So, now that we have access to the source code again, I think now is the time to suggest something I have wanted for a long time. TL;DR, next paragraph and bottom two paragraphs.
It would be awesome if the chatbox could be used for RPG mechanics, preferably with customizable stats. Stats would include, minimally, an attack and hp stat with some sort of roll system to limit predictability. However, I would love to see attributes like agility, perception, movement, and possibly magical stats
This would be entirely isolated to the chat, and would have no impact on the physical appearance of any characters or the game world. Thus, participation is entirely voluntary.
I have two ideas for customizable stats
1) Attributes tied to appearance
+Things like damage, speed, agility, make sense naturally if well implemented
+Easy-ish to program
-Difficult to balance in an immersive way
- Specific appearances may become optimal for a specific builds/adventures.
Some ideas what this may look like:
Longer tails increase agility, with shorter tails having a different benefit (magic maybe?)
Bigger animals get a bonus to HP and attack with a proportionate debuff to magic and agility.
This is of course super flexible, but one gets the idea. It could either be in blocks as large as three groupings (small, medium, large) or since it would be run automatically every tick might be countable.
Second idea: a special stats page added to character customization:
+With stats either not tied to appearance, or not as closely if mixed with the above, it allows for greater player imagination
-Would probably take longer to make
-Clutter for the players that don't use it, which may be many.
-More capacity for strange designs to break immersion
This is more straightforward: capabilities are listed on sliders on a page. This may involve ability checkboxes that give boosts and penalties simultaneously, sliders with a point cap, or a number of other possibilities.
How I imagine various potential abilities being used:
/attack"[name of character]": attempts to lower target HP. Remaining HP will be displayed
/movestart: Displays a movement score, and places an anchor for the following command:
/movecheck: Displays how many movement points remain between where your character is on the map now, and when /movestart was inputted, if negative you have to move further back if your group is playing in a turn-based manner.
/usemagic"[ability name]": multiple processes are calculated together based on how the magic ability works, including mana depletion, hit checks, status affects, and so forth, all listed in chat.
/applycondition"[name of condition]": Informs player that a condition has been applied to their character via chat. Has no physical impact and no internal list is kept, so it comes down to the player to willfully RP this.
/rest: restores HP and provides some other bonuses potentially.
Out of character commands I imagine:
/ignorerp"[player name]": Any attempt by another player to initiate an RP interaction with you will be ignored. They will receive an "invalid target" response in chat, freeing up your stats to RP with who you want to RP with.
/rpon: Allows these chat commands to be used
/rpoff: prohibits you or other players from using these abilities until turned on
/creategame: creates a new adventure, with all stats at default. By default, you will be "GL," a position that allows you to create NPCs and do other things a D&D DM could do (not all things, but could be built over time)
/invite"[character name]": Invites a specific player's character to join an adventure. Will need to re-invite if they switch characters. They will accept or decline with a pop up.
/kick"[player name]": kicks a player from an adventure. No physical impact, but their chat commands will be ineffective.
/listconditions: Lists conditions placed on your character (like paralyzed, slowed, etc). For player's referance only.
/removecondition"[name of condition to be removed]": Applied condition will no longer be listed under /listconditions.
Game leader commands:
/createnpc"[desired name of npc]": Game leader creates an NPC by entering numbers for a series of system generated prompts to assign stats.
/"[desired name of npc]"[desired action NPC takes from the first list]: Takes an action as listed NPC
Of course, these are all just ideas. If the only command we get is /attack which deals a randomized amount of damage, preferably (though not necessarily) with a randomized chance to miss altogether, I would be happy. For the time being, HP could be listed in the bio. All of these are just my fantasies of where we could go from here with chat commands.
The central idea is that our 3d characters could be used as miniatures, like in a board game, and it would give us a convenient, universal tool to implement mechanics that would make for convenient, table-top RPG -like combat in its simplest implementation, or down the road could transform FH into having the capacity to be a chat-based pen-an-paper-like RPG too complicated to implement as a real RPG, made easy for players with all the record keeping and attack calculations done by the computer, making it far easier than even D&D. And it is all voluntary, the chat can simply be ignored if a player does not want to engage with these mechanics.
