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BattleMaster => Development => Feature Requests => Topic started by: bluexmas on July 11, 2011, 06:12:44 AM

Title: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: bluexmas on July 11, 2011, 06:12:44 AM
Let's be honest, many new players send messages with double signatures until someone corrects them. I did this myself, and see it happen all the time. I think the process of being corrected about something so minor is a little embarrassing and a little annoying. Could it be made obvious somewhere in the new player documentation that they don't actually need to sign messages? I know this is a small thing, but I think the fix is simple, and streamlining something like this removes one more minor annoyance from new people who join.  Maybe even just updating the battlemaster basics and new player guide wiki pages would do the trick, or at least minimize the occurrences.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: fodder on July 11, 2011, 06:48:22 AM
new players? heh.. you even see that with old players.

eg.. the one who plays king of summerdale
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Shenron on July 11, 2011, 01:04:44 PM
new players? heh.. you even see that with old players.

eg.. the one who plays king of summerdale

I always chuckle when I see an old player continuusly do the double signature. It makes them look really egomaniacal.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 11, 2011, 01:13:29 PM
I don't understand them. When you send a message, you then get to see it as others do. And you clearly see that an automatic signature was included. It just looks stupid.

The only time I do something similar is when I want to expose a religious or other non-generated title, but repeating that you are king is just dumb.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: fodder on July 11, 2011, 03:03:27 PM
well.. he doesn't repeat king.. he just repeats his name
something like..

joe bloggs

joe bloggs
king of X
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Perth on July 11, 2011, 09:11:03 PM
I don't understand them. When you send a message, you then get to see it as others do. And you clearly see that an automatic signature was included. It just looks stupid.

Yeah, I think I did it the very first time I sent a message, but realized I didn't need to after that first one.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 11, 2011, 11:59:43 PM
well.. he doesn't repeat king.. he just repeats his name
something like..

joe bloggs

joe bloggs
king of X

Repeating that you are Joe Bloggs twice is just as dumb, imo.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Perth on July 12, 2011, 02:34:57 AM
Repeating that you are Joe Bloggs twice is just as dumb, imo.

Not so much dumb, just extremely (and oddly) oblivious to the game that (if you're a King) probably spend a good amount of time playing. A little, perplexing really.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 12, 2011, 03:55:03 AM
Not so much dumb, just extremely (and oddly) oblivious to the game that (if you're a King) probably spend a good amount of time playing. A little, perplexing really.

When you write a message, you automatically get shown a copy. With your double signature that stands out considerably. Try it, you'll see it's quite noticeable.

I refuse to believe he has never seen that the game automatically generates a signature. Or that he has never looked up his sent messages.

Does he believes that people are always manually signing their names without ever doing any typos? This too I refuse to believe, as it would too stupid.

There is really no excuse for writing double-signature messages beyond your first 1-3.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: De-Legro on July 12, 2011, 04:17:21 AM
Unless you do it just to get under the skin of your realm mates :)
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Perth on July 12, 2011, 09:34:42 AM
When you write a message, you automatically get shown a copy. With your double signature that stands out considerably. Try it, you'll see it's quite noticeable.

I refuse to believe he has never seen that the game automatically generates a signature. Or that he has never looked up his sent messages.

Does he believes that people are always manually signing their names without ever doing any typos? This too I refuse to believe, as it would too stupid.

There is really no excuse for writing double-signature messages beyond your first 1-3.

I know. This is what I was talking about: how can you be so extremely oblivious to the fact that the message you send automatically signs it for you?
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Vaylon Kenadell on July 12, 2011, 10:34:42 PM
Honestly... I don't know why Joash signs his name twice. It's very perplexing. Otherwise, he is a fine character.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Heq on July 14, 2011, 08:03:58 AM
Scathach does it because she likes to use The Fancy Letters, with the Special Ink.

She's also barely literate and has someone else write the letters, so she likes to make sure everyone knows how (un)important she is.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Indirik on July 14, 2011, 06:02:25 PM
Honestly... I don't know why Joash signs his name twice. It's very perplexing.
Have you asked him?
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 15, 2011, 01:02:51 AM
Have you asked him?

If you didn't, please do.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Vaylon Kenadell on July 17, 2011, 03:57:53 AM
If you didn't, please do.

I asked him why he signs his name twice. He said, "It's just something I started doing, and fell into the habit of, I guess. When you send messages, the game automatically signs your name for you, but there are times when a little more is either needed or desired. It adds something (to me, at least) more personal, adds emphasis to the character itself, IMHO."
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 17, 2011, 04:56:02 AM
I asked him why he signs his name twice. He said, "It's just something I started doing, and fell into the habit of, I guess. When you send messages, the game automatically signs your name for you, but there are times when a little more is either needed or desired. It adds something (to me, at least) more personal, adds emphasis to the character itself, IMHO."

Double facepalm.  :o
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Jens Namtrah on July 21, 2011, 06:40:23 AM
I asked him why he signs his name twice. He said, "It's just something I started doing, and fell into the habit of, I guess. When you send messages, the game automatically signs your name for you, but there are times when a little more is either needed or desired. It adds something (to me, at least) more personal, adds emphasis to the character itself, IMHO."

I can understand what he's thinking.

It's like when you type a letter, and then sign above your typed name and position. He thinks of the auto-generated sig as more of a "seal", I guess, that his scribe put on, and then he "signs" it himself.

Pity we can't use different fonts in the messaging to make that more real looking - suggest to him that he use italics or bold.

Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 21, 2011, 11:39:20 PM
I can understand what he's thinking.

It's like when you type a letter, and then sign above your typed name and position. He thinks of the auto-generated sig as more of a "seal", I guess, that his scribe put on, and then he "signs" it himself.

