[MUD-Dev] Re: Introductions and descriptions

[Marian Griffith]

On Fri 21 Nov, Sauron wrote:

> > > > > A tall, ugly fat man with a bushy black beard, bald head, piercing
> > > > > blue eyes, heavily tanned skin dressed in expensive clothes
> > > > > says 'hello'.

> > Keep the description about the same size of the message. If the message is
> > only "says hello" you probably want to stick to the most important part of
> > his description, in this case likely the expensive clothing. And maybe his
> > most striking feature, either tall or bearded.  So you would get something
> > like "A rich bearded man says 'hello'.
> > However if the message is much longer  you could get away with adding more
> > detail to the description  though I would still recommend avoiding all the
> > commas. 

> [snip] 

> IMHO this point is really moot because actions don't really have much
> place in descriptions.  Would a char honestly react the same if the King
> of Whatever walks up to him as if the Evil Dragon walked up to him? In
> most mushes, you can set @adescs (list of actions triggered when someone
> looks at you) so you actually DO the actions and are aware that you do
> them rather than they appear to happen when someone looks at you. ie You
> could set different reactions based on whether a npc with @race = Dragon
> or @race = fairy looked at you. I have not seen anything beyone client
> triggers used for this sort of thing in most muds, however I think even
> that is better than having actions in the desc. 

Am I missing something obvious here? I can't understand how this responds
my comment above :(

> Also, I believe there should be different types of descs compared to the
> type of look you do. If you are just glancing at him, as in while you
> are talking (in RL) you get a short one line desc. If you are giving him
> a good look over, probably a three or four sentence desc would be
> sufficient. If you are evaluating his abilities, a desc based on his
> physical attributes and how they compare to yours would be appropriate.
> However, it may not be possible to code something like this in your
> situation.
This was, more or less, what I was proposing as the way to handle des-
criptions that grew overly long, as in the first example.

*grin* I am not in the position to code anything. I already have trouble
getting the vcr to cooperate.  Unless somebody else does the programming
for me I am only offering ideas and opinions.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey