Cantr II Discussion Forum

Bauer made a book if something like that can be reworked into some type of project.
String leather needle, etc etc

*Wiro wrote:GreeK -- do you think it's possible to allow "read" and "copy" from a container?

Of course it's possible, but it won't be done, because it'd result in unnecessary clutter and duplication. It's usually possible to add everything everywhere, but it's far from optimal.
Especially when we already have a separate system to show stored notes in envelopes. So I think we should rather think about giving bookcases some of capabilities of envelopes.

g1asswa1ker wrote:Bauer made a book if something like that can be reworked into some type of project.
String leather needle, etc etc

Yes, this book is really interesting example of CSS capabilities (which I didn't know are possible), but I think it has little practical use.

* * *

Hmm, back on-topic.
It might be surprising why I've revived so old suggestion.
If you know me then you probably know I wouldn't support "create another container with different name" idea.
I've done that, because I've noticed that implementing some form of bookcase can be a necessary subtask before starting implementation of homing pigeons. (lol)

Generally, the struggling problem I see is impossibility of showing contents of envelope to other people (possibly strangers) without risk of losing them. They can forget to give them back or suddenly sail away, and then town's library gets hurt unless you have laboriously created copies of all the notes. We have something to prevent that for single notes (noticeboard) but that's not enough for large note sets.
I think the note system is one of important aspects of the game. If there are many new interesting notes then it means people get involved into the game. Lack of new notes can be a sign of stagnation.

So I think goal we should have is to allow showing off multiple notes and restrict access to taking them at the same time. That's quite similar to noticeboards, so solution could be similar too, even if not very realistic.
Bookcase could be lockable to prevent stealing the notes from library, while the notes could still be read. It'd solve the main problem and make bookcases useful.
Otherwise, I don't see reasons to support that. And we already have drawer in the game.

After preparing the solution including the bookcases there can turn out that introduction of books could be both easy and worthwhile. But if there's no reason to have them, then I don't find then necessary.


EDIT: Lockable bookcase is not my idea. It was discussed on dev forum in 2013 and it was first mentioned by Surly, but the concept can be even older.
Oh, and it looks like I've just re-invented my own idea:

GreeK 26.05.2013 wrote:Notes are very important part of the game and currently it's extremely inconvenient and dangerous to give interesting notes to newspawn. I like the idea of enabling reading locked content to make organizing public libraries easier. It's quite unrealistic, but I think it's worth it.
I think such book shelf will have more common with envelopes, not object containers. Envelopes offer quite similar features. It's enough to create special envelope-like fixed object with lock, add code responsible for locking and allow getting notes out of it only when the lock is open. It's still quite much to do, however.

As a side note, I'm currently rewriting note access system and it will take much time, because I'm really busy right now.

That would be nice, if it won't require too much work and time.

Implemented