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Old 01-13-2006, 09:17 PM   #14
the_logos
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mill Valley, California
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Well, there's an easy solution to this: Require admin approval of all player-crafted objects that involve free-form writing. We do that and it works quite nicely.


Just make crafted items require some expense to make (clothing can require cloth and thread and leather, furniture can require wood and leather and cloth, etc etc). If nobody wants to buy their crafted items, they'll quickly go broke just churning out useless items.

All the systems on the IRE games work somewhat differently, and there are many types of of crafters (tailors, masons, cooks, etc), but here's how one crafting skill (tailoring) works in Achaea. I've included two full help files (one specific to tailoring and one about how Achaean crafting works generally), but I'll summarize:

1. Crafter gets craft-specific license (like a Tailors license). That gets the tailor, for instance, the mini-skill of Tailoring. As the tailor practices, he'll rise in that skill, gaining a couple new abilities (like embroidery) and increasing the durability of the things he makes (increases decay times basically).

2. Purchase a blank pattern. Patterns are for a very generic type of that item. For instance, the shirt pattern is for "a grey shirt." The trousers pattern is for "grey trousers." You can, at this point, create "grey trousers" with that pattern, but nobody does, as people obviously want to create custom clothing. So, read on.

3. Purchase a sketch, and copy the blank pattern onto that sketch.

4. Start altering your sketch (re-stringing it basically).

5. Set whatever other options are available for that type of pattern (for instance, clothing sketches that cover the midriff can be altered so as to not quite cover it and thus display belly button piercings.)

6. Submit your sketch to the Crafting Guild for approval. Essentially, you're submitting it to the admins in charge of that who will proof it for suitability, grammar, spelling, etc. The Crafting Guild will also assign a 'prestige' rating to it. Prestige takes into account things like the quality of material, detail level of the description, any expensive ornaments (gems, for instance) in the garment.

7. Once you are notified by in-game mail that your sketch has been approved and is now a pattern, you can go to the Crafting Guild and pick it up, for a fee that scales up geometrically with the prestige of the item. If it's been rejected, you'll have to re-write it to fix whatever is wrong with it.

8. Now that you have your own pattern, you may sew garments from it. Creating a garment will require cloth and/or leather, depending on the type of basic pattern (shirt, trousers, kilt, veil, whatever). It will also have a gold cost associated with it that scales geometrically with the prestige.

So, basically, what this tailoring system gives is the capability for players to have a HUGE range of completely customized clothing while requiring that they go through an admin approval process to keep the level of poorly written descriptions and inappropriate items at a minimum. It also creates and enforces a system whereby if you want unique clothing, especially unique clothing that reads as being really nice ("jeweled robes of a king") you are going to have to pay out the freaking nose for it. You could even have 'dress codes' whereby you can't enter certain places unless you're wearing no item below X prestige and have at least Y total clothing prestige worn, though Achaea doesn't currently do this to my knowledge.



------------------------------------------------

9.37.1 TAILORING

(See also: HELP DESIGN, HELP CRAFTING GUIDELINES)

The tailor's art is that of transforming regular cloth, leather, and thread into magnificent vestments fit for a sultan, fearsome uniforms of elite fighting units, or modest coverings to warm old bones on frigid nights.

To become a professional tailor, you must be trained by the craft guild of Delos. Go to the craft guild office and BUY TAILORING PERMIT. The craft guild assesses a fee of 200 credits for the permit, which does not expire. Once a licensed tailor, you will have basic ability in the Tailoring miniskill. The
more you train in this skill, the higher quality your products will be, in terms of durability.

Abilities Gained
----------------
At Novice: The ability to Sew from existing patterns.
At Adept: The ability to create new patterns.
At Transcendent: The ability to embroider clothing.


Basic Syntaxes
--------------
BUY TAILORING PERMIT
- Buy your license to become a tailor.

SEW <pattern>
- Construct a garment from your pattern.

DESIGN <sketch> COPY <pattern>
- Create a blank sketch from a pattern type.

DESIGN <sketch> UNCOVER|COVER NAVEL
- This will allow certain clothing types to show belly
piercings.

DESIGN <sketch> APPEARANCE <description>
- Sketch out the appearance description for your new design.
Note: Max of 50 characters.

DESIGN <sketch> DROPPED <description>
- Sketch out the dropped description for your new design.

DESIGN <sketch> EXAMINED
- Sketch out the examined description for your new design.
Note: This will take you into the Achaean editor for easier
editing.

DESIGN <sketch> SUBMIT
- Submit your sketch for approval by the Crafting Council.
Note: Must submit from the Tailoring office.

DESIGN REQUEST <pattern>
- Pay for and pick up your approved pattern.
Note: Must submit from the Tailoring office.


Detailed Syntax
---------------
To produce an item of clothing, simply purchase a clothing pattern and the components required to make the item as indicated by the pattern (usually cloth and/or leather plus some gold sovereigns.). Then SEW <pattern> to construct your garment. The higher the prestige of the item, the more it will cost to sew.

Once you achieve the level of Adept in the tailor's craft, you will gain the coveted ability to design clothing of your own. This process is a bit more involved:

1) Purchase a blank design sketch from the craft guild office in Delos.

2) Acquire a garment pattern of the same type as the garment you wish to design (hat, belt, pants, etc.), then DESIGN <sketch> COPY <pattern>. This will make a copy of the existing pattern on your blank sketch.

