Author Topic: Dropable and buyable history books (Read 970 times)

Hellblazer · « **on:** February 12, 2007, 01:08:03 AM »

Even though the new handbook is in progress, I was wondering if it would not be a more rpiable manner to actualy do as Bioware has done with NWN and have dropable or buyable books of events and history.
A bit more work I agree, but at the same time, it woud be the easiest way to convey the history of Layonara in an IC manner. Such books could be bought at temples, for those regarding history and events of that temple, others at the general store vendor.

Witch Hunter · « **Reply #1 on:** February 12, 2007, 02:28:50 AM »

I agree, but they should be expensive - scribing an entire book takes a lot of time.

Dorganath · « **Reply #2 on:** February 12, 2007, 06:22:24 AM »

Given the breadth of the handbook as it sits now, and given how big I know it's going to be for the new release, it's more than a "bit" more work to convey its information in an IC manner. I'm not saying it wouldn't be worthwhile to have more books in-game, but it would be a fair amount of work.
Witch_Hunter's comment is also pretty valid. There's no means of mass-production for printed text in Layonara, so having them generally available for purchase or as drops would not seem to make much sense. If we added things, we'd probably add them to the Great Library and/or one of the other libraries around the world for browsing, but not for purchasing.

Hellblazer · « **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2007, 09:44:24 AM »

in libraries yes that makes a lot of sence actualy. the question would be, how do you make them viewable but not removable?

Black Cat · « **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2007, 09:55:24 AM »

I for one we like to see parchment in the form of books so if one is willing to put time into this he could scribe the book himself, i.e. copying the book he found in the library. And you can make that scribable book expensive... but with a good many available space to write on it.

Would remove the time constraint off the team and allows those who wish to do so to... well do so.

Dorganath · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2007, 10:26:00 AM »

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Hellblazer - 2/12/2007 11:44 AM in libraries yes that makes a lot of sence actualy. the question would be, how do you make them viewable but not removable?

We have ways of discouraging thievery... *rubs hands together and snickers evilly*

Hellblazer · « **Reply #6 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:07:24 PM »

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Dorganath - 2/12/2007 1:26 PM
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Hellblazer - 2/12/2007 11:44 AM in libraries yes that makes a lot of sence actualy. the question would be, how do you make them viewable but not removable?
We have ways of discouraging thievery... *rubs hands together and snickers evilly*

Lmoa I dont doubt you on that at all. Although would be fun to see the end result on a theif who thought he could.

Witch Hunter · « **Reply #7 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:59:58 PM »

Scribbing your own books is also an option - rather make a container like book though and then just include pages...

Hellblazer · « **Reply #8 on:** February 12, 2007, 07:17:28 PM »

the only problem i see with that is a game mechanics, you would be albe to keep the book open in the library to read then copy it manualy using the editing option inside the game. I dont know for you, but to make something that looks decent is realy hard.
An option would be to make an auto copy of the book that would appear in your inventory, providing that you bought or crafted an empty book, and still would need to pay for the copy to be made by one of the scribes in the temple. Then this could be done with little or no fuss to the player.

Witch Hunter · « **Reply #9 on:** February 13, 2007, 12:19:01 AM »

That's just too simple, like I mentioned before scribing an entire book takes -AGES-, heck, it used to be an entire profession.
If you want to scribe a book you'd have to do it the hard way of writing it down word by word - if it's really worth it to you then you'll do it

And I've had a look at it - the scrolls we have for scribing have some nice limits on them, I don't think scribing an entire NWN book would be hard using the best type of scroll available.
But I would like to see book-looking scrolls, so you could make your own library

Hellblazer · « **Reply #10 on:** February 13, 2007, 12:41:44 AM »

it's not by lack of effort trust me but on the 8 months that I have been playing here on layo I have tried to scribe on parchement quite a few times. and if you have long part of text to write up, and that you go out of the lenght of the writing bar.. good luck.
Dont forget that there wounldnt be only one scribe on a book. In fact ( sorry for the RL here) but when they used to copy books in the days before the first press, they used to have a tone of people working on a same book but doing diferent parts of that book.
So it safe to say that if you woudl order a copy of that book, there wouldnt be only one scribe copying it but many, which would make the price for the copy high. Like 5000 for one book, not including the fact that you would have to purchse the blank book or make one yourself.

lunchboxkilla · « **Reply #11 on:** February 13, 2007, 12:42:15 AM »

Ok....how about a book press that takes sheets of paper a player writes up and uses that to make into a book?

