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Comments
If I have a design that is later realized to be out of compliance, and the decision is made to remove it from existance, since it should have never been allowed in the first place, a simple notification would make a huge difference. A long time ago, there was a policy change and three of my designs were just deleted. I had no idea where they went, why they were removed, I thought I was going crazy. After speaking with other crafters, I found out that they too had designs deleted. Trying to get into the mind of the decision making process, maybe they were afraid that if they notified people they would lash out in anger. However, being kept in the dark got me pretty peeved. I try to act like an adult, and like to think that if I were treated like one and told "Sorry, standards are changed, designs X, Y, and Z were deleted" I would be upset but understanding. Not being forthcoming makes it seem like you are being sneaky or underhanded or have something you are trying to hide. Even if you have good intentions, silence does not come across well.
Things are much better now. Across the board, communication has improved in terms of transparency and frequency. Between announce posts and forum posts and other methods, even when there is a less than popular change.
Aioli: Literally 'garlic and oil' in Provencal. Found as an Achaean ingredient here in Ashtan
Amaretto: Oh no italian. Means 'little bitter'. An almond-based liqueur. Here.
Andouille: Cajun smoked pork sausage. An ingredient here in Ashtan
Bourbon: American whiskey. Named after the French Bourbons? Here in Hashan.
Brose: Eleusis is so Scottish. Served here in a biscuit with whiskey
Cajun: Rustic cuisine from French-speaking Canada or Louisiana. Found here.
Cheddar: Cheese originating in the British village of Cheddar. Found here, here, here
Cockaleekie: Scottish chicken and leek soup. Sold here
Colcannon: Regional Scottish potato and cabbage soup. Sold here in Eleusis.
Creme de menthe: Peppermint liqueur. French for 'cream of mint'. An ingredient here
Crepe suzette: Suzette must be Cinnabeth's sister. Here in Ashtan
Danish: Danish pastry. Where is Denmark in Achaea? It's in Hashan, apparently
Gataeu: A rich, creamy French-style cake. Served here in Eleusis
Jalapeno: A fat, mildly spicy pepper. Named for Mexican town Jalapa. Ingredient here and here
Kielbasa: It just means 'sausage' in Polish. Sold here in Eleusis.
Linguine: Flat noodles. Linguine means "little tongues" in italian. Found here
Parmesan cheese: You don't know where Parma is? Targossas stuffs mushrooms with its cheese, here
Sauerkraut: German for 'sour cabbage'. Fermented cabbage. Ingredient also here in Cyrene
Swiss cheese: Emmental. A cheese which originated around Switzerland. Ingredient Here, also Cyrene
Sushi: Where do i start. Here, Cyrene
Scotch: Malt or grain whiskey made in Scotland. Found as an ingredient here
Wasabi: Spicy Japanese condiment paste. Found as an ingredient here
Now, are any of these terms currently allowed in crafter recipes? Please advise
Same goes for pasta. There are plenty of ways to describe different noodles. Elbow pasta for macaroni, egg noodles for ramen, etc.
Bread. Describe the smell, taste, texture (hell, density), herbs if present. It can be described in as much detail as necessary, or just left as "bread" to let the person using it see what they want instead of what the crafter wants.
Just describe it and the people using the item will take it from there.
I used to cook like this in the start, then I got lazy when I saw what everybody else was doing and went for the easy sales. I'm going back to it now. Creating things in achaea is a lot of fun for me and Kez refers to designs as inventions. Cobbling together the inventions of others would be unappealing. She wouldn't travel the world to find the best cheese for her platter; she'd milk a previously unexploited creature and make the cheese on her own porch to see what she could do with it, then make the platter all about introducing the cheese to the eater.
Yeah this post may come across as bitchy and superior, and I am a little sorry about that, but I enjoy discussing and speculating on what works and what doesn't in order to alter MY thoughts and improve MY ability to get every recipe approved on the first attempt, not to badger the approver into submission.
