Suggestion:20071227 Temporary Contacts

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20071227 Temporary Contacts

 Swiers 22:01, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion type
interface improvement

Suggestion scope
contacts

Suggestion description
Using the normal contact list is overly cumbersome for certain tasks where you don't really care about keeping the character as a long term contact. "Temporary Contacts" would solve that problem by allowing you to add a profile as a "Temporary Contact" in the same fashion that you add normal contacts to your contact list, using a seperate button on the profile page that would be labeled something like "make Temporary Contact". When they show up in a scene description or action report, Temporary Contact names would be visible (as normal for contacts) even if the character was a corpse or zombie. Temporary contacts who are zombies could be singled out for revives, DNA scanning, attacks, healing, and so forth, just as normal contacts can be. However, there would be a few key differences between Temporay Contacts and normal contacts:

• You would only be able to have 10 Temporary Contacts at a time. If you added a new Temporary Contact and already had 10 Temporary Contacts, your oldest Temporary Contact would get bumped out of your Temporary Contact list.
• Temporary Contacts would NOT show up on your normal contact list.
• There would be no way (and no need to) look at or edit your list of Temporary Contacts.
• Temporary Contact status would not allow cell phone use by either individual to communicate with the other.
• Temporary Contact names would be displayed in the same color as normal text in scene and action reports. The name (or text saying "a zombie") would (as normal) be a link to their profile. Note that this means there is really no difference in the display of temporary contact names in action reports, but scene descriptions would show Temporary Contact names for dead bodies and zombies.
• A character could be both a temporary and a normal contact. The rules for normal contacts would apply in such cases; they would be colorized as per your normal contact settings, you could send them cell phone messages, etc. However, this situation would rarely arise except through error. Adding a temporary contact to your normal contact list would remove them from your temporary contact list. Adding a normal contact to your temporary contact list would simply result in displaying your contact list, as if you had tried to add them as a normal contact; they would not be added as a temporary contact.

Note- the intention behind this suggestion is to make it easier for characters to recognize dead bodies and other zombies. It does not provide any new game mechanic for doing so, but it does make the existing game mechanic that allows this a bit less cumbersome on the player. My hope is that this would improve game play for both zombies and survivors.

Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, justified, signed, and timestamped. # justification ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid votes are Keep, Kill, Spam or Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

Keep Votes

1. Author's vote.  Swiers 22:01, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
2. Keep - Useful for both zombies and survivors. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 22:10, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
3. It's fine. The only problem I have is if you want to have 10+ temporary contacts... --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 22:12, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

   10 was an arbitrary number, but chosen to reflect a fairly normal "short term memory" for names and faces. You could always use the normal contact list for contacts beyond those 10. Or, simply click on the link to their profile (which you will have if they are present in your location) and then add them as a normal contact. Adding a TC to your normal contact list would remove them as a TC, freeing up space in you TC list for more TCs.  Swiers 22:35, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

   Well...Maybe you could change it to 15? I won't complain about that number... --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 14:05, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

