Allow posting of papers to the signboard

[Anthaxious]

Because of how the signboard works, it's inherently not user friendly.

Players have gotten around this by using some ingenuity to simply place the sheets and notices beside the signboard. This allows the other players to read the notices from afar, without needing to walk up to the signboard, also it avoids that awful clunky conversation window that NWN uses.



Of course, while this works functionally, it looks awful

I'm suggesting that we have a new item, (hammer & nails) that allows the users to nail things to the signboard.

The script for that item would allow the visual transform of the placed paper to line up with the signboard in a visually appealing way.

See my example below (basic script, took less than 5 minutes to toss together):

[Lucadia]

Players should use the notice board as intended. There even a function that copies your note to signs and notice boards now, it was never intended for players to litter a place putting on the ground, so  I don't agree with making it more (tacky).

[Anthaxious]

Players should use the notice board as intended. There even a function that copies your note to signs and notice boards now, it was never intended for players to litter a place putting on the ground, so  I don't agree with making it more (tacky).

You can say that all you want, but the truth of the matter is, as I stated in my original post, the way the signboard works now is in no way user friendly. As a developer, I am painfully aware that if a feature is not designed well, users will never use it

[myrddraal]

Players should use the notice board as intended. There even a function that copies your note to signs and notice boards now, it was never intended for players to litter a place putting on the ground, so  I don't agree with making it more (tacky).

You can say that all you want, but the truth of the matter is, as I stated in my original post, the way the signboard works now is in no way user friendly. As a developer, I am painfully aware that if a feature is not designed well, users will never use it

One of the main problems with what you suggested is that in places like the Port, Vallaki, and underworld boards they will also have bounties, summons, announcements, etc which will flood the board and make all of them unreadable and indistinguishable.

[Anthaxious]

Players should use the notice board as intended. There even a function that copies your note to signs and notice boards now, it was never intended for players to litter a place putting on the ground, so  I don't agree with making it more (tacky).

You can say that all you want, but the truth of the matter is, as I stated in my original post, the way the signboard works now is in no way user friendly. As a developer, I am painfully aware that if a feature is not designed well, users will never use it

One of the main problems with what you suggested is that in places like the Port, Vallaki, and underworld boards they will also have bounties, summons, announcements, etc which will flood the board and make all of them unreadable and indistinguishable.

That is not at all my suggestion. The hammer and nail would only ever post the poster to the signboard the character uses it on. It would not, and would not make any sense, for it to post sheets on other signboards the character is nowhere near.

[i stole this username (slash)]

The script for that item would allow the visual transform of the placed paper to line up with the signboard in a visually appealing way.

See my example below (basic script, took less than 5 minutes to toss together):

I think using a discord attachment link may have broken the functionality of your gif, but the functionality of the noticeboard aside, this is super cool! I would so love to see this implemented.

[goFigure...]

Hey, I just want to comment that this looks pretty nifty and I'm slightly impressed. The .gif works fine on my end.

[zDark Shadowz]

If people are just going to drop notices anyway; elegant. Looks cool.

Is the character still able to pick up these papers or does the height / placeable object hitbox get in the way at all? I suppose it doesn't matter too much when other unique items can still target it if it's otherwise unreachable. Just thinking about when the rng of placement causes overlap and someone wants to try placing it in a slightly different location.

[Madame Trousers Son]

This looks very cool, yes.

[Anthaxious]

If people are just going to drop notices anyway; elegant. Looks cool.

Is the character still able to pick up these papers or does the height / placeable object hitbox get in the way at all? I suppose it doesn't matter too much when other unique items can still target it if it's otherwise unreachable. Just thinking about when the rng of placement causes overlap and someone wants to try placing it in a slightly different location.

The character can simply click the sheet to pick it back up. Yes.

[WitchOfTheCity]

Very cool. +1

Except for the hammer - if implemented, I think it should override current behaviour of using the paper on the board

What about managing space? ie. what if I am posting to a board that is already full?

[Maiyannah]

The problem with this kind of script is something that you "as a developer" should already know: it is a nightmare to maintain, and it is a nightmare to fix if it goes wrong.

Moreover, this would result in noticeboards where the notices do not persist over resets.

