We helped write the Mentoring guide, and consider it to be a good description of what mentoring is all about. The pages at Global Mentoring are also quite helpful, especially so regarding the various progressions that are available.
Getting to Know Us
- Check our newpaper at Sunset Projects to follow our current activities.
- Sunset Papyrus controls our compounds for Flax, Pottery, and Carpentry, so the related buildings are discussed on this page or, when the discussion gets pretty complicated, on a sub-page. Outdoor skills, and buildings that can be built anywhere, are also discussed in this section.
- Sunset Papyrus initiates will also have access to the Public Paper Presses, Flax Hammocks and Watermines in and near the Paper compound.
- The Advanced Brick Racks in the Paper Compound (near all the Straw) and the four well-behaved Glazier's Benches in the Pottery Compound are also accessible to Sunset Papyrus Initiates. (Our primary glass production compound is at our White Sands area.)
- Sunset Enterprises controls our compounds for Metals, Cooking, Glass, Paper, and Gem Cutting.
- Art and Thought tests are also discussed under Sunset Enterprises.
- Architecture, Body, Harmony, Leadership, and Worship tests are also discussed under Sunset Enterprises.
- Sunset Projects is the focus our our guild sponsored activities, and controls most of our project earmarked inventory.
Playing Styles
A Tale in the Desert is a complex game. If you've been playing for a year or so, and you're familiar with half of the content, you are doing well. There are several very different ways of playing the game:- Goal Oriented - likes University Research and the formal tests
- Social - values an extensive circle of friends - and loves Acrobatics
- Solitude - loves exploration, Mushrooms, Desert Rats, and Cicadas
- Technical - wants to know how the game actually works
- Organizational - is more interested in the meta-game, what are the possibilities
Levels
Getting started can be pretty confusing, of course, and that's where levels come in. Levels are intended to give you an overall feel for the game and, in particular, they are intended to get you past the "I've built everything I can - now what?" trap which is a real problem after about the 40 hours of game play.Levels provide a once over lightly introduction to the game. It may feel that you are just jumping through some hoops, but it's all stuff that you'll need to do sooner or later, so just get on with it and work your way down the list. By the time you've reached level 14, which takes most of 40 hours,
- You'll have seen a lot of Egypt
- You'll have a good feel for what you will most enjoy
- You'll be well on your way toward developing the social network that is so very much a part of life in ATITD.
More information about leveling is available at Principles and Levels.
Wiki and Forum
In general, if you're talking about things, go to the Wiki. If you're talking about people and conventions, go to the forum.The Wiki, see http://wiki.atitd.com/tale3, is our community web page. You can, and should, contribute what you've discovered about the game. Index will give you a quick insight into the way the information is organized. The search box at the bottom of each page is very much your friend.
There's also a forum at http://www.atitd.net/forum that can be pretty interesting.
Before you can post in either venue, you'll need to enter /webpass ATITD.NET <password> to establish your identity.
Earning Your Keep
Gathering Slate or Clay, all by itself, is frustrating. Everybody hates gathering Slate and Clay, so you can really do quite well if you gather some extra. If you combine gathering Slate with Fishing or gathering Grass, it actually makes all three activities more interesting. Likewise for the gathering of Clay, Wood, Thorns, Herbs, Mushrooms, and Grass.
Wood Planes
Wood Planes eat a lot of Slate. Later, when you understand metalworking well enough to make a Carpentry Blade, you'll find that Carpentry Benches are more convenient, even though they are slow and require the occasional Carpentry Blade.
- If you're worried about "paying your own way", you can make an immediate and significant contribution to the productivity of the Guild.
- Gather Slate and crank out a lot of Boards (Contribute 200 boards to the guild building fund)
- Gather Grass and crank out a lot of Bricks (Contribute 400 bricks to the guild building fund)
- Gather Clay and crank out a few hundred clay Jugs
- Gather Silt and crank out a lot of Firebricks
Sunset Papyrus wants you to learn all of the basic skills but, once you know how to find Slate and can crank out 50 Board per minute on multiple Wood Planes, and can keep up with a Fragile Brick Rack array, go ahead and use the guild Carpentry Benches and Advanced Brick Racks, even though you couldn't make an iron blade or nails if you had to.
