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Would you visit me and help me?
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Irene
Irene

Nov-26-2009 13:54

Some time ago, a thread was posted: what can I do for Sleuth? - and I was thinking about it. At that time, when I told about what I thought I could do, I was told that my "developer team" dream was completely dead. And, perhaps it was, in the format that was availiable at that time?

As some of you might know, I am a programmer of heart. People have been frustrated with me because of this earlier, but I do hope we may put this behind us? I have never forced anything onto any of you. My offer have always been completely free, for those who actually want it.

Same is true this time. I have noticed that other web pages that support Sleuth go inactive, and want to do something about it. I am working on putting up a web site with what I hope will be inspirational to some of you. (www.playsleuth2.com) If you visit and find that you don't like it, then, please don't return. The site is only intended for those of you who actually do like it and would want to help me extend it. Not everyone.

It's MUCH undone at the moment, but I AM working to get something up. The site is intended to be a place for the part of the community that always wanted to help add and give back to this great game. I hope you will understand that it's no competitor to the original - rather the oposite. It's meant to be supportive. This is "my" development team idea put into action, and I do hope you will see it as my contribution to what I can do for Sleuth.

There is a LOT I CANNOT do for Sleuth, and that's why I would like to connect with people who want to help. Especially writing and collecting...

Those of you who want to help me, send me a PM.
Those of you who don't want to, please don't mind what I am doing.
Want to know what it's about? - read the idea page.
Not everything is nailed down yet, and I would be happy to get suggestions.

This is intended as a one-time-post. Want to get rid of it? - bring other threads into focus. ;-

Replies

Irene
Irene

Nov-28-2009 07:13

Treasure hunts with more: Some of you have said that it's nothing new. And, you are partly right. As I have control of many characters, it's seen as a bit of a problem if I join in on the ordinary treasure hunts, because I am able to alter the competition too much. I realize it's not fun for others.
So, if I put up new kinds of treasure hunts on my site, then I will be able to play that hunts, and even make them kind of treasure hunts with no competition. That will give the joy of doing them, without destroying for everyone else.
Also, I believe that there are more variation one might add to treasure hunts, to make them suit different needs and wants. The "Lazy hunt" is one thing to try out, where you get max one hint a day anyway, thereby taking away some of the stress parts of a TH, and enable even smaller agencies to have great success.
I will act as the only programmer (at least for quite some time), and also do the "moderating", until I find people that I believe will be able to help me doing the job the way I want.

Pictures: You will notice that I have made copy of many of the Sleuth original pictures, as well as new pictures that get added, and put them up on a separate server. This is NOT because I want to steal them, but realizing that cost is connected to network load, I felt it polite to take some of the network loads from Ben's picture server. Now, his server is much faster than the one I have made a deal with, so it would be a gain for me to not make the copy. Still, I need a server for the extra pictures, and felt it would be nice if I shared some of the load with his image-server. That's the major reason.

Irene
Irene

Nov-28-2009 08:50

Some of you will even notice that my site is written in the same language that the original uses. This is done by purpose. - if it enables me to help with the original, I would be filled with joy, even though I doubt it will happen.

When it comes to usage, let me give you some thoughts, to help you figure out if this is dangerous or not.

If I decide to create a new city that you may travel to, and you find it will be interesting, then you will have to travel. To travel you need to be subscribed. Catch - you need to be subbed to the original.
If I create a new item that you might want to get your hands on, I might require that you fulfill a mission to get to the item. Partly catch - as the mission might include some requirements only availiable to those subbed to the original.
If I create new kinds of treasure hunts. Partly catch - if not a complete catch - as you might need to travel to do the requirements for the hunt.
If I create a new kind of "treasure hunt", more similar to an AVH competition, - definately a catch - as you cannot do an AVH unless you are subbed to the original.
If I manage to do anything that makes it more fun or interesting to play sleuth, even giving you the ability to participate with development of the game, you might want to have more cases to play each day - catch - you have to sub to the original. - or you just need to sub in order to get to it - definately a catch - the sub is to the Sleuth Noir original.

