Viridian Gate Online- Absolution
Page 29
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Red-outlined Items in Guild Spaces
Items that are outlined in red inside Guild Rooms are inoperable due to their placement in a room that doesn’t fit their status. These items cannot be intentionally placed in an incorrectly aligned room, but if they exist beforehand, may be included, but not used.
These items will need to be moved if they are to be used in the future.
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The sheer amount of knowledge that was now readily available to me through the community’s wiki was astounding. If only combat, leveling up, and making new and interesting discoveries was so easy as doing a quick online search.
“Need to make enchanter’s area, engineering area, and also personal workspace. Should reinforce doors, protect with wards, improve apartment above building.” I listed things I needed to do, ticking them off on my fingers as I went through them.
“Also need to keep eye for when Anya respawns.” I looked at the clock in the corner of my vision. It read 22:18.
She had been dead for almost three hours. It would be morning before she came back at this rate. I looked around the workshop, the place where we would be manufacturing most everything for the Crimson Alliance.
“Will need more building space.” I did the math quickly in my head.
If I were using approximately a third of the space for the smithery, laboratory and enchanter’s areas, I wouldn’t have sufficient space for the engineering workshop or my personal laboratory.
I looked back over the stats of the guild and saw the portion about construction points. The number was seventy out of one hundred. I wondered what that meant, exactly, for the guild.
I mentally selected a workstation that was inside an incorrect room and saw a few options pop up underneath it.
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What would you like to do with Alchemy Bench Level 1?
Store? Trash? Dismantle?
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I stared at the options for a moment, then selected Store.
The object disappeared with a heavy, wooden clunk. I looked at the Guild Information sheet again, and the construction points had decreased by one. Was every bench and chair in the workshop costing resources?
I selected a small wooden stool nearby and stored that as well. The number didn’t decrease. I selected an entire subsection of the building, including ten workbenches of various kinds and six chairs, storing them all at once. The number dropped by thirteen. Chairs seemed to count for half a point.
I looked around the half-empty room. I could improve efficiency if I removed all of the chairs and made everyone stand, as well as reduce our overall construction costs. Unfortunately, this would undoubtedly cause unrest eventually.
On the other hand, if I had a chair at every station, that would eat up half the station’s costs in chairs alone. Did construction capacity increase as the guild level increased? I pulled up the wiki again, needing answers.
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Guild Leveling
As a guild gains levels, it will also earn skill points. These skill points can be used in the Guild Skill Tree the same way any person may add proficiency points to their skill trees.
Every guild has a unique skill tree associated with it, based on the type of guild created.
You can learn more by examining the Guild Skill Tree subsection of the Guild Command page wiki.
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Well, that wasn’t helpful in answering my question about construction space.
I opened the Guild Skill Tree subsection and perused the available skills in each tree.
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I WAS INTERESTED IN a few of the skills right off, but the most important one that I saw was for additional Construction Capacity.
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Guild Ability Unlocked
Ability: Construction Capacity
Guilds need storage space to improve their effectiveness, and improving construction capacity does just that: it increases the number of construction points a guild can use at any given time.
Ability Type/Level: Passive; Guild/Level 1
Cost: None
Effect: Increases construction points for the Guild Structure(s) by 100 per level
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After that, I wanted to ensure that our guild’s potions and formulas would steadily improve.
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Guild Ability Unlocked
Ability: Chemical Stability
Formulas, chemical components, and crafting items have a number of potential variables that come with their use. The skill of one Alchemist and their innate talent will vary from another, sometimes wildly. Through enhanced Chemical Stability, the toxicity level of potions is reduced, the chance to produce a successfully crafted item is increased, and the chance to lose materials after a failed crafting attempt is reduced.
Ability Type/Level: Passive; Guild/Level 1
Effect 1: Reduces toxicity level of potions produced through alchemy by 15% per skill level
Effect 2: Increases chance to successfully craft an item of any kind by 5% per skill level
Effect 3: Reduces wasted materials from a failed crafting attempt by 5% per skill level
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With those selected, I wanted to make sure I could chat with the officers on a regular basis without having to send individual messages, so I put the guild’s last point into Officer Chat.
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Guild Ability Unlocked!
Ability: Officer Chat
Effective communication amongst the officers of any organization can be the difference between smooth daily operations and abject chaos. The Officer Chat ability grants the officers of the guild the ability to telepathically chat directly with one another through a specialized channel in real time, without the time it takes to send personal messages.
Ability Type/Level: Passive; Guild/Level 1 (Max)
Cost: None
Effect: Provides a telepathic channel for officers within the guild to discuss matters in real time. Requires more than a single officer in the guild to be active.
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Happy with my selections for the time being, I went back to work.
“Okay, can make changes now,” I said, looking at the back wall, which was bare aside from small racks of various tools.
