Text-Only Role Playing Inventory System

[oedipustex]

This is a short suggestion for a developer who feels comfortable meddling with GUI and serialization.

 

I'd love to see City of Heroes get a text-only inventory system. The idea is simple on its face, but possibly difficult to execute. A text-only inventory is a list of items that exist only as text. They don't have icons, they can't be dropped on the ground in the "real" world, they exist purely as items in a container. However, these items have the following characteristics:

 

• Players can trade them
• The items can respond to certain player verbs (in text games this is determined by the item)
• There might be some way to "examine" or "look" at the item to see more text
• (Potentially) The ability for a text object to be a container for another text object

 

 

So, why add this?

 

My answer is that text-based RPG games just naturally have this. They don't think about it as something extra because the game is already text-based. So, a glass rose, a stale cigar, a bucket of mackerel can all exist as text objects to add immersion in those games. Why not include them in a visual game as well?

 

 

The argument against this of course is that players can already "fake" having items with text. However, this is true in text based games as well. Players can  usually "fake" whatever they want.  The idea isn't that the items replace being able to emote. It's bringing an extra layer to the storytelling. Now you don't just go to the donut shop; there are actually donuts there, and you can share them with your team. 

 

 

There are ways to take this further. You could have different "colors" of text based items. Perhaps blue items are "real" in the sense of being generated by the game world, "yellow" items are generated spontaneously by players, and "purple" items can only be generated by GMs during special events.  But I won't go into all that. I'd love for some talented developer to take a crack at this. I think with the RPG community CoX has it would turn a corner and bring a lot of the advantages text games enjoy, with relatively low level investment in assets other than code time and (if the team desired) world building. 

Edited November 13, 2021 by oedipustex

[arcane]

I had to google text-based game and learned something today, but it sure as hell sounded nothing like anything to do with City of Heroes.

 

But carry on, I’m not the expert here.

[Shenanigunner]

43 minutes ago, arcane said:

I had to google text-based game and learned something today, but it sure as hell sounded nothing like anything to do with City of Heroes.

 

Seconded. That CoX supports custom character development is a wonderful plus over many other games, but anything more has to be on the player's side... this is not an intensely RP game nor a variation of Second Life.

 

Carry a text inventory in your Description and coordinate with other RP players, maybe in an RP-focused SG?

[Greycat]

I know what you're referring to - used to play some text based games,  after all (still have Zork sitting around somewhere.) Even SCUMM based games from Lucasarts and similar were like that. And I think that's where you're going with it - say...

 

Quote

 

/get newspaper

> You have picked up the newspaper

/look newspaper

> It's yesterday's Talos Tattler, a little crinkled, with a corner a bit soggy from someone's coffee.

/Read newspaper

> The front page story is about Manticore's "special" arrows and how a Rikti is now filing for child support because of them. Tabloids, amirite?

 

 

But ... while I can see some value in having something "with more description" on it (see: newspaper) ... as you yourself point out, we can already do this with text.  I can already do /em walks to the counter and gets donuts for everyone. "I hope everyone likes sprinkles!"  or /em reads the paper - some tabloid nonsense about Manticore.

 

Yes, we can put some extra description in some things, but... would we really want them hanging around? Or adding more systems (on top of the already ... *eccentric* text editor... can we get that worked on before anything?) for kind of a niche use?

 

Now, if this were part of an addition where we can tag *actual objects* in bases as well (the newspaper on the desk, click and it shows it's from last week, click on the takeout container and get a note that it... should probably be thrown out before it gains sentience,) I think I'd be more for it, but as just text... not really sold, personally. Even as an RPer, it'd be *really* niche.

[oedipus_tex]

Hey folks, I'd like to have a discussion about the merits of the idea and not the project management aspects or conjecture about what is worth a theoretical developer's time. If it seems like modders prefer to just build things and then spring them on you versus presenting them first and building on your ideas, some reflection about reflexive responses with one word memes might be helpful.

[Koopak]

I'd love something like this actually. There's actually an old RP plugin for WoW that accomplished this and used private chat channels to communicate the items to other players allowing you to actually create and trade items with the basic UI as if they were normal in game items despite not actually existing on the game itself. These had AMAZING RP utility but suffered from the need for everyone to install the plugin, which while easy, still weeded out a non zero number of people.

