With no brilliant ideas at hand I had resorted to checking all the properties of the materials I had gathered. Almost all of them were new to me and so each one took some time to analyze. Every minute spent with a different material revealed lots of useful information, these materials would do wonders in technology if used properly, though no one would get a chance to find out about these properties in about an hour. Despite my best efforts the heat continued to rise, though at a much slower rate than what I had been experiencing outside the shell. All the heat made me tired and it was hard to focus, but I forced myself to keep working, I knew that if I gave up now I would never wake up again. After about forty minutes or so, as the heat became unbearable, I found one particularly interesting property in one of the ores I had found. The property didn't come up in the data that was showing on the screen. Rather, the information came as I was analyzing it. The device I was holding became colder to the touch, I thought at first it was my imagination and wishful thinking, but those thoughts were quickly squashed as frost started to build up on the edges. A few presses on the controls analyzed the shell I was in and showed that the temperature was dropping. I went back to the analysis screen and made some adjustments, changing the depth of the search and the power going in to the stored material, as hoped the frost started to disappear and the temperature started to rise again. This material responded to electrical currents by getting colder. I knew this wasn't a normal reaction for any material, and it told me why the hills didn't become molten. I wasted little time in constructing a device to attach to one of the heat dispersing arms of my shell, the device would convert the heat to electrical current and with a few controls I would be able to set a comfortable temperature in my temporary sanctuary.
I don't think I had slept so well in a very long time. Once the temperature was normalized I had quickly fallen asleep, exhausted from the ordeal. When I woke up again my device told me that the temperature was back to a comfortable range outside, though that must mean that it was quite dark outside. I couldn't stay here though, I had to get to a safer area where I could conduct some more research on the multitude of materials I had gathered. Opening the shell showed that the sun had gone down a couple of hours ago, the outside was illuminated only by the stars. I marveled that there were still plants on the ground, I knew that these plants would have some interesting properties and so I took some samples of them to study as well. In the distance I heard the creatures of the night, I wouldn't be able to leave without having something to protect myself with. I took a few moments to survey my surroundings for more of the resources I knew would serve me best and was happy to find the display showing several large deposits. I quickly pulled up as much as I could, constantly looking around for the predators of the night. When I had enough for my purposes I closed my shell up again and got to work designing my next piece of technology.
I couldn't tell how much time had passed, I did hear a few creatures venture in to the area, they sniffed at the strange thing sitting in the clearing but didn't dare disturb it. The design I had in the device was growing more and more complex, each additional piece of technology I could dream of changed the shape in a different spot and required some re-balancing and tuning to make sure it would work with the rest. Then once I had the first design of the technology I would begin working on the second generation, optimizing it using the next material I had just learned something new about. Though I hadn't planned on taking this long, I soon became aware of the rising temperature again and realized I had been working through the night. Wasting no more time in this location I used the device to decommission the shell, extracting all the raw materials I could, but having to leave at least one large block on the ground which I would have to carry. In all my workings I had realized that the tubes I had constructed still contained all the heat they had absorbed, meaning I had a very powerful battery that I didn't intend to give up just yet. I had it currently in the plans to use this battery in my design, but until it was done I needed to keep the power it already had. It was heavy to carry, but it was necessary as I wasn't sure the refiner could handle the heat it had inside of it, and with the reaction that some of the other materials had to heat and energy I couldn't risk it leaking into the storage. The walk back to the house was slow, I had to stop a few times to gather my strength again, it wasn't until I reached a spring and took some time resting and re-hydrating that I actually recovered by any degree from the trial I had just gone through. When I did reach the house the first thing I noticed was the note still in place but with some words scrawled on it. Reading the message I realized I needed to get myself cleaned up and head to town, there were important things going on and I needed to see them.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A Mostly Peaceful Day
The cool morning air felt good as it filled my lungs, I only took a moment to enjoy the rising of the sun before heading back inside again to check on my auction. After a few moments I could see that someone had made a bid on my stones, so I would have some PED again by the end of the day, this would at least let me start the next auction and hope that the next set of stones would sell as well. I knew it would be in my best interest to keep things simple today, no need to try and rush things, just wait for the PED to come and keep looking for what you can find. My morning walk started well, I found some bombardo and papplon early. As I continued my walk I ate a few pieces of the fruit until my meanderings eventually brought me to a small pile of trutun, totaling 56 when I had them all scanned in. It was amazing how much of this stuff could be found by walking around, miners were in too much of a hurry most of the time to realize that their probe had brought to the surface something that had some value, even if the probes didn't end up finding anything else for them. The rest of the walk was uneventful, only one more find of stones, 113 nissit, and a few more fruit, bringing my totals to 25 bombardo and 99 papplon for the morning.
