I think that some repetition is necessary for this. Even with plenty of perception, I needed to read it twice.
Quantum Mechanics (Skill) / Discussion
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Somehow Tae got the skill the quick way, apparently. Some info (read from bottom up):
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: I didn't honestly pay huge attention to it.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: ….. Man you people are inquisitive.
(Open) Mag: Well, we know what to look for. If you can read it more than once per day you're on the right track.
(Open) Al: do you recall where you were when you read it?
(Open) heriodule: Er, caffine, maybe?
(Open) Mag: You must have hit some sort of trigger.
(Open) heriodule: It's supposedly deterministic
(Open) Mag: There's very little luck with these sorts of things in this game.
(Open) Al: well, now we know it's possible at least
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Maybe I was really…lucky?
(Open) heriodule: Oh
(Open) Al: hm, I have 22 copies, and I just get the sleepy message after the first one
(Open) heriodule facepalms
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: I didn't read it until later though. Was finishing the riot.
(Open) heriodule: Oh, my, You can read once per day per copy
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Yes.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Seriously, as far as I can remember, I didn't have anything special on.
(Open) Al: you got it on the same day you found the book?
(Open) Al: heh
(Open) heriodule: Huh
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Lol.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Lol, I am being interrigated. I need an Adult!
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: No & no.
(Open) heriodule: Did you have Pep in Your Step?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Sorry. Was that wrong?
(Open) Mag: Did you get some kind of message about crashing out, and regain 10 HP the first two times?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: I had acquired a few.
(Open) Mag: Huh.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Read it three times.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Yes.
(Open) heriodule: Did you read it more than once on one day?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: 12 Perception, I think 10 when I got the book, 9 will {was 6}, 7 strength, & 6 reflexes.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Ignorance to certain facts has often gotten me good favor.
(Open) Mag: What are your stats like?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Leave it toa newbie to throw the spading out of whack.
(Open) Al: It normally seems to take me 5-7 days, so you seemed to have gotten it oddly quickly
(Open) Mag: Well, I've got it, but I got it the slow way. We know there's a fast way, but we don't know what it is.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Sheer luck?
(Open) Mag: (Using the book doesn't always give the skill, and we're trying to figure out what triggers you getting it right off the way you seem to have.)
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Why? Is Quantum Mechanics rare?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Not that I know of.
(Open) Mag: Did you have any effects active, or do anything special that might have triggered getting the skill?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: One book, used a few energy points to get through the entire thing.
(Open) Mag: Only once, or over multiple days?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: I read a book.
(Open) Al: Hey THT
(Open) Mag: We were just wondering about what you did to get Quantum Mechanics.
(Open) Mag: Tae!
(Open) Mag: That's probably the slow way, though. I wonder what the fast, cheaty way is.
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Wewt. made & opened my first megapinata.
(Open) heriodule: After getting the damage types, at least
(Open) heriodule: 200 HP directly attributable to First Aid feels right to me
(Open) heriodule: We need some more people to obsessively log to figure that out, I expect
(Open) Mag: With TT we've got theories (as you well know), but basically our method is "blunder around a lot with the trauma reference equipped until you finally get the skill".
(Open) heriodule: I assume the trick for QM is boosting your stats and spam-reading with pep in your step
(Open) Mag: At least we have a pretty good idea about how the slow way works with QM.
(Open) Mag: Kinak says with Quantum Mechanics and Trauma Tech both there is a "quick, cheat-y" way to get them, and a longer, slow way.
(Open) Mag: I wish we knew.
(Open) heriodule: What is the quick way?
hahaha, poor tae
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Ignorance to certain facts has often gotten me good favor.
(Open) Mag: What are your stats like?
(Open) tree-hugging-tae: Leave it toa newbie to throw the spading out of whack.
Hey, Kinak, your design goals are being fulfilled! How will your stone-cold heart cope with the sudden injection of joy? :O
In the beginning, men were mortal.
