A Tale in the Desert

Strength

 * Permanent boost: You gain 1 STR for every 4 animals you add to the logbook of The Test of The Safari. Maximum permanent Strength is 7.
 * Controls how much weight you may carry. If you have positive or 0 strength, you can carry 500 + (500 * str) weight. If you have negative or 0 strength, you can carry 500 / (1 - str) weight.
 * Increases the effect of each wind of a deep well (by 1+str). (T1 info)
 * Governs the timer used when seperating Coconut Meat and Coconut Water.
 * Mixing cement triggers a strength timer in addition to the endurance timer.

Dexterity

 * Permanent boost: You gain 1 DEX for every four Acrobat moves you learn. Maximum permanent Dexterity is 7.
 * Controls how much bulk you may carry. Formulas are the same as for Strength and Weight.
 * Higher dexterity seems to increase the chances of producing a rabbit pelt when slaughtering rabbits. (T1 info)
 * Increases your off-road running speed by 3% per Dexterity point. Bonus dissipates if carrying more than 1000 bulk.

Endurance

 * Permanent boost: (not available yet)
 * Temporary boost: Eating Grilled Fish raises END to +2 for roughly 2.5 minutes. You can also cook meals to gain stronger or longer (but still temporary) effects
 * Governs your endurance timer, which is triggered by many activities, including the use of a loom, mine, barrel grinder, stirring cement, or digging. High endurance is greatly desired for these activities.
 * Gained from progressing in Takeskot in Tale 1.

Speed

 * Permanent boost: You gain 1 SPD every time you're in the top 21 at The Test Of The Singing Cicada. Maximum permanent Speed is 21.
 * Increases your on-road running speed.
 * Increases the size of fish catches, gives you a chance of not losing bees when harvesting from an apiary, and reduces the time you need to wait when bottling wines. 

Constitution

 * Permanent boost: Gained from progressing in The Test of Darkest Night. Maximum permanent Constitution is 7.
 * Governs a timer used in the operation of a Toxin Kitchen.
 * Governs the timer used when smoking the Hookah pipe.
 * Governs the timer used in making Gunpowder.

Focus

 * Permanent boost: Gained from judging Thought puzzles. Maximum permanent Focus is 7.<BR>
 * Governs the timer used when tapping bore rods.<BR>
 * Governs the timer used when inspecting installed blades in a carpentry shop.

Perception

 * Permanent boost: Gained from Food, Wine, Beer and Herb Smoking. Maximum permanent Perception is 7.<BR>
 * Required for quarrying various marbles - see Rock of the Ages.<BR>
 * Random boost to harvesting from trees.

Citizenship
By popular demand I am posting the contents of the new Citizenship Challenge.<BR>

When you join Egypt for the first time you are now given a tab in the lower left hand corner of your screen called, simply, "Citizenship". This works much :like any of the other challenges released as part of the new mission system.<BR>

They are presented in a logical order in an effort to aid newcomers on their journey to Egypt.<BR>

The tasks are:<BR>

Gather Slate near a shoreline<BR> Learn Stone Blade Fabrication<BR> Make a Stone Blade (Special Menu)<BR> Gather Wood from a Tree<BR> Learn Carpentry (School of Architecture)<BR> Build a Wood Plane (Projects Menu)<BR> Make Boards using a Wood Plane<BR> Learn Brick Rack Construction (School of Architecture)<BR> Build a Brick Rack (Projects Menu)<BR> Gather Sand<BR> Gather Mud near a Shoreline<BR> Gather Grass<BR> Dry Grass into Straw (Drop Menu)<BR> Make Bricks using a Brick Rack<BR> Get Flax Seeds from a School of Art and Music<BR> Let the Flax Bed go wild, and harvest Seeds<BR> Weed a flax bed several times and harvest the Flax<BR> Learn Flax Processing<BR> Rot Flax in the water<BR> Take rotten flax from the water<BR> Gather Thorns (click on plants to find a species that has thorns)<BR> Build a Flax Comb<BR> Process flax on the flax comb until you get Tow<BR> Learn the Clothwork skill (School of Art and Music)<BR> Build a Small Distaff<BR> Spin Tow into Twine<BR> Gather Tar from a Tar Pit<BR> Learn Ferry Construction (School of Art and Music)<BR> Clean up by picking up your Brick Rack<BR> Clean up by tearing down your Wood Plane<BR> Build a Ferry Boat and use it to travel to Egypt!<BR>