Anyway. I believe this thread and the page associated was meant to collaborate on returned sketches so everyone knows what's likely to cause a rejection. I have some new input for that.
Eat/consume pass. Devour is too subjective.
Speed is a no-no. Not everyone will eat something quickly or slowly.
I used to think of it as the food manipulating that rather than the person (steak=big/chewy=slow, cookie=small/easy=fast) but will manage to adjust or spend an extra 1k on every recipe until I do.
IMO the crafting guild is the first barometer. If they don't see what you do in your design, it's a good indication that others might not either.
Like any other crafter, I want to be able to create as unique and exciting designs as I can, but there comes a time when the attempt to not use the right terminology results in The Extremely Awkward Word Charade Dance. That's where you dance around actually using the word and your dinner guests look at their plate and slowly read through the description and think, 'this is a creme brulee isn't it?'.
As to doing things from scratch, being a cook also means being able to source for existing specialties and turning them into something better. It demonstrates an understanding and mastery of flavours, and also an appreciation for cultures. That is what food is: a living, breathing and evolving embodiment of a country's history and culture. That's why you see all those celebrity chefs doing overseas specials, learning to make something new and exciting out of the old. It's certainly not the same thing as a youtube video of 101 things you can do with a tube of cinnamon roll dough.
For us crafters in Achaea, we're certainly have a certain amount of liberty to make cheese by milking cat teats into a tiny little saucer, but we also have an opportunity, if admin are willing to work with and cooperate with us, to expand the food culture of the world around us and giving things we know a new identity. That's why, my own feelings about this OOC food name debacle aside, I'm very interested to see and work with my fellow cooks to expand this wiki thing.
Now if there's a readily-available English word that we commonly use instead of a foreign one, absolutely, use that instead of the foreign one. We use "bastard sword" instead of "zweihander", that's perfectly valid. But "cognac" is not the same as brandy, it's a specific kind of brandy with specific qualities that are unique from other brandies. "Scotch" is not the same as "whiskey", same thing. Most of the cheeses in the world are named for the regions or in the languages where they were invented, and not interchangeable. Most of the world's wines are loanwords, and you'd be at a total loss to try and describe the different varieties without using any of the actual names or adjectives. (most of which are French or Italian) I get that we want to avoid obvious OOC references where we can, but playing lexicon nazi on stuff like this makes it difficult to present something that we'd all recognize instantly if we could just say the word, and that forces us to be less descriptive, not more.
It's one thing to decide that a given food does not exist in Achaea (pancakes, waffles, pizza, etc)--that's fine--but to allow a certain thing into Achaea, but disallow the ability to call it what everyone in the English-speaking world calls it? That's just foolish. If sushi exists in Achaea, then we should be able to call it sushi, because that clearly relates to an English speaker what it is. Having to write "small medallions of raw fish, laid atop pats of sticky rice" takes 11 words to say what you could have in 1, and wastes everyone's time, yours for having to write circles around the "real" word like Skye points out, and mine for having to read the awkward result and try to figure out what the hell you're trying to say.
No words. Should have sent a poet.
I explained the situation in a letter to Amarisse, ending with the polite request:
The immediate response:
1. "Every little possibility" makes it sound like I'm being nitpicky, which I don't think I was. That kind of wording made this sound like a condescending response to what I think was a very reasonable inquiry. It basically felt like a slightly-less-rude way of saying, "Quit bugging me, I have more important things to do even though this is exactly what I'm here for."
2. If they're "very rarely approved," why are they in the file?
3. Oh right, because you're "too busy" to fix it. I'd buy that if the change had only happened a week ago, but sadly, that's not what's going on here. A couple of years ago, one of my designs was rejected because it had a comma in the appearance line, even though that is still acceptable in help 9.37.5. They couldn't find a few seconds to update the scroll (or delete it altogether, might as well) over the course of two years. Right.
Thinking about the accumulated time it takes to reject dozens or more designs like this, I have a feeling it would take less time to simply fix the scroll. Even the time it took to write the above response to me is probably similar to what it would take to just fix this once and for all.
