PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Namach on May 31, 2008, 03:48:10 pm

Title: Books / Library
Post by: Namach on May 31, 2008, 03:48:10 pm
Just an idea..

Prerequisite: the library should be organized by sections (romances, chronicles, pohems, magic manuals, alchemy, etc..). Then:

- I write a book
- I talk to Jayose, give him my book and make it available for reading to everybody via the library (in the appropriate section)
- I can decide to allow the reading of my book for free or for a certain amount of trias (which I tell to Jayose, he will propose to me alternatives, wich a cap)
- When somebody goes to the library and wants to read my book, I get just a notice if the book was for free, or trias if it had a price
- People should pay only once for a specific book and of course they can decide to decline after seeing the price
- Eventually, when a certain number of people reads my book, I can gain a rank in 'book writing' (new skill)
- Each time I rank up in 'book writing' Jayose can allow me to sell my new books for higher prices

I imagine that such a thing will require a lot of coding for developers, but I hope you like the idea :)
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Caarrie on May 31, 2008, 03:52:14 pm
Jayose's library is for settings approved books, that means that Talad has approved them. There would have to be another location for player made books. i believe before was suggested in the tavern
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Piker on May 31, 2008, 03:55:08 pm
I really like the idea :).  You could add progression points as well as skill gains in book writing. This way a good book writer could earn a little tria while gaining some progression. Not everyone wants to earn a living killing things  ;) :D
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Namach on May 31, 2008, 04:03:23 pm
Jayose's library is for settings approved books, that means that Talad has approved them. There would have to be another location for player made books. i believe before was suggested in the tavern

No matter if the library is Jayose's one or a new one (I thought that the existing one could be enhanced with a dedicated section for user books)! ;) See you!
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: ThomPhoenix on May 31, 2008, 06:59:39 pm
Some guilds have libraries, you could sell your books to them. Their libraries are in their guildhouses.
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Orgonwukh on June 01, 2008, 07:46:32 pm
A nice idea, Namach.
Maybe you have to pay a publisher who will provide the books to the public library (this could be an NPC or maybe you can submit books like a petition)?
The money could be dependent on factions or skills like empathy etc.
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Mlato on June 01, 2008, 07:56:06 pm
The money could be dependent on factions or skills like empathy etc.
I thought the empathy skill was used to control familliars?
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: ElWu on June 10, 2008, 11:36:23 pm
Hey. I just want to ask is there some way to publish books INGAME?
For example in Jayose's library?
I started to think seriously about writing books so I'm really interested in that case. .
It not neccessary shoud link with profits, just having chance to publish something.
As I know there are few players feeling the same. .
Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Prolix on June 10, 2008, 11:52:31 pm
There is at least one bookseller player around but it is easy enough to just print copies of your book on demand. So publish it by offering it for sale. You could put up a notice on one or more of the town message boards.
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Nalain Tarek on June 12, 2008, 07:27:23 pm
This is a great idea.  i would like to be able to give my books to the dealer, and he sells them for me.  that way i don't have to hand copy all of my books every time someone  wants a copy.  that would be nice.

Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Prolix on June 12, 2008, 08:44:45 pm
I believe the new style books allow you to import a text file from your local filespace and it is to that I was referring by "print copies".
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: ElWu on June 12, 2008, 11:12:39 pm
Yeah it's a nice idea.

But to be honest I thought about some place, that I could place my book and where it could be read.

So everyone who would like to read some of my books  went there and could read without trashing his inventory  :P

And I'm not about selling but about sharing ;)
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: jaycol on January 08, 2009, 03:47:05 am
              What about the possibility of a book store using one of the several buildings in the city of Hydlaa? It would double as a library and a a store. An NPC could be used to allow the sale and the purchase of written books or maps. By using a selection list of different topics. A seller could select the correct topic and sell the book to the NPC. Once the book is sold it would appear in the shelf assigned to that topic. A player could then brow the shelves for a desired book, title or author. The shelves could be seperate enties for the purchase of  the books. with a buy option open for each book veiwed. The copy is bought and the player moves to a different shelf. This would keep the NPC from being overloaded with every item in the store and spread the mechanics out some. The NPC could sell blank materail and/or specail interest items.
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Kempeth on January 08, 2009, 08:51:15 am
Prerequisite: the library should be organized by sections (romances, chronicles, pohems, magic manuals, alchemy, etc..). Then:

- I write a book
- I talk to Jayose, give him my book and make it available for reading to everybody via the library (in the appropriate section)
- I can decide to allow the reading of my book for free or for a certain amount of trias (which I tell to Jayose, he will propose to me alternatives, wich a cap)
- When somebody goes to the library and wants to read my book, I get just a notice if the book was for free, or trias if it had a price
- People should pay only once for a specific book and of course they can decide to decline after seeing the price
- Eventually, when a certain number of people reads my book, I can gain a rank in 'book writing' (new skill)
- Each time I rank up in 'book writing' Jayose can allow me to sell my new books for higher prices

I like the idea of some publishing mechanism! However I would not tie the price of your books to a skill. What if your first book would be a detailed map of Hydlaa or the area between Hydlaa and Ojaveda and your skill would only allow you to sell it for 50 Tria? It doesn't make sense that you would have to write a dozen or so crap books just to get your skill up to sell the map at a decent price...

