Stormy brought another 3,900 soldiers through the Red Hero Weir Gate from Black Grotto today. The total invasion force now commands about 14,000 foot soldiers and a few hamlets of around 1,000 souls. YMGP and allies are responding to the attack currently with a much smaller force and employing the �Scorched Earth� strategy � destroying anything tactically advantageous to the invaders before they can get to it.
Report from the Field:
How to Make a New Planet That Is Bigger Than a Full-Sized World!:
A Report and Interview with TransProp
-- by XiaoMu, Editor-in-Chief
Recently, I had the accidental good fortune of paying a visit to a most peculiar planet. Its size is �1.� However, unlike those single square asteroids reported in other research findings, this one is truly a one-radius planet. It has a center square, surrounded on all sides by 6 hexes. Without a temple, spiritual charges, or even residents from the moment it was created, this little planet had been in existence for about 7 months. When I arrived, Blue Sun FL-6 was covered in mud, but still struggling to hold on to its planetary integrity. It will now receive some tender loving care from both this traveler and its creator, TransProp. Green hills will make the planet beautiful and a temple will keep its spirit up.
Since I believe that The Descryer Readers will be most curious to know about the specifics of the creation of such a planet, I asked Mr. TransProp to grant me an interview. He graciously agreed. The following is the transcript of our conversation:
TheDescryer: Would you please tell our readers your element and some of the special feats possessing some high level skills in your element allows you to do?
TransProp: First off, calling them high level is quite false. They may be uncommon, but they're certainly not difficult to get the stats for. Expert Earth Magic takes only old elemental magic level 2, last I heard, so now that would be a high "capable" or better. Terrauctus takes only that plus an old level of alchemy, which means one doesn't have to even be capable. Expert Terrauctus requires one to boost one's alchemy stat up to the old level 3, so a high "effective".
But you wanted to hear what these things do, not what they take to learn.
TheDescryer: I believe our readers will be happy to know the pre-requisites information. But, indeed, we are most curious about what some of these skills do.
TransProp: Expert Earth Magic (Terra Diutinus) takes 21 hours for me, and I'm at a "talented" elemental magic level. This one is pretty simple. You can only cast it on an earth temple. It takes 9 s.e. and 1 stone in addition to the time. After that, if you die, instead of going to heaven, you reappear on a random earth-aligned square on the planet with only yourself. No items, no peeps, though your hamlets and villages still belong to you. You then are vulnerable to natural deaths until you can find the time to cast TD again.
TheDescryer: How about Expert Terractus?
TransProp: Expert Terrauctus may only take a capable stat and a different effective stat to learn, but it's quite the costly skill. It takes 49 s.e., 1 earthbone, 1 stone, 1 alchemical instruments, and 9 hours. Despite the high cost, though, it's a simple spell. All you do is stand next to the edge of a planet or a hole in the planet, click the spell, click the direction you want to patch the hole in, and a new hills square will pop up in its place. The hills will have a height similar to the surrounding squares. Also, a strange thing about this is that it does not seem to have an associated skill, and hasn't seemed to give the caster any experience as of yet.
TheDescryer: Thanks. Now we are onto the focus of this interview. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one of your creations: Blue Sun FL-6. I believe our readers will be highly interested in finding out how you made this world. Would you care to elaborate?
TransProp: Blue Sun FL-6 was made with the spell between Expert Earth Magic and Expert Terrauctus. The Knowledge is called "Terrestrial Alchemy" and the spell is called "Terrauctus". I'll just show you its lookup here, easier than typing everything out.
Terrauctus
(29 minutes to complete)
Attempt to surround a Major Soul with mass. The more earthbone you hold, the more spiritual energy this spell will use.
This requires:
23 spiritual energy
1 Quintessence
163 Stone
1 Alchemical Instruments
3 Wood
Quintessences are made from distill, which takes one of each alchemical item. Alchemical Instruments are made by metal people using manufacturing, and they take just one tungsten to make. The rest of the items are common.
To use this spell, a sky soul must go into an astral sleep and then drift at least two squares off the edge of a planet. Then the spell can be cast. Strangely enough, however, once the spell is cast, the items do not disappear. That is why Aerym was able to make nine of the things. Since the items didn't disappear, he was able to do it several times in a row. For all I know, however, this may be a glitch that has been corrected by now.
TheDescryer: That is most fascinating. You used Terrauctus and created Blue Sun?