If you go on a carrot growing binge, for example, keep what you need and stash the rest with the Guild. Somebody else will hate growing carrots, so it all averages out.
Courtesy
If you're conducting a tour, or training someone in the use of a particular skill, we would prefer that you use the Guild chat channel. Such conversations tend to draw related comments from other members, who may wish to join you, and you can never tell just when a concept is going to click with somebody who didn't quite understand it.Everyone in the Guild participates in the chat channel. Keep it interesting. An extended conversation between just two people, unless it's Guild related, is best taken to a private chat channel. The /af <name> command, followed by F11, provides a pop-up with the online status of your friends, and provides an easy way to open a private chat channel.
If you can't use certain words and expressions in the classroom or in the office, don't use them in the Guild chat channel.
We're not very interested in how badly you're being treated by someone else. Ignore that channel for a while. If you can't resolve the situation by yourself, ask one of the elders to get involved. In particular, don't ever complain about people "Stealing Papyrus that You Planted." Papyrus is pretty, and folks are inclined to grab it when they see it. The Guild receives far more Papyrus Seed from donations that it ever loses when people gather "wild" Papyrus.
Promotions
Our expectation is that most new guildmembers will take about 100 game hours to learn their basic skills, and to find their place in Egypt. We expect you to struggle a bit with your initial skills, so don't worry about it if you're not yet a lean, mean production machine. You'll get there with a bit of practice. Boards, Bricks, Rope, Canvas, Linen, Papyrus, Veggies, Barley, Wheat, Sheep, and Metals all have their fascination.Sunset Enterprises is our advanced technology guild. Figure out how to make a Personal Chit, as that capability is our dividing line between basic and advanced skills, and we'll only accept an application to Sunset Enterprises if you've deposited a Personal Chit in the chest in front of the guildhall, in Caldera Park.
Once you're comfortable with the game, after 40 or so hours of game play, and realize that you're actually understanding most of the questions, ask about a promotion to Sunset Papyrus Kinsman. Thereafter you'll be expected to provide useful answers to the hard questions, in addition to understanding them. Don't wait too long, after a few months you'll forget what it was like to be a newbie. "Hmmm, was that a Board or a Sharpened Stick that I needed for Fishing??"
Once you're adept at working with new members, and especially so if you're recruiting new members, ask about a promotion to Sunset Papyrus Elder, so that you can approve new membership applications.
Keyboard and Mouse Commands
See Commands for a comprehensive list. The important commands are:
- Esc = clicking on your avatar to call up your avatar menu
- /af <name> = Add Friend, followed by F11 for the pop-up list
- /tell <name> <A message that will appear in blue in Main>
- /ts = Time Stamp all chat channels
- /clockloc = a floating window with the time and your location
- There are a variety of special purpose moderated channels, including
- /join E! (Player sourced announcements)
- /join RTrade (To sell what you have or buy what you need)
- /join Events (The special events channel)
- /join RadioFrance
- /join RadioGermany
- Left clicking on the ground (unless you've reversed the buttons) moves your avatar to that location.
- Right clicking halts your avatar at the current location.
- Slate, in particular, is discovered by walking near water and watching the icons in the upper right corner of your screen
- Although you can't move directly to an object in most cases, clicking on the far side of the object and then halting while you are "in" the object is pretty much a requirement to get the viewing angles that you'll need for Anvils, Mining, and Gem Cutting.
- Moving the cursor to the edge of the screen shifts the field of view to the left or right, or from a local to an overhead view.
- Alt+L = Locks/Unlocks the current camera view, which is especially handy for growing veggies
- F5 = A camera view for close work
- F6 = A camera view for exploration
- F7 = This is the camera view used by most experienced players
- F8 = A gaming camera, with a center point that's offset to the north
- Double F8 = is a direct overhead view that's zoomable
Foraging for Resources
Much of your time in ATITD will be spent gathering resources. The Test of the Darkest Night, as an example, is all about finding the proper Mushrooms.
Grass
All of the green areas, and the sandy areas that have a green tinge, will activate the Grass icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.The easiest way to gather Grass is to select Emote | Gait: Walking, and the click on the distant edge of a grassy area. Simply click, click, click on the Grass icon as you're walking toward your destination.