Pity we can't use different fonts in the messaging to make that more real looking - suggest to him that he use italics or bold.

 :o
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: songqu88@gmail.com on July 22, 2011, 01:23:48 AM
Sort of how you have the signature done manually, and underneath it you have your typed seal, assuming you're important enough that your letters require such.

An example would be like those letters the Dean used to send. It'd say a bunch of stuff, and at the end, it'd read something like:

Best to you all,

<signature>

John Smith, Dean of Students, XYZ University
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 22, 2011, 02:18:05 AM
Sort of how you have the signature done manually, and underneath it you have your typed seal, assuming you're important enough that your letters require such.

An example would be like those letters the Dean used to send. It'd say a bunch of stuff, and at the end, it'd read something like:

Best to you all,

<signature>

John Smith, Dean of Students, XYZ University

Except BM characters don't have computers to type with. A signature is to add authenticity to a letter, despite the fact it's pretty easy to fake them if the letter is transmitted electronically.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: songqu88@gmail.com on July 22, 2011, 02:24:04 AM
Meh. Some players might not exactly get that through their heads.

Also, I have a hypothesis that BM is actually a high tech game that is also recursive in a huge metaverse twist worthy of great sci-fi writers of the great age of sci-fi.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Perth on July 22, 2011, 07:04:05 AM
Meh. Some players might not exactly get that through their heads.

Also, I have a hypothesis that BM is actually a high tech game that is also recursive in a huge metaverse twist worthy of great sci-fi writers of the great age of sci-fi.

Frankly, I've been waiting for Tom to release the BattleMaster Sci-Fi parallel game SpaceMaster for years now. It would be so sweet.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Jens Namtrah on July 22, 2011, 07:08:57 AM
I'm pretty sure that even in the days before typewriters, a secretary would write the business documents and then the VIP he worked for would sign it

we're pretty restricted in how we can structure messages - he's just trying to use his imagination a bit. not sure it requires shocked double facepalms.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 22, 2011, 07:15:39 AM
It is esthetically extremely displeasing.

Perhaps a script could be written to automatically erase double signatures?
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Jens Namtrah on July 22, 2011, 07:19:49 AM
It is esthetically extremely displeasing.

Perhaps a script could be written to automatically erase double signatures?

I would 1000 times rather see a script that removed (OOC: this is my thought) from the messages than worry about the occasional double signature, or other important things.

maybe you could just ask them to stop, or learn to tolerate it?
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Adriddae on July 22, 2011, 07:21:41 AM
Or try to condition your mind to automatically blank out the line.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: songqu88@gmail.com on July 27, 2011, 10:37:08 PM
It is esthetically extremely displeasing.

Perhaps a script could be written to automatically erase double signatures?

How would that be checked anyway?

For example, it's relatively simple to check for the following:

John Doe

John Doe (Noble)

and then remove the first John Doe. I believe that the autosignature is there, among other reasons, to prevent someone from signing as the following:

John Doe, the Grand Warthog Master Chief of Covenant Slaying Badassery

And attempt to pass that off as a legitimate title. Of course, that's an extreme case, but the point is that it prevents people from claiming false titles (Something that would have had dire consequences in Medieval times...which hasn't really changed in modern times either)

But how sensitive do we want it? How does the script know when something is intended as a signature, and not a part of the letter? What if someone doesn't use any known closings (Sincerely, Yours Truly, Best Regards, etc)

So how would the game tell the difference between the following:

Dear Idiot,

This is a message about how stupid you are.

John Doe


versus the following:


Dear Idiot,

This is a message from the person named after this sentence.

John Doe


It's a lot of work for something that I think is rather stupid to waste time trying to code. How many people would really care that you can't sign your name manually? On the other hand, if we do away with the autosignature, how many people do you already know will jump on the opportunity to call themselves something they're really not.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: Chenier on July 28, 2011, 12:51:16 AM
A script to detect a line break followed by the name of the character could, I assume, easily remove it and be rather easy to code. It wouldn't work if the name is typoed.

To prevent any unwanted message edits (the name might have been intended as something other than a signature, such as finishing your message with "You will regret having provoked John Bloe!")

However, a simple alternative would have the game tell you not to manually sign at the bottom of your message if it detects your name, while keeping it there. Much like how the game tells you not to share your civil work reports.
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: psymann on August 01, 2011, 02:51:23 AM
For new players, it would help if the Preview facility added the signature.

As it is, you write the message, and:
- the Live Preview at the bottom misses out the heading line ("Letter from Crip Grindle" or whatever)
- the Live Preview at the bottom misses out the sign-off line ("Crip Grindle, Knight of Elroth" or whatever)
- the Message Preview after you click the preview button contains the heading, but misses out the sign-off as well

Any diligent new player, who makes use of the Preview function to check they have done the right thing, will be shown that there is no signature and that they should add their own.  And then they add it, click Send, and the game adds another one without warning, making them look a bit silly.

So perhaps fixing that would help new players start off on the right foot  :)
Title: Re: Double Signatures from New Players
Post by: bluexmas on August 01, 2011, 06:32:01 PM
For new players, it would help if the Preview facility added the signature.

As it is, you write the message, and:
- the Live Preview at the bottom misses out the heading line ("Letter from Crip Grindle" or whatever)
- the Live Preview at the bottom misses out the sign-off line ("Crip Grindle, Knight of Elroth" or whatever)
- the Message Preview after you click the preview button contains the heading, but misses out the sign-off as well

Any diligent new player, who makes use of the Preview function to check they have done the right thing, will be shown that there is no signature and that they should add their own.  And then they add it, click Send, and the game adds another one without warning, making them look a bit silly.

So perhaps fixing that would help new players start off on the right foot  :)

I think this is a great idea, and a very simple way to fix a simple (but annoying) problem.