[KaVir]

I already explained: The '@' represents a heavy thunderstorm, the 'O' is rain, 'o' is heavy clouds, '.' is light clouds and the rest is clear sky. The 'X' represents your current location.

Not meaning to sound pedantic, but is this honestly too complex for the average player to understand? Perhaps I've lost touch with the average player (or my faith is misplaced), but I hadn't even considered that any mudder might have trouble understanding it, as long as they knew what each character represented.

But if you started criticising the Russian's translation, wouldn't it be reasonable for him to ask you what your alternative translation might be? That's all I'm doing.

[Riga]

I don't know that I'd say it's too complex, but I do think that it would take some getting used to. Just as when you log into a new game, it takes a while to start translating the information rapidly, looking at that map doesn't immediately make sense. After looking at it for a while, I can interpret it and see the advantage in it.

Advantage admitted, I still have the problem that I don't like ASCII representations of anything in a game. I play text games because I like words. ASCII representations just seem so woefully clunky and...ugly. To me it would be like reading through a great novel to flip the page and find the author had tried to draw a picture of the next scene through ASCII art. Of course, I'm more interested in the textual and roleplaying aspects of a game than the actual gameplay.

All of -that- being said, I'll congratulate you on another impressive feature. Handling weather is a hard thing. When I staffed on Armageddon, realistic weather systems and how to make them an interactive feature for the playerbase (prediction, navigation, cycles, almanac type stuff) came up frequently because weather is such a large part of the game. It would really add to the game if player-based meteorology was a possibility.

[the_logos]

Out of curiosity, is it possible to play in that system using variable width fonts? (which tend to play havoc with ascii graphics, tables, etc). I used to solely use fixed-width fonts and then discovered that a fair few of our players were using variable width. I didn't understand it at first and couldn't believe they'd be willing to put up with all the mis-aligned tables and such, but after switching to variable width myself to test it, I found it much more pleasant to stare at all day and use that variable-width almost exclusively now.

--matt

[KaVir]