New Britannia Postal Services

My good friend is across the world so it is unlikely we will be playing at the same time very often due to time differences. It would be nice to trade items. It also allows for spontaneous gift giving. I don't think players should be forced to log in at the same time for the sole reason of ... forcing them to log in at the same time, if the technology to send items is easy enough to implement. Inconveniencing people doesn't enhance the game and players won't be thankful for forcing face-to-face interaction when they need to wake up at 3am to give their friend some goods because that's the only time he can log on.

 

I believe in cases like this and others.. it is better to enable players rather than restrict them. Good example.

 

Should the postal service be tied into the bank somehow ... ?

 

We got around this in UO by giving them access to a chest in our house so they could place things. Where there is a will there is a way. I'm sure there will be options available to make this easier, but simply gifting things to someone... it makes things too easy and too convenient. It's something I'd more expect to see in WoW.

 

Should everything have to be a challenge requiring some kind of creative solution on the part of the player? If your goal is to encourage face to face interaction then how is your solution of leaving something in a chest any different? Sending a gift or other items via courier has been around a lot longer than medieval times. Why shouldn't we be able to do it here? Because it's too easy? That doesn't make any sense to me.

It could be? I don't see why it should necessarily apart from convenience of having the bank and postal service in the same building.

 

So then there you have it. You can start your own in game courier service and deliver things for people. The point is to have as little interference in player to player interaction as possible. While the intentions of Dame might be to send things to her friend, a crafter could use the same system to send items to players all over the world which takes away from the experience.

 

Can you please explain the benefit of purposefully making gifts and trades to friends inconvenient?

 

By that logic we should eliminate all player vendors because it allows you to buy from the vendor without any face to face with the actual crafter unless a 3rd player is active as a middle man.

 

Takes away from the experience for who? This sounds like a great help for a crafter, if there was a reason they would be sending items without receiving pay at the same time.

 

Having not played many MMOs, I was under the impression that secure window trading was the norm for sales/purchases and the proposed item-sending-service would typically only be used when you're not expecting anything back or they are a friend you trust to return the favor... in which case, it's a safe assumption that would you be face-to-face with them if and when you are able to be.

I'm also in favor of a drop-box, so if the question is needing to physically be able to *get* to the person's location rather than instantly zoom something across the world (though a delay is perfectly acceptable), that's cool too. Either a drop box at their home or the bank in their 'home town.'

 

Now you're just taking it to an extreme that it doesn't need to go to. This is the kind of thing that fuels posts to go way off the deep end.

 

This is generally true. Experienced players (or simply wiser ones) generally wouldn't ship a crafted item to a customer without being paid first. That's just asking to be ripped off. I also would assume in these cases the player has met a trusted crafted and paid in advance.

From what I understand of housing permissions.. setting up a simple drop box should be as easy as placing a container outside your home and setting permissions to allow anyone to put stuff inside but not remove. Though I'd love to have one that looks like a mail box. Perhaps a mail box can serve a dual purpose.. drop box and mail. That would make sense.

 

Secure trading is normal, but in many cases, you need to be physically near the person you are trading as your character is handing a player an item.

Drop boxes would be fine with me at a players house. It would be very similar to just having a player specific accessible secure chest which to me at least is a good idea.

 

This looks like a case of something being good for the individual and yet bad for the community (not drop boxes, but gift giving). Physically, the game world would become smaller as another form of interaction (trading) would loose its former scope. Suddenly, small businesses in game would be global, having the ability to instantly transport their resources or half-finished products around the world. Any hope of distance being an obstacle would be destroyed. If our friend is trapped in a dungeon with no bandages, we don't need to save him, rather we just can teleport bandages to him. If a town in the world of SotA becomes under siege, the ability to send aid en masse could compromise the entire event. This is the implicit difference between player owned vendors and a gift giving option.

 

It isn't any more extreme that to say we shouldn't allow crafters to use an delivery service for the same reason. If your sole reason to not have a delivery service is to encourage player interaction then it really is no different than with vendors. An SPO player can still buy from crafters.. through vendors.. OPO players can buy through vendors and never see the crafter.. You don't get to turn back into a moderator to avoid a fair comparison. This is your argument.

