Whispering

Erich · Post by **Erich** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:38 am

I was baffled when I found out there was NO WHISPERING COMMAND!

This is a MUST for ALL RP enforced MUDs. How can you play a sociopath without a whisper command!?! Don't answer that.

But still there NEEDs to be a whisper command!

Whisper <person> <message>
You whisper to Bob "Ye kno' tha' ther lady is mighty fine!"

Whisper <Message>
You say in a low voice "Too many people...too many people.."
(Doesn't really need to be added, the second one that is)

Tortus · Post by **Tortus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:03 am

There is a tell command which does pretty much that, and for the second bit you could simply use a smote.

Maybel · Post by **Maybel** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:05 am

Well first off... I find it a bit forceful to say there NEEDS to be one and we have to have it in...

Second one is we do have a TELL command (help tell) that works just as good as whisper command. You can smote that you lean in next to $player and whisper to them... then use the tell command.

Works for the sociopaths in the game as well!

Erich · Post by **Erich** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:57 am

Tell is lazy, and can be used everywhere. Whisper is a in-room command only. Plus you need the amulet of communication to use tell. Which is an annoyance to older players. I'm not saying Whisper should replace Tell. No not at all.
I just think It'd be good. To whisper to people in the same room or who are incapped/Stunned. Plus people can hear bits of it like

Jack whispers to Bob ".... .... tha' .... .... is ..... fine" or somthing.

Jaenoic · Post by **Jaenoic** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:12 am

Actually, you don't need an amulet to tell someone that's in the same room as you. This is equated to whispering.

Nedylene · Post by **Nedylene** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:06 am

Currently there is methods to rp whispering to a person successfully through the smote/tell method. Because of this I do not find that whispering is needed.

On the flip side.... I think it would be a nice feature to add in and give the "listen" skill more purpose. Make it an 'active' skill where one must actively type listen and will thus tune into some of the whispering. The higher the skill, the more that is overheard.

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:49 am

Yes, I think the point to a whisper command would be that there is a percentage that someone with the listen skill would overhear what was being whispered. In D20 terms, succeeding by a certain amount means you can hear someone whispering, succeed higher, and you can hear exactly what is being said.

At that point, we would have to address tells though, being used as whispers once we had a whisper command would be akin to exploiting the code to avoid being heard.

Zynarc · Post by **Zynarc** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:19 pm

At that point, we would have to address tells though, being used as whispers once we had a whisper command would be akin to exploiting the code to avoid being heard.

A spell/prayer to listen in to magical tells? Sort of like how magic mirror will work? This might make to another post, but I have yet to look up the actual spell that does it.

Hviti · Post by **Hviti** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:41 pm

As far as listening in in tells goes:

http://www.gallwey.com/fk/board/viewtop ... ughtspeech

I'm pretty sure there was a thread about whispering with discussions of the listen skill (and how tell could be used for it), too, but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe it was on the old board...

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:53 pm

I do not like people using "tell" to simulate "whisper", because, by doing so, they leave other people no chance to overhear their whispers. If you use "tell", you mindspeak. If you whisper, you should use "smote".

So, with this in mind, having a "whisper" command would be nice.

But that would require more change than just introducing it: There are 2 kinds of "whispers". Whispers that you want others to hear, to add to your roleplay; and whispers you do not want others to hear. If we do not change anything, smote (or a new whisper command) would be used for the first cases, and tell would continue to be used for the second. In effect, introducing a "whisper" command would be useless.

To make it worth it, we would need to prevent people from using "tell" when they are both in the same room. But... how does it make IC sense that amulets of communication would work when you are far apart, but not when you are next to each other?

Tortus · Post by **Tortus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:20 pm

It doesn't, Dalvyn, but you could make it so that you can't use tell without wearing an amulet of communication. Most people don't usually wear the amulet all the time, and thus they'd whisper to each other instead of reaching into their packs.

Maybel · Post by **Maybel** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:43 pm

Dalvyn wrote:But... how does it make IC sense that amulets of communication would work when you are far apart, but not when you are next to each other?

When you have 2 radios next to each other, they have feedback and it hurts the ears....

When you have 2 amulets of communication and use them close... you get jumbled feedback... and it harms your mind?

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:46 pm

Nice one, Maybel.

If you use 'tell' with an amulet while in the same room as someone else, your brain fries and your Intelligence and Wisdom are permanently set to 3. That might be enough to convince people to use 'whisper'.

Ok, perhaps we can do something less harmful, but I like this idea.

Maybel · Post by **Maybel** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:52 pm

Hey, lets try not to use my name... and reduces wisdom down in the same sentence... It was not fun

But the use of the amulets in close proximity (seeing as they are quite powerful to reach into a select persons mind) is quite powerful and to use it so close to the person you are contacting... could be damaging to BOTH parties!!!!

But yeah... I should quit before Dalvyn decides to have the amulets auto slay when someone uses tell in the same room

Balek · Post by **Balek** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:38 pm

People are going to kill me: Maybe we could get rid of 'tell' as an ability everyone has. There are wizard and priest spells that could be coded to replace tells, potentially giving access to tell-like abilities to quite a few characters. Others could either track down a magic-user to send a message or they could use the mail system. Cases in which someone dies and needs to communicate could be handled with some kind of one-way magical communication device in the realms of the dead, or through some kind of haunting as a ghost.