Suggestions:Implemented/2

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Suggestions
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This is a page of implemented suggestions for Shartak. Please refrain from editing or deleting any of the information recorded here. There's the main page - Suggestions:Implemented - this is the second page of implemented suggestions.

If you would like to make new suggestions, see the Suggestions page.

Informational messages

You should be able to see what other people have done since your past turn. Much like the skill above, except for most actions that take place. Such as '[09:34]Joe used a medkit on Roger' or '[05:23]Dan Attacked a Boar and missed'. If this is implemented, there should be a menu that you can use to toggle certain bits of information, to reduce or stop spam. Durja 18:14, 6 February 2006 (GMT)

Comments

I don't want to see when people miss attacks, that's just too much information (unless it's me that they're attacking!) - Snarf
Would be useful to see when kills are made in the same location eg. Dan killed a boar or Joe killed Roger - Snarf
How about making a list of "informational messages" that might be required? - Snarf
  • PlayerX killed PlayerY.
  • PlayerX killed animal.
  • PlayerY died from eating some poisonous berries. (self-inflicted death)
  • Implemented to a certain degree, the first two anyway... if you kill yourself eating berries or from wounds then you just fade away quietly. --Simon 14:12, 27 March 2006 (BST)

Wiki Button

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Wifey 23:01, 2 June 2006 (BST) New Button Wikiphiles, players in general

So, uh... I don't know why but there's no button leading directly from the game ot the wiki. I just kind of noticed that difference between Shartak and UD. Kinda silly, no? I mean, as far as I can tell, the only place that a URL is given is on the FAQ (which I'm sure many don't read).

... Ok, yeah. I'm not really bothered that players need to read the FAQ to find the wiki. It'd be neat if there was a button on the game interface, though, like there is for News and Statistics.

Comments

  • There should be a button labelled "Help" on at least the main pages. This points to the wiki. It used to say Wiki but I figured people might not know what it was.. perhaps I should change it back so that people think "what's a wiki?" and click it.. --Simon 23:52, 2 June 2006 (BST)
    • Oh. Well that's silly of me. Ok then. Your call, entirely. I'll leave this here so that people can give an opinion on whether it should be "Help" or "Wiki," I suppose.--Wifey 00:23, 3 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Wiki", for Simon's reason. --Tycho44 06:46, 8 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Help", since new users (who need help the most) will be even less likely to know what a wiki is. — Elembis (talk) 10:07, 9 June 2006 (BST)
      • "Help/Wiki", as a compromise :) --Simon 12:14, 9 June 2006 (BST)

Rename tamdal Tack "Tak"

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 12:58, 9 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic One NPC trader, Tack

All native NPC and camp names but this one use a "k" for the k sound instead of "ck" (e.g., "Dalpok", "Raktam", "Wiksik", "Jakota", "Movak", "Tik", etc.). Thus, for consistency, "Tack" should become "Tak". (Also, I think "Toe" looks more native and less anglicized as "Toh", but that's a minor point in comparison.)

Comments

  • Good point. Tamdal Tak is it. Not sure about Toe/Toh. --Simon 01:08, 11 June 2006 (BST)
  • Yeah, I don't like "Toh" either now, so scrap that. Thanks for renaming Tak. — Elembis (talk) 05:31, 11 June 2006 (BST)

Make "healing herbs" singular

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 23:49, 10 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic One item's name

"Some healing herbs" is vague, and "one bundle of healing herbs" is too long. I recommend that the name be "healing herb", as in "one healing herb", "two healing herbs", and so on, just like "one first aid kit", etc.

Comments

  • Yes, this sounds ok to me. Done. --Simon 01:09, 11 June 2006 (BST)

Capitalize skill names consistently

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 20:54, 11 June 2006 (BST) Cosmetic Skill names

Most skills, like Basic Tracking, are capitalized fully in-game, but some, like Body building, are not. If the first word in a skill is always capitalized ("You have Body building..."), why shouldn't subsequent words be capitalized, too? Skill capitalization should at least be consistent, and I recommend that consistency be attained by capitalizing the few not-fully-capitalized skills (which also include Native knowledge, Ghostly whisper, and a couple others).