I hope this helps all you mentors out there. Remember that your students can see which of these items they have completed, and which ones they have not. :(Incomplete items say "No" next to them while complete items say "Done")<BR>

Thanks to all of you that have given me feedback on the various texts for the island signs. I believe we are very close to having one of the best new :player experiences that ATITD has ever seen.<BR>

Travel
Egypt is a large place, and there are a number of different ways to get around.<BR>

1 coordinate = 16 feet = about 5 meters.<BR>

On foot
The simplest (if not fastest) way to get around is on foot. Your base travel speed is approximately 16 feet per second off-road; travel on roads is slightly faster at 20 feet per second. Running speed may be increased by increasing certain attributes: Higher dexterity allows you to run faster off-road, and higher speed allows you to run faster on-road. At 7 points of dexterity, off-road travel speed is the same as on-road speed. Carrying more than 500 bulk will negate the off-road speed bonus from dexterity.<BR>

Steep slopes or deep water will block foot travel. Ferries can be constructed to cross narrow rivers.

Chariots
Chariots provide a rapid, inexpensive means of traveling between regions. There is a chariot stop located in the center of every city. Each chariot stop provides connections to the stops located in several neighboring regions.<BR>

Chariots may be used in two ways: At specific times for free, or at any other time at a cost in offline travel time. Most routes are available for free travel once every 10-20 minutes. The cost in offline travel time and time remaining until free travel is available may be checked at the chariot stop.<BR>

The cost in offline travel time for using a chariot is five times the time it would take to cover the same distance on foot.<BR>

For the most curious ones, chariots travels at 2 coordinates per ingame seconds (aka 21.8 miles/hour or 35.1 kilometers/hour). But please take notes it takes a constant, stops dependant, amount of time to prepare the chariot for his trip back. ;)<BR>

Chariot Schedule<BR>

There is now a predicted Chariot Schedule and route planner created by Tialaramex. This lets you discover when it will be possible to ride for free without actually visiting the chariot stop itself.<BR>

(The same planner with a different front system is here).

Expedition travel
Every city center is surrounded by several expedition sites. There should be an expedition site located along every road leading away from a city center, about four minutes from the chariot stop.<BR>

The exploration travel skill, available at a cost of 2 leather from any School of Body, allows you to designate any one expedition site as your personal expedition site. (You must visit the site to select it.) In addition, you may designate any location in Egypt as your "home location", using an option under your navigation menu.<BR>

Once you have selected a personal expedition site and home location, any subsequent changes to either these locations will take two hours to take effect. You will not be able to use expedition travel for these two hours.<BR>

Expedition travel may be used in two ways:<BR>


 * Instantly move from your current location to your personal expedition site.<BR>
 * Instantly move from your personal expedition site to your home location. <BR>

Both forms of expedition travel cost offline travel time proportionate to the distance of the journey. Expedition travel costs 160% as much as chariot travel (8 times the time it would take to walk). There are no restrictions on how often you may use expedition travel.<BR>

Expedition travel may not be used when within 150 coordinates (note: unverified) of a chariot stop.

