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Unread 10-19-2017, 06:59 AM
Interitus Interitus is offline
The Indomitable
 
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 11
Thanks for viewing my input as brain-storming (as it is intended), instead of demands (which it isn't), because I'm still figuring out what can and can't be done, and wouldn't make demands regardless. What I envisioned would have been more simple, and less useful.

At first I imagined EVERYTHING being based on matching text with the chat. However, if I understand correctly, that particular feature is a problem for internationalization, whereas the other 7 objectives on your list wouldn't be a problem.

Before realizing this, when I was thinking only about one language, I assumed puting an action into a button (such as an emote) would make things more simple. I figured the author could do the action, then paste the chat command for the action, and the resulting text into the authoring tool. I thought that way they could be 100% sure everything will work as planned.

However, if everything was like that, then everything would have to be done 3 times (logging out and on under a different language between each) in order to do everything in 3 languages. I see how that would become a lot of work.

I'm not sure if performing an emote is something a plugin can detect outside of "chat match". If it is, that's GREAT. Perhaps in a story they could sometimes have a 2 part objective. 1) get to a location (/loc) and 2) perform an emote (e.g. lookaround). I assume that way the two things would be easy for the plugin to pick up.

If emotes are only visable to a plugin based on "chat match", then perhaps that's okay too. There's a limited number of emotes, and a limited number of languages LOTRO supports. Even if the plugin doesn't translate the emote for writers, I'd be plenty happy to try every emote in every langage to make a chart. Then, I assume, writers could set a trigger for each language.

Perhaps emotes would be a nightmare to deal with though (this is what I'm beginning to suspect). In that case, the /loc button with different text (i.e. lookaround) would do the job by itself, and the writer could simply write the action into the story text. The biggest difference being the character doesn't make the emote movements. If the emote movements became important to players & writers, and the emote text was difficult to deal with, then I suppose a workaround would be to make the emote an action that isn't really required that they do before the action that completes the objective. I suspect most people simply wouldn't even notice it wasn't required.

One of the things I liked about the idea of using emotes (when I was thinking everything would have to be done by "chat match") was that it was another way of confirming a player reached a certain location. For example if they reach a specific NPC, then perform an emote to the NPC (such as /wave). The target's name comes up in a specific channel. However, if the plugin can detect who you have targeted, then that's even better.

The only other thing I can think of that MIGHT be considered as an addition to your list (besides emotes and/or target if they're possible and desired) is acquiring something in the barter wallet.

Personally, I would have been impressed by something super simple that put all the work on the writers, but I don't mind throwing out ideas as long as they're not viewed as demands. I don't know how hard it is to do one thing vs another, so something I might think is simple might be a nightmare in reality. I realize that.

I had forgotten ;loc and /loc did different things. ;loc gives coordinates in 2 dimensions that aren't very specific, so I thought it could be used to indicate that a person is generally in the right area, while not requiring them to be on an exact spot. Now I realize that /loc is much more specific. I assume there would be a way to allow a range for /loc, whether it would be by matching only the first 2 or 3 digits of each value, or by some other means.

I suspect at this point the best way for me to contribute would see if I could come up with a story to see if there's anything I hadn't considered that would be needed or desired by writers.
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