19.13 Customisations
(See also HELP GIFT CUSTOMISATIONS, HELP CUSTOMISATION GUIDELINES
HELP CUSTOMISATION REQUESTS, HELP CLASS ITEM CUSTOMISATION, HELP ARTEFACTS,
and HELP ARTEFACT TRADEINS)
What is Customisation?
----------------------
A customisation is paid for with credits and may...
- change the appearance of an item (description customisation),
- affect whether the item decays (non-decay customisation),
- return to its owner (reset customisation), or
- add interactivity to an item (reaction customisation).
How to Make a Customisation Request
-----------------------------------
Customising an item's appearance and making it non-decaying or resetting can
all be done in-game. All the necessary commands can be viewed by entering
CUSTOMISATION with no arguments. See HELP CUSTOMISATION REQUESTS for
explanation.
You may also send customisation inquiries or requests via email to
customisations@achaea.com if they are beyond the scope of this system
(e.g. gift customisations or reaction customisations).
What Can Be Customised
----------------------
Almost all items may be customised.
- A quarterstaff may be customised (see below for details).
- A mage's staff may be customised (if made resetting/non-decay by an Omnicore).
- Ship/seafaring equipment can be customised.
- Crafted jewellery and clothing may be customised.
- Alchemy robes may be customised.
- Some class loyals may be customised.
- Artefact armour may be customised.
- Resetting loyals may be customised in description only.
- A very few other denizens may be customised.
- Artefacts may be customised in description or with reactions (they
already reset and do not decay). This does not change the trade-in
value of the artefact.
What Cannot Be Customised
-------------------------
- Decaying armour cannot be customised. Armour can be made non-decay and
resetting via the application of a Rondel. (See HELP ARTEFACT ARMOUR.)
- Weapons, and forged items not specifically mentioned in this file may never
be made NON-DECAY or, by extension, RESETTING.
- Quest items may never be customised in any way.
- Mounts or steeds may never be customised in any way but description, and
they may only be customised in description if they are collared.
- Vodun dolls and Puppetry puppets may not be customised in any way.
- Any item which has been enchanted may not be customised in any way.
- Daeggers, any occultist entity, or spiritual maces.
- Most of the rare items and temporary artefacts obtained during Great Hunts
or various promotional events may not be customised.
- Blademaster or Two Arts swords may not be customised (you may augment them
with a Blademaster's Band - see HELP ARTEFACTS OFFENSIVE).
- Furniture items. These can be preserved by the applying a specific housing
upgrade to the location in which the furniture is placed.
- Food and drink items, including vessels that have held drinks, not just those from the beverages tradeskill.
Four Types of Customisation
---------------------------
DESCRIPTION Change the way the item (or denizen in some cases) appears.
- Furniture is ok for this.
- Most items may have custom descriptions.
- Artefacts may have custom descriptions.
- Descriptions may not change the basic nature of the thing.
(so a sword must remain a sword, and not an epee, e.g.)
- See additional information below.
NON-DECAY Your item never decays (NOTE: this does NOT mean it can
never be destroyed).
- No forged items. No quest items.
- No enchanted items.
- Artefacts are already NON-DECAY.
- A few items are already NON-DECAY.
- Can be purchased without RESETTING.
If purchased without resetting on an item that does not
reset, please be aware that if you lose the item or it is
stolen, the administration CANNOT help you regain the item,
even though you paid to have it made non-decay. If you want
to make sure that you cannot lose it, that is what the
resetting customisation is for. All this customisation
ensures is that the item will not decay!
RESETTER Item returns to your inventory on a regular basis.
- Most items may be made to RESET to their owner.
- Quest items may not be given a custom RESET.
- Artefacts already RESET to their owner.
- BENEFIT: the item won't stay stolen (it always comes back!)
- BENEFIT: the item cannot be destroyed by mushroom or humgii.
- BENEFIT: RESETTER _includes_ NON-DECAY. In fact, you can't
buy RESETTER without also buying NON-DECAY.
You can add RESETTER to something that is already NON-DECAY.
Be aware that you can NOT enchant augmentations onto anything
that is resetting.
Some things may reset to a room that you own (such as a room in
your subdivision house or ship cabin) instead of your inventory.
If you wish to alter the reset location of an item that is
already resetting, please email customisations@achaea.com with
all the details. This will cost 10 bound credits per item.
RETAINMARK Item will retain its initial mark of loyalty. If this option is
omitted, the item will be converted to bear your mark.
REACTION Items that have already been customised to be resetting &
non-decay (or artefacts) can be customised to have some
custom responses. These responses are for RP purposes
ONLY and can have no combat or utility applications.
We will also turn down reactions that are overly grandiose,
silly, or inexplicable within the context of Achaea. For
example, if you request a crown that declares anyone who
puts it on to be the Emperor of Delos, it will be rejected.
For now, actions that are explicitly available for reactions
include: PUSH, PULL, TURN, WIELD, UNWIELD, DROP, TOUCH, RING,
SHAKE, LIGHT, SMOKE. So you could, for example, have a bell do a
custom message in the room when rung. If you have something you
want customised to react to an action not listed above, check to
see if it is possible with customisations@achaea.com.
Third-person messages or first-person messages to anyone other
than the owner should be no longer than 4 lines in Achaea's
default setting (which is 80 characters per line). Anything
longer will need to be broken up using delayed messages with a
few seconds in between. First-person messages to the owner may
be as long as you like. Basically, if you want to spam yourself,
feel free, but not other people!
