Explaining "Recharge Rates" and "Uses"

[Myth]

Items are made available to us throughout the game. However, unlike, for example, a regular bucket, which you can fill up time and time again, having only to worry about the bucket’s physical state as degradation kicks in, we instead have to deal with what is known as a "cool-down” period. Unlike a regular pair of dice which can be thrown over and over again until we get bored, ours will suddenly vanish, returning to their point of origin.

Why must we wait (or, in some cases, not wait) in order to use an item? Why do certain items return after being used a fixed number of times. The point of this little endeavor is to find a logical explanation to these questions – a realistic explanation in accordance with MD logic.

April 2nd – 5th >> Find me (Asthir/Mythrandir) in-game or PM me on the forum to receive one item name/category (available in game) along with its (general) description and technical details, to provide an explanation for. I'll be around the Gazebo of Equilibrium, mainly.

Note that items which I don’t consider to have abnormal behavior will not make the subject of this "quest”. Nor will items considered „enchanted”, either by their definitions or abilities, as there are no reality related reference points to make a case.

April 6th - 14th >> submit your entries to me, via in-game or forum PM.

April 22nd >> results will be announced.

Entries will be judged by several people who will remain anonymous.

Rewards:

1st place – Morph + Anniversary Aramor + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)
2nd place – 1 Wish Point + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)
3rd place – 5 Gold Coins + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)

 

1 Wish Point (Nimrodel) to 1st place, if there are 10 or more submissions! If there are less than 10, The WP goes to the author of the entry which judges personally like best!

 

Additional rewards for the authors of entries which will be added as research material.

 

[hr]

One more thing: depending on the substance of submitted entries, some of them might become research material for the items in question. The more concise your responses are, the higher the chances of this actually happening. This part is independent of whether you place or not, and might take a long time to finalize.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Myth

[Myth]

Annex

 

 

- each and every entry will be made public at the end of this event, unless specifically mentioned otherwise by author

 

- there is a limited number of items available, so the sooner you contact me, the more chances you have at entering

[Nimrodel]

Wishpoint reward to first place if there are 10 or more paticipants

[Myth]

Thank you, Nimi! :D

[Myth]

I will continue to provide items to explain, beyond April 5th. What won't change is the date entries must be submitted until: April 14th.

 

So far, 4 (possibly 6) people have applied. :D

Edited April 5, 2015 by Myth

[Myth]

Rewards added to initial post.

[Myth]

4 days left, 7 people have applied, a few have submitted.

 

Entries won't be accepted beyond April 15th!

[Myth]

Rewards updated.

 

1st place also receives a Morph. :)

[Myth]

Rewards updated again. :p

 

[spoiler]someone please delete the mess I made - posts 6,7 and 8 :))[/spoiler]

[Myth]

1 day 6 hours left to submit your entries!

[Myth]

Time's up!

 

Entries are being judged. :)

 

Please remember that, I will post these submissions here, in their entirety. I can leave out the name, or the whole thing, but only at your request. (PM me)

[Myth]

Results will be announced tomorrow, around 22:00 - 23:59 ST.

 

I apologize for the delay. :(

[Myth]

Scores are as follows:

 

maximum score: 16

maximum opinion score: 4

 

 

1st place: Zleiphneir - 13.66 = Morph + Anniversary Aramor + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)

2nd place: Rhaegar - 10.66 = 1 Wish Point + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)

3rd place: Amber - 10.50 = 5 Gold Coins + 1 Wiiya Bubble (Rophs)

 

Best overall opinion: Zleiphneir - 2.83 = Wishpoint (Nimrodel)

 

 

I will try to spread the rewards tonight. Nim, Rophs: feel free to pass rewards whenever you're able to. :p

 

I will post the entries and authors with full scores (in this post, via edit) in a few days, as I'm in over my head with house work at the moment.

(so you have a few more days to let me know if you wish me to post your entry anonymously :p)

 

As stated in the first post, regarding Research and Connections, it will take a while.

 

 

Thanks go out to:

- participants

- sponsors

- judges

- supporters

(in no specific order :p)

[Nimrodel]

Wispoint rewarded to Z. Congrats :D

[Myth]

As promised, the entries - in the order they were submitted. Scores were given by 6 judges based on the following criteria:

 

- Logic [0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

- Relation to MD [0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4]

- Creativity [0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4]

- Insight [0 - 1 - 2 - 3]

 

- Personal overall opinion [0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4]

 

(entries given to judges lacked the names of the participants; judges will remain anonymous - my decision)

 

Entries
 
01. Land Pass Papers
These documents allow his holder to enter the land of [land name]. They can be used just a few times so plan your moves and times. These papers can be very effective if used at the right time and in the right situation, or useless if you use them randomly.
4 uses

[log=Rhaegar]example of a pass paper:



Like in reality where you have a passport with finite number of pages, which needs to get renewed once it gets stamped over, proportionally to the amount of time (a week before it gets reset, other than passport's years), it is the same in this case.
The papers are not that big in size either, so it can roughly be just enough of space for four big stamps

When you present the papers (it has to be in front of the gates of the land you are entering), you get ported in.



