Kyphis the Bard

Thanks for confirming that Active days % rounds up! Now I know that I can get 100% :D Did the math, I'll have 100% on Tuesday the 11th of January, 2056. Gold coin to the first person to PM me the date I joined and exact number of missed days I have ;)

Thanks for confirming that Active days % rounds up! Now I know that I can get 100% :D Did the math, I'll have 100% on Tuesday the 11th of January, 2056. Gold coin to the first person to PM me the date I joined and exact number of missed days I have ;)

That means I will have 100% active days on Tuesday the 11th January, 2056; so long as I don't miss any between now and then :P (Gold Coin to the first person to figure out both the date I joined and the exact number of missed days I currently have ;))

I do actually read all responses I see. Just because you have understood your intent, does not mean it was clear to me. We both have our own way of perceiving and processing information - hence why I stated what was coming through from your posts in my response to them. To the first one, it is simply because it fits better, as well as helping to correct an imbalance. I posted this topic because Mur asked me to when I discussed this idea with him (as a result of the volition skill discussion), so that people could give feedback about any potential problems/advantages they could see. To the second point, not really a question so its hard for me to answer, so I'll try as best I can but I apologize if I can't really get it across. The idea is to separate viscocity from AP, and instead use exploration. Ideally, everything to do with AP would be left as it was prior to the introduction of Viscocity (ie, as if viscocity had never been introduced). Exploration points would then be updated to suit their new role (in essence, an increase to the maximum amount of EXP, as well as the amount generated at each regeneration). To put it another way, the aim is to separate Viscocity from the non-movement related functions of AP, while still leaving it as operating the same way in terms of movement. There are a few advantages to splitting Viscocity from AP, essentially being to reduce the potential imbalance high AP can cause, as well as freeing up AP to be used for other things in the future. A change to the way Exploration points are handled also has potential benefits for the future.

Oh sweet, its actually possible to get it to round up? Excellent :D

There are a lot of things out there for people who want to play Healers to utilize. There are heal spells, resurrection items, even a creature that can heal your enemies instead of yourself ;) You actually came at the right time, the creature that heals your opponents is one of the special Christmas creatures, so you might have a chance to get one. It's normally a creature you need to spend credits to get, but if you do Quests then you might win one as a reward. (there is also a link at the top of the MD page that you can use to get free credits, I highly recommend it. Some of the most powerful fighters in MD have never spent a cent on the game, since you can get roughly 2 credits every 8 days). There might also be a "quest creators" quest running for Christmas, the treasure keepers alliance and Council often run those for major community events (like the birthday party). If you have any good ideas for a quest and can organize to run them, they often handle all the rewarding of them and also give you gifts, if its a good quest (there will be an announcement with details on what you need to do to qualify anytime these run) All but three quests in MD are player run, so there are a lot of really interesting things to uncover ;)

You could probably do this if you made volition gains take into account the highest point viscosity has been at in the last say 10 minutes, and how many times it has been decreased within that time. Although it will probably be buggy trying to retroactively give volition to whoever turned up first from people turning up. Might be possible to avoid by also granting people a small volition increase for people entering the scene for the first 10 minutes they are in the scene. Although then you need to do something about people who have just come out of idle, ie make it so the 10 minutes does not apply if you just exited idle.

No One: Your saying this is a bad idea, but the only argument you seem to provide is "Don't do this, it is so stupid it shouldn't have even been thought of, your wrong, I'm right, and you don't understand!". Unless you can be more constructive in this discussion, please refrain from posting in it, as I don't really want this to turn into a flame war. (get dst to help you, I understand she is good at helping you express yourself in english?).

Your direction of thought intrigues me - Care to expand on that idea?

