Meditating
Meditation
To meditate, drop a meditation rug on the ground, right click it, and choose "Nature -> Meditate". Skill can be built up to 20 on all tiles, though you must observe the distance requirements between successes. You can join a path at 15 skill, but you must do so to at 20 skill if you want to continue skill gain. Once you have 20 skill, further gain is restricted - see below.
Due to the flatness of the rug models, it is recommended to use them in a container you place on the ground, such as a bucket, to enable easier pickup.
Notes from Rolf
1. the counter is reset once per 24 hours to 0 and everyone gets 5 new chances
2. You gain skill once per 30 minutes up to 5 times
3. then every 3rd hour you get another chance
How it actually works
1. Every time the server restarts, you have 5 chances to get a meditation gain.
2. You can only use a chance and gain skill if you wait at least 30 minutes between each meditation attempts. If you accidentally meditate more than once during that 30 minutes limit, you won't lose your chances.
3. After you used your 5th chance (and every time you run out of chances) you will get the "You feel that it will take you a while before you are ready to meditate again." message. After you used your 5th chance, a 24 hour timer starts and you will gain 5 more chances when that timer is over. The chances reset isn't based on the server up-time.
4. When you are out of chances, you will also gain ONE extra chance 3 hours after you used your last chance. Note that this gain isn't cumulative: you won't gain a new chance every 3 hours. For example, you will only gain one more chance even if you wait 6 hours without meditating. But once you use your new extra chance, you will get the "You feel that it will take you a while before you are ready to meditate again." message again and you will gain one more chance 3 hours later, and so on as long as you meditate and until the 24 hours timer reset and you regain your 5 chances.
Paths
Starting and Following a Path
On certain tiles, there can be a pop-up after finishing meditating that allows you to start a path. There are thought to be many paths, though some are more easily found than others. Verified paths are:
The Path of Power
The Path of Insanity
The Path of Love
The Path of Hate.
To join a path you need to have at least 15 meditating skill.
Once you are on the path, a title will appear next to your name, similar to the champion title. Each step of the path brings a new title. At each step, you must wait for an increasing amount of time before you can advance to the next step on the path. Times between steps are shown in the section on Titles below. You can only follow 1 path.
The message you get to start each path seems to take the following form: "As you meditate upon these things you realize that there is a pattern of thinking that you can try to follow. If this path contains the truth or simply the figment of someone's imagination, you do not know. Nonetheless, it may pose an interesting challenge. Do you wish to embark on the philosophical journey of the path of X? If you answer yes, you will be challenged by the selected path as you visit more places like this one and mediate.". Answering yes will make you an adherent of that particular path, with the title of Uninitiated.
For the subsequent questions of each path, the dialog starts as follows: "If the path of X contains the truth or simply is the figment of someone's imagination, you do not know. Nonetheless, it poses an interesting challenge. The following question springs to mind", and is then followed by a new question with five possible answers.
The further along a path you are, the harder it becomes to get the question dialogs to appear. The chance to receive a question is determined by your meditation skill, and the quality/type of the rug you are using. The various rugs in order of increasing effectiveness are: Meditation rug, Fine meditation rug, Beautiful meditation rug, and Exquisite meditation rug. If you fail to receive a question, you can simply keep meditating on the same special tile until you succeed; there is no need to move elsewhere first.
If you get a question wrong, the delay timer resets and you must wait out the full period over again. For example if you choose wrongly on the level 4 question, you have to wait another 6 days (real time) before you can try again.
Leaving a Path
If you have chosen a path, you now have the option Nature -> Leave path. This brings up a dialog that says: "Select quit to stop following this path. The result is immediate and dramatic".
If you select Quit, you get this message: "You decide to stop pursuing the path of knowledge."
Path Leaders - Enlightenment
Once you have reached level 3 in your chosen path, you will have a new option Nature -> Path leaders. This brings up a dialog that says "You consider the local leaders of the path:". "Local" here means the server you are currently on.
Once you reach level 4, your own name appears on this list.
Leaders in paths are able to enlighten others who are exactly three levels below the leader's current level. For example, a level 9 can advance a level 6 to level 7. The leader must activate their rug for the option. The student does not need to have the required skill, but enough time must have passed since his last advance for them to receive the question. Currently, there is not much feedback when the enlightening does not succeed.
Example of successful enlightenment (courtesy of Corrax via the forums):
[Corrax][Love path level 7]
Logging started 2010-09-09
[12:07:16] Eleyna needs to type in the command /invitations.
[12:07:27] You attempt to light the path for Eleyna.
[12:07:27] You ask Eleyna a question. she seems to think hard.
[12:07:58] Eleyna has reached the level of Goodhearted of the path of love!
[Eleyna][Love path level 4]
Logging started 2010-09-09
[12:07:24] You will now accept invitations to change kingdom and religion.