Background: In the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, there's a scene where some of the characters dose people with cups of juice (tomato, in the book) that have been spiked with a drug called AUM. AUM is supposed to "turn neophobes into neophiles". In the book this suddenly turns them into creative thinkers who get interested in oddball scientific and political ideas. I have no idea if Kinak has even read this book, but thinking about this scene got me thinking that maybe the Free OJ is a similar sort of deal. Yeah, I had to have been dosed with AUM even to dream up a hypothesis like this in the first place …
For what it's worth, last run I drank an orange juice sample and read the QM book. I got the falling asleep message. BUT, the first time I read it on a subsequent day I got the "This book is fascinating!" message and the skill. Unfortunately, after the OJ failed to produce immediate results I stopped tracking things, so I don't remember how many times I read the book total. I may have read it two or three more times the day I drank the OJ, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure whether I waited a day before reading the book again or read it the following day. Since this is the first time I can ever remember not getting the "long hard slog" message when I got the skill, there may be some value in seeing if the OJ is involved in the fast, cheaty way to get the skill. It is the sort of thing a newbie would try that a veteran player would know "better" than to do.
I tried drinking OJ and then using Quantum Mechanics right after (first time this run for both). Got the "crashing out face first on the book" 1 XP result first time, and "You don't feel quite ready to absorb another dose of that" the second time.
Both Vholes and borkman tried drinking OJ, getting Pep in Your Step, and then reading the QM book. Vholes had never read it before, borkman had a few times. Both got the standard "This book is pretty damned challenging, but you make some serious headway" message. So if the OJ works at all, it seems to have a delayed effect. My current, revised theory is that the fast, cheat-y way to get skill is to drink OJ, wait a day, and then read the book with PiYS active. Arkaim reports getting the skill after doing this, although he also read the book on the day he drank the OJ. But it seems like we're getting closer, at least.
EDIT: Yup, getting closer. Just got the skill after having used an OJ and read the book once yesterday, then reading it today with PiYS and Ocean Sight active. But Arkaim reports getting the skill the fast way without being Etheric, so that probably isn't required. To test: whether you can get it by using OJ, waiting a day, and reading the book without PiYS, or whether that's required. Also to test: whether you also have to read the book at least once on a previous day, or if, as I suspect, once is enough if you're properly prepared.
I'm thinking more and more that Kinak has got to have read Illuminatus!. I mean, the dude wrote THE a book about secret societies. He must have done some research, right? If this OJ thing pans out and that's not the source of the idea, it sure is a huge coincidence. Hmm. Coincidence? Perhaps. Or maybe it's … a conspiracy.
I've successfully acquired this skill through the quick and cheaty way on Day 4 of my run. I'll provide an indepth description of my journey up to acquiring the skill. But, I'll provide a quick summation first. I drank the orange juice sample on the third day of my run. I would later read the Quantum Mechanics book on the third day without Pep in Your Step active. On the fourth day I would read the book again with Pep in Your Step active after completing Hel's quest and inside the Slags Lab in order to complete Lo's quest. I successfully acquired Quantum Mechanics here.
Skills before Quantum Mechanics: Emerald Meditation, Experimental Chemistry, Fae Eyes, Fae Step, Focused Mind, and Pugilism.
Equipment when I got Quantum Mechanics: Containment Suit Top, Containment Suit Bottom, Slags Medical ID, Spider Drone Leg, Gas Mask, and Wolf Skin Belt.
Everything is written from the point of view of a speed running. So, unless I note otherwise, I didn't do anything a speed runner wouldn't. Like eating an ancient candy bar or bumbling about in The Happy Hour.
Day 1
- Got the dirty old trenchcoat and gave it to the friendly bum
- Had him teach me some moves
- Had him tell me about the new drug floating about
- Talked to Mikhail about it -> Gained Lo as contact
- Talked to Lo and did the unusual thing of mining story fluff information out of him
- Talked to the friendly bum again to acquire the cracked baseball bat
- Had him show me a moves a bunch of times until I /finally/ learned an instance of jab.
The Docks
- Stole a crate -> Got some dried fish and sushi rice
- Talked to the Hobo King
- Successfully acquired a crate of stolen medicine
- Got some Eclipse and crude ganger maps from combat encounters
- Smuggled in a fancy food shipment
Note: Chose to "leave them alone" for the Illegal Transaction encounter
Day 2
- Smuggled in another fancy food shipment.
