Character Bio area- "Notes" section.

[Greycat]

Honestly, I'd probably take this in game or have some way of doing it in the wiki - but I'd prefer an in-game option.

 

With a number of characters, there are often times I have *something* - a play or personality note, important dates, etc. - I'd like to have handy for them that I can update right along with a bio. While it'd be easy enough to recall with just one or two characters, once you start getting a regular chorus, troupe, gaggle - whatever large numbers of alts come in - there are times you forget.

 

And these aren't things that should necessarily be public. There's not really a reason that "why are they speaking like that, or referring to this that way" should just be public knowledge (or filling up bio space.) Sure, some of them can be *discovered,* but it shouldn't be something to just be looked up.

 

So... how about a "Character notes" section that just the player can see, tied right to the character like the public bio? Something a little more elegant than "Where'd I put that piece of paper" or trying to find a note in what can be a long pile of emails. (Especially since to update anything... it's a *new* email.)

 

Essential? No. Nice to have? With a bunch of alts, I think so. I'm usually good at actually *remembering,* but there are times a reminder of little details would be nice.

 

(Before it comes up - Yes, the devs would have to spend time on this, oh no. The devs have to spend time on anything. Everything from fixing a typo to making a powerset takes time. If they chose to do so, it's their decision.)

[Rudra]

I don't see a high need for this, but there is definitely a benefit to it. It would be simpler to look up key details about a character this way rather than having to alt-tab to a word processor or spreadsheet to look up the character's notes, then alt-tab back to the game to resume whatever interaction you are doing with the character. You could track various quirks about the character, character-to-character hostilities and alliances, or even just keep track of the differences in character nature between similar characters you may be playing.

 

This wouldn't really matter to non-roleplayers that much, or at least, not as much, but it also doesn't create anything that would affect anyone else's ability to play and enjoy the game however they want.

[AboveTheChemist]

Have you tried using the playernote command? I imagine most folks use it to take notes about other players, but it works on one's own players as well. I use it to keep notes on which contacts/story arcs are available for my characters as they level. It opens a new window in which notes can be added, and the info can be edited offline as well.

[Rudra]

No good. It can be used to append notes to yourself, yes, but they are against your global. Even if you use /playernotelocal, the notes are against your global and not that character. And with no search function to find the notes for the character in question, that would be even more tedious than alt-tabbing to another program to check notes on your characters. At least in the other program, you can quick search for your character for relevant notes.

[Zepp]

I have a character list spreadsheet where I keep track of this, but it would be good to have something associated with individual characters in-game.

[Premmy]

I was literally just thinking about suggesting something like this a few hours ago, Greycat, “Greyt Minds think alike” etc. honestly I would be happy with just the option to have a second Bio window. I’ve long struggled with making bios that are pleasant to read, informative, and also useful tools for inviting RP.

 

The typical format is something like

(RP) 

paragraph detailing the characters whole “Deal” Ala a one page origin, elevator pitch or Trading card blurb

---

---

  

Followed by a list of “RP Notes” that’s just:

 

* immune to psychics

* Smells funny, but in a super way

* looks different than the game lets me depict(normal)

* looks different than the game lets me depict (super)

* is famous(derogatory)

* is infamous(also derogatory)

* genitalia, no not those, the other ones

* some other BS

* blah blah

 

And while both have their place I’d love to have them separate mostly for formatting and information options. Having the notes that’d be most relevant to random players up front and a more detailed bio on a second click would be much appreciated 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Premmy
Typos

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Premmy said:

* immune to psychics

I don't want to derail things too much, but how does this even work?  I mean, how is one character able to claim what powers do or do not work against them?  Couldn't another character simply say "able to psychically affect all others" or something similar?  Either way, being able to outline more stuff in one's bio would be a neat addition...

[El D]

7 hours ago, biostem said:

I don't want to derail things too much, but how does this even work?  I mean, how is one character able to claim what powers do or do not work against them?  Couldn't another character simply say "able to psychically affect all others" or something similar?  Either way, being able to outline more stuff in one's bio would be a neat addition...

