REKT Turns: The Formatting
Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 4:06 pm
Building off an IRC convo.
TLDR: Tal curently spends 2 to 3 hours every update just putting our turns into his spreadsheet.
We had the idea that this could be mostly automated IF we all format our posts properly and consistently.
Don't start grumbling at me for that, Tal spends HOURS on this, the least we can do is spend 5 minutes a week to make his work lighter.
So, idea for formatting:
((OOC)) (ignored for actions)
internal dialogue (ignored for actions)
"Conversation" (ignored for actions)
whatever you want (ignored for actions)
"Command"
Action (1 per line)
Next action (important note about it the GM has to see)
Next next action
If condition:
-then do stuff
else if other condition:
-action
-if yet another condition:
--action
When/while condition:
-do stuff
-do more stuff
Including the name of your weapon in your attack action would be very helpful
As would including clear keywords:
if for conditions
when or while for things that could happen at any point
else/otherwise/if not for else conditions
shoot/fire/attack/slash/... for attacks
take/switch/drop/pick up for taking and switching gear
get in+ship/get out+ship for dismounting and getting back in
reload for reloading (duh)
etc.
Also, I strongly prefer
Do A
and B
over
Do A and do B
I can make it split on "and" (and probably will) but and is not always used for 2 actions, so that's still ambiguous.
Dino's expanded guide to writing a formatted post
Step 1: write your post like you would without formatting. Make sure :
* actions are underlined and
* commands are underlined and between ""
* things that are not actions are not underlined. Formatting should not restrict roleplay. Play all the roles. Everything that isn't underlined is simply ignored by the program.
Step 2: put a return after each action. An action is a thing you do. shooting, getting out of your ship, scanning, whatever.
Also put a return after each condition. Conditions in my example are "when enemies are spotted", "if there"s a group of them", "if I'm hungry".
Step 3: Everything that depends on our first condition gets a dash.
Step 4: Everything that depends on our second condition also gets a dash. In this case, the second condition depended on the first, so that means two dashes.
Step 5: repeat for the next action, etc.
Congratulations, you now have a properly formatted post!
This would turn this:
Into this:
If we do that, I think I can write a Python webscraper that at least automates 90% of the work of putting this in a spreadsheet.
Thoughts?
TLDR: Tal curently spends 2 to 3 hours every update just putting our turns into his spreadsheet.
We had the idea that this could be mostly automated IF we all format our posts properly and consistently.
Don't start grumbling at me for that, Tal spends HOURS on this, the least we can do is spend 5 minutes a week to make his work lighter.
So, idea for formatting:
((OOC)) (ignored for actions)
internal dialogue (ignored for actions)
"Conversation" (ignored for actions)
whatever you want (ignored for actions)
"Command"
Action (1 per line)
Next action (important note about it the GM has to see)
Next next action
If condition:
-then do stuff
else if other condition:
-action
-if yet another condition:
--action
When/while condition:
-do stuff
-do more stuff
Including the name of your weapon in your attack action would be very helpful
As would including clear keywords:
if for conditions
when or while for things that could happen at any point
else/otherwise/if not for else conditions
shoot/fire/attack/slash/... for attacks
take/switch/drop/pick up for taking and switching gear
get in+ship/get out+ship for dismounting and getting back in
reload for reloading (duh)
etc.
Also, I strongly prefer
Do A
and B
over
Do A and do B
I can make it split on "and" (and probably will) but and is not always used for 2 actions, so that's still ambiguous.
Dino's expanded guide to writing a formatted post
Step 1: write your post like you would without formatting. Make sure :
* actions are underlined and
* commands are underlined and between ""
* things that are not actions are not underlined. Formatting should not restrict roleplay. Play all the roles. Everything that isn't underlined is simply ignored by the program.
Spoiler: SHOW
Also put a return after each condition. Conditions in my example are "when enemies are spotted", "if there"s a group of them", "if I'm hungry".
Spoiler: SHOW
Spoiler: SHOW
Spoiler: SHOW
Spoiler: SHOW
This would turn this:
Spoiler: SHOW
Spoiler: SHOW
Thoughts?