You might want to double check that. Having a limited amount of EXP would be interesting... it would mean that it might be impossible to visit every location in MD without useing items to expand you pool, and that might end up meaning hitting arbitrary barriers (image entering GG from the front gate, but not going all the way in, and then coming back via the labyrinth, and running out of EXP before the two halves of your exploration meet... no easy exit/have to travers half of MD just to visit another scene in the same land). Its an interesting thought; I had not considered this conceptualization of EXP as I am more familiar with exploration from the english language - which does not require something be new to be explored. If it had been named something like "Discovery Points" then I would have drawn that conclusion, however if it was called that it would not fit so well with what it currently does, haha! Such a conundrum. Oh, and Rophs, that is only a fraction of the things AP lets you do, not to mention side effects of some of the things it lets you do ;) The list is actually really, really long.

*cough* EXP is an abbreviation for exploration points. Thought that was obvious >.> And the ultimate goal of this is actually to make viscocity use EXP instead of AP, without changing much else in the way things work. And to answer all your other questions: Yes, no, no, no, no, yes, yes. Aim of the change is just to use exploration instead of action points, ideally without changing anything else. AP is tied to a lot of different actions, whereas Exploration is largely neglected. The large number of things that relly on AP has resulted in a larger pool of AP being available, which has allowed older players a little bit of an imbalanced advantage in certain areas (usually only a sleight advantage, however in some situations it can be significant). As EXP suits the concept at least equally as well as AP, shifting this aspect onto the largely un-used EXP allows for eliminating those imbalances, without actually changing the way things where intended to function.

Exploration points instead of AP for Viscosity

Mur told me to post this here for you all to discuss, so have fun... Viscosity currently increases or decreases the AP cost for travel. Exploration points (EXP) currently only play a role when entering new locations for the first time. Based on the intended purpose of viscosity - that is, for locations which are not visited often to become "forgotten" - there is more merit to useing EXP to overcome viscosity than AP. However, such a change would impact several areas of gameplay as it currently stands. First of all, some locations (MDA gate, for example) have a higher than necessary AP cost because player action can reduce this cost through preventing viscosity buildup. Many locations have a high AP cost for a reason however, for example Sage's Keep. While these locations benefit from a malleable AP cost through viscosity, it is intended for these locations to be difficult to enter regardless of viscosity. Locations with a high AP cost will need to be assessed to determine if the AP cost is primarily as an incentive to keep viscosity down, or primarily to keep people from entering freely. This may involve a lot of work in the long term, however with organizations like Public Council it should be possible to organize this task. Second, there are many items which exist primarily because of the need for extra action points when traveling in forgotten places (for example, tea). However, even without viscosity increasing AP cost to travel, there is still merit to having AP replenishing items. There are significantly fewer items that increase AP than there are locations in the prior point, however discussion would still be needed to determine what would boost AP, and what would boost EXP. And, potentially, whether anything would boost both. This task may be a simple matter of assessing what impacts the mind and memory, for example tea, and what acts as an energy boost, for example candy and spicy pickles, and dividing them along those lines. Lastly, the current format of EXP would need to be reviewed. Currently, it is normally only possible to gain 30 EXP at most through regeneration. This would likely need to be increased significantly. It also regenerates at a far slower rate than AP, so its replenishment rate would likely need to be adjusted. These are comparatively simple tasks, however suitable values would still need to be settled on. There is also the final consideration, which may not even be necessary to discuss, that without viscosity's usage of AP we likely would not have an AP value that increases with age. This ability to have our AP increase over time has allowed for a lot of locations to receive far higher AP costs than they used to while still remaining accessible, and has even allowed formerly inaccessible locations to be accessed freely once you reach a high enough AP value. Depending on what happens with location access AP costs, it may be best to leave the current AP with age scheme in place, or it may be best to alter it. Because we also have an AP cost reduction based on land loyalty, I would advocate completely removing AP/age, and instead implementing EXP/age, at a value half that of the current AP/age rate. Please discuss this suggestion constructively, and if you have any concerns or ideas about this suggestion I encourage you to voice them here. That is after all the whole point of posting it publicly - you will all likely think of things Mur and I have not ;)

Username: Kyphis ID: 104972 Word: Perceptibility Meaning: adjective capable of being perceived; recognizable; appreciable: a perceptible change in his behavior. Word: Lucidity Meaning: noun 1. the quality of being easily understood, completely intelligible, or comprehensible: She makes her argument with pointed logic and exemplary lucidity. 2. the ability to see things clearly; rationality; sanity: In a rare moment of lucidity, the senator sided with his political enemies for the good of the country.