The auction ended later in the day, giving me 3 PED extra to work with. Being the miner that I am I purchased another rookie setup, spending 2.01 PED, leaving me with 0.99 PED on my card. The mining trip was uneventful, I was only able to bring in 6 more barrels of crude oil, 1 bottle of alicenies liquid and 3 bottles of melchi water. Walking around in the area I had mined in gave me nothing extra for my troubles. Not a very profitable evening. With auction fee I am left with but a few PEC, but I have hope that the auction will go well and I'll have more PED to do my work tomorrow.
The auction ended later in the day, giving me 3 PED extra to work with. Being the miner that I am I purchased another rookie setup, spending 2.01 PED, leaving me with 0.99 PED on my card. The mining trip was uneventful, I was only able to bring in 6 more barrels of crude oil, 1 bottle of alicenies liquid and 3 bottles of melchi water. Walking around in the area I had mined in gave me nothing extra for my troubles. Not a very profitable evening. With auction fee I am left with but a few PEC, but I have hope that the auction will go well and I'll have more PED to do my work tomorrow.
0.55 PED on my PED card
73 Common Dung
82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
113 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
113 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones
309 Bombardo
68 Caroot
61 Haimoros
252 Papplon
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water
Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel
Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil
Gungnir MK1 with no fuel
Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints
Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.93/2.40)
Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)
Burning Hills
I did not end up sleeping very long, but it was restful anyway. I ate a stale piece of bread and some leftover fruit, it was sweeter than normal, having gone a little past its optimum ripeness, but I didn't care. I was watching the sun peak over the hills in the distance, that was the direction I would go. Hopefully the hills signified some richness to the area, they weren't green at least, so that must mean they were rocky and have at least some materials to work with. Once the sun had a chance to warm my face I stepped quietly back into the house, packed up a few supplies, locked up the house and left a note on the door letting any would-be-visitors know that I had gone out today to do some work. As I made my way towards the hills I could hear the sounds from the village, they were louder than usual but I figured I would learn why when I could finish the work I needed desperately to do to further my own abilities.
The walk was uneventful, a few tracks along the ground indicated that there were creatures that wandered in this area frequently, but I wasn't concerned. From all I had learned so far the day creatures were timid and the night ones were the terrors, so I just had to make sure I kept an eye on where the sun was and make it back before it got too dark. The hills quickly rose into the sky, they were a little further than I thought and quite a bit taller. I wondered if perhaps beyond the hills were some mountains, making these foothills, though I wouldn't venture very far in this time to prove my theory. As hoped the hills were rock, there wasn't any vegetation on them and it was soon apparent why. After getting my first bit of resources I started to feel the heat building on these rocks, I took some samples and ran some tests on them and found that they were very heat conductive, which meant that I needed some protection from the heat or I would have to leave much sooner than I had anticipated. It took only a handful of tries to get all the resources necessary to do the work I had been planning, but my thoughts had turned from the original goals and I was now determined to see if I could find a material that was the opposite of the rock that made up the face of this resource rich area. I was sure somewhere there would be a material that could stop the conduction, otherwise I would have imagined that this area would be molten by noon every day and quite flat from the constant changes.
