We need mail!

[Onmyouza]

Yeah, as the subject says, I think this game could really do for a mail system of some kind, just in case you wanted to get in touch with someone who is offline and whatnot. From building a mailbox to simply learning a mail skill, it could be integrated together with the Hearth Fire, Log Cabin, any number of current buildings; or, it could be it's own little construction site. Personally, I think that it should require that you have a Hearth Fire or a Log Cabin in order to build one, but it should still be it's own entity. Or, rather, it has to be built within X amount of squares from the Fire/Cabin.

This also throws in the possibility of a courier system/quests, but that's probably not within the foreseeable future, so, yeah. I'm going to skip that bit and focus on the we really, really friggin' need mail issue.

[Junkfist2]

Items needed:

1 Parchment.
1 String.
1 Chicken.

[Jackard]

i already have a mailbox filled with messages and blank parchment

[Peter]

Incidentally, that's also all you need to house-train a bird.

[Atheuz]

Items needed:

1 Parchment.
1 String.
1 Chicken.

Perhaps you could craft a carrier pigeon like this?

It would take up 1 Slot, has a cooldown (To check for mails or send them, and the cooldown makes it seem that it's currently on the way to the receipient).
If there are too many Letters qeued up for you than your iventory can hold, they will be dropped. The sent parchement can also be used again to write back once, after this, the person is required to make a new parchement.

[Peter]

carrier pigeons are one-way; they always go back home. I'd see someone taking one or two birds with them heading out into the woods. Then the town gets a bird flying back with a message: "Found a bear. Send helpers to carry the meat back." and then, "Ow, never mind."

[Atheuz]

carrier pigeons are one-way; they always go back home. I'd see someone taking one or two birds with them heading out into the woods. Then the town gets a bird flying back with a message: "Found a bear. Send helpers to carry the meat back." and then, "Ow, never mind."

A good point. The cooldown could be dependant on the person who's answering then (IF we want to keep realism, but then again, such a message would be rather delivered as private message since you kin'ned that person anyway.), because destroying & creating an item in different times are retardly to use. (Imagine a full inventory, and suddenly you get a pigeon). Maybe having a "Mail Inventory" or such, where Pigeons are stored with their messages & could be sent from there would prove successfull. It would be a sort of Mailbox you'd know from WoW for example where you can store a maximum of messages, but in this game it would be... portable and sligthly modificated. I would describe a more fancy way, but im currently taking the abilities and perfomance of the server into account, so it wouldn't bother the database or other elements.

[Jackard]

is this suggestion really that necessary? seems a bit redundant to me

there is already a way of leaving messages ingame, in addition to ingame chat. granted messages could be improved, expanded from single-line labels to full-fledged letters

and then out of game you have threads, pms, irc...

[KoE]

I think all that we really need is an improved way to handle letters, as jackard said. That, plus being able to rename the actual inventory object (instead of just it being 'Written Parchment'), and perhaps a graphical representation of a mailbox so whoever leaves you letters doesn't have to guess if that's what that urn / chest / wicker basket is for. Though with runestones being more prevalent than when I last considered that last idea, I suppose the mailbox is less of an issue since you can just mark it with one of those. All the talk about seals and signatures would enhance it as well too, of course.

Granted, the whole thing is somewhat redundant with all the frequently used out-of-game communication media.

[farmchamp]

I think it should work like this. You could get the mailman skill, and it will make running not drain stamina when holding a mail bag. Poeple could then build mail boxes, and the rest is player controlled.