Aural Earring - Lets change it, finally!

Melodie

This is not the first thread on this but to hell with it, after a long discussion with various Ashtani on an OOC clan and generally grumbling about other things, the one thing we can all agree about is: Not being able to hear shouts while deaf sucks, and having a 150 credit artefact to fix it is worse.

Option 1 - Delete/re-purpose aural earring. Make the mindseye tattoo include hearing shouts while deaf.

Option 2 - Delete/re-purpose aural earring. Make hearing enchantment hear shouts while deaf. Fades per normal enchantments. Preferably able to enchant on existing earrings, if this is not already the case (I hate creating new items via enchantments).

Option 3 - Some other option I didn't think of that still involves being able to hear shouts while deaf without the need of spending 150 credits for a silly artefact of no other purpose.

Feel free to provide random re-purpose ideas for the aural earring, if you like.

Goonswarm, go!

Ulrike

word.

Herenicus

And not every man feels himself fashion-forward enough to rock earrings. 

Edit: We hear more whispers than shouts. Ain't right. 

Saeva

Considering most people who would invest in an artefact earring to always hear shouts would probably still buy it, considering players who are eager to get the obscure artefacts probably are the types who don't like bothering with having items re-enchanted over and over, it would still be a viable artefact to sell (see enchanted rings for reference to my statement), I think option 1 is completely reasonable.
Many players miss out on a -lot- of random RP attempts often times because deafness is a pretty huge must.

Tharvis

Melodie said:

<snip> Preferably able to enchant on existing earrings, if this is not already the case (I hate creating new items via enchantments).

<snip>

Type:

   Enchanted on earrings.

already the case!

Addama

Herenicus said:

And not every man feels himself fashion-forward enough to rock earrings.

Mhaldorian men, on the other hand...

http://gothsuptrees.net/

Jules

The biggest problem I've always had with the aural earring, is that even if a few people DO buy it, most of the player base knows that most of the player base can't hear them... soooo, there you are with your silly earring, no doubt hearing the shouts of those few people who don't realize that almost no one can hear them, so you've got that going for you.  At least the player base seems to have come around on the idea, so maybe admin will too.  

Taraus

Possible repurpose for aural earring - a permanent necklace-of-translation or whatever the hell it's called (comprehension? something), the enchantment that allows you understand all languages. You know, turn it into Achaea's Babel fish.

Kayeil

There is already an auction item that's been sold more than once that makes you fluent in the possible languages. Not sure if they'd take an auction item and make it something able to be regularly bought.

Klendathu

Taraus said:

Possible repurpose for aural earring - a permanent necklace-of-translation or whatever the hell it's called (comprehension? something), the enchantment that allows you understand all languages. You know, turn it into Achaea's Babel fish.

Kayeil said:

There is already an auction item that's been sold more than once that makes you fluent in the possible languages. Not sure if they'd take an auction item and make it something able to be regularly bought.

Understanding the language != Fluency. Either way, if the aural earring were re-purposed like this, I'd be unhappy, I bought one specifically to hear shouts when deaf.

Melodie

If artefacts are changed in a major fashion (this would be considered major, since it's a 100% re-purpose), they usually tend to offer a full refund to those who wish.

Silas

Just buy an aural earring and stop being such a poor person.

The fashion conscious among us can solve their dilemma with the accompanying orb of suppression, at an exorbitantly reasonable 500cr.

Daddy @Sarapis got u covered son.

Tibitha

Oh... I cant hear shouts? Well that kind of sucks.

Saralynne

I'm curious.  Do world or regional events get missed, by being deaf?  I keep finding out from people, that "XYZ" happened last month, and I had been online a good 12 hours that month. Anyways, it's just sad, that we have to be deaf, for security reasons, yet we need mindseye and an aural earring to get back our full range of hearing.  Not saying it's a bad deal though....our auto curing systems, keeping defenses up, already make shadowy classes work twice as hard to use their class skills.  Paying that little extra money in credits, to make it like you aren't even deaf at all, doesn't seem a horrible cost, when you've basically bought it and thumbed your nose at anyone who can use hearing in their class skills to make you do things, or stun you.

Klendathu

NPC shouts, generally, aren't masked, but you do miss out on gems of wisdom from reknowned shouters (-eye @Aodfionn‌ -)

Herenicus

Silas said:

Just buy an aural earring and stop being such a poor person.

The fashion conscious among us can solve their dilemma with the accompanying orb of suppression, at an exorbitantly reasonable 500cr.

Daddy @Sarapis got u covered son.

$254.99 to take part in a conversation that few people hear

Klendathu

Aural earring is 150 cr, so $70 with enough spare credits to customise it should you so wish. And yes, I know it's still money. And yes, I know not everyone can / wants to buy OOC credits

Herenicus

My figure includes the orb of supression, but a better point is that Aural Earrings rate so far down the list of artefacts people buy that you're stuck chatting with the handful of players who have run out of things to spend money on.

