Postal Service

[Michcat]

What still needs to be determined is :
- Is there a safe way to deliver the message & items, other than giving it directly by hand ? What could be cool is each person having a personnal mail box (a chest), either directly in the post office (but could take a lot of space and then would need a huge building ! :-( ) or better in front of everyone's house. But then how to allow the post officer to access the chest but make it safe for other people not to steal what's in it ? (same question for the message & items in the office departing box).

- How to handle the sending fees ? Buying a Book&Quill at the office could be the way of doing that (with a cost a little higher than usual, it could cover both the book & the sending fees). But what about someone bringing its book with him and thus not paying the sending fees...? Obviously this method is flawed ^^
And the second point that was destroying that is : what about if you want to add some items ?... I suppose using the /money pay command does not leave any trace in a log or anything like that, so how to be sure that people have paid the exact amount ?...
The solution I'm thinking of is : maybe depositting an item that is known to have an exact value could be used as a workaround... (for the sake of an example, lets say that an Feather worth 1 Radiant. Sending a message having a cost of 5 Rads, the sender must leave 5 feathers along with the message. If they want to send a single item along with the message, they must leave 2 other feathers to cover the item's additional fee. Of course that's a silly example with random values chosen, but its meant to explain my thoughts !...)

I'd love to hear your thoughts about that, am I trying to over-think that and is it dedicated to perish because of nobody would us it, or do you think it might be a good idea (at least for RPers) and that should be started ?...

Thanks a lot guys !

I find this a wonderful idea! However, to me, it seems something more along the lines of player-interaction would make such an endeavor easier. The Postmen would be the one giving the Book&Quill, and the 'deliveries' box would be in the back of the post office. Whenever a Postman is online, you check whoever else is online, and if they have a letter for them, then you deliver it by hand. I think it could lead to create a lot of RP, and cut down on resouces, as we would only need one Post Office- albeit a large one.

To make this sucessful, I believe it needs both OOC and IC value. So- with the above method- IC value could be written off as the joy of recieving a letter, perchance a present, whilst your character relaxes in a Tavern, or the opportunity to further an RP of yours.
OOCly, you can send a missive to one who is offline and probably in a different Timezone, as the ideal Postoffice Organization would have constantly active members in many timezones, and probably a few nightowls to add.

 

[ptiber]

Maybe you're right Michcat.

Indeed having only the post officers to deal with the letters & items would remove the burden of having safety issues with deliveries and would add a little more of RPing between the postmens & the senders / recipients.

However, this would force people to send letters only when a postmen is available at the nearest post offices... blocker that I would have to see removed, to allow people to leave things at the post offices whenever they want / can, because obviously there will not be postmen connected and available at every moment !...
The fact also to be able to leave letters at post offices when no postmens are here would also allow to build some small offices around the world, allowing people to deposit letters directly in their city instead of having to go in a center place, even if this is in Port Silver... (unless that doesn't bother people to go to Port Silver for that ?...)

For me the main word for this service should be : freedom for the user to send (& receive) letters whenever they want !...

 

[Michcat]

Maybe you're right Michcat.

Indeed having only the post officers to deal with the letters & items would remove the burden of having safety issues with deliveries and would add a little more of RPing between the postmens & the senders / recipients.

However, this would force people to send letters only when a postmen is available at the nearest post offices... blocker that I would have to see removed, to allow people to leave things at the post offices whenever they want / can, because obviously there will not be postmen connected and available at every moment !...
The fact also to be able to leave letters at post offices when no postmens are here would also allow to build some small offices around the world, allowing people to deposit letters directly in their city instead of having to go in a center place, even if this is in Port Silver... (unless that doesn't bother people to go to Port Silver for that ?...)

For me the main word for this service should be : freedom for the user to send (& receive) letters whenever they want !...

Ahhh, you make a very good point there. My thinking was that we might amass enough players to cover that, but that is naught but risky speculation.
Perchance we could have the drop off box, as you suggest, but have the actual delivery be carried out by the Postmen?

I know not of the regulations for building in Port Silver, but I imagine if it could be achieved, it would be fairly convienent for anyone to reach the Post Office, as it would be a maximum of half-a-minute walk away.
Of the little funds and resources I possess, I would be more then glad to assist however I might.