With the sweat pouring down my face, despite the fact I had moved away from the hills quite a ways, I finished the design I had for a heat shield. It would be adequate enough to protect a device, but as for protecting me it wouldn't do much good. The materials I found didn't have much flexibility, they were hard to refine and so I couldn't make something that had a lot of movement to it and I didn't have quite enough of it to build a full suit of armor for myself. I could probably find a way to make a much more flexible alloy from it, but that would take time I didn't have. I hadn't realized it before, though I should have noticed the desert-like nature of the plants in the area as I approached the hills, but the rock ran deep and out a ways into the plains before it sunk deep enough to have less impact on the temperature of the area, but not before it made one last time to the surface, trapping me in a small area that was quickly turning in to the fastest cooking oven one could ever hope for. Weighing my options I realized I would likely need to just make two halves of a shell to put myself in to, it would at least prevent a lot of the heat from getting to me directly, but then I would need to find a way to cool down the inside of that shell as the air was already too hot to allow me to stay alive much longer. I hadn't made a device to cool something before, but I had to try anyway. I had enough of the conductive materials and some insulating materials, not quite as good as the one I would use for the shell, but good enough to prevent the conductive stone from absorbing more heat from the sunlight, all I would have to do then is create some thick, insulated wires to draw in the heat from the inside of the shell and store it further away. I knew it wouldn't be able to push it out of the wires as the outside was going to be much hotter than the inside, but at least it would drop the air temperature in my shell by a few degrees. With those pieces in place I felt a little relief from the unbearable furnace that I was sitting in, but it would not be enough, not by a long shot. I would still die here if I didn't improve my situation by a much greater factor. If I could move the shell I was sitting in it might be possible to escape from the heat, but I could no longer safely open it to do any more external modifications, anything I did now would have to be with what I had already constructed, but time was short and I had no immediate ideas.
The walk was uneventful, a few tracks along the ground indicated that there were creatures that wandered in this area frequently, but I wasn't concerned. From all I had learned so far the day creatures were timid and the night ones were the terrors, so I just had to make sure I kept an eye on where the sun was and make it back before it got too dark. The hills quickly rose into the sky, they were a little further than I thought and quite a bit taller. I wondered if perhaps beyond the hills were some mountains, making these foothills, though I wouldn't venture very far in this time to prove my theory. As hoped the hills were rock, there wasn't any vegetation on them and it was soon apparent why. After getting my first bit of resources I started to feel the heat building on these rocks, I took some samples and ran some tests on them and found that they were very heat conductive, which meant that I needed some protection from the heat or I would have to leave much sooner than I had anticipated. It took only a handful of tries to get all the resources necessary to do the work I had been planning, but my thoughts had turned from the original goals and I was now determined to see if I could find a material that was the opposite of the rock that made up the face of this resource rich area. I was sure somewhere there would be a material that could stop the conduction, otherwise I would have imagined that this area would be molten by noon every day and quite flat from the constant changes.
With the sweat pouring down my face, despite the fact I had moved away from the hills quite a ways, I finished the design I had for a heat shield. It would be adequate enough to protect a device, but as for protecting me it wouldn't do much good. The materials I found didn't have much flexibility, they were hard to refine and so I couldn't make something that had a lot of movement to it and I didn't have quite enough of it to build a full suit of armor for myself. I could probably find a way to make a much more flexible alloy from it, but that would take time I didn't have. I hadn't realized it before, though I should have noticed the desert-like nature of the plants in the area as I approached the hills, but the rock ran deep and out a ways into the plains before it sunk deep enough to have less impact on the temperature of the area, but not before it made one last time to the surface, trapping me in a small area that was quickly turning in to the fastest cooking oven one could ever hope for. Weighing my options I realized I would likely need to just make two halves of a shell to put myself in to, it would at least prevent a lot of the heat from getting to me directly, but then I would need to find a way to cool down the inside of that shell as the air was already too hot to allow me to stay alive much longer. I hadn't made a device to cool something before, but I had to try anyway. I had enough of the conductive materials and some insulating materials, not quite as good as the one I would use for the shell, but good enough to prevent the conductive stone from absorbing more heat from the sunlight, all I would have to do then is create some thick, insulated wires to draw in the heat from the inside of the shell and store it further away. I knew it wouldn't be able to push it out of the wires as the outside was going to be much hotter than the inside, but at least it would drop the air temperature in my shell by a few degrees. With those pieces in place I felt a little relief from the unbearable furnace that I was sitting in, but it would not be enough, not by a long shot. I would still die here if I didn't improve my situation by a much greater factor. If I could move the shell I was sitting in it might be possible to escape from the heat, but I could no longer safely open it to do any more external modifications, anything I did now would have to be with what I had already constructed, but time was short and I had no immediate ideas.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Rinse and Repeat
I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on the door, I must have fallen asleep while working last night because I was barely sitting in one of the chairs I had made. When I opened the door I was blinded by the sunlight, it was already late in the morning. The group before me was still composed of the wrinkled faces of elders, but this time I could see that only a few of them had visited before and the rest were all new. I knew right away that most of my day would be spent showing them what I had made and what could be done with it and discussing what I knew of myself and the technology. They would try to persuade me to give them the technology and I would explain to them why I felt I could not do that. Eventually I might be able to get to work again, but probably not with enough time to try my latest improvements to the tools.