Once you have the Rhythmic Strength skill, a Papyrus Basket, and a Scythe, your Grass gathering efficiency will double. Most people just use the Greenhouses; we have 16 of them.
Slate
Gathering Slate is similar to gathering Grass, except that you must be on the bank of a river, lake, or pond.
Silt
Silt can be found near most bridges and in many low lying areas. Silt is used in making Fire Bricks.
Clay and Flint
Gather Slate is similar to gather Grass except that you must be on a patch of Clay, typically a grey area of low lying broken ground, and you must have Water in a Jug. You'll get some Flint about 5% of the time.
Wood
You gather wood by clicking on Trees, Brambles, and some pretty unlikely looking short palms. Your wood gathering ability is much improved if you have a good hatchet.
Thorns
You can gather Thorns from a dozen or so of the slow spiky plants. We don't seem to have Roses.
Herbs
You gather Herbs by clicking on any sort of plant that says, "This is some kind of Herb." The catch is that there are 12 different ways of gathering Herbs. The Foraging page is a good starting place.Herbs are used in Kitchens and in Hookahs.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are complicated. They only grow at night, for a couple of hours, and each kind of Mushroom favors a different sort of terrain. A few of the mushrooms are strictly regional, but most of the spawns shift location each night, and may be found anywhere, if you're both dedicated and lucky. Sign up for the Test of the Darkest Night if you're interested in Mushrooms. Mushrooms are used in Cooking.
Papyrus
Papyrus seeds are always available in the small chest near the tent in the papyrus compound. If you're not in guild: They should be easy to acquire, most ppl will give them away for free, so ask in regional.Papyrus in our area provides the best yields during mid-day, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. We've been getting about 2.6 Papyrus per Seed. In our area the offset is 200 coordinates to the North, and the delay is 30 /time minutes, or about 12 minutes real time. During darkness the Papyrus Seeds are dispersed of a semi-circular area, and the apparent yield along the Nile will be lower. The recommended approach is:
- Get hold of 100 Papyris seeds, and run to the inlet at 1450, 2240.
- Run North, staying close enough to the bank to keep the Mud Icon lit
- Plant one handful of seeds every 10 or so strides
- When you reach 2440 you'll be in the area where your seeds will bloom after 30 /clockloc minutes. That 10 Teppy minutes, or about 11 Real Time minutes because Teppy minutes include server lag. Unless you've been chatting, the Papyrus that you planted won't be blooming yet.
- You should still be planting seeds. In fact at least half of your seeds should be planted between 2500 and 2600 as the area just South of the 2800 bridge is the most fertile.
- Don't plant any seeds North of 2600. They'd grow North of the bridge
- When you reach the bridge, cross to the East and turn South.
- When you reach the 2300 bridge, cross to the West and turn North. You're on your second lap now
- If you've been planting seeds on your second pass, and haven't been chatting (or goofing off) you can clear all of the Papyrus North of 2500 because the seeds you just planted will bloom shortly.
- One way or the other always leave some "wild" Papyrus on the West side of the Nile.
Drying Racks and Flax Hammocks
There are several Flax Hammocks up on the mountain directly West of the main RSO bridge at 2300, and some Drying Racks as well. Just follow the road up the ramp. There's a fabulous wood run. Use a high F7 view to look at the scenery. We also so have several Flax Hammocks up on the south rim of Caldera Park, that are more convenient, but lower, so you won't get as many seeds when you dry your Papyrus at the lower elevation.Alway dry Papyrus bundles 20 at a time. Partial bundles don't do well. We've been averaging 2.2x Seeds per Papyrus up on the mountain. The yields are very random. We've seen everything from 0 to 80 seeds per bundle of 20 papyrus.
