dynamic contact descriptions to prevent fishing

[Lotion]

When you contact someone it would generate an sdesc for them based on which keywords you used to contact them.

Say you want to contact the tall, dark-haired man named Amos.

contact tall.dark: You contact someone who is tall and dark with the Way.
contact man.dark.tall: You contact a man who is dark and tall the Way.
contact figure: You contact a figure with the Way.
contact amos: You contact Amos with the Way.

There would be a lot of edge cases and also this would require code changes that could be difficult because of weird engine legacy stuff but I think it would greatly reduce the potential to for the metaplay that currently exists. If a new way identification system is built robust enough exceptions could hopefully be easily added to handle the edge cases.

I'm not sure how someone who contacts you and starts sending psi's would appear, but having their sdescs hidden would also be nice. There is a simple solution but....
contact amos as Talie
amos sees:
You sense a foreign presence enter your mind.
Talie sends you a telepathic message: Meet me at the span.
Seems kinda overpowered and I can't think of a way to balance it.

[Lizzie]

1. There are more than one mob (PC, NPC) named Amos in the game. You know which one you're looking for, there's no reason that you should be finding the wrong one just because that one happened to log in (or spawn) after the one you're looking for showed up.

2. The tall.dark already works that way. So does the man.dark.tall.

3. If you're looking for a particular figure, and you don't know the exact sdesc because the figure is wearing their hood up, but you can see by his sdesc that he is broad-shouldered, slender build, medium height, and is wearing a full set of Oash livery...
then you should theoretically be able to identify him when you find his mind, or see him in the bar. Even if you don't know his name.

[Lotion]

I was specifically referring to doing `contact figure` when in the same room as one to find out their sdesc which from what I've heard absolutely is something that does happen.

[Majikal]

I've harped about this a few times so I'll just repost my comment from the last time this came up.
-------------------------

I've always hoped to see the psionic system shifted so that whenever you contact someone they always see your short description.

The tressy-tressed aide contacts your mind.

Pros:
Decreases the practice of sdesc fishing
Decreases the practice of online-checking, I expect this is often used to sway your ic judgement. (If that Sun Runner is online I'm not riding by their camp etc.)
The meta-practice becomes just as telling of the one checking as it does the one who got checked.
Increases reply speed, you can pick up the phone to talk back early!


Cons:
None that I can tell.

[Greve]

I never understood why it doesn't just show the current actual sdesc of the person we contact, so if you try to contact a guy with his hood up, you get the figure in a dark, hooded cloak instead of his mugshot. That way, if you want to be really sure you've got the right person, you'll need to know their name.

[Harmless]

I am for a change like this. Sdesc fishing via contact has been a real drawback for ages.

Edit: boom! Staff just made a change to remove the ability to sdesc fish. Bout time and thanks!

[Kyviantre]

As an aside, this won't solve all Way fishing, it just means people will buy a cheap facewrap and wear it before checking if Talia the delf is online via contacting.

It will stop sitting-in-the-gaj-snooping though.  Just wanted to point out the obvious flaw

[Dresan]

I wonder how many blue-eyed people calling themselves blue we'll begin seeing in the game now. 

[Inks]

I wonder how many blue-eyed people calling themselves blue we'll begin seeing in the game now. 

Or black hair called Black. These are the standard Guild naming conventions across the ages.

You contact the dealer-inked woman with the way.

[HeeBeeGB]

Radical Thought:

Allow contact to assure a psionic link Make it much easier to carry on a conversation when two minds are linked. Make both parties aware of who contacts who.

Otherwise, allow people to 'Psi Soandso <message>'. They don't get confirmation if the message went through. To them, it appears the message went through. Allow these messages to queue up, so when someone logs in, they receive the messages in order. It allows people in GMH roles etc to process voicemails, and respond to them if they wish. Having played those roles, I certainly would have loved to have some form of when I'm not around conversation tools, as literacy is a bit of a dud.