Information copied from a post by Helpful GM on 38 Summer 536 (28 Jan 2000) in the newsgroup:
* You get them from your local mystic. When he tunes a worn stone, he can tune it to be either old style or new style (assuming he can tune it at all -- stand at least 6' from novices attempting this.)Bad differences
* They broadcast 'think on a different channel, so "old" SS users don't hear you, you don't hear them (unless you use both, which is a lot of sunstone to carry -- part of the price of early adoption.) Thinkto is Thinkto, and does not pay attention to channels; the target always gets the thinkto.* Not in common use, so not good for rescues & general use. When they're "fully baked", there will be only one stone (like the old/new moonstone split), and you'll just have an auto-trade-in. For now, they're not "done- enough" to force them on you. (See?! We think about this stuff!) On the positive side: very little spam, with only a dozen people using them ;)
* Bug: you see things like "Aki thinks to you: to you: Hi there" for 'thinkto and "Aki thinks to you: hi there" for 'think. In both cases you get the thinkto sound.
* Technical nit: they're not attached to /think or /thinkto (yet), so use 'think and 'thinkto (the ' is important)
Nice differences
* It works while not in your hands. You hold it and do /use to activate, and from then on, everything you say that starts with 'think or 'thinkto works, while the stone is in your backpack, freeing hands for weapons, sheilds, Orga eyes, etc.* It does not go from "fully tuned" to "fully worn out" all at once, but rather gradually loses its shine. Sunstones work all the way down to the "worn" state, and even then can be used to listen. Actually, use you use a worn stone to send, but if that breaks, you lose your stone (get sunstone dust), so is very risky. The point is, you can sort-of see how it's going.
* /use /drop
* They can be tuned in the field, and in stages. So, if you're short cash, you can ask "just give it a little tune", and no one has to run back to town to do it. Again, stand at least 6' from novices attempting to tune a sunstone.
* Using new stones takes business away from Elendil, which forces his prices down, which has a positive (for you) impact all throughout the sunstone-related economy, which I suppose has secondary positive effects (for you) all throughout the economy, in general.
* Any mystic worth their salt, and many others, can /use /inspect a new stone to check it's state of worn-ness. By the by -- seeing your sunstone wear-down in stages gives some people the impression that they wear down faster. That is, you get 4 messages ("your sunstone begins to show signs of wear") as your stone goes from fully tuned to fully worn. This is 4x as many "worn" messages as you get with the old stone, which gives people the sensation that the new sunstones really wear out fast and a lot. This is not the case. Both stones wear-out the same. The new ones might even be ever-so-slightly less wear- prone, but that amount should be small enough to be considered "not different."
Important differences
* Eventually, there will just be the one Sunstone, and it will be some variant on the new one. "The old sunstone is dead" Long live the sunstone. This is not open for debate -- once the technical nits are removed from the new sunstone, you're going to lose your old one and it will be replaced by a new one, like it or not. On the plus side, you'll be getting a fully 100% tuned stone, regardless of how used-up your old sunstone is (since the old stone doesn't really have "fully tuned" and "partly tuned" states.) There might, someday, be "listen only" stones, available for a cheaper price. Other variants might also be possible.
Compiled and edited by Pamela Greene <pamg@alumni.rice.edu>. Additions, corrections, and suggestions for this file are welcomed!