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User:Aku

From A Tale in the Desert
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Home

My home is in Queen's Refuge at 499, -6205. I've joined Mixed Nuts, the Queen's Refuge public works guild so it looks like i'll be hanging around for the time being. Much of the equipment in my compound is public.

  • Public equipment
    • 2 Student Forges with Nail Molds (but no extrusion plates), one has pinch rollers.
    • 1 Master Forge, unimproved
    • 8 True Kilns
    • 2 Charcoal Hearths
    • 15 Improved Brick Racks
    • 1 Basic Carpenter's Bench (no upgrades)
    • 1 Student's Casting Box
    • 1 Anvil (bring your own hammers)
    • 2 Compression Furnaces
    • 1 Water Mine
    • 1 Reactory, unimproved

I reserve the right to turn any of these back to "Private Use" if i'm in the middle of a project. There is a box next to the charcoal hearths for any donations that anyone would like to make. I'll gratefully accept anything (except mud and sand :-) but don't feel obligated; I'm a big believer in "paying forward".

Status

Level 13

  • Initiate of Leadership
    • Demi-Pharoah - i'm giving this one a miss this time around.
    • Mentoring - i've got the buildings but haven't seen many new folks, so i haven't been spending much time on Welcome Island, so i haven't seen many new folks...
  • Initiate of Body
    • Acrobat - (passed Principle) have AI, BJ, CS, CPU, IP, JS, KU, RP, SB, SF, SQ, TT, and WS, have taught 48.
    • Cicadas - (passed Principle) I actually got a speed point.
    • Safari - Got 2 frogs, 2 otters, 2 gazelles an ibis, a rat, and a fennec. Need to drop a rabbit and build a fennec trap to pass Principle.
  • Initiate of Architecture
    • Obelisk - passed Principle, and i put myself in the queue for a Metallic Obelisk of 21 cubits. I have the materials.
  • Initiate of Harmony
    • Test of the Prophet (principle)
  • Initiate of Art & Science - built statue at my compound which only has 13 votes, and finally got impatient and built, opened, and tore down a second sculpture to pass the principle.
  • Initiate of Thought
    • Pathmaker (Principle)
  • Worship -
    • Principle of Marriage

Rhythmic Strength

  • L3 - in 100 picks i got 1 about 7 times, otherwise got 2.
  • L4 - in 100 picks i got 3 about 10 times, otherwise got 2.
  • L5 - in 100 picks i got 3 almost half the time, otherwise got 2
  • L6 - in 100 picks i got 3 80 times and 2 20 times
  • L7 - in 100 picks i got 3 83 times and 4 17 times

Current Projects

Having the attention span of a mayfly has its disadvantages, but a short "to do" list is not one of them.

Blacksmithing

I am currently questing after the 8K shovel and hatchet. I can pretty reliably make a 7.5K one of each (and if anyone wants one send me a tell in-game and we can haggle about price) but once i get there the screwing around i do just makes it worse. Of course i've only been practicing for a day so i am quite hopeful.

Then, of course, i'll start questing for 9K...

Resin wedges, on the other hand, are weird, or at least different enough from the other two that my threashholds seem to be 1K lower.

Mentoring

I've been back to Welcome Island several times. I've even helped some people. :-) One or two pledged me a Mentor point but so far no one has actually registered any. Oh, well. It's disappointing but that isn't really why i like Mentoring.

General Metalworking

I'm slowly building up the stock to build a blast furnace and reactory of my own. To that end i've been trading with The Goods, a fine institution that i can't recommend highly enough. (Though the new "donation phase" thing is a bit off-putting; i don't see anyone who's not a member of The Goods donating a large gear for free, but perhaps i'm being uncharitable.) I've gotten the concrete and topaz, and will be trading for some tin to try to make steel in the Guild reactory so that i can make the sheeting.

I've become familiar with the reactory and have gotten 100% on steel, brass, bronze, and Moon Steel. It takes me about 6 tries to get a useable amount of metal.

Skills I am sorta working on

  • Salvage Techniques 4 - my water mine is slowly generating cuttables.

Social Things

I'm trying to pay attention to things like digs, acro, and other activties that can only be done with crowds. I'm not entirely succeeding...

