Amnesty/Tale 2

Teppy: Pharaoh: Welcome, all...
Teppy: Two Tales...
Teppy: Let me start a "Welcome Back Weekend"
Teppy: Wow, where to begin?
Teppy: First off, a huge thank you to everyone...
Teppy: A Tale in the Desert - probably more than any other game - relies on everyone pitching in in some way. The very philosophy o f the game: "Building a Perfect Society"...
Teppy: Is about a collaborative effort.
Teppy: But ther are a few people who I want to thank specially...
Teppy: The GM team, some of whom have now moved on to a developer role...
Teppy: Gentry, Pluribus, Apophis, Kenhotep...
Teppy: Bellah, Hexi, Jasmina, Tweetiti, MomMouse...
Teppy: Hapi, Rhys...
Teppy: Kona, Petis, Polly, Arpallan, Caladrius...
Teppy: Silvanis, TheMazeEcho, Soldparadise...
Teppy: And of course Otter, who built most of Egypt...
Teppy: The terrain, schools, roads.
Teppy: Dria, our plant design expert.
Teppy: Tell me if I'm missing anyone.
Teppy: Our Oracles of course...
Teppy: FaceAnkh, who has been with ATITD since before Tale 1...
Teppy: JemGirl, Kaayru, Gumby...
Teppy: Oh, and GMs Nikara, Sanmut, and Haralesh.
Teppy: And then there are so many players who I have come to know...
Teppy: Kaotika has made Welcoming Island like a 2nd home...
Teppy: Almost 1000 mentors, though a few deserve special mention...
Teppy: Kaotika with 28 Shrines, DrDave with 26, and Stoiss with 21...
Teppy: Dendii with 17, Kaayru with 16, Figrin with 15.
Teppy: And Userkare, Sallah-Hazerah, Jodpar, Aberdon, Waiwai, Lill, LadyGrim and Bifa, all with 14.
Teppy: There were some people who - even though they didn't complete a monument, made a noble effort...
Teppy: Asheara, Oracle of Thought...
Teppy: And MacPhisto, Oracle of Conflict.
Teppy: I was really routing for these monuments to be completed...
Teppy: And of course we never had an Oracle of Art and Music.
Teppy: I've had the same conversation on a number of occasions with other MMO designers, and it goes like this...
Teppy: "Well of course you'll do something if it looks like not all seven monuments will be completed, right?"
Teppy: And I say no, and they sort of roll their eyes.
Teppy: And of course that means that every monument that did get built is a *real* accomplishment.
Teppy: And I'll be proud to implement those Tests.
Teppy: Should we chat about secrets?
Helpmaboab: yep :)
Setheri: yes
Nox: WOOHOO
Zapster: Yes!
Yerbouti: NOOOOOO
sky40: LOL
Teppy: So I'm trying to locate Knightmare :)
Teppy: Who seems to have disconnected from IRC a few hours ago.
Teppy: His Knightmare character left the game of course...
Teppy: But he put in a huge effort at the time the Test of the Bureaucrat was released...
Teppy: Playing the perfect newbie...
Teppy: And he was so close to infiltrating Deeva's Bureaucracy.
Teppy: I almost felt bad, because she was so *perfectly* organized.
Teppy: I mean, I couldn't imagine the most successful real-life CEO running a Bureaucracy in a more careful way.
Teppy: But someone did the job before we could get there.
Teppy: (Trying to remember who - can anyone help me out?)
Sola: Pameow
Teppy: Ah, yes.
Teppy: Does anyone know the story there?
Setheri: As far as i know a lower level person disobeyed the rules and let someone in without informing Deeva
Arpallan: She was accepted into the beauro by an unknown party and then minutes later took over. Interesting considering she posted on her info from the beginning that she would take over if she ever got in.
Setheri: but one of Deeva's friends stole the Bureau back and gave it to Deeva
Teppy: I thought the strategy of allowing those who got Bureaucracy Opportunities to joiin the one "Master" bureaucracy was brilliant.
Hasani: and it wasnt pam herself, but one of her alternate accounts
Leghk: It was a mule of hers that was hired
Teppy: I actually wrote tools to let (still trying to remember the character name that Knightmare was grooming) figure out the weak spots in the bureaucracy.
Teppy: Which players were newest, logged fewest hours, which were unlikely to be mules of experienced players.
Zintwana: Is that why you spent so much time in heqa camp staring at Deeva's Bureaucracy building?
Teppy: Yes :)
Teppy: The tools required that I physically clicked on the building.
Zintwana: Naughty Teppy!
Setheri: Off-topic but Pharaoh, the final Mysterious Altar (which happens to be at one of Knightmare's Compounds) is still under construction :/
Teppy: Actually, Pluribus, want to talk about the Stranger's technologies?
