Yeah, we can try there first.
The good news about starting a bit late is that you'll be able to save some running and use the 'newbie warp' to jump to whoever is at the site at the time 
I'm guessing that the start is 10AM PST (1PM EST). I have an important meeting at work starting at that point in time that should take at least an hour. So I will be at least an hour late to start with.
My in-game name is Moondragon.
Ah, gotcha. I'll see what I can do to claim that spot then.
I'm Scipio in game. Which tribe starts closest to our spot? I can't check the wiki easily as I'm on mobile ATM.
It is a core Hyskos region. You won't have to join Hyskos to set up there, but doing so will probably make life a bit easier.
After a bit of initial trouble, I was finally able to get in and start playing. Lots of people in game!
Fell free to join us.
What faction?
Hyskos. Once you are on the mainland, if one of us is online you can use the 'Starting Spots' menu to warp to one of us if we are online.
What is your in-game name?
I've never been a part of the very beginning of a telling ant I have to say, I'm really enjoying this. I also really like the factions set-up. I think it's really encouraged some healthy competition.
However, I'm not wild on Mallard's leadership. His use of the System and Story channels feels inconsistent. There was also a situation where someone made a joke in faction chat about what the Strange said and Mallard piped into the chat with "I choose my words very carefully". I'm worried this is going to become a weird power/control thing with him and he's going to struggle to be impartial and do what's best for the game and not his feelings.
I understand your concerns, Skiptron. I chalk it up to Malard's growing pains and feeling the pressure to be both the GM and DM. It really breaks immersion on the DM's side when people bring up tech support or game design issues during a RP session, especially if their the one doing all the emoting (acting as both "The Stranger" and "The Assistant")
A bigger concern for me has been the pacing so far of the game. The downside to every retelling in ATITD has been the veterans who already know the core concepts and know how to most efficiently grid their way back up the tech tree. The speed at which everything is being unlocked with just a few tweaks to design. For a game that's meant to run for 12-18 months, the amount of progress made after only four days leaves me concerned how much longer everything else has to go.
If things get too out of control we'll either see the devs pull the emergency break and leave us with no new content, or scramble to rush late game content out the door without an appropriate followup. That being said, I'm still having fun combing the desert for cicadas, digging for rocks, and chasing gazelles. If I had one selfish thought, it's that I hope the UK-based team puts more EST-timed events on the schedule during the work week. Nothing worse than getting home and reading about some fun thing I missed while at work.
Yeah, I feel you on the speed of discovery thing. I'm hoping that the tech and test release speed really slows down. I do like that some of the "core" techs are coming quickly. I think we're at the point now were we have all the critical tech. Honestly as much as people are complaining about research costs being high, I'd like to see them get higher. Also, as more tests come out I'm thinking people might start focusing on passing those tests more than they are unlocking techs.
Also, Mallard needs to hire an editor or maybe a content manager/ writer. It just seems really clear that he's not a professional story writer. The stranger seems really disjointed and random, and there's not much in the way of backstory or context. I think you using the term DM is perfect. It feels like he's a generic Dungeon Master with NPCs he's kind of making up on the fly. It just all feels unpolished and/or unprofessional.
Hopefully he finds his stride. I really like some of the core concepts he's playing with, just needs to be polished up.
I hear you too Skiptron, though that isn't really a new problem for ATITD. Teppy did a better job of keeping the role playing aspects he took part in separate from his role as developer, but the direction of the game was still subject to "what does Teppy find interesting today". I think in the early days, before he got bored and stopped paying much attention, we often referred to ourselves as 'Teppy's ant-farm'.
While I'm glad Pluribus took over and kept the game going, and really glad for his technical contributions, I'm also really glad he is no longer running the game. He clearly neither enjoys nor is good at the 'community management' aspect of running the game, which resulted in a lot of cringe-worthy outbursts from Pluribus during T7. I'm glad he is sticking around to do more of the stuff he is good at, won't have to be responsible for the stuff he isn't.
Pacing wise, I believe we are actually going a good deal slower than T7, for what thats worth. Base research costs were bumped up a good bit, and the faction split of universities has slowed things down even further since we can't just open things up at one spot and travel there. We don't have beer tokens this time around, which in T7 we could spend to gain a level, so that is also working to slow things down. Tests are also being made available more slowly with the new system around opening those up. There seems to be new content for the first time in along time (outside of the player-designed tests), which has me optimistic that Malard will be able to avoid the 'lack-of-content' problem that has occurred at times in the past. On the other hand, with fewer tests becoming available and no beer tokens, the level system may go back to being onerous again.
Pluribus did a really good job of actually keeping the level system out of the way for people who don't need the guidance it provides, and I'll be sad if it ends up being restrictive again this time around.
From the way I understood the ATITD tech design philosophy, it was "Here's some cool thing we made, but we're not going to tell you how it works" and task players with crowd sourcing to the reverse engineer the process. In this telling, it seems like those cool things are variations on an old theme, and the mystery isn't how to do it but which of it's attributes from previous tellings have been switched to make it work again.
For example: foraging. Most of the herbs are the same as T7, except their method of harvesting is different. So all the tools that already exist for foraging only need that one new data point. If the mechanics of harvesting herbs had been changed in some way - for example, now requiring 3 steps - it would have slowed down progress considerably. Instead, most of the new methods have already been identified, and foraging is just a find-and-match puzzle with Herbalist again.
I'd be cool with them shaking things up a bit more than they already have, as it feels like the big guilds are already years ahead of the rest of us, and the only thing holding them back are the artificial research requirements and timers.
Ugh...!!!...!!!!!