When they had all left I still had some daylight, at least a couple hours I figured. I had been trying to work out how to prevent the ground from sinking after mining up the resources and had implemented the bits and pieces that would be necessary to rework the junk ores from the resource I was actually extracting without first pulling it up. If anyone ever found the cavern it would leave behind they would probably wonder how nature could produce such strange supports our of such a brittle material. I wanted to try it out, but I knew I would need an area farther from the house and I would not have time to make that trip, so I opted instead to gather a few natural materials to make some better lighting for the house.
The noises of creatures trying to get in did not occur again this evening, instead I was left with only the noise produced from my work. I spent hours creating digital blueprints in the device, not having the materials to actually produce the results. I also did my best to simulate how it would work when it was done, though the device could only show me so many outcomes, the real test would come when I could produce this technology. The greatest thing to try was going to be to make a much more sophisticated refiner, one that would hold quite a bit more materials without gaining a lot of weight. The materials required were not all known yet, so there would be some time spent mining, which would also end up producing new tools. My plan was to get out of the house at first light and hopefully avoid the visitors I was sure to have again if I missed my window of opportunity. As the first of my lights began to fade I realized how late it was getting and quickly put everything away, jotted down some notes and got some much needed sleep.
When they had all left I still had some daylight, at least a couple hours I figured. I had been trying to work out how to prevent the ground from sinking after mining up the resources and had implemented the bits and pieces that would be necessary to rework the junk ores from the resource I was actually extracting without first pulling it up. If anyone ever found the cavern it would leave behind they would probably wonder how nature could produce such strange supports our of such a brittle material. I wanted to try it out, but I knew I would need an area farther from the house and I would not have time to make that trip, so I opted instead to gather a few natural materials to make some better lighting for the house.
The noises of creatures trying to get in did not occur again this evening, instead I was left with only the noise produced from my work. I spent hours creating digital blueprints in the device, not having the materials to actually produce the results. I also did my best to simulate how it would work when it was done, though the device could only show me so many outcomes, the real test would come when I could produce this technology. The greatest thing to try was going to be to make a much more sophisticated refiner, one that would hold quite a bit more materials without gaining a lot of weight. The materials required were not all known yet, so there would be some time spent mining, which would also end up producing new tools. My plan was to get out of the house at first light and hopefully avoid the visitors I was sure to have again if I missed my window of opportunity. As the first of my lights began to fade I realized how late it was getting and quickly put everything away, jotted down some notes and got some much needed sleep.
Small Starts
Starting cost for the rookie run is 2.01 PED to buy the finder and the probes to search with. Today I find myself at Ashi, knowing what I know about the area it is good enough to start off, so I head out in search for what riches lie in the ground to the south.
Not much for riches this time, a meager 0.48 PED narcanisum stones, 0.15 PED oil and 0.12 PED lysterium. This isn't much to work with, but with the inferior gear to what I normally use it wasn't a surprising run. The mining also damaged my excavator a bit, dropping its value to 1.94 PED.
