Role Play, Our Need for Progammable Macro Sentences

In a role play battle you do not have time to "cut and paste"

 

Bowen, while UO had no built-in macro facility the 3rd-party macro programs were sanctioned by OSI. Indeed, they were even listed on the UO website and given an official imprimitur.

I sat through countless presentations, courts, lectures, etc. Waiting for someone to manually type their spiel was excruciating. Between the typos and the 2 minute wait between sentences, it turned what could have been a 1/2 hour event into a 2 hour one. This is probably beside the point. I doubt you are opposed to someone pre-writing a presentation.

Cut and paste is a substantial inconvenience. While one could turn on an oven to heat up yesterday's taco, most of us would prefer a quick zap in the microwave. A macro facility offers similar convenience.

 

You would sit around in UO and watch someone yak for thirty minutes?

You have low entertainment threshold.

 

Yeah, Owain. I also read books.

 

Do you read telephone directories? Sounds equally entertaining.

 

During the PaxLair Play in R8, each actor had a text script in Notepad with each line to COPY and PASTE into the chat box in the SotA UI. So there was constant window swapping (hard on those with one monitor). I had to click the emotes too in the UI, as they did not always work with copy/paste.

Lord British asked what would help us deliver plays better, and I said a client / different window like the old UOWedding program that UO Counselors used for weddings. UOWedding was used by speech makers (like me) and giving out instructions quickly at events (tournaments). It was not a Macro system. It was a text insertion system. You clicked on a SEND Button and it spit out the words to the game UI like you were typing on the keyboard. It then went to the next non-comment line in the script, ready for you to hit the SEND Button again. You also had a SKIP button to skip a line, as we would do in a Play watching what others are saying.

You loaded your text script something like:

@ this is a comment line - Introduction!
Hail There!
/bow
Welcome to the PaxLair Play in New Britannia!
We hope everyone will have a great time!
@ Narrator
The scene is in a jungle, south of the castle.
All people are running for their lives. There is a massive flood.
@ Captain of the Guard
/raisehand
Quick! Everyone! Follow me! I know where it is safe!
/comehere
@ The captain turns and runs, people follow.
@ When the captain gets to the end of the road, he jumps on a rock.
@ The actor YouWillDie enters the scene
/flex
Halt. Why do you invade my rock!
etc. etc.


This would be great for standard knighting ceremonies and more. Yes it is an RP tool, but it is a tool anywhere instructions need to be prepared and given out quickly too.

Lord British recalled the UOWedding client and asked if I knew who the programmer was. I do not. He seemed interested in possibly asking the community to help design such a client/interface. I'm not tech-smart on that, and have not followed up on finding the UOWedding programmers.

Again, this is not an in-game macro system. It is for text insertion. I hope this helps a bit!

 

Thank you Winfield, I could not explain it just like you

 

Thank you for your opinion, Owain. I will grant it all the weight that it deserves. Now, I'll get back to the phonebook; I'm up to G already.

 

Who's going to want to try to chat while in the middle of a fight?

 

Its called rp pvp, maybe the person your fighting? derp.

 

Seem a lot of RP'd conflicts.. never seen anyone trying to chat in the middle of it. They do that before and after.

 

well It does happen, and just because you have not done it does not mean that others do not. Maybe you should try it some time, but I would like to hit one key to say *take that you fiend* or *nice hit for a paladin* and you can fight me and type the words out with you ultra dexterity.

 

Get a gaming keyboard with programmable keys?

 

"A Strange Entertaining Example"
It's the dead of night when the sounds of two jeeps driving up into a small communication compound that links all the enemy's indirect fire units together. The jeeps come to a stop while some muffled movements of feet come though the doorway of the communications tent. While 6 men grab 3 sleeping bags with 3 men inside them 1 man can be heard on the radio "fire mission danger close", while the other 3 men in the sleeping bags begin to fire off some of their blank bullets and shouting within the bags as the carrying clamps are all clammed shut *meanwhile the new radioman continues to chatter* "I authenticate Lema Charley Alpha, how copy over". (Time Lord) "So, where are you from?".... "where are you taking us!?"... "I don't really know. You got a map on you?"... *grid 57289'er7 overrun compound 15 rounds, how copy over*... (TL) "So are you married?" ... the sleeping bag occupant begins to fire his weapon more emptying his clip as the first of his complaints of pain come because the shell casings from his weapon are now coming out very hot and all touching his bare legs groin inside. (TL) "Sorry, I should have warned you that those shells can get kind of hot can't they? ... as the 3 bags are placed in the back of one of the jeeps... (TL) "Make sure those radio's are all kept nice and shiny or we'll all have to pay for damages if the CO finds out about any, OK Hadley?" (Hadley) "Sure Sarge"... (Radio) *New Mission grid.....* as the sounds of the jeep and the shouting struggles of the 3 bagged passengers are driving away... (TL) "So do you communication boys do any sing a longs, you guys know Row Row Row Your Boat?" *~TL~ begins to sing while driving his jeep away* "Watch out here comes a bump!"... *the sounds of pain come from all the bags at once*... "Life is but a dream... keep up the tempo boys and you'll be back for chow call in the morning"...

Just a small example from a real life training exercise which doesn't equate to our game other than the instructions and keeping it all very fun and entertaining for everyone because it beats boredom of repetitive work. Moving while talking is fun with the right sentences being pre-set.
~Time Lord~

 

your solution is simple, no joke, no resources from the team and complete control

Auto hot key

cheers

 

I am a simple minded farm boy lol. Thanks for the link I will check it out

 

I have several but I don't think the best solution that can be offered is to ask players to purchase a peripheral. A thoughtfully developed speech macro tool can be so much more functional since it is purpose driven.

 

Another solution. The more options, the merrier. Just like the hardware solution, you are asking players to utilize a third party solution for functionality that could easily be provided without the need for a third party solution.

 

I am not asking for anything. Someone else asked.

I provided a solution that a LOT of people are going to use, regardless of the resources diverted to make some half-ass solution in-game.

I am a designer and engineer, twenty+ years - you simply do not waste time on things that are a solid engineering solution which resolve problem(s) better than you could, currently, if ever.

You of course weigh that against your design, but something like Auto Hot Key is 100% external to their product and just works (10+ years proven).

Sorry to say, it is the tool of choice for things like the desire here, and also Gold Sellers, Gold Farmers, etc...

Cant beat a solution that is kick arse.

 

I am admittedly naive; however, I have confidence that Portalarium could come up with something better than a half-ass solution in-game. I also have confidence that Portalarium is perfectly able to determine for themselves when and if it is a waste of time. I also feel expecting players to utilize 3rd party software and hardware for a functionality that can easily be provided in-game is an unnecessary burden on players.

I took a cursory look at AutoHotKey and I will admit that I was impressed by its functionality and flexibility . I am also a proponent of open source software. While I agree that many players, myself included, will use AutoHotKey (or other 3rd party software) if they are able to, this solution encourages macroing to a greater extent than the in-game functionality that has been requested. I would agree that macroing with 3rd party software and hardware will take place in Shroud of the Avatar; however, I don't see a macro speech tool as an unreasonable functionality request. One that will not encourage macroing to the same extent as expecting players to utilize 3rd party software and hardware.