Patreon Perk Guidelines and FAQ

[Jirato]

I figured it's probably best to get this stuff as well-defined as possible, to prevent any confusion or misunderstanding. I know you guys aren't donating solely for these perks, but because you love the game (right?). But here's some guidelines and stuff that we'll be sticking to moving forward. I know we didn't really keep to this format 100% in the past 2 months, as we didn't really have these perks well-defined on our end and it was a much more casual arrangement. However, due to limited time and resources, we need to make this more clear.


Chat with Staff ($20 tier):
We will, in our best effort, attempt to contact you for an individual voice chat. This can be about any topic you wish, though please note that our usual non-disclosure agreement still applies. We cannot reveal detailed mechancs information, deep lore, or event plans. We may be able to hint at some things, but this is more an opportunity for you to share your concerns and ideas than a way to "get secret info from the GM team".


Custom Channel Preparation, Cantrip, Familiar, or Flourish ($10 tier):
Channel preparation messages may include both first and third person messaging whenever you begin or strengthen a channel.
A magical cantrip or flourish is a non-mechanical ability that outputs flavor text when you cast cantrip or flourish with the desired element/weapon ready.
Shadow familiar alterations must follow the same guidelines as mount alterations in the $2 tier.

Note: All magical messaging must conform to lore restraints and character skill. For example, you can't have your eyes light up with fire when you channel pyromancy (they would pop from the heat), and you can't have a sword flourish indicating that you are a highly skilled blade master when you only have 50 points of sword skill.


Home or Character Feature Alteration ($5 tier):
Home alterations may include a change to your home entry portal or a change within the home itself. Home entry portals may be altered with the same restrictions as item alterations (see $2 tier rewards). Interior home alterations can be the option to rewrite a single room description in your home, provided that the description follows our building guidelines and doesn't indicate any added functionality or items. Optionally, if you have a pre-existing furniture item such as a wardrobe, it may be added in the room description with the understanding that it will become a permanent feature of the home and is unable to be removed.

Character feature alterations may include one of the following:

• Change of hair style/description or length
• Change of eye style/description
• Extra character description detailing additional features such as freckles, an oddly shaped nose, etc.
• A scar or tattoo

Note that hair and eye color may only be changed with prior approval and must still fall within racial guidelines.


Item or mount alterations ($2 tier):
Alterations must be for existing items or mounts that you already own, limit one per patron per month, and can be ONE of either:

• changing the pread (part before the noun)
• changing the noun itself (synonyms only, see note)
• adding/changing the postad (brief description after the noun)
• adding a long description when the item or mount is LOOKed at

For example: if you have "an exquisite steel longsword", we can change it to "a wide-bladed steel longsword" or "an exquisite steel longsword etched with intricate patterns". Or we can add a description when you look longsword to say something like: "The wide blade of this longsword has been etched with intricate patterns."

Note: There are some restrictions when changing nouns of functional items such as weapons or armors that, while normally considered synonymous, may have different mechanical ability. For example, it would be impossible to alter a dagger into a stiletto, since a stiletto has different weapon properties than a dagger in the code.


Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: I don't want to chat, can I get 10 item alterations instead?
Q: I don't want a magic alteraton/flourish, can I get 5 item alterations instead?
A: We do not have the time or resources to accommodate bulk requests such as this. We can substitute one of the higher tier perks for ONE additional item or mount alteration, but not ten or five.

Q: I don't really know what I want, can you design something for me?
A: Again, due to a lack of time and resources, we generally can't do this. I'm really not good at this kind of stuff at all. Perhaps you should consult with your fellow players and maybe one of them will be able to help you with an item design or at least give you some ideas.

Q: I don't really want anything this month, can I just save it until later?
A: What was that about time and resources? We can't have someone coming to us several months later and going, "OK, here are the 15 item alterations you owe me.". I'd prefer if everything is accomplished before the end of the month, and I'd definitely not let something get carried over past the halfway point of the following month.