You also get your weapons taken away to be ensured you are an innocent visitor

Once you use up your allowed visits, you need to renew them (mechanically wise, ask for new pass papers).
On the last use (4th) of the item, when you present the pass papers, they get confiscated, "used up".
And explanation is just that, "you have to renew your passport", pass papers in this case. And it works very reallistically, because you need to contact Lorerootians to give you the pass papers in the first place, which is an actual interaction with the land you want to enter.

The principle is to allow other people to enter your land by giving them pass papers, but also controlling their visits (lots of potential enemies, spies, misbehaviours and such) by making them renew the papers all the time and limiting the number of their visits.
If you're not making problems, you will earn the pass papers again. If you are, you won't be getting any again.[/log]

 

- Logic: 4/3/3/5/4/4

- Relation to MD: 3/4/2/4/2/3

- Creativity: 1/2/3/0/2/3

- Insight: 1/2/3/1/2/3

= 10.(6)

 

- Personal overall opinion: 2/3/3/2/2/3 = 2.5

 

02. Kill Item
Multiple descriptions; bottom line, you kill.
5184000 seconds (60 days)

[log=Dark Demon]Kill items are tricky to explain, yet fun. I'll be basically explaining why their cooldown is exactly 60 days, why not any more or any less.

First let me ask you: imagine there was an update right now which said that kill item cooldowns were halved and made 30 days. Note down your reaction.

Next let me ask you: imagine there was an update right now which said that kill item cooldowns were doubled and made 120 days. Note down your reaction.


Keeping this in mind, lets bring a reference of the principles of MD. We see that balance is never broken, only the influence of either side changes. If one of the two mentioned updates actually happened... would this influence not change? If update 1 happened, people would complain there aren't enough revive items. If update 2 happened, most of the revive items would have no purpose altogether.

Doesn't it now seem that, at 60 days, this principle is satisfied and the balance is at harmony? There is no extra influence on either side.

We see according to the Time principle that time is given by the difference in complexity between two things. In the case of kill items, this complexity is derived from the combination of many aspects: the amount of death in the realm, the number of kill/revive items, the personality of the killer/victim, and so forth.

60 days is the optimum (best) cooldown. If killers demand very short cooldowns for their kill items, not only will their be so much death, but killers themselves will sooner or later get bored and regret it.

It is the cooldown itself that makes kill items special and something to value. Too long a cooldown would of course reduce their value, as even an ordinary random person would think, but so would a short one, as explained above.[/log]

 

- Logic: 2/2/2/3/2/1

- Relation to MD: 1/2/2/3/3/2

- Creativity: 0/1/2/2/2/1

- Insight: 1/1/2/2/2/2

= 7.1(6)

 

- Personal overall opinion: 0/2/2/3/1/1 = 1.5

 

03. Alcoholic Drinks (generalized)
Multiple descriptions; bottom line, you get drunk.
20 seconds - 200 seconds (3 minutes and 20 seconds)

[log=AmberRune]Absinthe shot - 20s
Distilled Grasan Ferment - 20s
Glass of red wine - 30s
Glass of white wine - 30s
Beer stein - 60s
Bottle of Tequila - 100s
Distilled tears drink - 120s
Cask of beer - 200s
Absinthe bottle - 300s
Distilled Grasan ferment - 1000s

We will start with the history. Before usable items were implemented, most of the drinking was done in the bars. A bartender of some sort was in charge of serving the alcohol. Bartenders in general follow a guideline for how much drink goes into a standard serving of alcohol: about 30-45 ml (1-1.5 oz) of hard liquor for a shot, 100-150 ml (3-5 oz) of wine, 280-350 ml (9.5-12 oz) of beer. Since the community is and has been fairly small, we can say that the bartenders have probably been a bit generous on portioning. It should also be safe to say that some bartenders would have watched how much alcohol was in a glass and not kept the liquor flowing freely. That would have made keeping track of how drunk the person probably is and how much they should be owed at the end of the night so the bartender would make sure the alcohol is gone before refilling the cup. Now people can get alcohol as they please without needing to find a bartender but it seems like the bar areas come stocked with leftover glasses from those days.

