Upcoming feature: History Timeline

Furies

Hi all,

Scout the Eph here! I wanted to share some thoughts around my project which Uilani touched on at the Producer Ride-along recently. Called Project Tapestry there, the project creates a new history timeline feature in Lusternia, inspired by the timelines seen in some other IRE games but with our own spin on it. Would love any feedback or thoughts on our plans! Note that everything described here is subject to change.

The timeline will contain entries of different historical happenings, and the functionality of the timeline will be split into different phases. Phase 1 will include basic timeline viewing capabilities, along with entries for publicly known events - think the histories on our website and Events news posts. Entries, which themselves only have a brief synopsis of the event, can carry references to other reading where a player can learn more. Phase 1 will start with references to URLs (e.g. the website histories) and news posts. The timeline can be accessed from a particular room, and commands will look like...

• TIMELINE LIST - views the whole timeline in table form, from the beginning, if they're in a valid room. Entries are grouped by era
• TIMELINE VIEW [X] - view the details of a specific entry X, which will feature the event's date, synopsis, and any relevant references
• TIMELINE FILTER ERA LIST - see list of eligible eras
• TIMELINE FILTER TAG LIST - see list of tags used on entries
• TIMELINE FILTER LOCATION LIST - see list of locations referenced in entries
• TIMELINE FILTER PERSONA LIST - see list of personas referenced in entries (note: this will only encompass divine and notable mobs, not players)
• TIMELINE FILTER ARC LIST - see list of plot arcs referenced in entries
• TIMELINE FILTER [field] [value] - view timeline filtered for that field (era, tag, location, persona, arc)
• TIMELINE SEARCH [term] - searches all entries for the term

Here's an example of what a part of the timeline would look like:

In that mock timeline, you'll notice a few things:

• The timeline view primarily shows you entries ordered by date and each entry's unique identifier
  • For those with MXP on, they can click on the entry ID to be taken to the details of that entry
  • Anybody can do TIMELINE VIEW [ID] to see details of that entry
  • We've chosen not to go with ID #s for entries so that in the future, we can add new entries in the middle of a timeline without having to adjust all entries' #s
• Dates for entries can take various formats - some entries are on a particular day, others might span multiple years
• Because of the above, there will be some admin subjectivity in the ordering on a timeline

Here's an example of what a particular timeline entry would look like:

In this mock entry, you'll notice a few things:

• This particular entry happens to have a reference to a news post - this will be an MXP link
• There will be various tags that can be added to an entry - this will be done by admins but will generally include locations, orgs/guilds, and any very notable personas (eg Divine)

Phase 2, which will come after Phase 1 is launched, will bring some additional functionality - this will be shared later for feedback.

If you have any feedback on the idea or the implementation sketched out here, please leave a note!

Cheers,
Scout the Eph

Qoivhae

This is great! Will it also connect to quests related to the event (if any) at Phase 2 or something you want to leave to the players to discover in the location instead?

Also, how do you base the date of the event specifically those that span multiple years?, from the time it started or ended?

Huskii

I suspect that it'll have the ability to reference published books as well!

Hinic

I agree that a timeline of Lusternia is tremendously useful and often needed. However, I want to avoid duplication of records (which creates the chance for discrepancies), duplication of effort and orphaned projects. A project like this has a large backlog already AND, to remain useful, needs to be maintained for the entire lifespan of Lusternia (regardless of its founder's capability or interest).

It seems to me that we already have a better, existing resource in the form of the Timeline of Lusternia - Archives of Lusternian Lore page. That page is missing a summary for many of the event posts, but it already exists, and any player can help complete it.

Comparison

Advantages of the wiki:

• It is already available and partially complete.
• It is already highly searchable.
• It can include images, such as those from Artisanals.
• Plot arcs, eras, tags, locations and personas can either be links to other articles or Categories on the relevant article. (All Divine and several notable mobs already have articles)
• The record can be expanded and maintained by the entire player base. (One need only log in with their MUD credentials.)
• It doesn't require Admin time/effort to update.
• The entries can contain wiki-words, facilitating further reading and permitting the entries to be briefer because names and terms can be defined on the linked page.

Advantages of Project Tapestry:

• Available in-game. (Though, if you can connect to the MUD, you can probably reach the wiki.)
• It counts as a coding project for the Ephemeral. 