Taking a walk afterwards to relieve the restlessness of not working my primary profession took me past a herd of longu, by chance I actually found 29 untrampled papplon, bringing my total to 68. It also appeared something had been digging along the path I walked, because 58 brukite stones had been left lying on the ground. By the time I finished my stroll I found myself at Chimera Canyons, knowing how much I didn't like walking around in the canyon I teleported myself away to Treasure Island, a fairly peaceful area to walk.
After a long, peaceful, quiet walk through the middle and eastern side of Treasure Island I find myself richer by 90 papplon, 19 caroot, 179 bombardo, 25 brukite and 124 sopur. Not a bad walk, was nice to clear my head and remember my goals. Oh, and not to mention the 44 dung to add to the pile, lucky for me our PDAs scan it in and you don't actually have to touch it at any point. With a 64 PEC auction fee I find my PED card depleted to 0.15 PED and hope that the first set of valuable stones sells well.
Not much for riches this time, a meager 0.48 PED narcanisum stones, 0.15 PED oil and 0.12 PED lysterium. This isn't much to work with, but with the inferior gear to what I normally use it wasn't a surprising run. The mining also damaged my excavator a bit, dropping its value to 1.94 PED.
Taking a walk afterwards to relieve the restlessness of not working my primary profession took me past a herd of longu, by chance I actually found 29 untrampled papplon, bringing my total to 68. It also appeared something had been digging along the path I walked, because 58 brukite stones had been left lying on the ground. By the time I finished my stroll I found myself at Chimera Canyons, knowing how much I didn't like walking around in the canyon I teleported myself away to Treasure Island, a fairly peaceful area to walk.
After a long, peaceful, quiet walk through the middle and eastern side of Treasure Island I find myself richer by 90 papplon, 19 caroot, 179 bombardo, 25 brukite and 124 sopur. Not a bad walk, was nice to clear my head and remember my goals. Oh, and not to mention the 44 dung to add to the pile, lucky for me our PDAs scan it in and you don't actually have to touch it at any point. With a 64 PEC auction fee I find my PED card depleted to 0.15 PED and hope that the first set of valuable stones sells well.
0.15 PED on my PED card
73 Common Dung
82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones
83 Brukite Stones in auction
124 Sopur Stones
83 Brukite Stones in auction
284 Bombardo
68 Caroot
61 Haimoros
153 Papplon
15 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
15 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel
Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil
Gungnir MK1 with no fuel
Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints
Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.94/2.40)
Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)
Back to Basics
Having all that excess PED was definitely a change of pace, in the short run that much PED can be a bad thing, especially when life has been lived striving just to survive. In the long run though, with the investment that was made with the majority of it, it will be a good thing, but for now I need to get back to basics. I spent too much looking for more loot and now I'm back to survival mode, but at least I'll have some steadier income to help get through the dry spells. To help get myself back on track I've decided to take an inventory of what I have and work on keeping track of it all. Ultimately, I have fewer tools than when I began, but that is alright, I'll get things back in order soon enough.
Unable to get to the stuff I left on Arkadia, I will work first with what I have on Calypso. Checking my carried inventory and my larger planet side storage reveals the following:
2.80 PED on my PED card
29 Common Dung
82 Kaldon Stones
105 Bombardo
49 Caroot
61 Haimoros
34 Papplon
Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel
Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil
Gungnir MK1 with no fuel
Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints, there's no way I'm cataloging all of those
Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.95/2.40)
Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)
Of course I also have the clothes on my back, but I would hate to sell those and go about naked. Perhaps if things go well I can get something a little nicer than your standard orange jumpsuit, but for now they'll do. I also have the investment I made, but I don't plan to sell those so for now they will remain outside my counted assets. My current plan is to use what little PED I have and try some mining with the rookie gear they developed to teach people new to the planet. Finds usually aren't very good with them, but sometimes you get lucky, so we'll hope that things work out for me.
