Dig

Dig

Caveat: I have participated in many digs but never run one. Part of my purpose in writing this is giving some more knowledgeable player an easy place to stash their knowledge. We'll see. Also my memory for the details may be off. Edit to your heart's content.

--Aku

Why Dig?

Digs are one of the co-operative activities that produce resources, specifically Cuttable Stone, Medium Stones, Gypsum and Bauxite. It's also a way to get together, exchange rumours, sign petitions, drink, smoke, teach techs, or congregate for acrobatics.

Dig Preparation

You'll need:

• A place.
  • Digs have to happen on Dirt, but dirt is almost everywhere so that isn't much of a restriction.
  • It should be near your compound, which can have
    • Chests for stashing the stones
    • A Carpentry Shop. (less necessary as the game progresses and people have their own shovels.)
    • A Kitchen for mixing some high-endurance food
    • If not a kitchen, then a supply of Grilled Onions.
• A time. Sometimes you can luck out and get enough people in a reasonable time by just announcing on E!, but generally people like to plan it into their day. Give some advance notice. If you're feeling civic-minded (or masochistic) announce that you'll be running at a certain time on a certain day for a few weeks.
• A cause. (This can help with the publicity)
  • Research
  • Personal
  • A clear understanding of the division rules. "100% for research", "100% for the diggers", or some combination.
• A duration. Generally one hour is all anyone can stand. Again, be clear and be firm. Some people will want to continue past the published end time, but others will have other plans. You don't want to impose on people. Your digs will get a bad reputation and people will stop coming.

Dig Mechanics

1. Position people around the hole far enough away to be out of the way.
2. When everyone has gathered, start the hole under Projects => Stonework.
3. Everyone else should pick the hole, pin up the menu, and start digging. If you have food, everyone needs to pay attention to their skill level and eat when the food runs out, be it onions or some endurance masterpiece.
4. The host is the "picker". Eventually as the dig progresses stones will start to appear. The picker gets to run around and grab them. At first it will be just cuttable stones. They weigh 1 and have bulk 1. Eventually medium stones will appear. They have bulk 1 but weigh 10. The picker should keep track of inventory and stash stones frequently enough to avoid getting pinned. If the dig is big enough there may need to be a second picker.
5. As the dig goes longer (as the hole gets "deeper") you will get more medium stones.
6. When time is up have everyone stop and wave goodbye to the hole. Count up the number of diggers, divide it into the number of stones, and distribute.
7. If you are digging at a bauxite or gypsum site some of the medium stones will be bauxite or gypsum instead.

Dig Math

I'm basing the following calculations on an entry in the Guides >> Concepts/Stats section that says that +58 Endurance food will allow a solo dig, plus the formula for stat timer decrease (base time * 7/(7+boost)), plus the base Dig time being 40 seconds.

Forged shovels help. I have no formulae.

• The base rate is 40 seconds per dig, or 1.5 digs per minute.
• The solo dig rate is 40 seconds * (7/(7+58)) = 4.31 seconds per dig, or 13.93 digs per minute.
• It is possible to solo dig with 37 End and a 9k shovel
• 13.93 / 1.5 is 9.29. This would seem to indicate that 10 unaugmented diggers can hold a productive dig. That seems low, but math is math. There may be timing issues involved with how often the hole shrinks. The usual minimum that i've heard is 12 unaugmented diggers.
• With grilled onions (+2 END) we get 40 seconds * (7/(7+2)) = 31.11 seconds per dig, or 1.93 digs per minute. This gives 8 diggers.
• By reversing the formula i compute that 2 people can dig with 26 END food, and three people with 15 END food. If anyone can confirm or disprove this, please drop a note in here.
• There is a technique called "burst digging" which can be done with (i think) 8 unaugmented people where the host starts the hole and everyone does their three initial digs as fast as possible. Then you all wait for your timers to refresh and do it again. The output is small, but it is non-zero.

If someone has some numbers about how much stuff gets produced per hour with different numbers of diggers that would be good.

Dig Etiquette

• Show up on time, with your shovel and grilled onions.
• If you show up late, don't sweat it. Just pitch in and start digging.
• If you show up really late then you have a moral decision to make about how much of the results to accept. Be nice. Do the right thing. Conversely the host may ask you not to participate. Be polite.
• On the other hand it's often more trouble than it's worth to compute the fractional shares for partial participation, and the host may just give you an equal share.
• The count probably won't come out even. Be prepared to accept one less than everyone else. Remember that you'll be leaving with more stuff than you started with, so it's going to be a win.
• Conversely, if you need a certain number for a project and end up close, ask. People are often willing to help each other out. That's one of the things i like about this game.
• If the dig supplied food, contribute to the recipe if you can, but again the food is often considered part of the cost of doing business. Ask if you're not sure.
• Check the other diggers.
  • Read their petitions, especially the Leadership initiation petition.
  • Teach techs to each other. A one-hour dig theoretically allows 13 lessons.
  • Afterwards is a good chance for acrobatics. Allow more time for that if that's what you want.
• For the host, do your best to start and end on time.

Stone Distribution

There is a dig spreadsheet available from the Tale 4 Dig page - http://www.atitd.org/wiki/tale4/dig

BURST DIGGING

If you have too small a number of people to organise a regular dig, a "burst dig" can aquire small amounts of stone with as few as 4 people.

How to do it:

• Dig a hole.
• As soon as the hole is dug, all participants dig on it as fast as possible, exhausting their Endurance timers.
• That's it. Collect stone, wait for the hole to close and all endurance timers to fully go to black, and repeat.

We were able to reliably get 2 Cuttable Stone per hole with 4 people using Grilled Onions.