Water Mine Data

22 degrees, one full winding, 3 Amethysts, 2 Citrine, 1 Jade, 1 Sunstone, 1 Turquoise, 1 Small Quartz, 1 Medium Quartz, 1 Medium Ruby

Since then i've had better luck at 20 or 21 degrees.

My Semi-Blog

I'll put my observations here when i am moved to record them, which won't be regularly.

Year 1, Shemu II-24

I've made a lot of progress on my gyration cell. The Moon Steel turned out to be less troublesome than i had planned for, and in fact i've got all 50 smelted. I should be able to get the cement i'll need from The Goods if i can't find it locally. The gravel will be a nuisance as i've run out of Medium Stones. Mostly what's left is mining a huge pile of copper and tin to make the sheeting and then making the sheeting. I may have to put pinch rollers in my second Student Forge to speed up the process.

Year 1 Shemu II-28

I got my second Navigation point for 20 glass rods. I'll set it at the mining compound which i will build next to the guild one. Then i can start mining copper in earnest. I've found an existing gyration cell that i can borrow which will speed things up immensely.

Year 1 Shemu III-10

I finished mining and smelting the copper i neeed for the sheets. Now i just have to forge them. I may have to invest in two more pinch rollers to upgrade another student forge for sheets but that means more mining.

I spent a couple of hours on Welcome Island. Hardly anyone responded to my offer of help though i did have a lively exchange with one fellow who should do fine and a rather odd exchange with another, the second person being unable to understand that i was an experienced player who was chosing to help out newcomers. ("Why r u here?") Overall it was satisfying, but i'm not pushy enough to translate any of it into Mentor points. There is a fuzzy line between helping out a newcomer and being bossy. I err firmly on the offer-only-when-asked side. I'm also "only" on for an hour or two a day at most, so i'm not an ideal candidate for a Mentor. So it goes.

Level 12 continues to elude me. I'll have to investigate Towers again, and start putting myself forward for the Worship init. Acrobatics is progressing slowly but surely and will continue that way since i don't have the fortitude to hang around for one of the massive Acro lines. I like the "acro blobs" better, and they happen periodically around the QR chariot stop, which i can see from my compound.

Year 1 Shemu III-14

I had a run-in with server lag. I was tending my firepit when everything froze for several seconds. When it unlocked i poked the fire but it was too late and the fire went out. It had been burning less than five minutes so in spite of having a full load of papyrus, flax, and leeks i got 12 ash. I was moderately bummed out.

To console myself i set up for a second firepit run, growing 300 flax with some 2/2/2 seeds (which have already been surpassed) and making a papyrus run. During the run i bumped into my friend SamAdams, who helped gather my papyrus, so i stayed around and helped him gather his. He then let me into a small guild he's in which was great because they have a bunch of the cool buildings (including the gyration cell i've been borrowing). I immediately made 600 charcoal in their charcoal oven, in spite of the continued lag. (I did have to abandon my efforts to run the charcoal hearth at the same time.)

This failure to advance in levels is getting to be a problem. I was reviewing my progress on my personal gyration cell and realized that i can't even build it myself until i hit Level 13 because i need Metallurgy III. I think i'm going to have to stifle my urge to own the high-tech production buildings and spend some time leveling. With that in mind i put my name on the Metallic Obelisk queue at size 22. I've got two weeks to come up with the materials. The only one that looks hard is the mirror (assuming size 22 still needs only one; i haven't checked the exact requirements yet). The rest i can either make myself or purchase at The Goods without too much trouble. I wonder if i can get my Sheet Glass skill to 7 in two weeks?

Year 1 Shemu III-16

Yesterday was a good day.

I made excellent progress in collecting materials for my hypothetical Metallic Obelisk. I loaded up my Normal Glass furnace with a full 50 units of melted glass and started making glass sheets. It certainly started out grimly. I cracked the first seven sheets i attempted, though in the process i rose to skill 4. Then i succeeded once, and cracked another. By the time i had made 30 attempts i had 18 sheets of glass, having cracked 11 and lost one to over-fueling my bench. I was quite pleased. I hadn't known how many sheets i would have to crack for each skill level, but i hadn't expected to get to skill 6 in one session. I imagine that last level will be quite tedious to achieve, but it looks like it's doable in my time frame.

