(I swear I was preparing this post before Shiribot set Estarra onto the flurry of looking at this forum. I was making notes for it this weekend.)

Changes to make to Artisan, in prioritized order. Artisans, add to the list, or disagree with the order.

Indoor/Outdoor Manses
Too many designs have to be done twice: once for real outdoor places, once for manse locations that are described outdoors but mechanically indoors. We've been told there are mechanical reasons why manse rooms have to be indoors. But there's no mechanical reason to limit furniture in them. Solution: when artisans are building in a manse, ignore the indoor/outdoor flag, build either kind. Coding effort: minimal (probably just adding one clause to an if statement). Impact: huge.

Comms From Deconstruction
Deconstructing furniture should return a fraction of the comms invested the same way it works for tailoring.

Display Cases
Similar to a chest (a furniture container). Its special function: when it's closed, you can still see the contents, and can probe the items inside it, as if it were open. Uses 25% wall space, 200 commodities, can only hold six items, and lasts about as long as a cabinet. Purpose: display your treasured keepsakes, make an art gallery, show off your collection of unique items, display the winners of craft or art contests. Extra bonus: eliminate a lot of those things people have in shops priced at 9999999 just so they can show them off.

More Instrument Types
I'll post the already-ready descriptions I wrote for four new types, and sent to the Charites a year and a half ago, below.

Wind Chimes
The dreamweaver protection of chandeliers isn't available fairly to everyone. Solution: wind chimes are an equivalent that are outdoor-only, and otherwise identical. (Maybe a different message, but same comms, same effect.)

Toys/Props
I know Estarra just said she doesn't like objects that bloat the object database with no mechanical purpose, so I guess we'll never get this. Would be very cool though, supporting so many kinds of roleplay and offering artisans a whole new venue to make a little gold now and then.

Clocks
Possessing one simply lets you use the TIME command even below-ground. For extra cool factor, with extra coding, make it so you have to wind them periodically, or you have to set them when aboveground and they only keep true time for a while, or something.

Prized
While no one agrees on a replacement power for Prized that's useful but not too useful, and not a copy of something else, everyone agrees that the current use is pointless. I still like the idea of something that passively diagnoses you every so often (on a tick of maybe 20-30 seconds). It would run for about five minutes and could be used once a Lusternian day. It would be an object you created that was unique to you, the way a philosopher's stone or tierstone is (maybe a clockwork soldier, that would be cool).

Here are those new instruments. All of these are stringed instruments which can be played while walking, and can produce intervals and chords, so should fit in with how Music works. They're also appropriate to genre and setting comparably to the existing instrument types, while being slightly more off-beat than the existing ones. These are patterns for the default "boring" versions (intentionally bland as they're just the pattern that artisans would deviate from with their own designs):

Psaltery

• Comms: wood 75 rope 20 silver 5
• a curved psaltery
• Discarded here, a curved triangular psaltery lies silent.
• This psaltery has a distinctive triangular shape, with curved sides that allow it to rest in the nook of an arm. Silver accents along the light wood of the body highlight the silver pegs at each end of its several dozen strings.
• References: http://www.trouvere.co.uk/Elliott%20psaltery%20(detail).jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psaltery

Sitar

• Comms: wood 80 rope 20
• a sitar
• A bulky sitar of dark wood rests here.
• Fashioned from a dark wood buffed to a fine sheen, this sitar is a bulky instrument with an elaborate design. Though the shape is similar to other instruments, the neck is much broader and longer, with no less than twenty strings, some running below the movable frets and some above.
• Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitar

Hurdy-Gurdy

• Comms: wood 80 rope 10 cloth 10
• a compact hurdy-gurdy
• Someone has left a hurdy-gurdy behind here.
• Crafted from a mix of light and dark woods, this hurdy-gurdy has a compact, bulky shape, with a very short neck ending in a curved tail. Its six strings have been wrapped in a very fine layer of cloth to give them a distinctive sound, and are separated into two groups, some fretted while others play a constant background accompaniment. Its most distinctive element is the small wooden crank which, when turned, causes a wheel to stroke the strings from below at a constant rate.
• Note: if the dash inside the main noun is a problem, calling it a "hurdygurdy" throughout would be an acceptable alternative.
• Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy-gurdy

Zither

• Comms: wood 80 rope 20
• a broad wooden zither
• A broad wooden zither has been left here.
• With a simple shape resembling a square from which one corner has been removed, this broad wooden zither is fairly large, with many strings arranged vertically in groups of three. The entire body serves as a resonating cavity, echoing sound from a small hole slightly off-center.
• Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither

Are there guitars yet?