Pluribus: Yes, The code for that turned out to particularlly evil...
Pluribus: The last altar was going to be enhanced beetle breeding.
Aberdon: Hi everyone
Pluribus: The tech was going to allow beetles to brred at 3x speed, at the cost of 3x food :-) But once enhanced, ANY beetles touch became enhanced and would eat both in and out of terriums
Pluribus: If no cabbage was available, they would eat each other, even in chests...
Setheri: O_O
Bhoth: yikes!
Yerbouti: ahh
Calixes: oh that rocks. heh.
Zyen: Interesting
MAMTeles: you twisted minded you
Pluribus: Cursed beetles could be traded as well to further spreed the gene
Setheri: So we would have ahd to eradicate "infected" beetles
OnlyAloha: 1 chest per beetle, ouch
Deohotep: But yea, a PITA to code, I'm sure.
Pluribus: and would breed INTO uncursed stock
Vilbert: just evil...
Jalestra: oh, that's really evil....
JemGirl: that is so evil
Electa: Kripes! What if you didn't know it was cursed? Could kill off alot of long term breeders stocks.
Pluribus: Thank you :-)
Vannyn: So what stopped you from doing it?
Pluribus: but I imagine also create some very pretty beetles in the process, because of the breeding rates
Setheri: would that have been the endgame challenge like the algae in T1? would Gharib find a cure for the curse and make us build the monuments or suffer the scarabs to start eating us?
Teppy: That tech was to come from necessity - beetles took something like 10% of server sersources.
Pluribus: Now that there is a clean start....
Pluribus: Time is what stopped me... The code got VERY complex and I didnt want to break EXISTING beetles :-)
Yerbouti: and is this why the beta chests have a beetle eating warning?
Teppy: Right
Tilapya: winces. And is so, so glad that didn't happen. Bad enough with all my trees gone and the grould polluted at homesite... rampant beetles.. ugh :D
Jalestra: so they don't actually eat one another in the chests?
Teppy: They do.
Tilapya: What's with that, anyway - are we suppoed to keep one per chest if it's one we want to keep safe, in T3?
Teppy: Yes
Dria: good idea.
Everyl: Is carrying them in inventory safe?
Teppy: I don't recall. I think it is.
Zintwana: Are we gonna have a list of record breakers as in T1 amnesty, tallest obelisk, most time online, most friends, etc
Teppy: Oh yes.
Teppy: I'm actually not done tweeking all of that. 1000's of chests will consume even more resources, but the idea is to keep breeding stock, but not 1000's of beetles that you'll never touch.
Coyan: and the secret from T1?
Teppy: Oh, yes...
Teppy: Who here played Kemet, the German version of Tale 1?
Nefertiti: I did
Teppy: Probably not a lot of you...
Jasmina: raises hand
Alya: I did...
Teppy: The poopulation there was really low toward the end.
Rehpic: pharaoh, can you color your text please?
Teppy: And so I had to lower the thresholds on Art projects, and Thought, and Conflict, etc.
Teppy: To ridiculous numbers.
Teppy: Even the Monument numbers ended up being very low - like 15 people needed total.
Teppy: And so there were a few people that bought like 4-5 mules each and decided they would just build all the monuments.
Teppy: Well, I didn't want to spend days or weeks, coding Tests to entertain exactly three people, so I asked if they would like to be agents of The Stranger...
Teppy: Corrupting the Disciplines.
Teppy: And they would play their characters as such.
Teppy: They would tell others in the game that they were basically going to stomp on any artwork not made by them, and sort of said "join us or else"
Teppy: And we actually modeled "corrupt" versions of the Tale 1 monuments for any Discipline that they might "succeed" at building.
Teppy: And so I'm going to show those to you now.
Teppy: Trying to think how to do this so that 200+ people don't warp to one location and crash the server like we did in T1 Amnesty :)
Setheri: lol
Rehpic: put them each at a different charot
Teppy: Ok, everyone has visited the real Tale 1 Monuments?
Teppy: I know - I'll put each one at the corresponding real Tale 1 monument...
Teppy: And I'll set waypoints at each of those.
rdk: no
Nepthys: leave them up for a few days
Teppy: Give me a few minutes on this.
Teppy: Ok...
Teppy: Haven't tested it, but there should be options under Navigation/Amnesty
Setheri: Thought works
Arpallan: So does conflict.
Teppy: You can warp around as much as you want to these.
Dria: cooool
Jalestra: Art works
Teppy: In the end, Kemet "won" by not building any Thought/Art/Conflict monuments.
Teppy: So even though they didn't build m onuments, they at least kept the Disciplines pure.