 

It certainly can go in that direction. I've seen a number of RP exchanges that end up like the intro to Toy Story. 'I've got my attack dog, with built-in force field!' 'Well I brought my dinosaur, that eats force field dogs!' etc., though that's historically been an issue in walk-up RP, PUGs, or forums posts (it certainly happened on the live forums a time or three...). In a group that a player is familiar with though, stuff like this doesn't tend to happen nearly as often because whatever someone claims for their character is just worked with as part of the cooperative narrative. As a very relevant example, back on Live a friend's character was immune to psychics - specifically telepathy - and I'd brought an Arachnos psychic prodigy as a new SG member. They ended up getting along pretty well precisely because my character couldn't read his character's mind, so they actually had to talk and get to know each other 'like normal people.' At the core of it, it's mostly a watermark for how collaborative a player is willing to be (both by the claims they make, and how they respond to those made by others). It's only as big a deal as the folks involved make it out to be and those that do tend to usually be either young and/or inexperienced. IMO, the only serious no-go is when someone does this while deliberately ignoring setting canon. That's just not cool. <.<

 

Also, 100% support this idea of more space for the Info pop-up. Make a 'Details' tab for quick notes, extend the existing word count, I don't care how - more in-game resources for player writing is always good, whether it's used for roleplaying, records of player events, personal accomplishments or other characters that person plays, w/e.

Edited November 24, 2022 by El D

[JasperStone]

to borrow ..

Greyt idea.

It would help me as I lose track of what I am doing with a character.

An in game option would be nice.

*side note: my job has me working on Word and Excel ALOT ... nice to not have another doc or excel sheet to keep updating

[Premmy]

4 hours ago, biostem said:

I don't want to derail things too much, but how does this even work?  I mean, how is one character able to claim what powers do or do not work against them?  Couldn't another character simply say "able to psychically affect all others" or something similar?  Either way, being able to outline more stuff in one's bio would be a neat addition...

I mean if you want to be an in-game powers literalist about it, you could build for a high defense/resistance to psionics and claim that, but really it’s just a thing I used to do back in the day, I’ve been using less notes lists these days just because of never knowing quite how to do the lists/ data sheets in a way that’s satisfactory.

 

which is why this idea or something similar would be great!

Edited November 24, 2022 by Premmy

[AboveTheChemist]

22 hours ago, Rudra said:

No good. It can be used to append notes to yourself, yes, but they are against your global. Even if you use /playernotelocal, the notes are against your global and not that character.

 

This does not match my personal experience. The notes I keep and view are very much player-specific and not tied to my global, otherwise I would not have suggested it.

[Rudra]

I tried it. I used the /playernotelocal command with my current character's name and typed in gibberish. Then I exited and loaded a different character, typed in /playernotelocal with that character's name, and it opened the window with the gibberish preloaded. Deleted the gibberish and swapped back to the first character, typed /playernotelocal with that character's name again, and the window was empty.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to correct mispellings.

[AboveTheChemist]

I use the /playernote command, not /playernotelocal, and I've been able to keep player-specific notes for several of my characters for going on several months now. I use it via a keybind, so perhaps there is some difference there, but it works fine for me. I'm not on my gaming computer at the moment, but when/if I have some time tomorrow I am happy to provide screenshots and/or more details.

[Rudra]

Tried it again as /playernote instead of /playernotelocal. It does work that way. The linked page says the /playernotelocal command is the better of the two, doing everything the base command does and more, but it apparently doesn't. It apparently has to be the /playernote command with the character's name to work as you said.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to add missing "does" after "command".

[AboveTheChemist]

13 minutes ago, Rudra said:

It apparently has to be the /playernote command with the character's name to work as you said.

 

Thank you for verifying that the command I specifically recommended works as I described.

[Rudra]

The page you linked does recommend the other version, and you would think that the "local" version would be the one to only append to the local/character name rather than the global. At least it made sense to me for it work better that way.