Differences between the two.. delivery system.. as recently pointed out your typical player will have paid in advance.. so you've got your face to face.. player has met with the crafter.. arranged payment and delivery.. Vendor? Player never needs to see the crafter at all.. no face to face required at all.

You want players to interact with each other and it's "too easy".. that's your reason for not wanting a delivery service? Yet the same logic used on vendors is too extreme is your response? Even though vendors by that logic is even more detrimental to interaction since it requires absolutely none and makes it even easier to buy stuff.

I'm just not seeing it. Besides the whole point of making that comparison is to bring that entire line of thinking into question. We're quite obviously not going to do away with vendors. Nobody wants that. So why use that logic to restrict other players?

 

Ok.. I do believe you're misunderstanding something. At NO point in the OP (or after) did I ever say that you should be able to send directly to the player but rather either to the player's home.. or if they don't have one then to a town's postal service for them to pick up. And obviously if the target town is under siege than nothing is going to be accessible until that siege has been resolved. These is no room in the proposed idea for delivery to any other locations beyond the home or local post office.

And once again.. as pointed out.. delivery for purchased items generally requires that face to face interaction for payment to be made and normally that's not going to happen unless you already know the crafter and trust them. The whole interaction issue is a moot point. No one is going to run around randomly sending gifts to strangers. Nor are many people likely to simply send a crafter some gold whom they've never met and request an item..

How is it that a drop box is fine.. but sending from the post office something that'll end up in that drop box is not?

Also, this is a game. Comparatively speaking the world is pretty small to begin with. People are going to traveling all across it.. back and forth.. every day.. every night.. 24/7/356.. and yes a lot of them will use lunar rifts. People who 'live' in Britanny aren't just going to hang out all day in Britanny. Distance is not going to be a major obstacle. Especially if the people who want mark and recall spells get their way. How does anyone think people are going to meet people on the other side of the world anyway? They're not likely going to meet through the mail.

 

You are getting really worked up over a difference in opinion, mate. Some people just don't prefer a game mechanic like this.

 

I'm not really worked up at all. I'm just having a hard time understanding the argument. It makes more sense to me for someone to say "I just prefer something else" than to argue against something that's entirely optional with arguments that.. to me.. don't make any sense. Like world size.. people are going to be using lunar rifts and running from one side of the world to the other all the time.. It'd make more sense if it took you an at least 30 minutes to an hour on the overland map just to get the to the next town.. but I really doubt that and there isn't going to be a lot of people dealing exclusively through mail and never meeting up.. so that argument makes no sense to me.. So naturally I'm going to call it into question when it's being used to argue against the idea I'm putting forward.

The most sound argument against so far is abuse.. that's pretty much a given.. but devs can address that with good design and implementation.

 

Makes perfect sense to me because I prefer a game that doesn't hand me everything on a silver platter.
Not all players are about how the game can convenience them. Sure, would a postal service benefit people? It could. But it also takes away from things players could be doing themselves in my opinion. You don't have to agree with that and obviously you don't. I'm not trying to change your mind, I'm just rebutting why I don't think it would be good overall for the game.

 

You make it sound like being for this one idea is the same as wanting everything to be easy and convenient. That's not why I like the idea. Sure THIS one thing makes life easier.. but it's something that makes sense for the world to have. All major societies have some means to deliver goods and communicate over long distances.

Most people who read my posts can probably tell you I'm big on immersion.. if given the choice between something immersive that feels natural and another system that theoretically does the same thing but in an artificial way.. I go for immersion every day.. but there are situations where I say 'screw immersion.. playability is more important here'..

Well generally speaking in terms of not making everything easy for everyone I agree with you.. I don't everything handed to me either.. except on this. Its existence doesn't force you to use it.. it's there for people who want it AND.. it makes sense for it to exist. If it didn't make any sense in the world I'd be completely against it.

Now I'd be happy enough if the devs decided mass mail options weren't worth it or if their design for such a system was different.

Oh.. reminds me.. speaking of shipping items.. I did forget one little detail.. more weight should probably equal greater cost. Not only does that make sense but it also discourages simply shipping a ton of things willie nillie. Would that make everyone a little happier?