Q: Can you make this awesome new item for me?
A: All perks are purely cosmetic and do not introduce any new items or functionality within the game. Even if it's just something as mundane as a statue.

Q: Can you transfer my perks to another person?
A: Yes, email me with the name of the character you wish to transfer your perks to, and then have them send me an email detailing what they want.

[preiman]

Hey I may have missed something, not great about filtering email and all that, will you be contacting us about the perks or do we need to get in touch with you?

[Jirato]

I've been meaning to send everyone a message through Patreon telling them to read this post and then email us with the specifics of their requests, but work has been pretty crazy this week.

Go ahead and email the clok at contrarium.net address with the details.

[Fayne]

So, hair color is something that is really restricted? If we want it changed, it has to match up with racial limitations, and still be a natural color? That kinda puts "mixed" characters at the advantage there, letting them have pretty much any eye/hair color they'd like. Plus, some races only have about three options for hair color, while some may have seven or eight. That seems like a pretty unbalanced reward. And I was kinda hoping someday I could use this to get hair color for a character that was unnatural, like purple or pink or something. Is that not possible? Even if the argument is that hair dyes are too primitive, non-existant, or not permanent enough, then there's always the argument of wigs, which have been around much longer than effective methods of dying hair.

I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just trying to understand the reasoning behind limiting these particular options, especially considering some characters already exist with "unnatural" hair, my own character included.

[merin]

I fail to see any issues. If they work with you on blue or green hair, great. I can completely understand them not doing it, though. It's pretty silly in real life, although it happens, it's not in the norm I guess. Second, if you want more hair options, be mixed. if you chose something that gives you only a handful of options, that's on you. If it's too out of bounds, then, find something else. I'm sure they'll work with you regardless, so, I fail to see the point of the issue.

[Rias]

Not my call to make, but I'd be really disappointed if we had characters running around in the CLOK world looking like Anime characters with zany hair colors (and hairstyles). I don't hate Anime, and I'll freely admit that there are a few series I do enjoy, but it's definitely not a style or overall feel that I'm fond of. That goes for the art style as well as some other typical Anime stuff, like ridiculously oversized swords and things like that, and I don't know - just the overall feel of it. My point being: I would die a little inside if CLOK adapted the Anime "flavor", and wacky hair colors is, I think, a strong step toward that for a lot of people.

At best, I would say if people want weirdo hair colors, the thing to do would be to ask for a hair dye mechanic. I would personally hope, if such a thing was implemented (and I'm not especially fond of the idea for crazy unnatural hair dyes), that it would be temporary and somehow obvious to people that it is dyed/achieved by artificial means.

On a more general note: I would think of these cosmetic Patreon perks as less "completely alter your appearance however you wish" and more "refine the details of your current cosmetic appearance." A Giganti (adult) is never going to be 4' tall (4' short?). A Parren is never going to have ebon skin. A Nuum is never going to have red eyes. The lore wouldn't allow it - why make exceptions for this? Someone once asked if their Giganti character could have tan skin because they spend a lot of time in the sun - I told them "no", because it's not one of the options available at character creation for a reason - it can be assumed that, due to something about the physiology of the Giganti, their skin does not darken beyond the darkest shade commonly available at character creation.

[Fayne]

Oh, yeah, I completely understand when it comes to things like eye color and skin color, and general physical appearance. But hair color isn't that overly difficult to change. I'd venture to say it's actually more readily changed than someone's natural skin tone. Sure, you can become marginally darker or lighter by spending more or less time in the sun (generally. Some people just don't tan at all, like myself), but anyone can change their hair color to whatever they want these days.

But, to clarify, I'm not trying to turn CLOK into an anime. Hairstyles should still be reasonable, and I don't think every color should be available as a hair option (if anyone has ever said a full head of green hair looked good on someone, their pants should have instantly combusted). I just think some of the more popular and (in my opinion) more attractive colors should be available, like purple, blue, and pink. And no, I don't think they should ever be combined on a single person, so no half blue, half red hair. And of course I think the decision to make your hair an artificial color should have an effect on how NPCs interact with you, such as causing them to be uneasy around you, or just plain not trusting you. Basically, most NPCs should treat someone with purple/pink/blue hair in the same manner a senior citizen might treat that person IRL.