Comments
Agreed. Cosmetic, but consistency is useful (especially when working with greasemonkey scripts or the wiki). --Tycho44 21:30, 16 June 2006 (BST)

  • Sorted, except after some discussion, I went the opposite way to the above - Body building was already right, Advanced tracking is now right. --Simon 21:51, 16 June 2006 (BST)

Use UTC for server times

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 16:43, 19 June 2006 (BST) Time zone standardization Timestamps

UTC (a.k.a. "Greenwich Mean Time"), the worldwide standard, is the time zone people are most accustomed to converting times to and from. In comparison, British Standard Time (BST), which is currently used, moves the clock ahead of UTC by one hour in March and keeps it that way until October. UTC is better for wiki timestamps (since a later time will always correspond to a later edit) and gives anyone converting a timestamp only one DST ("Daylight Saving Time") setting to take into account: their own.

Comments
If this is for the wiki itself, you can change your timezone in the preferences. --Simon 21:20, 19 June 2006 (BST)

Wiki default timezone updated to UTC. In-game events are actually in GMT. --Simon 20:56, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Simon and I found that BST was the default time zone for wiki users as well as the time zone used for death times. Both of those are fixed now, and according to Simon the only part of the game that still uses BST is the "Been on the island since" field, which doesn't really need to be accurate to the hour. — Elembis (talk) 02:28, 20 June 2006 (UTC)


Timestamp the Shartak Interface

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Tycho44 22:52, 19 June 2006 (UTC) Interface improvement all

Put a small timestamp on the main Shartak interface screen, in addition to the current timestamping of messages, game events, last death, and so on. This would be a huge improvement for screenshots -- for example, tagging up checkpoints in marathon races or swims, capture-the-flag and other in-game games, verifying PKs, RP meeting attendance, etc. In addition, the timestamp would help those of us who don't use GMT to figure out the delta on game event messages. You could put the timestamp in the stats bar, or above or below the map, or above or below location description, or

Possible Actions: (22:52, 19 June 2006 (UTC))

... almost anywhere on the interface screen really. Trivial to implement and a major benefit for some of the roleplaying.

Comments
Done. Simon put this just below the HP/XP/AP/Gold text in a <div> tag that the game's CSS hides by default. You can see the server's time by editing your profile and checking "Include the server time on the main page?". — Elembis (talk) 02:28, 20 June 2006 (UTC)


Moving through fully chopped down or overgrown jungle

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Xintlaer 22:15, 1 June 2006 (BST) Movement change Every character in the game

I sugget a change in the movement mechanics. It may not be approved by you, but I think it's logical. I wouls like to see a change that allows to reduce movement on fully chopped (d0) squares of jungle (I think that a reduction to 0,5 AP/move (0,25 AP/move with Trekking skill), and an increase on (I think) squares ranging from d7 to d9 to 2 AP/move (1 AP/move with Trekking). D10 squares stay impossible to pass, until chopped. The logic says that when you have nothing under your feet except for ground you move faster, and in dense growth areas you walk slower. Such a change as I proposed may also need an adjustment in the jungle growth speed.

Comments

  • I like this, except the part about the trekking skill giving the ability to move 4 d(0) squares in one AP, that should definitely not be done. Maybe this: trekking should only apply to d(1) and up (the skill description says "faster movement through the jungle" anyway), and on d(0), all characters, whether trekking or not, should expend 0.5 AP to move onto another d(0) square. (note that if both of those changes are made it would not harm trekking-people, their AP-usage would be same as it is now.) One benefit of lowering movement cost on d(0) squares as far as game dynamics is concerned, is that it would make roads, the upkeep of roads, and the upkeep of towns (keeping towns free of jungle overgrowth), actually meaningful in a practical sense, by allowing for quicker travel. Arminius 22:41, 1 June 2006 (BST)
    • Exactly what I was going to say, Arminius. Trekking on a road would be absolutely incredible... so we just don't give trekkers any added bonus there.--Wifey 23:52, 1 June 2006 (BST)
      • Understood, agreed, changing--Xintlaer 09:13, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • 0.5 AP per square on roads (still 0.5 AP with Trekking). 2 AP per square on heavy jungle (1 AP with Trekking). Creates tangible effect for the Highway Society - Preservation Front conflicts. An absolutely brilliant suggestion. --Tycho44 10:06, 2 June 2006 (BST)
  • Nice idea. Tap tap tap.. try that.. I think it should be pretty much what you've said. --Simon 19:40, 2 June 2006 (BST)
Anyone agree that this has now been implemented and as such can be moved to Suggestions:Implemented ? --Simon 12:15, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Moved from Suggestions:Game mechanics at 08:00, 20 July 2006 (UTC) by Elembis.


