Making Virtual Children Talk

[Scarborough]

So, I haven't seen many players RP character that have virtual children who are old enough to talk.  I'm wondering if there is a way to RP having them talk, and actually holding a conversation with another PC.  Obviously you can't do this with emote since it doesn't make use of the language/accent things.  I thought that there might be a creative way I could do it with my own "say" command, with added emote, but I can't figure that out.

I just chatted via a wish to staff and they said there really wasn't a way to have them converse directly with other people and suggested having them whisper to the parent, and the parent passing it on.  That will work for a why young child, but not as they get older.  They also suggested having the child be less present, which is an unfortunate solution to the problem, but certainly addresses the problem until they reach an age where someone can actually create and play the character.

Other ideas?

[Marauder Moe]

One solution I saw was someone who had a mute vNPC child.  It worked well enough, but obviously you can't expect it to be very common.  *shrug*

[bloodfromstone]

Interesting question. Everyone always gets murdered before their kid gets old enough, it seems. Kudos to you, if you made it this far. I've always wanted to see a child go from virtual to played at age 13.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any great solutions. I hope you come up with something, though.

[grog]

Speaking with Virtual NPC's and even NPC's in general.  Always been a bit tricky.  

Are we supposed to pretend they are talking and hold a one sided conversation?  I often do this when I'm by myself, but it feels weird with other PC's around.   (so I don't do it as much)

I'd really like to know how other people do it, because I'd love to find a good way to do it.

[MorganChaos]

Speaking with Virtual NPC's and even NPC's in general.  Always been a bit tricky.  

Are we supposed to pretend they are talking and hold a one sided conversation?  I often do this when I'm by myself, but it feels weird with other PC's around.   (so I don't do it as much)

I'd really like to know how other people do it, because I'd love to find a good way to do it.

Speaking as someone who has played a virtual kid, who was old enough to babbles a few words, I used emote. Also, playing with VNPCs now, I use think for the Way.

Ex.

think Yes, mom, I know. Yes, I got the apartment. Don't worry about it, I'm taking care of everything. I promise. You and Dad just relax until I tell you, yeah?

emote smiles, stroking the black-haired baby's wispy curls as he babbles on about fruit in allundean.

In terms of a virtual ten-year-old? I'd probably use emotes, as well as depending on the PC reacting to them to draw logical conclusions. I might use OOC whispers or Ways to say more specific lines. Like,

whisper dude (oocly) He says "Really? Well, ginka's my favorite. Mom gives me it when I'm good. Says the house she works for gives her all she wants!" and nods proudly.

emote nods to ~chick as the black-haired boy talks animatedly at ~dude, then smiles and nods proudly.

[Naiona]

You could easily emote a shy child who will only whisper their reply to you, even when others ask questions.  Then simply relay the answer to the other adult - as often happens in real life.

[MorganChaos]

You could easily emote a shy child who will only whisper their reply to you, even when others ask questions.  Then simply relay the answer to the other adult - as often happens in real life.

Yeah, but by twelve years old that's a little unlikely.

[Maybe42or54]

Kick their trifling ass out when they're twelve.

[Tamarin]

After 10, just round up and have someone play your kid.  Who's going to care?  Honestly.

[Scarborough]

*chuckles at Tamarin for her own reasons*  

emote smiles, stroking the black-haired baby's wispy curls as he babbles on about fruit in allundean.

The problem with this is that if the other people around don't speak allundean they wouldn't know the child is babbling about fruit.  So, the whisper suggestion is that the parent whisper and preface ooc, and just tell the other person what's being said.  Hm.  

The child in question isn't near 13.  They are 3 and some odd days, and a personality has already been established -- they aren't shy.  It would be awkward to change to shy.  

Thanks for the suggestions.

[MorganChaos]

Well, I've seen an emote along the lines of "the toddler crawls over %dude lap, babbling a few coherent words in cavilish." At the time I had cavilish, but it wasn't intelligible. I'd just popped it. So that's up to the people around to use discretion.

