Configurable/Permable Hot Keys?

[Tora]

This feature request comes from two annoying instances of the hot keys changing on me. There might be more, but the two I've run into:

Traveling to Glukmoore is always [O] and Glorfindal is [G] UNLESS you are in Glorfindal. Then [G] moves to Glukmoore. -- this gets annoying at (that special time when you travel to everytown, everyday because you want game secret stuff)

Also relating to Glukmoore, the Gardens, normally [G], changes to [R]. I've accidentelly walked in Booger's Spa a number of times.

Would it be possible to make these things have permanet Keys (like the Bank is always [B], Forest is always[F], etc.)

Configurable hot keys would be nice too-but I'd imagine quite an undertaking in the session/cookie/php/javascript end of things.

[JCP]

The answer is going to be no.

Why? Because we use dynamic hotkeys, which means that the game finds the hotkeys in the navs itself. It is quite a pain to add permanent links that are 'perfect'. Even for the ones you've mentioned, such as the bank, the coders have to be very careful about what goes in the navs where the bank would be.

And the city names are all variables. Which means that if we do add a permanent hotlink based on the letter "g" or "o", it is entirely possible to change the variable name from Glorfindal to Elfdale and the hotlinks no longer make sense.

And before anyone gets any bright ideas about changing the names, I am very unwilling to do so. For the most part, I feel it is our responsibility as the central server to run as many default variables as possible.

Having the names and hotlinks be affected like that is a good demonstration of the cost of using dynamic hotlinks - which is a very good system, as I doubt anyone would want all hotlinks eliminated.

Also, "I don't want to pay attention to what I'm doing, I just want to do the same pattern over and over again" is not a very convincing argument. The general answer is that the coders like making people think and challenging them to get out of any ruts. As long as we don't include any seriously bad effects as a consequence, it should be fine.

[Tora]

The Hot Keys are assigned dynamically? WOW -that must have been a pretty challenging piece of code. I always wondered why the [G] and [O] for Glorfindal and Glukmoore ended up inside "GO" instead of in the names of the villages themselves. Makes sense now.

:runs to go look at the source code and learn.

Thanks for the honest answer. When the cute and cuddly race is available to my DK, i won't be a troll anymore, so I'll deal until then.

[Sichae-Saracen]

Moonchilde is looking (has been looking) for a way to implement a two-pass hotkey system, so that navs that have a certain character set for the hotkey (such as bank.php would be:
addnav("b?Ye Olde Bank","bank.php");), would be a top priority over a module nav to get that B.

But, to implement such a thing seems kinda hard, as you need to check along the addnav for the ?, split it along that, make the thing before it would become the hotkey. I guess they could implement the way that modulehooks now have a priority setting, into such of a priority hotkey... but it seems a bit far off.

[SaucyWench]

What *I* have always done as I code is try to put my new modules in such a way that they do not "steal" hotkeys, but it has become almost impossible as the number of links increases.

Hotkeys are a royal pain in the derriere. Kendaer and I have bashed our heads on them and almost come to blows on the subject. When we finally fixed as many as we could and others STILL broke, we gave in - Catscradler then tried to change the remainder and as far as I know he hit the same brick wall.

If you do not set a hotkey manually (as Sichae showed) the hotkey assigned is the first unused letter. In Degolburg, you can see that Tynan ends up with a Y because T was already assigned to Travel. I specifically named the trader Vernon to use a hotkey that was not yet used on that page, but we've almost run out of letters. If I had named him Oscar, Hall of Fame would change from "o" to "a" (F is reserved for Forums). Staff List would then lose its hotkey altogether because every letter after the a is already assigned. This cascade effect is even more irritating than the one change you mentioned. We managed to cascade about 5 or 6 links like that when Audrey started appearing in the villages more often - so we purposely *removed* her hotkey since there was no way to stop it happening.

In all honesty, the hotkeys are only still even in the game to retain some of the feel of LoRD. It could be successfully argued that as it's a game generally played on a system with a mouse that they are no longer needed. Indeed, the vast majority of online browser-based text games have no hotkeys at all.

[Waugh]

Google's GMail has hotkeys, so they're not quite a washed up method of navigation in a browser, yet. I personally feel they are handy in Lotgd and hope they remain, even with the infrequent nuicances they sometimes create.

[Tora]

YIKES! :shock: Definitely don't get rid of the Hot Keys, forget I said anything! :wink:

[alphatango]

Personally, I'd prefer to get rid of dynamic hotkey assignment completely and permanently assign just a few of the static ones. Consistency is a large part of what makes hotkeys useful, I think, so we should emphasise that rather than trying to have hotkeys for everything.

[Pwyll]

Jumping on alphatango's bandwagon, I would suggest keeping the hotkeys for Look, Thrillseek, Search Suicidally, Fight, Run, AutoFight 5/10 turns, Healer and Return to Village in the Forest at least. In the villages, the hotkeys for Bank, Travel, Clan Hall and the village-specific specialty shops are nice to have as well.

Yes, it's good to make people think and pay attention, but a little convenience isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[SaucyWench]

We could possibly look at that, but unfortunately, the present arrangement forces us to specifically turn them off for those links. They get assigned dynamically by default. You're talking about making the norm for new code to have it not turned on. We've tried creating a convention for modules before, and DragonPrimers just ignore it (or are unaware) ending with us having some modules showing the "wrong" colours when you gain gold - things like that.

Something perhaps not obvious if you've never played anywhere besides an "official" server is that there is more content NOT in Central and Dragoncat than there is IN here. Central is not the largest server - there is one of almost 8,000 players and another half dozen around the same size as us. All of them have multiple other modules installed written by third-party authors. It's not realistic to tell all those people (and enforce it) that they should do this. It would be more realistic that the default behaviour was changed to NOT assign a hotkey, but as to whether Moonchilde and MightyE want to change that, I have no idea.

[Nightwind]

Mind if i go one step further?

I think it's safe to say that EVERYBODY tries to figure out hotkeys atleast once.

And the more you know about them, the sooner you realize that the admin has done the best possible job with it that they can.

[Fritz]

Hotkeys? That requires memorizing stuff. I'll pass on that. Besides, I like using my mouse. If I use too many hotkeys, he gets jealous.... :lol: