Stables in Mithril Hall

Dalanna · Post by **Dalanna** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:45 pm

As the dwarven population in Mithril Hall is rising a bit once again. There are multiple carts that look the same scattered about the hall and mules as well. Its very confusing to tell one from another.

I know in MH dwarves are not supposed to steal from each other, but things have been taken from carts more than once, not maliciously. I almost lost an ore bag containing a mithril pick, a bunch of ore, several quest items, Aurora's Catalog, and a whole smattering of little junk because the carts all appear the same, and mine was at or near where another parks his cart and allows players to take from it freely.

I think we need a place to store carts and mounts when we are out of the mines. I don't want to have to babysit my cart, and I would like to keep it in the hall.

There's a seller of mule equipment, and a mule seller, but I've never been able to stable there.

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:59 pm

Perhaps we could use the mount naming code to allow carts to be personalized with a PC's name etc.

Nysan · Post by **Nysan** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:35 pm

Japcil wrote:Perhaps we could use the mount naming code to allow carts to be personalized with a PC's name etc.

Would be nice to know that smiths cart is really mine. Mules are easy since I tend to mark them with gear I leave on them, but carts anyone can remove whatever you put in them.

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:19 pm

If we have a cart target like we do pet it should be possible to do it. Otherwise an imm could hold a cart naming event.

Dalanna · Post by **Dalanna** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:33 am

Another possibility... locking carts? They already open and close, so it would be similar to a chest. This would keep people from accidently taking stuff and the thieves who really aren't the thief class, but would still allow lock picking if someone was really out to be a thief with intent to steal. If a player chooses to unlock the cart, they could leave it without locking it.

My thoughts with the mule stable was that with even 5 dwarves in the hall, there are usually 5 carts and 5 mules floating around the mines. MH isn't that big, There's really only 2 good floors for parking carts. If the player base of dwarves climbs higher (which I really hope it will!) we'll have a lot more carts and mules around the Halls, and still only about 20 rooms that would really be IC to leave the carts in.

If one in MH isn't liked... maybe it could be put in settlestone? This way it could benefit MH, Silverymoon, and people hunting in the nearby areas?

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:52 am

The code for pet shops isn't directly (i.e., with area code only) re-usable for carts.

There are other cart shops in the Realms, aren't there? I remember making one in one of the villages I think (and there might be others).

Dalanna · Post by **Dalanna** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:37 am

The code for pet shops isn't directly (i.e., with area code only) re-usable for carts.

Can you explain? I don't understand what you are saying. I don't know much about code, so you might as well have typed it in French

.

People have been stabling carts in Waterdeep's multiple stables, why wouldn't a stables work in or near Mithril Hall. How do stables work with pet code? Or are you reffering to how we name pets?

There are other cart shops in the Realms, aren't there? I remember making one in one of the villages I think (and there might be others).

There are 3 other cart shops that I know of (one is faith only, and another is on the opposite side of the map, I know the village you are reffering to). There is no problem with cart availability, or variation. I think there are 7 different types available to my dwarf, between the village and MH.

Here's what I see of the current situation:

1. Dwarves in MH have no way to secure their carts. This is my whole point for the thread.

2. Anyone can take anything from the carts, intentionally or accidentally. Anyone can also hitch up your cart to their mount and haul it off. Theft while against the rule in MH does occurr, and its not always malicious intent.

3. Carts are extremely difficult to move from town to town. Even harder if one of those towns is MH, since there are no roads going to MH. So I can't just take it with me to be sure its safe, its a major ordeal to do so. They eat MV so fast, just getting the cart to the start of the exit, which if you are familiar with MH is just the beginning of leaving the hall, takes all of a mule's movement.

4. Carts littering the hall is not practical IC or OOC, its not tollerated in waterdeep, it shouldn't be in Mithril Hall. I mean really... there are wandering monters that appear to like shiny things. They could wander up and carry a cart off, or grab anything from a cart. The carts are just sitting in the hallways.

5. Most carts are very similar in description. Mithril Hall offers 3 variations. I think all three are described as wooden. Yeah you can get a one from the village, but only a "large" creature can pull those, which means the dwarf ("small" creature) who has more move and stamina than the mules, cannot even help.

Now for the suggestions:

Cart Shops:
Now adding more cart shops to the game with different descriptions would be cool, I love variety, but it doesn't accomplish 1, 2, 3, or 4. It only fixes 5 which is really IMO the least of the problems.

Named Carts:
Aside from the fact that it sounds like Dalvyn is saying it is hard/impossible to code, it really won't solve anything more than 5.

Locks:
This solves problems 1 and part of 2. It keeps unintentional theft down, but carts can still be taken away by a random person if they want to.

Adding a Stables in (or near) Mithril Hall:
This solves 1, 2, 3, 4 and an aspect of 5. 1> If dwarves could put their cart in a stable, thieves can't get to it at all, 2> no one can take anything from it, no one can haul it off. 3>It would be close enough they could take the cart there without keeling over from exhaustion, 4>It would keep the room clutter down. 5> If carts aren't stacked often having carts that look the same is not a problem.[/list]

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:52 pm

Yes, I was referring to (re)naming carts.

I could make lockable carts, but that wouldn't be a good solution, because all the carts of the same type could be unlocked/opened with the same key. That means that, if you want to pick open another dwarf's "black wooden cart", you would just have to buy one yourself and use your key. So... that does not help much either.

It would be possible for me to add stables, but that might not be a good solution. I know that someone has lost a cart no less then 3 times after having stabled it. I'd think it would be better to first look into this hard code problem before adding stables (especially since reloading items is "easy" enough, but reloading mined ore/smelted metal is really a pain).

If you can go to the cart's shop in Mithril Hall and get someone to give you the vnum of the selling mob, and if you can list say, 2 or 3 more types of carts, I can add them to the shop there though.

Tempus · Post by **Tempus** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:07 pm

Just a thought - would it not be possible to modify some carts to use a 'combination' lock rather than a key - this would mean that different carts with the same vnum could still have a different unlock code.

Area code to do this kind of thing already exists on other objects - I'm not sure if it would be possible to add it to carts though?

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:14 pm

Yes, I guess that would be possible.

Dalanna · Post by **Dalanna** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:47 pm

Ahh, that I can understand. I thought the cart vanishing was directly linked to server crashes at the same time. I can see why you were looking at other options then, too bad.

The combination idea would be nice.