Race responses?

Vanisse · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:44 am Post subject: Race responses?

Good? Bad? Let us know what to tweak. And not, "I'm allergic to kittens" because, y'know, tough cookies.

I'd like to know whether it was worth the hours we lingering Heralds put into it, scheming it up and pulling it together and running it. Also ways in which to improve, if the peanut gallery enjoys such adventures.

Thanks.

Mandor · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 794

yes I am allergic to kittens. yes the race was interesting. I'd like to see more.

Slade · Emissary Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Posts: 666

For events there should be some kind of timer, so when you log in you get a line that says: Just 4 hours (earth time, I imagine) until race!

Cause two/three surges from now or whatever means nothing to me. I had no idea when the race was, and most people that did it probably did so out of chance of just being there at the right time rather than knowing wtf was going on.

Notes + References to time = bad.

Mandor · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 794

what we need is a time converter on the website to convert the months and standard 'tick/hour' time of the game into real time. and when I said like to see more, I mean more imm run events, possibly even hostile ones like an evil god could stir things up between justice and legion, or between uncaballed and legion or some such, like grant some temporary extra power to uncaballed evils to fight legion, etc. I know its not a great idea, but yes, imm run events would add a lot to the game for enjoyment, as the race did.

Vanisse · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:19 am Post subject:

I posted a heads-up about the race in the Herald Events thread last week. I guess that isn't read at all. Desidsceon was also posting massive piles of notes to all signifying countdown. I guess nobody reads notes either. Other locations to post?

And yes, I have no clue how to convert AR time to real-time...

_Clifton_ · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:10 pm Post subject:

I ignore all those notes to all that aren't from Imms or cabal leaders. It just feels like spam.

For time, I would just say 8PM EST for simplicity.

Vanisse · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:56 pm Post subject:

So, next question:

Four(ish) hours racing time on one night better, or one hour stretched out over a week, notified?

For those of you who didn't race, here's how it worked the first time around: Desidsceon and I sat there the whole time. D sold the tickets, entrants gave tickets to kittens to begin the race. I logged down each entrant's start and finish and D recorded them on the board. (Start and finish logger can be directed to a Herald in the future, whoever is available at the time.) We also gave hints to the runners who were stuck on riddles or just lost. That means the actual time that the race is open (during which you can enter, run and finish) must coincide with our hours. Fortunately it is summer and we all have spare time. Unfortunately I can't guarantee a four-hour stretch, and anyway sitting at a computer that long gives me headaches, but if it is more convenient for various time-zoners I can give it a shot again.

I would also like to make these races somewhat frequent while still giving us time to think up locations and bad puns and rhymes to confuse you with, maybe once every two weeks? Hopefully we can get it into some sort of manageable order in the next month or so, so that it can be run without me in the future as I will be gone starting August. Once the basics have been set, we can start fiddling with the details to make it more interesting once running around has lost its novelty. Like, kitten casts blind... Twisted Evil

Davairus · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:40 am Post subject:

Being unable to participate (school hours are very heavy) I viewed this as an interesting thingy that I wish I knew more about. So I guess my comment would be to just explain what the hell I missed and make it really easy to read while bleary eyed. And typing a real time for an event is fine because in this case breaking the IC benefits the RP experience for everyone (i.e. they can learn they can make the event)... as oposed to the usual detracting from it (cough OOC logins). I think there was plenty warning that a race was coming up but wasnt really sure when until reading this and thinking "oh it happened".

Slade · Emissary Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Posts: 666

Just make something like surge timer.

If an event is active, it has its own timer.

You login and see 4 hours remain until event, or whatever, just like you do for surge (err, you do see surge info when you login, right?).

Plus you can type event at any time and see 4 hours remain until event, etc.

Then when it does you inactivate the event and it the time goes away until a new one is ready.

So basically its just the surge timer with an on/off switch and another name, and for only one point in time instead of recurring times.

Davairus · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Vanisse would have to set the dates, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to translate how to input a time into the game in a way that the computer understands. Like with the surge timer, its presented in nice format for human reading, but under the covers, you have an INTEGER to represent what the time is. And its a C++ library function that convert that integer to a string. What you're proposing involves me allowing Vanisse to do something like:

event start <march 10 2007 12 pm>
event end <march 10 2007 1 pm >

Which is certainly easy for her to type in but interpreting that argument from a series of strings into a single integer representation? Not very easy. 3-4 hours to write and implement the event class (which would probably require spooling and all that crap), 1 hour to get the argument interpreting properly from the game, then god knows how long it'd take to translate to an integer. Which is really the hardest part. I mean its not Poker hand evaluation but it isnt a picnic. If we got someone who can convert a date like that into an integer then I think we could get going on it, otherwise I need to sleep on it a few days, and dont have the free time to dedicate to that yet.