Teppy: If I had shown them at the end of Tale 1, then it would have sort of taken away from their win.
Rehpic: at the end of T1 you (or maybe it was the stranger) told us that if we didnt build a monument in a discipline, the stranger would build one as a testament to our failure. will that happen this time?
Teppy: That was a different Stranger.
Teppy: :P
sky40: this one is DEAD
Alya: I wouldn't call those disciplines in Kemet pure... those people you mentioned had gamed them for a long time, even before you recruited them... there were more mules passing than real people :-(
Teppy: Of course.
Teppy: I mean, I did what I could to preserve the integrity of the game at the time. I could have just left the 127 person/monument requirement as is, and the gamers wouldn't have been able to do anything there...
TheMazeEcho: I think the corrupt monument of Thought lokks better than the real one :)
sky40: Woot Thought is really evil....
Sigil: Art might have been more interesting if there were enough test passes available to actually build the monument
Teppy: Plenty of available passes if you do the numbers.
Cappu: So how do we get back to the event?
Teao: monuments have become the test of keeping people from quitting :)
Teppy: Yeah, well my 6-month Tale 2 prediction was a bit off :/
Teppy: Remember that prediction?
Gada: Yes - never believed it, though :)
DisShovel: oh yes. we will close at >590 days
Zintwana: Hehe I think we all do
Thurgret: nope I think you were wrong on this 1 Pharaoh the whole point of the game is to let us pass or fail not twist it to make it look like a win.
Setheri: Any chance of you recruiting a few more "Agents of the Stranger" for Tale 3?
Kuu: We assumed it was a really weird joke
Nefertiti: did anyone really believe in it?
MAMTeles: what is the predicted duration of tale3?
Teppy: Tale three will last for exactly
Teppy: Guess that last line didn't post. Oh well, damn Microsoft keyboard.
zebediah: ROFL
Calixes: lol.
Zarrehp: LOL
MAMTeles: LOL
Zintwana: lol
Bonnella: as long as it lasts.
Jezebella: imagine that :)
Haralesh: lol
Shadovv: LOL
beloc: LOL
OnlyAloha: SUE!
Setheri: LOL
Lani: wize answer
EuroMaverick: Man, this guy is reeeeeaaaaly mean !
Setheri: Figures you would blame a keyboard teppy :P
Menfis: hehe
Teppy: Let's see what other secrets I can tell...
Teppy: Oh, seeds!
Teppy: Which ones did you figure out?
MAMTeles: cabbage, carrots
Everyl: And onions.
Menfis: garlic
Teppy: You figured out Garlic? That was a tough one.
FaceAnkh: garlic was reproduced, but no-one knew how :)
Teppy: Ok, here was the trick...
Teppy: Everyone had a list of "buddies". Your list of buddies was approximately 1/12th of the game population.
Teppy: So, lots of buddies each.
Teppy: Grow garlic when only a buddy was around and you'd get a seed.
Cappu: Will all the seed reproductions change for tale 3? (please say yes :) )
Teppy: Yes
beloc: I heard someone figured out watermelon seed repro too
Teppy: Did they?
Calixes: around as in proximity to you? or simply online?
Teppy: 800 foot radius.
ferns: lol clever
Blogmul: what about the trick to reproduce pepper, watermelon and cucumbers?
Setheri: only you would torture us with that Teppy :/
Setheri: if they did they did not publicize it much
Teppy: Ok, Watermellon...
Teppy: Each day for 20 minutes was a watermellon seed "hour"
Teppy: And a watermellon seed place that was a 1000-coordinate radius circle.
Teppy: When the hour came, grow watermellons in that circle, and you'd get an extra seed.
Teppy: What I was hoping is that someone would grow, and say in some well known channel "Watermellon seeds in Karmak now!"
Teppy: And then everyone would have rused there to make seeds.
Hieros: Did the hour and circle change position or was it static?
Teppy: Both changed, and quite a few seeds did get reproduced...
Teppy: But I guess nobody thought to tell a friend to try growing them nearby, soon after.
Astrina: Did it move in a particular pattern? Or was it random?
Teppy: Random
Dria: veggie growing will change for t3? (only slightly off topic)
Teppy: Yes
Teppy: I have new secrets all planned.
Cheos: did new seeds (pepper, eggplant..) have reproduction secrets too ?
Teppy: Yes
Teppy: Er, let me look.
Teppy: Peppers were about growing them for a long time (16+ cycles), but not letting any cycle exceed 30 seconds.
Teppy: Sort of a strange one.
Teppy: Cucumbers looks like it was somehow gender based. Reading the code...
Teppy: Looks like you must find the perfect grow pattern, watering-wise, then grow in very close proximity to a player of the opposite gender. 48 foot radius.
