Possible Feature: Travel Tokens

AlmightyTDawg · Post by **AlmightyTDawg** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:29 am

The following is the framework of an idea for monitoring an individual PC's travel habits, and making a reasonable snapshot of that (previous week, roughly) available to DMs at a glance.

The idea being that a DM can make personal decisions about whether ot not to include a player in a plot or allow/deny validation based on the information given there. This might allow more flexible server travel (for infrequent players) or prevent DM "hogging" even when such actions involve no-validation/walking from DM event to DM event. Some basic guidelines for interpreting a player's travel pattern should be made available as part of DM training and refernce materials.

Basic Premise:
- Server Travel (acquisition of travel visa from server A to server B) or Validation from Quarantine (acquisition of normalized visa) generates a "Travel Token"
- Travel Token is a minimal size (1 inventory space), plot, no-drop, 0-weight (10% WR) item which embeds travel server and time information in a known format on a persistent local variable on the item. This could include both departure and arrival time (Server Travel) or arrival time and validating DM (Validation)
- The act of generating a Travel Token removes all other tokens with arrival date/time in excess of one week from the time at script execution
- A DM Wand function/script reveals to the DM all Travel Token information (specifying server and timestamps) for a particular PC in chronological order if possible.

Other Requirements:
- Travel Tokens must have a tag or resref that makes their identification universally possible, so DMs do not have to hunt through inventory and backpacks to find Tokens
- Some system may need to be devised to handle characters with full inventories to ensure they acquire the Travel Token on successful validation.

Maybe some other things I haven't considered, thoughts?

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:49 pm

I think we are already storing some variables on PC creature skins. This might be better than adding a non-usable item to the PC inventory.

While we're at it, can we cache the XP on the PC at each point to track the leveling rate over the past week?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:21 pm

I think they're all good ideas. I'll add them to the travel system spec. We may start off with using creature skins but I could easily see this as one of those things we might want to run reports on externally, say for PA review. If a DB option ever presents itself, I think that would be the way to go.

AlmightyTDawg · Post by **AlmightyTDawg** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:30 pm

Good call both Fionn and Cipher. I guess variables on the C-skin are stronger, as there've been many reports of server-side scripts possibly doing funky things with items, and you solve the overloading of inventory slots problem. The ability to query externally in a centralized system would be incredibly convenient in dispelling or confirming rumors... almost gives me hope for a centralized log repository too.

HDB · Post by **HDB** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 4:32 pm

Anything we can impliment on each PC that would give them the breadth and depth a PnP DM might have to play with, understanding PC history, character development, current playability and needs, is a boon in my opinion.
IG usage and life expectancy is the largest heat score for spam on new ACR ideas, perhaps this is an area to adhere to a travel logging log.
I as a DM would want it....even perhaps a PC item for DMs played under, oh how our cross-server plots would grow.

.,........................HDB.

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:42 pm

I probably should have posted this earlier, but please don't spell out the framework or technical details of a system you'd like to see at the same time you define the specifications. Typically the specs are laid out first, since as systems and ideas keep being added, the implementations can change (especially since nwscript isn't object-oriented).

Its easier for the coders if you just tell us what you'd like see, and let us worry about the rest. Or if you plan on coding it yourself and don't have a ton of experience, only write out the specs and let the more experienced people help you decide on a framework compatible with the rest of the core scripts.

In my mind, physical inventory tokens are only usefull for situations where a DM should be able to add or remove them, and its not worthwhile to construct a tool to do so.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Mon May 01, 2006 2:01 pm

Creating tokens that can be DM removed undermines the purpose. We all know there are DM pets out there and if there can be any questions over the accuracy of the tokens being displayed to a fellow DM then the system is useless. As a DM I'd like to be able to view a players travel habits the past month but the reality is that most server hoppers are well-known already and will generate much grief for anyone who singles them out. A report that cannot be altered would at least allow for solid evidence that cannot be debated as hearsay and witch-hunting. The concept is solid and I support it if the rules and guidelines that need to go with it are in-line and clear.

Kate

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:23 pm

"cannot be *easily* altered"

If it's stored on the PC, I can edit it, though it may take some scripting.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:31 pm

Perhaps I misunderstood but the tokens are DM removable inventory items, no? It's no good if we all know another DM can clean up a pet before they set off. If the tokens could expire and be used up based on a number of days (30?) and are not removable otherwise you have yourself a system that can be trusted short of a rebuild.

Kate

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:45 pm

The original post was made under some misconceptions of how persistant variables can be stored on PCs. Tokens wouldn't be used for this in any case, so the point is moot.

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:47 pm

If scripts write the log to the PC in any manner, then all I need is access to the PC and a script to alter. If scripts write the logs to a central DB, then I need access to that central DB. In other words, if you are concerned about DMs 'cleaning up their pets', using creature skins just makes it more difficult, not hard.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Mon May 01, 2006 4:25 pm

Ronan wrote:The original post was made under some misconceptions of how persistant variables can be stored on PCs. Tokens wouldn't be used for this in any case, so the point is moot.

Ah. Gotcha. Makes more sense now. I like it.

Kate

HDB · Post by **HDB** » Thu May 04, 2006 6:22 pm

I'm more interested in a PC item that does( just rattled out):
-Tracks server attendance
-Recent DMs who've DMed them, atleast once(XP could do that without the amount)
-ALFA PC/NPC factions they've played with
-PCs they've CvCed
-Diseases they've had
-Major alignment shifts/acts marked by diety
..........................etc.

Main idea is to impower DMs to weave plot, over the server hopping. Bio posts are tedious and local DMs would find these user friendly.

.................................HDB.

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Thu May 04, 2006 6:38 pm

This pretty much requires every DM/Player who interacts to overtly post to [DB log]. We can hook off the XP/DM wands, but if DMs don't use these we've no way to check afaik.

I suppose we could hook into RemoveDisease spell/items to track that part, but AFAIK, most of them get cured on server reset so....

Lethal CvC might be possible to track, but for things like spreading rumors, etc, there's no real way to tell via scripts.

The easiest solution IMO would be a central DB to store the bics in that also has a DM Notes table accessible (and updatable) from the DM wand. We can note XP awards by DM(if the XP wand is used), alignment shifts by DM(if the DM wand is used), and general notes.