A Pain in the Neck

[Aysa]

A question on how to handle this...

1) Everyone is given an amulet of communication, and the need for that is apparent. (Or maybe it's not?)

2) For us Drow who are noble by birth, we must (should?) wear our House's insignia which also must be worn around the neck.

3) Any magical item that's an amulet/necklace/etc then has to take the place of one of these two items.

Is there a way that we can alter one of these items without having to spend 10 glory points?
a) The House Insignia could be a ring, or a tabard, or etched upon a bracer, or something?
b) The amulet could easily be converted to a pair of earrings? Or a ring?

Thoughts? Comments? Observation?

[Xryon]

If I remember correctly, your House is something assigned to your character (been a while, but I'm pretty sure it was on the score sheet, meaning it has a value somewhere). Would probably be easy enough to just have a restrung Amulet of Communication generated upon House assignment/character creation, and have the mprog check for House itself. Would avoid isues like this. Plus, I might be mistaken, but I seem to recall death (a real danger down there) causing some characters to lose their House item, and therefore House access. Instead of attaching such a thing to an item, using the intristic function would probably be better overall.

[Aysa]

Um... what he said

[Aysa]

The one thing that I do like about it being an object, though, is that when you look at the person... you can immediately tell if they're a noble and what House they are from. Maybe let the Amulet of Communication come branded with the House Insignia (though... I think there are other attributes to the House Insignia object? This is just speculation).

[dolifer]

...I seem to recall death (a real danger down there) causing some characters to lose their House item, and therefore House access.

Definitely a problem for me. I'm an Armgo, but not allowed in my house anymore. So... I guess I'm just a mere commoner now... :'(

Maybe let the Amulet of Communication come branded with the house insignia...

I would guess that it wouldn't be possible for one such item to function both ways, though, of course, I have no diea what I'm talking about, so I'm probably wrong.
Maybe for those lucky nobles, they could receive a different item in place of the Menzo item everyone gets at creation? This would go against the novels and such, which, I think, have all nobles wearing insignias, but I've also found it a pain to have to choose between not communicating and being mistaken as a commoner (which might not sound like much, but does have real consequences).

[Aysa]

I found my own solution for this... though, it may just be due to the fact that I'm Baenre. But I purchased some gear with the House Insignia on it (no, glory points - yay!). And then I just put on my "House Insignia" when I want into the compound.

Though, I could see this being a problem (again) should I get a collection of magical gear that would replace the Insignia gear that I purchased.

[Xryon]

]

I would guess that it wouldn't be possible for one such item to function both ways, though, of course, I have no diea what I'm talking about, so I'm probably wrong.
Maybe for those lucky nobles, they could receive a different item in place of the Menzo item everyone gets at creation? This would go against the novels and such, which, I think, have all nobles wearing insignias, but I've also found it a pain to have to choose between not communicating and being mistaken as a commoner (which might not sound like much, but does have real consequences).

My understanding of the Amulets is that they're actually governed by hard-code functions. They can be restrung to look different, but addition programs can't be added to them.

Beyond that, unless you created a new Amulet of communication for drow and hardcoded in a check for House (I assumed this exists in my first post, but I don't actually know) you would enable anyone with an Amulet to access the Houses. Even if it worked that you could add progs, you'd then probably want a prog to restring it appropriately for each House, upon generation.

Either way, it's quite a bit of work. Far simpler to alter the 'guard's' progs to check for House, and do away with the object requirement.

[Mele]

Your house setting is a QBIT from creation so the guards could easily be changed to check for those rather than the physical item, which could then be changed to generate as restrung amulets.

I think changing insignia's to commulets now that code has changed to only allow one magical neck item is a worthy idea - just not one that may take priority due to low builders high work volume. :)

But you know, I'm not them so maybe someone will swoop in tomorrow and do this!

[Xryon]

Ah, I was mostly right then. If I wasn't spending 10 hours a day in class, and 8 on homework, I'd volunteer.

It's been (quite) a few years, but I swear your House used to be displayed in your score sheet... Was I mistaken, or can qbits be used to alter displays? I could see some pretty interesting flavor possibilities with that...

[Talos]

A house insignia is a very specific artifact, with wardings around a House compound attuned to it and innate spells invested in it. It is supposed to be worn around the neck as a talisman. There are however several amulets of communication worn in other places out there for those who find it.

[Mele]

Right - and because of that they cannot wear any RMI items on their neck with their insignia. That's the issue being discussed. Whereas an amulet can be worn as RMI, so if insignias could be renamed amulets it would offer the ease of using both rather than having to have the insignia and no RMI.

There's not really any reason they can't have them in two forms. :)

[Gwain]

What about making the insignia wearable in multiple locations? It might serve temporarily until a permanent solution can be found?

[tiyari]

I like the idea of being able to wear the insignia in several different places. Maybe it could be an option in creation, if you pick the drow and then a house, you could have the option of amulet/neck piece, ring, bracer, patch on the clothing.

But here's another idea. I mean this partly in gest, partly not.
Make a neck3 slot for the drow. Or heck, for everybody.

I have no idea how all of this coding works, or how all the racial specifics work, since I'm not even a month into the game, but just based on what I know of the clothing layers, other games, etc...