Teppy: That one was probably too hard.
OnlyAloha: do you read the wiki from time to time, getting a good laugh of the theorys?
Teppy: Yes :)
Teppy: Eggplants produced an extra seed when you came back to the game after being out for 7+ days.
Pacer: question i have what is a mechanical heart for?:)
Teppy: Upgraded ancient automatons.
Rehpic: there have been rumors that it was possible to get 100+ metal from a single smelt in a precious furnace, but nobody came close. is this true, and can you tell us the formula?
Teppy: Sure...
Teppy: The whole mining system was the my biggest fuckup in Tale 2...
Teppy: The idea was that people would eventually be able to say "ooh, that rock looks like copper"
Teppy: I never imagined that anyone would specifically count the actual crystals.
Teppy: And so I figured it would be a nice low-key activity where you'd feel you were getting better as you became more accustomed to eyeballing the richness of ore stones.
Teppy: Each furnace type had a different formula for converting crystals to ore...
Teppy: Precious Furnaces, if I'm reading this code right, base their output on the 2nd most prevalent ore in a cart.
Kaotika: Precious, from our research, give the least common material. Ie, 40 dirt and 1 gold is roughly 6 gold
Kaotika: Killed by impurities and extra typres
Teppy: 2nd most common, again if I'm reading this code correctly.
Teppy: It looks at the difference between the the 1st and 2nd most common types, multiplies that by 16/100
Teppy: And produces that much of the 2nd most common.
Teppy: So, weird behavior on that.
Hasani: yes, in my use, you could have all sand and one crystal of ore and get metal from teh smelt. but the outputs never equaled or exceeded what you could obtain from a fragile furnace smelt of the same dirty mine.
Teppy: Metal was so frustrating for people that I kept increasing the yields on new furnace types...
Teppy: And I guess the extreme difference between good and perfect led to counting.
Arpallan: PF actualy was great at getting gold out of sand for example. 1 gold cluster and the rest sand would give us 30+ gold. Was that intentional, like an alchemical forumla?
Arpallan: Feels a lot like lead into gold kind of a situation.
Aberdon: yep = 6.24 gold by kaotika's example
Kenhotep: We had a whole new set of furnaces coded, but then didn't release them. My favorite was the one that would remove all the sand, and return whatever metal was present.
Teppy: Amalgamation Furnaces were all about precise ratios of materials.
Teppy: They would crank up as high as 85% depending on the recipe.
Rehpic: the formula for brass had way too narrow a success range to ever produce decent results without counting
Mortomes: Which made mining a very tiring thing..
Kaotika: Brass was hellish. We got the formulas for alloys pretty much spot on, but brass was too precise for anything other than intensely draining mining
Setheri: Pharaoh would you egt angry if i tore down all these scrapbook items at evil conflict monument?
DisShovel: mines with naturally close alloy ratios became highly valued
Teppy: Right.
Teppy: Also, another screwup I thought was that there was no downside to making mines public...
Teppy: The whole greed thing was something I enjoyed in T1.
Teppy: The tension between helping the community and being selfish.
Asheara: the downside was enhanced mining but it was controlled througgh legislation
AnnalGesic: i would have liked to see the "mining fee" for public mines from t1 re-introduced in t3 beta
Teppy: Forgot about that, yes. Maybe I'll add something like that.
Mortomes: Before enhanced mining, making your mine public only meant good stuff, as more people mining it would expand your mine faster
Hasani: actually, we controlled it by researching and understandingn it before teraching it willy nilly
FaceAnkh: public stuff only ever works if it has zero maintenance costs - 1 brick a week and it won't work ;)
Teppy: We did have some public mines in T1, and they really put certain guilds on the map. Bes for one.
Kaotika: Enhanced Mining was superb - later on I'd like to take some mic time, if possible, to talk a little about some stuff that went on behind the scenes there.. Several players took it on themselves to act on behalf of the stranger, and really challenge egypt with the EM crisis..
Vannyn: Enhanced mining is a fantastic tech...I wish I had it earlier
Teao: but now you wiped Vok from the map :)
Teppy: Hmmmm
Rehpic: BES gave up on public mines pretty early in T1
Gumby: Everyone knows BeS used child labor. The pics are still around somewhere.
Teppy: Yeah, someone should dig that out, I'll post the URL
Astrina: I did appreciate the fact that lower levels of mines offered different ores. Gave a reason to want to find out what was there.
MAMTeles: how about the actual numbers? we would like the statistics :)
Teppy: Sure - which stats would you like?
FaceAnkh:
Djehuty: were plant genetics any different from T2? and what about beetle genetics?
Teppy: Both were the same systems.