Waypoints
Several schools teach the navigation skill. Each different school you learn this skill from will increase your skill by one level, and each level gives you one additional waypoint. (You must learn each level of the skill from a different type of school.)<BR>

The following schools currently offer navigation:<BR> School 	Cost<BR> Architecture 	10 copper<BR> Thought 	50 papyrus paper<BR> Art 	4 Silk Cloth<BR> You may place waypoints at any location you want, using the appropriate option under your navigation menu. Waypoints may be moved at any time, and changes take effect immediately (unlike changes to your home location or personal expedition site).<BR>

You may instantly jump from your current location to any of your waypoints, at a cost in offline travel time. When traveling near home (both start and destination are within 600 coordinates of your home location), waypoint travel costs 75% as much as expedition travel over an equivalent distance (6 times as much as on foot). When traveling far from home (either start or destination is 3000 or more coordinates from your home location), waypoint travel costs 375% as much as expedition travel (30 times as much as on foot). For intermediate distances from home, the cost scales linearly.<BR>

To simplify: The farther you or your waypoint is from home, the more it costs to use a waypoint. Using waypoints to get around camp is cheap; using waypoints to travel between regions is very expensive.<BR>

You may not use a chariot for ten minutes after using waypoint travel.

Where should I put my Home location?
If you live in town, between the Expedition Site circle and the Chariot Stop, simply locate your Home in the middle of your camp. Chose the Expedition site that's nearest your Waypoint sites, not necessarily the Expedition site that's nearest your Home location. For example, if you live in town, but near an expedition point, you might want to run just outside of that Expedition Point, and then Jump to your selected Expedition site on the far side of town to get to your Waypoints, and then jump back to the Expedition Site and thence Home.<BR>


 * The cost of travel to a waypoint depends on how far you are from your Home location.<BR>
 * The inbound cost of travel to an expedition site, and thence from the expediton site to your Home location, is fixed. <BR>

Because you are too sweaty to use a chariot for 10 minutes after a wayport jump, as a practical matter waypoints are useless when placed near a Chariot Stop. Jumping Home from an Expedition Site to your Home, however, doesn't make you sweaty, so one very good strategy is to place your Home location near the Chariot Stop. At a cost of 30 minutes of wayport time, you can pretty much eliminate local running when you are inbound to a Chariot Stop. Outbound, just use a Waypoint. Unless your Waypoints are on opposite sides of Town, placing your Home location at the Chariot Stop is going to cost you some extra travel time.<BR>

If you are trying to conserve Off-Line Travel time, rather than running time, your Home Location should be near the center of the polygon formed by the Chariot Stop and your (up to three) Waypoint sites. You can use cheap Expedition Time when inbound to the Chariot Stop, you're going to run from the Expedition Site to the Chariot Stop in any case, so fudge your Home location toward the midpoint of your Waypoint locations. If you're really hurting for Off-line Travel Time, you can run back out to your Expedition Site and then jump Home rather than using expensive waypoint time, so put your Home location right in the middle of your waypoints.<BR>

As you accumulate Waypoint time, you can gradually shift your Home location closer to the Chariot Stop to minimize your running time.<BR>

Also, be clever about selecting an Expedition Site. The site nearest your compound is probably isn't your best choice as you can easily run to that point when you have errands in town, or when your're on your way back from the Chariot Stop. <BR>

Skills from Schools
As the Wise of our Land plumb the depths of new and wonderous technology, the great Schools and Universities of learning teach the People the skills and techniques as they are (re-)discovered. Some of these are known and available to all, while others are vague memories recounted in tale and legend. Alas, the acquisition of knowledge is a costly endeavor, so payment of tuition is often required as recompense for learning from the great Schools, whereas the Universities teach useful arts to all after the expense of their research has been satisfied (see Techs).<BR>

See also List of Skills and List of missing Tale1 skills.

School of Architecture

 * Brick Automation - 1 iron bar, 1 copper sheeting, 1 small gear, 1 medium gear<BR>
 * Brick Rack Construction - 4 wood<BR>
 * Carpentry - 1 stone blade<BR>
 * Compound Construction - 100 wood<BR>
 * Kiln Construction - 12 bricks<BR>
 * Large Project Management - 2 canvas, 6 rope<BR>
 * Mechanics - 400 Concrete<BR>
 * Navigation - 10 copper<BR>
 * Pottery - 2 Clay<BR>
 * Ritual Item Construction - 10 linen, 200 firebricks, 100 oil<BR>
 * Rock Saw Construction - 10 flint<BR>
 * Salvage Techniques - 200 firebricks<BR>
 * Stone Blade Fabrication - 2 slate<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 14 Pulley