Trading Hut Prices That Reward Foreign Travel

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Tycho44 01:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC) trading hut item pricing change trading hut item prices

Problem: the Trading Huts reward characters who sit at home, and penalize characters who travel to foreign encampments. It is well-established that a character can earn 36+ gold coins per day by sitting at home and dumping at the local trader. Since camps are several days journey apart, foreign camps have to promise +72 gold coins of extra profit -- not just trade value, but trade value over and above the trade value in the local trading hut.

Not viable: Changing the First-Aid Kit find rate in the Medical Hut is not a solution. Local dumping can be performed from the Medical Hut, the Ammo Hut, the Treasure Hold, a Mango Tree, or even by recycling the Trader's inventory. Reducing particular find rates will harm the game in various ways, but will never improve the desirability of foreign travel. (Unless certain desired items are not locally available at all, such as GPS Units, Gems, Charms, the Heavy Sword, and so on.)

Not viable: Tweaking short-stock and long-stock pricing is not a solution. Stock-based pricing makes foreign travel vastly more risky and undesirable -- characters are encouraged to stay at their home camp and take advantage of known shortages, rather than risk carting stock overland for days to a foreign camp, only to have a single character dump enough to destroy the demand-inventory. And in order to obtain profit levels that would justify a two-day journey, demand prices would have to be absolutely ridiculous -- surely 10 or 20 times the normal pricing.

Solution: Prices in the Trading Hut should reward you based upon the distance you've traveled. By directly addressing the issue, the solution is guaranteed to work. Here's how it happens:

(1) Characters who are new to a foreign Trading Hut receive a very beneficial exchange rate, perhaps for a full day or so. "How exciting! It's not often that I see a new face around here. Do you have any items that you'd like to trade?"

(2) After a character has spent several days in the same Trading Hut, even in a foreign camp, the local trader becomes bored, and the trade rate returns to normal. This encourages the trading character to move on. "You're becoming a familiar sight around here. Haven't I already seen what you have to offer?"

(3) Characters who farm the Medical Hut in their home encampment and repeatedly dump items to their own trader receive the poorest exchange rate. "You do realize that there's an entire island out there to explore, don't you?"

This entire process could be implemented using a single hidden character flag, that contains a time-stamp and a camp name. Whenever the character interacts with a different Trader (in a new camp), the flag updates. If the player is newly interacting with a foreign trader (timestamp <24 hours old), the trade rate is Favorable. If the player is interacting long-term with the same foreign trader (timestamp >24 hours) or is newly interacting with their home camp (timestamp <24 hours), the trade rate is Normal. If the player is interacting repeatedly with their home trader (timestamp >24 hours), the rate is Unfavorable.

Although these favorable/unfavorable trade values might not be sufficient to make travelers wealthy, at least implementing this suggestion will encourage travel and reward greater interaction in Shartak.

Note that this suggestion could be stacked on top of the current long/short and language-based pricing systems. Or this suggestion could fully replace the long/short pricing rules.

Comments
I quite like this idea. Farming behavior is not much fun for anyone, and games that encourage it can suffer in popularity simply because the best course of action for the character is the most boring one for the player. Also, since player interaction is the whole point of multiplayer games, all antisocial behavior should perhaps be discouraged and should certainly not be profitable. We can always use more active (and interacting) players. — Elembis (talk) 05:14, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree. It gives you a reason to, you know... Move? It would really liven the game up a bit. MorkaisChosen 18:51, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Happily, this suggestion seems to have been implemented. Shouldn't it be moved to the implemented suggestions page? Black Joe 7:35, 20 July 2006 (GMT)

Moved from Suggestions:Game mechanics at 08:00, 20 July 2006 (UTC) by Elembis.


Sharks bite bleeding players more

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Elembis 03:28, 8 August 2006 (UTC) Animal mechanics Shark bites

At the moment it's best for a shark-bitten player to wait several moves before healing their wound so that they have a chance of healing multiple wounds with the same expensive healing item. (This is especially true for players with natural medicine or first aid, since they cause herbs or kits to heal 10 HP instead of 5.) This is clearly unrealistic — swimming through shark infested water with a bleeding wound is an extremely poor idea in real life — so I say sharks should bite bleeding players more frequently, perhaps even every time they move to deep water.

Comments

  • This has always been the case, however I've just tweaked how much bleeding affects the chances of being bitten so it should be somewhat more obvious now. Consider this implemented. --Simon 23:35, 8 August 2006 (UTC)