NEWS: More Content Coming
Yeah, I don't post often enough. I'm hoping to fix that soon. I have added a new item to my sidebar which will hold my current goals. I will modify those as my desires change and increase and will have a new label when I achieve one of my goals, that way people can see which goals I have accomplished that I once had on this list. I would have added the goal of a mining tower, but I already hit that one just a little over a month ago. I am also going to try to modify my playing style to better suit the way I will be able to afford to play. Basically, I need to play again as a non-depositor (because I plan not to deposit much, maybe just a couple times a year to get more gifts) and live off of my earnings or the income from the land deeds I purchased (currently 5). If I can do this then perhaps in the future I will be able to afford a computer worthy of playing this game, but until then don't expect any spectacular screen-shots. I also plan to start adding some pictures to the blog to make it more interesting. I might even go back and add some pictures to old posts, but we'll see if I get the desire to do that or not.
In other news, I have not given up my story, I have just redirected most of my creative juices towards an actual novel. I think I am a little over half way done with that, but it's hard to say exactly when I don't have a formal outline and don't have a clue what will be in the middle of the current location and the end of the story, when that is done I have only a little bit of an idea of what to do with it. My greatest desire would be to find a publisher for it though I hear that is really hard to do (1/10,000 actually get published is what I read). If I can't publish it through a publisher I will likely put the story in the blog and, if I ever have the money to do it, get it published on my own (costs money to publish on your own, through a publisher you get paid, at least from what my research has told me thus far). So, in the future, I may have a book about Sorven and his exploits. If the first one goes well there could be more later, but all of that is up in the air at the moment as I haven't been writing enough lately. And in case you are wondering, I am not suffering from writer's block, I'm suffering from my own lack of motivation. Speaking of, if you would all like to help motivate me, I feel more inclined to work when I know people actually care about what I'm writing (yeah, yeah, write for your own enjoyment and all that, I get enough enjoyment normally just thinking about my story), so let me know in some comments or share this blog with others so I can see people are actually reading what I've written (yes, I look at the number of views of this site fairly often).
My last plan is to start posting about my income and dealings in game, this way people can see how well I do or how stupidly I play (I hope to have less stupidity and hold on to my goals in order to reach them). Some of my goals I will probably never reach, but that is okay, I want to put them there anyway so that people can see what I wish for. If people wish to help me reach my goals I'm sure we can work something out, though I do not like handouts so if you want to help then lets find a way you can hire me to do some work for you instead.
In other news, I have not given up my story, I have just redirected most of my creative juices towards an actual novel. I think I am a little over half way done with that, but it's hard to say exactly when I don't have a formal outline and don't have a clue what will be in the middle of the current location and the end of the story, when that is done I have only a little bit of an idea of what to do with it. My greatest desire would be to find a publisher for it though I hear that is really hard to do (1/10,000 actually get published is what I read). If I can't publish it through a publisher I will likely put the story in the blog and, if I ever have the money to do it, get it published on my own (costs money to publish on your own, through a publisher you get paid, at least from what my research has told me thus far). So, in the future, I may have a book about Sorven and his exploits. If the first one goes well there could be more later, but all of that is up in the air at the moment as I haven't been writing enough lately. And in case you are wondering, I am not suffering from writer's block, I'm suffering from my own lack of motivation. Speaking of, if you would all like to help motivate me, I feel more inclined to work when I know people actually care about what I'm writing (yeah, yeah, write for your own enjoyment and all that, I get enough enjoyment normally just thinking about my story), so let me know in some comments or share this blog with others so I can see people are actually reading what I've written (yes, I look at the number of views of this site fairly often).
My last plan is to start posting about my income and dealings in game, this way people can see how well I do or how stupidly I play (I hope to have less stupidity and hold on to my goals in order to reach them). Some of my goals I will probably never reach, but that is okay, I want to put them there anyway so that people can see what I wish for. If people wish to help me reach my goals I'm sure we can work something out, though I do not like handouts so if you want to help then lets find a way you can hire me to do some work for you instead.
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