Ingame Books And Maps Through The Internet

[Sir Arowhun 473]

Major edit: made this easier to understand

 

I like how the wurmpedia website is visible ingame. I think this system could also be used to create player made books, maps, drawings, kingdom tabards, etc that are also visible in game.

 

For example, if you have a game guide that you want to make, you would make a book ingame with leather and papyrus sheets. Once the blank book is finished, you could then upload your game guide to a website. Then, activate a quill, right click the book, and click "write". A diologe box could come up where you could paste in a link to the web page the information is on. After the book is writen, it should be possible to read the contents of the web page by right clicking the book and clicking "read". The information could be presented in the same manner as the ingame wurmpedia.

 

For things like images, you could do the same thing with a piece of papyrus. This way people can make maps that are viewable ingame.

 

Kingdom tabards could also be saved this way so that the art team doesn't have to update the art packs every time that they are changed.

 

People have been suggesting ingame books and maps for a long time. This would knock out two birds with one stone, as well as making it easier to update the tabbards. There should be mods on this site to make sure noone posts anything inappropriate. If a book is removed from the site for some reason, when reading it ingame it could say that "the book is damaged and impossible to read" or something like that.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Sir Arowhun

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

So, your suggestion is a wiki? I think we already have that

[Sklo:D 2,210]

Yeah we have a wiki and we can view it inside the game.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Sklo:D

[Sir Arowhun 473]

So, your suggestion is a wiki? I think we already have that

 

No, its a site for players to post personal stories, game guides, histories, etc. Then they can make a book ingame, and when reading the book it could get it's data from the site. 

 

Maybe this same method could be used with images to add maps and drawings that are viewable ingame. This could even be used for PMK tabards and banners

Edited August 28, 2013 by Sir Arowhun

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

Personal stories, game guides, histories, etc... So, the forums? You're asking for forum access ingame? Trying to figure out wtf you're actually on about here

[silakka 2,360]

id be one of those writing only my own books and never reading what others made

would be a little fun thing to have/to do if you are bored, more things is always good.

 

 

Personal stories, game guides, histories, etc... So, the forums? You're asking for forum access ingame? Trying to figure out wtf you're actually on about here

 

Just read what he wrote.

Edited August 28, 2013 by silakka

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

I'm still not seeing the point in this, are you asking for an ingame web browser a la EvE Online?

[Sir Arowhun 473]

I'm still not seeing the point in this, are you asking for an ingame web browser a la EvE Online?

 

I'm suggesting for there to be a new webpage that you can upload stories, images, etc. Then, you could use information posted on this site to make ingame books and ingame maps.

[AlexLong 128]

Sounds good but I think maybe a skill for writing would be better. People could buy the books people write for skill gains (someone "writes" a book on building and reading it would advance your skill)
QL of book could determine skill gain for the reader and the QL of book would depend on writing skill plus skill in the area of writing. So a book on minning would take in to account the writers writing level and their mining level.

Creating books and reading them should be somewhat time consuming tho and maybe reading them would make the book lose QL or just completely vanish, eitherway.

Sorry but I heard "book" and thought of this. :Z


Back to your idea. I have thought that online note system would be good for in game, so people can leave notes for other people and so on in places, which could add to role play (instead of using forums).
Maybe skills for paper making and some type of ink system etc to make pens could help too. I think if anything like this is done, it should really focus on skills etc. The wiki is enough for new players to help get buy and I'd rather see more skills/economic things instead of just implementing simple systems like the IG wiki.

Mapping etc could also be a skill. Hell it was back in them days

Edited August 29, 2013 by AlexLong

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

I was about to say being able to buy skillbooks would be a bad idea, then I realised, I'm a professional panloader and saying that would make me a hypocrite. Therefore, ONLY if they were MASSIVELY hard to make, e.g. you have to be 90+ skill and making a skillbook cost you levels (permanent skill decrease by 1 to make a +1 skill increase book), and the books don't work on 90+ skill players as they already know everything they'd learn

[Klaa 4,872]

Calligraphy or penmanship for writing. Book-binding for combining the pages. Skill levels and mind stats would impact the benefits.

