From humble origins, to greatness....

[SeraphimKensai]

Forgive me if this has been suggested, but is there anyway we could double or triple the limit on characters for our character bio's? 1023 characters is pretty limiting to write out a full fleshed out character bio, and know there's some amazing character concepts out there. I understand that 0-1023 is obviously power of 8, so I would wonder if it is possible to expand that range to something like 0-2047, or 0-4095. 

 

I don't think anyone would object to something like this as its a universal improvement that doesn't affect gameplay, but could help people connect to their characters, and for others to understand the characters they are playing with more.

 

Thanks.

[Greycat]

Sounds overpowered. Probably trivializes AVs, and would provide one hit kills in PVP. 😉

 

(Actual answer? Been asked for since live. I don't know if there's a technical reason or not that would cause issues. I wouldn't mind, though.)

[ImpousVileTerror]

The usual complaints get bandied about:

- It would take up Dev time.

- Confined limitations forces you to be efficient with you words.

 

I don't happen to see those as particularly compelling.

EVERYTHING takes up Dev time, and ultimately they decide what to spend that time on.  Add to that the whole "code is in the wild" thing, and in the end it's not really going to fly as an excuse.  It's a non-answer as to why someone doesn't want something changed/added/removed, and typically there's some other motivating factor compelling the person to be negative.

And having -more- space in the Description box doesn't take away from the benefits of having a pithy and efficient writing style.  If someone wants to add more text to their Description, then it's no skin off anyone else's nose.  People already skip reading descriptions that are over 512 characters.  Or 256 characters.  Or 32 characters.  It's entirely personal and subjective at what point "too many words" is "too many words."

 

Now a -reasonable- concern?

Data limits.

Over 188,000 user accounts.  Let's throw out an estimate and say over 30 characters each and round it up to 7,000,000 player-characters roughly total.

Currently 1,023 (letter-) characters per player-character description is about 6.6 gigabytes worth of data dedicated to descriptions.

Double that, and it's over 13.2 gigs.

Now, I've heard people say "that's nothing!  With modern servers and data storage hardware, that's a drop in the ocean."

But really, I'd need to hear that from a Homecoming Dev, as they're in the unique position to know the impact to these servers in particular.  Chances are good that, yeah, it really is a drop in the ocean, though.

And then there's the active memory thing, though I know less about how that may impact the server and the client-side programs.  Still something worth considering, of course.

 

*UPDATE:  https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/16094-homecoming-statistics-march-2020/?tab=comments#comment-173373

I just checked the official stats, and my estimate is WAY higher than reality, apparently.  Back in March we hadn't even cracked 2 million characters yet.

 

What all this boils down to?   I'm in favour of expanding the Description character limits.  I just wanted to address a couple of elephants.

 

And also:  Fix the Description-writing text box!   The thing is wonky as fuuuuuuuu-

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by ImpousVileTerror
Update with more accurate numbers referenced.

[AerialAssault]

+1

 

Ideally i'd like to fit the entire Bee Movie script in my bio but I'll settle for the Navy SEAL copypasta.

[Galaxy Brain]

25 minutes ago, AerialAssault said:

+1

 

Ideally i'd like to fit the entire Bee Movie script in my bio but I'll settle for the Navy SEAL copypasta.

What the FRICK did you just FRICKIN say about me, you little AE BABY? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the FREEDOM CORPS, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on ARACHNOS, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in RIKTI MONKEY warfare and I'm the top QUICK SNIPER in the entire LONGBOW armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the FRICK out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my FRICKIN words. You think you can get away with saying that STUFF to me over the Internet? Think again, FRICKER. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the FORUMS and your @GLOBAL_NAME is being traced right now so you better prepare for the TORNADO LOADED WITH PROCS, maggot. The TORNADO LOADED WITH PROCS that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're FRICKIN dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my T1 AND T2. Not only am I extensively trained in NON-IO combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the SG BASE STORAGE and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the SERVER, you little PL BABY. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your FRICKIN tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you SILLY WILLY. I will SPAM fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're FRICKIN dead, kiddo.

[MTeague]

If there's issues that somehow prevent the existing bio text field from being expanded, them I'm fine with the initial bio being limited to 1023 characters, and a "More" button being added for additional text to go to a new field.  

 

That way also, you don't have to worry that inspecting someone would suddenly pull up War and Peace.  

You'd get an initial bio, and maybe there'd be more to read if you were so inclined to click their "More..." button.

[MTeague]

2 hours ago, ImpousVileTerror said:

And also:  Fix the Description-writing text box!   The thing is wonky as fuuuuuuuu-

Seriously.  There are a couple workarouds though.

 

I've found that I can often reclaim 200+ "wasted" characters that it claimed where consumed but really weren't, by going through my entire bio, top to bottom, delete spaces between first and second word, replace with one space, delete spaces between second and third word, replace with one space, etc.  It seems to lose characters especially if you go back and edit text in the middle of something you've already written.  

 

Alternately, use NotePad or TextPad, get what you want written, make sure its' 1023 or less, and copy/paste the whole thing in all at once. 

 

It's a hassle.  Would be nice if the in-game editor was more reliable.  But if it's not a nice easy fix, either method above can be made to work.