Login message

So we get the popup window now with news. That's cool.

The message of the day, down in the chat window, could be something a bit more useful than "maintenance is performed on Tuesdays.. blah blah." We know this. And new players who don't figure it out pretty quick. One player whined about patch day and now the message has to be this bland thing? And its not needed to really state anything about maintenance there anyway, now that we have the popup news.

Whatever happened to:

Quote:

---

[03/04/04 11:52:40] Message of the day: Twilight : Long after dawn and just before dark, your adventure awaits, should you dare to embark...

---

Something that at least tries to put you into the game. Anyway, rant over, suggestion is an idea for something to add to the message of the day.

While exploring the snowy landscape on Chaos, I've come across about 10 unbuilt craft shacks, some I didn't even know were there. Usually pretty easy now for someone to find a machine, they show up on the map once built. But unbuilt structures just hide out.

The idea is to append a listing of any unbuilt structures by name and co-ords, to the end of the message of the day. Each on their own line. Would need to find a way to auto-generate this since it will be different on every shard. Perhaps at the minimum, the list could be compiled the night before patch day, and applied to each shards' MOD as part of the maint process. So at least it would update weekly.

Would be very very helpful for builders to find stuff to build, and to get some of these lost shacks found and built.

Example of one is a stoneworking shelter just north of the wizard tower, I didn't even know it was there. Probably added in the last few years, but still unbuilt. Another one is just west of Hermits cave. 2 Shacks near t3 golems in the tazoon desert. Several in kirasanct tundra, some on scorpion island, some on Genevia. All tiers just about. Dralk community lair still has a t6 grand hall, lots of players might not know its even there for several years...

I think putting it in the MotD might be a bit too...overwhelming? you'd be surprised how many unfinished shops there are (I know atleast 4-5 in the T1 areas). Rather, having these in a window of their own could be a lot more promising, and more pleasing to see.

Rather than only seeing it upon login or going into the chat log, you could open up the window and immediatly get a good overview of what is still unbuilt whenever you want.

Not only that, but you could also include a lot more info in the window than in the MotD, the window could be a simple menu a lá search window with:

Quote:

---

[Building Type] | [Tier] | [Location: Name and/or coordinates] | [% complete]
[Building Type] | [Tier] | [Location: Name and/or coordinates] | [% complete]
[Building Type] | [Tier] | [Location: Name and/or coordinates] | [% complete]

---

Heck, perhaps even include a search function to only include tier [x] or location [y]?

A player could then maybe be able to click the specific building they are interested in helping with and get the construction window (Can that be pulled up from a distance? I do think so...I haven't really looked into it much lately), to get the exact info of what resources are still required.

-----

I do agree that the MotDs could do with some beautification like the old days though, they feel more immersive. I also feel that the bowing down to the single player that complained loud enough was also a bad move, up till now nobody has ever raised issues with the maintenance, and it's a pretty well known concept.

Not to mention, it's displayed in the launcher when the game is down for maintenance last time I checked. So even those that don't check the forum, whatever their reasoning might be, are still kept up to date as far as I'm aware...

I sign it all, Guaran, meepsa

just for the records

The game might be able to pull details, such as %complete and list of materials needed from a distance, but it also might not be to... I know that trying to open a structure from a few hundred meters away, it sometimes cannot find the permission information.

Seeing all that detail is nice, but I didn't want to suggest something that was going to be overly difficult or time consuming to implement. If additional info can be listed, that's great. But you are right that that would be too much data to list in the message of the day.

Just having a simple list of unfinished public structures would be a huge help though.

I wouldn't want to delay that if work on something more comprehensive would take a lot longer or wind up on the back-burner for 2 years. Having just the list much quicker is more desirable.

Sounds good i'm in for the idears.