A Tale in the Desert III

Developer:	eGenesis
Genre:	Historical
Release Date:	May 27, 2006
Monthly Fee:	$13.95 USD

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About

A Tale in the Desert is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game set in ancient Egypt. You can get a taste of life in our tale by clicking around the site or downloading the game client for free.

Lawmaking

The Steps of Creating A Law

If you wish to write up a new law and have it enforced overEgypt, here are the steps you will need to follow:

Achieve citizen status.
Go to the University of Leadership, click to create petition. Type your petition into the dialog box.
Walk around and talk to people, ask them to sign your petition. They can sign by clicking on you. You can also share the petition.
When you have enough signatures, go back to the University of Leadership, and turn in the petition.
The developers will now classify the petition: either it is a feature request, or a petition for a law.
If it is a feature request, the developers will put it into the feature request manager on atitd.info.
If it is a petition for a law, it will appear at the voting booth in the game. Players will begin voting on it.
After the voting, if the players achieve the necessary number of votes, the petition will become a law.
After a petition becomes a law, the developers reprogram the game to enforce the law.

The Law Library

A good way to start is to go to a voting booth and view all the laws that have already been written. You can view the law library by clicking on the booth and selecting the "Law Library" option. The laws are classified according to whether they passed or not.

The Signature-Gathering Process

Any player can ask another for a copy of a petition. When you get a copy of a petition, you also get a copy of the signatures. So if I have a petition with 5 signatures, and you copy it, you also have a petition with 5 signatures - the same 5 signatures.

Suppose, then, that you take the copy out in to the world, and collect signatures. You gather 3 more signatures, so your petition now contains 8 signatures: the 5 I originally gave you, plus 3 more you collected yourself. Meanwhile, I go gather another 2 signatures.

We can now meet and share signatures. To do so, you click the same button you originally used to request a copy of the petition. When you do, you will gain all of my signatures, and I will gain all of yours. The result is that we will both have 10 signatures: the 5 that I originally had, plus the 3 you collected, plus the 2 that I collected.

Is It A Law Or A Feature Request?

After turning in the petition, the developers will classify it as a law or a feature request. The way we decide is simple, but subtle: there are things that real-world governments cannot do. If the petition asks to do something that a real-world government could not do, then it is not a law, it is a feature request. What follows is a short list of a few things that governments cannot do.

Governments Cannot Grant New Abilities

Imagine if the US Congress were to pass a law declaring that people can run faster. This would not suddenly enable Americans to run any faster. Here is a proposal that violates this rule:

Small and light buildings such as chests, forges, kitchens, tents, etc. should be relocatable by the owner. This would allow reorganization without destroying things.

Players do not have this ability, and governments cannot grant abilities. Therefore, this petition is not a law, it's a feature request. To rephrase: if there is some activity you would like to do in the game, and there is currently no way to do it, adding that ability is a feature request, not a law.

Governments Cannot Conjure Knowledge Out Of Thin Air

Imagine if the US Government were to pass a law stating that from now on, all Americans shall have the knowledge of any terrorists in their vicinity. Nothing would happen - governments cannot magically grant knowledge to their subjects. Here is a proposal that violates this rule

Since this proposal grants people knowledge, it is a feature request.

Governments Cannot Negate Challenges

The Stranger has challenged Egypt - he has given us several tests, and dared us to try to accomplish them. If the government declares his tests "too hard" and substitutes easier ones, then we have not lived up to his challenges at all! If a law tries to simplify one of the tests, then that is simply a concession that we are too weak to do what he challenged us to do. Here is a sample law that violates the rule:

Each citizen will (automatically) send a personal messenger to their mentor to advise them of the completion of their mentor shrine. The mentor will receive an EgyptMail message telling them that the mentee has built them a shrine.

This violates the rule because it makes mentorship easier. Mentorship is intentionally hard - it's a test of character. Anything that makes it easier, or automates any part of it, is diluting the challenge. So this is a feature request, not a law.

So What Does Count As A Law?

Laws in Egypt are just like laws in the real world - it's a way for you to limit the behavior of other people. For example, if you say that "nobody may cut down trees in the lakeshore region," that's a law. If you say "nobody may use the university unless they first pay their taxes," that's a law.

Leveling

New to A Tale in the Desert III is the implementation of a leveling system. The concept of leveling is already familiar to most MMO players, but the manner in which Tale 3 implementsthem is quite unique.

Citizenship

When you first start the game you are a Level 0 Peasant. To gain your first level you must complete the Principles of Citizenship. The principles are clearly listed under a tab of the same name in the lower left hand window. Initially each principle is marked "No", indicating you have not completed that principle. The principle will be marked "Done" when you complete the steps required to satisfy it. Once you have completed all the Principles of Citizenship you will advance to Level 1 and gain the title of "Citizen".

Note: In Beta "Principles of Citizenship" is currently labeled " Welcome to Egypt".

Every time you gain a level you will be presented with a screen that shows what tests and technology you have gained access to, and what you will gain access to when you complete the next level. You can refer to this screen at any time by clicking on yourself, then "Special...", then "Show my Level and Future Goals".

Gaining Levels

As a Level 1 Citizen you can gain another level by completing the Principles of Architecture, Principles of Body or Principles of Leadership. Once you complete any one of these principles you will gain a level and receive a new title: "Initiate of Architecture", "Initiate of the Human Body" or "Initiate of Leadership".

As a Level 2 Initiate you can gain a level by completing any of the principles you did not complete from Level 1, or any of the new principles gained at Level 2: Principles of Art and Music and Principles of Thought. Once you have completed any of these 4 principles you will gain a level and receive the title "Initiate of Two".

At Level 3 you can still gain a level by completing any of the principles from Level 1 or 2, plus you can gain a level by completing the Principles of Worship. Any of these will gain you the title of "Initiate of Three". Additionally you also may have the ability to compete in the "Test of the Obelisk" (if you finished the Principles of Architecture) or the "Test of the Demi-Pharaoh" (if you finished the Principles of Leadership).

It is important to note that you do not need to pass the Test of the Obelisk or the Test of the Demi-Pharaoh in order to gain a level. Instead a level is gained by trying out various aspects of the tests, called the Principles of the Obelisk and the Principles of the Demi-Pharaoh respectively.

As tests are unlocked or released their associated principles become available to players that have achieved or surpassed the level of that test, providing those players with another way in which to gain a level.

Technology and Skills

Several things need to be considered while determining which skills are available to you: Your current level, The tuition cost of a School skill, and the status of research for a University skill.

First and foremost every skill has an associated level. For example, as a Level 0 Peasant you have the ability to learn all the skills required to complete the Principles of Citizenship: Stone Blade Fabrication, Carpentry, and Brick Rack Construction at the School of Architecture and Flax Processing and Clothwork at the School of Art and Music.

As you increase your level new skills will become available at each different type of school. You will be able to see these skills before you have the ability to learn them, this will help you to learn where you need to go as you attain new levels.

Skills that can be learned at Egypts universities have an additional requirement of completing research. Research replaces the individual tuition cost with a community-level research cost. Players homesteading in the area work together to earn and donate the goods required to research and unlock a university skill, which is then available to anyone that travels to that university at no cost. Both the ability to research these skills and the ability to learn the resulting skill is level dependent. These university skills are shown along with available test on your "Level and Future Goals" screen.

System Requirements

Minimum

Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
Pentium III 700 MHz
512 MB RAM
32MB 3D Accelerator Graphics Card