Vilbert: a good one FA! :)
Zintwana: camel ophermone
Zintwana: what is it?
Teppy: Ah...
Teppy: I don't think I ever coded a use for it.
Teppy: And I think that may have been around from T1...
Teppy: When a camel pen fills with 10 camels all of the same gender - IOW< a player gets extremely unlucky...
Teppy: Some Camel Phereomone gets produced.
Teppy: Intended to be a very rare ingredient.
Djehuty: what new feature(s) that you had intended for T2 never made it in?
Teppy: Let me think...
Teppy: Libraries never made it...
Teppy: Those were supposed to accumulate skills that 100+ people had learned in order to save newbies on running.
Teppy: We talked about a "Conflict Court" system where high-ranking conflict players could take away wins of gamers.
Gumby: Did mechanical hearts ever actually make it in?
Teppy: Let me look at that. I thought I had used those.
Teppy: Ok, yeah, that's something that never made it...
Teppy: They were supposed to be a way to upgrade a crawler so that it moved the blocks about 50% faster
Kiji: is the test of safari planned for T3 ? if so, would there be a model for the Frog?
Teppy: Yes, Safari, no Frog model. You're supposed to find those by sound. I need to figure out a way to not show the shadow.
Gumby: What was the deal with the picture of the diamond palm?
Teppy: Why does Diamond Palm ring a bell...
Teppy: Checking
Teppy: Not seeing anything in the code called "Diamond Palm"
Gumby: The picture said you needed a diamond hatchet when you clicked on it according to the picture.
Asheara: who played Emannuel?
Teppy: That's something I can't tell.
Astrina: I am curious about grape growing, was there anything more to it than what players figured out?
Oxi: Were mushrooms unchanged from T1?
Teppy: Basically, yes.
Teppy: A few little tweeks.
Jezebella: oh and SmokeyRed?
Teppy: Ah, yes, I can talk about that.
Teppy: SmokeyRed was played by Bellah...
Teppy: We tried to make her a believeable "newbie who stumbld upon a huge secret"
Cappu: You should have given her a *few* more days :)
Teppy: And she had to play the game without any special (GM) tools, only the knowledge that anyone could discover.
Teppy: So, and Agent of The Stranger - she was trying to provoke others with unreasonable trading demands. The mining system was so cumbersome that it made pulling it off really hard. (Did we pull it off at first anyway?)
Hellinar: What about beer, did that change, will it change again?
Teppy: That was unchanged from T1, but yeast changes have been made for T3.
FaceAnkh: <kuu> ask him to list all non-GMs on his friends list because when we were in pittsburgh I put a bunch of us on his friends list when he was afk :)
Teppy: :)
Pluribus: Oh Amnesty tidbit... Golden Age Flax was a stranger engineered flax... but it turned into a boon because flax was bugged in general (limited to only EVER need a max of 1 water)
Kaotika: I'll own up to playing Mukhwana, who discovered the Ancient Forge - as well as co-playing both characters in the Language event.
sparklingone: beginning to think i must have played a completly different game then others played .. this is the first i have heard about SmokeyRed
Teppy: That's what so hard about having eGenesis played characters...
Teppy: There's a limit to how many people can participate in that part of the "story"...
Rehpic: frankly, the T1 limestone monopoly and first deepwell (both player created monopolies) were much more interesting
Teppy: Agreed.
Tweetiti: BEllah myself and other female GMs where the bellydancing characters:p
Teppy: Ah, right.
Rehpic: pharaoh, in T1 i got to 256 wine tasting. Ken and I are stuck at 255 in T2. Is 256 possible in T2?
Teppy: Yes
Teppy: You'd have to taste, on average, 256 additional wines after reaching level 255.
Setheri: Knightmare is on :)
Ping: who was reddot
Ping: was reddot a special character, or just someone who went around cleaructting everyone's trees as a grief?
Helpmaboab: oh yes, what about the trader - malaki? Did that go as planned?
Teppy: Well, I didn't expect the firestorm to go out of character.
Teppy: Malaki was played by Devalin.
Teppy: Ended up speaking at two conferences because of that :/
Cappu: The best part about Golden Age was the inventor claiming to have bred it himself, even after it was discovered to contain new (color) bands. A bit of a giveaway there :o)
Gentry: One thing you can tell them about Emannuel is that it is >NOT ME<
Kaotika: I played Pharaoh's Bard, for those of you who attended the Chimes event - I'm hoping that we can bring out some more of Pharaoh's stooges in T3 ;)
Jezebella: ok, you haven't answered about Setna. Is that still a secret?
Teppy: Setna...
Teppy: (Forgetting what Setna did!)
Teppy: Ah, Golden Age Flax - Plur?
