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Other => FOnline:2238 Forum => Archives => Suggestions => Topic started by: Eternauta on February 16, 2013, 10:11:17 am
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As some of you might already know, this idea has been suggested already. I found at least two threads about the same thing but none of them went into much detail. I personally came up with all I'll type here thanks to a comment by Marko (http://fodev.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=9347) while we were chatting.
General concept
(http://www.falloutwiki.com/images/6/6a/Note_from_Francis.gif)
Basically the idea is to add a new item to the game, Paper, that has some of the characteristics found in the already existing Holodisk (http://fo2238.fodev.net/wiki/Holodisks). A player can use Paper to write down a short message, then leave the note on the ground, in a container, etc.
How would the Paper item work?
Writing down a note: exactly the same way we put messages into Holotapes - use Science on the Paper, a window pops up and you can type your message and select a title for it.
Reading a note: a player is able to read the note written on the paper by "examinating" it. The message will be displayed in the item's description area of the Inventory window. This exactly how the player could read the Note from Francis (http://www.falloutwiki.com/Note_from_Francis) found in Broken Hills, in Fallout 2. The fact that the note appears in the item's description will make it necessary for the text to be really short (also a maximum number of characters should be added).
(http://oi45.tinypic.com/rkoupz.jpg)
By the way, the note should not automatically add the name of the character that wrote the message, which should be anonymous instead (that is, unless the one who writes wants to include thier name in the message itself) because this way we would have more possibilities (for RP purposes, for example).
What about rewriting? I personally think rewriting a Paper should not be possible, that the work needed for that is not worth it, because the item could work perfectly without this option. If a person wants a note destroyed, it can be simply thrown into the fire thanks to the last update.
Obtaining Paper
Paper should imho not be too difficult to come by, but at the same time there should be some sort of limitation. I thought about the following ways of getting paper, which doesn't mean that I think only one of them should be implemented. I don't think it would hurt to have all these options:
1. Buying Paper from NPCs, via dialogue and with a fixed price in caps, just like Holotapes are bought. The price should be lower than that of Holotapes and there should be a cooldown on it, just like with Holotapes.
Maybe the cooldown for buying Paper should vary from town to town: so towns that are rather "rural" (Klamath, The Den, Modoc, Redding, Gecko, Junktown) would sell Paper at a lower rate than bigger cities (Vault City, Shady Sands, Necropolis, The Hub, Adytum, San Francisco, New Reno), because the latter are build on much larger Pre-War settlements and/or would make use of a larger amount of paper (State bureaucracy, Caravan/Brahmin business, etc). If implementing different cooldowns is complicated, maybe a difference in prices should do (cheaper in bigger cities, more expensive in smaller towns).
2. Spawning randomly in some traders' inventory, just like it happens with Holotapes, which can be bought at a lower price this way. The same could happen with Paper.
3. Crafting it, maybe with any of the already existing book items, and 1 piece of Chemical Components, to erase their text. Would make books useful for something.
Why should Paper be implemented?
To make it possible to leave notes for our friends in bases, shared tents, etc, in an immersive way that would make players communicate with each other at least a little bit more through the very game and not via IRC or voice-comm. These messages would not add to the character's Archives, so it would be very confortable to read them without worrying about "spamming" our Pip-Boys.
As it was mentioned before, there was already a note item in Fallout 2 that worked this way (using item description to read), so this would be totally faithful to the original games. Also, the fact that the message appears in the Inventory window forces the text to be really short - this is one of the details that makes Paper different from Holotape, which would still have an advantage.
Being able to leave notes on paper would open new possibilities for player-driven events (because it helps, as said, with in-game communication between players) and even for Role Play (because of its immersive nature).
[EDITED] Pen & Paper idea
In general i'd support this idea. It's one of those little "tweaks" that are'nt really necessary but do add some more immersion into the game. Btw, what about pens? You can write/rewrite holodiscs just by plugging them into your PipBoy...makes sense. But paper?! Wouldn't you need some sort of pen/ink for it?
I am not sure it'd be a good thing to need a pen. Let's think about Cigarettes, you need a lighter for them, but Cigs are a drug used by pvp builds and which can be crafted easily, quickly and in good amounts, so the lighter is a limit to it. Paper however should be a tool to leave a message and it should be easy to use, otherwise forum PMs would be even better than this ingame idea.
Yes, i agree, that i should be easy to use, without the need of extra tools. Maybe the item itself could be called "pen & paper" then, instead of just "a piece of paper" (or "a leaf of paper" :) ).
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Only place where you can store string in item for client is limited to around 120 characters.
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Excuse me, Wipe, I am not sure if this is a problem with my English or with the fact that I don't know shit about coding, but I honestly don't understand what your reply means. Are you saying there is something in the engine that makes it impossible to develop this system?
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Excuse me, Wipe, I am not sure if this is a problem with my English or with the fact that I don't know shit about coding, but I honestly don't understand what your reply means. Are you saying there is something in the engine that makes it impossible to develop this system?
I think he said that there can only be 120 letters written on an item(holodisk).
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I'm just saying what the maximum length of text will be, without writing dedicated workaround just for this :)
Anyway, such thing is mostly implemented - GMs already are able to override item description in various ways (replace short description, replace long description (this is the one interesting you), add text after original/replaced description). However, total length of these 3 cannot be longer that ~120 bytes/characters; that's bit little (https://i.imgur.com/NLfs3mk.jpg) for me [maybe in future limit will change in engine] but better than nothing.
