One thing that would indeed help Lusternia a better place..

Commons envoy:

-More slots than a normal envoy.
-2 or things for trades
-1 slot for a common skill or problem

Most things would be simpler things like... add this as an instrument type. Make curse removable. Etc

Would let some of these changes be done without interrupting the 'combat' slots.

In theory, that's a Charites issue, just like asking for new patterns in any craft, not an envoy issue.

In practice... More than a year ago, I sent in four new instrument types, already written up and ready to install, all completely compatible with Music, and all at least as period-appropriate as the ones we have. I never even got a response. So I posted them on Trademasters a couple of months later. Still no response, not even a "thanks but no thanks". Even emailed it in once, and again, no answer.

I don't think a non-combat envoy (which I strongly support) would be the right way to do this; but the right way, which already exists, also doesn't seem to work. This is, in fact, one of the best examples of the kind of "little thing that would make a big difference but not take much time" that I had in mind in my last post on this thread.

Yea- that already exists to a degree.

Including all of the things Lendren mentioned, there have been five different times that I utilized the BUG command about some "common" issue with a skill and had it show up in the next announce post. I know they were my suggestions because they were extremely specific. Combat slots can stay combat slots; people just need to use their existing resources more often.

I can vouch for the effectiveness of TYPO and IDEA, as well.

I just gave IDEA my first use the other day (an artisan design that would allow you to display a bunch of paintings in a single location). Maybe I should try to IDEA the instruments... but I can't really fit four full designs into an IDEA on a single command line!

Use one instrument per idea. And try to shorten it.. not sure what you mean a single command line (nexus?) since they extend to the next line. I would suggest shortening it maybe or multipart IDEA it if you need?

Didnt know there was already a way to handle this, though expected common envoy to also handle slots like changes to climbing, enchantment, and things like the faeleaf things etc.

Good to know we have a measure to cover this.. now if only it was a reliable way to work.

Ooh, right right. My above response was to Malarious, sorry.

For something like that, you're definitely right- a letter or a message to the Charites would probably be the easiest for all parties.

Well, that's what I did first -- a letter to them, sent several times. Then post, etc. What I mean by a whole design is:



Sure, I could put that on a single line, but it's unwieldy. And then putting in justifications for why this fits with Music, is period-appropriate, and would be a good addition to the game (giving bards something that's sufficiently different from the existing types to be interesting but still within the bounds of Music, and artisans something more to make) makes it even more so. And then doing all four (the others are sitar, zither, and hurdy-gurdy) together even more so. A letter or post is definitely better.

I'm hesitant to IDEA it too. I've already sent this in about six times by three different methods, one of them public and still on record (my Trademasters post). The last thing the admins need is to be pestered repeatedly when they're so busy. And the last thing I need, if I want my ideas to be considered, is to be that pest. On the other hand, it has been more than six months since my last attempt.



Sorry about the hijack. Maybe this should go to the Charites rant thread, though it seems unfair to complain about the one-year-ago-Charites there today.



I wholly support the idea of some method of envoying non-combat things and have proposed various approaches to that myself many times. Having a dedicated "everything else" envoy running in parallel with the guild envoys seems like a good approach, though, better than my proposals. Someone who makes a good guild envoy might not be as good a choice to be a trades/RP-skills/etc. envoy, after all. And vice versa!

I have but one request as far as coding focus goes. Could, for but a brief moment, the focus shift to all those small, oh so 'meaningless' things that we have been begging and praying for all those months and years?

Stationery, fireplaces, various drink holders (cups, mugs, wine glasses), customisable poses, family system upgrades, incense, bookbinding products available to be sold in shops (at least non-org ones, brand ownership/authors on others like with flame sigils), needing to have a quill and inks to write, booklist... probably a myriad other things listed at one point in the Wish List.

Yes to family system fixes.
Yes to stationery and fireplaces and inks and quills and poses and all the rest.

Probably half of those small things are actually huge ones.

As a point of interest, could someone actually list all the issues with the family system? I have a few problems with it myself, but usually I just see, "God I hate the family system!!!" What's needed to fix it?

1) The part where you need to arrange for three people to get on at the same time to adopt, given time zones and stuff like that is bad, but that's workable.

