But they made me so mad!

[Celerity]

It would be ideal, but impractical without a detailed system. The problem is that if the IMMs are too busy to write x one line rumor strings, they will certainly be too busy to approve x^100 number of auto/submitted player strings.

On top of that, most player-player interactions are not meaningful, and if they are, you have a lot of rumors to cycle through in a database so your rumor may never actually come out.

I think it would be something to expand to, maybe when there is some dynamic quest/cabal system to back it up (score + string generation), but maybe a bit too ambitious as a first step.

[inscribed]

I don't know that it'd be any harder. Every character would have a hidden reputation stat which would require adding a line of code at the end of various actions to add or subtract to the reputation, and an array of auto-generated keywords which is modified after every fight, with each line being deleted after so many hours/days. After level 40 or 45 or whatever, each character can create a couple of custom lines relating to his character's story. If an NPC draws that character's name to gossip about, it would pick either a line of the generated key words and fill in the blanks of a preset phrase, or one of the custom written lines.

Imm's could tweak as required for characters who draw special attention or participate in world RP plots, which would have extended durations.

Let's say I fight Mali the Gnome. I end up killing him with a fireball. Afterwards, my reputation would have 20 added to it, and my array would have a line added to it with the keywords "Mali", "gnome", "fireball", and maybe some random action verb based on the damage type, "roasted". A citizen is triggered to say a line of gossip, and my character is picked. He picks a phrase "Did you hear about _____? He/She ______ that _______, ______ with a ________. Don't cross him/her, I tell you!" Then that line of key words would be filled in as required.

"Did you hear about inscribed? He roasted that gnome, Mali with a fireball. Don't cross him, I tell you!"

Other phrases could be written to relate the keywords in different ways.

[Tantangel]

I'd prefer rumors to the characters themselves trying to gloat. I hate it when a character gets the jump on you and has you running to heal up and then send you a tell about how your hiding makes them happy when in fact I know I can kill them if I'm on at the very least equal footing. Me beating them after them gloating doesn't make me happy either, I just don't respond back at all and when they log off after I tooled them it just irritates me more. Rumors could be nice though so that you're constantly being refreshed on things going around. It'd be nice to be able to know what's going on when I'm not playing because of the rumors and I wouldn't have to read a note that was huge or anything.

[inscribed]

Also, the idea isn't to discourage silent PK. A badass vampire isn't going to tell his life story to every character he fights, and would normally have to rely on Imm interaction or note writing to get his story out there. Having a rumor system would allow his actions and backstory to become known without the above and regardless of his "silent PK" mentality.

[f0xx]

Every character would have a hidden reputation stat which would require adding a line of code at the end of various actions to add or subtract to the reputation' date=' and an array of auto-generated keywords which is modified after every fight, with each line being deleted after so many hours/days.[/quote']

You realize you are suggesting a whole new system to be coded, which ain't small and easy to do. Throwing out ideas that require a lot of time to code will not happen, no matter how good the idea is. Instead, stop spamming and think of way how to make this work without a ton of coding. Manually adding rumours seems a fine way to me.

Yes, a system that automatically creates rumours is the best thing, a system that automatically checks description too, but we don't have that as well.

[Volgathras]

I disagree that proposing coding-heavy ideas will mever happen. It till certainly be a while before we have the capacity to do something immensely complicated, but that shouldn't discourage you from suggesting it - just don't get pissed if it doesn't get done right away.

[inscribed]

Instead, stop spamming and think of way how to make this work without a ton of coding.

I disagree that proposing coding-heavy ideas will mever happen. It till certainly be a while before we have the capacity to do something immensely complicated' date=' but that shouldn't discourage you from suggesting it - just don't get pissed if it doesn't get done right away.[/quote']

No worries. You asked how an automated system might be implemented and I was just brainstorming a possible solution.

[F-3000]

If the rumor-system has some ties to a character (during rumor creation the creator could input character names as with notes), a couple ways to limit rumor's age/validity along a timer could be checker that looks if character exists (could be also inserted into delete-function) and is playable (ie not denied), and has logged in "recently". If a rumor has several ties, one of them dropping could drop the rumor.

Another rumor-based idea:

There could be certain mobs, that you can go for and ask for rumors, and they'll tell one-liners about past things. They would mainly be major things, and from ranging timespan, like who's current leader of a cabal, or what has happened. For example, someone who haven't played in a long time, and doesn't read thru the RP-forum, has no idea about wtf happened to Rheydin. (you can always ask from other players, I know)

You say 'You know any rumors?'

A mob says 'I know a lot of them, what age you'd be interested of?'

You say 'What ages are there?'

A mob says 'You can ask for recent, old or ancient rumors. Just say 'recent rumor' for a recent ones.'

You say 'Old rumor.'

A mob says 'Oh, this be fancy one. Long ago, some couple bastards destroyed the glorious Rheydin, left it to ruins.'

You say 'Ancient rumor.'

A mob says 'A long, long time ago, a god of light known as Sirant was lured into the dark side. It surely was demise for him.'

You say 'Recent rumor.'

A mob says 'If I haven't heard wrong, Mya was promoted to the leader of Herald. A good choice, if you ask me.'

You say 'Recent rumor.'

A mob says 'As I heard just short ago, the Knights deviced a plan to renew Thalos.'

A database of lines with dates, and the rumor's date determines what category it goes into. And if rumor is written in a form that it starts after comma, the prefix could be anything (as you can see from the four examples). There could be a few prefixes for each age that are randomly picked.

A way to lessen IMMs burden with this could be that elders and up from each cabal (with exception of heralds) can create a rumor, yet it need to be approved before it can be inserted into the circulation.

>rumor create

You've created a new rumor.

>rumor tie me

You've tied the rumor onto yourself.

>rumor line F-3000 tried to flirt with a local hooker, but got utterly denied.

Line added. Here's an example how it looks like:

A mob says 'If I haven't heard wrong, F-3000 tried to flirt with a local hooker, but got utterly denied.'

>rumor time 7

Your rumor will last 7 days, and vanish.

>rumor show

Rumor tied to: F-3000

Rumor expires in: 7 days

Rumor age: recent

F-3000 tried to flirt with a local hooker, but got utterly denied.

>rumor submit

Your rumor has been submitted, and awaits approval.

There are 1 new news articles waiting.

>news read

[ 1] Hermes: Rumor accepted

Sat Oct 27 21:32:39 2012

To: F-3000

Your rumor was accepted, however there was changes:

Rumor tied to: nobody

Rumor expires in: permanent

>scream