Communications (Gameside) Tech development thread

[East Malaysia]

I didn't see anything in this thread or anything recent in the Technical forum... I'm sure it has been brought up before but how possible would it be to give TGs the same level of formatting options as dispatches? If so then that would really level them up from being boring to fun. I would make a supplementary suggestion along with that to restrict links in them to only NS-based links and no images.

[Esternial]

I didn't see anything in this thread or anything recent in the Technical forum... I'm sure it has been brought up before but how possible would it be to give TGs the same level of formatting options as dispatches? If so then that would really level them up from being boring to fun. I would make a supplementary suggestion along with that to restrict links in them to only NS-based links and no images.

I would say some images might enrich the "TGing experience".

It might be a nice QoL feature to allow nations to set a seal of some sorts (or derive it from the flag) and allow them to optionally include some sort of letterhead in the Telegrams by ticking a box prior to sending out the Telegram. Could add a bit of subtle immersion.

[Haganham]

I'm tepid on this.
On one hand i'd love to be able to make more stylish telegrams, on the other I know that some people have no taste. RMBs and dispatches you can avoid. Teles not so much.

[Twertis]

3 times a day for muting isn’t nearly enough. When spammers are muted, they create a new nation.

The argument I’ve heard against muting is that it prevents illegitimate governments in GCRs and founderless regions from abusing power. But the state of gameplay at present (and for the vast foreseeable future) precludes the necessity to assist anti-coup actors and defenders.

I would also be very against turning the RMBs into a kind of mini forum. It simply doesn’t fit the purpose and style.

Perhaps a kind of news section, similar to NS++? It would be near identical to dispatches, but you subscribe to newspapers and the results are formatted like a newspaper would be. Sort of like a news aggregator (and maybe notifier as well).

[Haganham]

"Hide quotes of Foe'd user" is already on the feature wishlist for the new forum.

Would it be possible to add a Width attribute on things like images, boxes and sidebars?
On images it would help with being able to just resize them to what is needed and with boxes and sidebars it could allow for automatic text wrapping.

Not too sure on this, especially since that sort of resizing of an image doesn't actually change how big the data is. With how many people access the site via mobile device these days, I don't think we want to be building in a convenient way for somebody to make a sneaky "waste somebody's mobile data" thing, similar to how we don't permit videos to be embedded. Boxes and sidebars are a maybe, it depends on what the new forum's NScode will be like. NSCode isn't quite as limited as BBCode is, but it still can't go full-on HTML customizeable.

I know that this is from the forum dev thread, but this is even more an issue for dispatch authors, us tending to use a lot more images and fancy bbcode. With content becoming more prettified(that's the technical term) it would be very convenient not to have to upload, resize, the same images over and over to get the formatting to workout right. It would also be nice to be able to reuse image assets without needing to resize them.

I get the concern about data use but it is a lot easier to avoid someone's dispatch's then forum posts. I also don't think data use will be as relevant in the future. The price of mobile data use is falling fast, and more people are switching to unlimited plans anyway.

[Wormfodder Delivery]

Maybe have these auto add bbcode buttons we have in the forums available on Factbooks and Telegrams?
Also with a colorpicker on hand so we can work a bit quicker?

[Algebra and Geometry]

Allow ROs with the communications ability to mute and unmute a player (maximum of three mutes per day). These mutes will prevent a nation from posting on the RMB much like site mods can temporarily lock an RMB or issue RMB bans to offending players.

I think a foe button on the RMB board of regions may look nice , why can't we have a RMB moderator bot guys , that would be nice for countering spams/ multiposting.

[Bassiliya]

Allow ROs with the communications ability to mute and unmute a player (maximum of three mutes per day). These mutes will prevent a nation from posting on the RMB much like site mods can temporarily lock an RMB or issue RMB bans to offending players.

I think a foe button on the RMB board of regions may look nice , why can't we have a RMB moderator bot guys , that would be nice for countering spams/ multiposting.

Feel free to begin coding one yourself! Plenty of ways to implement that.

[unrelated]

All of these suggestions are great. Do we have any update on which ones will be considered and when they could be implemented? I haven't seen any official post from the dedicated game developer on this forum in over a month, despite the number of suggestions made and their quality. Some of these suggestions are actually really good ones that would improve the game for both rolplayers and gameplayers.

[Frisbeeteria]

Do we have any update on which ones will be considered and when they could be implemented?

Nope. This is an ideas thread, not a development schedule thread.

Some of these suggestions are actually really good ones that would improve the game for both rolplayers and gameplayers.

Indeed, but our volunteer developer time is extremely limited. A lot of that is consumed by routine maintenance and backstage stuff (i.e. talking to our host about hardware about to fail; improving security and backup locations, etc.).

