Although most of the following can be solved with aliases or reflexes, these QoL changes would make the game more intuitive for struggling new players.
1) SCAN INR would be an intuitive alias for MS SCAN INR.
2) SCAN RODENT as an alias for XENOZOOLOGY SCAN RODENT.
3) A shorter native alias for XENOZOOLOGY, something like XENO.
4) For engineers, let us directly CONSTRUCT <gadgetname/turret/botname>.
5) New keywords for loading and storing cargo: ALL, EVERYTHING, and cargo categories (RESOURCES|GASES|MINERALS|MATERIALS|SUPPLIES|JUNK). Examples: CARGO STORE ALL DIAMENE, CARGO LOAD ALL JUNK, CARGO LOAD EVERYTHING.
6) Simpler command for showing cargo: CARGO <ALL|SHIP|HERE>.
7) I wish showing ship cargo would also list empty cargo space.
8) Lifts, whew boy. They are slow and cumbersome to use, making me groan when WALK TO decides to use lifts. To speed them up (if appropriate), can each lift get a speed rating? This way we can have fast, short-distance lifts as well as slow space elevators tethering space stations to planet surfaces. To make lifts easier to use, I wish lifts were physical rooms instead of props, this way we could walk directly into a lift. Building on that, lifts could be called by bumping into their closed door (if they are at another floor). Also, lifts could automatically show their list of stops when you enter, and they could automatically push you out when you reach your destination. So a typical lift interaction would be two or three commands. Example: SW, SW, 1. (SW bumps you into the closed lift door, summoning it after a second or two. SW again to enter the now open lift, and you automatically see the stops on entry. You enter your stop number, wait a second or two and then get pushed out to your destination.)
I recall this being mentioned somewhere but a way to allow people to follow even while off balance would make things like group bashing much nicer, not to mention group pvp. A skill in skirmishing or exploration may be appropriate?
Add a little message in caches for when there are no more crystals to be harvested, kinda like when you complete an incursion. 'All crystals have been harvested' or something like that. Would save us the trouble of doublechecking everywhere to make sure we haven't forgotten one.
Allow factions to have factional clans. They can either create their own or pay a fee to make a clan owned by one of the faction's leaders a factional clan. The advantage of factional clans would be easily transferring leadership of them from people who go inactive to people who are active instead of being forced to challenge them for control, which takes about a week, or some other alternative. I'm not 100% sure how this would work in SH since their 'leadership' is different from CA and SD, but if people want this surely something could be figured out.
Relatedly, give everyone at least one free factional clan slot. This would mean that they could join one faction-owned clan without affecting their regular 10 clan slots. Maybe factions can pay for or work towards some sort of upgrade that gives their members more factional clan slots, or maybe not. The idea isn't to completely obviate buying new clan slots, but to compensate for the reality of clan bloat that usually comes with factions.
Also, allow clan leaders the option to TRANSFER leadership to someone else rather than forcing people to start an election every time a clan leader decides they don't want to do it anymore. Maybe also allow them to toggle whether they want to allow clan elections at all.
As a follow up to Rhindara's Faction and Clan comments, something that would also be a nice addition would be being able to set the amount of days a referendum will take, and ending an election/vote as soon as every person in that clan has voted. This would make referendums much more usable.
Character: Vega Faction: Song Dominion Class: Engineer
note: I am always up for RP, antagonistic or friendly. If she's being a bitch, it's because you're from Scatterhome or she's trying to meet a deadline and has nothing to do with whether I want to RP with you or not. Thanks in advance for the RP!
I realize this one would probably take substantial time and energy, so I'm not expecting it any time soon, but I think it would help some people out immensely:
Expand the PATH TRACK functionality so that it can get you to any room that's connected to where you are via PTP, lift, transits, and/or voidgates. The code already handles two of these within the same area, so at the very least transfers feel like they'd be a viable addition. The big obstacle here aside from whatever is hardcoded to disallow for this in the first place, would be the tracking taking you through enemy territory and possibly getting you hit with guards, but ideally there would be a way to flag those areas (specifically capitals, main factional stations) so that if someone's enemied to that faction, they won't path track through it. Bonus points if there's an option to bypass this if someone's feeling brave.
The main reason I bring this up is that some people are seriously directionally hindered, even with maps (which aren't that helpful for some people anyway), and it can put them off of trying to navigate on their own entirely. You can ask friends, sure, but if you don't have any from the start when you're trying the game for the first time, this isn't necessarily an option. You can also ask strangers, if they're around, but feeling like you have some kind of autonomy in a big sprawling world like this can go a long way toward keeping people sticking around.
Can we get a mark subaccount that factories feed into and draw from? I'd love to see an actual earnings report
This. I feel my marks log is clogged with single orders queued on refinery. A better way to do this would be to have a sub account which doesn’t spam the main marks log.
In addition, a credit log/ credit history command will be very useful to keep track of credits
So I don't fully understand it's purpose even, but being able to see the wilderness on a map would be nice.
I'm coming from Achaea as my only other MUD and the wilderness there still had a you might get lost factor, but if I dipped my toes in I could find my way out. Without a map I'm kind of terrified to even step into it.
QoL asks from the discussion on Discord (just putting them here so I don't forget I've asked the question before and bring it up again next month )
- Are explosive barrels in the improvised cover list for scoundrels? if not, can that be possible? (Reminded that improvisedcover is terrain based, so I guess the real question is: Is it possible in certain terrain?)