What browser? Operating System?

I feel like a white Rabbit.... Which is odd, since I just cooked rabbit for the first time, and it was tasty :P Happy Birthday!

In all honesty, nor do I. In fact, we are more inclined to use insane as a compliment. After all, would you feel more insulted if I called you Insane (operating outside the normal expectations of society, pushing the boundaries of what is possible) or Normal (not standing out, not really contributing to progress, just reinforcing the current status of society)? That said, an insult is not truthfully derived from either its wording or its interpretation. An insult is an insult based on intent alone. (I consider unintentional insults to be misunderstandings/miscommunications, rather than insults)

[spoiler] [/spoiler] Sorry No one, my rage compels me to reply to them, so please don't feel to angry at them for replying again if they do (as it will be my fault) [spoiler] [/spoiler] For one who seems to think changing one word changes the whole meaning (which, admittedly, CAN be true), you fail to notice the markers that invalidate your argument. To begin with, lets look at the ENTIRE quote (which is three paragraphs long) [spoiler] [/spoiler] We have an analysis of farming techniques, talking about their pro's and cons. We then have a paragraph, explicitly aimed at No one (stating as such) that presents an analogy saying he is doing exactly everything negative about the presented process. Lets analyze just the last paragraph here. [spoiler] [/spoiler] What we have now is a statement that says "This is what you do". Not "are doing" or "have done", but an absolute "do". By your own argument, this would qualify it as an insult. This paragraph is aimed explicitly at No one. It explicitly calls him a stupid cow (the argument of simile does not hold up here, given the context of having just discussed the impacts a "stupid Cow" can have is allowed to overgraze) and thus associates all the negative consequences they have just outlined with him. It re-inforces this by saying that they have produced nothing of benefit (milk and meat are the primary positive benefits of agricultural farming of cows) and only produced waste. And now, to analyze just the last two words. [spoiler] [/spoiler] Now, It might seem tempting to argue that Dung can be considered a positive product. However, Rumi has stated that it is Infertile dung, not just dung. Fertility usualy refers to an ability to procreate, so it seems oddly out of place here, yes? Incorrect. What he is saying is that the only potential thing that his actions as a "stupid cow" that could mitigate his actions, ie refertilizing the area, is in fact not a benefit but a further pollutant. Manure is used to add nutrients to the soil that plants might grow. However, it is possible (typically through illness) for manure to contain a buildup of toxins instead of nutrients that actually harm the soil and stymie plant growth. What Rumi, who has already expressed a great deal of farming knowledge just in his post, not to mention his role, is saying, is a very educated insult. Every single point of those last three sentences is an insult. While I have inside knowledge on some of the terms he has used having grown up on a farm, even without that it is easy to see the insult intended in those words. There are a hell of a lot more things I could say here, but I doubt anything properly constructive to the argument as my rage has already made it hard to type without just yelling at you, so I will leave it there. EDIT: edited to make less wall of texty. EDIT: edited to remove several insults.

Suggestion: AP cost for picking up items? Perhaps even a persistent AP cost increase for movement while carrying some? Say for Example someone (lets just go ahead and call them Tipu) decided to make a hobbo-box fort, and someone else (lets just call them dst) decided it was ugly and wanted to drag it somewhere they didn't care about.

Caravan is here, we need a Broker (someone who does the trading) First come, first served (and since we got another wave of migrants you don't have to already be in the fort if you want the job)

I have Trend Micro - same error report though. This didn't start until Mozilla updated for me, although it is on other browsers as well (IE/Chrome)

Doesn't let you pick specific materials though for most things. If I'm going to micro manage, I'ma MICRO-micro manage :D

