The big Technology Push took a new turn with the arrival on the beach spot nextdoor of a New Rival, who promptly put up a monstrosity of a Compound, all asymmetrical angles and mismatched walls, which given my appreciation of order (With a small 'o'), is tantamount to a declaration of war! (Also with a little 'w'). I have a few days head start on him, and have so far unlocked the secrets of Leather and Oil. On the other hand, he's managed to invent the Shovel, which I didn't see coming. A hard fought race lies ahead...
Much of this race is conducted by the skill training offered at the various Schools and Universities around the world. For some of the techs, I need certain types of manufactured materials, and for some of those, I need preceding techs, but for others, I need to level more. i'm three at the moment, and there are several Tests open to me, some more practical than others. the two easiest, conceptually, at least, are The Principles of Art and Music, and the Principles of Leadership. I'm working on both at the same time.
The Principles of Leadership seems the simplest, on paper anyway. To pass, you need to get 21 other players to sign your Initiation Petition, which you get from the School or University. Easy enough, and a very Social kind of gameplay, but what with ATitD being so vast, and so underpopulated, it can be hard work actually finding anyone to put an X on the parchment. I think the most players I've seen in one place to date is seven, and I'm not really the sort to wave paper in the faces of strangers. People as a resource? Perhaps not the correct attitude! It's strange - I get the impression that the Initiation Petition is a thing that is supposed to be considered in a weighty fashion. "Will this newcomer be a responsible member of the Legal Profession of our Nation?", sort of thing. Remember, at the top end of this line of Tests, lies the Permaban Sceptre, which isn't a toy to be handed out causally. I've no idea what subsequent Tests are like, mind you, but presumably, by the time you've made it to the Real Power, you're so heavily invested in the community and so well known, that the bored griefer will never make it that far. One hopes anyway!
Anyway, I'm not quite set on that kind of power just yet, and my strategy to pass this test consists mostly of Being Polite at Chariot Stops, which seem to function as the travel network hubs. In MMOs in general, population generally tends to be the densest at Travel Points, and Banks, and in ATitD, you build Chests as needed to act as bank space. It works quite well actually, and most established and veteran players seem polite in turn, friendly and often sign my form before I've even Commented On The Weather, which is nice. In turn, I try to help in kind; most players have a 'Legal...' menu on them, and this will list any Petitions they have on the go. I read through these, which are mostly either Laws, which will become in-game In Context alterations to what is and isn't allowed, or Feature Requests, which presumably will all get rolled up and written into A Tale In The Desert IV, by the dev team, which is coming soon. Game Design by Democracy. I try to do it properly, mind you. This is serious stuff, and being a newbie, I don't really understand what many of the proposals actually mean, so I tend not to sign those out of a sense of pure helpfulness.
The other ongoing test I'm working on is The Principles of Art and Music. For this, you need to build a Sculpture and have 21 people vote that is is 'Interesting'. These Sculptures are all over the place at this late stage and are made out of dropped resource items, most of which have a distinct object in-world. By arranging 25 of these in a pleasing manner, Art is born! The UI for doing this is a bit of a nightmare to work with, but allows translation and rotation in all three axis of each pieces, granting a surprisingly amount of expression, for an MMO, and is almost Second Life-ish in feel.
Here's what I made!
I call it 'Extinction' and it's had three votes already! Hope it is Quite Interesting, as enough 'It's an Eyesore' votes will get it killed! Mind you, I may have placed it in a bit of an out-of-the-way location, which could cost me in what little passing traffic there is. There's pros and cons; on the down side, well, I wonder if 21 people will even come across it before the Telling ends. On the upside though, the obvious place to put these; the Chariot Stops, are absolutely crammed with existing Sculptures, which means my own effort would have to be truly exceptional to be noticed and clicked, amid the already quite high standard of craftwork already clustering about the prime locations.
Again, it's a two-way process, and struggling artists need my vote too. I must admit to being a bit of an Art Critic Wuss to be honest, and will tend to vote on very slack standards, partly out of a sense of duty, rather than actual appreciation. I do tend to vote on lone Sculptures half way along very long desert runs though; in the middle of all that sand, they certainly are interesting, even if they're technically rubbish, which may help me with my own remote placement. Who can say. I've set it up and now have to wait...
Here are some examples of the other art I've seen:
All made form common, and not so common, harvested resource items. As a whole, the large proliferation of these pegged out exhibits goes a long way to making what might otherwise be a typical MMO Bland Housing Estate or Wilderness, somewhat more, well....Interesting!