Fishing
The tuition for the Fishing Skill is 1 Sharpened Stick and 25 Twine at a School of Body. Catching a variety of fish is important. Various fish are used for various purposes, but one very important use is that Grilled Fish provide a +2 Endurance boost. You can grill 21 of each type of fish at the same time, and each time you light the Firepit it costs you 200 or more wood.Fish are distributed in diagonal bands about 14*16=224 coordinates wide that run from the northeast to the southwest. As the Nile runs at an angle in our region, the band is longer than you might expect. Our fishing band covers nearly the entire area between the bridges to the north and south of the Sunset Campus. The exact formula for the fishing bands is 0 <= Modulo(X-Y,866) <= 224, but it's not that easy. The band oscillate about 30 coordinates, and each type of fish has a preferred time of day, usually some time between dusk to dawn, and each player has a preferred time of day as well. If you don't want to do some extensive personal research, the general idea is to simply move elsewhere if you're getting ripples but no fish. Within each band the fish are grouped approximately as follows, but we still need to collect a lot more fishing data to refine the model.
|
*Location*
Modulo
Type of Fish
Comment |
| *Location* | Modulo | Type of Fish | Comment |
| 1478 2336 | 8 | Serpentfish, Carp | Needs a Craftsman Pole |
| 24 | Carp | North Watermine | |
| 30 | Carp, Oxyrynchus | ||
| 1469, 2300 | 35 | Carp, Oxyrynchus, Perch | Across from the Raeli Oven |
| 1473, 2290 | 49 | Oxyrynchus, Perch | WM just north of Labs |
| 1475, 2277 | 64 | Perch | |
| 104 | Perch, Abdju | ||
| 120 | Perch, Abdju, Catfish | Thistle Point | |
| 136 | Abdju, Catfish | ||
| 152 | Catfish | ||
| 168 | Catfish, Tilapia | ||
| 184 | Tilapia, Chromis | ||
| 200 | Tilapia, Chromis, Phagrus | On the Peninsula | |
| 1406 2048 | 216 | Chromis, Phagrus |
We have a separate page for collecting Fishing data.
Digging for Stones
Stones are dug up from a hole in the ground (Projects/Stonework/Dig_A_Hole). Early in the telling, digs required a large number of people and correspondingly complex organization on how to handle people arriving or leaving mid-dig.
Current digs are simple and require only:
- Good food (specifically high END)
- Good shovels (the guild can loan out up to 4)
- A pair of people (depending on the quality of food, it is even possible to dig solo)
The guild will gladly organise small digs on demand, including finding a chef. We suggest the cook receive a 10% share and the guild a 10% share. Even with this surcharge, we think you will be far more productive with good food and good shovels than you would be on your own.
The guild has a Sunset Projects chest by the Reli oven to hold our shovels and payment for guild-sponsored digs.
Processing Resources
Once you've gathered resources, you can then process them.
Clay and Water Jugs
Some Clay on a Pottery Wheel will allow you to make a Wet Clay Jug that you can then fire in a Kiln.
Water Jugs and Flax
You can get 3 Flax Seeds from the SArt every few minutes, and you can grow Flax in any grassy area.The Old Egypt Flax only require weeding, while Nile Green requires watering but delivers twice as much flax. Flax Genetics (which is one of our more exotic puzzles) has allowed greatly improved strains of Flax to be created. Our seed chest in in the Flax Compound, near the Flax Gins.
Flax is used for roof thatching. Flax that has been rotted in water is used for cloth. (Rotted and then) Dried Flax is s nice source of Ash for making Potash and then Glass.
Water Jugs and Veggies
Clay, and thereby Water Jugs, allows you to water Flax, Barley, and Vegetables. You can get 4 Vegetable seeds from each UWorship.As soon as you're familiar with the basics of life in Egypt, you should take a grand tour of the UWorship in each regions, and collect a full set of 48 Vegetable Seeds.
Onions and Sheep
Sheep eat Onions- 3 Onions per day per male sheep
- 1 Onion per day per female sheep
- Each pair of sheep has a 50/50 chance of producing a lamb each 4 game hours, about 80 minutes real time.
- 7 Males + 7 Females + 700 Carrots per hut is the optimal herd, yielding about 14 bunnies per hutch, for a 3 hours session in the evening.
We also have a Modern Sheep Farm, which only requires half as many Onions per Sheep, so long as they have the right Thistles.
Straw and Camels
Camels eat Straw, produced by either drying Grass or by processing Rotten Flax. Straw is also valuable for making Bricks. Both male and female camels eat about 350 Straw per real life day, so Sheep are an easier way to obtain Leather and Dung, unless you can afford to build a few Greenhouses. Female camels will also produce Milk when they've eaten a bit of Honey. Camels stud, so the optimal herd is 1 Male and 4 Females which will yield an average of 2 baby camels per day.