Costs
-----
Bound credits must be used to purchase customisations, including artefact
customisations.
ITEM DESCRIPTION - 100 credits
CREATURE DESCRIPTION - 200 credits
NON-DECAY - 100 credits
RESETTER - 100 credits*
REACTION - 50 credits**
* If something is already non-decay, resetting may be added separately
for 100 credits.
** Reactions cost a MINIMUM of 50 credits each, more depending on complexity
and scope. See HELP ITEM REACTIONS for details.
Payment
-------
Do not send or transfer credits! Payment will be taken directly when the
customisation is complete.
More About Custom Descriptions
------------------------------
Custom descriptions include the following three fields:
APPEARANCE - seen when using INV, II, or IH.
"a green blob" or "an open-faced sandwich"
Do not capitalise; use little or no punctuation.
No final punctuation - no . or ! or anything at the end.
** Must not exceed 50 characters. **
DROPPED - seen when the item is on the floor. "A green blob lies
here." "Someone has forgotten an open-faced sandwich here."
Make this a sentence, with initial capital and final "."
** Must not exceed 80 characters. **
EXAMINED - seen when looking at, showing off, or PROBE(ing) the item:
"This green blob is a very fine green blob. It pulsates if
you touch it, and glows if you rub it."
Do not tell the viewer how to react, or impose actions
on the viewer (e.g. "You gasp in surprise"). This is not
good form. Remember to show, rather than tell.
Multiple sentences allowed. Have fun with it!
Creature customisations include three additional fields:
ENTRY - What is seen when the creature enters a room.
(the way to specify the direction of entry or
departure is to use $DIR. See example below.)
** Must not exceed 80 characters. **
LEAVE - What is seen when the creature leaves a room.
(the way to specify the direction of entry or
departure is to use $DIR. See example below.)
** Must not exceed 80 characters. **
DEATH - What is seen when the creature is dead on the ground.
** Must not exceed 80 characters. **
Example of an Item Description
------------------------------
APPEARANCE - a bait bucket
DROPPED - A bait bucket sits here in its own puddle.
EXAMINED - Low and wide for stability, this wooden bait bucket is
admirably adapted to its task. It has two carved handles with
metal reinforcement along the top edge. The upper lip curves
inwards, overhanging the centre in order to keep some of the
more lively contents from seeking their freedom.
Example of a Creature Description
-----------------------------------
APPEARANCE - a woolly lamb
DROPPED - Shyly gazing at her surroundings is a woolly lamb.
EXAMINED - Soft, curly wool the colour of creamy milk comprises the fleece
of this shy little lamb. Her large brown eyes are lidded with a
fringe of soft white lashes, and she seems to be smiling beneath
her pink nose. Long, almond-shaped ears stick out comically to
the sides, perked forward to catch any sound. In contrast to her
full, fluffy fleece, her legs are slender and smooth, tipped
with hooves of soft grey.
ENTRY - Stepping timidly in from the $DIR is a woolly lamb.
LEAVE - A woolly lamb ducks her head and steps away to the $DIR.
DEATH - Bloodstained fleece marks the corpse of a little lamb.
Additional Notes on Customising Certain Items
---------------------------------------------
Forged Items Forged items may be customised in description. They may
NOT be made NON-DECAY or RESETTING outside of the use of
Rondels. If they are already non-decay, they can usually
be made resetting. Armour can only be customised in
description once it has been made non-decay and resetting.
When they decay, the customisation will be gone and you
will not get any credits back, nor will you get a discount
if you customise a new item with the same description.
Journals If you are the owner, a journal may be made resetting to
you by visiting Mydoin in New Thera, rather than using the
customisation process.
Order Items Order items are items given to order members by Gods to
signify the recipient's membership in a Divine Order. They
usually do not decay, and they may or may not already
reset to you. Order items belong, ultimately, to the God
who has bestowed it. If you wish to have an Order item
customised, you must first seek the permission of the
relevant God. Even if permission is obtained, be aware
that the God may decide to change the item, or to remove
it from your possession at any time, for any reason. You
will not receive a refund of the credits used to customise
the item if this happens. This also applies to the special
mounts sometimes given by Gods to their order members.
Quarterstaves A quarterstaff with resetting will reset into your
possession once per Achaean day. This will not be hastened
or modified in any way if you PLANT the quarterstaff. It
will return, but only on the schedule already noted.
Customising the description of a quarterstaff will not
change the description of other quarterstaves that you
summon, only the customised one.
Class Loyals Please see HELP CLASS ITEM CUSTOMISATION for further
details on this.
Clothing/Jewellery Most items of clothing and jewellery decay, though
jewellers with sufficient skill can repair jewellery,
extending life indefinitely. You may request all forms of
customisation for jewellery or clothing.
Please do not request a description customisation of
clothing or jewellery that has previously been rejected as
a pattern by the Crafting Guild. Customisation is not a
means to circumvent the guild's standards.
Clothing may NOT be customised to be a container (i.e.
adding pockets).
Furniture Furniture can be customised in description, but it cannot
be customised with reactions (such as sitting down on a
chair).
Vials All customisations may be made to vials. However, making
a vial reset does not turn it into an artefact vial. It
will have the same properties as before, such as the
amount of sips.
(See also HELP CUSTOMISATION GUIDELINES, HELP GIFT CUSTOMISATIONS,
HELP CUSTOMISATION REQUESTS, HELP CLASS CUSTOMISATION, HELP ARTEFACTS,
and HELP ARTEFACT TRADEINS)