Test of the Mountaineer

Test of the Mountainer Draft Proposal

Abstract

The Test of the Mountaineer requires players to travel to distant and elevated peaks and claim these as their own. To do so, the ability to traverse terrain "too steep to climb" will be added. Peaks will be claimed with flags constructed from simple, already-existing materials, and dyed with pigment created from new, mountain-growing herbs and mushrooms. Flags will accrue Mountainer Points (MPs) for their builders at a rate determined by the flag's elevation, negatively modified by the presence of nearby, higher-elevation flags. Players will have the ability to tear down other players' flags by sacrificing a substantial number of their own MPs. Passes will be weekly and competitive, using a three-strikes-you're-in system similar to Cartouche or Pyro. After they have passed, players may continue to mountaineer for further rewards.

New Content and Mechanics - Climbing Slopes

Players will gain the ability to climb slopes which were previously "too steep to climb". Doing so triggers a Constitution timer, the severity of which is dependent on the steepness of the slope. I am unaware of precisely how the system determines which slopes are too steep to climb, but a player with 0 constitution should be able to take about 14 steps on too-steep-but-just-barely terrain before they have to wait for the timer, 7 steps on moderately-steep terrain, and 3 on sheer cliff faces like the HG wall. Any information which would allow me to specify this more precisely would be helpful and appreciated.

New Content and Mechanics - Herbs and Mushrooms

Twenty-one new herbs and seven new shrooms will be added. The rarity of these additions is as follows:

• Seven of these herbs and three of these shrooms will be common (on the order of wild lettuce or cobra hood shrooms).
• Seven of these herbs and two of these herbs will be uncommon (on the order of true tarragon or earthlight shrooms).
• Seven of these herbs and two of these shrooms will be rare (on the order of wild garlic or heaven's torrent shrooms).

These new herbs and mushrooms will grow only on mountainous terrain. In the case of the herbs, they will grow on either sand, grass, or dirt, and will not be linked to oases as current herbs are (if it is too difficult to implement non-oasis herbs, it would be acceptable to create additional oases on mountains instead). In the case of the shrooms, four will be nighttime shrooms and three will be day shrooms, with spawn times spread more or less evenly throughout the day and night.

Test Mechanics - Flag Construction and Dying

The base cost to assemble a flag will be 1 board, 10 nails, and 1 linen sail. Additionally, players will have to dye the flags with pigments made from the new mountain-growing herbs and shrooms. The cost of the dye will be tied to the number of flags the player currently has placed and active, as follows:

• Flag 1: 3db Common Herbs
• Flag 2: 3db Common Herbs, 1db Common Shroom
• Flag 3: 7db Common Herbs, 3db Common Shrooms
• Flag 4: 3db Uncommon Herbs, 7db Common Herbs, 1db Uncommon Shroom, 3db Common Shrooms
• Flag 5: 7db Uncommon Herbs, 7db Common Herbs, 3db Uncommon Shrooms, 3db Common Shrooms
• Flag 6: 3db Rare Herbs, 7db Uncommon Herbs, 7db Common Herbs, 1db Rare Shroom, 3db Uncommon Shrooms, 3db Common Shrooms
• Flag 7: 7db Rare Herbs, 7db Uncommon Herbs, 7db Common Herbs, 3db Rare Shrooms, 3db Uncommon Shrooms, 3db Common Shrooms

The eighth and successive flags will have the same cost as Flag 7. Flags will be assembled on a carpentry shop, but dyed at the site of their placement. To do so, the player will Meditate Upon Flag Colors at the desired spot to determine what that spot's dye should consist of (in terms of mechanics, this means that specified herbs and shrooms will be tied to the location; ideally, these requirements should change on a daily or weekly basis as well). The player will then receive a list of specific herbs and shrooms with which they will dye the flag.