Nope, but I assume that's intentional. They're kind of the wrong historical period (though no more so than violins), and between lutes, mandolins, and hopefully zithers, they'd really not offer anything new. Anyway, I wanted to go into the "more unusual" direction (but not too far).

Your ideas and instrument suggestions are super awesome, of course. I really think the wind chimes idea is cool. But... if I ever decided to try a bard again (though the need to be able to write poetry makes it doubtful! ) I want a guitar!

Hmm...I really should get about making just a consolidated thread for tradeskill suggestions instead of me digging around individual threads. Seeing as how we've no trade slot for envoys and someone else would have to give up a guild change for a trade change instead, it'd be easier if most all trade ideas about existing trade skills could be sent to a pinned topic for us to just look over and maybe pick apart to see what could be suggested so that we would have a semi-idea of what would be a good change without us having to actually change tradeskills to see. -ponder-

A mandolin is a guitar, pretty much. The difference is the pear-shape, rather than the hourglass shape.

edit: I like all of these ideas, especially the manse and deconstruction ones. I wish we had had more choices of instruments as well. Mandolin/violin/viola/lyre/lute are so dull now.

Is a mandolin a little bitty thing though? And they don't sound at all similar to a guitar.

Incidentally, on the display cases, Lady Maylea did an amazing job making something like this for the Spiritsinger guildhall using whatever magic tricks are available to Her. In suggesting this artisan craft, I don't want to seem like I'm taking anything away from how awesome those are, or how grateful we are for what She did for us! I just want to be able to sell a more mundane version to everyone else.

Oh! I really like the display case idea too. It'd be cool cause then, I could get a miniature collection and put them in a display case so everyone can oooh and ahhh at my collection.

Indoor/Outdoor Manses - Then you could have a room with both indoor and outdoor furniture which I think would be undesirable.

Comms From Deconstruction - I don't think this is needed. I'd rather people think carefully about furniture before placing it and not expect comms back.

Display Cases - I like this idea but I think it may be more difficult to implement than imagined.

Wind Chimes - I don't like this idea. Allowing windchimes all over the place will hinder dreamweavers too much.

Toys/Props - I don't like this.

Clocks - I don't think this is really needed but on the fence about it. I assume this means non-movable grandfather clocks. I'd prefer if there was more of a purpose.

Prized - I haven't really heard the complaints about Prized ability, but I'm not adverse to changing the skill. I'm not sure of an ability to passively diagnose you--seems pretty weak for a trans skill. I'd prefer the trans skill to be something to do with furniture.

I'm really not crazy about the instrument ideas (which is probably why they were declined before): psalterly just sounds like something religious, sitar is from a culture that has never been introduced, and hurdy-gurdy/zithar sound more mechnical or out-of-place in our universe. Also, these instruments are not that well known for most people (except maybe the sitar), which causes confusion. Yes, I know you can argue this but it comes down to an aesthetic decision. We have decided against these instruments for the reasons mentioned as well as our suspicion that demand for them is limited.

Surely you jest.

*tug* Guitar?





What is wrong with it? It sounds pretty cool.... getting to teleport to an object from anywhere. Is it less cool than it sounds?

The envoys haven't brought it up in my recent memory so, no, I'm not jesting. Feel free to offer ideas for new skills though!

I don't know if this has been brought up before but I think somethink like a cupboard for storing food in a manse or aethership would be really nice. Something that would slow food decay significantly or totally would be great.

Clearly the Artisan Trans ability should just be Feng Shui and the placement of the furniture in a room could do some rather neat-o effects. What these effects might be, I have no idea, but I'm sure people can come up with something.


Quick Edit: Big to the recent spike of idea replies too! It's nice to know what admin think about ideas, I think.

Here are a few ideas, just stuff I'm tossing out. Probably NOT trans skill material. Sorry, I ramble.

Extend: Extends the life of a piece of furniture. Possibly a gold cost. Good for those things with hard to get comms, like my cherub bed. Possibly a large power cost, as well?

Make the trans skill we already have, give whatever item it is on, permanancy. I mean, 90% of the items I see this used on, are thrones anyway. Won't hurt anything, really. And if someone changes it ( I think this can happen) perhaps mark the piece so that it may no longer have the skill used upon it, to prevent abuse.

And please, for the love of cheese, can we get a template for smalltables? I actually MADE one, and I think the Charites are having fits trying to decide if a large table can be used for it.




Also... out of curiosity, are the Charites some sort of "in house" position, or can mortals aspire to this at some point?

Artisans tradeskill was quite well liked originally as it worked as Noola says. The problem is that it was then changed dramatically.

Primarily because you used to be able to prized from anywhere, now you can with specific criteria.

Ahhhh... I didn't know it changed. What changed?