Conceal and Fasten(?)

[zetsuke]

So, I'm interested in finding out what players think of these ideas, as well as how feasible they are code-wise.

I'd like to be able to add a flag to some head items that would allow players to use the "conceal" command to cover their face with the object (hat or something similar).
Being "concealed" would dispaly some message like "a <man/woman> wearing <object short> is <position> here"


Fasten (maybe have 'full' and 'upper' flags for this): Players could fasten their <about body> item to conceal what they're wearing. Full would obviously be full, except maybe for feet and head/face. Upper would be for things that would only cover body, hands/arms,.....things on the upper body....and again, not head/face.



I think these would both be pretty cool, but maybe that's just me

[Ichiro]

This sounds really cool, I just wonder a couple of things:


How would this affect targeting people in the arena?

And would you still see their description and whatnot if they were concealed and/or fastened?

[zetsuke]

I was thinking that people would still be viewable by the normal means (i.e. their name), but their description would be hidden if they were concealed.

[Hazamishi]

Sounds awesome. I play another MUD that has something like that, they also have a greet/dub system there too. It's basically just armor that covers and you have someone 'restring' it for you so you're disguised as something else.

[Gatz]

I really like this idea in concept. I just worry how it'll pan out in practice. I guess this is the fine line we try to walk with realism. On the one hand, this would become a lot more realistic and add an element of surprise, but on the other it would be a little frustrating or cumbersome.

I've seen the introduce type system in game before and it made the game very annoying. The only cool thing about it was you could give people nicknames and use them to identify them, that part I liked. However, I think it could suck if you see:

"A person wearing a falcon mask over their face."
Then you do "look person" and get a "They are not here" type message.

So, then you'd need to put in a way to always identify someone even if they conceal their face, maybe connect it to an ability like...scent? However, then maybe add the ability to conceal your scent and we're back to where we started.

So, I really like this idea, but I think some specifics needed to be hashed out first. My big question mark would be if NPCs are affected by this system too. If so, it could be kind of dramatic to have an NPC remove their mask and then -bam- it is NPC X! However, it could pan out as being not worth it in the end.

I guess the worth of all this is what is the reason to use it? Does it really net enough benefits to warrant a player using it?

[zetsuke]

I agree that it could potentially be frustrating or cumbersome. I've definitely played some places before where you had to be introduced to someone in before you could know who they were (the most annoying is when you can't even recognize them over OOC without an introduction), and I don't think that's the way to go.

I suppose the way to address the not being able to look a person by name is to automatically assign them a gender tag that could be looked at, much like how Henge changes the keywords to look at someone, only this would just add a word on. Perhaps allow players to tag on an adjective which would also be a keyword? Then if you had two players concealed, you might have something like:
"A tall man concealed by a reed-woven hat"
"A dumpy man concealed by a reed-woven hat"

As for identifying someone....I suggest either having a skill or high-ish level ability that would give you a chance to bypass a person's conceal.

As for player benefit: I think this would just be a really cool thing to have right now, but if PK did ever come about, this could be an incredibly useful thing for anyone who wanted to remain unnoticed and just sorta move about with less worry than if they were just flaunting who they were.

NPC's: Absolutely. I'd love the ability to "hide" a mob like that.