Test Mechanics - The Flags Themselves

If the player has the requisite materials to dye a flag at the desired location, they will be able to initiate a project from their Tests menu and construct the flag, assuming that there is no other flag already present within 5 coords of the desired location. The flag will then appear. Flags should be clearly labeled with who placed them, such as, "This is a Mountaineering Flag, placed by InambaGuum." Once placed, flags have a definite lifespan determined by the elevation of the location at which the flag is placed. The (tentative) formula for determining flag lifespan is:

Flag_Lifespan_in_TeppyHours = 1300 - Elevation_in_Feet

This would give a flag at 100 feet a lifespan of about 7 weeks, and a flag at 1000 feet a lifespan of about 12 days; the idea behind this is that the highest (and highest-scoring) locations should require active attention to successfully defend. I am, of course, assuming that there are no locations higher than 1300 feet in Egypt. If that is not the case, the 1300 should be replaced by whatever the highest elevation is + 250 or so.

Test Mechanics - Tearing Down Flags

Although flags will decay naturally over time, a player may elect to tear down another player's flag, either to damage that player's scoring potential or to increase the scoring potential of their own nearby flag. Doing so is considered quite unsportsmanlike, however, and as such, a substantial MP penalty is assessed whenever a player chooses to tear down another player's flag. The MP cost to do so is equal to what the target flag would generate over a period of 3 days, plus 1 day additional penalty for each flag that has been torn down by that player in the past week. So if a flag generates 2000 MPs a day, it will cost a player 6000 MPs to remove it if that player has not removed another flag within the past week, 8000 MPs to remove it if is the second flag removed in the past week, 10000 if it is the third, and so on. In order to remove a flag, a player MUST already possess the required number of MPs to do so, and these Mountaineer Points are removed immediately from that player's MP pool. There is no MP cost associated with tearing down one's own flag, should a player wish to do so.

Scoring

Flags generate Mountaineer Points for each TeppyHour that they exist. If the flag is the highest one within a 100 coordinate radius, the number of MPs generated is the same as the flag's elevation in feet (e.g., a flag at 500 feet would generate 500 MPs per TeppyHour). If, however, there are flags within a 100 coord radius which are higher, the flag generates points as follows:

MP_Generation_Per_Hour = Elevation_in_Feet / (Number_of_Higher_Flags + 1)

So, if there is one flag higher than the player's flag, the player's flag will generate points at 1/2 the rate it would if it were the highest. If there two flags higher, the player's flag will generate points at 1/3 the rate, and so on. For the purpose of this calculation, flags at the precisely same elevation should each be treated as being lower than the other.

If it is determined to be too computationally-intensive to calculate MPs every hour, it would be acceptable to have flags generate MPs once per day instead.

Passing

Each week (during Sunday passes), the 7 players with the highest MP total will receive a Mountaineer's Chit (details below), and their MPs will be reset to zero. In order to pass the test, players must place in the top 7 three times.

Chits and Chitty Rewards

A chit is earned each time a player places in the top 7 during Sunday Passes. Chits can be freely traded among players and redeemed by anyone. Chits can be traded in for chitty (and some not so chitty) rewards which can help players in Body pursuits. While I expect this list to be amended substantially, some suggested rewards and costs are as follows:

• 1 Chit: Increased herb gathering for 1 Egypt Day. All herbs will yield twice as many deben of both herbs and seeds when foraged as they normally would. This should be disabled during foraging events.

• 1 Chit: Decreased Travel Time cost for 1 Egypt Day. All travel time costs are reduced by 50% during this period.

• 1 Chit: Increased run speed for 1 Egypt Day. Run speed (both on and off road) are increased by 50% during this period. This should be disabled during race events and foraging events.

• 1 Chit: Vintnersense [tm]: For 1 Egypt Day, a player will gain the ability to meditate on the location they are standing at to determine what flavors grapes grown at that position will produce. This should trigger a perception timer.

• 1 Chit: Brewersense [tm]: Similar to Vintnersense [tm], for a period of 1 Egypt Day, the player will gain the ability to meditate upon the location they are standing at to determine the complete list of microbes present. This should trigger a perception timer.

