Line breaks and double-spaces in character descriptions cause description length to artificially increase

[VinceBlood]

Searched this forum but didn't see anything specific to this issue, so I'm writing up a new topic.

 

It's hard to properly describe, but I think every one of us has experienced this issue.

 

The easiest way to repro it is to add double-line-breaks to a character description, and/or double spaces at the end of sentences.  The most obvious way to know you've gotten it is if the text cursor returns to the start of the description and doesn't move when you type.  Sometimes returning to the area where it cut off and typing will reveal all the things you 'failed' to type.

 

Additionally, even if you get the right amount of line breaks in your description, re-opening the description will add phantom characters to it until you can no longer save your entire bio and the end gets cut off.

 

If I remember right, it's because the editor places ';nbsp' line breaks that somehow propagate themselves.

[Rudra]

That isn't a bug and it isn't limited to double spaces or line breaks. What is going on is that any special characters you use in your bio takes multiple characters for the code for that character. So like a line break takes up four characters for the <br> command. There have been requests to have the format for the bios changed to correct that, but it isn't a bug.

 

(Edit: So what you see when you type in your text is the text you type, but in the background the special characters are being tracked by their commands. Then when you go back into it to edit it, or if you jump around in the bio, or sometimes when you have to shift the display to see the rest of what you are typing, it shows the count including the full command entries; which can seem like artificial increases in character count.)

 

(Edit again: If you do anything in AE, you will see the exact same thing happen in those text blocks too. And is a likely cause of the NPC comments that are cut off when they say them.)

Edited February 4 by Rudra

[VinceBlood]

I would say that "the character count increases every time you open your description until it cuts off last characters ad infinitum" is still a bug given that information.  Working as intended can still be a bad enough user experience.

 

Special characters for spacing shouldn't inflate character count.  Disagree it's not a bug.  Bugs are anything from 'something broken' to 'it's a quirk of the system that causes a bad experience.'

Edited February 4 by VinceBlood
typo

[Rudra]

I'm not inclined to get into another 'what constitutes a bug' argument. So all I will say is that the game is designed with a text editor that does not process special characters very well, and using special characters inflates the character count in game text. (Edit: And that players including me have asked for the text editor to get replaced with something more capable.)

Edited February 4 by Rudra

[VinceBlood]

It's my day job to argue what is and isn't a bug, lol.

 

But fair!  Wish it could be alleviated somehow.

[VinceBlood]

2 hours ago, Rudra said:

it shows the count including the full command entries; which can seem like artificial increases in character count.

 

I actually want to come back to this:

 

I can write up a full bio and save it.  Then, I can open the character info window again and the character count goes up without changing anything.  I can do this again and again until I pass 1023 characters and my bio starts getting cut off.

 

This isn't an artificial increase in character count.  It's an actual one as far as the game is concerned.  If that's doesn't meet the criteria of 'bug' then quite frankly, the criteria are wrong.  :P

[Rudra]

36 minutes ago, VinceBlood said:

I can do this again and again until I pass 1023 characters and my bio starts getting cut off.

Each time you open the editor, the count goes up, then you close it at the new count, re-open it and it goes up again ad infinitum? Then yeah, I sit corrected. That isn't the same thing as what I am used to.