Hellblazer · « **Reply #12 on:** February 13, 2007, 01:46:42 AM »

It's a good idea and could fit the auto copy aplication.

darkstorme · « **Reply #13 on:** February 13, 2007, 01:48:04 AM »

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Hellblazer - 2/13/2007 3:41 AM

it's not by lack of effort trust me but on the 8 months that I have been playing here on layo I have tried to scribe on parchement quite a few times. and if you have long part of text to write up, and that you go out of the lenght of the writing bar.. good luck.

What about the parchment folder?

Step 1: Buy parchment. (As an addendum, why can't we make writable parchments?)
Step 2: Insert into Parchment Folder.
Step 3: Window-mode NWN whilst at the Great Library.
Step 4: Transcribe one of the Great Library scrolls in scrolling comfort.
Step 5: Profit!.... from the knowledge thus gained.

Hellblazer · « **Reply #14 on:** February 13, 2007, 02:05:58 AM »

oh lets see, i have tried that about 30 times, never suceeded and the last time i tried, i tried for 4 days. I am not the only one who have problems with this aparently.
It woudl be a good idea if it was working properly. In my case though it never has even by following the instruction to the letter.

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orth - 12/22/2005 10:23 AM For now the limits range from 250 (Stone Slab heh) to 5000 characters. Priced from 2gp to I think it was 35gp for the long one. We haven't exactly hashed out how we plan on implementing the whole book thing, we may sell blank books for a high price and/or allow for a book binding craft with leather and gum or something for a cheaper price.

Some of this idea seemed to have been thought up a while back to but never realy put into aplication it seems, see here

Dorganath · « **Reply #15 on:** February 13, 2007, 06:47:00 AM »

Once more, the idea of some wondrous device that simply duplicates the printed word is not a technology that exists in the world at the current time.
But let's get beyond that for a moment.
There is a limitation in the scribing system, and this is sadly one of those things without a clear way around for the moment without adding some extreme instability to the server. That limitation in particular is that we cannot write more into an item's description than was originally available for the item.
So for example, if an item's description was originally: "This is a blank piece of paper" then all one would have to work with is 30 characters. That is a limit we're enforcing now, because to go beyond that causes very bad things to happen. All writable parchments and such in-game are padded with spaces to support a certain number of characters.
So in that, a big reason why some generic, generally-scribeable books are not available is that there are some rather cumbersome and necessary technical limitations to the system in general.

darkstorme · « **Reply #16 on:** February 13, 2007, 03:07:16 PM »

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Hellblazer - 2/13/2007 5:05 AM oh lets see, i have tried that about 30 times, never suceeded and the last time i tried, i tried for 4 days. I am not the only one who have problems with this aparently.
It woudl be a good idea if it was working properly. In my case though it never has even by following the instruction to the letter.

You're aware that it has to be saved twice, yes? This took me all of about three minutes:

Initially, it asks that you confirm that you want the edit to take place by pressing BACK and then saving a second time. That may have proven a stumbling block. I can't see it taking more than a day or so (RL) to copy all of the readable texts currently residing in the Great Library, if you've got the money to burn on parchments.
@Dorg - I understand that magical photocopiers and the invention of the printing press will not occur in Layo. But why is it that scribing parchments cannot be crafted? Was it just as an addendum, or is it intended as a money sink?

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #17 on:** February 13, 2007, 03:25:47 PM »

Suggestion/Question in terms of books in general...

How about a holdable Parchment Folder? All that would take, I believe, would be adding the usable part of a Parchment Folder to the already-available Fashion Accessory Books.

darkstorme · « **Reply #18 on:** February 13, 2007, 03:48:28 PM »

*nods to Stephen's post* The only problem I could see with that is that you'd essentially (in roleplay) tearing pages out of a book to read them. Bioware "books" don't really hold any more than a lengthy parchment; furthermore, the Great Library is more akin to the Library of Alexandria - hundreds or thousands of nooks with scrolls in metallic scroll cases. Grimoires would be few and far between, really.

Stephen_Zuckerman · « **Reply #19 on:** February 13, 2007, 03:53:24 PM »

Well, perhaps it could be RPed as more flipping to the page than tearing it out... Or perhaps just removable pages. *Shrugs.* Still, having a book that I could actually show pages of to people... Nifty.