[COMMAND] Address/Recipient Title

Lathander · Post by **Lathander** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:35 am

I wasn't sure how to word the subject. Here is my idea. Allow the magical post to deliver letters addressed to a title rather than just a name. For example, a new PC looking to meet the HP of Selune could send a letter to "Silverstar" even though they've not yet met. It would be a way to allow new players/PCs to contact high-ranking faith members before they've met. It could be ICly assumed that the magical post has "ways" of finding those people.

Velius · Post by **Velius** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:46 pm

Love the idea Lathander

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:50 pm

Sounds cool! and those wanting to join faiths with rather elusive fm's or lack there of currently could be mailed to an immortal inbox to >.>

Velius · Post by **Velius** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:05 pm

hehehe...

Love the idea Tobias. *looks around for that immortal inbox*

Seriously though, I hope this idea (the one that Lathander presented) comes through, its hard contacting FMs when the both of you have completely different schedules (and you don't know their name), and this would help out.

Jaenoic · Post by **Jaenoic** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:07 pm

Would this only work for white titles? What about for faiths where the FM is not a cleric? Also, what about for the case of faiths that have more than one high priest(ess)?

Aveline · Post by **Aveline** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:37 pm

I really like this idea. The titles would be more IC but, what about instead of something like Silverstar, they could title it 'Faith of Selune' or 'Faith of Lathander' or some other more broad term that would include any faith manager of said faith. It could be assumed that the post people would know how to get the letter to the appropriate people of that faith. The letter could go to one silverstar and the other, but the first one to log gets it? This would work for faiths that do not have priest FMs. For faiths that do not have FMs it could go to just a designated imm box. I don't know anything about coding, could be very impossible, but I really like the idea Lathander suggested. I've had a couple of characters that have a really hard time catching up with FM's.

*edited cause I can't spell

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:15 pm

Magical Post is currently coded only with area code. Using titles would be next to impossible. It might be possible to make it work for the faith managers of the faith, but the time and effort needed to add this change look very very big with respect to the advantage brought to the game.

People can simply type "faith list" to know the name of their Faith Managers, can't they?

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:22 pm

Not until they are an initiate.

Kelemvor · Post by **Kelemvor** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:40 am

Other threads have dealt with the ease of learning your prospective Faith Manager's name so I wont dwell on that one.

I agree that the effort required would exceed the benefit. I'd also question whether some Faith Manager's would be so easily found by the magical post. Druids, Sharran and Maskite leaders, not as if they'd have a postbox

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:09 pm

My knowledge on the code behind delivery system is weak at best but if a separate letter for faith letters was made couldn't we set a deity. When a fm does check any with the name of their deity could be received by them?

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:18 pm

Doesn't the PRAY command cover this effectively as well as magical post messages would? It's free, which can be important for young PCs (the Magical Post has come down in price, but is still far from cheap!), and seems more IC.

There may be a perceived problem, however, in that prayers to some deities are not heard for a very long time. I'm here to tell those of you feeling your (putative) deity "never logs in" that, (according to HELP PRAY and personal experience,) prayers stay in a log until they are addressed. You may have to wait a long time for your prayer to be answered, but it doesn't go away. (In other words...some faiths require a lot of patience. In most cases, that's IC!)

That said, perhaps there are some faiths who's god just doesn't log anymore? If so, I think the fix is to address that directly.

I don't mean to bash the suggestion, the problem is real and I think this would be a viable solution...but I also think that there's already a fix, and if it's not working perhaps the problem isn't strictly in the communication dimension. (i.e. It's not that you can't communicate, but rather that there is nobody to communicate with!)

Lathander · Post by **Lathander** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:47 pm

The suggestion wasn't for contacting deities, it was for contacting player-run FMs.

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:31 am

Ah! My apologies, I was replying to subsequent comments, and focused on the issue of how to contact a church. But perhaps something of a fix for contacting faith managers already exists, as well. HELP Magical Post currently reads

Magical Post provides a means for introducing oneself to an individual whom you wish to meet, but who has not GREETed you. However, you must have heard of them in-character, and know their true name (character name) OOC to use the service to contact them. Their description (adjective) alone will not suffice. IC, you need only know OF a character in order to address a letter or package to them; there is no guaranty that they will respond, or open your package, particularly if they do not know (of) you.

while HELP Who includes

Please note the information in your title is considered IC information through hearsay. It does not mean the very first time your character meets someone and are not greeted by them that your character will know all the rumors about an unknown character by the who list information. It is expected that the who list information be considered a rumour after a few roleplayed encounters with a particular character, whether they greet you or not. This does not place them under any obligation to confirm those rumours, however! (i.e., to GREET you!)

For those faith managers (FMs) with titles, this suggests to me that you can freely address a Magical Posting to them by PC name, provided they show up on the WHO list (with their title) from time to time, and you've done due diligence trying to track them down ICly.

For those FM's without titles, that hide their identities, or just don't log, though...I see the potential gain. Is it obviated if the proposed FAITH LIST change goes through, and initiates become able to see the FM's name?

(That wouldn't allow, for example, a commoner to contact the head Maskaran without the Demarchess' identity being revealed...but unfortunately, I think the code makes that hard to avoid. Magical Postings include the name of the PC sender, so even a reply by letter would not be anonymous, code-wise. A potential fix for that would be a set up accounts for each FM that are not "really" PC's, just shells you can mail to. So if I became the FM for Mask, I'd be given the password to an account or character called "FM-Mask" or something like that, which I could then log onto and CHECK for mail, and then also use that pseudo-PC to reply anonymously, but ICly, to mail sent to me as the head of my church. That would be cool, wouldn't require new code, per se...but would be one more thing for the FM to check. If it didn't apply to all FM's, it'd be tricky to specify for whom it would work. If it was for all of them, it'd be an extra task for many FMs that wouldn't have any likely RP benefit. But that would be one way to do it, I think?)