[Madame Trousers Son]

What do you mean by "these kinds of scripts"? Are you talking about NWN placeable scripts? Because otherwise your criticism doesn't really make sense, since there already exist noticeboard GUI scripts. Your tone is also completely unnecessarily snarky, there's no need to question Anthaxious's programming credentials because he proposes a more complicated GUI for an already existing system.

[Maiyannah]

What do you mean by "these kinds of scripts"? Are you talking about NWN placeable scripts? Because otherwise your criticism doesn't really make sense, since there already exist noticeboard GUI scripts. Your tone is also completely unnecessarily snarky, there's no need to question Anthaxious's programming credentials because he proposes a more complicated GUI for an already existing system.

Specifically, things using visualtransform are a nightmare to debug.  Which is something anyone whom has had to debug a script which changes visualtransform would know.

[Madame Trousers Son]

Okay, your criticism is clearer now.

On the reset point: technically the only information not being saved currently would be the placeable coordinates of each notice. That would be an extra thing to add to the database, or there'd have to be a work around. Either way that is a complication., though perhaps not an unsurmountable one.

[Anthaxious]

These are not placeables, and they would not survive a server reset.

Still, that's not the problem I'm trying to solve here. The laying of sheets next to the signboard is the problem I'm trying to solve.

The visual transformation debugging is not difficult, like I said, I took a whole of five minutes to put this together. It works dynamically with any signboard anywhere, the hard part is already done (it wasn't even hard.)

[Anthaxious]

The problem with this kind of script is something that you "as a developer" should already know: it is a nightmare to maintain, and it is a nightmare to fix if it goes wrong.

Moreover, this would result in noticeboards where the notices do not persist over resets.

It's not a nightmare to maintain this. This is an incredibly simple script, and it achieves the exact result I was looking to achieve.

I have no interest in working with the way the noticeboards have been setup to 'persist' over resets, no one uses that feature, if you've played the server you'd know this.

[bunnie]

this is rad thank u anthaxious

does it really matter if they survive a server reset? if we're just trying to solve the issue of people putting papers on the ground (which looks silly), they already disappear on server reset and get put right back down. this just looks better.

just use both systems idk, it improves what we already have

[Anthaxious]

this is rad thank u anthaxious

does it really matter if they survive a server reset? if we're just trying to solve the issue of people putting papers on the ground (which looks silly), they already disappear on server reset and get put right back down. this just looks better.

just use both systems idk, it improves what we already have

👏 you get it.

[hobbknacass]

I'm very much in favor of this. Only issue I'd find is if people can place one over the other to where it gets a bit too cluttered, which would be realistic, so I'm not downplaying that. Of course, people will still put paper on the floor with this, but I think that this is certainly an improvement for the server.

[Maiyannah]

I have no interest in working with the way the noticeboards have been setup to 'persist' over resets, no one uses that feature, if you've played the server you'd know this.

I guess all those notices the Church of Ezra puts on there doesn't count because it doesn't support your narrative.

[Anthaxious]

I have no interest in working with the way the noticeboards have been setup to 'persist' over resets, no one uses that feature, if you've played the server you'd know this.

I guess all those notices the Church of Ezra puts on there doesn't count because it doesn't support your narrative.

This strange hostility towards a feature that serves to improve the experience for players is perplexing. You can certainly post your papers to the MC board the same way anyone else could with this feature implemented.

The notices you post with the current "signboard" feature that uses some backend database, and requires people to walk up close to the signboard and engage an NWN conversation window; almost nobody uses that. It is clearly evidenced by the scattered papers around the board itself.

[apeppertoo]

Yeah it's not a narrative. Preferences are revealed by player behavior. Much as I sympathize with whoever put together the current system it was ill-advised from the start considering how much less convenient it is for the end-user even given it persists between resets.

[FinalHeaven]

I've a bit more of a hardline stance in that I feel the current system should just be made better and less restrictive and once that is done notices posted on the ground should be swept up like trash.

I do like this system visually, Anthaxious, but given the hardline stance above I'd personally rather see it address resets and persistency as well.

Properly functioning and non restrictive (within reason) notice boards have existed on NWN long before EE. Particularly now with NUI you can make some really cool stuff.

[EO]

It's an interesting visual take but how would you address the possibility of adding dozens, if not hundreds, of notices? Such board would become essentially unusable (not to mention performance-affecting).