Klendathu

There's no real need for people not actively engaging in combat to be deaf all the time, it's personal choice, just like purchasing the aural earring is personal choice. I have by no means "run out of things to spend money on", I purchased one for the exact purpose of hearing shouts when deaf as I found it highly irritating to hear only parts of converstations. If you don't see the value in the artefact, that's absolutely fine, but don't besmirch those who do

Herenicus

Please don't feel smirched; I think it's fair to assume that the earrings came after lessons and several artefacts. If that's the sort of person who buys an Aural Earring, it helps explain why the OP's agree/disagree ratio is where it is.

Silas

That's more because Achaea is full of poor people.

You have my pity, peasants and paupers alike.

Melodie

Klendathu said:

There's no real need for people not actively engaging in combat to be deaf all the time, it's personal choice, just like purchasing the aural earring is personal choice. I have by no means "run out of things to spend money on", I purchased one for the exact purpose of hearing shouts when deaf as I found it highly irritating to hear only parts of converstations. If you don't see the value in the artefact, that's absolutely fine, but don't besmirch those who do

It's a personal choice in some places, and more of a lifestyle (or a life hazard!) in others. See: Mhaldor, Targossas, and anyone in the Mark system.

It's fine that you find it reasonable. For the majority of Achaeans, it's not something that should be a "perk" more than it should just be apart of the norm, due to encouraging roleplay in general, something that helps keep the game invigorated. The reason I mentioned Ashtani in the OP, in fact, was because we were talking about how Dunn often shouts about this and that during raids, but how we (Mhaldor) never hear it because there is no way you're going to face a group of raiders without deafness.

I keep deafness down often, but I absolutely cannot do that in the middle of a raid or aggressive situation, which is why I wanted the change in the first place. Shouts can be quite interesting, but living is more important, and paying a hundred and fifty credits for such a simple change is on the silly scale more than the useful scale. There are quite a few ways to re-purpose the earring for other uses, and if nothing else, you can get a refund and spend your credits elsewhere.

I don't really see where any issue lies.

Halos

Does the aural earring enchantment work the same way as the artefact?

Edit: I mean these:

      earring364541 a fiery phoenix feather earring             1    2550gp

                   (Hearing while deaf)

      earring364688 a licking flame earring                         1    2550gp

                   (Hearing while deaf)

      earring366859 a flaming scimitar earring                    1    2125gp

                   (Hearing while deaf)

      earring366927 a holy pyre earring                            1    2550gp

                   (Hearing while deaf)

Melodie

It does not. It allows you hear while deaf, but it still prevents shouts from being heard. Since mindseye also provides seeing while blind, it's more or less useless, unfortunately.

Tharvis

it used to allow hearing yells, not sure if that's still the case

Austere

Charging $70 for something that is required in order to hear shouts (a sometimes viable role-playing tool), is like charging $70 to use tells.  While deafness is not required while not engaged in combat,  who takes the time to drop it after every time they fight? How often do any if us drop deafness on purpose?   Don't take this as an attack against those who have purchased the earrings,  they seem like a wonderful investment,  but not one I feel like everyone should have to make just to be privy to worldwide communications.  When I was a novice,  hearing the dragons banter back and forth was something that truly inspired me. I dont think that just because a novice is intelligent enough to keep up deafness , that they should be punished by not getting to also listen in awe. 

Atalkez

Deafness is a priority for my character. Purchasing artifacts is largely an OOC thing, and I can think of plenty of artifacts that are more priority than this.

Begs the question: Is the $70 revenue more important to IRE than the rp being missed out on? Any novice that asks me will get told to keep deafness up. Unfair to be punished like this imo.

Melodie

Tharvis said:

it used to allow hearing yells, not sure if that's still the case

Might be the case, but you can still hear yells via mindseye too. Just not shouts.

Amarillys

Maybe make it so mindseye/enchantment allow you to hear shouts originating within your area and the adjacent area? That way combat shouts would still be able to be heard, but there's still incentive to either buying the artefact or making sure you drop deaf as soon as you get the chance? 

Melodie

Too much bandaid fix.

Moreover, people will shout from city to city during combat too - people travel back to city for safety all the time, so it's just kind of a limiter that does not really provide any real meaning, not in this day and age of earrings, vodun/puppetry, pathfinder/hermit, deliverance, empress/lust, transverse, etc.

Klendathu

Melodie said:

Klendathu said:

There's no real need for people not actively engaging in combat to be deaf all the time...

It's a personal choice in some places, and more of a lifestyle (or a life hazard!) in others. See: Mhaldor, Targossas, and anyone in the Mark system..

To go back to the OP:

Melodie said:

Not being able to hear shouts while deaf sucks, and having a 150 credit artefact to fix it is worse.

My point still stands, you don't have to be deaf all the time, and there is an artefact to counter it if you chose to buy it. It's no different to any of the other "convenience" artefacts, it means you can do something people without the artefact can't.