22.3 Design Guidelines

Welcome to the world of Crafting! Our system offers many opportunities to enrich your gameplay and the world with items honed to your tastes and flavour. 

Syntaxes to begin making your design are available on HELP <tradeskill> or HELP PAPERLESS CRAFTING. Each tradeskill has its own unique guidelines and limitations, but below are the common standards to be considered while reviewing your design. 

DESIGN VARIABLES
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Many designs can use variables to customize specific kinds of messages depending on the user and the user's preferences.

User Pronoun and Name
Third person messages (worn, eaten, etc) should use special tags to modify the description to the user. These are:
* $(name$) to insert the character's name. Use $+(name$) when starting a sentence.
* $(his$), $(he$), $(him$) as appropriate in the sentence. This will automatically become her, its, their, and so on depending on the character's configured pronouns
Example: $+(name$) throws a coat on over $(his$) shoulders, before $(he$) buttons it closed down $(his$) chest. 

Dyes - eg: a simple $(dye$) shirt
Through the Dyekit system, you can have two variable colours within your design. You can use the tokens as often as you like, though there can only ever be two variables. The appropriate tokens are $(dye$)/$(dye1$) (these are interchangeable), and $(dye2$). Before being dyed, they will default to 'gray'. These can be used in the Appearance, Dropped, Examined, Worn, and Removed. 

Brewing container
You can reference the container a brewing liquid is held in by using $(thing$).
Example: The hot chocolate is so thick it clings to the sides of $(thing$). 

DESIGN FIELDS
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The various design fields provide different kinds of information for the user, and allow you to express both your designer's eye through various focuses. Fields that are required for design approval are indicated with an (R).

(R) Appearance - eg: a simple grey shirt
Note: A short description that should be able to complete the phrase, "You pick up _____." The Appearance lacks capitalization and punctuation. It has a maximum of 50 characters, save for some papercrafting patterns.

(R) Dropped - eg: A simple grey shirt is on the ground.
Note: A longer description, the Dropped is a complete sentence depicting what an item looks like outside of your inventory and in a room. Should be fairly generic - special positions or appearance should be POSEd once the item is crafted. It has a maximum of 80 characters, save for some papercrafting patterns.

(R) Examined - eg: Sewn from rough linen, this shirt is a mundane grey. It has a simple cut, with long sleeves and lacing down the sternum. 
Note: An extended description, the Examined is comprises complete sentences and a more detailed accounting of the item for when it is PROBEd. It should have a minimum of two lines at an 80 wrapwidth (save for Brewing). 

Identity and References:
Note: In the REFERENCES section of the design, you'll see terms that can be used as the primary noun. For example, the trousers template allows for 'pants' and 'breeches'. It is mandatory to change the identity of a design to your choice of noun, furthermore, that choice must be consistent between all three fields (as in if you choose breeches, you should not call them trousers in the Dropped). It is important that items contain their correct noun as the identity so that they display correctly on INFO HERE (eg: breeches123487 instead of trousers123487)

Attire - eg: loosely fitted
Note: This is the default attire for when an item is worn (which the user can independently change on their own - HELP ATTIRE). It has a maximum of 40 characters, does not support $(his$) tokens, and should be sensible when appended to the appearance. The typical formula is '<verb> <description>'. 

Pockets/Drawers:
Pockets and Drawers allow for a few items to be stored. If you set an item to have either, it must be mentioned somewhere in the description (though if you describe an item with either, you do not have to set the flag).

WearLocation:
If an item is set to a unique location (such as a ring on the nose) then this must be made apparent within the design. If a cloak is worn 'fullbody' rather than 'shoulders,' one can assume that it is a large, sweeping cloak, rather than a simple cape.

Special descriptions: Worn, Removed 
Depending on the tradeskill, you may have special descriptions available. These have a maximum of 240 characters. If you do a 1P (first person), you need to do a 3P (third person) message. These should provide information to the user to inform their reactions and actions, but not decide it for them (so no smiling and savouring flavors, or flipping a hat before setting it on the head, or admiring looks before ___)

Warmth:
For tailoring, see HELP TAILORING APPROVAL GUIDELINES.

Folded:
See AB PAPERCRAFTING HYALINCURU for an explanation of this feature.

When you have finished, you can DESIGN <sketch> SUBMIT at any craft office. If you are successful, instructions to pick up your design will be sent to you by letter, else you will be made aware of the rejection. If you have a problem with a rejection, contact Becue - do NOT simply re-submit.

COMMON GUIDELINES
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General:
   - Aetolia is a PG13 game, and as such, no items designed solely for sexual 
     purposes (eg: a dildo) are to be crafted. Failure to follow this guideline 
     may result in crafting privileges being revoked. Additionally, items cannot 
     be made to brand you as another person's property.

   - All designs should be written in English.
   
   - 50 characters of readable text are permitted on designs, within full quotes 
     (""). Other established game languages (Kalsu, Illumine, Trollish, etc) are 
     permitted within these phrases.
   