School of Art and Music
o Level 1 - 7 Medium Ruby, 7 Medium Emerald, 7 Medium Sapphire, 7 Medium Diamond<BR> o Level 2 - 1 Large Ruby, 1 Large Emerald, 1 Large Sapphire, 1 Large Diamond<BR> o Level 3 - 7 Large Ruby, 7 Large Emerald, 7 Large Sapphire, 7 Large Diamond<BR> o Level 4 - 1 Huge Ruby, 1 Huge Emerald, 1 Huge Sapphire, 1 Huge Diamond<BR> o Level 5 - 7 Huge Ruby, 7 Huge Emerald, 7 Huge Sapphire, 7 Huge Diamond <BR>
 * Advanced Tub Design - 100 Saltpeter, 300 Sulfur, 20 Tar<BR>
 * Camp Decoration<BR>
 * Clothwork - 10 rotten flax<BR>
 * Desiccation - 5 salt, 1 Huge topaz<BR>
 * Ferry Construction - 4 Tar<BR>
 * Flax Processing - 10 flax<BR>
 * Loom Automation - 2 medium gear<BR>
 * Mechanics - 49 Acid<BR>
 * Navigation - 4 Silk Cloth<BR>
 * Salvage Techniques - 400 beeswax<BR>
 * Silkworm Farming - 500 honey and level-2 beetle certificate (see the Test of Khefre's Children)<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 40 linen<BR>
 * The Art of the Pipe - 7 Fine Glass Rods

School of the Human Body
o Level 1 - 10 Bleeding Hand Mushrooms, 10 Iron Knot Mushrooms, 10 Colt's Foot Mushrooms <BR> o Level 1 - 10 Tadpoles, 5 Flax, 1 Papyrus<BR> o Level 2 - 20 Cabbage Juice<BR> o Level 3 - 20 Dried Flax<BR> o Level 4 - 50 Cabbage<BR> o Level 5 - 10 Papyrus Paper, 20 Cactus Sap <BR>
 * Botanical Identification<BR>
 * Cooperage - 2 Brass Plate, 50 Copper Straps, 100 boards<BR>
 * Ecology<BR>
 * Exploration Travel - 2 Leather<BR>
 * Fishing - 25 twine, 1 boards<BR>
 * Indonesian Bee Care - 500 honey, level-1 beetle certificate<BR>
 * Mechanics - 300 Malt (burnt), 300 Malt (raw)<BR>
 * Rhythmic Strength - 500 grass<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 200 honey, 200 beeswax, 200 charcoal

School of Conflict

 * Mechanics - 200 Rope, 200 Slate<BR>
 * Rock of the Ages - Tuition of 10 slate required each time you attune to a particular marble type - see skill page for more details<BR>
 * Salvage Techniques - 4 Canary Granite, 4 Night Granite, 4 White Travertine<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 300 Glass Rods, 300 Leather <BR>

School of Leadership

 * Mechanics - 1000 Gold Wire<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 300 Papyrus Paper, 300 Flint <BR>

School of Thought
o 1 hour - 100 Bricks, 12 Cut Stone, 30 Concrete, 2 Cut Garnet: Choronzon, 1 Sugar Cane<BR> o 4 hours - 200 Bricks, 24 Cut Stone, 60 Concrete, 4 Cut Garnet: Choronzon, 2 Sugar Cane<BR> o 8 hours - 400 Bricks, 48 Cut Stone, 120 Concrete, 8 Cut Garnet: Choronzon, 4 Sugar Cane<BR> o 1 day - 800 Bricks, 144 Cut Stone, 360 Concrete, 12 Cut Garnet: Choronzon, 7 Sugar Cane <BR>
 * Desiccation - 20 sulphurous water, 1 Huge quartz<BR>
 * Eastern Meditation<BR>
 * Mechanics - 10 Cuttable Amethyst, 10 Cuttable Garnet, 10 Cuttable Lapis, 10 Cuttable Turquoise<BR>
 * Mineralogy - 1 iron, 1 copper<BR>
 * Navigation - 50 Papyrus paper<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 2 Oyster Shell Marble

