Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

    • 520 posts
    January 13, 2020 3:51 AM PST

    I like reading and collecting books and lore pieces in games (as well as in RL) - there are couple of problems with them though. When you go adventuring and find a book that you have not seen before, you are rarely able to read it right then and there. You'll want to postpone reading it for a moment that you either wait for someone, are in the non-talkative camping party or maybe at times when you are in town (though at these moments there are usually more entertaining things to do). Another thing is collecting books in the first place - first you need to put it in your bag where it takes valuable place and it weights, then you'll have to stash it somewhere. Bank? There is no reason enough to fill valuable bank space with books that frequently have little value other than as collector item. Housing then? Well you'll need a huge house with a lot of shelves if you'd want to collect all the pieces - and even then it wouldn't solve the problem of reading them while outside. What if books that we "open" would be automatically (or with the help of ink, quill and scrolls) rewritten to equivalent of the quest journal - available for the read whenever we have time and desire? There will be multiple languages obviously so there we could look at the original version of the text as well as depending on our proficiency with the language could see translated version. 

    Thoughts?

    • 1315 posts
    January 13, 2020 4:21 AM PST

    Sadly, in a very limited slot based inventory system cool lore items like collecting libraries and combat trophies as objects is basically impossible even for non-crafters due to the competition for inventory/bank space with adventuring gear and quest items.

    There might be some way to tie books and trophies to the living codex.  Say if you find a book you can sacrifice it and add it to your codex library.  From then on you can read it any time you want through the menus of the codex.  There could also be general memories shelves where objects can once again be consumed by the codex and placed on a shelf that only you can see.

    Once/if housing rolls around you could create a piece of furniture that contains all your books and another with your knickknacks.  They would be visible but not removable as they are memories and not the original objects.  This I guess could be done for pieces of gear that you want to put on armor dummies like Skyrim had.  If you sacrifice the piece of gear it can be viewed later and displayed in your personal housing (if there is any form of appearance slot then this would be a likely interaction point as well).

    • 557 posts
    January 13, 2020 6:11 AM PST

    Kindle? 

    • 643 posts
    January 13, 2020 6:52 AM PST

    Perhaps another storage system like a bank but more like a storage locker unit.

     

    Personally I *hate* in game housing - it separates people and makes people spend time in their own private house and it turns EQ into nothing but a medieval version of Second Life.

     

     

    • 41 posts
    January 13, 2020 7:01 AM PST
    mhh im not a person who wants to read every book ingame. i tried that with elder scrolls online but it got boring really quickly.
    but maybe i have an idea. they could make a library in the town which contains only the books you found in the world.
    • 557 posts
    January 13, 2020 7:18 AM PST

    I like that idea, Geex, but the idea of a library that only contains the books I've read makes me laugh.

    Maybe we can call it something other than a library?

    I do enjoy reading the lore and getting caught up in it, but I have limits as well.  Tolkien's Silmarilon to me was like reading a census where there are too many names, not enough story.  I've read LOTR and The Hobbit many times, but just couldn't force my way through his backlog of lore.

    • 1785 posts
    January 13, 2020 7:58 AM PST

    I like the idea of books and scrolls that you find and read in-game.  EQ2 had what (in my mind) was a great basis for its implementation.  The book is an item.  Sometimes it's just a book of useful information or a short story, but sometimes it's the key to a quest, and you can't complete the quest without reading the book.  (Please note:  That doesn't mean I want us hunting for "missing pages" all the time like we had to do with EQ2's book quests).  When you're finished, the book is a housing item that you can place in your house.

    For Pantheon, we know that we likely we won't have housing at launch.  We also know that quests won't work as they have in most other games, where we do an action and then are guided to the next step.  Any quests that we do undertake will (hopefully) require us to interpret clues and think for ourselves, or at least ask others for help figuring them out.  But that doesn't mean that books can't be a fun and interesting part of the game - because Pantheon will also have the Perception system.

    So, how's this for an idea:

    - Books and scrolls are items that can be picked up, carried, traded, stored, and read by players.

    - Books and scrolls may be written in different languages, and if you don't know that language, you can't make sense of them.

    - Books and scrolls may contain background information and stories about the world, and within that information, clues to various quests may be hidden.

    - Books and scrolls may also be interacted with via the Perception system, and some of them may have Perception triggers associated with them.

     

    As for storing, I don't think we need to fret too much over this just yet.  If there are enough books and scrolls floating around that dedicated storage is needed, that seems easy enough for the devs to do, whether that's a section of our banks or whatever.

    • 1399 posts
    January 13, 2020 8:56 AM PST

    I've suggested in the past a bookcase that can be obtained at the player housing or guild hall level. But for the same reason fazool points out I'm not real "big" on player housing or guild halls.

    I DO like Geex's take on it about a Library in town that by finding a book or scroll you would unlock it in the Library. This, instead of separating players (player housing) would bring them together.