 

Mmm for skill books let it cap out on permanent skill gain at 30 or so. Another way of encouraging new players. That's not even getting into some kind of apprenticeship program.

 

Higher skill players could still enjoy some kind of temp boost +5 to skill or something.

 

Not to mention player journals, stories, musical scores, etc

 

That's just books, we can already write notes with dye/ink, pens, and parchment. However, there's really no place to "post" em for others to view.

 

Being able to access the wiki as some kind of ingame library sounds interesting.

 

Cartography is a whole nother issue in its own right. Im all for player-crafted maps (especially plotting course for deep water sailing), I just don't want to see 100% accurate, satellite survey, auto-updated maps.

[Rathgar 959]

Books like Ultima Online.

[Ozgod 18]

I think the idea is Create>Book>Select "Content" (which would be summoned up via the Creative Content Wiki)

 

I could be wrong.

 

But yes, I loved the book feature in Ultima Online - I used it to maintain my own ingame player diary.

[Bart 954]

I think the idea is Create>Book>Select "Content" (which would be summoned up via the Creative Content Wiki) I could be wrong. But yes, I loved the book feature in Ultima Online - I used it to maintain my own ingame player diary.

day one, died to spider

day two, died to same spider

day three, spider camping my shack

day four, killed spider, died to troll

day five, spider corpse attracted more spiders

i like it

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

I'd love this. A non-wiki, non-interactive place for people to place text and images that are accessed in the game through individual books. Being able to record knowledge, history, maps and share it locally though in-game items rather than URLs pointing to some off-game website is something I've always wanted.

I wouldn't want to see skill books however.

[Ozgod 18]

It'd be a good way for settlements to record their history or major events as an ingame item.

 

I'm curious what decay system you'd have to put in place to maintain and repair "books" (oil to repair the leather, string to resew pages, iron chests to prevent decay from exposure to air?)

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

It'd be a good way for settlements to record their history or major events as an ingame item.

 

I'm curious what decay system you'd have to put in place to maintain and repair "books" (oil to repair the leather, string to resew pages, iron chests to prevent decay from exposure to air?)

I'd imagine books, if they're a crafted item like tools, would have no decay in inventory or any other container. I doubt it would ever be necessary to cull the number of book items through any form of aggressive decay.

Edited August 29, 2013 by EliasTheCrimson

[joedobo 1,187]

It might be interesting to let players create and write in game books. I don't think the content for these books should come from external web sites. They should be stored on Wurm server. Let the players also store books client side so the server doesn't have to community that stuff over and over. 

 

I'm against this for maps. The problem with maps is its not easy to make them. Only a handfull of people have been able to make them to varring degrees of succes even know everyone as access to programs like Inkscape (vector) or paint.net (raster).  Another issue with maps is consumption of bandwidth to communicate them with clients. This idea doesn't solve either of those issues.

 

What cartography needs are ingame tools that remove the need for the player to be an artist or know how to use external image type software.

[Archaed 2,280]

I'm okay with ingame access to the community map, bringing up a window up the whole place, allowing you to zoom perhaps, but nothing based around autolocation, we don't have the technology to get gps in wurm.

 

As for the book idea, it's one that would take a bit of work, disallowing references to unconfirmed sites, allowed links and content censorship, would be a headache for the dev team to write, as well as whichever poor team has to keep an eye on player made stuff to avoid it being offensive to some random newbie who just comes along. I do like the idea, but I don't think its feasible.

[Drayka 485]

Okay, I'm definitely for books with player created content, and images that can be used in game that are player created. +1

 

I don't think they should be client-side because the content OUGHT to be open to moderation. At the same time, I don't think the content should be stored on the main wiki site, as then anyone can access it without an item, so what's the point ? I would like to see players being responsible for uploading the content to its useable destination, not filling up dev inboxs. Perhaps content could be uploaded for approval, and once approval is given the content can't be edited, only used to create copies of the item to distribute. If uploaded content is not called upon by an item in-game (no copies exist) for a certain amount of time, the file is autodeleted.

 

Once content is approved, and this might only be a case of running a keyword filter on the file to see if it flags any words (no further action needed unless someone reports), the character count then determines what quality and type of book is needed. Be great to have the capacity for small pamphlets to huge ornate tomes.