School of Worship
o Level 1 - 100 onions, 100 carrots, 100 leeks, 50 cabbage, 50 garlic. 50 grilled fish<BR> o Level 2 - 7 Sand Spore Mushrooms, 7 Ra's Awakening Mushrooms, 7 Peasant foot Mushrooms, 7 Eye of Osiris Mushrooms, 7 Bleeding Hand mushrooms, 7 Camels Mane Mushrooms, 7 Colt's Foot Mushrooms<BR> o Level 3 - 10 Common Sage, 10 Common Basil, 10 Common Rosemary <BR>
 * Botanist's Touch - 20 Flower fertiliser<BR>
 * Cooking<BR>
 * Desiccation - 10 coconut water, 1 Huge ruby<BR>
 * Foraging - 250 Thorns<BR>
 * Mechanics - 1 Huge Sapphire, 1 Large Emerald, 1 Medium Diamond, 1 Small Topaz<BR>
 * Pilgrim Shrine Construction - 1 Oyster Shell Marble, 1 Yellow Alabaster, 1 Mud Granite<BR>
 * Ritual Item Construction - 3 candles<BR>
 * Structure Repair - 1 Huge Diamond, 1 Large Ruby, 1 Medium Sapphire, 1 Small Emerald

Compounds
Compounds are among the first things most people build. (Commonly in order: Wood plane, Brick Rack, Chest, Compound). Their purpose is to house ... other things. Pottery wheels, chests, wood planes. Everything.<BR>

A compound costs 100 boards and 200 bricks to build, and you need the Compound Construction skill. There are a number of floor plans to choose from (see below). The initial floorplan gives you an initial amount of space (8 sectors each 16x16), which can be expanded upon.<BR>

To construct an item **inside** (vs. overlapping) a compound, click on the compound's foundation, select the 'projects' menu, and choose what you wish to build. You will then be given an opportunity to rotate and move the item to your heart's content. When it is where you want (and facing the right direction), you "build" it, which sets it up as a project that you load materials into until it is done.<BR>

Note that only one project can be under construction within a compound at a time. Thus you will probably want to have most of the materials on hand before setting up a new project, especially in communally owned compounds. Also, if your project requires firebrick, you will want to have all your firebrick on hand before starting, lest needing to rebuild a crumbled True Kiln midway requires abandoning your original project.<BR>

There are two sizable advantages to building things inside a compound:<BR>


 * Positioning. Each item requires a certain amount of space. When constructing projects, you have the ability to place them phenomenally closely and precisely. While the same interface is used to build a project in the wild, you have far fewer/less precise location cues. Thus, project density can be quite a bit higher in compounds. However, you can overlap items when placing outside compounds, while the compounds make sure items do not overlap.<BR>
 * Site fees. In constructing (and expanding) your compound, you have already laid the groundwork for structures. Many projects require a Small or Medium Construction Site, if built outside a compound.

Compound Floorplans
Here is a page showing floor plans of the initial compound styles. Initial Styles

Compound Contents
A page is already dedicated to the size of structures built inside of compounds: Building Sizes.<BR>

If appropriate, more information can be added here.

Compound Expansion
To expand your compound: Click on the compound, and select "Edit blueprints". This allows you to edit the appearance (and size) of your compound. While you are editing, the walls of your compound are displayed, allowing you to alter them.<BR>

When done, simply hit the exit button on the blueprint editing dialog. Your compound is now a "project under construction", which you load via the blueprints/load materials menu option. This DOES mean that while your compound is being worked on, you can't build things inside it. As with other projects, you can abandon it and reclaim the materials already put into it, if you decide not to continue, or have a more pressing project.<BR>

When you expand your compound, costs are calculated as:<BR>

cost for the roof over the section<BR> cost for the floor under the section<BR> cost for each wall section constructed (commonly 2 or 3 walls)<BR>