Then ask yourself: Who is going to be the one who benefits if you sub to Sleuth Noir original?

Answer: WE ARE. It's going to be more activity here, and more people will get to the pleasures of giving back to this game that we all love. - giving both to the game, and to each other.

- of course, Ben will also benefit from this, but I believe neither of us see that as a disadvantage.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Nov-30-2009 08:57

Hi all,

I'm going to do what I can to support Irene in this project. I really like the idea of the community adding this kind of content, and am excited to see what she comes up with.

So, there isn't really an issue from the copyright and IP permissions angle, as she asked for permission from me some time ago.

There is, obviously, some concern from the security and trust angle. As of now, if you use the Sleuth Noir Extended site, you are trusting her (and anybody else who works on the project) with your credentials. We will need to add a system to allow users to grant permissions to external tools, without trusting their passwords to 3rd party sites. But, for now we don't have that.

So, I am going to go ahead and add a link to Irene's site on the Community Sites page. That link will also contain a popup alert notifying the user about the security risks. I'm doing this right now (before working out a better security mechanism) because I don't want to stunt the site's development.

That said, please note that by providing your Sleuth credentials to any 3rd party site you are completely trusting the site administrators with your Sleuth account. So for now, I would suggest only people who are involved in the project to login there.


Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Nov-30-2009 17:39

Thanks Ben for giving us a response. Much appreciated.

Irene
Irene

Dec-1-2009 01:00

Thank you very much Ben. I feel so honored.

I agree with you on the login thing, and would be VERY happy if we may come up with a different way of doing it, so that it will not be only that I don't tap any passwords, but it will make me completely unable to do so.

The major new content thing to add on my site are "missions". This is something I would very much want the help of the community to do. I'll describe it here, as the main part of creating a mission is creativity, and you may start thinking of it and plan until we get a completely safe way for you to go to my site and put it up.

So, what is a "mission". The most basic missions are:
* bring an item to someone
* sell an item to someone
* complete a favor for someone
* ask someone a specific question
- in some ways I guess you have seen all of them already?

Now, what would make the "bring an item to someone" a little more entertaining to do will be if it is a specific item, and to a specific person, and also have a somewhat interesting description accompanying it.

Say, it's a bird you need to bring somewhere, because on that spot there is something you can see that is too far away for you to get. And when the bird is with the player, you may create a story of the bird flying up and getting this something. If you also add a picture or two to this, and decide yourself how obvious the mission to complete are described, I believe it may be quite interesting to try to complete the mission for other players.

If you need new items or new locations to create your missions, the plan is to bring this in to my site as well. My site is intended to be a place where the community can add content to the game in various forms. I will bring up separate message boards to hold discussions, and enable you to guide me into what will be possible to add, and what you want to have. In no way though will I do something that will contradict with the original.

_Lorelei
_Lorelei
Old Shoe

Dec-1-2009 06:52

Thank you, Ben, it's good to hear from you on this.

And thank you Irene :) - for your obvious love of this game and attempting to bring new and interesting facets into it via your site (with Ben's blessing, of course)

Let's all share the love!

The Contessa
The Contessa
Old Shoe

Dec-1-2009 07:08

Amen!

I look forward to visitng your site when it's developed, Irene. And I will put on my thinking cap, too :) :)

turtledove
turtledove
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Dec-1-2009 07:30

Thanks Ben for clearing this up. Irene's ideas are excellent and is sure to be an asset to Noir.

And thanks Irene for all these new ideas which sound quite promising. I really look foreward to visiting your site and trying it out.

Irene
Irene

Dec-28-2009 06:01

This is a test post - to see if it's working to make posts from the extended site.

Current updates:
* A plan agreed with Ben, to allow login without giving your password
* The ability to create new items, as well as looking at those not yet approved.
* The ability to start registering missions (even though this needs more work)
* A small message board for site specific issues. (Other things, like Role Playing, please use the original, as we don't want to drain traffic from it).
* A prospect of a new location to travel to.
* A prospect for a dog shop in Shanghai


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