In game Word Processing/Spreadsheet

I'd love to have an option in the in game UI to open a Word Processor/Notepad or a Spreadsheet. The only mmorpg I've ever seen with this functionality was Eve, and it was extremely useful. Not everyone keeps notes about stuff they do in game, but most of the website people get advice from were made by people who do. And some of us like this. Adding this won't hurt you people who don't like this idea.

Most of the time I have to alt-tab out of the game to keep notes. I'd like to be able to do that in game, and save them (maybe they save locally, maybe not). I'd also like the ability to send these through the in game mail system too.

Eve also allowed waypoint hyperlinks and other things to be kept in their word processors/spreadsheets , so you could be standing in a location and make a link for it, and clicking on it later would give you an active waypoint to that location. I think these are very useful addons to the game.

Artisan's would probably get a lot of use out of this feature too.

What do people think?

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FliP

I don't know how it works in Eve, but I see an instant red flag in form of illegal code execution and exploits through the text editor, especially if it has hyperlink support.

Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I agree it would be an useful feature, but I also don't think tabbing out to take some notes, or having a notepad on your desk (this is what I usually do) to write things down isn't much of a problem.

Pannath

@FliP I don't think it has to be able to interact hard with the game code. I think it would just make a document file in a special game directory for them. You could probably access them out of game too.

You can already type in chat's of various kinds, so this is the same, except that you can save it. Word processors don't have to have the ability to execute code any more or less than is programmed into them.

daveywavey

As long as it can't interact with the game at all, I don't see why they couldn't have something like this. As you say, it can just be a random text file in your install directory.

It's your "Quest Journal". What you write in it is up to you!

FliP

I've seen some stuff happen simply with having a web browser on a game console.

One would think, how can someone get root access through a web browser, yet it happened (this is why some modern consoles don't come with a web browser btw).

Chat is different from a word processor, at least the way I picture it. Also, what happens when someone attempts to load a modified text file in the game. There can be protection in place, but people are creative and will find a way to overload or bypass it.

To me it's just too much risk for a slight convenience. BDO has a notes system which barely anyone uses because it's faster to alt-tab into Google Docs than Esc -> find "Notes" in the menu -> click on "Notes" -> wait for it to load.

Dygz

How Not To Be Immersed In A Fantasy RPG

Pannath

If it was designed by the dev's there wouldn't be any worry about it being an exploit, especially if it was only accessing stuff locally on your own computer. This doesn't hurt any of you who aren't interested in it at all. It's useful functionality that I would appreciate and probably many other people would as well.

Dygz

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Caeryl

Pannath wrote: »

If it was designed by the dev's there wouldn't be any worry about it being an exploit, especially if it was only accessing stuff locally on your own computer. This doesn't hurt any of you who aren't interested in it at all. It's useful functionality that I would appreciate and probably many other people would as well.

I hate to break this to you, but every game with exploits was developed by developers. This team isn’t immune.

It’s not worth the potential issues when everyone can alt-tab with basically the same speed. It’s easier to organize and search information using other programs.

Don’t forget that someone made a fully functional version of Pokemon Red in Minecraft. Never underestimate the ability of users to completely flip the program on its head to do things a developer never even imagined.

Pannath

@Dygz There is literally no harm to YOUR immersion in adding this. Don't use it if you don't like it, ask for the ability to turn off your UI view.

Pannath

@Caeryl that's quite literally what alpha and beta testing are for. I've also seen bugs in game when a person take a few steps or attacks that the game crashes, yet they fix it and they're still making games where people and walk and attack. Fear mongering for something that might not even be an issue with an extremely useful functionality isn't helpful.

Dygz

Pannath wrote: »

@Dygz There is literally no harm to YOUR immersion in adding this. Don't use it if you don't like it, ask for the ability to turn off your UI view.

The devs shouldn't waste any time on it.
But...they can if they want to.
I doubt they will want to invite people to break immersion like that, but...maybe.

daveywavey

Dygz wrote: »

Pannath wrote: »

@Dygz There is literally no harm to YOUR immersion in adding this. Don't use it if you don't like it, ask for the ability to turn off your UI view.

The devs shouldn't waste any time on it.
But...they can if they want to.
I doubt they will want to invite people to break immersion like that, but...maybe.

How does it break immersion to have an in-game notebook/journal, but it doesn't break immersion to have to alt-tab out of the game into Google-Docs?

Pannath

@daveywavey They're just fear mongering and nay saying to be negative. They said their opinion but keep pushing no just to be negative at this point. The game also isn't VR, so having your hands on a keyboard and mouse and looking at a monitor already breaks your immersion.

Dygz

Nay-saying is inherently negative.
Again, it's unlikely to happen, but...not impossible.

Caeryl

Pannath wrote: »

that's quite literally what alpha and beta testing are for. I've also seen bugs in game when a person take a few steps or attacks that the game crashes, yet they fix it and they're still making games where people and walk and attack. Fear mongering for something that might not even be an issue with an extremely useful functionality isn't helpful.

Do so love to see “agree with me or f*** you” mentality. Good to see any concerns are “fear mongering” even though they can and have happened in similar systems.

Shoklen

On the flip side, I believe there is a hidden game embedded within Excel.

Pannath

Shoklen wrote: »

On the flip side, I believe there is a hidden game embedded within Excel.

I said spreadsheet, I didn't say excel. Excel is an example of a spreadsheet, but not the only one in the world. I wasn't asking to be able to open up MS Office inside the game. I was asking for an integrated word processor and spreadsheet in the UI. As people have already said, there is already a journal, it would be nice if you could write in one too.

Kionashi

I like the idea of having a journal were you can write whatever you want in it. Of course in order to keep immersion I would prefer if it was an actual book you have in your inventory instead of a GUI element in the menu. After all since there will be a scribe profession in the artisan system and they will be able to write books I don't think this will lead to feature creep since it would just be a part of the scribe system.

Warth

why even waste the time to implement an infertior version of a tool everybody has access to already?

It's literally just a waste of development ressources. Without any tangible advantage.

Opening a spreadsheet ingame takes the same effort it would take to open a 3rd party program.

Alt-Tabbing isn't an issue with borderless mode, and a screen wozld make ut easier to utilize a program that isn't within the game, unless Ashes has dual monitore support with the ability to open multiple shared windows..

Pannath

And yet it works amazing in games that have implemented it like Eve. Why do anything when someone else has done it before? If you don't like it then don't use it if they put it in.

@Warth I did make a previous post about dual monitors and having a monitor specified as a support monitor to drag UI windows over to without impeding in game view.

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