[12:07:27] Corrax asks you a question.
[12:07:58] You think 'Sounds about right'
[12:07:58] Congratulations! You have now reached the level of Goodhearted of the path of love!
Path Titles
A note to further make clear the timing for path advancement, since there have been questions about this recently:
The information in the "Delay to reach" column refers to the time that must pass in real-life hours or days since you gained your last level in the path.
Example: When you first convert to a path (represented below as 0 level), you then must wait 12 real-life hours before you can try for level 1. During that 12 hours, you may still meditate as normal for meditating skill gain (even on Path tiles). But when you meditate on a Path tile during this period, you will receive a message that says you "need to let your recent progress sink in" for some period of time before you may progress in the path.
| Level | Delay to reach | Skill | Path of Knowledge | Path of Insanity | Path of Power | Path of Love | Path of Hate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | None | 15 | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated |
| 1 | 12 Hours | 15 | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate |
| 2 | 24 Hours | 15 | Eager | Disturbed | Gatherer | Nice | Ridiculous |
| 3 | 3 Days | 15 | Explorer | Crazed | Greedy | Gentle | Envious |
| 4 | 6 Days | 15 | Sheetfolder | Deranged | Strong | Warm | Hateful |
| 5 | 12 Days | 15 | Desertmind | Sicko | Released | Goodhearted | Finger |
| 6 | 24 Days | 20 | Observer | Mental | Unafraid | Giving | Sheep |
| 7 | 24 Days | 30 | Bookkeeper | Psycho | Brave | Rock | Snake |
| 8 | 24 Days | 40 | Mud-dweller | Beast | Performer | Splendid | Shark |
| 9 | 24 Days | 50 | Thought Eater | Maniac | Liberator | Protector | ? |
| 10 | 24 Days | 60 | ? | Drooling | Force | Respectful | ? |
| 11 | 24 Days | 70 | ? | Gone | ? | ? | ? |
Bonus
Follow the link to a bonus to find out what it does.
Messages
- This is indeed a special place.
- You have found a special tile that belongs to a path. There is no message on special tiles of the path of insanity.
- You decide to start pursuing the insights of the path of [...]
- Message you get if you choose yes in a path dialog (see above).
- You fail to relax.
- You failed starting your meditation, try again.
- You fall into a trance.
- Your attempt is successful. Do not move or you will interrupt the action.
- You feel invigorated.
- A random 99 % Water, 99 % Food and 50 % Nutrition boost.
- You feel that it will take you a while before you are ready to meditate again.
- You have used your 5 meditating skill attemps or some extra attempt after them, and must wait 3 hours for another chance to get skill.
- You gain no inspiration here for your own path.
- You were meditating on a special tile that is on a path other than the one you have chosen.
- You have hard time to focus and no question comes to you. You probably need higher meditation skill.
- You need more meditating skill if you want to get the question.
- You need to find deeper mysteries in order to advance your skill in meditation now.
- You need to join a path in order to gain more meditating skill.
- You recently meditated here and need to find new insights somewhere else.
- After a successful meditation on a tile, you need to move 10 tiles in one direction to meditate again or you will not gain any skill. You could still join a path or get the path question, however.
- You should return here when you have become better at meditating.
- You have found a special tile but do not have the required skill to start following a path.
- You start meditating.
- You start meditating, obviously.
- You still need to let your progress sink in for several hours / days / more than a week / a few weeks.
- You get this message after meditating on a special tile if you are following a path but must still wait until the next path question.
Waiting Messages
You will get one of the following phrases to ponder upon while waiting for your meditation to finish:
- A sense of hopelessness suddenly strikes.
- Am I here, really?
- Are there people who are soulless?
- Are they after you?
- Are you all that honest?
- Can something good come from small children fighting with each other?
- Can you change anything in your life for the better?
- Can you freeze water with thoughts?
- Can you picture a situation where could you kill someone?
- Do I have responsibility to gain power?
- Do I want to be famous?
- Do people grow taller from love?
- Do you believe in what people say or what people do?
- Do you know anyone who has had a perfect childhood?
- Do you know anyone who has not had a tainted childhood?
- Do you let too many things slip?
- Do you often lie or take chances when you are asked to speak?
- Do you taint people by complaining about things to them?
- Do you try to control things you should not or can not?
- Does everything have a shadow somewhere?
- Does history always repeat itself?
- Does hurting someone really hurt you more?
- Does meditating really help anything?
- Does what you do have any effect at all?
- How come people who ought to know so much often are proven wrong?
- How long plans can I make and do I wish to?
- If I give, do I do it for feeling good myself or for others?
- If I let my loved one be ruined, how could I live with myself?
- If something sees light as something else, how does it look?
