Spicing up the automatic commentary

[trewqh]

But back in the day, the GM actually had to make up the commentary. I remember spending hours just trying to figure out what to type to keep it interesting but not give away anything. ah the memories.

But, Underdog, GMs can still edit the commentary as they please! The old days had their charm but a big part of the memories is also unreliable GMs who didn't bother to wirte any commentary.

On the other hand, maybe if korexus has a boring wekeend at some point he might make two versions of Commentary. The current elaborate one ans a simplistic one. We could either have it as an option for GM to pick when setting up a new game OR, preferably, as a setting for each of the players to choose from. What do you think, Wokitos?!

trewqh

PS. And RevAmp wasn't that great a player back in the day when he used that nick.

[Underdog]

I had forgotten all about the fact that that was you. Now I really am showing my age.

[Hannibal]

Now what was I complaining about? Oh yeah right that commentary thing I guess it is ok the way you have done it Korexus. I just really wanted to come in and type a long winded message just to see if I could still do it. I guess I am still no competition to Hannibabble but it wasn't too bad.

Gee, Underdog. 2 or 3 of us have put in tons of effort to rescue Kaomaris (it was down to only Kor at one point) and improve the site ready for new players. I mean a LOT of effort, and it's nearly ready.

And you come in from nowhere and throw in an insult at one of them. There are only about 4 of us reading these posts, and you have a go at one of them, me. It's, well, sad.

What did I ever do to you?! (maybe you shouldn't answer that). I remember GMing you in my Penta game and you were fine? You even mailed me as GM to say you were down to one prov so wouldn't be sending in any more orders, which I thanked you for?

It's ironic that you talk about commentary: in that same Penta game I GM'ed (you were clanmates with newbie MelMax, do you recall?), I was complimented by watchers for a commentary they could follow. And I think I was the first or second to write commentary bothering to colour in the player-names to match their colours, to make it easier to see who was which colour. By hand. This was before I got Korexus to code it so that this happened automatically, for the benefit of everyone..

So why the aggro?

[trewqh]

Why the aggro?

I guess he's getting bitter because his even older than you, Han!

Just kidding, guys! I'm sure noone meant any harm!

A lot of veterans returned lately, let's celebrate! (By continuing our efforts to improve the site that is. )

[korexus]

UD, the idea is to have things look like they did in the old days, although of course GMs varied a lot in their commentary, so maybe I should say to have things look like the best examples of the old days. As a GM who did make good commentaries, your input would be useful. Could you give an example of how you would write a turn summary?

And, as trewqh says, a GM can still put his own commentary in if he wants to. - Absolute flexability is the aim here!

I'm not sure you were actually complaining very much, so I won't take the complaint seriously and assume you were just saying hi. So "Hi" back.

But still happy to hear any suggestions though!


Chris.

[trewqh]

Going back to the thread - I noticed that bombing targets are not coloured.

And I have to say that when I looked at the commentary for one of the games I'm in just a second ago I found it nice to see which player was attacked by one of my opponents even though I didn't remember the province numbers and, obviously, I got used to these colours because at first thought I was sure that my opponent missiled a neutral.

Also, how about a line saying where the player comments begin, because the way it is now in Center Island is a bit awkward.

[korexus]

Missiles will get done. Maybe even this weekend.

I've been wondering about player commentaries. - Is there any point in keeping them anonymous? My original thought was that players could post spy info this way, but it hasn't been happening.

Also, if the comments were directly added to the main commentary, I could set it up so that players could have a conversation in the commentary. (At the minute, it is one comment per player at any time, inputing something new erases the old text). This would have the added bonus of easy GM editing of players' comments when needed but at the cost of players not being able to edit comments...

Thoughts?


Chris.

[trewqh]

I've been wondering about player commentaries. - Is there any point in keeping them anonymous? My original thought was that players could post spy info this way, but it hasn't been happening.

I did it once. Anyonymous comments are more fun, despite me being only one using them right now and thus not that anonymous.

Also, if the comments were directly added to the main commentary, I could set it up so that players could have a conversation in the commentary. (At the minute, it is one comment per player at any time, inputing something new erases the old text). This would have the added bonus of easy GM editing of players' comments when needed but at the cost of players not being able to edit comments...

Let's leave conversations to the boards. I often change my commentaries to games once I post them because I change my mind or decide that something doesn't work with my English.

It's a place for the players to add to turn commentary and it works fine.

[Underdog]

Hey Han. I now understand why I left in the first place and the sense of humor is still missing. Please call me back when it is found.

I guess maybe I should appologize to you for the unintended slight. It has admittedly been awhile since I was last here and far be it from me to insult one of the few who had the time and inclination to try to keep this great game going in Al's absence. My memory has been kinda on the fritz for the last year or 2 and I actually thought at one time you took pride in the Hanibabble name, maybe I was mistaken. I am truly sorry and will never again make reference to those days when you wrote posts that would rival War and Peace.

Hey Korexus. I was wondering about the link that used to exist to one of my games that Nemesis and Nestalawe won and did a fine write up on. at one time there was a link to that on this site I know the pages are still there and if anyone remembers what the address was to my site there is probably still a link to it there somewhere. I have no clue if it had and of my hard thought out commentary.

[trewqh]

Here it is:
http://www.angelfire.com/in3/wok/Summary/nestalawe.html

You have the link to your GM Homepage in your profile and you can also find it under each of your posts.

[Hannibal]

Hey Han. I now understand why I left in the first place and the sense of humor is still missing. Please call me back when it is found.

I guess maybe I should appologize to you for the unintended slight.

OK, Underdog, I apologise for taking offence. It was a pretty mild jibe.

I think the reason many of us left, certainly me, was rather that lots of people were being unpleasant to each other too often, and not just in fun. I was kinda hoping that we'd all try to avoid that this time around...

Hey Korexus. I was wondering about the link that used to exist to one of my games that Nemesis and Nestalawe won and did a fine write up on. at one time there was a link to that on this site I know the pages are still there and if anyone remembers what the address was to my site there is probably still a link to it there somewhere. I have no clue if it had and of my hard thought out commentary.

Yes. There's a permanent link to it in the "New Visitors Look Here" that I wrote as an explanation of how the game plays. I was so impressed I built it in as a link, as well as quoting from it. I remember asking you to keep it alive in your store on Angelfire, and you kindly agreed. Thanks.