Wood Planes and Carpentry Benches
Wood Planes consume Stone Blades and you'll only get about 20 Boards per blade. Carpentry Benches consume Iron Blades (made on an Anvil), and a good quality blade lasts for several hundred Boards. A Carpentry Bench also has a 50 Board automatic mode that will run so long as you stand in one place.You can use Hot Keys to keep several Carpentry Benches going concurrently. You have to set your Chat Options so that your Inventory and Chat Tabs can be minimized, and then keystrokes will be directed to whichever device the cursor is hovering over.
Flax Processing
Twine (for Fishing), Canvas, Rope, and Linen are the end products of Flax processing.As both Flax Gins and Distaffs take a while to do their thing, the Flax Compound is set up as a flow-through process. You add Rotten Flax at the front end, help move things along in the middle, and take Linen, Canvas, and Rope out at the back end. The ratios, less a 10% cut for guild projects and food, are:
| Linen | Thread | Lint | 27 Rotten Flax | 100 Linen needs 2700 Rotten Flax |
| Plus either | ||||
| Canvas | Twine | Tow | 20 Rotten Flax | 100 Canvas needs 2000 Rotten Flax |
| Rope | Twine | Tow | 1 2/3 Rotten Flax | 100 Rope needs 166 Rotten Flax |
300 Tow makes 900 Twine, which is not hard to store. 300 Lint makes 4500 Thread, which is awful to store. Therefore, unless you going to weave the thread immediately, always process Tow and Lint in the following order:
- Process the Tow and store the Twine in a chest, or in the Loom
- Process the Lint and Leave the Thread in the Distaff until you are ready to weave it.
A nice balance, for processing a batch of 2400 Rotten Flax, is:
| Allocation | Rotten Flax | Linen | Canvas | Rope | Straw |
| Guildie | 2400 | 80 | 99 | 108 (two large distaffs) | |
| Guild | 0 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 2400 |
Flax Combs and Hackling Rakes
Flax Combs and Hackling Rakes will be your first introduction to the Endurance timer. You can only cycle the equipment once every 60 seconds, but a performance boost from eating a Grilled Fish or Grilled Onions will reduce your cycle time to 45 seconds.
Distaffs
Distaffs take a while to spin Thread, Twine, and Rope , but at least they're automatic.
Student Looms and Hand Looms
You can make Canvas and Linen on a loom. Female avatars have a shorter Endurance cycle than Male avatars.
Box Kilns and True Kilns
Use a Box Kilns to make your first few Fire Bricks. Use a True Kiln for everything else.
Charcoal
You can make Charcoal in a Hearth or an Oven, very efficiently, but using a Firepit is more convenient and less frustrating until you need a lot of Charcoal, which you will as soon as you start mining. With 200 Wood, some Tinder and some Flint, and you'll have 24 Charcoal. You can also grill fish and veggies if you have some sharpened sticks for skewers. While you're at it, add some Dried Flax and Limestone, to get Ash and Lime for your glass making efforts, and the glass knife that you'll need to carve your personal chit.
Mining
Our mining, metalworking, marble, and pyramid related activities are sponsored by our sister guild, Sunset Sunset Enterprises.If you're curious, we have two mines, one for Copper and one for Iron, that are permitted for Sunset Papyrus Initiates.
| Region | Where | Ore | Owner |
| 7L | 1248 1918 | Iron | (Sunset Papyrus) |
| 7L | 1305 2391 | Copper | Quartz (Sunset Papyrus) |
If you add Rotten Flax and remove Finshed Product in these ratios, then everybody gets their fair share.
Kinsman and Elders
- Kinsmen are the core folks who provide most of the day to day support for new members.
- Elders are around as well, and are the only folks who can accept new applicants, but they're often involved in activites with a much longer range than day to day support.
Additional Information
Our Tale 2 wiki pages are located at Tale 2 Sunset.There are four Tale 3 Sunset Guilds:
- Sunset Papyrus focuses on entry level technology and mentoring
- Sunset Enterprises focuses on advanced technology, including Art and Thought buildings
- Sunset Projects focuses on guild sponsored projects and serves as our newspaper
- Sunset Express focuses on the creation and delivery of unique items such as gearboxes, tools, glassware, and gems