I can see two ways for publishing: via an npc or through players.

NPC variation would work similar to what the OP described. You write the book and submit it to a publisher npc for review. If accepted it is moved to the game database and the book is available at your requested price from some kind of book shop / library. You would have the option of changing the price and stopping the sales (in case you want to publish a new version).
Advantages:
* Books are moderated / checked for settings compliance
* Books are in game db -> content distribution is simple.
Disadvantages:
* more work for mods/devs due to checking
* more updates due to new books (unless books are kept server side and only pushed to client on purchase)

The player way would include some kind of skill like "publishing" or "book copying" that allows you to produce uneditable copies of your written books. You would then either sell your copies directly or hand a stack of book over to some npc book outlet and have it sell the book at your price (taking some provision of course.)
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: khoridor on January 08, 2009, 11:31:24 am
I'd rather see player books go through players economy entirely. Dedicated merchants, guilds...
I'd also rather see copyist as a proper job, although maybe a NPC could do it.
Heck, I would even be happy with a read/write (expensive) skill, to make it more medieval, although I'm not going to put that in a wish list.

What about oral tradition? Don't sell your books, folks. learn them and speak them out loud. (You can even use shortcuts, you lazy ones!)
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Kempeth on January 08, 2009, 12:20:51 pm
I'd rather see player books go through players economy entirely. Dedicated merchants, guilds...
I'd also rather see copyist as a proper job, although maybe a NPC could do it.
Heck, I would even be happy with a read/write (expensive) skill, to make it more medieval, although I'm not going to put that in a wish list.

What about oral tradition? Don't sell your books, folks. learn them and speak them out loud. (You can even use shortcuts, you lazy ones!)
Right now a player run bookshop seems unrealistic to me as you can hardly carry enough to hold at least some copies of all the books player might write. You would either have to be able to rent a shop and shelf your books there or have some kind of transport animal to carry it for you (à la traveling salesman).

I don't think the exclusiveness of reading and writing was an inherent effect of the medieval tech level but more a result of the sociological environment back then. A read/write skill would only add pointless grind to the game as nearly every character would need to master it to be successful.

How about you could drag and drop a book onto the chat and your character would automatically start reading it?  ;D
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: miadon on January 08, 2009, 03:57:58 pm
Miadon is a book merchant and will always buy and sell books. Also there is a book fair coming up in a number of days time.

:)
Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Bamko on January 08, 2009, 07:31:34 pm
Seems like a good idea.. however...

Coding issues, approval issues, etc.

So I made a thread at the Yliakum Visitor's Bureau: http://www.yliakum.com/index.php?board=6.0 (http://www.yliakum.com/index.php?board=6.0)  For books.

Note, no means to sell them there, and there will not be.  Also note, if you post there, someone MAY copy your book and write it, editing it or even taking credit for it Ingame.  Of course if you post it there, and people see you posted it there before hand... we can "out" the plagerists Ingame and even IC.

Also note, me hosting this does in no way mean I am going to be the mediator between whine-fests nor will I moderate it for quailty or maybe even content.  Comment on it in the thread it is posted.  By going to a website I am assuming you know you are at least partially OOC and as such can behave accordionly.  I am doing this so you can more easily share your books.  I have posted 2 that I have always given away for free, and anyone can copy them and give them away for free (heck, sell them if you like, what do I care) as long as you do not edit any portion of it, including, but not limited to authorship, content or even sidenotes. 

Of course you can also post in this forum, but maybe a small comunity of book-philes will be able to use my site to share titles.  Remember, you do not have to "print" the book until you need it, so you can carry blank books and "print" them as y ou need them(I use a magical glyph much like one ingame to make a quicker copy, my glyph DOES take a minute or so longer... but makes no errors  \\o// )

Use this if you like.  Remember, it is not an official Planeshift approved site.  Let's show them we can do it responsibly and successfully.  I would love for PS to improve publishing ingame so this thread becomes moot. 

Title: Re: Books / Library
Post by: Illysia on January 08, 2009, 11:50:36 pm
What if book containers were placed in one of the various empty buildings in Dsar Akkaio and were coded to act like the ones in Jayose's Library used to. I.E. anyone can place a book there and only that person can remove it. That way they can have it on display and a anyone can read it. The person can remove the book before they log out so no one takes and if someone wants to buy it, they can contact the author.