 

I personally don't like the thought of avatars wandering about with the equivalent of a wireless internet ipad they can use to update their public blog. The forums cover that nicely already without an in-game item, and we're already walking around with the ability to IM anyone on global and kingdom channels, and a friendlist that tells us the where and when of our contacts.

 

I would like to see cartography as a skill, and possibly a brass sextant so you can create in-game maps a bit at a time. As everyone already has access to community map with the exception of a few setups that don't allow you to access game and browser at the same time, I'd rather players had the opportunity to skill for it and trade skill-made maps.

 

I would however like to see image upload for custom graphics. Source-files for paintings (dye material + egg instead of water, for paint, brushes made from a bit of fur and a handle) or tapestries (dyed thread + sheet + needle) with custom calculated requirements and appropriate skill-gain. As these are 2D graphics they shouldn't be that hard to cater for automatically, with a quick glance over to check for inappropriate images before approval. I get the impression that tabards have to be converted into 3D image skins, and I don't know how complicated or time consuming that is.

 

-1 to skillbooks, that doesn't seem to fit with the ethos of Wurm's game mechanics, though appropriate for other games.

[Klaa 4,872]

Heh, journals with spider deaths reminded me of this scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail:

 

[Sir Arowhun 473]

Okay, I'm definitely for books with player created content, and images that can be used in game that are player created. +1

 

I don't think they should be client-side because the content OUGHT to be open to moderation. At the same time, I don't think the content should be stored on the main wiki site, as then anyone can access it without an item, so what's the point ? I would like to see players being responsible for uploading the content to its useable destination, not filling up dev inboxs. Perhaps content could be uploaded for approval, and once approval is given the content can't be edited, only used to create copies of the item to distribute. If uploaded content is not called upon by an item in-game (no copies exist) for a certain amount of time, the file is autodeleted.

 

 

The reason for the website method is so that even if all the copies of the book are lost, the story will still exist.

 

If the image thing is added there should be a rule against real world photos.

[Drayka 485]

Why not give a reason to have a library in-game, to protect those stories from being lost ? I'm sure players could find plenty of workarounds to get a copy onto their hard-drive to safe-guard it for resubmitting if it gets deleted from server-storage. I just don't see people going to the trouble to create and circulate books if they can just go to a website to read it, and I'd like to see books become a valued feature in Wurm. We have few enough reasons to create public buildings in Wurm as compared to RL anyway. And I'm sure it would add elements to PvP, trying to destroy each other's repositories of valuable scrolls and texts.

[Taxton 19]

I agree with Drayka. That was the idea that was beginning to form in my mind while reading through this posting. It might not happen immediately but I would imagine that future players of wurm might find an interest in collecting old texts and manuscripts, as long as there was some way to repair and improve them. (Or perhaps a book shelf to shield them from decay.) The only thing that I would add to this idea is that the book would get a marking, viewable on examination, of who the author was and the in-game date it was published.

[ReaverKane 363]

I was about to say being able to buy skillbooks would be a bad idea, then I realised, I'm a professional panloader and saying that would make me a hypocrite. Therefore, ONLY if they were MASSIVELY hard to make, e.g. you have to be 90+ skill and making a skillbook cost you levels (permanent skill decrease by 1 to make a +1 skill increase book), and the books don't work on 90+ skill players as they already know everything they'd learn

They don't have to be massively hard to make. Just make it so that the Skill boook gives 1/100 of the maker's skill.

Like you're a lvl 70 Blacksmith. You create a book on Blacksmithing. Person who reads it gains 0.7 Blacksmithing skill (70/100). But here's the kicker. It gets a 1 Wurm year cooldown, to practice and have the skills sink in.

Other way would be that the 0.7 skill points would become a 2x or 3x bonus, which would work like the skill bonus from dying (you get the extra skill till you reach the goal skill).

Can even combine both, can also make it so that to write a book you have to sacrifice part of your skill. Etc.

 

As for the Original post. Albeit great. The current browser is just parsing plain text (no formats, no images), so it would require some upgrading before being able to handle what you suggest.