   - References to letters in terms of shapes (A-line skirt, 'v' neckline) should 
     be in such phrasing.

   - For everything except Brewing, if it has a title that is not 
     written/labelled upon the item, it should be capitalized in half quotes 
     (e.g. a dish of 'Seafood Surprise').
   
   - Numbers should be spelled out by their word, and not alphanumeric symbol.
   
   - Aetolian races and languages should always have the first letter of their 
     name capitalized when referenced in a design. Additionally, the proper 
     phrasing for things belonging to these races are as follows: Albedi, 
     Djeirani, Idrethi, Xorani.

   - Consistently stick to British English or American English across your
     design. So you cannot use "...and it is my favorite colour." 

   - You may include Divines and Their known symbols in your designs, but they
     must be escalated in the queue to receive approval from Becue or the Divine
     in question.

Modernity and Terminology:
   - Designs should be appropriate to the context, technology, and experience of 
     Aetolia. It is important to stop and consider if the item you want to make 
     fits within Aetolia, or if it is just something you want that seems cool. 
     Adapt to the world and enrich it rather than trying to bend it to adapt to 
     you.
   
   - Some things may be considered 'too modern', be it by technology required to 
     create it, or by the vernacular understanding of an item by today's society 
     and playerbase.

   - Some definitive rulings:
     - Sunglasses (coloured glass is fine, explicit sun protection is not)
     - Trench coats (long double-breasted coats are fine)
     - Zippers (no alternatives available)
     - Snap closures
     - T-shirts (please try to avoid shirts with phrases and brands on them, like 
       you find in tourist attractions)
   
     - When in doubt, ask Becue!
   
Nouns:
   - The primary noun (item type/Identity) should be in the appearance, dropped, 
     examined, worn, removed, and eaten messages. This should not be altered, 
     hyphenated, or obscured (a half mask, not half-mask. The noun in the dropped 
     should be what people can interact with, and GET HALF-MASK will not GET 
     MASK)
   
   - Item types should match what you are making (eg: a strapless shirt that 
     laces and pushes the body into shape would be a corset or bodice and should 
     be on an appropriate pattern). Similarly, the primary noun should be just 
     that (so no making a 'flower bed' out of a 'bed' pattern)

Design focus/emotive writing:
   - The focus of the design should be on the item/materials itself, the 
     intention of their construction, and what an onlooker would see when 
     PROBEing the item. Additionally, it should not define the user's shape or 
     capability, as there are all sizes and shapes in the world. In lieu of 
     this, references to anatomy (such as breasts) are fine, designs do not need 
     to be gender neutral. EG: cut to accentuate a woman's curves - NOT - 
     highlighting the wearer's feminine, hourglass form. 

   - Designs should provide data to inform reactions, not decide them for the 
     user. You do not know what will turn someone's head, or eagerly take another 
     bite, or pleasantly savour. Words such as lovely, beautiful, inferior, etc, 
     are acceptable, but not, 'most beautiful thing you have seen'.

   - Even though it is possible to add any components at all to your design,
     use your common sense. While some different types of cloth and smaller
     materials such as beads, lace, ribbon are alright as decorative extras,
     the item should still be made of the typical components. You can not
     tailor an item of metal, nor should you apply a brooch to a dress, since
     this would mix with jewelcraft.

Reactions to the environment and light
   - As light and weather conditions change throughout the day and night, as well 
     as by environement, such reactions need qualifiers rather than assumptions. 
     Example: 'glitters when caught by light' rather than a perpetual state of 
     glittering.
   
Ownership, Organizations, and Profession:
   - If you are going to claim a design is for a guild, city, or other 
     organization, make sure you describe in the examined why it is (be it a 
     crest, embroidered name/initials, etc). If you want it to be a cloak with 
     the symbol of Chakrasul, describe the symbol of Chakrasul. If it bears the 
     crest of House Nebre'seir, describe the crest. 

   - If you are designing something to resemble a person - you can reference 
     their name, but must actually describe what they look like (race, do they 
     have wings, hair color, attire, etc). You cannot simply say "This is a doll 
     of Pooky" or "This statue resembles Becue". It is recommended in cases of 
     items that look like a person to also embroider their name, but it is not 
     required.
   
   - If you are claiming something as related to a profession (a smith's apron, a 
     thief's purse, etc), you need to include some references as to why these are 
     correlated within the examined (durable leather to protect against heat, 
     padded and muffled to obscure contents, etc). 

   - You cannot claim a particular design is specific to a person, for example: 
     "Becue's best biscuits". There is no simple way to explain within an item
     why it is that person's brand, and it is not allowed. The only exception to
     this branding rule is for brews made using Brewing.
   
Commodities, materials, and construction:
   HELP CRAFTING COMMODITIES
   
Specific guidelines per tradeskill:
   HELP <tradeskill> APPROVAL GUIDELINES
        
See also: HELP DESIGN APPROVAL, HELP GRAMMAR