VNPCs require a lot of discretion from players. (Including not making my VNPC do things that it would not do. Grr.)

Yeah...when my char had a kid, someone else emoted the kid screaming and wailing. I was like "No. This kid is quiet and does not cry unless, like, dropped. This kid fusses and whimpers. He does not scream and wail. Get you own goddamn VNPC."

[John]

I'd say be a neglectful parent and leave it with your own parents or siblings. Or a neighbour. You don't have to really be neglectful, just see them virtually, only.

[Scarborough]

It's so much more fun to have them be around, but then, I'm not big into .. mm, nevermind.

So, yeah,  I think I figured out a way that one could use "say" as a means of making a virtual child talk.  I tried out talk, and that wouldn't work, and I'm not entirely sure about whisper yet.   If you use say, the output is something like this:

Reaching up and scratching her nose, you say, in sirihish: "whatever"
 ..or..
Reaching up and scratching her nose, the boring, tanned woman says, in sirihish: "whatever"

Now, what if someone were to do this:

say (excitedly, a blond, bright-eyed toddler sitting next to) whatever
 ..it comes out...
Excitedly, a blond, bright-eyed toddler sitting next to, you say, in sirihish:  "whatever"
 ..or to others...
Excitedly, a blond, bright-eyed toddler sitting next to, the boring, tanned woman says, in sirihish:  "whatever"

The comma after "sitting next to" would be grammatically wrong, but: 1) it's pretty close  2) it utilizes languages the right way  3) it still lets one add an emote to the say.  This is the only language command I've found to work so far because it puts the emote first and the speaker last.  "Talk" puts the emote last.  I'm sure others might work.  Thoughts??

[amoeba]

A virtual child never -really- needs to speak, they are sooo expressive non-verbally.

Code Select Expand

say (yelling back over your shoulder to the wild-haired, kohl-lidded teen sauntering towards the doorway) Since you are going out, grab a bag of flour from the grocer would you?

em squints her eyes in frustration as the wild-haired, kohl-lidded teen lifts her hand, extending her middle finger before turning and hastily stomping out the doorway.

Or for the younger set:

Code Select Expand


say (squating down and holding ^me hands out towards the red-headed, curly tot) Come over here and give me a hug.

em grits his teeth as the red-headed, curly tot giggles suddenly, yellow liquid spilling forth in copious quanities to stain a new blue dyed, gwoshi rug.

[ale six]

However you do it, I wouldn't want to see use of the OOC command (or even "ooc" whispers/says) to provide dialogue for virtual people. That would just look awkward and jarring to me.

Of the suggestions made, I like having yourself be the mouthpiece for the child, or just do something along the lines of "emote holds the baby as it babbles on in sirihish about fruit."

Another thing here... sometimes very small children can "talk", but their speech is such that only people who spend lots of time around them can actually understand what they're saying. To everyone else it sounds like baby-babble. You could just have yourself be the "translator" for your kid.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

How about an appendment to the talk functions adding a v[/i] before them, such as vtalk, or vsay, or vwhisper?

Does it have potential for abuse? Hell yes. Do I think it would really be abused too often? Nah. So you have a friend that's a VNPC? Well, you can talk for him and such, but he won't be rescuing you anytime soon.

*shrug* That's about the only workaround I can think of.

[bardess]

Vtalk, vsay, and vwhisper are great.  Except instead of giving it to everyone, IMMs could load it onto people who email them and want it (better yet, use the request feature).

This way, people with IC children can have them talk (if they are old enough to talk), and people who introduce their vNPCs often to other PCs can use it.  If you're just talking to a vNPC on the street?  Ehh... you don't really need it, just to prevent twinkism.

[Akaramu]

One solution I saw was someone who had a mute vNPC child.  It worked well enough, but obviously you can't expect it to be very common.  *shrug*

http://www.armageddon.org/rp/logs/log.commonersmarriage.html

Thats how I did it... but as he said, it is not really common, and if I had a PC with a kid again I dont know how I would solve the issue. It is bugging me a bit, as my PCs who live any significant amount of time often seem to end up having kids. I am sort of hoping for more new code imm awesomeness.  

