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.
"I think I'm fine. Payback, Francis, Andrew, you guys okay?
Francis, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO NAP.
And yes Cha0zz, we might as well check them out now we're here."
Well, that went worse than expected.
I'll land my ship on its new treads, give my casket a quick lookover to check for damage, drive to the entrance of the canyon and have a peek towards the wrecks there.
When enemies are spotted, I'll get in cover, shoot one with my electrolaser and shoot one with my quantum cannon. If there's a group of them, fire a flechette bomb at them.
If I'm hungry, eat a battery.
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".
"I think I'm fine. Payback, Francis, Andrew, you guys okay?
Francis, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO NAP.
And yes Cha0zz, we might as well check them out now we're here."
Well, that went worse than expected.
I'll land my ship on its new treads,
give my casket a quick lookover to check for damage,
drive to the entrance of the canyon
and have a peek towards the wrecks there.
When enemies are spotted,
I'll get in cover,
shoot one with my electrolaser
and shoot one with my quantum cannon.
If there's a group of them,
fire a flechette bomb at them.
If I'm hungry,
eat a battery.
Step 3: Everything that depends on our first condition gets a dash.
"I think I'm fine. Payback, Francis, Andrew, you guys okay?
Francis, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO NAP.
And yes Cha0zz, we might as well check them out now we're here."
Well, that went worse than expected.
I'll land my ship on its new treads,
give my casket a quick lookover to check for damage,
drive to the entrance of the canyon
and have a peek towards the wrecks there.
When enemies are spotted,
-I'll get in cover,
-shoot one with my electrolaser
-and shoot one with my quantum cannon.
-If there's a group of them,
-fire a flechette bomb at them.
If I'm hungry,
eat a battery
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.
"I think I'm fine. Payback, Francis, Andrew, you guys okay?
Francis, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO NAP.
And yes Cha0zz, we might as well check them out now we're here."
Well, that went worse than expected.
I'll land my ship on its new treads,
give my casket a quick lookover to check for damage,
drive to the entrance of the canyon
and have a peek towards the wrecks there.
When enemies are spotted,
-I'll get in cover,
-shoot one with my electrolaser
-and shoot one with my quantum cannon.
-If there's a group of them,
--fire a flechette bomb at them.
If I'm hungry,
eat a battery
Step 5: repeat for the next action, etc.
"I think I'm fine. Payback, Francis, Andrew, you guys okay?
Francis, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO NAP.
And yes Cha0zz, we might as well check them out now we're here."
Well, that went worse than expected.
I'll land my ship on its new treads,
give my casket a quick lookover to check for damage,
drive to the entrance of the canyon
and have a peek towards the wrecks there.
When enemies are spotted,
-I'll get in cover,
-shoot one with my electrolaser
-and shoot one with my quantum cannon.
-If there's a group of them,
--fire a flechette bomb at them.
If I'm hungry,
-eat a battery
Congratulations, you now have a properly formatted post!
This would turn this:
"Tonon, Doc, Aliss and whoever else is still inside the science vessel, we really could use some back-up here..."
"Kai'isha, it seems the Doctor is...asleep? Eh? Can you give him anti-shock meds from your medkit? He might not be the nicest, but I'm not planning on leaving anyone behind. After that you can patch up people and help them to their ship if needed. And if you think it's safe, maybe you can try to recover Taepilus? Aliss, can you help her with that? You can put his head in one of our cargo pods. "
First, I'll crawl towards exosuitguy and cut of the interesting / weapony parts of his suit with the electron sword and stuff them in my backpack.
Then I'll throw Hema's sword (turned off) back towards the door of the hallway.
Then I crawl back to the objective, and I'll take my crossbow out of my backpack, and if the plasma streamer is kaput from those blasts my electrorifle too.
Then, staying in cover, I'll fire my weapons (explosive bolt for the crossbow, then plasma streamer/plasma rifle, then plasma rifle/electrorifle) at the mimir goons (prefer those threatening friendlies) and hope they don't want to shoot me for risk of hitting whatever this thing is I'm sitting behind.
When the shieldmaiden is arrived and the shield is down:
First, I take the beacon from my hip and enable it with the switch on the bottom, grip the upper and lower halves firmly, and turn in one-half rotation (180 degrees). Then I peel off the chemical strip on one side which I will now be able to get to, and quickly press it against the objective so it welds itself on.
(( ))
Then I limp towards the end of the hangar, scoop up the plasma bomb launcher near Aegagrus on the way and jump from the edge to the shieldmaiden, using crossbow+cable reel to get in if needed, and let Squidhead fix my suit and leg. While in a vacuum/lowered pressure, use hands to try and keep air in my suit.
Into this:
"Tonon, Doc, Aliss and whoever else is still inside the science vessel, we really could use some back-up here..."
"Kai'isha, it seems the Doctor is...asleep? Eh? Can you give him anti-shock meds from your medkit? He might not be the nicest, but I'm not planning on leaving anyone behind. After that you can patch up people and help them to their ship if needed. And if you think it's safe, maybe you can try to recover Taepilus?"
"Aliss, can you help her with that? You can put his head in one of our cargo pods. "
First, I'll crawl towards exosuitguy
and cut of the interesting / weapony parts of his suit with the electron sword
and stuff them in my backpack.
Then I'll throw Hema's sword (turned off) back towards the door of the hallway.
Then I crawl back to the objective,
and I'll take my crossbow out of my backpack,
and if the plasma streamer is kaput from those blasts
- take my electrorifle too.
Then, staying in cover, I'll fire my and explosive bolt for the crossbow,
then fire my plasma streamer/plasma rifle,
then fire plasma rifle/electrorifle) at the mimir goons (prefer those threatening friendlies)
and hope they don't want to shoot me for risk of hitting whatever this thing is I'm sitting behind.
When the shieldmaiden is arrived and the shield is down:
-First, I take the beacon from my hip and enable it with the switch on the bottom, grip the upper and lower halves firmly, and turn in one-half rotation (180 degrees). Then I peel off the chemical strip on one side which I will now be able to get to, and quickly press it against the objective so it welds itself on.
(( ))
-Then I limp towards the end of the hangar,
-scoop up the plasma bomb launcher near Aegagrus on the way
-and jump from the edge to the shieldmaide (using crossbow+cable reel to get in if needed)
-and let Squidhead fix my suit and leg.
While in a vacuum/lowered pressure,
-use hands to try and keep air in my suit.
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?