4. I get that it's unrealistic to expect every single possibility to be accounted for, especially in terms of actual items allowed (as in the rest of this thread). But if you've made an extensive help file detailing exactly what punctuation is and isn't allowed... you can't expect people to keep up while you make it up as you go along.
5. I also get that designing/crafting is at the bottom of Achaean admins' priority list. Tecton said as much at a Q&A last year. I know combat is where the bread and butter is. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take any other players seriously.
Compared to a lot of games, designing in Achaea costs a lot. I mean, you spend 200 credits to get the license, 1734 or whatever it is lessons to learn the skill, then tens of thousands of gold to submit and pick up a single design. And with shops so hard to get (at least, in Cyrene, where there is almost no turnover), and having to pay even more just to advertise your services on the market channel, you're hard-pressed to ever make any money off it, let alone recoup your investment (unlike other trade skills like harvesting/remedies). That's without paying hundreds of USD for trade artifacts.
So you do all that just for the enjoyment of being creative. You are extremely careful to jump through every hoop and adhere strictly to every listed rule... only to have your work rejected because of a completely arbitrary whim. (Maybe it's not arbitrary, maybe there is a legit reason for the changes, but in the absence of clear communication about that, we're left guessing and speculating.)
Then when you get confused and frustrated, they talk down to you, treat you like an annoying pebble in their shoe, like you're the one being unreasonable. If that's how it goes, they don't deserve my money. Of course, a refund will never happen, but they certainly won't get another penny in the future. I'm not whining, I'm not expecting special treatment. I'm simply expecting to get what I paid for, and to be treated with as much respect as a big-spending player. I had an Iron Elite account for a while there, was hoping to buy credits soon (I'm moving house so I can't afford it right now), but if my money isn't enough or good enough, I'll gladly take it elsewhere. This is a game, a hobby. If they take the fun out of it, what's the point? They certainly don't deserve what little time, energy, and money I have to spare.
Also, any trace of sympathy for whoever is behind Amarisse today evaporated when they said, "That sort of attitude will not get it done sooner." That was after they rejected it within moments (for the third time), but something like an hour later, were apparently taking their time out of sheer spite (not a baseless assumption, given what they said), so in a moment of complete frustration, I blurted out, "Ugh, [censored] approve it already!"
"Should" I have kept calm and sycophantic? Perhaps. Would it have made a difference? Probably not; they were already withholding the design just because they can. Designing things here has been my main source of distraction from the grief of losing a loved one Thursday - not that that's anyone's problem, but I am human and I had a moment of unprofessionalism. But you shouldn't have to kiss up to egos just to get what you paid for and to be taken seriously. Whether I let my frustration get the best of me or not is beside the point, as this is clearly an ongoing issue that they have absolutely zero desire to address. Blaming the slowness on my frustration is so backwards and insulting.
Its not even a matter of being sycophantic, just a matter of playing your cards in a smart way.
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
Overall, our AB/Help files are seriously in need of updates. Some of our skills have been changed 2 or three times with no changes to the files. Some skills have been added and aren't even listed in the AB files.
I'm kind of in awe that this is the case. Traditionally, any changes to anything comes immediately with a documentation change prior to any changes actually going live. Compare it to say, the TOS. If something was changed in the TOS, the documentation would have to be updated immediately to reflect this. You can't wait 6 months to update it and expect to be covered under the new terms.
Edit: Perhaps that is part of the reason for the most recent coder call, to free up more time for edits like this. Unsure, but I do believe some more emphasis needs to be placed on the Help files being accurate representations of what is acceptable and what isn't.
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
I will also wIt to see the design before commenting whether you were hard done by or just throwing a tantrum.
Center vs Centre, etc
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
"Is this meant to be your shield, Lord Stark Lauryn? A help file?"
I learned from the class that after every period (for sentence ends) that you put a double space. Makes it more legible (and easier for me to read because my eyes mess up words really badly if they're all jumbled together))...
It's not something worth quitting Achaea over though. You live and learn, yeah?