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/me command in Character sheet

December 12 (12 years ago)
I would like the /me command in character sheet macros to refer to the character's sheet, not the person dropdown choice in the chat.

If me and my henchman use a sword, for example, I would like to differentiate between us using /me command.
December 12 (12 years ago)
Sounds good to me.
December 12 (12 years ago)
indeed, talking in character made easier then the different channels idea i read about earlier this week.
December 13 (12 years ago)
Any improvement that reduces 5 clicks to 1 is worth the effort, wouldn't you say?
December 31 (12 years ago)
I agree, "/me" and "/em" really have no differentiation right now, it seems, and it makes the most sense for one of them to be the character to which the macro is attached (though how the application would automagically know what the macro was attached to if it wasn't listed as an "ability", from a programming standpoint, I'm not entirely sure).

Along the same lines (and this may be easier), I also feel like there really needs to be some kind of "/emote Charactername does this" command. Putting /me or /em in GM macros is pretty bulky without that...and I also usually have an NPC tagalong/henchman that the PCs can command apart from their own personal characters, so if they get stuck, s/he can throw them a subtle hint.... But giving ability emotes to a henchman right now is tough for the GM to juggle, much less the players.

The point of macros is to have a large block of commands with only one click, and right now it's too easy to fumble out a macro with an emote/spoken component as a different character than the macro is intended for.

I also tend to have arguments/conversations occurring between NPCs that the PCs should sway, interrupt, or eavesdrop on for information. And there's always the player who loves to speak as both their character and the character's familiar/companion/minion.... So all in all, being able to change the speaker/actor quickly would be really nice. Often we just end up speaking "out of character" and typing the character's name and actions by hand, because that's easier/faster/more reliable than the pretty interface that's set up already.

Even a simple keyboard shortcut to scroll through the possible "as" characters in the dropdown menu would be better than the way this is done now... shift+tab forwards, shift+tab backwards or something. Switching from keyboard to mouse mid-conversation is what really kills the UI in games using just the message box.
December 31 (12 years ago)
Sorry that was so TLDR; UI is what I studied in university and have dealt with in every job I've ever had.... I tend to get long-winded about it.... Thanks so much for making an engine that is otherwise so lightweight, accessible, and easy to use. :)
December 31 (12 years ago)
Cytotix, I agree it would be nice to have an extension of /me command not only referring the character, but the different channel is a totally different tool, still very useful. Imagine for example a sci-fi game where people communicating in different levels, or a magical game where some might access with their senses into another world. That is where different channels would come handy.
January 01 (12 years ago)
I agree that would be nice.
January 01 (12 years ago)
Personally, I think the best way to do this would be to have a command (I'll use /em for an example) that simply takes everything after it and posts it without a word-based identifier into chat.

For example, "/em Tubby likes pie" would simply output as "Tubby likes pie", without any word based identifier. This not only lets you emote as familiars and such more dynamically, but it also lets the DM illustrate an action that may be happening without directly involving people. For example, he could describe the candles flickering without his name interrupting the flow of the description.

Now, the problem with this, so far, is that you can't really tell who's doing certain actions. For example, if one of my party members is a big, beefy barbarian named Garren, but he's not my character, I can still type "/em Garren puts on a pretty dress and dances with a pony" and have it appear as if Garren did such a thing. The way I'd use to identify a player in that circumstance is to have the text color be the color of the player's ping circles. It'd basically look like the /me text does, except the color would be tied to the color the player selects on his nameplate, instead of always orange. So mine would show up in purple for the games I play right now.

Another option is to set it so that it can read the character journal entries, and it won't let you emote as a character that you don't have access to. However, that'd be REALLY complicated to set up, so I think the colored text is better.

The upside to this is that you can literally put anything in it and have it show up as an action, so I could type "/em The candles on the mantle flicker as a gust of wind blows in through the open window, and shadows dance across the ceiling." And it would show up in chat almost exactly the same as a /me would, except in whatever color I've chosen as mine for that campaign.

And, of course, because this isn't directly tied to any character, it could be used in any macro you need to use it in.

EDIT because afterthought: Possibly set it up so that this command can be disabled by the GM, in case you have a rowdy bunch that keep trying to emote as each other's characters. Globally and on a person-by-person basis would be good. Then again, I'm a huge fan of having almost all commands be set up so that a GM can revoke a player's access to it if s/he deems it necessary, so.... >.>
January 02 (12 years ago)
I think it's enough if /me uses the name of the Character sheet it is attached to (if it's an Ability macro) or the name selected from the dropdown menu if it was in a normal macro or was entered manually.

As you noticed Ian, what you propose has quite the potential to be abused, and I think the effort to make sure it isn't is just to large.
Also, I can change my color myself, so I just set type the message, set the it to Garren's color, hit enter, quickly change back and hope no one noticed.