Others came to the altar and also touched it. The same red glow came forth, but it would seem only Setna had gained the power from this altar, although it would appear other such altars can also be found throughout Egypt.
It would seem the Enhanced Mining skill can only be taught to a single person in two lessons before the teacher becomes muddled and unable to teach the skill further. Additionally, some have taught the skill to others, but lost it themselves, in the process.
In an exception to this, the second person to the altar was Hasani. Setna taught him the new skill and Hasani has been able to teach others without yet losing the skill. It appears that Hasani may be the only person able to teach others the skill without losing it himself. Although it's unclear if there's a limit to how many people Hasani may teach before or if he loses the skill also.
The second altar appears to teach Enhanced Woodcutting. Little is known about this, though it appears to almost entirely destroy trees, leaving only stumps in their place.
NOTE: Using Enhanced Mining damages mines by changing their purity, which changes their ratios (viewable in the logbooks of mines used in this fashion). All levels of the mine are affected. About 500 pulls dropped one mine's purity to about 50% with no pure rocks at all. As purity is reduced, output increases, but so does the ratio of sand to ores. Lots of clusters, much of it worthless.
With a test mine, I actually hit 0% after 549 pulls. The pattern for drop in purity seems to be -4, -5, -7, -9, -11, -13, -15, -17, and -19, which puts it at 0%. For a while, it was 50 pulls per drop for me, but when Sedelyan joined me, it was a little higher. I was getting a 6x yield while she was getting a 4x yield, so I think that has something to do with it. -Orashin
Important Update: Purity levels do rise again. We had a mine at 75% yesterday, then discovered it at 84% today. However, a mine at 0% yesterday remained at 0%. Right now, tests suggest that time is the factor involved, in that leaving an impure mine sit for a little while will replenish it's purity. Further tests are being done to see if we can determine rates of increase and to see if there is a purity threshold that, once crossed, causes the mine to stop replenishing purity. -Orashin
Having Snake Venom, Snake Blood or Snake Skin doesn't do anything. --ShanVizen
I would like to propose an idea. The altar was found on a circle whose center is the chariot stop, and its perimeter just a bit over the farthest school/uni (which, in Karnak, is the University of Thought to the North West of the CS), but near a road. It is possible future ones (if there will be future ones) will appear in similar positions, but in other regions. --ShanVizen This was completely disproved by the location of the second altar, found by BryceCicada.
The current hypothesis is that the skill is somehow bugged.
But some think the skill is working exactly as designed. - Saxamon
Current spec, as far as I can tell, runs like this.
The first person to hit an altar gets the skill forever, at a 'tier 1' level. They can teach X people a day (week?). (Initially it was bugged to be restricted to 1.)
That person becomes a 'tier 2' learner, who can teach a limited number of people -- perhaps daily, perhaps weekly, and perhaps forever.
Alternately, that person may only be imbued with a certain amount of skill knowledge, and once that's gone, she loses the skill too.
Anybody in 'tier 3', that is, players who are taught by 'tier 2' players, can only teach the skill once, and they 'transfer' the information, losing it.
Anybody want to validate this hypothesis? Teaching to a maximum number of people, for example.
-Sedelyan
Use of Enhanced Mining has produced some odd results while mining for brass. It would appear that the long standing issues with certain Zinc clusters responding strangely is caused by at least one of them having a value of 1.25 clusters-per-cluster. This becomes apparant on a 4* yield when they appear to give 5*. Problem solved?
- Kaotika
In referance to Kaotika, I produced the yields that sparked this idea. I'm not sure I agree with the solution and here's why: I started getting the usual 4x yields on zinc and copper, but then it suddenly shifted to what appeared to be 5x yield, but for both zinc and copper. I didn't record all the types of metal that did this, but I noticed this happening for danbaite and matraite for zinc, and cuprite, digenite, and tenorite for copper. So unless there's possible 1.25 values for copper too, I'm more tempted to say that the multiplier just went up. I'm going to try it with a different metal, though. Update: Checked an iron mine, still getting 5, 10, 15 clusters. I'm now more tempted to say that the yield went up to 5x somehow or another. What caused this yield jump is still beyond me, however, since I believe I'm the only one experiencing it. [No, I also experienced such increases in cluster yields. - Hasani]
- Orashin
Does it affect the mine or the area? If only the mine, then we can rebuild mines in good areas.
- Gumby --- It only effects the mine, however mines that are below 100% pure can not be torn down. -- Promiscuous
By learning this skill are you always using enhanced skill when mining or is this a skill you can choose to turn on and off when mining? Put another way does learning this skill mean you forever damage mines in the future regardless.
- JumpingJax
Yes, and this page has become so muddled that it's probably worth it to state flatly what the skill actually does. When you learn enhanced mining, the number of clusters you get in any given stone mined are multiplied by 4 (this number does go up through repeated mining). There is no way to turn off this skill other than somehow forgetting it, which, as of now, only appears to be possible to tier 3 learners by teaching it once to another person. -Orashin
Setna was looking for someone to make a wiki edit last night. I'd say with the view range of altars that we'll find new ones whenever Setna (devs) decide it is time. - Gumby
Setna is now a dev?!?!? When did this happen? Really, if you truely believe that new altars can only be found if the devs put someone there, then you must believe that BryceCiccade is a dev (or working with one)
You have to admit that the same person findng 2 altars is a little suspicious given the view range, I can see finding one. Pluribus said the altars have been placed for over a month. So in that month+, one person found 2 and the rest of egypt found 1. Add in the fact that Setna made someone else post the update (to avoid being traced?). Setna is also willing to teach anyone the enhanced mining skill. Sounds like a little much for your average Egyptian. If Setna keeps finding altars and teaching the skills, maybe a DP will think about banning. We missed our chance on that in tale 1. I figure you just posted to get me to respond, but in the future I won't unless you let the wiki show who you are. - Gumby
Egypt is lazy. Egypt couldnt find the great pyramid without its coords... The others are known to anyone who cares to use the mass of stone between thier ears. Then plot them on the map. -Bri