Discussion of Read/Write changes.

[Nathvaan]

Please feel free to discuss this implementation: http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,49825.msg964539.html#msg964539

[dravage]

Thank you for the huge amount of work that has clearly gone into this. Looks fantastic!

[Barsook]

Thank you for the huge amount of work that has clearly gone into this. Looks fantastic!

[a french mans shirt]

Jesus, you guys did a lot of work. Good job.

[Seeker]

So, so much thanks.


Seeker

[Jihelu]

Finally, I can go out and rea-


Maybe some day.

[Lizzie]

Tres sexy. Love what you've explained so far, thank you so much. No idea if I'll ever play a PC with R/W any time soon but it sounds like everyone who has it or will have it in the future is going to be in for a huge treat!

[Zenith]

This is an AMAZING change! And I LOVE that books have gotten bigger.

I can hardly believe so much has been written in twenty years, and wish I could read every last page of it.

[flurry]

I haven't looked at the change yet, but I will say this is a really important change and thank you for taking this on.

(Is the editor also different now? Is that reflected in chargen too?)

[Ath]

What I love about this is we can actually more easily have in game libraries.  One of the big things about the old system is we were scared of crashing the damn server due to books.  This should hopefully fix that and allow for massive amounts of books in one place.  *droools*

[najdorf]

hello, perhaps I am missing something here. Is this only a code change (improvement) for those with read/write ability? Or has there been a drastic change so mundanes can now get involved in literacy?

[LauraMars]

:O

amazing.

<3 <3

Does this mean that the R/W skill is going to see more use in the future as a tool for non-noble/merchant commoners....maybe with a SCRIBE extended subguild?

[650Booger]

after reading I was a bit unclear, will there be R/W for other languages besides sirihish?

[The Warshaper]

I think so.

Your skill with the language is now taken into account when writing in books and reading from books.  It will be scrambled in exactly the same way that partly understanding a spoken language works.

Looks like all languages are supported...

[Nathvaan]

I haven't looked at the change yet, but I will say this is a really important change and thank you for taking this on.

(Is the editor also different now? Is that reflected in chargen too?)

Nope, the editor is the same as it always has been sorry to say!

[Nathvaan]

hello, perhaps I am missing something here. Is this only a code change (improvement) for those with read/write ability? Or has there been a drastic change so mundanes can now get involved in literacy?

This was a code change/improvement for those with the skill.  Also ground for for allowing us to add features that I think everyone will like.  As far as mundanes getting read/write, not at the moment but at the very least the groundwork for that being a possibility in the future has be laid.  No promises though!

[Nathvaan]

after reading I was a bit unclear, will there be R/W for other languages besides sirihish?

I am not going to go into any particulars on what languages are covered but know that the changes are for all languages that have a written form not just one specific language.

[mansa]

Have you considered publishing any of the previous written work on the website?

[Barsook]

Have you considered publishing any of the previous written work on the website?

If not, please do! There is a lot of history in those textes that are possibly lost in the game world.

[Riev]

Have you considered publishing any of the previous written work on the website?

If not, please do! There is a lot of history in those textes that are possibly lost in the game world.

I'd third that, I imagine there is a decent amount of "lost" in game knowledge that could end up being done as Submissions (I can think of a particular book my Jihaen used to read a lot about the Copper war)

[Nathvaan]

Have you considered publishing any of the previous written work on the website?

If not, please do! There is a lot of history in those textes that are possibly lost in the game world.

I'd third that, I imagine there is a decent amount of "lost" in game knowledge that could end up being done as Submissions (I can think of a particular book my Jihaen used to read a lot about the Copper war)

I wouldn't count that out of the possibilities in the future but no meaningful discussions about that have been had to date.  Right now I am focusing more on getting this code bug free and then looking at additional potential features.

[Thunkkin]

I'm not even able to play these days (or regularly for a very long time) ... but thank you. This stuff is exciting to watch from afar.

[Suhuy]

I think wide open literacy would remove the mystique behind reading and writing, as well as the appreciation for it. And if there were a subguild that allowed literacy, literate commoners would immediately become a dime a dozen. I don't really know how many closet literate commoners there are, but for me a simple solution is to allow more through special apps (assuming they're as virtually non-existent as I believe). With the opportunity to now marry into a merchant house, the chance for a form of literacy to become available is now within many human PCs' grasp. And I think that's really cool. But the reality of Zalanthas, putting aside the fact that there is a mandate against learning to read and write, is that there just wouldn't be a great deal of motivation to become literate in the first place. Being literate would be a deep dark secret that is almost on par with being a defiler, and ultimately there just wouldn't be a large scale need for it in the survivalist world of Zalanthas. If a change were implemented to increase the literate population on a large scale, I think it would take away certain thematic elements from the game. Moreover, it might even require a change in the world setting. There would have to be a reversal of the current destroyed state of Zalanthas, trees would grow in more abundance and civilizations would advance to a level where not just the elite, but even the every day person could learn to read and write. Rain would fall, metal would be more readily available, and Zalanthas would effectively not be Zalanthas any more.

[Riev]

The extreme sensationalism of Suhuy's last bit there, I do agree. A decent portion of the playerbase that is still active, is active because they are by and large... storytellers. If a subguild suddenly granted access to R/W languages, while the initial excitement may die out, it would become flooded and suddenly everyone would be clamoring to learn, if only to write a book that "cements themselves as legends".


I WOULD, however, supremely enjoy sponsored role scribes. Delivering messages, writing contracts, etc. I think it'd be great if you were doing some non-official work for House Tor, and they give you a bound scroll just in case what you're doing gets you caught by a Templar. You hand them the scroll, assuming its a get-out-of-jail-free card, but really Lady Tor had her scribe write down that you're a bumbling idiot and if you're caught to just execute and them come over for tea. Or maybe that's what the SCRIBE wrote, because he thinks you're an asshole, and Lady Tor doesn't pay too close attention.



I think it'd be great.

[Kankman]

I just want to be able to burn books.