[crossfire] Proposal for better in-game information: client-side "player books"

[Mark Wedel]

Raphaël Quinet wrote:

> * A player who has collected a lot of information could get additional
>   "player books" (binders) to organize this information.  Another idea
>   would be that each player starts with predefined binders, one for
>   each type of information: one for monsters, one for religions, one
>   for alchemy (or each sub-type: smithery, woodsman, ...) and so on.

  What is the actual effect of the books in this case?

  My personal thought is that we are trying to make the information 
presentable/easy to find for the player, as well as provide a record for it so 
they don't have to do it themselves.

  Because of that, the information should always be presented in the easiest way 
we can reasonably to do - I shouldn't have to need to pick up a new book to 
record information on that subject or be able to see it organized in a handy 
fashion.  Otherwise, players will either not get that information well 
organized, or just keep recording it outside the game/client interface, which is 
annoying.

(also, given that the client will present this information to the player, to 
only way you could make this information less useful is if the server doesn't 
provide all the needed info so that the client can't organize it, otherwise, 
players will just modify the client to do the right thing anyways)


> * Although the players would never drop any pages from their binder
>   (unbinding pages would be impossible), those who have the writing
>   skill (pen) and sufficient experience could copy the information
>   into new scrolls or books and re-sell the result.

  I'd think in this case, re-sell would be to other players, and not necessarily 
shops - having shops try to figure value of such information could be hard.

> 
> * As an added twist, the information copied from the books might not
>   always be accurate.  Depending on the player's writing experience
>   compared to the number of pages of the book from which the data is
>   copied, some errors could be introduced at random.  In the copy, the
>   description of an Ogre could be mixed with that of an Orc, for
>   example. Or even worse: mixing up some spells and creating an
>   incorrect copy that would result in a mana explosion when used.  The
>   player would not even know that she is selling or giving away some
>   garbled information.

  The easiest thing for written information (I think) is to take bits of pieces 
from different entries.

  For example, for monsters, you'd probably have something like:
attacks (what it attacks with - spells, etc)
defenses (protections, other immunities)
difficulty (hp/ac/level)
other notes

  So you go and transcribe information about ogres for a friendly player, 
because he is having a hard time fighting them.

  So the server does your inscription check, and you fail, but not by a lot.  So 
one of those 4 pieces of information is incorrect.  Lets say defenses in this case.

  Rather than having the server try to figure out how to modify it (change 
resistance to vulnerability, which ones, etc), it just grabs one at random from 
another monster.  Maybe devil instead.

  Easiest would be to take a random one from the character book - if he doesn't 
have anything, then maybe something from all creatures.

 > These writing errors and their side-effects may not be easy to
 > implement: if the server keeps track of what each player knows (maybe
 > using a list of <type><id><part> for each character as described in my
 > first message) then we have to find a way to allow these errors.  The
 > server must remember what kind of erroneous information the player
 > has.  It must also allow the player who got some incorrect information
 > to replace it by a correct version if it is found somewhere.  But on
 > the other hand, the player who wrote it should not be able to tell the
 > difference (otherwise it would be trivial to check it by trying to
 > read what has just been written).  This is a bit tricky...

  True - OTOH, it may not be unreasonable for the inscribing player to read what 
he wrote and see if it is incorrect.  In a sense, this isn't really much 
different than proofreading something you write now.

  If inscribing actually takes some real time (lets say 10 real seconds), a 
player may decide he doesn't want to keep writing to get a perfect copy.  And of 
course, you need blank paper, etc (another question is what does he do with 
these incorrect copies?  Maybe the shop will buy them for a few silver, so a 
player seeing them in the shop doesn't have any idea that they are wrong.

  Maybe things like inkwells should be added, to add some real cost beyond just 
the paper and time to inscribe.

  In terms of correct errors, that is more difficult.  In theory, the character 
won't really know what information is correct and what is wrong.

  On possibility is to allow both pieces of information to be recorded, and put 
up a note to the player saying 'conflicting information found, do you want to 
add it' or something.  Then have some ability for information to be removed by 
the player, so after finding enough notes (or talking with other players) may be 
able to figure out what is the correct info and what isn't.

  I think it was discussed that the player should be able to add their own 
notes, so this logic is just a minor extention.