Zintwana: Setna discovered each of the mysterious shrines
Pluribus: Setna was a plant .... I wont say who since that person is not here at the moment.
Teppy: I think it's OK to tell.
Teppy: (I actually don't know)
Tweetiti: what about the velo and husband event where she was looking for her husband?
Pluribus: Ok :-) Setna was played by Apophis...
Teppy: Oh, Velo was one of the coolest events, and we never actually resolved it...
Teppy: The characters were played by It.
Teppy: And the event was that if players could decode their language to the point where they could find each other, they'd get 21 Huntsman's Fishing Poles.
Teppy: I noticed that some internat forum on Linguistics got into it...
Teppy: And at least one post on the forum said that the language had "a similar structure to Tamril"
Teppy: (Tamil?)
Teppy: Well, It is a native Tamril speaker, and the language the characters spoke was in fact Tamril, but with the vowels rotated.
Teppy: wasn't that a cool event idea? He planned and executed the whole thing.
Gentry: I think he said backwards
Kaotika: Tweetiti - The wife/husband language event was run by It and myself - it was something of an experiment on our part to see if we could run an event 'live' without a fixed framework, and teppy provided soem awesome language code
Dria: that's awesome
Kaotika: It was a vowel shuffle.
Teppy: Since that event I've coded some very sophisticated language tools, which you got a preview of during the April 1 event this year.
Jezebella: I enjoyed that, althought frustrating at times :)
JemGirl: yeh what happen to them that story ended abruptly
Teppy: Well, It had a trip to India.
Kenhotep: What's the highest oen/gastro/fume/beer possible? 255? 256?
Teppy: Oenology and Gastro, 256...
Teppy: Fumeology is 768.
Zintwana: Who got the highest?!
Teppy: Ok, let me check on those.
Teppy: There's actually a lot about Fumeology that is undiscovered - a very deep system.
Teppy: Actually, 1024 is max fumeology.
Ancano: That was me that posted on the language forum for the Velo event
Asheara: my guess is Sedelyan for Gastro
Asim: what is max attained by a player in fumeology?
Calixes: are herbs changed for T3 beyond shuffling stats/harvest?
Teppy: There's some enhancements to the plant rendering code, so you'll probably see some species with effects that were not possible in T2.
Teppy: Had to write code for these.
Latona: I have to ask, was JUMB for real? Is anyone really that iritating? If he was a creation of y'all, whoever played him did great in the "iritating, greifing department". ;-)
Teppy: Not our creation. Real person as far as I know.
Teppy: Ok, fumeology, wine, gastro records...
Teppy: The "most accomplished stoner award" goes to Zintwana, with Fumeology of 245...
Teppy: Followed by Ahz and Rocinante with 244
Teppy: Sabuli of 243
Teppy: And everyone else miles behind.
Setheri: Yes he was real i know him in T2 and 3
Gumby: When was the formula for metal blue added to the game? Was it possible to test that combination early on and get nothing?
Teppy: Was actually added right before it was "discovered", though I think the chance that it had previously would have been made was about zero.
Djehuty: If anyone remembers the old stumbling Professor Naeem-Akil (who was wandering the desert until found) which helped with mining tech -- that part was played by me
Pacer: since tiki mask was so hard to cut, should we not be able to keep our light box for it?:)
Teppy: :)
Teppy: That's an awesome gem.
Zintwana: lol that took forever - I was determined to get to Perception 9 by the end of the tale - fumeology is evil!!
Zapster: is fumeology coming back for T3?
Teppy: Oh yes...
Teppy: BTW, that came as a result of so many people saying that they enjoyed wine tastings...
Teppy: And so I tried to thgink of something that could be done in a similar way.
Mortomes: Djehuty: You played that pretty good :)
Teppy: Our top gourmands are Sedelyan with Gastronomy 221
Teppy: And Zaqari with 220
Teppy: And everyone else miles behind.
Asim: Teppy, what is for YOU the best part of this tale? Is there a moment where you particularly enjoyed looking at your 'ant farm'?
Teppy: Well, the power of the Demi-Pharaoh actually being used was a big turning point I think. I liked that. It's recent enough that I think the impact hasn't been fully felt.
Teppy: Deeva's Bureaucracy effort was great to watch.
Teppy: The Malaki event of course...
Teppy: For "most successful event" I'd say that I really liked the Mutton Festival for some reason. That's the event (type) that I'm most proud of.
Teppy: Somehow we all seemed to come together and just have a great time at that event.
Nefertiti: how many players quit because of the Malaki event?
Teppy: I think about 20 characters, 7 people.
Teppy: Our subscriber count went up by about 10-15 net though, because of al the press it generated.