I selected the wall and mentally pushed it back about six meters. For every half meter, two points of the construction cost were eaten up.
Having completed that task, I looked at the floor and pulled a wall from underneath it, closing off a section that would house my personal laboratory.
I selected the menu for Sub-Rooms from the Guild Layout, and a series of options popped up.
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You have chosen to make the selected area a sub-room for the guild. What kind of room will this be?
[Officer’s Lounge]
[Personnel Lounge]
[Resource Dump]
[Kitchen]
[Founder’s Office]
[Storage Area]
[Common Area]
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There were a considerable number of sub-rooms available, but this one was going to be my personal lab. I selected Founder’s Office, and a door appeared inside the wall.
I looked at it and a bright green outline appeared. I thought about a double door made of heavy metal, studded to prevent forceful intrusion, and the door changed to match my thoughts. Another two points gone from the construction limit.
The floor had expanded enough to allow me to add the two subsections of Engineering and Enchanting, earning me a pair of new notifications.
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Secret Quest Alert! Enchantment!? has been completed!
You’ve constructed an Enchanter’s Workshop inside of a Guild Building, providing important working space for the rune-loving, stone-carving population of your guild!
As a result, your guild space will provide a permanent 5% increase to enchantment strength for each enchantment attached to items and a perm
anent 5% decrease to the chance to fail an enchantment. In addition, every Enchanter working within the designated area will receive an additional 5% XP bonus for their craft.
Additionally, the guild will receive 1 skill point.
(Current Guild Skill points available: 1)
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Secret Quest Alert! Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger has been completed!
You’ve constructed an Engineering Bay inside of a Guild Building, providing important working space for your grease monkeys!
As a result, your guild space will provide a permanent 10% increase to the durability of any engineered items produced within the space and a permanent 5% decrease to resources consumed when producing said items. In addition, every Engineer working within the designated area will receive an additional 5% XP bonus for their craft.
Additionally, the guild will receive 1 skill point.
(Current Guild Skill points available: 2)
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Excellent, my skill points were exactly where I wanted them.
I had been wanting to ward the doors of the guild against forceful or denied intrusion, so I put a point into Enhanced Magics.
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Guild Ability Unlocked!
Ability: Enhanced Magics
Workshops, guild buildings, and storage areas can sometimes be a point of contention for people. A strong defense is a good defense, and using Enhanced Magics allows a guild officer to add Runic Wards to structure surfaces. Higher levels of Enhanced Magics improves the number of Warding points a specific surface can have. Increased levels also increase the types and levels of wards available.
Ability Type/Level: Passive; Guild/Level 1
Cost: None
Effect 1: Allows the warding of doors, walls, windows, and various surfaces within guild structures.
Effect 2: Provides 6 Warding points per surface per level of skill.
Effect 3: Provides access to tier 1 wards.
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Next, I had to choose between putting a point into Educational Reform, or Improved Productivity. After careful consideration for the final point, I decided to put it into Educational Reform, granting a bonus to XP for everyone working within the workshop, providing a way for our guild to grow more quickly in a short time. It would also allow me to level faster, which was always a necessity.
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Guild Ability Unlocked!
Ability: Educational Reform
Everyone needs education, whether it’s simplistic or incredibly complex. The latrine cleaner’s education is just as important as the Runic Enchanter’s. With Educational Reform, every member of the guild who is working within a Guild Structure will be provided with additional XP, as well as a minor improvement to production speed. These improve with skill level.
Ability Type/Level: Passive; Guild/Level 1
Cost: None
Effect 1: Increases crafting XP gain by 10% per skill level
Effect 2: Reduces crafting time by 2.5% per skill level
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“Nearly done,” I said as I looked at the clock. An hour had passed since I had begun the work of refurbishing this Guild Hall.
I looked around the building, noting the delineated locations. The structure itself would work for now, but in the future, as the guild began to level up, to expand and grow, we would need to revise the structure.
I envisioned having a building with a major centralized hall, then off to the four cardinal directions, a tower. Each of the four towers would house a primary crafting discipline and their subsets. And finally, off to the side, would be my own tower. One day it would happen, but that was a thought for another day. One when the guild had gained considerable power.
Cleaning Spring
THE TASKS AHEAD OF me seemed insurmountable given the time it would take to accomplish them. But for now, I chose a smaller task.
I set about rearranging all of the guild furniture. I spent over two hours moving every single bench, every forge, and every anvil to its specific location. It wasn’t the most efficient layout, but it would keep things organized.
I turned and looked at my station, now sitting by itself, with nothing around it. I selected it, along with the rack attached to it and the safe underneath, and stored the lot of it.
“Time for new location.” I pushed open the heavy steel doors, their weight a challenge for my low Strength level.
Stepping into the empty room, I sighed. It had been so long since I had started something from scratch. There wasn’t even a chair.