First Story Entry. This is the story of arrival, no exploration has taken place, nor work on the settlement begun. It is the first month of the year 301. [spoiler]My name is Kyphis, and I am an Engraver. Our escourt is dead, our ship destroyed by sea beasts, and this island is the domain of monsters. But dwarves do not give up so easily... I write this, that if our efforts do not succeed and our queens fears of our civilization being wiped out by the Goblin's of the Mainland run true, there will be a record for those who come in the future, that we may be remembered. After Bomrek Mirroredbalances, our great king, died in 296 the victim of age, our security as a kingdom has been shaken. His first sucessor, Queen Kosoth Veiledgirders was slain by the Cyclops Xogak Flickermined the Red Crystal in a duel within one year of taking the throne. Although she was skilled with the martial weapon of our kingdom, the crossbow, her ability to dodge was found lacking, and the beast slew her with his mighty axe. In 297 our current queen Catten Roughnessmountains rose to power, and since then eight monstrous beasts have sought to end her reign much as her predecessor was slain. It was in the first two years of this time that the Potter Ushat Streamcastle began to display her martial abilities, stepping in four times to drive off the beasts. Last year, she was given command of my kingdoms armies. With the devestation of the elven forest of Lionwilt and the Goblin Forestress of Badworry by the Goblin Slaves of the Demon Lord Dusak Hatedbrides the Infinite Manges, and with war against this horde numbering more than five thousand goblins strong a very real threat, our Catten Roughnessmountains our Queen, and her General Ushat Streamcastle hatched the plan to make a settlement isolated from the threats of war. In this land of ours, that we call The Domain of Portents, war is by no means the greatest threat. Vast tracks of land are cursed and blighted with evil, and equally vast regions are protected by ancient guardians against any outsiders. Near everywhere in this land roam beasts of nightmare and savage monsters. It has taken four years since the rise of our queen to find a suitable bastion for our people. Four years of scouting, of citizens lost to the ravages of the wild. But in the end, there was only one site that showed true promise: Bothon Merir, the Murk of Pregnancy. This island, across Nolˆth Bor, the Gulf of Chunks, is to be our cultural vault. One of only two islands off the mainland of our region, unlike its counterpart Nentuk ”Gred, the Withered Swamps, which is a blighted place of undead monsters and dark magics, this place is guarded by ancient constructs, built in a bygone age. Horrors roam here two, brought to these lands by the haunted waters of Nolˆth Bor, but at least here our dead can sleep easily in the ground. This will be our cultural vault, should the unthinkable happen and the mountainhomes fall to the goblin hordes. Of our party, only the seven of us have survived the journey. Rophs, the Bowyer. Without his bravery and skill with the Axe, the sea monster that wrought doom upon our ship would have done so sooner, and none of us would be alive now. Rikstar, the Miner. When the passage through the canyons was blocked by a landslide, it was he that carved the path through, that we might avoid the Monstrously large lions of the grasslands. Change, the Brewer. While not as direct an impact as some of the others, she has kept our morals high, and our resolve strong, in the face of harsh adversity. Maebius, our Cook. His cooking has helped keep us from diseases of the wild, and ensured our health in this new settlement. Rumi, the farmer. Without whom we would have run through our supplies long hence. Dolomich, the Hunter. Many beasts has he slain, many monsters has he driven off. It is he that leads our group, for now. And of course, myself, the engraver. However my contribution to our arrival has not been as great as my luck in surviving has shown, my skills now that we are here will help make this settlement safe and secure. This island has a Volcano at its heart, and from there have risen many minerals and raw resources that will sustain us. We have moved ourselves inland, away from the coast of the ocean with its sea monsters and tainted fogs of death. We cannot go further inland else the Constructs may leave their shrine and eject us from this land. Worse, a vile mockery of nature makes its lair near a cave rising from the ground at the foot of these cliffs. It has not seen us yet, for which we must be thankful, for we have seen it spew forth vile gases to kill its prey. We have found a place to dig into the cliffs. It will be hard, but if this effort ensures our civilizations survival, then it is worth it. For Queen and Kingdom![/spoiler] The end of the first season (screenshots in the next tab) [spoiler] Spring has come to a close. I had not thought I would be writting more in this journal, however I think it wise for now, lest anything happen to us before we have made a lasting mark in this land. While working on our entryway, which is to have