forum interface
(Wow. A repost with immediately useful application. This is my original writeup for an in-game forum interface… and it will likely be the springboard I use when actually implementing the communication upgrade ideas.)
The in-game forum system is long overdue. It should be very similar to the mudmail client, they should both use similar commands, etc…
Views: Overall
Forum
Thread
Post
Because we’re feeding individual information to the players on a much smaller screen than a web browser can handle, we have to display one post at a time. Shrug, not much can be done about that.
When players log in, they should be given notice of how many unread threads they have in each forum. It should somehow be possible to stop watching a particular forum and at a later point, it should be possible to pay special extra attention to individual threads.
Commands:
b/back - go back up a step in your traversal of views
f/forum - jump to an individual forum (by either name or number)
t/thread - jump to a specific thread by number
p/prev - go back one post within the same thread
n/next - go forward one post
r/reply - reply to current post
w/write - write a new post in the current thread
c/close - set close time on a thread
o/open - open a closing thread
l/ls/look/list - redisplay current list
h/?/help - obvious
q/quit - obvious
A sample session (with most forums cropped) might look like this:
f:0> ls Forums Open Closed Last Poster Last Message 1 Bug 303 1075 Garvin 19 hours, 23 minutes 2 Typo 100 333 Eilis 17 hours 3 Player Chat 35 25 Gpfault 3 days f:0> f bug OR f:0> f 1 Forum: Bug(1) Latest 2350 C uptime is using some kind of cached data from Garvin 2005-11-02 02:58:44 3475 the barber lost the set of scissors I gave him Sora 2005-11-12 05:34:09 3437 N drop all -> you can't get there from here Snarky 2005-11-02 09:58:33 (c for closing, n for new) f:1> t 3437 Thread: 3437 Gpfault drop all->you can't get there from here 2005-11-02 17:29:25 Snarky Umm 2005-11-02 21:58:33 t:3437:0/2> n Thread: 3437: post 1/2 From: Gpfault (2005-11-02 17:29:25) Subject: drop all ->you can't get there from here drop all -> you can't get there from here The in-game location this message was posted from has been recorded. t:3437:1/2> n Thread: 3437: post 2/2 From: Snarky (2005-11-02 21:58:33) Subject: Um Shouldn't this be marked as a bug? Could an admin move it over to that forum, please? Oh, and I say bug, because it shouldn't be enqueing a walk action (can't get there from here) to drop stuff. AND that walk action should be to where you are anyways. t:3437:2/2> n There are no more posts in this thread. Thread: 3437 Gpfault drop all->you can't get there from here 2005-11-02 17:29:25 Snarky Umm 2005-11-02 21:58:33 t:3437:0/2> b Forum: Bug(1) Latest 2350 C uptime is using some kind of cached data from Garvin 2005-11-02 02:58:44 3475 the barber lost the set of scissors I gave him Sora 2005-11-12 05:34:09 3437 drop all -> you can't get there from here Snarky 2005-11-02 09:58:33 f:1> q Leaving forum client.
Something like that. It’s not pretty, but it would be doable and can always be made to look nicer in the future. We’re currently rather crippled by not having this system working to maximum efficiency and could really use some help with it, eh?