2) The bit where you can't adopt married/bloodbonded people is really very annoying.

3) People who married out not having access to their birth family House channels (not that I'm complaining about missing out on the Mes'ard one, but still!). It should be something along the lines of "You don't count toward the head count, but you get to talk, because hey, they're your birth family!" Unless you reject family.

There's probably other (minor) things, but this is what I think of off the top of my head. At least fix 2.

For 2), I agree with married people being able to be considered, but not bloodbonded people.

On a similar note, married people who have had children can never be adopted. I understand this could lead to abuse with large families popping up quickly, but would it not be possible to make the adoption work so Married Person would count as a member of Parents' Family, but Married Person's Children would not count as a member of Parent's Family because Married Person would have a different 'active' family?

I believe people have been asking to be able to reject children as well and not only the other way around. Could require both parents doing that and a waiting period to prevent foolish decisions maybe?

WYRDEN TERRAIN FIX PLZ

Someone make a 'Fixes to the Family System' thread please? I'm not aware of all the problems (and lazy)!

It is made.

http://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?show...mp;#entry519254

(Oops, I put it in Ideas, not Common Grounds.... my bad)

The everything else that is missing from Lusternia is just that. Everything can't function because everything requires more players.

The end.

Chickens and eggs. Fixing the most important problems might be the best way to get more players. Then again, building new stuff might be. More players is the goal, not the process of getting to it. So it can't be "the end" when you're trying to figure out how to get there.

First, a few replys to Estarra:
The 'upcoming fixes which are referred to' are the bard tradeskills.
The problem is that the cities and communes are OOCly forced to like eachother so they can mantain a supply of potions and enchantments IC. This prevents forest people from RPing a dislike of cities and city people from RPing in a way that upsets the communes. The suggested fix is to make cities and communes able to get the combat relevent bits of alchemy and enchanting done independently of eachother.



A command that will tell you directly what each astrology skill will do today. Currently, you have to either make a system to sort it out for you or figure it out by hand before you can start fighting, which is rarely an option. Something like:

or



Would be of great help.

Now for my suggestions.

Aetherspace:

Currently, I see four problems with aetherspace.

1.
Problem: Aetherspace hunting requires alot of people who have put lessons in aethercraft. It is very rare to get enough people with the right skills, who know what the skills do and are going to be around for the whole trip. As a result, aetherships are underused.

Solution: Lower the lesson requirements for basic aetherhunting.

* Change AB Aethercraft Empathy heal all the modules and the hull for a small amount.
* Change AB Aetherfact Modules to allow you to heal specific modules or just the hull for a larger amount.
* Move AB Aetherfact Siphon, AB Aetherfact Scoop and AB Aetherfact Trade downward while moving AB Aetherfact Armada, AB Aetherfact Interlink and AB Aetherfact Ram up in ths skillset. This moves all the bashing skills at low levels and the PvP skills higher.

2.
Problem: Getting flug across aetherspace while siphoning. This is highly anoying.

Solution: Add a new skill for siphoners. AB Aetherfact Tether. This skill limits the range you can be flung to within 25 squares of the vortex but also prevents you from going more that 25 squares away in the event that you need to run away.

3.
Problem: Ship v. Ship combat is rather dull. Both sides always do the same thing: Spiral, shoot repeatedly at eachother while the empaths try futily to heal with a malfunctioning grid, someone explodes.

Solution:
* The changes for empathy and modules will releave a good deal of the problems with the futility of trying to heal a ship during combat.
* Ramming the enemy ship is not viable. The formula needs reworked so that you have a decent change to ram them before it becomes simpiler to just blow them up.

4.
Problem: There is little to fight over in aetherspace besides constructs.

Solution: Add things in aetherspace that people can fight eachother to get.
* Wrecks. Would be similar to vortexes, only instead of sucking up power, you are sucking up commodities and possibly crew members. Crew members could be taken to the facility for small rewards.
* Wild algontherine. You could ram them and get inside of tiny aetherbubbles, perhaps 5 or less rooms total. Maybe you could use the sample descriptions from builder applications.
*Other things will be added as I think of them.