Message Board(s)

stormlord · #1 05-13-2010, 12:36 PM

Anybody remember when the message boards were operational? You can still find them in some of the inn's and taverns in different cities. They operate in much the same way that they do in ultima online. If you're not familiar with UO, they were boards on the walls of banks in the different cities that players could use to post messages. The difference in UO was that the auto-task system used them, and the bounty system had its own board too in the same vicinity. In EQ, it just allowed you to post messages.

If they were active pre-luclin, will they be made available?

Reason I ask is that, as a potential crafter at some point, I could use them to post my services in the local area without having to use these forums (which I don't want to use for this purpose). These forums don't give me the "immersive" feeling. Ya, I hate spamming on boards, but: a) that could be controlled with a better system b) I can ignore the spam and just pretend they're lunatics like i would in real life. Anyway, message boards have my vote, if they're planned.

Bumamgar · #2 05-13-2010, 12:39 PM

I remember them working in classic. I don't know if they ever stopped working, but I also know they were nearly never used and doubt they'd be used here on p1999 even if they did work.

I know they certainly aren't even on my mind of 'places to find a crafter' [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

km2783 · #3 05-13-2010, 12:43 PM

i remember those!

never, ever remembered to even try to check them

stormlord · #4 05-13-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by km2783 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

i remember those!

never, ever remembered to even try to check them

In my view, they're just a way to give an area more definition (like a who's who). They were used, but infrequently. And when you're bored and wandering around town, they're a good diversion to keep you entertained for a minute or two.

And since people have this forum and /auction as alternatives, their presence shouldn't be a threat to anyone.

stormlord · #5 05-13-2010, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bumamgar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I remember them working in classic. I don't know if they ever stopped working, but I also know they were nearly never used and doubt they'd be used here on p1999 even if they did work.

I know they certainly aren't even on my mind of 'places to find a crafter' [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't remember whether they worked in 1999 or 2000-01 (when I played).

I do remember using them and others using them [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] (ya, not a lot of people though)

They give me something to do in the inns and taverns that's somewhat in-character. I like things to do.

I remember seeing one in high-pass and being surprised that there were even messages on it. It felt all alone there!

Malrubius · #6 05-13-2010, 03:58 PM

Loved the message boards, but not sure they could be implemented here.

Are they useful or practical? No, it's a game, it doesn't matter if they're practical or not. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Anyway, I'd love to see them here.

FatMagic · #7 05-13-2010, 04:05 PM

I think it would be a sweet idea... but why do I have the feeling it would just turn into a Rants & Flames board and not something that really would add that "EQ Feel" to the game? Or maybe that's what people want on the boards - hah I dunno!

km2783 · #8 05-13-2010, 04:22 PM

I could see "l33t dewds" taunting each other on them, definitely.

A "classic RP" server might get more legitamite use, but I highly doubt there is enough interest in such a server hehe

lumin · #9 05-13-2010, 04:27 PM

Wow, getting these to work again is a great idea.

I really think that the "East Commonlands Tunnel" and "Guild Discussion" thread should be completely closed down and the Message Boards feature should be used in the game instead.

This is one thing that I think would make the taverns and inns actually be used for something. Wouldn't it be awesome to actually see players meeting up in the inns to form groups, sell loot, and recruit guilds? I think it would beat the heck out of posting it on lame forum threads.

stormlord · #10 05-13-2010, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wow, getting these to work again is a great idea.

I really think that the "East Commonlands Tunnel" and "Guild Discussion" thread should be completely closed down and the Message Boards feature should be used in the game instead.

This is one thing that I think would make the taverns and inns actually be used for something. Wouldn't it be awesome to actually see players meeting up in the inns to form groups, sell loot, and recruit guilds? I think it would beat the heck out of posting it on lame forum threads.

Amen. Taverns and Inns in EQ are kind of boring. I wish there were more things to do in them. It's "almost" fun to just sit (stand in place) and listen to non-players. Sometimes you can find quests that way (some quests work like this). There's so much that could be done to make them livelier and a better meeting place. Then again, it should all be an option, not a necessity.

The in-game message boards were nothing special. No edit command. Interface was probably slow. They don't have all the features that these forums do. So anything feature-rich would not be classic-compliant. If it was feature-rich and it was allowed to exist, it would threaten these forums and even /auction. Personally, I would rather see it stay simple and non-threatening the way it was. That way it doesn't change the game in big ways. Easier to implement too.

Has there been a poll about this? Have any of hte big names said anything? If this really happened in 1999, then I'm surprised that it's not operating. How hard is it to make a k.i.s.s message board system? Probably not hard, and I program as a hobby. On the other hand, this would require a good bit of networking code and interface work. In my experience, that can be confusing, but that's probably because I don't like to touch networking code. For a new project coder, it would be way too much.

So you see.. on the server side we would have something like:

1) Store the posts in a series of file(s) like: qeynos.bbs, freeport.bbs, highpass.bbs.
2) When player clicks on BBS, the server loads the file and sends the information to the client.
3) When player clicks add button, server runs the bbs add_post command.
4) When player clicks update button, server sends a fresh copy of the bbs information back to the client.
.....

Etc. Something like that, but I'm missing a lot of stuff. Might want to break up the files into 10 posts each or something to reduce loading time and saving time and download length. You'd want to save with each change because if hte server crashes then you'd lose the bbs changes. The amount of traffic would probably be small since most people wouldn't be using it.

If you don't already have a system in place like this, it would take a while to get it working. Almost impossible for someone that's new because they don't even know the organization of the server/client code yet. I've worked with an open source client/server type project, and it was very very confusing. Can you say 200+ project files, couple different projects tied together, and cryptic code and wondering how it all comes together? It's not easy! At first, it's like reading chinese. Several months of constant browsing and tweaking to get anywhere. Depends on the project, and on what you spend your time doing. That's one of hte biggest hurdles for a project is to find a coder that can dedicate enough time to get things done.