Tags - A New Way to Search

Hello DB! Your friendly neighborhood Regent here with an announcement!

The Possessions System is a robust and in-depth system consisting of over 2300 prototypes. Sometimes, searching for the thing you are looking for can be a real pain in the neck. Have you ever found yourself pouring through the stores or Item Research trying to find one piece of kit that would really complete your character’s loadout, only to be unable to find it? I know I have.

One of my goals as Regent has been to make possessions a bit more user friendly. I’m proud to announce a step in that direction: Item Tags.

James has graciously installed the framework for this concept on the site about a month ago and my wonderful minions have been hard at work filling out some of the details. I am pleased to announce that Item tags are now live!

What is a Tag?

An Item tag is a short one or two word “descriptor”. That descriptor describes features of the item it has been attached to. A descriptor can be searched and all items that have that tag will appear in the search. Not every item needs a tag, but many will have them.

Item tags serve 2 purposes: 1) To group items that have similar abilities, manufacturers, or affiliations together in an easily searchable format. 2) to provide a quick reference to some of the relevant information about an item in an easy to use format

Under a forthcoming Regent Policy, Item tags will have “categories”. Under each category, they may be many different individual tags. For example, under the Affiliation tag, you may see something like "Mandalorian" or "Nightsister". Under abilities, you may see something like "Long Range" or "Bombs Away". The list of individual tags will end up being quite long. Generally, the categories will be as follows:

• Abilities - What special things can this item do?
  
• Affiliation - Who uses this item? Groups and Individuals
  
• Manufacturer - Who originally made this item?
  
• Unique Features - What Quirks does this Item have?
  
• Iconic - Reserved for those items that are synonymous with Star Wars, such as the T-65B X-Wing Starfighter or DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol

We may look to expand this list in the future, but for now that’s what a tag is. Simple, right?

How do I use Tags?

On the Member end, there are two ways to use Tag to help search for an item.

Firstly, you can access the tag by going to item research, in the resources tab. Then, click the filter option. Then search the list of tags. If you know the Tag you are searching for, you can type it. Or you can select from the drop down. At this point, the drop down is limited to the 1st 50 tags. We will be looking at ways to improve this. Please see below for a step-by-step photo guide.

The other way you can access tags is on the prototype page directly. I would say that this is more useful than the previous method. Near the top of the item page, you will see the tags listed out in little boxes. You can click on any of those tags and it will take you to a search of items with that same tag. See the step-by stem photo guide below.

The Future of Tags

The tag system is going to grow organically. The fact of the matter is that with 2300 items in the stores, we could never accurately and fully tag out all of the items that exist. We’d be working on it forever.

So, the growth of tags will be an ongoing process. As we get suggestions, or as new ideas strike us, item tags will be updated. We will work on refining and streamlining the tags to make searching for that key item easier.

Take some time to look around at your favorite items and see the tags that they have. As always, if you have suggestions, I encourage you to reach out to the Regent’s office. We’ll be glad to hear from you.

Thanks for reading and happy shopping!

Remember: any questions relating to the Possessions system, item mechanics, or features can be emailed to Regent Staff at [Log in to view e-mail addresses].

Important Links:
* Item Research
* Item Stores
* Item Aspect Approval Policy
* Item Prototype Approval Policy
* Regent Suggestion Box
* Item Error Reporting Box

-The Usurper