MacPhisto: I'd like to know who played the most ranked conflict matches
Teppy: I don't record that.
sky40: How many quit because of enhanced skills?
Teppy: I don't know of any significant numbers.
Kuu: How many mules are there per player in Egypt?
Teppy: Hard to figure out, but last time I did make that effort, I think Egypt was comprised of around 10 or 15% mules.
Teppy: 11% stands out in my mind, but I can't swear to that.
Nefertiti: how many players do you need to keep this game alive?
Teppy: Previously I said "under 1000 would get tight", but actually, some of our expenses have gone down, so maybe under 900 things would get tight.
Teppy: In fact, I think we just grossed our first $1M.
Teppy: (Which causes payments to investors to decrease.)
sky40: woot
Zapster: Congratz!
Nefertiti: grats on that!
Asheara: any record on munber of passed tests?
Teppy: Oh, yes...
Teppy: I think that CardinalTarod ran away with that honor...
Teppy: I meant to say something there...
Teppy: I heard lots of talk that he "gamed the Tests"...
Teppy: He passed 42 tests, which is an ATITD record. I seriously thought he might end up Oracle of Seven, and I had a special thing planned if that happened.
Teppy: I made it a point to visit most of the judged items that he made, and I didn't see anything to indicate gaming. That guy made some *cool* cartwork, Thought Puzzles, etc.
Teppy: CT, want to say a few words?
Teppy: I didn't say anything at the time, even though in my estimation the criticism was unfair...
Teppy: Because this game is about building a perfect society, and sometimes people get accused unfairly, and that's something we have to be careful about in RL as well.
Teppy: So saying anything would have been very much not-my-place.
CardinalTarod: I must say that I did not really plan to even think about that again, but your comment really warms my heart. Thanks, it's, along some other nice and kind things that people that I've learned to love here, the best prize ever :)
CardinalTarod: people said* (sorry, the emotion :))
Pacer: i would say ct is one of the best leaders in the game, and have alot of respect for him
Setheri: W00t!! Go Cardi!!! :)
Kaayru: *hugs CT*
Promiscuous: wb CT :)
Gentry: based off the large number of test buildings you have visited, what is your general estimate on the status of gaming in egypt?
Teppy: I think it happened in Conflict...
Jezebella: CT is one of the best friends anyone could ask for. Hugs CT and wb hon.
Teppy: And was attempted somewhat in Thought and Art, though most passing things were *among* the best.
Kylas: Most people feel gaming because they lose to others sometimes
Setheri: was horrified when someone said that CT might not come back
Teleute: can we *not* build him a 901 oby in T3 though? lol
Teppy: However, I've looked at those things judged by the new PeerReview system, and that seems to be merciless when it comes to gaming...
SunnyOne: What do you mean?
Teppy: It identifies those that metagame very accurately. I have a display that you can't see which shows the judging weights of everyone who voted on a piece...
Teppy: And I'll often look at those with high weights and look at what they voted highly on, and I tend to agree that that stuff is of high quality.
Teppy: And I look at those with low weights, and cross reference with things like guild memberships, and sure enough, there's often a high correlation.
Helpmaboab: will the judging system in T3 give some feedback to designers? I have no idea if my fountain is rubbish or just not got enough votes?
Teppy: Only a tiny bit more feedback:
Teppy: When you vote higher than others tend to on a class of object, it will tell you that, *but*...
Teppy: Only if the global average on that object type is "Great" or above.
Teppy: And the reverse also.
Teppy: If you tend to vote lower than average on a given object type, and Egypt tends to vote "Great" or lower, then it will tell you that you tend to vote below average.
Asheara: so aside from the oneclick veneries, you were happy with the craetions that passed?
Teppy: Yes.
Teppy: I've really enjoyed Dancing Waters. That Test was hard as hell to code, but I think the fountains are so beautiful.
Hapi: Perhaps you could speak, as a developer, on what examples of *gaming* are? If I create a good piece or work in an out of the way place, and invite only my friends to come view it, is that in the spirit of the test?
Teppy: I define gaming as using political means to pass a judged Test.
Teppy: Or intentionally losing a competitive Test to boost others' scores.
Asim: Is there any item/ressource that had NEVER been produced/found/harvested... this tale?
Teppy: I don't know. Let me look at alloys.
Teppy: Steel, Brass, Bronze, Pewter, MetalBlue
Simic: ...and is the PeerReview System going to form the basis of any Tests?
Teppy: Yes, the Test of the Critic.
Teppy: Though not "how good a judge you are"
Teppy: That's about number of peers.
Gentry: I would define gaming as defining either the means to solve the puzzle (or making the puzzle trivail) and/or defining the manner in which specific individuals should vote to achive a desired result
Teao: does politcal include advertising?
