Furrier's Guide?

[iasmin]

At the risk of exposing my complete noob status, has anyone ever done a Furrier's Guide to Norrath? Allakhazam's and the Traders' database of recipe ingredients are great, but I've always wanted something a little more.

The problem is that most of the databases don't allow general type searches, per se. That is, I have to know that a skin=pelt=fur=scalp=patch. In all, they're just fur of varying types. Most places have you starting with a list of pelts as they drop by zone. But if I suddenly find one dropped or come across one (say in a merchants stuff), sometimes it's tough to switch to the database, look it up, figure out if I should take it, and then go back and get it if I still want it. Make sense?

What I'd really like to see is a single guide in one location (like some of the smithing or tailoring or baking guides by various GMs or Masters) that's dedicated solely to "I have X fur/skin/pelt. What's it good for?"

It would sure save me the trouble of looking through the post-it notes I have on my wall with the skins I've found in the places I hunt the most. Anyone working on such a beast? (no pun intended of course)

[Krazick]

I do recall that there was a guide that listed the various furs, pelts, and such with what dropped them. I seem to recall the name of the author being 'Peter Corbin' or something close to that.

I will look to see if I can find it.

[eqNichola]

Something that I would guess is not generally known, and perhaps ought to be, is that the Wayback Machine Internet Archive has in its enormous archive pretty much every page the 'old' site ever carried. Case in point, Peter's Guide to Pelts - by PeterCorbin as it existed at 08:02:45 on June 2nd, 2002.

Indeed, all issues of people complaining and wanting 'the old site back' are answered by the Wayback Machine. Perhaps someone (/nominate Krazick ) could tell the bosses, so that an appropriate note could be put somewhere in a FAQ?

[Krazick]

Hmmm... never knew about the 'Wayback Machine'... But yes, indeed that was the page I was thinking of.

And seeing it again, reminds me of why we did not "port" it to the new format. Because it is a manually created list of various pelts, silks, scalps, skins, etc what drops them, and what they are used in. The Database version of the site does retain all of the basic information about the items... it just has lost the major "grouping" of the items for things like:

SILKS
WOLF PELTS
CAT PELTS
BEAR PELTS
OTHER MISC PELTS

I do know that the House Ogre has something in mind to provide that sort of information associated with the items.. But has not yet found the time to apply it to the database structure yet. I expect it would be 2-3 levels of grouping information. Then a somewhat generic script can be built to search, retrieve, format and display the lists as Peter Corbin did, with all of the proper links on-the-fly. Grouped in the same way.

And it would be for more than just the Pelts... Armor Sets... Fletching for Bows... & Arrows... Forages used in Baking/Brewing/Tailoring...

Now don't get me wrong, in thinking it will happen overnight... the database has MORE THAN 9,000 Items currently. These were all hand-entered. And when the appropriate fields are setup, they will need to be examined... and updated. BY HAND. By people like me. They would likely be applied piece-meal, kind-of-like adding the SLOT information to worn items added by LDoN.

[iasmin]

life imitates art

Hmmm. I suppose there's no good way for common schmoes like me to help with that kind of database development then, eh? Well, I'm willing to wait to see it for future reference regardless, but I think for a noob barb shaman like me, having even a manual list that says "Okay, if you wanna GM tailoring eventually, then here's what you're going to come across and what it's used for."

OT: I find it stunning that in terms of database design and markup languages there's this sheer coincidence that what I'm thinking about in EQ relates to the software manuals I'm working on right now. If my boss comes in screaming about pelt drop rates, though, I'm outta here.