16 Dec, 2008, Skol wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
Hey all, I'm looking into a few things with pens and inks, namely the creation of them and use once they're made.

I already have 'scribe' (a delayed action in our game where your mage can scribe spells that he knows into a scroll). But I'm looking at requiring use of pen/quill (and that having ink in it).

Pens:
Pens hold up to X ml of ink. (say 250 max for non-quest)
Pen quality directly effects success chance on scribe, also reduces time as the better pens write more easily.
Crafting: From feathers of any bird (knocked off during combat, already in game). Add: feather quality. Require: have a knife of some kind (any dagger) and 'quill lore'.

Inks:
Different kinds of inks available. Ink type and quality affect success rate of scribing.
Crafting: Create Inks via 'ink lore'. Basic ingredients (find or just buy?)
Types of ink:
indigo - blue
Gallotannate/iron gall - dark grey
logwood - brown
walnut ink - dark brown
sumi ink - black (soot type)

More 'fantastic':
gold ink, silver ink, pearl ink, magic ink, diamond ink etc.

The basic idea is that your 'stock' quills would have a quality value of say 5, and hold 100 ml of ink, durability of like 5 (out of ten on value/quality). Then player crafted could increase quality to 10, up to 250 ml (_large_ birds), perhaps some kind of spell to preserve the pen (no longer take damage from writing).

Ink quality just would play into scribing success chance (perhaps shaved off time as it's a smoother ink). Perhaps requiring specific inks based on spell level (more costly components, can't buy the ink in store etc).

Anyone have thoughts? I'm thinking it'd give players a chance to improve their scribing capabilities, but wouldn't be required (ie just buy stock pen/ink/parchment otherwise).
16 Dec, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Sounds reasonable enough to me, generally. But 100ml is a lot of ink, right? That's 1/10th of a liter. Or, a third of a soda can, more or less. The feather itself has very low capacity; that's why people have ink wells. :smile: (Note that a very small ink cartridge – far less than 100ml – will last for pages and pages. Try it out with a fountain pen if you're curious.)
16 Dec, 2008, Skol wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
Yeah great point. Maybe have those be 10th's of a ml (just so I can decrement how much is left etc).
I could use ul (microliters) but those are tiny tiny hehe.
Actually I could just do 'units' (and say in parenthesis 1/10th ml) or such.

So far:
Code already gets feathers from birdlike creatures sometimes during fighting.
chicken, parrot, pheasant, seagull, hawk, eagle, gryphon, song bird, water fowl, kyrie, kingfisher

To do: create feather values, so that crafting quill checks those to make quill.

Quill: (units are 1/10th ml)
v0 - Species [chicken]
v1 - Quality [ 3] [Stock]
v2 - Volume [ 85] units [Stock]
v3 - Durability [ 45] [Stock]
v4 - Ink [logwood] [brown]

Inkcontainer: (units are 1/10th ml)
v0 - Volume [1000] units [Stock]
v1 - Ink Left [ 74] units
v2 - Ink [ indigo ] [ blue ]

Thinking perhaps an ink table, more fantastic inks needed for higher level scrolls (those inks requiring components to craft etc).
16 Dec, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
I don't think you need to distinguish too much among common bird species such as chickens, pheasants, seagulls, and so on. I would imagine that any differences in these should be purely stylistic.

I think it makes sense to have certain powerful magical scrolls require a feather from a mythical creature such as a gryphon. Same for ink.

In terms of functionality, I would have something like: common feather, rare feather (but still from a "normal" bird), then mythical feathers, and then have some spells require feathers from specific animals. In other words, you have three categories of feathers, and then spells can add their own requirements. Some spells might only require any mythical creature's feather, whereas others might specifically need the gryphon's.

I'm not sure how much sense it makes, strictly speaking, to give the feathers themselves capacities, but it means people don't have to carry around ink wells and feathers, which could be kind of annoying. Then again, you could have rare magical ink wells that can hold unlimited amounts of ink, or something like that (the ink equivalent to a bag of holding…).
16 Dec, 2008, Skol wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
I hear you, like the ideas as well. On the feathers, that's what is created already (I wrote it quite a while back just to give people something to collect off bird-like creatures, kind of just for fun heh).
Perhaps though yeah, the feather is created, common/rare/mythical, how big (so we can determine quill volume later) (also, some might be BIG feathers, some like smaller, same creature).

For the inkwell I was thinking just as a container full of ink, fill up the quill and call it good (not micro-managing the ink, spills etc, that'd get insane… although some would say this level of micro-play is insane heh). concept being 'brew ink', and it's made in that container, use it to store. Hm, though, if we do it as a 'split-nib' like the old feathers, I guess they'd not really have a capacity, just dip/write, dip/write etc. Perhaps 'Tip Size' then. Have the finer tip help with success in scribing as well. I like that I think yeah.

Hm, on magic ones… Could have the 'quest shop' ones, although I'd still like people to go get ink etc. Maybe though, a magic quill would simply be expensive in quest points. Empty it out, put in a new ink and it stays full of that…
16 Dec, 2008, Kayle wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
Can I put a feather in my hat and call it yankee doodle?

Sorry, all the talk of feathers made me think of that. I'll just go back to lurking and not populate your thread with BS. XD I do like the ideas though. I think I had a plan to do something similar (though not as much detail) for my game.
16 Dec, 2008, Skol wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
Hehe, no bigs Kayle. I actually did think about using feathers to adorn things as well *chortle*. We have Que-Shu in the game (Dragonlance Native Abanasinians, rofl yeah they were 'original' weren't they?), and I could see feathers and shells on everything. You wield a spear with the feather of a sparrow tied to it. You wear a breast plate with the feather of a gryphon fixed to it upon your chest. etc etc. Could get.. um.. yeah. Heh.

Here's latest thoughts:

Maybe different word for the v4,
but essentially it's a feather unless they carve the tip and make it into a quill.
They also heat it to harden it in the process.
Quill:
-=============================-
v0 - Species [chicken]
v1 - Quality [ 3] [Decent]
v2 - Length [180] mm [ 7.0 in]
v3 - Durability [ 45] [Normal]
v4 - Cut [ no] [0][Not Cut] //(1 - cut, 2 - damaged)
10 Jan, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
sounds like a great idea to me. My suggestion for the v4 would be just to label it quill. Cut can be kind of confusing but quill leaves no room for misunderstanding. It's sorta like for fountains it says Poison for the v4.
10 Jan, 2009, BleaS wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
If you want to have any difference for quills and ink on normal paper for writing, perhaps better quality ink lasts longer in the quill and a better quality quill uses ink more efficiently.
10 Jan, 2009, Skol wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Yeah, on inks (having them be able to craft their own inks as well) the ink type will dictate what they can do with it. Gems etc are used in making inks for magic (scribing scrolls), while more mundane materials for just normal inks. I didn't want to go into ink quality though, treating it more like liquids are; just type, amount, color, etc.
The quill quality will affect scribing success and hand-written notes, mostly in speed of writing, but also in success of scribing scrolls.
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