On the subject of the glazier's bench i have discovered, or reasoned out, a small refinement to the published technique. I have noticed that the later in the ten-tick heating cycle one adds additional fuel the smaller the spike. By watching the item timer tick down (especially easy with sheet glass) i am able to add 2 charcoal during the tenth tick, just before the temperature drops. This results in a spike of about 150 degrees in addition to the normal heat increase. This means that i can run the bench constantly without periodically stopping production to spike and cool it. (My bench is +56, -135.)

I traded the glass sheets with The Goods for strontium, platinum, and iron and still had a good deal of credit left over. If worse comes to worst i should be able to buy one of the mirrors.

I checked the material requirements for a 22-cubit Metallic Obelisk and it does in fact need 2 mirrors which is unfortunate but not unexpected. The materials i don't have are easy for me to produce myself so assuming i can take care of the mirrors and that no queue war erupts i'm in good shape for the Obelisk Test.

Year 1 Shemu III-21

Yay! One of my Prophecies came true. I am now Level 12. I signed up for Safari.

In other news i did another run of 30 attempted glass sheets. I cracked 4, fried one, and ended up with 25. Sadly my skill is still 6/7, but hopefully i'm that much closer to mirrors. I ran the firepit and poked it for a half-hour, only to discover that i had forgotten to put in the limestone. So i got 70 ash, which was nice, but no lime at all which is unfortunate because i actually have plenty of ash and needed the lime. Sigh.

Year 1 Shemu III-22

You can't do anything without doing something else first.

I planned to do some frog/rat/otter hunting today but first had promised to make some carpentry blades for the Queen of Denial guild. I loaded up the anvil and proceeded, using the excellent guides that have been published elsewhere (see the Blacksmithing Guide and check the references at the bottom of that page.) The "eight hits across the front" with the force 8 Shaping Mallet take some practice, as there are more than 8 nodes across the front edge, but it turns out to only matter a little. I've also added a refinement where i use the Shaping Mallet at force 5 to depress the area behind the edge around the V-shaped notch in the back before starting in on the directions in the guide. The results after following the guide are worse than just doing the guide, but i've been able to clean it up to 7.5K with about fifty more hits, where i could never clean up the guide blade to more than about 7.2K. I ended up with five in the 7.2K range and one 7.5K blade (the last one.)

Running back from QoD to my compound i found a flock of sheep, and being perennially short of leather i grabbed one. I then went in search of a public sheep pen and failed to find one. So i built one to the west of the School of Architecture near the road. I had to dry some rotten flax, and since i was carrying a sheep i couldn't carry more than 200 bricks so i had to make 7 trips back and forth to my compound but it was close enough that it was only annoying. Then i made the pen public, slaughtered my sheep and stored the products.

Time to head out. But on my way to the chariot stop someone announced that they needed witnesses for their wedding. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing besides considering it an obligation of sorts since my compound is in sight of the altar (that is, when people gather at that altar for a wedding i can see the names when i'm standing in my compound.) On the way to the wedding i noticed an intriguing Pathfinder which i poked at while waiting for the crowd to assemble. Someone brought a hookah to the wedding and i got my first point (rhubarb). Then we had the wedding, which took four tries.

Then i got booted from the computer so that my kid could do homework. Ah well, there's always later.

Shemu III-27

I've been in the desert for a couple of days now hunting various critters. I'm going to be a little vague in the descriptions since i don't want to give away any locations. Anyway, i've not seen any rats or otters but did come across an interesting situation with regard to cicadas. I found a spot that had multiple cages and after picking bugs from all of them i decided to try to break the cluster up a little. My first attempt moved all the cages instead of just one and to my surprise there were now more cages visible. It appears that it is possible for cages to be exactly on top of each other, something i hadn't known.

Yikes! Someone dropped out of the Metallic Obelisk queue, so i have four days less than i had planned to come up with two mirrors. I think i'm going to have to cut my rat-hunting expedition short.

Shemu IV-2

I'm still hunting in the desert. I haven't found any rats or otters but did locate a couple of frogs. They seem pretty straightforward and should be my ticket to a strength point.

Shemu IV-7

I'm back from my desert roaming. I found a lot of bugs so that part went well. On the other hand i didn't see any rats or otters. I refurbished a couple of my remote outposts but wasn't able to do anything with the one in the NE corner of the map due to an unremembered complete lack of grass in the area. I'll have to bring some supplies the next time i head that way.

