Locations and Ranks
How they work
Contents
Choosing a Location Name
The full name of the location or group - e.g. "Dragonsfall Weyr". For locations, this must be unique - no other location may have this name. Two groups at different locations, however, may have the same name (e.g. "Hold Residents" may appear at two different holds).
Choosing a Rank Level
Rank Level should not be changed by anyone but a Council Member.
There are 5 Rank levels available, plus an unranked option, with Level One being the highest (Weyrleaders, Lord Holders, Hallmasters) and unranked being the lowest. Posting reqs can be determined by rank level, and personas will be listed in order of rank on the persona lists at each location.
When a new persona is created, their rank level will be the default value for the rank chosen for them. (So if a new Weyrwoman is created, her level will be level 2). There are also some built-in default levels:
- Goldriders (level 3)
- Bronzeriders (level 4)
- Gold firelizard owners (level 3)
So if someone holds Wingrider rank, but their dragon is bronze, then they will be level 4 rank (even though wingriders are unranked).
This will only work if the rank level would be increased. So a Weyrwoman will still be level 2 even though she is a goldrider, because level 2 is higher than level 3.
Rank levels can also be overridden on individual persona sheets - for example, if you decided you wanted to make hearing all dragons a Level Four rank, but you had a character who was a candidate who could do this, you can enter the desired level in the override box on the persona sheet. To make a persona unranked, enter 9 in this box.
Rank levels entered on the individual persona sheet will override ALL default values - so if you enter 4 in the override box for a Weyrwoman persona, she will become level 4 rank.
Reqs Free
If a member purchases 'forever reqs free' for a persona you must change that persona from "default for rank" to "No Rank." This will remove them from the Reqs list going forward.
Choosing a Rank Name
A name is required for each rank (e.g. Weyrleader, Lord Holder). No two ranks can have the same name.
How Locations Work
In the first version of the Triad Weyrs database, places came in three levels:
- Territories were the areas covered by a Weyr
- Locations were the Weyrs and Holds
- Groups at a Weyr consisted of the different Wings and the Lower Caverns in a Weyr, while at a Hold they consisted of the hold's residents, crafters, and any Halls at that Hold.
The new system is more flexible. There are two types of places that can be stored: locations and groups.
Locations are places that can contain other sub-locations, or groups of personas - for example, Dolphin Cove Weyr is a location. It contains other locations (such as Emerald Falls Hold, which is in Dolphin Cove's territory) and groups of personas (such as the different Wings. Caution: When changing a Location to a group its detail information will be wiped. So, save the information to a new FAQ for the former site before changing it to a Group.
Groups can contain personas - for example, there is a group of Hold Residents at Emerald Falls Hold. All personas must be part of a group. Groups can't contain other groups or locations, and must always exist at a location.
The advantage of this system is that it's not restricted to three levels. The Halls are now locations in their own right rather than groups at a Hold, and further sub-locations could even be added at the Halls if necessary!
Locations each have their own page on the Triad Weyrs website. Various details about locations (such as their histories, and their economies) can be entered using the location editing form, which can be reached from the box on the left-hand side of their page.
Each location also has a page listing its residents by their group, and an individual calendar detailing the weather and the events at that location.
How Ranks Work
In this second version of the Triad Weyrs website, the way ranks work has changed. Now a list of all the available persona ranks is stored, in much the same way as there is a list of available crafts.
Administrators can then set the number of personas of each of these stored ranks who can exist in each persona group. For example, the group "Holders" at the location "Emerald Falls Hold" might contain one Lord Holder, one Lady, one Steward, one Headwoman, one Guard Captain and an unlimited number of unranked holders.
To manage the ranks at a particular location, click on the "Locations" tab, select the required location and click on the "Add Ranks" link in the box to the left.
To add a rank to a group, select the rank name, choose the number of rankers you would like (leave this box blank for an unlimited number) and click the +/- button.
If you then decided to increase the number of a particular ranker (e.g. to have two Lady Holders!) you could repeat the process for adding one Lady - the number of Ladies would then be increased to two. To reduce the number back to 1, just enter -1 Ladies. If you subtract a number such that you are left with zero Ladies or a negative number, the number of possible Ladies will change to unlimited.
To delete the Ladies from the Holders group altogether, click the cross next to the rank name in the right-hand column of the table.
To manage the list of possible persona ranks, click on the "Manage Ranks" link at the top of the page.
Location Acronyms
Each location will need an short acronym (for example, "DFW" for Dragonsfall Weyr, "EFH-HH" for Emerald Falls Hold Harper Hall). Groups don't need acronyms, and if you enter one it will be ignored, although it will be saved in case you ever want to change the group to a location!
Location Descriptions
Location descriptions can be entered under the categories of History, Location Description, Building Description, Technology Level, Female, Policy, Population & Plague Effects, Economy and Transportation Information.
Hold guides, day-in-the-life descriptions can be added as part of the FAQ database and maps can be added as Images, and they will also appear on the location's page.
Descriptions for groups will be ignored, although they will be saved in the database in case you ever want to change the group to a location!
Making Locations Display in Order
The "order" box on the location form can be used to get locations or groups to be listed in a particular order on the website. If the Order box is left blank, locations or groups will by default be listed in alphabetical order. This may not be what is required - for example, you might want to list the Weyrwoman's Wing above the Weyrleader's Wing, but by default the Weyrleader's Wing would come first.
To solve this problem, you can enter a number in the order box. The locations or groups will then be listed in order of this number, with the lowest number first (so you might give the Weyrwoman's Wing order number 1 and the Weyrleader's number 2). If two locations or groups have the same number, they will be listed in alphabetical order. Locations or groups with no order number will be listed after those which do have one.
Making Ranks Display in Order
Use the ordering to manage the way ranks display on the persona listing page. Without any ordering, they will display first in order of rank level, with Level One first and no level last, and within that, in alphabetical order.
If, for example, the Steward and Headwoman were both level 3 and you wanted the Steward to display above the Headwoman on the persona listing, you could make the Steward order 1 and the Headwoman order 2.
However, ranks will always display in order of their level (so there's no way to make the Steward appear above the Lord Holder).