3) Customize your sketch's appearance when worn, when viewed in a room, and when examined closely:

DESIGN <sketch> APPEARANCE <description>
- This is the description you see when you type 'info inv'.
- Examples are: 'a pair of leather trousers' and 'a plush mink blanket'.
DESIGN <sketch> DROPPED <description>
- This is the description people see when an item is in a room.
- Example: A white shirt is crumpled on the floor here.
DESIGN <sketch> EXAMINED (this will take you into the Achaean editor).
- This is what people see when an item is examined.

Please read the guidelines for sketches at the end of this file. It will save you a lot of time and hassle.

4) Take your design sketch to a craft guild office and DESIGN <sketch> SUBMIT it for evaluation. The craft guild will review your sketch and make a garment pattern from it.

5) When the garment pattern is finished, you will be notified by mail that your pattern is ready to pick up. Return to the craft guild office and DESIGN REQUEST <pattern>, using the pattern number specified in the letter from the craft guild. The craft guild charges a fee for the creation of the pattern based on the complexity and opulence of your design.


Embroidery
----------
Finally, once you have reached Transcendent Tailoring, you will be able to embroider clothes for other people. Simply:

EMBROIDER <clothing> <message>
- The cost is 10 gold/letter.
EMBROIDER <clothing> REMOVE
- The cost is 1000 gold flat rate.

P.S. Try SHOWOFF <garment> to display your fabulous clothing to the rest of the world, you gorgeous thing you.

Guidelines for Crafting

1. Don't take liberties with the pattern.
This means that if you are using a shirt pattern, don't make your sketch a vest. The main noun in the "appearance" field of your sketch must match whatever the pattern is a pattern of.

2. "Appearance" format.
This is what people see when you look in your inventory or give an item to another person. Some rules:

a. Don't capitalise the first letter unless it's a proper noun.

b. Don't make a sentence out of it.

c. Don't make it too long or try to cram too much detail into it. That is what the examine description is for. More than one line is definitely out and even that is excessive.

d. Don't write about any actions or reactions the item is having. Something like "a cloak blowing in the wind" would not be accepted as it is not always going to be blowing in the wind.

The simplest way to see if you have set an appropriate description here is to put it in this sentence: You give <appearance description> to Sarapis. If your appearance description makes a proper sounding and looking sentence there then you're probably ok.

3. "Dropped" format.
This is what people see when an item is in a room and they type "look."
Some rules:

a. It must be a complete sentence, with a period on the end. No exclamation points, no question marks, no multiple periods.

b. The main noun in the sentence must be the same as the pattern name so that people know what to call it when they want to pick it up, without having to type "info here."

c. Keep this to one line or less.

d. Things like "A cloak is hanging from a peg here." is not acceptable if it were dropped on the highway there is no peg to hang from.

4. Format for examined desc.
This is what people see when they examine an item. Some rules:
a. Use full sentences. Multiple sentences are fine.

b. Be descriptive.

5. Suitability

We will only accept designs that are suitable for a tailor working in a medieval-ish environment to create. Some rules:

a. Nothing that a tailor could not reasonable create. For instance, a tailor could not create a baby in a baby blanket or a suit of chainmail. A tailor can't weave something out of the essence of darkness or create something that is lighter than air.

b. Use appropriate materials. You can't make a shirt out of living skin or pure gold. Achaea also does not have "modern" materials and clothing features like velcro, denim, polyester (or any synthetic fabric), zippers, sweatshirts, and so on. One metal that may not be used is mithril. The one exception we permit here are undergarments, particularly bras. Yes, they are a decidedly modern invention in the real world but in Achaea we are lucky to have a Creator who finds that support can often do wonders for a woman's bosom.

6. Affiliated items
Items claiming to be "official" representations of affiliation with an organisation or person will be rejected. No making "the official tunic of the Occultists" or "the tunic of Tu'eras."


COMMON MISTAKES
---------------
1) There should never be a period at the end of the appearance description. Doing this will make the item have a double period when seen in your inventory.

2) Watch English usage: putting in the dropped description "A pair of rugged leather boots lay here." This should be "lie here." Lay is an action. Be careful on spelling. A spell checker wouldn't hurt, though it doesn't catch things like their/there/they're or here/hear.

3) The examined descriptions should not contain reactions. Don't do:
"Visions of lollipops are evoked in you as you look at this cloak." or (much worse) "You gasp in awe as you gaze upon this dress." It's up to the viewer to react. If you tell them how to react, your designs will be rejected.

4) Remember you are crafters not enchanters. As crafters you have no way to do anything magical in a design. You cannot, for instance, magically embed diamonds into something or cause an item to have a magical glow.

5) Organisation names should be capitalised.
"tunic of a Runewarden novice"

6) The examined description is there to describe the clothing not the wearer. The examined should not contain words such as you, your, etc. Should be the wearer's.

7) The Appearance and Dropped descriptions must contain the name of the design. If you are crafting a hat it has to say it's a hat. Example: a beanie is not a hat, so use the same term in both descriptions.

8) An item can not be something that it is not. In other words a blanket is a blanket it is not a tapestry or a banner. Those would be separate items from a blanket.

9) Initials and insignia are fine to put in your examined description. Emoticons and other forms of random symbols are not considered an insignia. Such symbols spoil a good description.

10) When using numbers in your descriptions you should always spell it out. Reading through an examined description a 2 will draw the eye away from what is written where as two will blend in and not be a distraction.

11) There are children in Achaea. Keep your designs tasteful. It is possible to be sexy and tasteful, without being disgusting.

There are some other commands and help files as well, such as putting a passcode on your pattern to allow a friend to use it temporarily, but I'm sure you get the idea. Other crafting skills work quite a bit differently, though at least one other (jewelry) works a lot like clothing does.

--matt
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