Sidereal

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Posts posted by Sidereal

  9. Posted

    The 'ignore' mechanism built into the forum is probably the right solution for this.  I have found it useful for filtering out the responses of individuals that have demonstrated time and again that they have almost nothing useful to add to a discussion.

     

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  10. Posted

    Some exciting new developments to announce here at the ol' Transmutation Hut:

    • Better bulk pricing on transmutations - discounts now start with orders of 12.  Create that nice 2x2 resource pit of clay, peat, and tar you always wanted for even less!
    • New VIP discount for big transmutation projects - orders of 100 or more transmutations are now 50% off!
    • Price discounts on many popular dyes - through practice, I've found more efficient ways of making many colors and can pass the savings on to you!
    • Color catalog has been updated for 2024 - several new oranges and a few stunning blues have been added for your enjoyment!
    Spoiler

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    As always, a 'like' from me means 'order fulfilled' - saves wear and tear on the ol' forum thread while I spend more time at the bottom of the trusty ol' dye tub.  Happy wurming one and all :)

  13. Posted

    I'm here with Fred the Wonder Chicken reporting on the latest rift sighting at K15 - due west of the Caldera scheduled to open ten hours from now.  No easy ship access, so you'll be hoofing it in from a coast.  An unusual spot, the ground is uncooperative with unrideable slopes in inconvenient places, so good luck rifters!

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    Also, this Magranon Colossus has a chance to do the funniest thing ever:
     

    Spoiler

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    Drunken Colossus of Magranon is hoping you'll help him stand up again

     

  17. Posted · Edited by Sidereal

    1 hour ago, Proseedda said:

    Ql does affect lighting distance, here are some images that show an 18 ql hanging lamp and then a 33 ql hanging lamp (just some i had lying around)


    Well shoot, there goes my theory.  I was wondering if some rendering simplifications were happening.  Proseedda, what is the distance to that light source from that vantage point as measured through a spyglass?  I'm guessing my vantage point is beyond the distance where the renderer begins to simplify things...   ETA: spyglass tells me it's between 48m and 58m to each of those various spots.  And I'm realizing things might be different depending on renderer settings, and even being above/below ground.  I'll do more science to it and see what I find.

     

    1 hour ago, Evilreaper said:

    i was also always told that ql increases light radius, what lamp types have the best radius and does white dye actually increase radius like we have always been led to believe

     

    White dye just changes the color of the light, but the nice side effect is that the human eye perceives it as 'brighter' due to the increased contrast.  My understanding is that although the light source isn't actually any brighter, it just 'feels brighter' - and I use white dye on my lanterns for that reason.  :)

     

     

    50 minutes ago, topkos said:

    Are brass lamps still the best?

     

    This will be something that I'll be testing out over the next few weeks as I have time to improve some hanging lamps and lanterns of various metals :)

  18. Posted · Edited by Sidereal

    So I've finally had an excuse to play around with light a bit more, and I've learned some things that are probably worth sharing.  In order to discuss with proper nuance, we'll use the following terms:

     

    intensity:  how effective a light is at illuminating nearby items, what most folks think of as 'brightness' 

    apparent brightness:  how bright the light source appears when looking directly at the 'lit' part of the model
    light radius: how far light travels from a given light source before it fades to nothing


    Having established that, let's look at some surprises!  (n.b. all lamps in the following examples have been dyed with 242/242/242 white dye to increase the contrast of the lighting effect).

    Lamp QL does not appear to affect the intensity of light the lamp casts

    Spoiler

    This was the biggest surprise for me.  When looking at them directly at eye level, I could swear that an 80ql lamp is brighter than a 10ql lamp.  What I found was that they all appear equal in intensity and light radius.  And to think of those long hours I spent imping lamps at the forge over the years...

     

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    Lamp type does appear to affect the radius of the light coming from the lamp

    Spoiler

    Another big surprise!  The radius of illumination of the light source depends on the type of lamp, not the quality of the lamp.  I haven't tested all hanging lamp types yet, so some additional research needs to be done. 

     

    As evidenced by the size of the lit circle on the rock wall:  plain iron lamps have the largest light radius, hanging lamps the second largest, and imperial lamps have the smallest.   We can clearly see that the light within the light radius of the 24 hanging bronze lamps is more intense but that the 8 iron lamps have a larger light radius.

     

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    Lamp stacking is an effective method for increasing intensity, but does not increase light radius.

    Spoiler

    Planting multiple lamps at the same physical point on the ground is an effective way to increase the intensity of light in a given area.  I expected this would be the case with lamp ql, but it turns out that all you really need are more lamps.  Light radius stays the same, but the intensity of the light within that radius increases with the number of lamps planted.

     

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    "So where are you going with all this, Sid?"  I'm glad you asked.  The takeaways for me are:

    1) imping lamps beyond 10ql does not affect the intensity of the light they provide
    2) In order to make a proper lighthouse, use lamp stacking.  Also consider using marble walls to catch and reflect light to make things even brighter


    I love a good marble brazier, but ... they can't hold a candle to lamp stacking :)

     

    Spoiler

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    Final note - I want to do similar tests with lanterns as a held light source as well as the various glow runes.  Stay tuned!

  23. Posted

    From a conversation in early November of this year:

    Quote

    [01:22:01] <Aurum> can't wait for Christmas wraiths
    [01:22:14] <Sidereal> i hope that wasn't a typo
    [01:22:25] <Sidereal> because CHRISTMAS WRAITHS would be AWESOME
    [01:22:37] <Aurum> q-q typo Im afraid
    [01:22:46] <Aurum> wreath
    [01:22:46] <Sidereal> not anymore, it's a PROPHECY

     

    And I know this is far, far too late to plant this seed of an idea and hope to see it this year - but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that we'll see Christmas Wraiths someday.

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  25. Posted

    On 12/16/2023 at 3:37 PM, Muse said:

    It's really difficult to see most Nodes at night, especially in a cave or landscape in shadow, even with a light source.


    I'm glad you made this suggestion - I was finally getting a chance to really explore resource nodes and even with a good light source just wound up stumbling around the steppe in the dark.  Made me want to wait until daylight to try again, but I lost the motivation because the combination of time cost of traveling to a biome and having to pack it in at nightfall felt too fussy.

    The day/night cycle doesn't interfere with most (all?) other skills much - it'd be nice that were also the case with the new nodes.