So I finally did my cicadas last night. Found all 7, and earned more than 7.7k points. Got my first cage. Then traveled all the way to enemy territory... to find out I need a linen to put down the cage! 2 hours past my bed-time... and I can't put down the damn cage. I was so enraged!
For cages, do they need to go in 'enemy' territory or will neutral regions will as well?
The first speed point went for a bit over 1900 points, if that doesn't increase too much you might pick up a couple of speed points with that score.
From the way I understood the ATITD tech design philosophy, it was "Here's some cool thing we made, but we're not going to tell you how it works" and task players with crowd sourcing to the reverse engineer the process. In this telling, it seems like those cool things are variations on an old theme, and the mystery isn't how to do it but which of it's attributes from previous tellings have been switched to make it work again.
For example: foraging. Most of the herbs are the same as T7, except their method of harvesting is different. So all the tools that already exist for foraging only need that one new data point. If the mechanics of harvesting herbs had been changed in some way - for example, now requiring 3 steps - it would have slowed down progress considerably. Instead, most of the new methods have already been identified, and foraging is just a find-and-match puzzle with Herbalist again.
I'd be cool with them shaking things up a bit more than they already have, as it feels like the big guilds are already years ahead of the rest of us, and the only thing holding them back are the artificial research requirements and timers.
I'm still surprised at how quickly foraging methods were discovered this time around, I seem to remember that taking us a lot longer in T6. My theory is that since a lot of tests were available very early on in T6, people had those to focus on so were not doing things like foraging.
I definitely hope to see more systems changes as well. I believe Malard really only took over in January or so, so there was not a lot of time to make all of the changes we'd like to see. Hopefully he sticks to his guns on the 18 month time limit for the telling, and has the opportunity to make bigger changes.
For cages, do they need to go in 'enemy' territory or will neutral regions will as well?
The first speed point went for a bit over 1900 points, if that doesn't increase too much you might pick up a couple of speed points with that score.
I think it's 'not in our territory' rule. It let me (try to) place it in neutral land.
I'm currently standing at close to 10k points. I found a cage that gave me more than 2k. I'll share these with you guys. We should probably pop up a list or something on google docs.
--Edit--
And to top off my frustrations... I just got bit by the expedition point travel. I thought I tagged one yesterday. Then today I ran to a different one thinking it would be a bit closer to me. Only to find out you can only travel FROM the tagged ones. So, instead of tagging that one and just waiting for 2 hours, I run back to the one I thought I tagged. Only to find out, an hour of running later, I did not in fact tag it yesterday. [/facepalm]
Nice find on the cage!
For expedition points, you an also just warp to them ... though you have to have set a 'Home' location as well, after you have first tagged an expedition site ... having set a home location before the first time you set an expedition site for the first time doesn't seem to count.
With all the accelerated tech, I can only hope Spouse Warping goes live soon.
[/quote]
Ugh...!!!...!!!!!
So I finally did my cicadas last night. Found all 7, and earned more than 7.7k points. Got my first cage. Then traveled all the way to enemy territory... to find out I need a linen to put down the cage! 2 hours past my bed-time... and I can't put down the damn cage. I was so enraged!
Damn, you've been a lot better off with cage hunting that I was. I finally found 7 after far too much searching and I've got about 1500 points. I need to get back to the uni to trade in for a cage next. I wonder if I'm looking in too obscure of spots, I'm in the DEEP desert for these.
Damn, you've been a lot better off with cage hunting that I was. I finally found 7 after far too much searching and I've got about 1500 points. I need to get back to the uni to trade in for a cage next. I wonder if I'm looking in too obscure of spots, I'm in the DEEP desert for these.
That's typically the strategy - hiding them in a place least likely to be found quickly (away from roads, water, etc). The best (worst?) cages are *also* on top of a reaaaaaaaaly hard to climb mountain.
Since cicadas can be heard from 60 clicks, searching a desert usually involves running in a straight line along a certain latitude, as far as you can, making a turn, running 100 clicks up, then turning back the direction you started from, in a figure-5 style pattern. This way, you can cover a 1000 click desert in 10 passes.
Damn, you've been a lot better off with cage hunting that I was. I finally found 7 after far too much searching and I've got about 1500 points. I need to get back to the uni to trade in for a cage next. I wonder if I'm looking in too obscure of spots, I'm in the DEEP desert for these.
I actually took the cue from you guys and went west. Except I went extreme. Pretty much to the end of the map. There also seems to be a pattern for the locations of the cicadas out here. Almost like some lazy world builder clicked on the map in a pattern.
My last cicada I found because I "knew" the area where it should be. And low and behold, it was there.
So, did I just find a Stargate?
Googling does not help me.
survey says...yes! Landmark that, test of the stargate coming soon.
That'd be cool
I'm currently standing at close to 10k points. I found a cage that gave me more than 2k.
I like this idea Please post a link if a list is made
Alz, did you guys want to join the guild? I noticed you and your missus started building a bit of ways out. Are you guys doing your own thing or...?
Oh, and regarding cicadas... I ended up getting TWO points of speed at one time. I think it charged me the price twice and gave me two levelups.
We've got a couple non-goodjer requests to join our guild. Does anyone have opinions on how open we want to be? I'm generally OK with being open to anyone, just have to watch what chests and permissions we set for rarer resources I guess.
Thoughts, opinions?
I'm cool with having non GWJ people join, it would be great if we could team up with our current neighbors especially.
Creating some 'elder-only' chests for rare items is a good idea.
Couple things,
1 - Sorted everything in the camp as best I could, not perfect, but better.
2 - Made everything with fancier/rarer materials be for members+
3 - Accepted Lynn(etra?) into the guild. She's currently set as initiate but seems like a cool person.
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