TriadCity Message of the Day
2005-05-10
The first of TriadCity's new-style
social commands
are online.
"New-style" means that the command no longer supplies a qualifying adverb which
determines the way people see its result. Instead, you can supply your own, or omit one
altogether if you prefer.
Example. The old-style social command
Applaud
provides the modifying adverb "sarcastically". You're stuck with that sarcasm. If you want
to applaud "enthusiastically", you can't. New-style socials allow you to provide one word (just
one) which will take the place of that formerly hardwired adverb.
Note that it's up to you to do this in ways that are grammatically sensible. While you can
"kiss evie happily", you can also "kiss evie paintbrushes". Note also that you're
able to supply just one modifier. If you "kiss evie without emotion", the outcome of the
command will be the same as if you'd typed "kiss evie without".
We're not sure whether these new-style socials will be kept or not; or whether the old ones will be
converted to the new format; or what all. Let's all keep an eye on how people choose to use them, and
then decide. If the City becomes overrun with twelve-year-old players who love TC because they can
"kiss evie poopiehead", then we'll bag the new approach and go back to the old one.
Note finally that new-style socials are far more difficult to implement. Here's an example. That
Applaud command we were talking about can trigger experience awards for characters such as
Comedians. Laughter and Guffaws trigger more experience than sarcastic Applause. Now, if Applause is
no longer automatically sarcastic, how to calculate the spiff? Is it more if someone Applauds
"wildly" or "thunderously"? Less if they Applaud "unenthusiastically"?
How does the code sort out the meaning of the
modifying term? Or should it not try? The majority of TriadCity's commands are embedded in these
kinds of cause-and-effect relationships. This makes it tougher to write new ones, and quite
troublesome to convert the old.
The new socials are
Kiss,
Wriggle,
Stroke,
Gaze and
Squirm,
each of which makes us imagine that they were probably not requested by twelve-year-olds.
Back to the MOTD index.
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