 

[ptiber]

Yes maybe a single Office in Port Silver would suffice.
Since everybody is forced to go throught the city to travel the different parts of the world, it would make a simple and reachable point (at least the Post service could start with only a single office, and expand after if needed).

But for the delivery by hand, I'm afraid it could be too complicated : what if the postmen connects, see there is mail and that the recipient is connected, and then travel half of the world, and upon reaching the user this one disconnects ?... It would waste a lot of time for the postmen... (and what if the user is, for example, mining in the hollows ?...).
For me the personnal mailbox in front of the user's house if the easiest way of delivering mail without increasing the burden for the postmens, but then again the problem of safety is there.
One solution for that :
the post office installs a Mail box for each user requesting one (at a cost ?), using Lockette plugin to add permissions to the user, as well as all the postmens of that area ?...

And there's still an issue : what about the "drop off" box ? How to prevent things from being stolen there ?
Is there a simple way of allowing people to only PUT things in chests, and allow some specific users to only RETRIEVE things from it ?...

 

[Michcat]

Well, would that not be the whole job of being a Postman? One should not shirk his duties. Be it rain, hail, sleet or snow- The Postman will travel wherever he must go!

To prevent theft, I once again revisit the idea of having it complete player-interaction, but perchance I'm just .. Old-fashioned. It is by no means a perfect system, but I see it as what will allow the most fruitful RP.

 

[ptiber]

Why not indeed
I was thinking of simplifying the whole process for the users, allowing for more flexilibity, and thus increasing the appeal of the service
But this should be started simple, and built over with time when users usage would have grown !

Now, onto the practical side : lets put a post in the Organisations forums, find how to be allowed to use one of Port Silver's building, and most importantly, what name to give to that service ? Thinking of the APS, Alteran Post Service ?... ^^

 

[Markisbeest]

The last postal service was called APS, Alteran Postal Service , so I'd say go for it
Also, maybe PS wouldn't be such a great plan, since nobody could access chests except the people added to the region (very few), and that would cause difficulty with deposit boxes.

 

[ptiber]

Oh, but then where to go ?...
PS was a perfect spot in term of accessibility, since everybody go through frequently...
Apart from exporting Offices in each and every city (thus requiring more buildings, more space, more people, more organisations...) I don't really know what other solutions left ?...

 

[Markisbeest]

It's not that much work, lots of cities will probably help you build an accomodation if it will help them, which it does since it won't require them to go to other cities to post their mail. If you're really minimalist you just put down a box and a sign saying post your mail here. You can set times for how often you check the postal offices (once a day in big cities and once a week in smaller ones for example) for mail that is to be delivered. It's probably not that hard to manage with only one person, but it gets easier and easier with more people.

 

[Tomahawk777]

Stormhold has already a post office!

 

[wakerman4]

I have a better idea. Lets make Clacks >
E.G. Going Postal, Terry prachett, series and novel xD

 

[ptiber]

It's not that much work, lots of cities will probably help you build an accomodation if it will help them, which it does since it won't require them to go to other cities to post their mail. If you're really minimalist you just put down a box and a sign saying post your mail here. You can set times for how often you check the postal offices (once a day in big cities and once a week in smaller ones for example) for mail that is to be delivered. It's probably not that hard to manage with only one person, but it gets easier and easier with more people.

I'm just worried about people not wanting to put mail in the box, saying that anybody could read or worse steal it... (moreover if we want the service to be able to deliver items !...)

Regarding the whole thinking process of the service, I'm more inclined to go towards this direction :
- people must speak to a post office representative to send mail (give them the book & items they want to send, pay the service fees)
- postmens deliver directly in hands if the recipient is online, and if he isn't in a private mailbox in front of the recipient's house (chest locked with only the postmen + recipient allowed).

It would favorite RPing through sending & delivering the mail if people are online at the same time, but will not restrain the service due to no connectivity from the recipient...

The only bottleneck here is having a postmen in your city connected by the time you want to send your mail...

 

[wakerman4]

Like Skyrim messengers.

"I've been looking for you. Something I am supposed to deliver. Your eyes only"

Sounds fun!

 

[OfficerPoopFace]

A postal office in medieval times? I didn't know they had actual mail back then. Then I'm particularly talking about private mail. I thought every major city and citadel had public announcement boards, but from what I know there was rarely any correspondence during that time, let alone frequent (private) mail. I believe only the more richer people who had something important to share, used a servant or a local he trusts to send a letter or verbal message to someone, and he's then likely to travel by horse.

