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Weight bar

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 3:31 am
by paul laffing
I am not sure if this has been mentioned yet, as i did a search and nothing related seemed to come up. I was wondering if a bar that shows how much weight you are carrying in relationship to your total weight can be implemented. My arguments for this is that in real life, you know how much weight you are carrying in relation to what your highest weight carriage is. So, if you go to a gym, and you pick up a 50 lb. weight, you roughly know if that is all you can carry, or just half of what you can carry. Since you can not "feel" things in Illarion, you would need a bar to show you.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 3:48 am
by Gro'bul
this is a great idea, and we could roughly know how much stuff weighed :D :shock:

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:31 am
by Serpardum
It was just a matter of time before this was asked for...

I dont' think it will be implemented though.

You don't, in fact, know how much something weighs unless you have a scale.

I don't, in fact, know how much I can carry before I can't move. I can guess though.

This desk in front of me, for example. It's a pretty small desk, and I'm sure I could carry it around. I dont' know how much it weighs, I could guestimate 60 to 75 pounds. I don't know how much weight I could carry, I can life maybe 175 to 200 pounds, not sure. I wouldn't want to walk around with 175 pounds though.

So, I judge by how big it looks.

And, with simple experiments you could actually figure out how much things weigh in relation to each other in the game. I won't tell you how, though, that's for the reader to decide. I will ask, however, that if you do determine how much things weigh in relation to each other you don't broadcast this information.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:40 am
by paul laffing
I know you don't know how much things weigh in real life just by picking them up, but you would know how much they weigh in relation to what you can carry at a maximum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:40 am
by Niniane
Serpardum, I agree completely. There are no definate weights for each object that the character would know before picking them up so they would not know how many of each object they could lift before they were up and they would not know at which exact moment they would be unable to walk. They could try to take a few steps and realize they could or could not walk. They would not know before taking the step. If you could not walk you would put a few things down until you were able to take a step. If you wishe d to walk with greater ease you would put more things down. This is exactly how carrying many objects is in real life and there is no little bar magically implanted in your mind that says 'Ah! This is the maximum weight I can carry and not become encumbered!' You only know once you've tried to walk.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:53 am
by paul laffing
I like to compare this to a gym. By eyeing the size and mass of a weight, you can roughly guestimate if you can hold it and how many you can hold.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:57 am
by Serpardum
Exactly. And you can rougly guestimate now based on the picture you see showing hte object.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:59 am
by Niniane
That's because there is a number on the weight and they're in a shape easy to carry. If you have to guestimate how many glasses half filled with water and two ice cubes that had 1 fluid oz. of persperation on the bottom half of each glass you could not give an accurate number from a guess. You would have to try and once you have done this you would remember that number for the future. You may be able to guess how many you can pick up and hold, that's one thing. But you'll not be able to guess how many you can carry for 8 kilometers. A gym is a bad comparison for this game as each object is a strange and individual shape and weight. Even two lumps of iron shouldn't weight the same in an rp mindset. You should have to learn on your own how much of each object you can carry and by doing so you'll learn each individual objects weight if you do so in a scientific manner. I wont say how either but it seems rather simple to me, then you'll know exactly how much you can carry before you are encumbered as well as how much slower each additional gram or kilogram will make you walk until you're unable to walk even one single step. A bar would only create more lag and make this more of an interface based game rather than an in character based game. You would see the game through the interface window instead of through the eyes of your own character if all details of life were marked out for you in the background window.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 5:51 am
by Elaralith
Perhaps instead of a new "Weight bar" a new item to be smithed known as the Scale could be implemented instead. Using a scale one could determine the weight of certain objects. A weight system would then have to be designed for illarion then.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 6:56 am
by Dyluck
You don't know the number of an object you can carry just by looking at it, you find out from experience if you use your memory, which is what you should go do in Illarion. Using your common sense to help your estimates wouldn't hurt either.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 7:01 am
by Gro'bul
its true, you could easily start find out how much things weigh in comparison to eachother, but, why cant we broadcast it? perhaps it would bring about a new side of the economy, selling by weight instead of amount. why cant we tell other people?

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 3:40 pm
by paul laffing
But the reason i say we need a weight bar is because we can not "feel" the weight. Since it is a game, we can not see if it is heavy or not just by picking it up. We do not know until we start to carry it.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 10:58 pm
by Dyluck
Then carry it and find out.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 11:12 pm
by Hermie
Also, isnt the ammount of items you can carry related to how big they are? Like you could be carrying as many logs as you can, but when you make one a harp it appears on the ground, the same with plate armour.