I haven't seen any official post from the dedicated game developer on this forum in over a month,

And you probably won't. NS development has always moved at a glacial pace. We added Development Managers to put some of the communication load on moderators; to leave the admins free to develop stuff. There are several small improvements already. The bigger ones take time. Lots more time.

[Gorundu]

A radical new idea: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=510059

[Bassiliya]

What about an option for people to be able to edit polls after they've been posted?

[Haganham]

What about an option for people to be able to edit polls after they've been posted?

that would be abusable

[Bassiliya]

What about an option for people to be able to edit polls after they've been posted?

that would be abusable

In what way? I mean, sure, elections and things (you shouldn't be using polls for elections in the first place), but I should have clarified. Not change the options, but edit the description.

[Frisbeeteria]

that would be abusable

In what way?

So If I post a Genocide poll that offers two choices:

1. Yes! (I support genocide prevention measures )
2. No! (Genocide isn't a thing anymore)

I can the descriptions to

1. Yes!(I support genocide for any reason)
2. No! (Genocide needs to be reserved for ethnic cleansing)

That would be fine?

[Esternial]

In what way?

So If I post a Genocide poll that offers two choices:

1. Yes! (I support genocide prevention measures )
2. No! (Genocide isn't a thing anymore)

I can the descriptions to

1. Yes!(I support genocide for any reason)
2. No! (Genocide needs to be reserved for ethnic cleansing)

That would be fine?

Also, can't you already change polls? You'd just reset the votes, which is fair.

Making changes at all to what someone voted for is no different than editing their post, isn't it? You as an OP making alterations, even in good faith (e.g. to clarify things) can still result in a change in how some people interpreted your option.

[Bassiliya]

In what way?

So If I post a Genocide poll that offers two choices:

1. Yes! (I support genocide prevention measures )
2. No! (Genocide isn't a thing anymore)

I can the descriptions to

1. Yes!(I support genocide for any reason)
2. No! (Genocide needs to be reserved for ethnic cleansing)

That would be fine?

I specified in my last post what I was thinking. Don't take my words out of context, thanks.

[Phydios]

So If I post a Genocide poll that offers two choices:

1. Yes! (I support genocide prevention measures )
2. No! (Genocide isn't a thing anymore)

I can the descriptions to

1. Yes!(I support genocide for any reason)
2. No! (Genocide needs to be reserved for ethnic cleansing)

That would be fine?

I specified in my last post what I was thinking. Don't take my words out of context, thanks.

I don't think he did. I think you two are using "description" to mean different things. Do you mean editing the poll's question?

[Bassiliya]

I specified in my last post what I was thinking. Don't take my words out of context, thanks.

I don't think he did. I think you two are using "description" to mean different things. Do you mean editing the poll's question?

Description, not options. The description is not the options; those two things are fundamentally different. I even specified in that post that I wanted the description to be edited, not the options

Either way, I think being able to edit the description (not the options) should be an option. In addition, a poll description (or text if you want to use the site's designation) preview should be available too, in the same way you can see WFE and dispatch previews.

[Trotterdam]

Editing other parts of the poll without editing the options could still very easily mislead what people actually voted for, especially when it comes to "Yes"/"No" questions.

[Bassiliya]

Editing other parts of the poll without editing the options could still very easily mislead what people actually voted for, especially when it comes to "Yes"/"No" questions.

The solution there is to a) not have bad polls that aren't clear or unique on the options (like yes or no polls) or b) only allow people you trust to be ROs.

[South Americanastan]

Add an [embed] tag, allowing players to embed videos in a dispatch or factbook.

I don’t know how hard this would be to code, and apologies if it’s actually just impossible.

[Frisbeeteria]

I don’t know how hard this would be to code

It's probably not that hard to code. We've just made choices about not wanting embedded videos and music players. It's a text game that's open to anyone with an internet connection. Video and music files can force file download problems for people with slower connections, so we chose to go with mostly text. Even image sizes are limited for that reason.

[South Americanastan]

I don’t know how hard this would be to code

It's probably not that hard to code. We've just made choices about not wanting embedded videos and music players. It's a text game that's open to anyone with an internet connection. Video and music files can force file download problems for people with slower connections, so we chose to go with mostly text. Even image sizes are limited for that reason.

I'm not sure if it would result in download problems too, but I was more thinking embedding a YouTube video, something like this:



Disregard the topic, Forgotten Weapons is the only site I could distinctly remember having it.

[Bears Armed]

What would that do to players who access NS using their phones and have limited 'data' allowances?

[South Americanastan]

What would that do to players who access NS using their phones and have limited 'data' allowances?

I would suggest putting a data cap on it, similar to Discord's 8mb cap, or maybe slightly higher.