Introduction
A small group of casual players in the northwest wilds of Sinai in the shadow of Jabal al-Lawz.
Our camp, as seen from the slopes of Jabal al-Lawz, looking out onto the Red Sea.
Index
Helpful Information
Current Guild Leadership
This is a list of current Elders and Patriarchs of Jabal Al-Lawz. Please consider contacting these people if you have problems or questions. If you are a guild member and you are in doubt about whether or not to start a big project or modify the guild camp in some way, contact one of these people before acting.- ELDERS
- Hephaestus
- SouperGrrl
- KeyboardFox
- PATRIARCHS
- N/A
Just Starting Out
Welcoming Island
When you are brand new to Egypt, you are required to spend some time on a very small confined island called Welcoming Island, formally or "Newb Island" informally. When you start out, you will see in the lower left hand corner of your screen a little auto-updating ticklist. If you accomplish all the goals in the ticklist, you get to flee the island for good and join us in Sinai. While seeming tedious to most players, Welcoming Island teaches you basic game mechanics and skills, most of which you'd have to go through on Egypt proper anyway. Stay frosty, check out the NewPlayer guide, and don't hesitate to contact one of the people listed above for help. And don't be afraid to solicit the help of Mentors on the island. These are veteran players that can jump back and forth between Egypt proper and Welcoming Island with the sole intent of helping new players out. They will be very conspicuous so you will know who they are.You should know that Welcoming Island only represents a tiny fraction of what Egypt has to offer and many of the tasks you perform there are made much easier by technology discovered in our Universities. For that reason, you don't have to worry about bringing anything with you when you do finally make your trek to the camp. Chances are we have it in spades.
What Now?
Perhaps the most critical moment of a new player's life is the moment after they have left Welcoming Island, after the earthy charm of making endless waves of bricks has worn off. In this moment players are either under-informed about the real crux of the game, or understandably overwhelmed at all the possibilities. When you find yourself at this point, you should first review the Tests page. Tests are the crux of Egyptian life. All technology and material effort is undertaken with them in mind. Though there are a few accomplishments you can make outside of tests, almost everything you make or think about ingame should be with a mind to a certain test. Click the Pyramid Icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen to get an idea how the 7 Tests in the 7 Disciplines are structured. You will find some similarities between tests in a given discipline, but luckily you are not confined to any discipline or Test at any given time. You can attempt multiple concurrently and almost none of them have any general time constraints for achievement.It should be noted that most Tests are a major undertaking. For this reason, when you do pass a Test, you can feel a sense of accomplishment. Thankfully Tests require a wide range of efforts, from the grind-y brute force material building, to the more elegant and thought-provoking.
Browse around those links and read a little on each test to find one that sounds enjoyable to you. For reasons described below, there are pre-tests called Principles for each test. These can range from the incredibly easy, to only a half-measure easier than the Test itself. Either way, they are a great introduction to the test and accomplishing them will not only bring you a reward (at least a level, more on that below) but you will get some idea of what you are in for before you try to tackle the test itself. Each discipline also has an "Initiation" that is a task that is generally quite easy, worth a level, and again a very good way to get introduced to the concept of that particular discipline.
What's up with levels?!?! Is this fucking WoW or something???
Tale 3, the current telling, brought with it the introduction of a level system. While quite controversial when it was introduced--and still today--most players have found that leveling up to an acceptable level is quite easy with a little guidance. Levels in ATITD are unlike any other game. They are just required to open certain skills, techs, and tests. A level 50 player is in no way inherently better than a level 2 player. The main goal of the level system is to force players to diversify and try new things, an understandable goal with perhaps questionable implementation. Most of the useful and fun skills are skewed somewhat low level-wise so that maybe 60% of the game is open to you at level 12 and maybe 90% at level 21. Many players are sort of parked in their mid-teens and quite content with what they can do.You gain levels in any of four ways.
First, gaining Citizenship will earn you your first level.
Second, every initiation you pass will also earn you a level for up to 7 levels. A couple of these are somewhat hard (a couple casual days of effort) and some require less than 10 minutes of your time. Overall, though, they are the easiest levels in the game and you should seek to accomplish those first. If you do that, your level will be 8 and a lot of things will be open to you.