And to be completely honest, I don't think CLOK will turn "anime" if unnatural hair colors are allowed. I've only ever heard one other player mention that they'd like to have an unnatural hair color on one of their characters, so I'm guessing it's not something most people are going to want to do.

[preiman]

the key issue with your argument is "these days" CLOK isn't these days. yeah someone could probably work up something like the color you want, and slather your hair in it, but it's not going to be the bright chemical colors i think you might be expecting, even if you can convince someone to do it. just using a wig still isn't going to get you there, for most of history wigs were made from human hair, some still are, and had the same issues with dye human hair does, the modern synthetic or partially synthetic can do any color you want, but they can using techniques and materials that also wouldn't be available in CLOK. ok maybe outside the quarantine in the right country maybe, but in the lost lands, i just don't see it.

[Fayne]

No, you're right, it won't be the same purple or blue or whatever that we would get today, but the simple fact is, this game isn't graphical at all. Purple is purple when written in text, and it would be so out of place that I don't think it would matter whether it was bright neon or dull eggplant purple, you'd still draw attention and get strange looks in the Lost Lands. As for how it can be done, we can suspend realism just a bit for that. It doesn't take loads of chemicals and synthetic materials to dye your hair a certain color for a short while, those only help the color take better and stay longer. In CLOK our hair never changes unless we specifically want it to, so I think when it came to dying hair, we could suspend realism just a bit to say that the job was performed quite well, it came out a decent color, and obviously it lasts quite a while. I guess if you really wanted to be picky, the color could revert back to normal after a while somehow, but I don't see what the point there would be in the extra effort to program it like that.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Grum actually did know how to make proper hair dye. They obviously invented the tattoo gun already, as well as the needed ink.

[preiman]

Why do you say obviously they have the tattoo gun, when I got those in game it was with a needle. The tattoo gun is a new thing a few decades, but using needles to put ink in the skin, that's been going on longer than we've been working metal.

[Kunren]

Not my call to make, but I'd be really disappointed if we had characters running around in the CLOK world looking like Anime characters with zany hair colors (and hairstyles). I don't hate Anime, and I'll freely admit that there are a few series I do enjoy, but it's definitely not a style or overall feel that I'm fond of. That goes for the art style as well as some other typical Anime stuff, like ridiculously oversized swords and things like that, and I don't know - just the overall feel of it. My point being: I would die a little inside if CLOK adapted the Anime "flavor", and wacky hair colors is, I think, a strong step toward that for a lot of people.

At best, I would say if people want weirdo hair colors, the thing to do would be to ask for a hair dye mechanic. I would personally hope, if such a thing was implemented (and I'm not especially fond of the idea for crazy unnatural hair dyes), that it would be temporary and somehow obvious to people that it is dyed/achieved by artificial means.

On a more general note: I would think of these cosmetic Patreon perks as less "completely alter your appearance however you wish" and more "refine the details of your current cosmetic appearance." A Giganti (adult) is never going to be 4' tall (4' short?). A Parren is never going to have ebon skin. A Nuum is never going to have red eyes. The lore wouldn't allow it - why make exceptions for this? Someone once asked if their Giganti character could have tan skin because they spend a lot of time in the sun - I told them "no", because it's not one of the options available at character creation for a reason - it can be assumed that, due to something about the physiology of the Giganti, their skin does not darken beyond the darkest shade commonly available at character creation.

Taric is already anime flavored tho! *Cries*

[Rias]

We can debate whether wacky hair colors/dyes/wigs/what-have-you are technologically believable for the CLOK world (technically possible to some degree, sure), or whether any of the lore involves peoples or cultures that have any desires to artificially alter their hair colors to wildly unnatural hues and have developed techniques and products to do so (there aren't any that I know of), and other things like that.

