I'd like a message sent to me if a letter arrives for me, something like:

"a black crow delivered letter23425"

just make blist work with letters please?

I.e Doesn't need a title, just give the number and/or if it's from a kit, gives the letter owner's name?

Yes please to both suggestions.

Making letters harder to miss would encourage their usage, and using letters rather than messages encourages good roleplay.

by letter owner, I meant letter sender. But I'm sure you all got that.

That ruins the idea of the letter sender being anonymous. Just make it to show the mark of the letter. If it bears the mark of a person, it'll show that person's name.

It bears the distinctive mark of Elene.

-Firey-

YES. I hadn't even thought about the fact that this would encourage letter use. I HATE it when people use messages for IC communication.

Yes, I don't think it should show the sender information unless it is provided in the probe information.
Anonymous letters are needed.



Same here.

I hate receiving IC communication with messages, yet it's just the way it is now and it stinks, in my opinion. I don't like seeing Achaea system messages and IC messages mixed. I realize that I should be using my imagination and practical concerns exist of being a human behind the character, yet it's not the best solution.

Seems to me that sending letters is a good thing, as it encourages dumping gold into something and encouraging roleplay.

I suppose I shouldn't think too hard on it... I did send a letter with thousands of gold in it and two books... "magic"

I was actually talking about my previous post. For the embossed letters.

Like so. Edit:With the correct spacing, of course.
Please.

A book =/= literature. Yes, I'm nitpicking. Yes, it's important.

Letter =/= book.

Should we use "THINGS THAT CAN HAVE WORDS ON THEM" instead?

No, because that would include... tombstones and architecture and rooms with graffiti etc.

It was sarcasm.

And mine was a sarcasm killer.

Semantics aside, I like the idea itself.

With the already known lag causation of messages, you want to add more?
Letters are only sent when you're in the game, so why not just highlight the delivery messages if you're worried about losing or not noticing them?

I agree with Katia here. While it's a good idea in theory, it's rather impractical in terms of application. Just make a habit of checking II LETTER if you're that concerned with missing something important-- it's what I do. Even with ten or more letters in my inventory at once, it isn't difficult.

Since we are not sure if this would have a negative impact on the game in regards to lag and we do not know the codebase of Achaea at all, I'd say that's a bit of an assumption... especially one to start basing decisions off of. I think IRE should make that choice.

Another problem is that delivery messages may get missed, especially with some things where a lot of text is scrolling past.
Sure, I could write all this code to ensure I never miss a letter, yet I think that's something that may raise a flag that IRE should fix. If I have to write code to just manage letters, that seems a bit silly to me.



Again, not sure we can judge how impractical this is in terms of application, because we actually have no idea as we don't code Achaea or know much about how things are implemented "under-the-hood". As a programmer myself, I deal with these situations where clients believe they have an idea about difficult or easy something would be and most the time they are way off. It's best left to the programmers to make those decisions and for us/clients to just make our requests.

While it is possible to see if new letters have arrived, by various means (like remembering if something is different via "ii letter") it is still is very basic and doesn't show good enough information.

We have detailed listings of almost everything else in the game where we can have multiple items, seems letters has been passed up or missed.

I'd rather throw ideas out there and let IRE decide

i like the idea. Yes, noone wants more lag, but whether this change would cause such is something we indeed can only speculate on.
With House and Cityannounces scrolling by, defup spam, it is indeed very easy to miss a letter being delivered.

I know there are other ways to check, of course, but it would be very convenient.

Well my advice is just write down all type of birds giving letters and Echo them via 3-4 lines of "You got a message" or whatever.

I personally would like to have a notes that can be attached to falcons. Receiver would get "Falcon drops a note in your arms. You read what is written in note: 'note goes here, preferably with 20-30 character limit' "

Well, frankly, I don't need to be spammed with messages about letters. I'm a Head of Newcomers-- I get ten letters in a day sometimes from novices asking for mentor, or just trying to finish their orientation tasks. This is Achaea, not old-school AOL. I don't need to be told "You've got mail!" every time a letter is delivered. It seems a little extraneous, to me.