My Sheet Glass skill is now at 7, which happened on the third sheet of my glass run. I had burned and boiled enough supplies to stock the glazier's bench up to 50 glass, so hitting my goal on the third try was somewhat anti-climactic. Still, i can't really complain (or can i? :-).

I let everything cool and pulled the two intact sheets, then headed for The Goods. I got some leather to contribute toward a guild Barrel Grinder, either for construction or operation, and a batch of cement and some Medium Stones to make into concrete. Silver Powder is still hideously expensive (at least to buy 200 debens) and someone has slurped up the last mirror so i don't have the option of paying a lot of Goodscript for one. Hopefully the Barrel Grinder will be completed soon. I still have two weeks before my turn in the Obelisk queue comes up.

I made a sledgehammer and attacked one of the Medium Stones. It's just as annoying as i remember it being. I did my experiment between two hills to see if gravity played any role in the process but it doesn't seem to, that is, the ejecta scooted indifferently up and down slopes for the same distance. This is one of those activities which is possible to solo but which goes much quicker with help. I like activities with that quality since i'm not able to play regularly for hours at a time, so group activities are hard to schedule.

Shemu IV-14

Busy, busy, busy.

I haven't found any more frogs, but did find an otter and an ibis, so i got my first strength point. Whee! I celebrated by loading up with silt on my way back to camp from the ibis. This will make a lot of things easier. I'm going to enjoy it, i'm sure.

While out exploring i found a Mixed Nuts mining compound that had degenerated to 0%. I spent the time to repair it but couldn't do anything for the equipment inside; Compression Furnaces seem to be resistant to my Structure Repair 2 skill, and i just built a new Hackling Rake rather than try to repair the one in the compound.

When i got back i pitched in for at Mixed Nuts project to build a Barrel Grinder. The only thing that's left is the 120 bearings, so i'm making half the bronze. So far i've got 99 done, including 2 perfect runs. On the other hand i ran out of Fern Palm resin and had to dash out and get more, but fortunately it's pretty common. I hope to finish the last of the bronze tonight, and then i'll fire up the Master Casting Box and make some bearings.

Shemu IV-16

I finished up my share of the bronze for bearings, using up the last of my copper to do so. I fired up the MCB and started cranking out batches of 10 bearings. While i was doing that other-person-in-the-guild-whose-name-i-am-totally-blanking-on finished up the rest of the bronze (and then some; he was on a roll) and took over the MCB. The barrel grinder is now finished. Now i just need to bully sweet talk a grinding party into existence.

I made a tech run to Saqquarah. I feel somewhat guilty doing so, but it's part of how the game works. I picked up papermaking and gem cutting, so now i have an opportunity to blow more of my resources building things that will be time sinks. Heh. Welcome to Egypt. I also got my pyramid construction skill up to 7, so should a general madness overtake Egypt it would be possible for me to become an Oracle. It's nice to set goals that are beyond one's reach.

As long as i was in the neighborhood i picked up 95 white sand (yay STR 1!). While carting it around (perhaps that was why i never caught the gazelle, see below) it occurred to me that the only sensible place to make Fine Glass products is within short walking distance of a white sand patch, at least until one gets at least STR 3 and could conceivably carry (with peppers) 3000 debens, or enough for one run of the glazier's oven.

I saw a gazelle today. They are cute but annoying. I put a call out on E! but there were no takers, so i chased it around a bit and then went home.

I've changed the format of my semi-blog, as it was getting to be too much of a nuisance to scroll down through the whole thing. I'm lazy. So sue me. :-)

Shemu IV-19

Finally got Cooking 1. I borrowed some carrot seeds from Queen of Denial and grew the veggies. It was nice that, with STR 1 and DEX 3 I could just waltz them over to the school instead of dumping my usual tools first. Stat boosts are fun!

Akhet I-7

It's been awhile. I've got 2 strength points now, which is very nice. I built my first tower and got 4% of Egypt. I've also gotten a macro to work for the first time in 4 Tellings and while it was very convenient and did a much better job than i could (it is a mining macro) i still felt vaguely cheap somehow. Not cheap enough to stop doing it, mind you, just mildly uncomfortable.

I also came face-to-face with a reality that's been percolating in the back of my head for awhile but which came into sharp focus when a guildmate mentioned that he had nineteen cicada cages out and working. There is no way in hell that i would ever spend the time necessary to accomplish this. So, the reality is that Egypt really is not for the casual player. I like to do different things but this means by definition that i will never excel in any of them, because there is someone in the game who is specializing in whatever it is.