When you are drinking these amounts of alcohol, it takes time to go through the liquid before you could have been given another serving. This doesn’t really have much in play for shots because they are served in small glasses and when they’re done, they’re done. People tend to linger over wine and beer since there is more beverage to it even if it is the same amount of alcohol. It would take longer to finish the drink before it is refilled. It is possible to shotgun the beer or otherwise drink very quickly but most people would take shots instead of glasses to get as drunk as possible as soon as possible. If you start getting hold of the whole bottle of alcohol, then that can be different and motor skills could come into play. With the whole bottle of alcohol, you could be guzzling anywhere from 5 to 17 drinks at a time. It will take longer to drink even when if you are shotgunning the whole bottle for some reason. And if you get drunk fast enough, you may experience fits of giggles or forgetfulness as to where the bottle is even if you were just holding it a second ago. If you somehow got hold of cask of beer (which seems to have 50+ pints of beer) and were drinking it in pints instead of standard servings, you are going to be drinking a good while longer to get through your 16 oz than your friend taking 1.5 oz shots.

Distilled grasan ferment and the bottle of absinthe get special mentions. The ferment is not one of the common alcoholic beverages, basically homemade moonshine. A good amount of moonshine is very strong and people often drink it in shots. One thing to worry about when drinking homemade moonshine is that you can potentially cause blindness. Similarly, absinthe occasionally can cause hallucinations if the right herbs are added. When you have these conditions where you are not seeing straight if at all, it takes a bit longer to actually coordinate eyes and hands to grab the bottle for another drink. If you remember that you were drinking booze instead of catching rainbows.[/log]

 

- Logic: 3/4/4/4/4/3

- Relation to MD: 2/3/3/3/2/2

- Creativity: 2/2/3/1/3/2

- Insight: 2/2/2/1/3/3

= 10.5

 

- Personal overall opinion: 1/3/4/1/3/3 = 2.(3)

 

4. Buckets
Multiple descriptions; bottom line, you collect water.
400 (6 minutes and 40 seconds) - 3600 seconds (1 hour)

[log=Zleiphneir]In real life, collecting water with a bucket is subject to the following factors:

Acquiring a bucket
Degradation of the bucket
Finding a source of water
Being able to access the water
How fast the bucket can be emptied (either having another vessel for storage, or how fast the water gets consumed, as well as evaporation)

In MD, collecting water with a bucket is subject to the following factors:

Acquiring a bucket
Regeneration time of the bucket
Finding a source of water
Being able to access the water

The areas of similarity, and their differences:

Acquiring the bucket:
In real life, this requires finding a shop and buying one, building one, or being given one. Key elements then are finance, skill and social connections.
In MD this requires finding a store of buckets and being of the required land loyalty, building one, or being given one.

The difference here then is mainly in the purchase area. To ‘purchase’ a bucket in MD rather than finance, you give a form of proof that you are ‘of the required sort’ to pick the bucket up. This proof is a one-time acquisition, something you did that became a part of your character. It is the same ‘amount’ no matter what bucket you pick up. Your ‘payment’ then, was a one-time piece of yourself that resonates with the bucket’s self. Identity is used instead of money, and must be over a certain amount. Another way to say this is that it must be of a certain density or intensity.

Finding a source of water:
I believe this to be homogenous.

Being able to access the water:
In real life, this comes down to two things. On the grand scale, can you enter the country or area where the water is? On the smaller scale, do you have the dexterity and skill to access the water you found? In MD, the former remains the case, whilst the latter is tied in to how you acquired the bucket – that is to say the only way you can get water, at all, is to have the relevant identity to do so. MD does not discriminate on any other basis.

For those who have independent buckets, it is often the case that their identity also resonates with the skill of water collecting, or they acquired it in the more real life terms of payment or social skills. It is also worth noting the difference between choosing a bucket, being lent a bucket, and owning a bucket. The first is pure identity, the second is identity by lineage and the third is identity through action.

The areas of difference and their constituent parts:

Degradation of the bucket
This is based on the principle of entrophy, coupled with syntrophy (ie: looking after your bucket). In further detail: The material of the bucket, coupled with how it is used and the skills of who owns it.

How fast the bucket can be emptied
This is based on temperature and usage. In further detail: Location, ambient temperature and weather. The water requirements of the user and the resourcefulness of the user. If the bucket is kept in a hot area, it will lose it’s contents faster, this is based on whether it is inside or outside, and how warm the ambient temperature of that location is which is based on the weather, if there is a fire or not, etc. Similarly, a user collecting for more than just themselves will use water faster. A user who is more active, will use water faster. A user who has gathered vessels for storage, will empty the bucket faster.

