Open to Questions and Suggestions:
I am hashing out the following idea. Feel free to brainstorm. I don't promise to integrate all of the ideas, but I'd like to hear other insights. My goal is to increase role-play in the game.
This is the design specification for a new system designed to enhance role-play. I will be breaking the specification out into levels of implementation rather than the whole system at once.
New Message Gump
I would like to find (or design) a better .msg interface that contains the conversation between two players into its own screen rather then being put into the journal scroll. Something like a traditional chat feature would be ideal.
There was a discussion about implementing the current OSI chat system on ServUO: https://www.servuo.com/threads/chat-syst...post-24396 back in 2016
Here is some more: https://www.servuo.com/threads/newest-uo...post-56750
IC and OOC Options
I would like the ability to start a chat either as an OOC discussion or as an IC interaction. Obviously we need to figure out what the fiction is for a "telephone" like conversation, and the concept of communication crystals is already in UO.
I believe that we might be able to increase interaction and role-play options if we could "take a phone call" and role-play with another character. My initial knee jerk reaction was that this was "weird", but honestly, with the ease of gates and instant travel its rather silly to not provide this option.
Certainly a set up screen should be available for players to choose to accept IC, OOC or no chat messages as is their preference.
All Characters Option
I would like the option for a player to turn on the ability to accept and respond to chat messages from all of their characters while logged on to another. Instead of having to tell all of your role-play partners every alt you have so they know who to ask to role-play, you could simply take an IC or OOC chat from another character on any of your own characters. The system wouldn't even need to reveal which character was logged in, allowing players to keep some semblance of privacy.
How to to place a call
I imagine that it might be a better design to have an incoming request for both IC and OOC chats. Conceptually as follows:
I want to speak to Mary OOC, so I find her name, select OOC for my chat type and hit a button that says contact. Mary gets a notification that I am trying to contact her OOC. That request for contact stays in a pending window that I can see easily, along with a red or green button indicating if she is still online. I can click and accept the call when I'm ready and start the chat.
I feel like this would remove the energy of having to respond to .msgs that get dumped in our journal window, or even the anxious feeling that someone will get mad I didn't respond right away even tho I was rping, hunting or had stepped away afk. This would work for both IC and OOC but with slightly different messaging language to support the fiction.
This obviously also includes the concept of letting the player know that a call connection was attempted because that message should stay in my window until I respond or delete it.
Contacting off-line players and their characters
The next logical step is to steal the mailbox code which allows you to send books and items to off line characters and integrate it into this system so that players could let off line players know that someone was trying to contact one of their characters.
Discord Integration
Finally, it would be nice if the attempted contacts could be pushed to a discord chat. I wouldn't want to implement the ability to chat THROUGH discord, but if the player could at least be told "Lord Bob the Valgarian" was trying to contact my "Miss Merryweather" it would be a nice feature.
I am hashing out the following idea. Feel free to brainstorm. I don't promise to integrate all of the ideas, but I'd like to hear other insights. My goal is to increase role-play in the game.
This is the design specification for a new system designed to enhance role-play. I will be breaking the specification out into levels of implementation rather than the whole system at once.
New Message Gump
I would like to find (or design) a better .msg interface that contains the conversation between two players into its own screen rather then being put into the journal scroll. Something like a traditional chat feature would be ideal.
There was a discussion about implementing the current OSI chat system on ServUO: https://www.servuo.com/threads/chat-syst...post-24396 back in 2016
Here is some more: https://www.servuo.com/threads/newest-uo...post-56750
IC and OOC Options
I would like the ability to start a chat either as an OOC discussion or as an IC interaction. Obviously we need to figure out what the fiction is for a "telephone" like conversation, and the concept of communication crystals is already in UO.
I believe that we might be able to increase interaction and role-play options if we could "take a phone call" and role-play with another character. My initial knee jerk reaction was that this was "weird", but honestly, with the ease of gates and instant travel its rather silly to not provide this option.
Certainly a set up screen should be available for players to choose to accept IC, OOC or no chat messages as is their preference.
All Characters Option
I would like the option for a player to turn on the ability to accept and respond to chat messages from all of their characters while logged on to another. Instead of having to tell all of your role-play partners every alt you have so they know who to ask to role-play, you could simply take an IC or OOC chat from another character on any of your own characters. The system wouldn't even need to reveal which character was logged in, allowing players to keep some semblance of privacy.
How to to place a call
I imagine that it might be a better design to have an incoming request for both IC and OOC chats. Conceptually as follows:
I want to speak to Mary OOC, so I find her name, select OOC for my chat type and hit a button that says contact. Mary gets a notification that I am trying to contact her OOC. That request for contact stays in a pending window that I can see easily, along with a red or green button indicating if she is still online. I can click and accept the call when I'm ready and start the chat.
I feel like this would remove the energy of having to respond to .msgs that get dumped in our journal window, or even the anxious feeling that someone will get mad I didn't respond right away even tho I was rping, hunting or had stepped away afk. This would work for both IC and OOC but with slightly different messaging language to support the fiction.
This obviously also includes the concept of letting the player know that a call connection was attempted because that message should stay in my window until I respond or delete it.
Contacting off-line players and their characters
The next logical step is to steal the mailbox code which allows you to send books and items to off line characters and integrate it into this system so that players could let off line players know that someone was trying to contact one of their characters.
Discord Integration
Finally, it would be nice if the attempted contacts could be pushed to a discord chat. I wouldn't want to implement the ability to chat THROUGH discord, but if the player could at least be told "Lord Bob the Valgarian" was trying to contact my "Miss Merryweather" it would be a nice feature.