What i'm finding is that this leaves me completely unmotivated to participate in the large-scale aspects of the game. As a "good citizen" of Egypt i should spend time judging statues, solving puzzles, and watching events, but the way i figure it the seven (or 12 or 21) people who really care should just get together and pass each other and let the rest of us get on with whatever insignificant piddly tasks amuse us. The material costs for the test buildings are enormous, and the costs for the building to make the materials for the test buildings are pretty large as well. It takes me a long time to put that much effort together. I understand that that's the way the game is designed and that i'm here by choice. Fine. But what i'm finding is that i can amuse myself without paying any attention to what passes for the plot of this Telling.

That's not to say i'm anti-social. If a guildmate asked for help collecting resources or putting things together i'd be there. But doing something For The Good of Egypt? Meh. I'm also not belittling in any way the efforts of the people who chose to put in the time. They're working hard, and they're reaping the rewards. That seems fair enough to me. In many cases (the Veggie Pyramids come to mind) i reap some benefits as well. Do i feel a little guilty? Perhaps. But that's part of the game, too. And i'm showing my approval in the only way that Teppy cares about: i'm paying my subscription fee. So the only two people who really matter are satisfied.

Akhet I-11

My gyration cell is done! I spent an hour and a half finishing up the tin sheets and glass tubes. I threw in 1500 copper ore i'd extracted from my copper mine and then went to one of the Mixed Nuts iron mines. The wiki page said it was level 4 and fixed but it was actually level 8 and fixed. Unfortunately it collapsed after 4 pulls and i felt compelled to fix it, so i did. I then pulled almost 1600 ore out and threw that in the gyration cell. Sweet. :-)

Akhet I-30

I've found a bunch of critters and now have as much strength as i have dexterity (3). Running around in the desert isn't very interesting so i look for bodies of water and do some herb gathering. I've found two more bugs in the process. I really should get a rabbit from someone and pitch it and make a fennec cage to claim the level but just haven't gotten around to it.

I'm coming to the head of the Metallic Obelisk queue in QR. The person two people ahead of me hasn't been logged on in over a week so the person immediately ahead of me has built. When she passes, and if the person ahead of me still hasn't been seen i'll put up my obelisk. If she shows up and is ready to build she'll go next. In either case i should pass my first actual test some time in the next two weeks.

I made a scent lab and started playing with it, only to find out that it will take a lot of research to get anything useful out of it. I managed to drive my first batch of incense to quality zero. My second batch had a high value of over 160 but i dragged it down with further experimenting. It looks like there are 42 different initial tendencies for the incense, one positive and one negative. Each one corresponds to one of the stat skills. Then there is a scent; i've had pine and something else (i've misplaced my notebook). There is some research elsewhere in the wiki but since the effects are both ephemeral and minor it isn't very worthwhile to pursue. I'll do it anyway but it will be slow.

My Petition

Petition by Aku

Aku for Queen's Retreat Regional Garbage Collector

Oh, People of Queen's Retreat, hear the plea of Aku, a humble handmaiden of the region. Our public areas become blighted with abandoned flimsy brick racks, wood planes, and small distaffs. The people become discontent yet all efforts to legislate a solution fall short in some way, and the blight remains.

I petition to be granted the awesome power to salvage any of the three above items in Queen's Retreat which are not within a compound. I realize that this is a great power, and i understand the reluctance anyone might feel in granting it, unchecked, to a single individual. I pledge to use discretion and judgement, and that i am a thoughtful and civic-minded person with no intention of causing harm or unhappiness.

I believe this would do good for the region, clearing places for newcomers to experience Egypt in its beauty. I also believe that nothing short of this will alleviate the problem.

And since this isn't outrageous enough, i request that only the votes of citizens whose primary guild is in Queen's Retreat be counted.

Submitted for your consideration by Aku.

Inclinations

I don't have the time to spend grinding my way to the top, so i end up soloing a lot. I'm making an effort to be more social this time around. I like mentoring so if you want advice feel free to chat me and i'll see what i can do. If i don't answer right away i may be making glass or charcoal.

History

I played all of T1, sporadically in T2 and T3. I'm hoping to make it all the way through this one.

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