Regeneration time of the bucket
This varies dependent on the bucket. Without considering the independent items, the hierarchy from shortest regen to longest goes: generic, large, wooden, small. There is no variation in the amount of water gathered with each use. Some inherent points of note: a generic bucket has the shortest regen, suggesting a ‘specialised’ bucket is either less efficient or more difficult to use. Within the specialised range of buckets, the regen appears to increase based on the bucket’s build and size. The build and size of the bucket has inherent to it variations in weight both unlade and laden, and degradation in real life.

Analysis:
Whilst it is still possible to build, borrow and purchase buckets in MD, it is clear there is a strong sense of identity being a fundamental tie to the item. Independent items are a rarity, whether built, won or bought. Items on loan arguably maintain their identity tie as the loan of the item requires an identity payment to initiate. The payment is land affiliated, and arguably one could consider this as a land’s elemental force affecting the relevant person. Once a certain loyalty point is reached, the density of affectation is sufficient to cause a resonance with something of a similar persuasion.

As you gather water, your skill increases, but this does not affect either the amount of water collected each time, nor the regeneration of the item, therefore ‘skill’ does not appear to be of relevance at the current time - though consideration should be given that this may change at a future point.

Degradation is not built in to the item. It never breaks, it cannot be fixed and it never needs to be maintained. There is only one way to use the item, irrelevant of who uses it or where. However, material is a factor that is inbuilt. The physical form of the bucket, its materials and size, all affect the regeneration time as well as real life degradation. The smallest bucket has the longest regeneration time, just as if used to gather the same amount of water as the larger one, the smallest bucket would be used more and therefore subject to a higher rate of decay.

Temperature and location have no effect on how the bucket works in MD, but the size and material of the bucket would matter in relation to these areas. For example, a metal bucket would evaporate water faster than a wooden bucket if it was hot, and possibly less if it was cold. A larger bucket similarly would evaporate water faster due to the larger surface area.

In MD our water is piled as a statistic against you, a numeric ‘amount’ of instances you collected water and haven’t spent yet. It is not treated as a measurement. You cannot store the water in vessels, the bucket does not act as a vessel at any point and the only time you can divide your gathered water is when using it for a purpose. The amount of water on a player at any given time then is the total amount of water collects made, minus the sum of water payments invested in other tasks. That includes trade as a task. I call this figure your water will potential. It is the figure that determines how much investment in ‘water’ you have made and have left to ‘invest’ in other areas.

In terms of how the bucket works then and what the ‘cool down’ means the main factors to me are identity resonance, size and build, and will.

The ‘bucket’ is not a ‘bucket’ it is a tool called ‘bucket’. The name is given as a tool which carries. In the case of MD, what is carries is specifically water. Yet, ‘water’ is not ‘water’ but a display of will. The will to gather ‘water’. This second definition of water is still not ‘water’ but is an idea of water, representing various traits of the element of water. In essence, you have created a resonance allowing you to wield a tool that enables you to master your personal affinity towards ‘water’ traits. In using this tool, you then gather ‘water will’ in order to work on other areas.

Your will, defines which bucket you pick at the outset when you actively choose to pick a bucket and do not own it outright. This includes your will to get there fast enough before the one you want is gone. This in turn affects which cool down you are subject to.

The cool downs themselves appear to attempt to balance out what would be a degradation. The small bucket, which would decline faster with increased use, takes longer to cool down, forcing you to use it less. The large metal bucket would evaporate faster and be heavier to carry and more difficult to use, therefore slightly increased regen to a general bucket. These factors of regen variances make all buckets equal in a sense for this purpose, whilst maintaining a view surrounding degradation as mentioned earlier.

If water will is a learning process, you cannot learn anything or absorb any resonance with immediacy, hence all tools used to acquire such a thing would be subject to a cool down equivalent to what is considered the amount of time it would take to learn/absorb one piece of water will, and on face value the facets that match a real life bucket remain as a link.[/log]

 

- Logic: 4/4/3/5/5/4

- Relation to MD: 4/3/3/4/4/4

- Creativity: 3/3/3/2/4/4

- Insight: 3/3/2/3/3/2

= 13.(6)

 

- Personal overall opinion: 4/3/3/2/3/2 = 2.8(3)

 

05. Axes and Saws
Multiple descriptions; bottom line, you gather wood.
200 seconds (3 minutes and 20 seconds) - 500 seconds (8 minutes and 20 seconds)

[log=Mirus]Axes are used to chop trees. And trees are such a crucial part of loreroot that I feel it is precisely this reason why axes can only be found there. A spell is placed on the axes to prevent wanton cutting and felling of trees in the word of MD. Loreroot is a place of preservation rather than progress, like GG is.