4. Keep - It all makes sense now... sounds good --Ryiis 22:40, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
5. keep - I've been watching this all the way through it's development, and I've just seen it get steadily better to be honest. --Seventythree^Talk 22:42, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
6. Keep - Pretty good. Takes away the "delete" step from the mundane task of "Add to contacts, kill/revive, and (when safe) delete from contacts. The delete part gets to be a pain when you've got 100 names to scroll through to find the one you don't want. But, I think you should be able to see people in your temp list, though, so as to admire their description when you have time later, or to transfer them to your regular contacts if you decide you want them there after all. Naturally, the temp list should be separated from your normal contacts to prevent jumbling. --Ms.Panes 00:11, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
7. Keep - I like it, liked it through development, like it now. Acoustic Pie 00:12, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
8. Handy --Jon Pyre 00:49, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
9. Keep Sure why not. Great for when you're going to revive a zombie. --Darth Lumis^{T! A! E! SR} 01:53, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
10. Keep - Why not? --TriPolarClicky! 05:13, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
11. Keep - very useful! i'm often adding a contact only to remove it in few minutes (when serving revive queue) --~~~~ [talk] 07:10, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
12. Keep - I can only see it being useful for survivors. But still, why not? Believable too - I mean you should be to recognize a zombie if it clawed you a few minutes ago. -- John Rubin^{T! ZG} 10:17, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
13. Keep - sure--Corndoghero^T-S-Z 14:28, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
14. Keep - Sure --Heretic144 19:32, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
15. Keep - Useful, especially for revivers or those visiting new places. --Uncle Bill 22:41, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
16. Keep - -- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 22:28, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
17. Keep - rather unimportant but yeah why not. ---the wallaby^♥ 11:39, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
18. Cool - Pardus 11:34, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
19. Keep - Because it really, really sucks to find out that the rotter you were trying to get out of the way at an RP wasn't the zombie you just wasted two pistols on. --Howard Bentley 04:05, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
20. Keep - Yep. --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 14:14, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
21. Big Keep - I keep busting the 150 contacts limit.--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 14:42, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
22. Big Keep - But I ask that the list be viewable and editable, so we can truely choose just how temporary they are.--Kolechovski 15:00, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
23. Keep/Small Change - I love it all except for where it says you can't colorize the temporary contacts. --Hhal 18:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Kill Votes

1. Kill - Too complex, and makes it even easier to accidentally go over the server hit limit. --Pgunn 08:47, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
2. Weak Kill / Change - I fully support the rationale behind this suggestion, but I have an easier way... Simply make it that as long as you stay on the same block, any characters who have been revealed to you while there show up in the descriptions as if they were on your contacts list... until you leave that block. Automatically. Thus, no need for extra buttons or special contact lists or any such "complications". --WanYao 10:50, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

   That was in fact the idea I proposed on the Talk:Suggestions page. After discussion, I concluded that such a mechanic, while not technically granting any new information, is the sort of interface improvement that could unfairly benefit survivors in real time combat situations. This version intentionally requires the same number of steps to gain the benefit of seeing a contact; it is mostly intended to simplify the process of getting rid of unwanted contacts.  Swiers 21:09, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

3. Kill - changed from spam. -- Jack13 17:08, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
4. Kill - I don't like this, it is geared almost exclusively towards survivor recognition of zombies, and it's main use would be to make it easier to kill off "casual" rotters or other persona non gratis at revive points. To much of an erosion of zombie anonymity for mine -- boxy ^{talk • i} 10:10 8 January 2008 (BST)
5. Kill - Its nice having anonymous zombies. Inky 20:46, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. Spam - over-complicates a relatively simple system by layering it. --Funt Solo ^QT 23:09, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

   Layering implies that one can't be used without the other, which (to clarify for other voters) is untrue in both directions. And while it does add complexity (as does almost any suggestion) it would likely reduce server load by reducing the number of useless contacts sitting on people's contact lists.  Swiers 23:44, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

2. Spam - Overpowered and the limits are a joke. You've basically just suggested adding 10 slots to the contacts list permanently, no temporary about it as there is no expiration time. Not to mention that it is a huge buff to revives as body cycling/dumping is now completely unnecessary, same with DNA extracting.--Karek^maps?! 05:27, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

   You are extrapolating a huge bonus from a minor convenience. People aren't gonna get any smarter just because the contact list is easier to use. For example, the majority of survivors still hunt zombies out side, right? So yeah, they are still gonna dump dead bodies. And this makes no change to the fact that if you show up at a revive point that's jammed by a rotter, you can't scan anybody... which means you can't get any profiles to add as contacts, no matter what the contact mechanic is.  Swiers 21:05, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

   You are dismissing what I'm saying without thinking it through. As the game currently stands the people that think before they act are the most dangerous to zombies, making things far better for them is a bad thing, especially when it means you make the already efficient people more efficient.--Karek^maps?! 05:06, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

   Spam - Just plain spam. Use your short-term memory. -- Jack13 17:05, 28 December 2007 (UTC)