At this point, I'll just say that it would be a stylistic choice that I'd personally be unhappy with.

[Jirato]

Added to the original post:

Q: Can you transfer my perks to another person?
A: Yes, email me with the name of the character you wish to transfer your perks to, and then have them send me an email detailing what they want.

[Jirato]

Since this has come up numerous times, I want to remind everyone that item alterations are to be purely cosmetic. This means we can't add any new functionality/mechanics to an item. That is to say, we cannot make uncloseable containers closeable. Additionally, we cannot change the material of an item. No transmuting lead into gold. :-)

[Elystole]

(Psst... Peoples. We're $25 away from completely covering the server costs and the next game-wide perk: Patreon Link)

[Jirato]

(Psst... Peoples. We're $25 away from completely covering the server costs and the next game-wide perk: Patreon Link)

Thanks! I always feel bad promoting this myself.

We actually did pass 100% server costs last year, and the Octum festival was intended to fulfill that, but sadly I didn't organize the auction in time. I've still got the auction items sitting in my lair, but they're very Octum-themed, so might not really be appropriate to do it now. I'll see about throwing together a different auction soon.

[preiman]

I felt bad I had to pull my donation as life got expensive, but I think I'll be able to start it back up next month.

[Elystole]

All we need is five people donating the price of an expensive cup of coffee each month. And instead of coffee which is gone in 15 minutes you get an item/character/house alteration which you can enjoy for a long time.

[Jirato]

Hey all. Couple things about the Patreon program. It has been suggested I plug it a bit more, because, technically, I'm paying the equivelant of a low-end car payment every month for CLOK, and every little bit of financial support we can get is greatly appreciated! (details of of the CLOK Patreon can be found at http://www.patreon.com/clok)

First, there is now a progress bar on the main wiki page (http://clok.contrarium.net and http://www.clokmud.com). That shows the current pledge amount versus the total monthly server costs. Note that I haven't looked into if Patreon has an API where I can automate this yet, so right now I'm just going to do my best to manually updated it soon after someone makes or changes a pledge.

Second, there is now a BBS group for CLOK Patrons. If you are pledging money via Patreon and would like to show your support on the BBS, please email or PM me and I will add you to the group. Your name will show up a different color on the BBS, you will have a "CLOK Patron" rank underneath your name, and you will gain access to a private, Patron-only section of the forum. I would like as many people to do this as possible, but I understand if you'd rather keep your anonymity and it's perfectly fine if you don't wish to.

Finally, just as a reminder, patron perk fulfillments are handled reactively, not proactively. If you wish to claim a perk, please don't hesitate to email us at support@clokmud.com with the which perk it is you are claiming and the details needed to fulfill it such as character name, old and new item names for alterations, and so on. Seriously, do this. We don't mind at all and are glad to do these types of things for you - we get so few requests for perk fulfillments (less than 1 in 3 months), that sometimes I worry you may think you're bothering us by asking or something - you're not, so go ahead and ask if you want something.

[Mirazia]

Just bumping this up so those of you that donate to the Patreon (Thank you!) claim your perks and just to remind people to please include your character names when you are requesting your perk!

[Jirato]

Just to clarify with the new request ticket system, the procedure is as follows:

Send an email to support at clokmud dot com detailing the specifics of what you want from your entitled patreon perks.

Wait for a response saying it is approved.

After you get the response email, send a REQUEST command in-game when you are available to have a member of the team do the work.

The team cannot fulfill the request until the email portion has been completed. Please do not send a request asking for patreon rewards until the email response. This is for two reasons. One, I verify the email address against patreon records to make sure there was a fulfilled pledge that month. And two, for accountability purposes the request is visible to the entire team and archived to our email so there's no confusion about custom alterations being handed out.

[Jirato]

Do to constant criticisms from multiple sources about my server being too expensive, the Patreon program has been cancelled. I will still honor any existing perk requests for previous months but will no longer be accepting donations of any kind for the CLOK project.

Thank you all for your support.