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  1. #1
    Player
    Elissar's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    Ul'dah
    Posts
    502
    Character
    Ellisar Loravalur
    World
    Behemoth
    Main Class
    Black Mage Lv 90

    Astrologian should have a portable telescope

    This topic serves both gameplay and lore...but i'm not sure if here is the right place.
    You see, i'm a huge fan of the sky. Our sky is amazing and dynamic. Weather itself is always changing. However, we don't have many ways to interact with such beauty.

    Bards have many instruments and of course it make sense...but why astrologian can't have a portable telescope?

    Let's make some use of all this beauty...i propose a 'stellar' log, like Sightseeing log.
    (7)
    hope is the first step on the road to disappointment

  2. #2
    Player
    Raikai's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    3,286
    Character
    Arlo Nine-tails
    World
    Mateus
    Main Class
    Scholar Lv 90
    That's a cool idea! I'd love if other jobs had side things like that. The big question regarding the telescope idea would more or less be how it would be something worth revisiting? The Bard's instruments are cool because they are essentially a minigame that you can play whenever you want, since they have player agency on them - which is play whatever song you come up with.
    (3)

  3. #3
    Player
    Iscah's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Posts
    14,034
    Character
    Aurelie Moonsong
    World
    Bismarck
    Main Class
    Summoner Lv 90
    I don't think a telescope really fits what an astrologian does - not the Sharlayan battle class at any rate. They work based on maps and charts and pre-established knowledge of where the stars should be, which is why we can use our powers in daylight or in the depths of a cave.

    The common names for our weapons - planisphere, star globe, ephemeris - point to it being the map we consult to know which stars we can draw on and where to find them.

    It would also be a huge investment in writing lore and actually creating a sky worth pointing a telescope at, which we simply don't have. There aren't given names for stars or any suggestion of constellations beyond the zodiac that was written to support AST lore. We don't even know if there are any other planets in the solar system.

    Also to pick on a particular comment from the OP:

    Quote Originally Posted by Elissar View Post
    Our sky is amazing and dynamic. Weather itself is always changing.
    Earth's atmosphere is dynamic on a human scale. We can see the weather change and clouds moving.

    The layout of the stars is largely static, aside of things like planets (moving but predictable) and rare events like comets or supernovae, which for a game would be plot points and not just a thing that happens randomly.

    The game doesn't even fully manage the dynamic placement its sky does need already, with the Moon always rising at sunset instead of moving around the sky in accordance with its phases. Every so often someone freaks out at the ominous darkened moon overhead when it's just that the new moon shouldn't be in that position.
    (0)
    Last edited by Iscah; 06-13-2021 at 06:43 PM.