TransProp: Yes. Indeed. When I cast Terrauctus, it was on Dragyn. I had 1 earthbone in my inventory. When I cast the spell, the earthbone disappeared, along with 4 s.e.
So to summarize the whole process for you: The sky person falls asleep, drifts away, and then earth person casts terrauctus around them. However, once the sky person awakens, they wake up where they fell asleep, as if nothing happened, and the world is abandoned and losing energy (though it does not lose energy beyond a certain point until someone lands on it, and then it is in danger of falling apart) and other players must hope to get lucky on a disrupt in order to find it.
TheDescryer: Then the GK community is fortunate that this little scientific experiment of a gem has been found and is being taken care of.
TransProp: Indeed. Chmmr has found some of Kio's worlds. They're all little one square things lost amid empty space. The term "Asteroid" is quite fitting for them. They're about as large, and about as habitable, as one, after all. There's another strange thing about them: the lack of forums. Only the universal forums reach these worlds.
The one I made (Blue Sun) is different, though. It is 7 squares, the center and then six surrounding. It is different in that the normal list of forums seem to reach here, as well.
TheDescryer: I can verify that. I can read, post, and edit all the forums that normally reach me. I do have a few more questions.
TransProp: Please go ahead. Ask.
TheDescryer: What do you think the distance between this newly made world and the planet the spell was cast upon?
TransProp: How far the sky person drifts before the world is created around them determines how far away the planet is, and hence what forums reach it.
TheDescryer: Why do you think this world is size ONE? Do you think all worlds created this way will be a standard size? Such as the size 4 for a regular Escape World?
TransProp: No. I believe that more earthbone [in the caster�s possession] means more radius. Currently, my hypothesis is that radius is directly proportional to earthbone used. 1 earthbone, 1 radius; 2 earthbone, 2 radius, and so on. It is possible that S.E. used goes up exponentially, to prevent things from getting out of hand, but maybe not. So, making a planet larger than an escape world should take 4 earthbone. But I don't know if s.e. will increase in the same proportion. So it should be possible to create worlds larger than escape worlds, and probably larger than the main planets as well...
TheDescryer: Is the spell dangerous to the Sky soul who goes into Astral?
TransProp: Not in the least. If there is any danger, it is in the fact that the world is often near death when found, as you can see here. But that doesn't necessarily involve the earth and sky souls who made the planet, though it did in this particular case.
TheDescryer: Do the Earth and the Sky souls have to be on the same square (or world) for this to take effect?
TransProp: They don't have to be on the same square or world.
TheDescryer: Does the world name follow the regular world-creation scheme (Time Color/Day Name?)
TransProp: Yup.
TheDescryer: Does this planet show up on your overview screen?
TransProp: Yes.
TheDescryer: Would you like to give such planet a term? Neither Asteroid, nor Escape World seems to fit.
TransProp: I don't think there's any need to get bogged down in terminology, with a separate name for a planet with radius 0, and 1, and 2, and so on. Therefore, if it were up to me, and there's no saying this will catch on, I'd keep it only at a few terms. Anything smaller than an Escape World would be called an Asteroid, anything Escape World or bigger (but less than regular world sized) would be called a Demiplane, main worlds would be called FocalPlanes, while anything larger would be a Megaworld. I think only Asteroid has a chance of catching on; I don't think I'll hear anyone calling BG, YM, RM, and the like FocalPlanes any time soon. And giving credit where credit is due, the words Asteroid and Demiplane come from the world list on Dragyn's site; I just think they work and so am mentioning them here.
TheDescryer: Just one last question to clarify a point: are all of these spells and skills Earth Only?
TransProp: Exactly.
TheDescryer: Thank you so much for sharing your new findings with our readers and the GK community at large.
In this issue of The Descryer, we have decided to bring our readers something more than just the news on the war fronts. It is not that we believe that the RCE and YM situations are unimportant, nor that our readers are disinterested in the development of the two invasions recently brought by Rome, The Brotherhood, and WURM. However, it is our belief that GoKrida, as a universe and a community, offers more for the curiously and intellectually minded souls than just the news about wars. Serious and diligent researches are constantly being performed, either quietly or with fanfare. We hope that this issue offers a respite from the previous few issues of The Descryer for our readers. We hope that more exciting information on new scientific findings can appear more regularly in our future issues. Sleep well tonight, fellow GoKridans, because the world holds more than fear and schemes.
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