While I respect your opinion (really I do), I do think you're in a position that is a minority in Achaea. You are used to managing and receiving many letters. You've developed your own habits for managing and dealing with letters. You expect to receive letters on a regular basis. You check regularly if you received letters.

I'd bet most people that play Achaea do not have those habits or expectations that come with your responsibilities. It seems if we get messages about everything else in the game, why not letters? I know when I receive letters it is a rare occasion and I usually don't notice till I happen to check my inventory for some reason.

Letters are actual RP communication that should be encouraged. Letters don't have the "confusion" of messages and tells, as you know with a letter it is not going to be "OOC". I'm not sure how just receiving a message about a letter will harm the game. Changes to the game should be good for the game as a whole, which should be the majority and not the few.

Like with all messages, you can also filter them into their own folder, if you're concerned about it polluting your message viewing.

I'd hate to see this idea shot down due to a minor inconvenience to a few. I mean really, is it that big a deal that one would want to stop this idea?
They could always make notification as a configurable option that defaults to off.

If you were spending all the energy you put into thinking of and elaborating new, utterly unnecessary ideas, Drauka, I think you'd be enjoying your Achaea more. Unless what your character does is going about the world thinking what needs to be improved. Are you really spammed all that much? If you're concerned about the person you send mail to not noticing your letter, send them a tell or a message yourself.

Actually it doesn't take much energy and we obviously disagree on this idea. I'll be the judge of how I enjoy Achaea, thank you but I appreciate your "concern".

What made me want this idea was me missing letters, not questioning if others received letters I've sent.

This board is for ideas. You don't have to agree or like the idea, but that is it's purpose put forth by IRE. I am using it to it's purpose and staying on target and not getting sidetracked from it. I'd appreciate the same respect to me and IRE in regards to that. If you wish to question my enjoyment of the game or how my character plays it, this is not the forum for it (literally).

I'd appreciate you keeping your negativity to yourself and if you have constructive criticism, please directly it appropriately. Thank you.

Any client more advanced than telnet is capable of having a trigger to send yourself a message when you receive a letter. Even Nexus and the flash client can do it quickly and easily. It's also fairly easy to organise letters yourself. When you receive a new letter, it will be at the top of the list when you check 'ii letter', so you should know which one to read. You can also keep letters in a pouch or pack once they're read, so you can just use 'read letter' without worrying about the id.

If you want to find an important letter later on, just make a note of the contents of important letters. For example:
msg folder create letters
msg <yourself> letter12345: Citizenship application
msg move <#> to letters

Then you have a nicely organised folder you can use to keep track of the contents of important letters.

The technical ability of writing something to solve the problem is not the issue. Actually me starting to write it is what made me think I should suggest the idea as I thought it may be useful to others.

Remember, much of the convenience functions we have in Achaea started as scripts people wrote first themselves. IRE then took that functionality idea and added it to code. It happens all the time in the software world.

Why have mechanics when you can fix the car yourself? Why pay someone to put new siding on your house? Why pay someone to put in hardwood floors for you? Sure you can do it yourself.

It doesn't have to be an idea you like, but it is something I'd like and my opinion is just as important as anyone else's. Also, even from just viewing this thread, you see I'm not the only one.

I do this in a journal. Seems sufficient to me.

The trouble with letters is, even if *I* am perfectly capable of keeping track of them and not losing them, I know it's generally easy to miss them and that people often do. Because of that, I don't trust that *other* people won't lose them if I send them letters, and hence I hesitate to send letters rather than messages a lot of the time.

If that was the problem you wanted to solve, then just suggesting solutions you can code yourself won't help - there'd need to be a worldwide system. That's why I'd like the ideas suggested in this thread - I probably don't need them so much for *myself* (I don't get letters that often anyhow), but they'd make me feel more at ease sending letters to other people and would make it less tempting to just send messages for everything.

As for those who would find it annoying to get messages every time they get a letter, it could just be made a config option. Default setting is that you get a message every time you get a letter, but you can turn that off.

Letter list, maybe. Messages, no.