Costs are set by the options chosen:<BR>

Wall type (Plain, sloping, stair-stepped, etc)<BR> Wall and Trim colors and textures.<BR> Roof features (plain, pyramid, studded).<BR> Floor features (plain, marbled of various sorts)<BR> Note: Doors/alcoves are considered "wall types", not additions to walls, as is a sloped wall with roof unit, or without trim.<BR>

A minimal cost compound can use the basic plain walls (which are straight vertical walls), and the flat roof type, and it uses brick texture for walls, with the stripe texture for decoration. This combination should use only bricks (for the walls), and a little flax and straw for the roof. You probably won't want to do this for smaller personal compounds, but it might be useful in public areas (thrifty compounds mean more resources for the useful stuff inside) and for very large guilds.<BR>

As shown below, the following features require cut stone:<BR>

Arcs trim texture (affects entire compound)<BR> Blocks wall texture (affects entire compound)<BR> Wedge wall style (on new walls only)<BR>

Some starting buildings set the wall texture to "Stone" which causes a cut stone requirement every time you modify/add on. This can be taken out by setting the wall texture to "Brick". You might need to change the trim texture as well to remove any trim. Rule of thumb, if your upgrade requires cut stone, and all your doing is adding plain walls, then chances are it can be fixed by changing these two textures.<BR>

Tip: don't click on the load materials option unless you are totally happy with the blueprints. Even if you don't actually load any materials ATITD will think that you did and won't let you edit the blueprints further.<BR>

Per unit costs
In the following, N is the number of sectors your compound will have when you are done. Figures in parethesis still need more data.<BR>

Wall costs, per section<BR> Plain wall: N bricks<BR>

Sloped wall: N bricks, (7) slate<BR>

holds for Simple, Wide Left, Wide Right, Wide Both<BR>

Wedge: (12 cut stone)<BR>

holds for Left, Right, Center, Edges.<BR>

Sloped Special: (N+7) bricks, (7) slate.<BR>

holds for sloped-no trim, alcove, and roof unit<BR>

Stairstep: N boards, (7) slate.<BR>

holds for simple, wide left, wide right, wide both<BR>

Column varieties: (7) oyster shell marble<BR>

holds true for cylinder and obelisk columns, single or paired.<BR>

Plain Door: N bricks, N/2 boards<BR>

(Tested: 41 bricks paired with 20 boards, 42 bricks with 21 boards)<BR>

Post-lintel door: (?) bricks<BR>

(Tested: size 41 took 24 bricks, size 42 took 25)<BR>

Extruded wall: (?) bricks<BR>

(same results as for post-lintel door)<BR>

Need more data<BR>

Roof features<BR> Ceiling: (?) flax, (?) straw (approx 2x straw to flax)<BR>

holds for all varieties of ceiling: flat, pyramid, stud<BR> ceil(N/20) for flax, ceil(N/10) for straw is a modest approximation.<BR>

(Results: N new sections of flat ceiling requires N flax and 2*N straw)<BR>

Need more data<BR>

Floor features<BR> Yellow floor: N bricks<BR> Other color plaster floor: 2*N bricks<BR> Marble floor: seems to be 2 of that variety of stone per section.<BR>

(could be something like ceil(N/30), but need more data)<BR>

Need more data<BR>

Trim Style<BR>

Stripes: default for all of above measurements<BR> Arches: (?) cut stone per wall section<BR>

(Tested: at sizes 34-35 took 1+3*N cut stone per wall section)<BR> (Results: from 8 sector, 14 walls to 15 sector, 24 walls took 23 cut stone)<BR> Trim cut stone requirement appears to be half that of the block wall requirement for the same change.<BR>

Brick wall texture: default for all of above measurements<BR> Block wall texture: (?) cut stone per wall section<BR>

(Tested: at sizes 34-35 took 2 + 6*N cut stone per wall section)<BR> (Results: from 8 sector, 14 walls to 15 sector, 24 walls took 46 cut stone)<BR> (I have a compound here, 13 sectors, 24 wedges, 2 extended, 1 post linted door and 1 roof unit sloped side upgrading from bricks to blocks costs 82 Cut Stone. Perhaps it has to do with all the wedges already requiring CS?)<BR>

Paint
Compounds may be painted with any colour of paint that is in the blueprint editor's inventory. The wall colour affects all walls and the trim colour affects all trim, so no rainbow compounds. Some example pics of wall colours may be found at Brick Compound Colors.<BR>

Paint costs appear to vary both with the size of the compound and the colour chosen.