Hinic

Another advantage for the wiki:

• No need to go to a specific room in the MUD. You could even have the wiki open side-by-side with your MUD client window (this is how I often prefer to play anyway).

Isser

Could we have this on the website lusternia.com in visual form too?

Qoivhae

Hinic said:

I agree that a timeline of Lusternia is tremendously useful and often needed. However, I want to avoid duplication of records (which creates the chance for discrepancies), duplication of effort and orphaned projects. A project like this has a large backlog already AND, to remain useful, needs to be maintained for the entire lifespan of Lusternia (regardless of its founder's capability or interest).

It seems to me that we already have a better, existing resource in the form of the Timeline of Lusternia - Archives of Lusternian Lore page. That page is missing a summary for many of the event posts, but it already exists, and any player can help complete it.

Comparison

Advantages of the wiki:

• It is already available and partially complete.
• It is already highly searchable.
• It can include images, such as those from Artisanals.
• Plot arcs, eras, tags, locations and personas can either be links to other articles or Categories on the relevant article. (All Divine and several notable mobs already have articles)
• The record can be expanded and maintained by the entire player base. (One need only log in with their MUD credentials.)
• It doesn't require Admin time/effort to update.
• The entries can contain wiki-words, facilitating further reading and permitting the entries to be briefer because names and terms can be defined on the linked page.

Advantages of Project Tapestry:

• Available in-game. (Though, if you can connect to the MUD, you can probably reach the wiki.)
• It counts as a coding project for the Ephemeral. 

Never knew this part of the wiki, thanks for pointing it out!

Furies

Thanks all for the feedback so far! Responding slightly out of order and instead by theme...

Could we have this on the website lusternia.com in visual form too?

Phase 1 should unlock this! This was one of the benefits that we wanted out of this project.

This is great! Will it also connect to quests related to the event (if any) at Phase 2 or something you want to leave to the players to discover in the location instead?

That idea is definitely on our radar for Phase 2 

I suspect that it'll have the ability to reference published books as well!

Also on our radar for Phase 2

Also, how do you base the date of the event specifically those that span multiple years?, from the time it started or ended?

We haven't quite determined the standard for the dates yet. Right now, my focus is on coding the system itself, and then we'll move into a phase of generating all the content. There will need to be discussions about all the standards and norms we want to follow for that content.

I agree that a timeline of Lusternia is tremendously useful and often needed. However, I want to avoid duplication of records (which creates the chance for discrepancies), duplication of effort and orphaned projects. A project like this has a large backlog already AND, to remain useful, needs to be maintained for the entire lifespan of Lusternia (regardless of its founder's capability or interest).

It seems to me that we already have a better, existing resource in the form of the Timeline of Lusternia - Archives of Lusternian Lore page. That page is missing a summary for many of the event posts, but it already exists, and any player can help complete it.

You bring up a few good points here. Ultimately, we wanted to build this as a feature of the game for a few different reasons. First, it creates an official record of the histories, which can be edited and maintained by the admin team and which can be made publicly available to showcase the rich stories that fill Lusternia. Second, we feel that the ideal scenario for any game content is to be able to access it in-game and not need to visit a third-party source. This allows players to reference the content in-game (e.g. in GHELP and CHELP files) and makes it more seamless to point newbies towards it, etc. Third, as Qoivhae already guessed, one thing we want to unlock is to have entries and even entire timelines that are thoroughly not public - e.g. specific to an organization or perhaps even 'unlocked' by players. Selfishly, it also allows the admin team to have entries that are not visible to mortals for our own notes and record-keeping. Fourth, the timeline is meant to serve as a hub that can point to other ways to engage with the histories - e.g. referencing player-written books, as Huskii guessed.

There certainly is a good point about the amount of effort to generate the initial content and to upkeep it going forward. As we were evaluating this proposal, we felt that the initial lift for content generation would be worth the benefits above. Going forward, for the official histories at least, our hope is that since an admin will be writing an Events post anyways, creating a timeline entry is a fairly small additional to-do.

Speaking personally, one reason I've kept coming back to Lusternia - and even decided to become an Eph! - is because of the rich storytelling here. For my Eph project, I wanted to work on something that would help highlight those stories and bring a new dimension to that side of the game. Phase 1 alone doesn't hit all of our ambitions for this, but it'll hopefully be a good foundation to keep building on top of.

Please keep the discussion and feedback coming!

-Scout