To end this tech-babble: if you want to provide "blank paper" graphic too (not really needed, but i'd like to have it, so blank and used paper won't be mixed for player), or remind me if it's already somewhere in .dats/.zips, it shouldn't take long (if i won't forget about whole thing, that is :P).
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if you want to provide "blank paper" graphic too (not really needed, but i'd like to have it, so blank and used paper won't be mixed for player), or remind me if it's already somewhere in .dats/.zips, it shouldn't take long (if i won't forget about whole thing, that is :P).
Thanks a lot for your consideration. I have made this, hope it doesn't suck so much:
(http://oi48.tinypic.com/2uo6sfc.jpg)
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It doesn't suck at all, but I can't recognize whether this is a blank paper or a written paper. People should be able to see it from its graphics same like for example empty/full bottle.
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Some simple graphics for paper png format but as you know Fonline can use that too in case it should be frm that could be done too though there is a little quality loss in that case.
Empty paper: Written paper:
(https://i.imgur.com/y2GVlhT.png) (https://i.imgur.com/yfwwHxT.png)
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Doesn't need to be frm, but the color palette should apply as good as possible, to keep the graphics in line with the original ones.
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i think this would be better (http://www.fo2238.fodev.net/wiki/images/0/0b/FO2_Slag_Message.gif) (https://i.imgur.com/YUmlhOd.gif)
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I kinda like both versions :)
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Holotapes have a 2000 character limit (long description). Could you copy that item but give it a note paper skin, then make it Append-Only with no delete?
This could be used in many ways. Leave a crafting order for your repair guy. He reads it, fills the order, then adds text to the note saying "Done. -Crafter1" or whatever.
Append until 2k limit is reached, then note is done.
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I love this idea, it could lead to alot of Role Play which I love.
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Holotapes
Holotapes uses hardcoded stuff to store/retrieve text etc.
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Would be nice if the players were forced to leave their names on the notes as well.
Example:
"blablablalbalblablalbal
balblablalblablalbalbal
balbalblal.
-Player."
The "-Player" part being added automatically, to avoid millions of random pieces of paper with the words "NIGGER!" and "FAGGOT!" spread across the map.
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It would remain possible to create an alt named nigger or faggot...
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The "-Player" part being added automatically, to avoid millions of random pieces of paper with the words "NIGGER!" and "FAGGOT!" spread across the map.
Do you see this happening with holodisks? I don't. That is a minor issue, limits creativity and some different uses for paper, and it is no different than someone saying those through speech. No need to limit something like that just because of a few immature players.
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Do you see this happening with holodisks? I don't. That is a minor issue, limits creativity and some different uses for paper, and it is no different than someone saying those through speech. No need to limit something like that just because of a few immature players.
This was exactly my thought when I talked about that in my original post.
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+1
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+1, good for gangs
(and base raper)
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racoon complaining about a lost weapon on IRC:
[17:40] <%racoon> this is so annoying. mayck STOLE my item and he didnt tell WHY, he doesnt reply me i tried talk with him like 50 times already
[17:40] <%[GE]Ben_Gorgon> Oh noez! GM Aboose!
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[17:41] <%racoon> he left some tape saying that weapon is confiscated and its already 2 weeks passed and i cant even contact with him
[17:41] <%racoon> he doesnt reply anywhere
[17:41] <%racoon> i just would like to know WHY is it taken
[17:42] <~[C88]Eternauta> racoon so now you got an archive in your pip boy that says "weapon is confiscated"?
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[17:42] <%racoon> yes, on place of weapon i found tape surrounded by 4 brahmin shits
[17:42] <%racoon> it says weapon is confiscated
[17:43] <%racoon> i doubt somebody would rape it because vindicator, bozars, gaussess pulse pistol, enviro armor etc are still there
[17:43] <~[C88]Eternauta> Damn, that paper system would be much more confortable :/ I'd rage everytime I saw that archive listed in my pip boy. A note however, you can throw into the campfire out of anger :D
Thought this quote was a good excuse to bump the thread.
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Severs l times I've been to a place trying to find a person so ican tell him something I need him to know. Hes not on the forum so I can't pm him here, and I have no idea what his sched is like. I like this cause I could leave him a note and get back to playing, not waste days sitting around a house he may or bluntly may NOT come back to.
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In general i'd support this idea. It's one of those little "tweaks" that are'nt really necessary but do add some more immersion into the game. Btw, what about pens? You can write/rewrite holodiscs just by plugging them into your PipBoy...makes sense. But paper?! Wouldn't you need some sort of pen/ink for it?
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I am not sure it'd be a good thing to need a pen. Let's think about Cigarettes, you need a lighter for them, but Cigs are a drug used by pvp builds and which can be crafted easily, quickly and in good amounts, so the lighter is a limit to it. Paper however should be a tool to leave a message and it should be easy to use, otherwise forum PMs would be even better than this ingame idea.
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Yes, i agree, that it should be easy to use, without the need of extra tools. Maybe the item itself could be called "pen & paper" then, instead of just "a piece of paper" (or "a leaf of paper" :) ).
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Pen&Paper idea sounds all right, yeah! Added to the original post :)