- Jetpacks not being tied to a clothing slot - Bandoliers and knuckles being part of the scoundrel customization list
I forgot I was going to call myself Ike while in chargen, so now I'm Zarrach.
So I only just found out about this command, but if RPWHO could persist beyond logout it might lead to the list staying populated and might make it less intimidating to spontaneous rp with strangers? It feels like a config-esque setting and those generally persist.
Group all junk on death into "a bundle of junk" so that dying in PvE or PvP doesn't bring the game to its knees. Even with no handling of the GMCP room events in Nexus someone dying is often 5-10 seconds of the game being totally frozen.
[Cassandra]: Poet will be unsurprised to learn that she has unread news.
Random thought that I put up in the discord, and now here for posterity.
Custom marks accounts that functions like this: marks account new [name] - Makes a custom marks account, limited to 5 additional accounts as default, but can expand with credits/artifact purchase(?_?) marks account close [name] - removes the account, returns funds back to primary when closed. (Can't see this going horribly wrong at the start) marks transfer x marks to <person/account> from [account name] - Transfer directly from a specific account. if no account specified, transfers from primary.
Intent is that you can now designate a specific account to withdraw from for refining/manufacturing, bribes, escrow payments, ransoms, voidgate tolls, etc.
I forgot I was going to call myself Ike while in chargen, so now I'm Zarrach.
Lotta items are slot-exclusive. Like I can't wear glasses and a bandana at the same time, what? Or a visor/hat/etc and my Lucent Soundwavez. "Hang on, gotta take my earbuds out so I can put on my cowboy hat." ????
I'd say just let folksstack whatever worn items they want. If I can wear two pairs of pants or two shirts or five scarves in real life, I should be able to do it in-game. Wearing two belts at once? Who the flakk's gonna tell you that you can't? And what about Krona with their four hands? Why can they only wear one pair of gloves?
Sure, characters wearing three hats and five shirts all on top of each other might be silly, but let that be an IC reaction rather than an OOC limitation.
Get rid of lifts. It's the future and they feel clunky! Let's get some tubes that shoot us everywhere like Futurama. They're already in plenty of environments through description.
A "cargo CONTENTS total" that displays a sum of your cargo from all locations so like if you have 10 iriil at Danica Station and 25 iriil at Frixion Station that would list 35 iriil total.
Would it be possible to make it so that ships beacon will not show the asteroid you have tethered to your ship?
Also you should consider removing the need to specify whether you're refining an asteroid or gas since as far as I know each refinery can only refine one type of thing.
Comments
Faction: Song Dominion
Class: Engineer
Expand the PATH TRACK functionality so that it can get you to any room that's connected to where you are via PTP, lift, transits, and/or voidgates. The code already handles two of these within the same area, so at the very least transfers feel like they'd be a viable addition. The big obstacle here aside from whatever is hardcoded to disallow for this in the first place, would be the tracking taking you through enemy territory and possibly getting you hit with guards, but ideally there would be a way to flag those areas (specifically capitals, main factional stations) so that if someone's enemied to that faction, they won't path track through it. Bonus points if there's an option to bypass this if someone's feeling brave.
The main reason I bring this up is that some people are seriously directionally hindered, even with maps (which aren't that helpful for some people anyway), and it can put them off of trying to navigate on their own entirely. You can ask friends, sure, but if you don't have any from the start when you're trying the game for the first time, this isn't necessarily an option. You can also ask strangers, if they're around, but feeling like you have some kind of autonomy in a big sprawling world like this can go a long way toward keeping people sticking around.
Bulk would mean adding all shirt to CLOTHING one shot
Auto would mean adding any shirts you list to CLOTHING whenever you add a new item
PROMO LIST MINE <filter>
at this time it is impossible to find all your promo items lost in different parts of the sector
I'm coming from Achaea as my only other MUD and the wilderness there still had a you might get lost factor, but if I dipped my toes in I could find my way out. Without a map I'm kind of terrified to even step into it.
- Are explosive barrels in the improvised cover list for scoundrels? if not, can that be possible? (Reminded that improvisedcover is terrain based, so I guess the real question is: Is it possible in certain terrain?)
- Bandoliers and knuckles being part of the scoundrel customization list
I've seen some people who still carry suffixes or titles which they technically shouldn't or can't be using anymore due to dormancy.
A conflict message when a new incursion appears.
Configurable alerts on the conflict channel so you can enable and disable the ones relevant to your interests.
A unique line above the hacking map to enable easier map capture in scripts.
A different line above COSMPIERCER INFO so it isn't also captured in existing map capture scripts.
Custom marks accounts that functions like this:
marks account new [name] - Makes a custom marks account, limited to 5 additional accounts as default, but can expand with credits/artifact purchase(?_?)
marks account close [name] - removes the account, returns funds back to primary when closed. (Can't see this going horribly wrong at the start)
marks transfer x marks to <person/account> from [account name] - Transfer directly from a specific account. if no account specified, transfers from primary.
Intent is that you can now designate a specific account to withdraw from for refining/manufacturing, bribes, escrow payments, ransoms, voidgate tolls, etc.
I'd say just let folks stack whatever worn items they want. If I can wear two pairs of pants or two shirts or five scarves in real life, I should be able to do it in-game. Wearing two belts at once? Who the flakk's gonna tell you that you can't? And what about Krona with their four hands? Why can they only wear one pair of gloves?
Sure, characters wearing three hats and five shirts all on top of each other might be silly, but let that be an IC reaction rather than an OOC limitation.
Have the "refinery queue all" command show all your refinery jobs even if you do not own any.