New speech options

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

So, how would you dig:

tell short Let's not do dinner. (shrugging) Let's look for rocks instead.
"Let's not do dinner, " the tall man tells the short man, shrugging. "Let's look for rocks instead."

?

[Beux]

Ohhh. That would be so cool.

[facehugger]

No, no.

Please god no.

No.

[Morgenes]

Don't forget the accent, language spoken, full short descriptions, etc...

tell short Let's not do dinner. (shrugging) Let's look for rocks instead.
"Let's not do dinner, " the tall, red-bearded man tells the short, sturdily-built man, in southern accented sirihish, shrugging. "Let's look for rocks instead."

While I understand the draw of this (making it appear more like a novel), I would be worried about the length this could go.  I would suggest we auto-format those if we did something like this.

[rishenko]

I've been thinking of that myself, mainly with the intent of breaking up speech with actions to emphasize points.

Code Select Expand

>tell short (as he ticks off a thumb) First Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large. Second, ((now raising his index finger with a flick)) I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop.

As he ticks off a thumb, the tall, fat and muscular man tells the short, scruffy man, in sirihish, "First Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large.  Second,", now raising his index finger with a flick, "I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop."

>tell short (holding the scruff of ^short neck in a firm grip) I told you Amos... I told you -not-...to stuff... ((pressing the glinting edge of the blade to ^short throat)) the peanuts down mansa's pants.

Holding the scruff of his neck in a firm grip, the crystalline dagger in hand, the tall, muscular man tells the short, husky man, in sirihish, "I told you Amos... I told you -not-...to stuff...", pressing the glinting edge of the blade to his throat, "the peanuts down mansa's pants."

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I'd assume the length would not change from the ... but I see, now. I feel you.

Hmmm.

You could decide on a certian length that a emotive break in the sentence could be, IE: 100 characters, and force the emotive break to appear like normal speech if it was too long.

For example, giving it a 50 character length:
tell bob I like cookies. (chuckling) They taste good.
"I like cookies," the giant, barbate man tells the scrawny, crimson-eyed elf in southern-accented sirihish, chuckling. "They taste good."

...while...
tell bob I like cookies. (chuckling and looking around the room with intense grey eyes) They taste good.
Chuckling and looking around the room with intense grey eyes, the giant, barbate man tells the scrawny, crimson-eyed elf in southern-accented sirihish: "I like cookies. They taste good."


It would reroute the emotive break to the beginning by default if the input was over 50 characters.

[Pantoufle]

It's not a bad idea, 7 but, honestly, that sort of structuring, in my opinion, belongs in a MUSH and not a MUD.  In a MUSH you can even indent your emotes, as though it were a bona fide paragraph; this is because in a MUSH you are writing in novel-like fashion.  Ultimately, I think implementing this would somehow break the cohesiveness of the current say/tell/talk/emote setup.  I'm not trashing your idea, I'm just saying I think it's more befitting for the setting of a MUSH.

[moab]

OMG, I think I wet myself.

Please!

[spawnloser]

Wonderful for narrative, V, really.  Great.  Not necessary, though.  I mean, we can already...

> tell bob I like cookies.
> say (chuckling) They taste good.

With this, we get relatively the same order (words, action, words), allow constant flow and chance for being interrupted, don't have to play with code and formatting, and don't take a step towards MUSH-dom.

(shrug)  I mean, I won't complain AT ALL if such an idea was implemented, but I'm not going to push for it.

[Angela Christine]

I like it.  It would make logs easier to read.

[LauraMars]

I like it, I do. From a narrative perspective, this would be good.  My stance is, the more code tools we have to make the story and creativity flow, like dihydrogen monoxide, the happier I'll be.

However, line length would be an issue.  And I think this could slow things down some...interaction can already be quite slow.  I mean, you all know those days spent starving in the tavern.  And the mudsex...fuggedaboudit.

[LoD]

I like it.  It would make logs easier to read.

Really?  You find this:

As he ticks off a thumb, the tall, fat and muscular man tells the short, scruffy man, in sirihish, "First Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large.  Second,", now raising his index finger with a flick, "I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop."

Is easier to read than this:

As he ticks off a thumb, the tall, fat and musucular man tells the short, scruffy man, in sirihish:
  "First, Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large.  Second...