I unloaded the workstation and placed it in the middle of the room. The safe went underneath it, as it had been in the common area. For the rack, I found a place in the center of the back wall that was completely empty. I turned and took stock.
“Am going to need more furniture.” I opened the Guild panel and looked at the menu titled [Furniture].
A dropdown appeared, listing a series of categories such as workstations, windows, doors, stairways, and furniture.
I opened the one for furniture and studied it. There were sofas, tables, chairs, bookshelves, chests, various storage implements, and lights—just about everything one would need to furnish a structure.
Next to each item was a construction point cost. I needed to be careful, as I still wanted to refinish the apartment upstairs. There was no telling how many construction points warding the doors would cost either.
“Will need place to sit, possibly sleep.” I picked out a generic-looking sofa with basic cushions and a simple wooden frame that only cost two CP and placed it against one of the empty walls.
After that, I went through the list of things I considered to be important. A pair of large bookshelves found a home surrounding the wall rack on the back wall. The rack itself I replaced with a much larger hanging shelf unit. I discovered that storage crates only cost a half point, so I added four of those along one of the bare walls.
“Am to be needing more. Place to test weapons, basin for cleaning.” I rolled my hand through the air thinking of the items I would like to have.
I found a reasonably sized storage chest with heavy leather bands for two CP, which I placed next to the crates. There was an item in the menu marked only as miscellaneous. It piqued my curiosity, so I gave it a look. Within were a number of unusual items, such as a training dummy that stood on a small pedestal, plaques with decorative weapons, and window coverings.
“Will use dummy, maybe staff on wall, perhaps rack of glass vials for display.” I selected the items and placed them in various locations.
The dummy, whom I named Leroy, went into a corner, where nothing was around it. The staff found itself a home above the large ingredients shelf.
As for the glass vials, I placed them on my workstation top. The room appeared to be much more pleasant now—it only needed books for the bookshelves.
I noticed a small indicator in the corner of my vision, gently blinking. I focused on it and a new pop-up appeared.
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Are you finished furnishing the Founder’s Office?
Yes/No?
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I didn’t see why I wouldn’t be, so I selected yes.
A rustling filled the air as books appeared and shoved themselves into the bookshelves, some slanting to hold up others. Ingredients appeared from the air and nestled themselves amongst the shelves of the ingredients rack, most of them from my own collection in the safe beneath my workstation.
In the storage chests, all manner of glassware appeared, clinking and clanging. The lid of the storage chest popped open for a moment, glowed gently, then dropped shut.
“Game is always surprising.” I smiled as I took a couple steps backwards and plopped myself on the sofa.
The cushions were extremely comfortable, and I was tempted to take a rest. I entertained the thought a moment, but I still had work to finish. I shook the fatigue from my eyes and stood slowly, looking at the enormous doors that blocked entry into my office.
�
�Should ward against apprentices.” I smirked as I thought how peaceful it would be if I wasn’t constantly disturbed during the day.
I decided against it, for fear of one of them accidentally blowing themselves up without supervision. I would, however, ward the doors from forceful intrusion or unwanted entrance, especially while I was gone.
I looked at the door, its cold steel staring back. How would I ward this thing?
I stepped back to my workstation and grabbed my Runic Chisel that was in the pullout drawer, then returned to the door.
“Will ward according to magic recommendation, then apply magic.” I nodded as I pulled up the Enhanced Magic list, which had found its way into the Guild Control page.
There was a small list of menus, which I was finally getting used to. [Magical Wards], [Teleportals], and [Enhancement Magic] were listed as options. I would need to look at each one of these in earnest later, but I wanted to make the wards happen now.
I opened the Magical Wards menu, which gave me a drop-down menu of options.
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Magical Wards
With the Enhanced Magics perk in the Guild’s Construction Skill Tree, the Founder or a high-ranking officer in the guild may choose to apply magical wards to doors, windows, walls, or other surfaces, so long as the Enchantment cost per surface or location does not exceed a total of 6.
The application of these wards typically requires the presence of an Arcane Scrivener of appropriate level, however, if the guild is constructed upon the grounds of a Keep with a living Guardian, the Guardian will be capable of applying the wards in place of the Scrivener.
Enchantment costs per ward are listed next to their name.
Wards you have access to:
[Ward of Minor Explosion] – Cost: 2
[Ward of Minor Gale Force] – Cost: 1
[Ward of Minor Sealing] – Cost: 2
[Ward of Minor Silencing] – Cost: 1
[Ward of Minor Shattering] – Cost: 3
[Ward of Minor Smokescreen] – Cost: 1
[Ward of Minor Locking] – Cost: 2
[Ward of Minor Repulsion] – Cost: 3
You may unlock more Wards and Enchantments by increasing the skill level through the Guild Skill Tree.
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It appeared as though I didn’t need to apply any actual magic, which was wonderful for my situation.