Teppy: Depends on how it's done...
Teppy: If you advertise in a way where you know that only your closest friends will notice, and know that they're people that will vote based on friendship, then yes, that's gaming.
Teppy: If you advertised in a way that was designed to increase the number of judges, then that's fine.
Jalestra: example? helping our hard of hearing friends find frogs or cicadas..gaming/working together?
Teppy: Cooperating in a Body Test, especially the example you give (where a real-life handicap prevents them from playing the Test) doesn't seem so terrible.
Asheara: so you consider advertising in a large guild or microphone to get players or judges, gaming?
Teppy: Definitely not gaming.
merek: Seems like an awfully fine line between helping and gaming
Teppy: It is.
Teppy: So, for those playing T3 so far, how do you like it?
hounddog: +
Dria: it's better than T2 so far
merek: The level system takes a little getting used to...
Jalestra: i like it, gives direction without locking you into something so far
Asheara: I like it, haven't burnt out on playig and got to level 8 using only 5 disciplines
Jezebella: I like it alot. I don't mind the levels in the least.
rdk: very nice, lots of new stuff :)
Telanoc: I don't like the level system so far
Electa: I like it alot, except the leveling crap
Nefarian: Im having a great time playing it. I havent really played since T1 and the game has come such a long way
Gemstar: I want my bonfires back, otherwise, still getting used to the new metal systems
Sullivan: Besides wanting to throttle Gentry for flimsy brick racks, it's great! :)
Latona: i agree better so far but still reserving judgement for live
Lill: I'm not crazy about the level stuff
TheMazeEcho: we need bonfires...
Nefertiti: levels are unnessecary and seem like marketing crap, besides from that, I like it
TheMazeEcho: and the beetle eating themselves will be a problem too
Teppy: Does it have a faster paced feel than T2, so far?
Jezebella: oh yeah, true. I hate not having bonfires, since I always did the fire, forget method for cc.
Nefertiti: definitely faster than beginning of T2
Rehpic: way better pacing than T2.
OldJoe: thinks it might bea little too fast
Helpmaboab: I think there needs to be a little more 'guidance' for new players about how to get the next level - maybe a menu option
Squiranha: I want ore carts to play cartball :)
Kylas: Bonfires were nerfed, they where too easy to make cc with
Dria: faster yes, but mostly because there are nice bite-sized goals for casual players to do in a handful of playsessions. I hope that system is extended further in live.
Nefertiti: are all tests coded for T3 already or will there be delay eventually?
Teppy: There should be 28+Initiations on release (unlockable).
Latona: I think it is a bit faster paced in some ways and in others... well there are things I want to be able to do that I can't because of the level restrictions.
Amuniet: maybe to fast for casual play, gonna feel left behind real quick
Hapi: brick rack suxxorz ken!
merek: The pace in beta seems faster, but that might be due to more hard-core players participating in it.
Nefertiti: initiations? or principles?
Teppy: Well, "Principles of Architecture", "Principles of Worship', etc.
Saschi: I think the balance is having enormous research req's that hardcore people can do, while having challenging-but-achievable goals that individuals can do
Khatzepsut: the levels are not very well balacend so far. way too much railroad plot feeling
Electa: Ooh, i love to play the Thith puzzles, only found one I can't solve...yet
Coyan: You mentioned mentorship being the last test in Harmony, won't that be an issue since Mentorship was about helping new players?
Simic: As long as you are discussing T3, will the mineral-map reset during Beta2 for LE (discussed yesterday) occur or not?
merek: It seems a little backward that we can build and use kilns before we can learn the skill for starting fires.
Ratio: Levels aren't too bad in principle, but the implementation (mainly how you *must* do certain initiations before others, etc.) is a turnoff
Dria: Casual vs Hardcore is always going to be unbalanced. I don't think there's a way to fix that without warping space-time.
TheMazeEcho: davids says he doesn't find too much differences, and several players are disappointed
Nefertiti: the needs for uni research seem a bit low to me, is that reduced for beta?
MacPhisto: thinks there needs to be less guidance for older players... level bonus for legacy titles? ;)
Dria: noooo no more bonuses that favour hardcores
Tweetiti: davids say that he doesn't see much differences with T2 specially for the graphics but levels are cool
Teppy: Ok, I think I'm gonna go open a bottle of fruity hazlenut wine, grab dinner, smoke a Post-T2 cigar...
Teppy: I'll be back on a bit later, either here or in T3. I'll probably be coding mostly - doing some changes to the mineral map generation routines.
Teppy: Thanks for a great Tale, everyone. I'll see you around until Wednesday, then both servers will be down until Saturday, and then Launch!