Vanisse · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:25 pm Post subject:

MMDDYYYY.HHMM or MMDDYYYYHHMM?
Like, 03102007.1300? Is that feasible?

I don't know anything about coding this stuff etc.

Anyway I will step up race date notification and put real-time in the notes.

Redirect comments to my last post?

E-ant · Joined: 16 Jan 2004 Posts: 434 Location: Estonia

I thought system time was turned off - it doesn't show on "time".

Mandor · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 794

it seems to go back and forth. I didnt have it on one char one time I played, but the next time I played a diff char it had. dont think it has anything to do with different chars tho, and i like being able to use system time.

Davairus · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:13 am Post subject:

I have no idea what's going on with the time command right now. I'll have to email the sysadmin because he has to fix whatever is causing that problem. Surge time is set independently, me being me, considered the possibilty that the clock breaks and crashes the mud, unfortunately that means I don't get to access daylight savings since it doesn't reference the true time..

Computers don't read things in MMDDYY. They read times in terms of seconds since Jan 1 1970. So if a computer is told the time is 1, it tells you that you're from 1970, you get it? Its due to overflow in 2050 or something, which is a bigger threat to the world's computer's than the millenium bug ever was. If this present technology isn't obsolete by then, then the system clocks of all the computers will be hosed, and programs using that clock will probably crash. Or maybe just say the year is 1880. Um, I'm digressing. Point is, its a complex piece of code that pulls off that kinda conversion.. I'm not aware of a library function doing it, and if there was, it probably won't work on this server..which is being crappy with the time command lately. So the only solution is a custom function to do that conversion. Hard.

Vanisse · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:36 am Post subject:

Ooo.

Another option, maybe have a ticker on forum instead? That should be easier to rig up I am guessing. Although I am as inept at webpage as I am at everything else computery that Dav hasn't taught me Laughing

also I would have to put post-it notes all over my computer reminding me to update forum after we set up events....

_Clifton_ · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:51 am Post subject:

If you really wanted to, you could approximate the start. So the function would require just a time until the event converted into seconds. Knowing Vanisse, she should be able to calculate it. If not, just write a php page that'll automatically do the conversion.

Anyway, the idea would be that you could enter a command,

event start 129600 (60 * 60 * 36), for an event that started in 36 hours. That way you can just do a time_t now + 129600.

Edit:

You might also be able to take advantage of the the tm struct in c and the mktime function. If you're interested, here's the link.

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/ctime/tm.html

Davairus · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:09 am Post subject:

That is a good suggestion, shame no time to look over it properly. I'd already used tm quite a bit and forgotten about it somehow.

I would rather keep things ease for Vanisse - not saying she isn't bright but when something is cumbersome to do, it gets a chore, and that drains your energy & creativity. Right? Remember we were missing months on the pk stats because that was a chore, and churning out the same dull format instead of advancing it anymore. Since I upgraded the code I've completed new stuff like "most lethal mobs" to add to the stats, just havent the time to clean it up a bit (sigh).

To keep events flowing smoothly as well as boost attendance.. we'll really have to overcome this communication hurdle. But I won't have the time/energy to sit down for 4-7 hours writing that kinda code up for at least a while. Weeks I think. Which means we should keep this in mind (on the back burner) and look for what else we can do til we get to that point (like ... a player does most the code now and I just look over it and handle the stuff they can't do ... or you guys use the forum announcements page or whatever, til the hard-coded solution finally comes around) . Just something, because we're definitely seeing a significant portion of votes hitting that "oops I missed it" poll..

Vanisse · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:31 pm Post subject:

Theran Cross-Country Race II Held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 8-10pm EST.

If this time is not convenient enough for everyone please let me know via notes.

Asyndic · Joined: 10 Feb 2004 Posts: 100

Just because it's summer doesn't mean we all have spare time!!! Crying or Very sad

Other than that, I'm with Dav I think...What the hell you talking about? Race?

Peace out from Baghdad!

Asyndic · Joined: 10 Feb 2004 Posts: 100

Oh and I forgot.

E-ant: Estonian Army chicks are fricking hot!!!! I am so moving there.

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