Third, you can gain levels by passing Principles. Principles, as noted above, are sort of introductions to each Test. Every Test has a Principle. And every Principle achieved earns you a level. Some of these Principles are quite hard, but many are so easy it's almost laughable. The best way to find out which is which is to read the Tests page, but also to ask veteran players who have been through it.
Fourth, you gain a level every time your title tier changes. Click this link for more information about Titles. Basically, every time you gain a higher title in any discipline, you gain a level (but not for gaining the same title in a second or third discipline). In other words going from Student of Art to Student of Two will not gain you a level, but going from Student of Three to Prentice of Art will.
Now you're cooking
Once you have attained some levels and passed some Principles and maybe a Test or two, you should have a firm grasp of the game and where you envision yourself in it. Before this point, many new players want to know what they can do to help the guild. While we may solicit your help on some big project, what you can really do to help the guild is to first help yourself and get involved and immersed in the game. To that end we will help you. But once you have a little experience and you are actively working on some long-term goals, then you can turn around and repay the favor by helping younger players and contributing to the guild. While this game is largely concerned with materials on the day-to-day level, acquisition of wealth is little benefit. We measure our wealth in how happy our members are.You should also know that ATITD doesn't limit how many guilds a player can belong to at any given time. You are quite encouraged to go out and interact with the game populace at large. You will find them to be much more mature and good-natured than probably any other online game you've played. There are countless "meta-guilds" that are formed with the sole intent of furthering Egypt and its society.
General Guild Guidelines
We would like to think of ourselves not as a guild of laws. However, we feel a few basic guidelines must be adhered to for the clean functioning of our guild. Please read those guidelines below.
Building Etiquette
New Compounds
On the above overhead map (north is up), imagine the road extending to the north to the peak of the mountain, then imagine a line going straight west to the sea. Then imagine a line going from the road straight west to the water, bisecting the bog (just out of frame to the south). Within that zone, we ask that no one build any new compounds without express permission from an elder or patriarch. Currently, we are planning only one new compound for laboratory type buildings. All other building needs will be met with current compound expansions. Likewise, though, compound expansion should be overseen by an elder or patriarch.
Outside of that zone you are free to do as you please. There is a nice area north of the mountain as well as east of the T in the road. There are also a couple neat islands nearby that are well suited to building.
New Projects
Restriction on building projects within existing compounds are looser. We ask that you confine wine and beer-making projects to the wine compound, metalworks to the Southside compound and the rest to the Northside compound. If you are in doubt about whether or not you should build within these compounds, please ask in guild chat. There is a possibility that the project you are intending to build has already been built or that there exists a building that does what you want your building to do, but more efficiently.New outdoor projects should be similarly restricted. Keep in mind that we are trying to maintain a clean camp area that is useful and efficient for all parties involved. There are several projects that are strongly tied to individual players. You should seek to put those projects in your own compound rather than in the common areas.
Caveats
While we'd like you to consider these restrictions, we'd also like you to know that this is your guild, too. Well thought out suggestions about new building or expansions will be openly considered and we will try to accommodate all players where possible.
Chest Etiquette
Please review chest labels where they exist and try to adhere to the categorizations that they set out. If you have suggestions for better chest organization, we are open. A cleanly sorted set of goods makes all tasks much easier.There are a few chests that are "ranked" which is to say they restrict access to higher ranks. These usually contain sensitive or valuable goods that can easily be lost or logged-out with, doing some harm to the guild. If you want use of these goods, please ask a person of appropriate rank for access. if you are that person of appropriate rank and you give a lower rank access to these goods you are responsible for their well-being and seeing they are returned to the appropriate place.
There are also a few "project" chests which are used to keep materials aside that are meant for specific projects. You should respect the intent of these materials.
All those things being said, goods in the generally categorized chests are pretty much "up for grabs". You should not feel in any way hindered from taking these things to use as you wish. Likewise, if you put something into these chests, you should be prepared to have it used for something on a whim. If you make something with a specific project in mind, put it into a project chest.