Vtalk, vsay, and vwhisper are great.  Except instead of giving it to everyone, IMMs could load it onto people who email them and want it (better yet, use the request feature).

This sounds very cool. Gimme! Please!

[Cale_Knight]

Vtalk, vsay, and vwhisper are great.

I don't like it. We all have a single character and we only play that character. It's fine to use vNPCs as props, but these ideas fall more into the line of being able to RP multiple PCs, which isn't what this game is about. Throwaway, brief props are one thing, but this is quite another.

[Jherlen]

Vtalk, vsay, and vwhisper are great.

I don't like it. We all have a single character and we only play that character. It's fine to use vNPCs as props, but these ideas fall more into the line of being able to RP multiple PCs, which isn't what this game is about. Throwaway, brief props are one thing, but this is quite another.

I agree with Cale. A past PC of mine had four VNPC children, and while the commands would have been useful in some limited scenarios, I don't really think they're needed, nor do I think that people should be bringing VNPCs into roleplay that extensively.

[Morfeus]

I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree. I tend to use VNPCs a lot when soloing. I usually do not when I have a chance to interact with other PCs. I do not mind if other people do as long as VNPCs actions are reasonable - when I played a gemmer and someone emoted VNPC attacking my character, I got a bit upset. I do not think 'vsay' is necessary, simply because there is usually some other solution and because I more like interation "PC1 - PC2" than "VNPC animated by PC1 - PC2".

[derail] VNPCs as well as virtual things could bring troubles too easily if used extensively. It is hard to murder VNPC, even more if you need to do it without "owner" knowing. It is hard to put VNPC into jail if it insults someone... etc. (Someone I played with used virtual pet as a part of plot. He thought it is not a problem, but you would not believe how big problem was to get this virtual pet stolen just because it was -virtual- and not real object). [/derail]

[naatok]

*sigh*
All this makes me nostalgic for the days when there were coded baby objects in the game....and they were flagged as 'food'

:twisted:

[spawnloser]

Wow, I didn't think this thread could go the route it's gone on this page...imagine my surprise!

Seriously, when you have a kid, you only need to keep the kid with you for a few years.  By the time it should be active, it doesn't have to go out in public with you any more.  You can talk about the kid, but don't have the kid with you any longer.

The VNPC population is background.  It doesnt need to, nor should it to, be brought so much into the foreground.  It does, to me, seem like having additional characters.  I know someone that was denied having a coded NPC follower thingy for a spouse for the same reason.  Leave the NPC relations in the virtual world...dealt with, primarily, virtually.

[naatok]

But seriously folks, I find that this works:

emote Lifting his brows quizzically, @ peers over at the brown-haired, scrape-kneed toddler girl as she babbles about the tastiness of fried grasshoppers compared to that of live ones.

So long as everyone around understands the language being used, it doesn't pose a problem.  And honestly!  What kind of a parent would bring a child into a mixed race social setting on Zalanthas?  The -nerve- of such a thing!
Aren't there any Allanaki or Tuluki child welfare laws?!

And if you Zalanthan parents have guests of mixed race in your home, and bring your children into the mix, then you ought to be totally ashamed of yourselves!  Unless, of course, you're serving them to your guests and your children are....

coded baby objects flagged as food!!!!

:twisted:

[InsertCleverNameHere]

I had a character who had a kid, and did a mix of a few suggestions. For the majority of the time, the kid was with a vnpc caretaker, and when around other people the kid was shy and simply whispered, and my PC would verbalize whatever was whispered. It worked out well enough. But since not every kid IS going to be one of those shy, leg-hugging variety, I think if the IMMs ever did add that vsay command it'd be great. Via email or request I think it would be prudent to have the person state their case as to why they need the feature (a child being a good reason of course), and just have it roll from there.