- Took a tablet of Eclipse
- Charged the etheric rat then ran away from it
- Fought some Dockside Gangers
- Followed the fairy into the Sewer Hideout
- Had the mushroom show me the Security Hole
- Successfully Dashed through the security hole
- Got Dr. Thomas as a contact
Note: Did not burn any makeshift houses down
- Fought my way through to the boss and beat him down no trouble
- Burned the crate of eclipse
- Exchanged a crate of stolen medicine for a crate of explosives -> Got nitro, dynamite, and a gas grenade
- Talk to Mikhail -> Get credits
- Talk to Lo
Metroplex U
- Check Dr. Amundson's office
- Talk to Lo again
- Bought an OmniTech learntop, 4 caramel bars, sushi kit, electrical kit, and chemistry kit
- Smuggled in another fancy food shipment
Southside
- Installed chemistry set
- Failed to get Pugilism
- Successfully got Focused Mind
Note: I may have fought a trash golem
The Docks
- Talked to the dock workers to get fishing rod
- Fought a ghoul or something at some point
- Accepted the strange jar from the fish dude
- Showed the jar to the fairy person and let him fill it with poison
- Caught a giant pike
Southside
- Enter Abandoned Building
- Drop some cables and threw in a gas grenade
- Didn't have enough money to bribe the other group so I got beaten to hell a lot
Day 3
- I eventually successfully beat up the not well paid guys.
- Somehow I get a Third Eye shirt
- I fool those guys into thinking I'm a member
- When attempting to save David, I failed to both distract and isolate a guard or sneak attack anyone. Fought 2 Third Eye gangers and Shard. I fail. David dies… :(
- Repeatedly fail to get Pugilism.
Metroplex U
- Depress the crowd some and walk away from the guards that want me to move along
- Ask some kid what's up to gain access to Dr. Myers
- Talk to Dr. Myers and get the Myer's sampling kit
- Go down to the docks
The Docks
- Take another tablet of Eclipse
- Successfully gain jar of poison and lake serpent sample
- Give it to Dr. Myers
Metroplex U
- Use leftover etheric energy to gain access to the Asylum
- Do stuff here until I can get into Saber's room
- Exit Asylum
Southside
- Finally learn pugilism
MetroplexU
- Break out the dynamite to make an entrance into the asylum
- Fight Saber. FAIL
- Sob
- Buy Quantum Mechanics
- Bought two chemistry papers and learned the Powerful Acid and Caffeine Powder recipes
- Use up last hunger to drink orange juice sample.
- Talk to Dr. Myers, Hobo King, Dr. Thomas and Lo
Outside the Slags
- Fight a drone hound and ran away from a Midgard guy
- Successfully got a locker key on my first pick pocket attempt
- Get scrub uniform
- Get the Claw guy as contact
- Got some expresso doppios and horrible black coffee
- Got Slags medical ID
Slags Lab
- Dismantled the Slags Terminal
- Give crate of eclipse for containment suit parts
- Fight Slags guard for rest of the parts
- End up with a spare containment suit top
- Give glass bauble to Hobo King's son
- Get glowing bauble
Outside the Slags
- Fought stuff on the shore
- Met Dr. Myers student. Killed two tentacle things for her
- Talked to Dr. Myers -> Got experimental chemistry skill
Damaged Building
- Fought stuff in first floor
- Went to the third floor
- Blew up a pile of crates and fought stuff
- Went to the fourth floor
- Fought more stuff.
- Did not encounter the injured scientist
- Went to the fifth floor
- Downed some liquified eclipse
- Conquered the High Road
- Talked to Hel -> Gave her containment suit
- Followed her out of The Slags
The Docks
- Caught a giant pike
- Poisoned fish thing
- Got Fae Eyes
- Got Fae Step
Note: At some point I read the book Quantum Mechanics. Did not read it straight after drinking OJ. Also mined NPCs for more story fluff details. May have read the asylum book sometime again after gaining the key.
Day 4
Southside
- Successfully got kidnapped
- Completed Hel's quest
Metroplex U
- Accepted the Eurasian smuggler's terms
Slags Lab
- Fought some more Slags Guards
- Took some caffeine powder
- Read Quantum Mechanics again. Got the skill Quantum Mechanics
To test: whether you can get it by using OJ, waiting a day, and reading the book without PiYS, or whether that's required
This works. Drank OJ yesterday, read it twice, waited a day, and got it first thing today with the fascinating message. No pep was ever used.
/forum/t-151783/quantum-mechanics-skill#post-