a ballistae range to protect us against the predations of the regions beasts, we have struck many valuable resources. We have planned our site to be able to handle any caravans that make the journey across the sea monster laden gulf. Work on a permanent site for the farms is well underway, with two plots already prepared for planting. The remainder have patches of stone that needs to be muddied before we can install crops on them. This may prove a dangerous task, as the insane heat of this place prevented any rain the last three months, and all the waterholes lie as shallow pools of mud. The only source of reliable water we have is the haunted ocean... While excavation was underway, Rophs and Dolomich took to cutting down trees in the area, that we might build with them. During their wandering, they reported two horrifying discoveries. By far the worst, is the effect the horrid green fogs that roll off the ocean have on living beasts. At first we simply thought them ominous, but of no threat themselves. However, any bird or beast that has been caught within its bounds has swiftly choked to death, and arisen as a violent thrall. They hunt out any living creature they can, and seek to kill it, regardless of their preys size. Any attempts to gather water from the ocean will be fraught with great peril. The second, and normally greater but thanks to Roph's and Dolomich's quick work now the far lesser threat, is the hydras. While watching the coast from their vantage point on the cliffs, the pair where startled to see a hydra come into view and wade into the waters, catching fish and birds through ambush and speed. As they watched throughout the day, they saw that it was not one, but more than ten hydras making their den in a cliffside cave! Fortunately for our survival, the pair set to work creating a great trap, and when the hydras returned to their den for the night they pushed a great mass of wood off of the cliff to crash into the cavern's entrance, blocking it off. The hydra's are enraged within, but with Roph's and Dolomich's work to make the entrance fully secured, they will not likely cause us threat any time soon. Thankfully for us, the Umbra Brute has not noticed us, and the great Bronze Constructs seem content to stay by their ruined shrine, for now. But in the night, the sound of savage beasts can always be heard, and Rumi has seen strange creatures that are half beast half men deeper inland. We cannot afford to lower our guard.[/spoiler] First season screenshots (with clutter hidden) [spoiler]Hydra Den (the shape is not my fault!) Colossi Shrine (it has several other floors, this floor just has the colossi on it) Entrance Second floor down - Future Trade Center Third floor down - Farm Excavation site [/spoiler] The End of the Second Season [spoiler]This bloody heat... so hard to stay motivated while we swelter in the sun. Even the tunnels are filled with hot air! We had some more survivors wash up from our original party, rescued by some fishermen and villagers from the mainland. We gained three of our old comrades: Koshu Farsight, who is trained as a farmer but wishes to learn the art of making soap. Dante Lionheart, who is trained in cookery, but would rather make stonecrafts and other ornaments. Jester, who I do not trust. Something about the way he goes on about being a "Lyesmith" makes me question his honesty... at any rate, he too is a cook. Many of them also have military skills the rest of us lack, which may prove the difference between our survival here and our doom. Some of their rescuers have also joined with us, favouring the potential of life in our new settlement to the restrictions of mainland life. Tekkud Idemath, trained as a smith, will certainly be useful to us as we try to set up our military. Tekkud Lolokavuz is a dyer. Not particularly useful, he has offered to help out with farming and other jobs as well, so long as when we are comfortable enough he can practice his creative skills with cloth. His wife Dst has also joined us, she is young and has no real skills to contribute, but she has a passion for nature and training animals, and her lack of training in other disciplines may prove an asset. And the last, Kadol, is a fisherman who is familiar with the perils of the Gulf, and will help to make sure we have enough fish for a healthy diet. The farms are all installed, took a long time to spread enough mud around the stones that we could farm there. We should be able to feed ourselves with little worry now, although we still need to get booze set up. The hydras are still pretty pissed off in their cave, although they are too securely trapped to escape any time soon. Rumi has insisted we keep them alive in case we can put them to use, so we have been feeding them all of the odder looking fish that we catch. They seem happy enough at the food, if not their captivity. Early in this last month of Summer Change was spying on that Umber Brute, when it caught sight of him. Chased him around for about ten days before he got away from it. He was incredibly lucky - there was nothing any of us could have hoped to do against such a vile beast. He managed to get a very good sight of the thing though. We have named it "Enure" Enure is a gigantic noseless antelope twisted into humanoid form. It has a bloated body. Its raw umber hair is long and shaggy. Beware its poisonous gas! He is very skinny. Its a good thing it has no nose, or he would be able to hunt us to our settlement and murder us all. Speaking of combat, we have had our first taste of blood in this island: A honey badger decided to pick on Dolomich, and one of the dogs tore it apart. We have planned out a military wing branching off from the farming wing, that we can begin preparing to conquer the threats of this terrible place.