(costs go here, when figured out)

Optimizing Strategies
Wall and floor costs (at least) seem to be directly proportional to the NEW size of the compound. You should compare the (estimated) costs of building a large extension all at once to the costs of smaller expansions.<BR>

Example: You have a 10 section compound, you want to add 20 more sections.<BR>

Plan A:   Plan B:<BR> X X X X X  X X X X X<BR> X X X X X  X X X X X<BR> 1 1 1 1 1  1 1 1 1 1<BR> 1 1 1 1 1  1 1 1 1 1<BR> 1 1 1 1 1  2 2 2 2 2<BR> 1 1 1 1 1  2 2 2 2 2<BR>

Plan A adds 13 walls, 20 sectors. Let's use plain walls and floors, to be cheap. Plan A's new size is 30, so the cost is (if our figures are right) 30 * (13 + 20) or 990 bricks.<BR>

Plan B adds 9 walls and 10 sectors, twice. The first would be 20 * (9+10) or 380 bricks, the second 30 * (9+10) or 540, for a total of 920 bricks, despite the 5 wall sections you wasted.

Issues
How do Cornerstones fit into all of this? What is a cornerstone? What effect does it have on your compound?<BR>


 * As Teppy explained it during Beta, cornerstones prevent decay of a structure over time. A compound without a cornerstone will begin to slowly decay (taking approximately one month to reach 0%), and will need a number of bricks/boards/etc to maintain, presumably related to the size of the structure. A cornerstone will eliminates this decay. This encourages building fewer, large compounds as opposed to a large number of small ones. Once a compound reaches 0%, it ceases protecting the buildings inside it, which also start to decay. Not much is documented about this process, but the Structure Repair skill is used to repair damaged buildings. <BR>

How/where does one get cornerstones?<BR>

o 1. Automatic on initial paid subscription of the account<BR> o 2. Automatic on one month anniversary of that account <BR>
 * Here are the ways that cornerstones can be obtained: (thanks Gentry @ Feb14/05)<BR>

(actually GM Seratos told me it is given, automatically, but any time between 30 and 60 days of the start of the account - Sita)<BR>

o 3. Automatic to all accounts in good standing at Christmas (2004) as a bonus <BR>


 * You can install one using the "Utility... > Install a cornerstone" menu on your compound. Cornerstones don't show up in your inventory, but you can view how many cornerstones you have, as well as the location of your installed cornerstones, using the "Special... > Show my cornerstones" menu. <BR>

Does the extruded wall type cut into the interior size of the compound? (Is that how it pays for being cheaper than "plain walls"?) And how does its cost scale?<BR>


 * Wall types appear to have no effect on interior size, but do effect building cost and exterior appearance. I expect flooring costs to be on a per section basis, with wall textures and types being "per wall". <BR>

Need more sample data for costs of: slate for walls that use it, marble flooring costs (does it scale, or is it constant?), roofing costs, etc.<BR>


 * A problem to be careful of. If your account is closed/expired/quit and then you come back any Compounds with Cornerstones in them will have experienced decay and you must remove the cornerstone and reinstall to protect it.

Cautions
1. If your compound grows beyond a certain point, if you attempt to add any buildings (chest, kiln, whatever) inside you may no longer be able to see the floor grid, the floor itself, or even the perimeter foundation. There is a code limitation beyond which the rendering engine cannot properly draw it. The only solution for this is to remove sectors until you can again see the grid. If you need more space, you will need to build a second compound.<BR>

2. If you have segmented your compound into too many separate, non-contiguous sections (I believe up to 10 is safe), if you attempt to add new sectors, the blueprints will require additional materials for non-existant walls. I believe this is a bug in the code. The only work-around of which I am aware is to rejoin separate sections until you have fewer than 10.<BR>