Use wood and branches as you need, but not at the expense of the environment. that should be the phrase behind the cooldown of axes.[/log]

 

- Logic: 1/1/1/0/1/1

- Relation to MD: 1/2/1/1/2/2

- Creativity: 0/0/2/0/0/1

- Insight: 1/1/1/0/0/1

= 3.5

 

- Personal overall opinion: 0/1/1/0/0/1 = 0.5

 

06. Land Pass Papers
These documents allow his holder to enter the land of [land name]. They can be used just a few times so plan your moves and times. These papers can be very effective if used at the right time and in the right situation, or useless if you use them randomly.
400 seconds (6 minutes and 40 seconds)

[log=TheRichMerchant]Well, attempted explanation.
Basically, the pass papers are papers given to an individual who wants to enter a land that he doesn't belong to. The main concept that is at work here, I think, is the concept of 'trust'. Those papers signify that a stranger has received the trust of a citizen (and not an upstart citizen, as you need 2 months of loyalty to be able to get the papers) and isn't considered dangerous for that particular land.
The trust between the receiver and the giver is of utmost importance, because: the pass papers have 3 uses before returning to the capitol, meaning they can be used three times in a row by the same person OR another one who gets the papers. So, if someone gets the papers and decides to give them away, he/she can do that. What if the second receiver wants to harm citizens of the land? Well, this is why one must really trust another before giving away pass papers. This is, I think, one of the reasons why pass papers have 400 seconds cd. If it didn't have that cd, 2 strangers could just enter the land and do whatever they want if they bribed or convinced in some way the holder of the land pass papers. Or, why not, even 3 strangers who convince a citizen to betray his/her land.
Another reason is to make the user realize the importance of such items. Once in a foreign land, you can't just remember you forgot to pick something up, exit the land and enter it again. It really undermines their value. Once in a land, you carry out your mission and do what you thought (carefully) of doing.
The last reason I can think of right now why the cd is only 400 seconds is that in the case if an evil plot, it can be carried out if citizens are not alert. That is to say, such a cooldown is big enough for citizens to react, but small enough for smart infiltrators to take advantage of letargic defenders. Yes, 400 seconds is less than 600 seconds, a cooldown for collecting water, for example. This is my theory, I think we need more players in MD to test it out.
So, how can the cooldown be explained? I would like to see it as in 'the guard recognizes the pass papers and refuses to let anyone presenting those papers in (until he forgets he saw them before)'. This is probably the case, since the guard escorts you (for example, "x presented valid papers and was safely escorted to demented ascent").

*However, it could be that the whole reason for that cooldown is that it takes some time for someone to be escorted to the particular scene, which would invalidate a big part of my above reasoning.[/log]

 

- Logic: 4/2/3/3/3/2

- Relation to MD: 2/1/3/2/3/2

- Creativity: 2/1/3/2/2/2

- Insight: 3/1/2/2/2/2

= 9

 

- Personal overall opinion: 2/1/3/2/2/2 = 2

 

07. Rain Collectors
Multiple descriptions; bottom line, you gather rain water.
600 (10 minutes) - 1200 seconds (20 minutes)

[log=Lania]Why do you need to wait either 10 or 20 minutes when using a rain collector?

1. Because it takes some time for the collector to fill up. Shorter (10 minutes) when it's a heavy rain as the process of filling up is faster. 20 minutes when it's a mild rain as the process is slower.

2. Alternatively, another reason for the waiting time would be if the rain collector is made from a material that needs tending. It can be, for example, made from a material that is susceptible to rust. In this case it needs special treatment after (probably) every use. So you collect rain water, store or use the water, dry the collector - polish it or something similar to avoid rusting process, dry it again, use it again. Between 2 separate actions of collecting this could take the said time.[/log]

 

- Logic: 4/2/3/3/1/2

- Relation to MD: 2/2/1/3/1/1

- Creativity: 1/2/2/2/1/2

- Insight: 2/2/1/1/1/1

= 7.1(6)

 

- Personal overall opinion: 2/2/1/3/1/2 = 1.8(3)

 

[hr]

 

I request this topic to remain open until the final phase can be finalized, if it will be the case. (integrating any of the above in Research and Connections)

Edited April 27, 2015 by Myth