However, the economic growth during the 16th century, caused a great evolution in mail traffic, and actual letters were sent and received by actual postal services (Postilions) which had come alive by that time, they traveled mainly by horse. They used big leather bags with locks to transport the post in and only the postal offices had the keys to that. The post service was only active between major cities.

But hey, I'm looking at it from a realistic perspective and since this is a fantasy-twisted medieval roleplaying server I can understand that not everything has to be completely realistic.

 

[Markisbeest]

Also, you can just claim the boxes are deposit only (maybe some kind of magic proof too, to keep the extraordinary OPer wizard out aswell), that way people can read it, but they can't use it, since in roleplay it's used. If you get complaints about mail disappearing ask for what deposit box they put it in, and have an admin hawkeye it, that'd be ruining rp and stealing, double offense! All problems solved really.

 

[ptiber]

But hey, I'm looking at it from a realistic perspective and since this is a fantasy-twisted medieval roleplaying server I can understand that not everything has to be completely realistic.

I'm pretty sure the lack of any private mail on the server are due to the fact that nobody have a private servant to carry the message, and that public announcement boards would not perform very well since there's not a lot of people in the same places at the same time...
As you say, as a fantasy-twisted medieval roleplaying game, we must approach the problem in a whole different way to make sure that people would actually use it... (or at least the few RPers that are interested ^^)

Also, you can just claim the boxes are deposit only (maybe some kind of magic proof too, to keep the extraordinary OPer wizard out aswell), that way people can read it, but they can't use it, since in roleplay it's used.

Is there a safe way of doing that ? A special command in game, any already installed plugin that could manage that ?
Or are you just suggesting that we state that the boxes are read-only, and we just trust the players to be fair & straightforward ?

 

[Michcat]

I'm just worried about people not wanting to put mail in the box, saying that anybody could read or worse steal it... (moreover if we want the service to be able to deliver items !...)

Regarding the whole thinking process of the service, I'm more inclined to go towards this direction :
- people must speak to a post office representative to send mail (give them the book & items they want to send, pay the service fees)
- postmens deliver directly in hands if the recipient is online, and if he isn't in a private mailbox in front of the recipient's house (chest locked with only the postmen + recipient allowed).

It would favorite RPing through sending & delivering the mail if people are online at the same time, but will not restrain the service due to no connectivity from the recipient...

The only bottleneck here is having a postmen in your city connected by the time you want to send your mail...

Well, I was thinking...
Perchance the Post Office could have a dropbox(s) only postmen can access. So ANY Postman who is online when someone needs a letter delivered rushes to take that letter. And if the recipient is offline, said Postman sticks it into the dropbox- maybe puts up a sign advertising the username of the recipient to other Postmen? And then once the recipient DOES come online, ANY Postman currently logged in skips along to deliver.
All it would require is an engaged staff, and it solves most of our problems- Though I may be bias, as I really want to be able to deliver items by hand.

The Post Office should also provide books and letter, and be able to read said books and letter for the less educated in Altera. But we've already .. I'm... I should sleep...

 

[ptiber]

That could be the solution.
I suppose that thoses dropboxes would require no more than adding the postmen's individual names on signs using Lockette plugin ?... Of course that could be good enough (depending on the quantity of postmens )

For the recipient part, if each letter is under the form of a signed book, on the first page it could contain the name of the recipient, its last known location and the accompanying items, thus simplifying the tracking process.
The title of the book could even be "To: [NAME]", to ease the process once more.

 

[Faelin]

*throws a spanner in the works to see what will happen*

What would be done to protect confidentiality in RP? What if characters used information in letters for their own gain? Of course, OOC, you could just hope to avoid metagamers, but what would be done in a roleplaying sense?

 

[ptiber]

You mean, will the postmen be upright and will not read the letters they carry ?
If you're talking about that, maybe that joining the Postmen corps would need the applicant to show proofs of being trustfull as well as swearing to an oath of some kind according to the Postal service privacy policies ? (resulting into a ban of some sort if any proof of breaking the oath gets discovered ?...)

Not totally off topic : I didn't get what OOC & IC are ? Is it "out of context" and "in context" ?... Thanks for enlighten me :-P