(I've returned to Byond, after ~9 months, for who knows how long... :D Been working on a The Thing fan game.)
One thing I've been wondering for the longest time for a role-playing game or the like is whether to exclude names or not. In a deeply role-playing game, which I've yet to see, wouldn't it be better to never establish a name (such as when you drag your mouse over the stranger's mob to see their name in the bottom left corner)? This could be accomplished by setting everyone's mob name to " " (I don't know if this would affect lists and handles on the programming side of this issue). This would have to be accompanied by a very diverse character appearance and costume system, which may be too much for the Dream Maker system now.
So for instance, I wander into the village as a guy dressed all in red. No one can tell what my name is unless I tell them, which may be a fake name. They could very well call me the 'Man in Red' or whatever. But without the proposed change, the mystery is lost. This would also allow one to have different identities at various places. Something like a journal system could be established for each player of all the people they've seen (such as in a statpanel tab) to let them remember what names they associate with which people. You could also go so far as to try and imitate someone, where you'd have to try and sound like the intended guise.
ID:152171
 Nov 21 2007, 12:41 pm
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Mainly the interface would need updating. 3.0 games compiled in 4.0 should need no recoding to be compatible with 4.0, though to take advantage of the new interface, you might just need to modify the default. On the other hand, you could decide you want to add more functionality that the new interface provides, so you might end up adding quite a bit of code. It all depends on what you plan to do.
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Also mouse procs would need adjusting, due to the pixel_x and pixel_y arguments being parameters now.
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The Info element is now what the verb tabs used to be. You can define other input methods, including defining your own menu system, buttons and more. You'll really have to start playing with the interface elements to appreciate the power it gives you to customize your game's look and feel.
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I'm fine with 3.0 for now... I might break down and check out 4.0, but I wanna keep an archival version of 3.0, for old time's sake.
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If sentimentality is the only thing keeping from 4.0, I'd say to rethink your position. Just throw together a test project that you can use to play with the new features and get your feet wet with 4.0. At this point, there's no real reason to stick with 3.0, since everyone else is running 4.0 by now.
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*cough* mouse_opacity *cough*
Possible, I think. | |
Well that's nifty... Hmm, but this was more about the theory behind it... For the sake of roleplaying, would it be a good idea? In the absence of a small town environment like Hedgerow Hall...
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Setting mob's mouse_opacity to 0 would make it so putting your mouse over them will only get what's under them, instead of a blank status bar. One problem would be being able to see what's under them, like if they are trying to hide a small object.
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Once again, thats not what hes asking. What hes asking is should it be possible to just click over and see what their name is.
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Ok. But would it be beneficial or meaningful to do so? Is the philosophy of anonymity (at least initially) something that could make roleplaying games more roleplaying? "Interesting" vs. "Bothersome"
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I think it would be nice, but then you come into the problem of communication. In most games, communication is outputted something like this:
"[usr]:[msg]" Now, how do you propose to go about having the name hidden while they are speaking? | |
It would need tweaking of communication verbs and [src]/[usr] instances in text in your code, and it might not be worth it, but if you get past that, nothing's stopping you.
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With the new 4.0 interface, you can create a game interface that doesn't give out the names of other players. Although, if they choose not to use it, and go with the default instead, it would display the names again. That might not be worth the player's bother of using the default skin just to see someone's name, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.