• 1 Chit: Gastrognome [tm]: For 1 Egypt Day, the player has a doubled chance of producing masterpieces. This should be disabled during cooking events.

• 1 Chit: Mycomagic [tm]: For 1 Egypt Day, the player gains the ability to meditate on the ground they are standing upon. If that ground is capable of producing mushrooms, the player will be told what types, and (if possible) whether it is a low, medium, or high quality spot for each type of shroom. This should trigger a perception timer.

• 2 Chits: Forager's Satchel: This is a portable bag which allows the forager to carry far more herbs and mushrooms than they normally could. While the player is carrying the Forager's Satchel, herbs and mushrooms are half as weighty and half as bulky as they would ordinarily be.

• 2 Chits: Vanity Title. The player will have the option to display a vanity title instead of their test-pass (Student of Body, etc.) title. Suggested title choices would be: "Mountaineer", "King of the Hill", "Billy Goat Progeny", and "Who Can See Your House From Here".

• 3 Chits: Fleetfoot. The player's run speed both on and off road is increased by 20%, permanently. This can only be chosen once.

• 3 Chits: Pathfinder. The cost of all Travel Time expenditures is reduced by 20%, permanently. This can only be chosen once.

• 3 Chits: Herbalist. Herbs always yield 3 more deben than they normally would and have a doubled chance of producing seeds. This can result in herb yields up to 10 deben. This is a permanent effect and can only be chosen once.

• 3 Chits: Mycologist. Every time a mushroom is picked, there is a 50% chance that two mushrooms will be added to the player's inventory. This is a permanent effect and can only be chosen once.

• 3 Chits: Swimmer. Swim speed is increased by 25%, and deep water can now be traversed (I realize the latter may not be an option; if this is the case, the swim speed increase should be 50% instead). This is a permanent effect and can only be chosen once.

• 3 Chits: Climber. The Constitution timer triggered by "Too steep to climb" slopes is only half as severe. This is a permanent effect and may only be chosen once.

• 21 Chits: Fertile Sacrifice. The player expends 21 chits to make all of Egypt more fertile for one week, and a message is displayed in System to that effect. During this time: 1) herbs respawn twice as quickly and there is a substantially improved chance for rare herbs to spawn, 2) mushrooms spawn all day and all night, without regard for their normal spawn times, 3) flax, wheat, barley, and vegetable yields are increased by 50% Egypt-wide, 4) fish can be caught at any time and are twice as large as they normally would be, 5) the stat effects of consumed food are increased by 50%, Egypt-wide, and 6) wines age one vintage every two days (for a total of 3 vintages during the week), Egypt-wide.

I recognize that some of these rewards are pretty potent, and the final one is massive (although its benefits are Egypt-wide and therefore do not give a user-specific advantage), but chits will be a very valuable commodity: in a (real) year of gametime, only 365 chits will be generated for all of Egypt, total. Players will have to decide between keeping the chits for themselves (and earning some decent bonuses) or saving up and pooling their resources for the good of all of Egypt. Additionally, the quality of these rewards should keep players who have already passed the test active in placing flags, and thus the test will remain competitive throughout the Telling's lifespan.

Principles

To pass principles, players should:

1. Harvest a mountainous mushroom
2. Harvest a mountainous herb
3. Plant a flag
4. Plant a second flag
5. Accumulate 1000 Mountainer Points.

That's it. Short, sweet, and simple.

Final Thoughts

In creating this test, it was my intention to combine several elements of Body tests that players enjoy -- foraging, shrooming, and finding out of the way spots -- along with a new, oft-requested mechanic (the ability to climb mountains), and to give Body a fun, competitive test that players will want to continue to pursue even after they have passed the test itself.

Since the test requires a minimum of three weeks to pass, and since it will undoubtedly be highly competitive, it should ideally be implemented fairly early in the telling. I recognize that there is a pretty high level of complexity here; if necessary, the test should be simplified for earlier implementation rather than released late in the telling as written.