[/spoiler] Second season Screenshot [spoiler]Planned military wing [/spoiler] End of the Year. [spoiler]It has been a busy six months here. Enure has been sealed in his cave, although not before some of the animals went missing. I fear my cats Mebzuth and Kumil may not turn up again until we are ready to fight Enure and unseal his Lair... Much work has been done to ensure our survival. The farms are well established, and storage areas have been dug out beneath them, with passages planned that we might access them from the kitchens. The Barracks as well is dug out, although more work is needed and much needs to be produced before any training can begin. We have selected a hillside to pasture our animals in, leveling off part of the mountainside and erecting a wall to give them plenty of grass and safety. And Balistae have finally been installed across the entrance passage. The ocean has been relatively calm, thankfully our little cove rarely sees the green mists enter. It has thrown a few perils our way though - two monstrous crabs came after us with a clear thirst for blood. They where dispatched without too much harm dealt, which is thankful. It would seem the fishermen of the mainland have plotted a safe course through the waters to our settlement, as another six travelers have arrived to join our settlement. Thob is a Bowyer and fisherman, so will join Kadol on the beach. Monum is a woodswoman, with moderate skill in carpentry she will be useful in aiding Rikstar. For now she has been busy cutting down trees for Rikstar to work with. Alath used to be a seamstress, she has come to our settlement in the hopes of learning other trades. For now she has been learning how to operate the Balistae. Thikut is also from the fishing village, although he spent his time cleaning fish rather than catching them. He also has some talents as a brawler, and may find his way into the military once it is set up properly. Mafol is a farmer, who is tired of the wars of the mainland and came to us for a hopefully quieter life. With the dangers of this island, I don't know if she will get it though. Edem is one I am very thankful to see join us, as she used to be a swordswoman. Her skills will be vital for our survival here. She says that she is married to a man named Deler, although he did not accompany her to our settlement. War takes its toll on many lives, so I have not asked if he yet lives. Kriskah arcanu has already proven their worth to the settlement - she spends most of her time helping Thikut clean the fisherdwarves catches, but her real talent is as a trader. We had some traders come to us from the capital late in the year, and it was Kriskah who selected the wares we would need and struck the bargains to make sure we did not get ripped off. In the end, we gained far more through her talents than the traders, although they too seemed happy. It would seem that our settlement may yet thrive on this island, if things keep going as they have. Although I fear the horrors that lie deeper in this land may soon come for us... The terrifying howls in the night only grow louder...[/spoiler] End of year screenshots [spoiler]Entrance and Balistae Trade Depot Military Barracks Archery ammunition storage/collection area Farms and Farmer's Quarters Outdoors walled in pasture Food and Seed storage area below the farms [/spoiler]

First migrants are in; eight dwarves. First four are claimed, four spaces open. We got several military trained migrants in case !!FUN!! happens, and a weapon smith. Although I don't see any need for a Manager, I've never had one in any of my forts... Book keeper is more important. We also embarked with pages and pages of thread/cloth/leather, so raw materials for clothes aren't too important :P

Here, have someone elses discussion thread on cow as an insult And a few context based definitions from Urban Dictinary (NSFW - Language) There are plenty of other links I could throw up, but basically it all boils down to the following: Cow is almost always intended as an insult, however the severity of that insult is based on its context. Given that the word cow is proceeded by the word "stupid".... Its less about who made the post, and more about the rules being applied fairly for all, with no subjectivity (which, as many of us pointed out, is going to be pretty close to impossible). At least, that's the only reason I am taking any interest. No One might be doing it because he is actually genuinely offended.