Category  Rangers -- The Ranger's Glade (19)
Topic     Ranger Signaling (11)
Message   No subject (338)
By        DR-TREVERI@PLAY.NET
On        Jun 27, 1999 at 11:09

Tarragon is sick, so I'm by-passing the Laison thing to get this discussion
started. He'll probably pick it up when he gets back. I don't want anyone to
think I'm circumventing his position, that's why the qualification.

I have been playing with the Ranger Sign system. In fact, it is working just
like what we've been discussing here...now...in our development area. :)

Please remember as you read this, that something like this is very
complicated to do, and still keep the resource demand down...so there are
limitations.

Also please remember, from the beginning Ranger Signals were intended to be
an RP tool with as much benefit as possible. By that I mean its primary focus
is Role Playing...side benfits like communicating to rangers in adjoining
rooms is a bonus. Being able to communicate some words without others
understanding them is a bonus.

Anyway, the way it currently works is this; let's say for example that I
sign, GO NORTHEST.

As a result: I see, (I haven't decided, I'm leaving that up to you.) Rangers
see, "Treveri signs, "Go Northeast." Non-Rangers see, "Treveri waves his hand
forward and points northeast."

Here's the limitations:

A) We are limited to a 9 word string. That does not mean we're limited to 9
words, it means, you can only sign up to 9 words at a time.

B) Only Rangers in the adjoining rooms will see the signs. Non-Rangers in the
adjoining rooms will not be able to see the signs.

C) I can make certain words RANGER ONLY understood, but that is across the
board...the idea I had that non-Rangers could eventually learn more and more
of the sign language just isn't feasable right now...at least not right now
and get signaling out anytime soon.

In other words, I can come up with words like TOLLE so you can reference a
Guild Leader, and only rangers will understand the sign, all non-Rangers will
see some sign they don't understand.

D) You can still SIGNAL your companions, but you have to completley type
SIGNAL...otherwise the system thinks you're trying to sign.

E) For speed (and this system is a "resource hog"), you have to type your
words completely and spell each correctly)...in order to not bog down the
system, I have to do an exact word match.

F) Words like "of, to, the, is" are not supported. Just verbs and nouns. I
don't even see adjectives being supported.

G) We are going to have to limit, at least in the first phase, the number of
words SIGN will recognize to around 100...then I'll see how long it is taking
the system to execute from there.

H) In order to protect the integrity (sp) of the mazes, signs either will not
work there, or they will not work in situations where the eastern room does
not connect back through its western connection.

A decision you guys need to make, and I'm leaving it up to you, is what you
yourselves see when you sign...do you want to see the words, or do you want
to see the signs.

Another decision you need to make is, do you want the rangers in the
adjoining room to see the words, or the signs. Before you answer that think
about it...it's better role playing to see the signs at a distance and have
to figure them out...but that makes it a pain in the butt too.

In fact, if we wanted, we could do it so that NO RANGER understand the
signals, and all the Ranger sees is the signs, and not the words. But before
you go there, understand, that it *IS* fun to be able to sign "three", which
and all the non-Rangers see, "Treveri holds up three fingers." or to sign
"Stop" and non-rangers see "Treveri holds up his palm."

Finally we need to decide if we want to duplicate word usage. For
example...LOOK and SEE could both use "points to his eyes"...this makes the
language more cryptic in some cases, but IMO makes it a little more fun,
because its a little harder to learn. It also allows us to increase the
number of words we can have since its not actually the number of words that
are the limiting factor, but the word slots. If you decide the Rangers see
the words and not the signs, the rangers would still see LOOK and SEE
distinguished, as that's just a transfer of the actual word.

So there we are...the system is done, the choices I need you to make are
minor changes from my side regardless of what you decide because the
limitations aren't just an issue, they are a fact, and both the worded
response, and the signed response are already created...that's just a matter
of who sees what.

Let's get the conversation going here and we can probably get this out in the
next week or so.

And please, before anyone starts jumping down my throat about me working on
this when there are other issues...I have an A/DSL line. The phone company
has been having problems with it since THursday and I get disconnected for an
hour or so from time to time...signing was something I could work on offline,
where the other systems required I be able to access the databases in the
game.

Trev