Now raising his index finger with a flick, the tall, fat and muscular man tells the short scruffy man, in sirihish:
   "...I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop."

It's a nice idea, but I think that the format would get a bit more cumbersome to read in blocks than separated.  It also encourages people to take scenes in large jumps instead of piece by piece.  What if my character planned to wriggle away halfway through the first sentence?  Because of the fast pace of the MUD, I enjoy breaking apart the sequences in communication in case there are things that need to take place between them.

-LoD

[Angela Christine]

I like it.  It would make logs easier to read.

Really?  You find this:

As he ticks off a thumb, the tall, fat and muscular man tells the short, scruffy man, in sirihish, "First Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large.  Second,", now raising his index finger with a flick, "I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop."

Is easier to read than this:

Yeah, I do.  You get used to it after a while, but when I first started playing I found the logs on the website to be choppy and very difficult to read.  There is no flow to them.

[Intrepid]

Yeah, I do.  You get used to it after a while, but when I first started playing I found the logs on the website to be choppy and very difficult to read.  There is no flow to them.

AC, I can guarantee you that if everyone thought like you did, formatting would not exist.  Formatting came about to make information easier to see at a glance, and I think you'd find a lot of people disliking the new code if it had no way to autoformat.

[rishenko]

It's a nice idea, but I think that the format would get a bit more cumbersome to read in blocks than separated.  It also encourages people to take scenes in large jumps instead of piece by piece.  What if my character planned to wriggle away halfway through the first sentence?  Because of the fast pace of the MUD, I enjoy breaking apart the sequences in communication in case there are things that need to take place between them.

-LoD

I can see what you mean by the format, so I suggest the following:

Code Select Expand

As he ticks off a thumb, the tall, fat and muscular man tells the short, scruffy man, in sirihish,
 "First Amos, it takes more than belshun to get this large.  Second,",
now raising his index finger with a flick,
 "I like you, really I do, but this shit has got to stop."

Regarding too much action taking place in a single message, I believe that similar issues can take place with the existing code.  I've seen somebody emote the following before:

The nondescript man pushes <sdesc> off his body, scrambles to his feet, draws his swords and lunges at you with a snarl.

My goal with the change is for an individual to add further nuances to their statements.  Whether it's a gesture of a hand, a narrowing of the eyes or to show them being suddenly startled, I think it could further enrich the environment.

My problem with splitting things up, as it is right now, is that sometimes people will not realize that you are meaning to continue your sentence/thought/idea.  They then interject something that really wouldn't have made sense since you are, in reality, continuing to speak in a fluid, nonstop manner.

[EonBlueApocalypse]

The way they are currently structured works quite nicely.  I mean, it doesn't read like prose, but why do you want it to?  Basically, in a say, you can see a character's blocking, and you can hear their speech, and it's presented in a clear, understandable medium.

I very much believe emotes, says and the like should read more like a script for a play than a novel, anyway.

[spawnloser]

I assume when someone ends a say/tell/talk with '...' that they are going to continue.  I know that I do.  If I'm signifying that my words are simply trailing off, I'll make an emote to that effect.

tell bob (words trailing off at the end) I like you, Bob, but, well...
em shrugs as he draws his weapons.

-or-

tell bob (voice and body similarly animated) Bob!  Man you gotta...
pem voice trails off as he looks over at the blood coating ~jane.

[EvilRoeSlade]

The way they are currently structured works quite nicely.  I mean, it doesn't read like prose, but why do you want it to?  Basically, in a say, you can see a character's blocking, and you can hear their speech, and it's presented in a clear, understandable medium.

I very much believe emotes, says and the like should read more like a script for a play than a novel, anyway.

Agreed.  I like to know where my eyes should go to find the information that I want.

[MonsterGonads]

I like this idea. It's great.

[Dirrrrrrrrrr]

I like this idea. It's great.

To be fair, however, your name IS MonsterGonads.

Semper Pax

[Medena]

I think this would make scenes with a lot of PC's and/or quick-fire action very difficult to follow and then add a contribution. It can be difficult even now sometimes in quickly scrolling scenes to follow all the text while at the same time typing out your own reaction. At least now, you know where to look to pick out whatever information you deem salient, whether it be the emote or the spoken portion, and this allows a quicker read.