Quartz Orb Baldric/saved posts

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Ebon Gate
Message #: 12938
Author: GS4-MIKOS
Date: 10/01/2017 12:34 AM EDT
Subject: The Sorcerial Sartorial features...a six-pound accessory?

>inspect yoke You carefully inspect your quartz-adorned yoke.

You estimate that a green quartz-adorned yoke bearing a concentric design can store a small amount with enough space for a couple of items.

You determine that you could wear the yoke over your front. The yoke appears to serve some purpose.

It looks like this item has been mainly crafted out of cloth.

>rem yoke

You reach up and lift the yoke off your shoulder and over your head, gathering its length into a manageable bundle.

>weigh yoke

You carefully examine the quartz-adorned yoke and determine that the weight is about 6 pounds.

>wear yoke

You lift the yoke over your head and settle it comfortably across your shoulders, then arrange its length to lie smoothly down the front of your torso.

>look my yoke

The yoke is constructed of layers of green brocade that span your shoulders and lie closely down the front of your torso. Four nested circles form the yoke's central design, which is composed of dozens of faceted crystals, with each crystal ensconced in its own fluted gold setting. Of the four circles, the inner three glow a bright golden yellow while the outer one is lit by a dim inner light.

You pick up a heavy quartz orb.

G>push yoke

You press the quartz orb against the yoke's center circle of crystals. For an instant, the orb in your hand glows brightly, and an answering glow blossoms within the yoke's crystals.

A heartbeat later, the orb crumbles to dust that slips between your fingers.

G>look my yoke

The yoke is constructed of layers of green brocade that span your shoulders and lie closely down the front of your torso. Four nested circles form the yoke's central design, which is composed of dozens of faceted crystals, with each crystal ensconced in its own fluted gold setting. All four circles glow a bright golden yellow.

G>clench yoke

You close your eyes for a moment and touch the yoke's center-most crystal with your mind.

A sudden clarity of thought comes over you, and you realize that you now understand arcane mysteries that were previously incomprehensible.

G>look my yoke

The yoke is constructed of layers of green brocade that span your shoulders and lie closely down the front of your torso. Four nested circles form the yoke's central design, which is composed of dozens of faceted crystals, with each crystal ensconced in its own fluted gold setting. Of the four circles, the inner three glow a bright golden yellow while the outer one is lit by a dim inner light.

G>analyze my yoke

You analyze your quartz-adorned yoke and sense that the item is largely free from merchant alteration restrictions, but the creator has stated that "The item has restrictions on changing the noun."

The creator has also provided the following information:

Looking over the yoke and inspecting its finer details, you realize that it will always need to be "a/n (whatever)/quartz-adorned/baldric or yoke". This means the item's article CAN be changed. Only "baldric" and "yoke" are valid as nouns, and the adjective of "quartz-adorned" is unalterable. Also, the allowed wear-locations are shoulder-worn for baldrics and front-worn for yokes. So if your alteration involves changing the noun, realize the wear-location MUST BE changed also.

NOTE: The script's description of the yoke refers to it as "Constructed of layers of (color) (material)..." and bearing a central design of "four nested circles...composed of dozens of faceted crystals," so keep that in mind if you request an alteration. The material and color of the yoke CAN be changed. This item cannot accept a SHOW description, since the script already utilizes that mechanism.

The color that the charged crystals glow CAN be changed. It must be no longer than fifteen characters.

If you were to play with the quartz-adorned yoke, then you'd find that you can analyze, wear, remove, clench, push, and rub it.

This is a fully unlocked, Tier 4 yoke. This yoke is sold OTS with one tier unlocked.

SCRIPT NAME: Quartz Orb Baldric

This yoke CANNOT be lightened or deepened at all.

PS. The item is designed as a form of wearable CS charge storage, it is additionally pocketed to hold two wands or rods, since form-wise a baldric or yoke could conceivably hold such items. It is not designed primarily as a container, hence the ban on deepening. Its quasi-quartz-orb nature is the reason for the ban on lightening.

PPS. Second tier unlocking will be offered during EG.

(I probably should have produced the messaging with the baldric version, just to avoid the ensuing egg-related puns.)