- If you could become best in the world at anything, what would that be?
- Is fear and hate the same thing?
- Is it better to protect a child or let it risk a severe bruise now and then?
- Is it possible to kill for love?
- Is it possible to move along the chain of time?
- Is it really the same river the next time you step into it?
- Is it right to try to control the one you love?
- Is letting go good or bad? Can I overcome my fears?
- Is love a large hole that needs to be filled or is it something else?
- Is love a feeling or a need?
- Is love possible if I constantly fear rejection?
- Is there a physical representation of chance?
- Is there a smallest particle?
- Is this all part of a plan?
- Isn't life really pretty disgusting?
- Isn't most things very predictive?
- It sure is a nice day.
- It sure is dark.
- May your mere appearance change the course of events?
- Maybe we all have our problems.
- Should children really be allowed to sort out their indifferences themselves?
- Should you accept when someone destroys what you love?
- Should you be doing something completely different right now?
- Should you trust someone more because the person sounds more convincing?
- The bliss of rain on a hot summer day.
- The image of a small baby surrounded by snakes comes to mind.
- The image of a sprout growing through hard dirt comes to mind.
- The light in a drop of water.
- The sky lifts your heart.
- The thought of the highest mountain makes your mind wander.
- The thought that someone is watching strikes you.
- The vision of slow flowing rivers calms your mind.
- This place reminds you of home for some reason.
- What do the gods want?
- What happens if all the bad people get all the gold?
- What if light and dirt is the same thing, just in different shapes.
- What is love anyway?
- What is the difference between an arrow fired and an arrow sheathed?
- What is the difference between words spoken and words thought?
- What is the smallest thing you can do that has effect on another person?
- What is this smell?
- What is your spirit made of?
- What lies have you been told this week?
- What makes trees grow?
- What will happen to me if I never take control of my life?
- What would you do if you possessed most knowledge in the world?
- When I forgive, do I really do it for myself?
- When you judge and limit someone, does that limit you as well?
- When? When when when?
- Where does eternity begin?
- Where does my soul live as I leave my body?
- Which path should you choose today?
- Who built the mountains?
- Who decides who is allowed to complain about something?
- Who has the right to lock someone up?
- Who is more worthy of power? You or your neighbour?
- Who loves the most?
- Who was that?
- Why do some people become rich?
- Will you care about what happens after you are dead?
- You are beset by thoughts of demons.
- You consider the speed and effects of lightning.
- You consider the wind and the places it goes.
- You consider whether you are supposed to be here.
- You decide not to breathe at all. Does the future already exist?
- You envision a straight path through a forest and a tunnel through a distant mountain.
- You envision fire along the horizon. Dark clouds above.
- You envision yourself teaching to the masses.
- You feel full of energy, like the sun.
- You feel like laughing like a donkey.
- You feel the earth and what walks on it.
- You focus on breathing.
- You listen to the wind.
- You meditate upon the power of the bear.
- You ponder the miners, digging deep in the darkness of the mountains.
- You recall the smile of a baby.
- You think 'Do plans ever work? Do I need a plan?'
- You think about how domination can destroy love and how some people want to be dominated.
- You think about how people can torture each other and who decides who will live and who will die.
- You think about hurricanes and volcanoes and how it would feel to be one.
- You think about rain.
- You think about reflections and shadows.
- You think about sunshine.
- You think about the craftsmen, tinkering and toiling.
- You think about the most perfect person you have met.
- You think about the next thing you want to learn.
- You think about the sea and the creatures that swim in it.
- You think about the worst person you have met.
- You think about why we use money.
- You think about your barriers for learning and how to remove them.
- You think of aggression and violence.
- You think of all the people that decide your fate.
- You think of heroes and whether you want to be one.
- You think of the things that interest you most.
- You think of the various ways people become the best at something and whether you should adopt some style.
- You think of the way to make your neighbour do as you wish.
- You try to clear your mind.
- You try to fathom the number of grains of sand in the world.
- You try to figure out what your moral obligations are.
- You try to hear the thundering waves of a stormy sea.
- You try to recall all the faces you have met.
- You try to recall if someone said that the gods don't play dice.
- You try to think of nothing here.
- You wonder how far you can go.
- You wonder how you would study and learn a book of lies.
- You wonder if it is possible to find knowledge that in no possible situation would save lives.
- You wonder if the future exists but we only see parts of it like a mountainrange.
- You wonder if the people in your hometown are like people in other towns.
- You wonder if there is something really interesting out there that you haven't heard of.
- You wonder if time can move backwards somehow.
- You wonder if you always try to decide on the best option.
- You wonder if you can punish with love.
- You wonder what you would say if you got to tell the whole world one sentence of truth.
Titles
- Guru at 50 skill
- Swami at 70 skill