    On the surface, the way it would normally be is you can only view books you have found. How damaging to the game would it be to be able to "share" a book with another player... stipulations would obviously need to apply, for example you would need to both be in the Library, You would open the book, then you could share it with the other player for only as long as you both have it open. I'm thinking of this as two players sharing information about a quest, and one player suggesting info he found in a book may be relevant, "follow me to the Library and I'll show you" 

    • 521 posts
    January 13, 2020 12:51 PM PST

    I’d love to be able to collect books of all types, trophies , what ever to display, read or share. Including player created books, mine or others depicting the adventures or just wild stories.

    Personally I *Love* in game housing- it builds social wellness and makes people take a break from the grind of adventuring

    • 291 posts
    January 14, 2020 1:50 PM PST

    Nephele said:

    I like the idea of books and scrolls that you find and read in-game.  EQ2 had what (in my mind) was a great basis for its implementation.  The book is an item.  Sometimes it's just a book of useful information or a short story, but sometimes it's the key to a quest, and you can't complete the quest without reading the book.  (Please note:  That doesn't mean I want us hunting for "missing pages" all the time like we had to do with EQ2's book quests).  When you're finished, the book is a housing item that you can place in your house.

    For Pantheon, we know that we likely we won't have housing at launch.  We also know that quests won't work as they have in most other games, where we do an action and then are guided to the next step.  Any quests that we do undertake will (hopefully) require us to interpret clues and think for ourselves, or at least ask others for help figuring them out.  But that doesn't mean that books can't be a fun and interesting part of the game - because Pantheon will also have the Perception system.

    So, how's this for an idea:

    - Books and scrolls are items that can be picked up, carried, traded, stored, and read by players.

    - Books and scrolls may be written in different languages, and if you don't know that language, you can't make sense of them.

    - Books and scrolls may contain background information and stories about the world, and within that information, clues to various quests may be hidden.

    - Books and scrolls may also be interacted with via the Perception system, and some of them may have Perception triggers associated with them.

     

    As for storing, I don't think we need to fret too much over this just yet.  If there are enough books and scrolls floating around that dedicated storage is needed, that seems easy enough for the devs to do, whether that's a section of our banks or whatever.

     

    Im seriously hoping this is the line followed as it is the best example in my opinion (eq2), atleast that I have found. The ability to make books and pass them out was one of the single coolest things Ive ever experienced in an mmo, and so simple. I was a hardened adventurer who never did anything with housing till much older. It was a welcome breath of fresh air, so I do hope they implement it well. Anyways, glad to have you around expounding so eloquently :).

     

    • 768 posts
    January 18, 2020 5:53 AM PST

    I like the idea of a public place where scribes are present. A building that would hold the local stories, legends, guides and secrets even. This in the form of parchements, scrolls, books, tablets, runes, paintings and other depictions. 

    The player could be allowed acces to certain rooms in that building depending on their background or current quests. I find it an interesting suggestion that players need to come to that building to read up on certain lore aspects, in order to continue their assignments or travels. So this would mean, that some sections of written/depicted story will not and never will be present within player houses themselves but only in these special houses. (otherwise you're undermining the value and the initial design of it all). 

    In case the player has gained enough faction, consumed enough relevant content or completed a section of a lore story, the player might be granted to get a copy from that Public buildings' own book. In this case, the public building will provide the player with a copy of the earned book and this now becomes a house item for that player.

    When it comes to player written books this could be a section on its own. Meaning, this house item would allow players to write and display their own stories in their homes or guildhalls. Nothing wrong with that and it can be very entertaining. The styles of books or sorts can provide content to crafters, collectors and other completionists..

     

     
    • 238 posts
    January 18, 2020 1:17 PM PST

    I think that books could be tied into the perception system with the keeper's tome/ living codex (whatever its called atm). Whenever you find a book and right-click on it to read it, its contents could be downloaded into the tome/codex and be viewed later. This way even if a player finds a book while in combat they would be able to collect it and view it later without it taking up inventor space/ weight allotment. 

    It might also be cool to see book collection as a way to level up the perception system. I'm not 100% sure about this but I think at one point they said the perception system may have different paths to level, I do know that they mentioned having the ability to investigate things, and the ability to gain insight on things. It seemed like insight was tied more with class abilities while investigate was tied more to the world environment. Maybe book collecting could level up the investigate skill, or perhaps even the insight skill depending on the type of book. For example, maybe there is a book on prayer, meditation, and service to others. If a cleric picks up this book and reads it they level up their insight skill, however, if another class picks up this book they level up their investigate skill instead.  This book could also provide a small skill increase for the meditation skill.  Or perhaps book collecting could be tied into another aspect of the perception system that hasn't been mentioned yet.

    I will say that I don't think it makes sense to have books take up inventory space, especially if there isn't a long term storage system in place for them.  

    • 510 posts
    January 19, 2020 11:15 AM PST

    I really like the EQ2 method of housing and books.  I have actually bought Prestige Housing for the sole purpose of creating libraries for all the books I collected.  Then those devils created Prestige Housing called Libraries.  I had to buy those to move all my books into etc.  33 Prestige houses over the years....