Get informations about other players

[Hilrof]

Hi everybody !

 

So here is my idea : in multiplayer, it could be interesting to get informations about other players by right clicking on them and select the option "Have a look" or something like that.

 

By doing this, you will get informations about the player you are observing, such as "he seems to know how to use a hammer, and not only to blow heads" if this player is high leveled in carpentry. It could be very usefull, especially to give informations about his "karma" (sorry, don't know other way to say it in english). I mean, if this player have killed other players, you will read "in his eyes, you can see that he doesn't kill only zombies...".

 

I think this way, interaction between players could be really improve, like IRL you can have doubt about someone just by looking at him, and sometimes you can be wrong and threat a person that have only kill to protect himself ! You can also see if someone can be usefull for you, and maybe have clue about some of his perks ("this guy seems confused, hope he won't panic at the bad time" for example).

 

It's just an idea but i think it could be something great, please give me your opinion !

 

(Excuse my poor english, i'm french !)

[F-Dog]

Hi Hilrof, this is a brilliant, I like that your idea it's is not about opening a stat window to review someone but more towards a short sentence that says something about the person based on things that they have done.

 

I presume your idea would mean that you could keep clicking the "Inspect Person" button and keep receiving various descriptions?

[Suomiboi]

I don't think this is a realistic idea in the sense that even if you do have a first impression of someone by just looking and discussing, you don't really know what they can or can't do just by that. You could say a system like "This guy seems fishy" could be realistic, but then that'd have to be chance calculated and wouldn't really make sense, again since you can't realistically measure how good someone is in judging other just by how they seem.

 

Another counter argument could be that not all people want the character to make judgements on other characters, but rather want to make those judgements themselves.

[F-Dog]

Another counter argument could be that not all people want the character to make judgements on other characters, but rather want to make those judgements themselves.

Yeah I can agree with that, but then you just don't use the "inspect player" button. 

 

In regards to not being very realistic I would say that first impressions have  huge part to play in our presumptions of other people, so in my eyes it wouldn't hurt for the game to make a short comment about the sort of player you are, it could even be quite funny such as :

 

"This person looks like they've left food in the oven too long"     (Recently been burnt)

"This person looks like they fell in the river"     (Player has been soaked whilst out in the rain)

"This person looks parched"     (Player is thirsty)

"This person clearly needs a burger"  (Player is Hungry)

[Suomiboi]

Yeah I can agree with that, but then you just don't use the "inspect player" button.

Meh. This isn't really a viable argument against anything. It's the same as If I'd put in a button that would spawn an axe to your inventory and said that if you don't like the button, just don't push it. If it's in game, it's meant to be used. Otherwise I think it's really just bad game design.

[CaptKaspar]

I think the concept of noting discerning features about a character isn't a bad idea, but it needs to be limited to things that can be picked up on easily by their physical appearance. If I quickly look at someone, there are some assumptions I could make.

 

Some things make sense for example are:

 

This character is jacked, he obviously must be strong.

This character holds his gun/hammer/axe with confidence, I think he/she knows how to use it.

This character is obviously not starving, they must have a source of food.

 

Other things like whether they are thirsty, they kill people, know how to cook, can build stairs, is a good farmer, can survive in the woods, etc all can't be identified by a quick visual look.

[Hilrof]

Thanks for all your answers, i like the way it take !

 

I agree with Suomiboi, it's pretty unrealistic to know by looking at a man that he killed people. I think CaptKaspar that you got the better way to do : only a few perks that you can detect, and maybe the skills when using it or equip with a weapon ?