- Mikos

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Ebon Gate
Message #: 12950
Author: GS4-MIKOS
Date: on 10/01/2017 07:47 PM EDT
Subject: The Sorcerial Sartorial features...a six-pound accessory?

>Is it each tier unlock opens one charge so that 4 tiers is 4 charges?

Yes, each unlocked tier provides the capacity to store a charge, so each unlocking will provide an additional charge up to a max of 4.

>Will they accept other items besides quartz orbs?

Nope. They're very quartz orb-specific.

> - Inefficient use of orbs (1 charge per orb consumed, maybe up to 4? Not sure).

Actually, when transferring charges, an orb will only crumble if it's out of charges.

> (the mechanical benefit being that you don't have to remove the orb from a container to use it).

Comparison of the baldric to an orb you'd take along hunting isn't a comprehensive assessment. Another aspect is that each unlocked tier that is empty when you head out is potentially a weightless MF charge you can return with, assuming one finds more orbs than one can conveniently carry. I know of a Burghal who ran into that situation more often than he liked.

> While I like the concept I wouldn't think that allowing it to be lightened or allowing it to hold more than 4 charges (when unlocked) would be completely out of line for this type of item.

I'll certainly raise the questions of possible lightening, and greater than 4 charges, with those who make such decisions. However, the current limitations are what has been approved, so I don't expect any changes in the near future. I do rely on them entirely to handle the game balance aspects of items. It's one part of the game I've never wanted to have to develop expertise in, and I appreciate the guidance they provide.

Given the tenure of quartz orbs, and the longstanding lack of alternatives to manually dealing with them, I was surprised this item was approved as it is.

- Mikos

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Ebon Gate
Message #: 13246
Author: GS4-MIKOS
Date: on 10/06/2017 03:31 PM EDT
Subject: The Sorcerial Sartorial features...a six-pound accessory?

> Can unlocking the next 3 tiers (and hopefully all the ones above that, too, once those get approved...) be added to Xerria's unlocking?

Although budgeting for release of the higher tiers was addressed in the item's original design, possibly involving Xerria in the process wasn't. I don't expect that adding Xerria's unlocking will improve the quantity or frequency, it would simply change the potential venue(s). I'll ask.

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Ebon Gate
Message #: 13260
Author: GS4-MIKOS
Date: on 10/06/2017 05:01 PM EDT
Subject: The Sorcerial Sartorial features...a six-pound accessory?

> If the unlocking can ONLY be done, at EG, by EG merchant running this shop... less so.

Oh, there is no intention to restrict the unlocking to EG only. And there is no particular merchant associated with the baldrics, so restricting any unlocking to a single merchant hadn't been considered. The baldrics will be sold with one tier unlocked, and tier 2 unlocking will be provided at EG as much as is practical schedule-wise. Beyond EG, tier 2 unlocking isn't restricted, but tier 3 and tier 4 unlocking will be budgeted annually with discussion involved.

At this time my guess would be that Xerria would be potentially involved in tier 2 and some tier 3 unlocking (assuming she wants to be), but since no specific numbers have been determined, it's not possible to say for certain.

Not trying to be cryptic, the specifics of future unlocking really haven't been examined or articulated until now. No Q.A.B.s have gone out the door yet, so unlocking after EG hasn't been addressed beyond the general approach/budgeting having been provided. Planning out the specifics is very much a "next item on the list" kind of thing.

You are welcome to take the first paragraph of this post as an indication of how the unlocking will be approached, however.

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Ebon Gate
Message #: 15338
Author: GS4-MIKOS
Date: 09/28/2018 11:20 PM EDT
Subject: Variations on a Theme

Designed along the same lines as last year's quartz-adorned baldrics, The Sorcerial Sartorial will be offering baldrics and yokes with the following specifics:

Type	Storage Capacity	Source	Max Tiers
Topaz-adorned baldrics	1 charge per tier	blue crystals	4
Sigil-adorned baldrics	3 charges per tier	black crystals	4
Glyph-adorned baldrics	4 charges per tier	small statues	4

All three versions have an encum of 2 and are sold OTS with 1 tier unlocked.

- Mikos