, you can send them a message, and only at that point will you know if you've reached the correct person.  Also, at that same time, the person who has been contacted will know who is in their mind too.


I'm not sure if you can do any OOC abuse and metagaming after the most recent code changes, but if you can, how?

[Armaddict]

I'd actually be totally okay with removing common psionics in favor of writing, but that's because I'm all hard-mode and I think the time constraints/vulnerability would lead to interesting things, as well as making psionicists much more big-baddy.

That'll never happen though, think it has to stay the way it is for reasons.

[Lotion]

Currently:

When you contact someone, the message says:
You contact someone through the way.

The person you contact receives:
Someone has contacted you.


You cannot trust that the person you're contacting is the correct person you want to contact.  You only know that the keywords you used matched.  The more keywords you use, the better the match is.  If you use a name, it's an even better match.  However, you still don't know that you've hit the right person.

After you are in contact with someone, you can send them a message, and only at that point will you know if you've reached the correct person.  Also, at that same time, the person who has been contacted will know who is in their mind too.


I'm not sure if you can do any OOC abuse and metagaming after the most recent code changes, but if you can, how?

There are only so many people who have specific collections of keywords.

[NinjaFruitSalad]

My information is probably outdated...  but anyway. I just think it's more thematic to be able to bridge a mental connection with another's mind if you know their name. Even a frequently-used nickname would work! But if you're just sitting in your office or lying on your bunk and trying to make contact with any scruffy-looking unshorn breed, you aren't likely to have a good picture in your mind unless they're right in front of you, and you could very easily mistakenly make contact with someone else.

Making contact with someone whom you have never met, and perhaps only heard a vague description of isn't a necessary evil. In fact it makes absolutely no sense.

[Halaster]

Contact / PSI were originally put in as an In-Character substitute for the stock DIKU "tell" command.  As Dresan said, it's a "necessary evil" to help people coordinate.

While I love Armaddict's idea of removing it entirely and using writing, that's a pretty big ask and would probably cause more harm (by way of less people playing) than good.  IMO.

[Armaddict]

While I love Armaddict's idea of removing it entirely and using writing, that's a pretty big ask and would probably cause more harm (by way of less people playing) than good.  IMO.

Very true.

That's just me constantly churning through 'what-ifs' in my head, and a statement of what costs the replacements come at.

[NinjaFruitSalad]

Contact / PSI were originally put in as an In-Character substitute for the stock DIKU "tell" command.  As Dresan said, it's a "necessary evil" to help people coordinate.

While I love Armaddict's idea of removing it entirely and using writing, that's a pretty big ask and would probably cause more harm (by way of less people playing) than good.  IMO.

Nobody here is talking about removing contact altogether.

If you are trying to coordinate something with other people, wouldn't you say you already know their names?