I will say that my understanding is the UI is a bit of a nightmare to work with, but if the developers can find a way to do this that doesn't make them hate themselves for doing so, i would LOVE this for our RP community. That said, we are only one part of the greater CoX community and I would never prioritize this over projects that benefit the community as a whole, so all ill say is I hope the devs read this thread and consider it. If it doesn't happen fine, if it does, epic.

[wjrasmussen]

Suppose someone wanted to automate some aspects of the market...

[oedipus_tex]

1 hour ago, Koopak said:

I'd love something like this actually. There's actually an old RP plugin for WoW that accomplished this and used private chat channels to communicate the items to other players allowing you to actually create and trade items with the basic UI as if they were normal in game items despite not actually existing on the game itself. These had AMAZING RP utility but suffered from the need for everyone to install the plugin, which while easy, still weeded out a non zero number of people.

I will say that my understanding is the UI is a bit of a nightmare to work with, but if the developers can find a way to do this that doesn't make them hate themselves for doing so, i would LOVE this for our RP community. That said, we are only one part of the greater CoX community and I would never prioritize this over projects that benefit the community as a whole, so all ill say is I hope the devs read this thread and consider it. If it doesn't happen fine, if it does, epic.

 

 

That's interesting about a version of this existing in WoW. I have seen it done in a few small games but never as a UI-only tool, although it totally makes sense that it could work that way. You're spot on that because these objects are more abstract than traditional in-game objects, they could be client bound instead of server bound. Server bound objects would of course offer a greater degree of permanence, if there's someone willing to tackle that degree of complexity, but it isn't critical, unless someone wanted to expand this feature so that the text based objects played a greater game play role (which I'd be fine with).

 

I came from MUDs and MOOs prior to MMOs so the lack of this feature in most graphical games has always seemed like a missed opportunity. In my opinion most graphical games could learn something from these low budget efforts about the value of abstraction. In a text system, items are allowed to "exist" without the expense of an icon or mesh. That liberates the storytelling. In CoX's case, it might also provide a break from a tendency to provide information to the player in dialog dumps. You could, for example, find a book about a topic at the library which exists as a text object that responds to commands to READ it.

 

The simplistic implementation outside CoX using a C# or C++ editor is pretty easy to imagine. The hurdle would be building it in CoX in a way that feels comfortable. A lot of people would probably not pay much attention to it, but that's by design. I do find it weird to see some people saying "No, absolutely not" but I have to assume they don't really understand what's being proposed. A worst case scenario is it has no effect on you whatsoever.

 

 

Someone did mention Bases earlier and whether these items would interact with that, and while that would be an additional hurdle to add it fits with the spirit of the idea exactly. Saving and loading might be a bit of an issue though (in most text games objects put in containers on the floor/room are not permanent and can despawn). A sneaky workaround some games use are fake containers technically "located" on the player. 

Edited November 13, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[Akisan]

In a way, we already have one of these text inventories (sort of), in the form of our Souvenir tab for our completed story arcs.  We pick one of these items up whenever we've completed any story arc (even in AE, sometimes).  Adding the ability to create, stash, or pick-up souvenirs from various in-game objects / other players would work well for this. 

 

As far as RP uses, that'll depend on the specific RP group, but there's a few things I'd love to use them for:

• Scavenger hunts.  Go around someone's base, certain (listed) objects have a souvenir, bring back as many as you can find for a prize.
• Access cards (along with in-base doors and object permissions).  If you have a certain item, base telepads/objects have additional functionality (so I can invite friends to see private areas in my base at their leisure). 
• Actual souvenirs from a great RP session; something holding a summary that I could re-read and easily remember how much fun we had.

[Alchemystic]

Perhaps if we were able to take the formatting tools from AE souvenirs and apply them to the in-game emails system we would have a workable version of what you're looking for.

[Koopak]

Yeah the clue and souvenirs systems is basically this exact idea, just limited in its source. Being able to generate and send them to each other without interacting with the AE may be sufficient to accomplish this feature.