Locus Drain Rate, Redux

Right now we do a drain rate of level x 6 - protection (total level of rank involve) once a week for the loci on the grid.

This means that an unprotected loci of...

Level one will generate 15 essence a week and upgrade in 10 weeks.
Level two will generate 30 essence a week and upgrade in 5 weeks.
Level three will generate 45 essence a week and upgrade in 3.3333 weeks.
Level four will generate 60 essence a week and upgrade in 2.5 weeks.
Level five will generate 75 essence a week.

These are for unprotected loci. Because of the way the code has been set up, we have 6 level five loci. One of which that grew from a level 3 loci. We have one level 4 loci that grew from a level 2 loci. And a smattering of level 1s that cropped up recently.

An unprotected loci should be growing at a far smaller rate, but a small pack should be able to keep the drain of a level 1 locus down enough that they're the only ones going to town on it not spirits. Where as it is much harder to guard a level five loci because it's so big.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a better drain rate? I could just up the number, or increase the number of times per week that the loci are drained.

Thematically, a locus should be a main source of essence for a great many spirits, and they're battled over nearly constantly, but they are almost never completely dry (because spirits get bullied by bigger spirits that keep them from just nomming it all down, and werewolves do actually protect some of them.)

Mechanically, a locus produces 3 essence / day / level of the locus.

I'd say that a good way to keep it all in line would be to have an unprotected locus have a drain rate of 2/3 of its essence, as the spirits (not the werewolves that can use code-foo) should have gotten to it already. Keeps it small, while still being managable.

Now, I don't know what the locus code looks like, but it seems like a pack (or pack alpha, via the faction head code already in place) should be able to determine precisely how much essence they would like to let the spirits have access to. A level 5 locus is relatively difficult to guard, and I wouldn't let any locus bigger than 3 or 4 have this at a zero (minimum 1/day for a level 4, 2/day for a level 5) as no pack in its right mind is going to prevent every spirit from having access to a locus this size, and a lot of them don't willingly prevent spirits from doing so (assuming they want to survive their next trip into the shadow without getting bum-rushed).

Besides, the more access you let a spirit have to your locus, the better they tend to respond to you, as you keep them fat and happy and not starving and desperate.

Cobalt, the formula I was bantering around in my head for unprotected loci was 1 essence per day per dot. It's not informative, but it is elegant.

You could also add a 50/50 chance of the loci improving a spirit in the area rather than the loci, which would decrease the growth rate, with the possibility that a spirit (or spirits) will reverse the growth.

This sounds more complex than perhaps it should be, and maybe you should flag unprotected loci as having a maximum size. Once it's protected, remove the limit, but those numbers to my untrained eye still look way too fast.

Hhmmmm. I could easily code the drain-function to see if a loci is protected or not, let see... If unprotected loci are drained for 6x5=30 a week...

A level 1 locus will produce 21 essence through a week, and be completely drained at the end of the week, and won't grow.
A level 2 locus will produce 42 essence through a week, and be drained of 30 at the end of the week, growing to level 3 in 12.5-weeks.
A level 3 locus will produce 63 essence through a week, and be drained of 30 at the end of the week, growing to level 4 in 4.5-weeks.
A level 4 locus will produce 84 essence through a week, and be drained of 30 at the end of the week, growing to level 5 in 2.7-weeks.
A level 5 locus will produce 105 essence through a week, and be drained of 30 at the end of the week.


Mmmmmmn. If we up the drain rate to 12xlevel we get.

A level 1 locus will produce 21 essence through a week, and be completely drained at the end of the week, never growing.
A level 2 locus will produce 42 essence through a week, and be completely drained at the end of the week, never growing.
A level 3 locus will produce 63 essence through a week, and be drained of 60 at the end of the week, growing to level 4 in 50-weeks.
A level 4 locus will produce 84 essence through a week, and be drained of 60 at the end of the week, growing to level 5 in 6.25-weeks.
A level 5 locus will produce 105 essence through a week, and be drained of 60 at the end of the week.

Which means that a locus would have to be level 3 to upgrade while unprotected, and would take a year to go from level 3 to level 4. Meanwhile, a loci rate does not lower if it is without essence, at the moment. Because loci are exceptionally difficult to destroy. It takes 150 essence of an /opposite/ flavor to neutralize it. However. I could add in a random chance that an unprotected loci is completely drained of its essence even if it would keep some.

Meanwhile, 6xlevel once a week might be too low for protected loci as well. Lemme do up the numbers, werewolves are assuming honor rank 2 (e.g. starting werewolves):

A level 1 locus will need 3 werewolves to protect it, and if never used will upgrade to level 2 in 7.14-weeks.
A level 2 locus will need 6 werewolves to protect it, and if never used will upgrade to level 3 in 3.5-weeks.
A level 3 locus will need 9 werewolves to protect it, and if never used will upgrade to level 4 in 2.3-weeks.
A level 4 locus will need 12 werewolves to protect it, and if never used will upgrade to level 5 in 1.7-weeks.
A level 5 locus will need 15 werewolves to protect it.

Which means a level 1 locus protected by 15 werewolves would take about as long as it would take 14.62-weeks to grow to level 5. That is about 4.88-months to grow to a level 5 loci. Assuming it is a) never used, b) protected by the minimum number of wolves needed to protect it at each level.

Drain rate for loci for 1-essence x level a day.

Unprotected Loci (1-essence drained x level/per day):
A level 1 loci will produce 21 essence a week, and be drained of 7 in a week, growing to level 2 in 7.5-weeks
A level 2 loci will produce 42 essence a week, and be drained of 14 in a week, growing to level 3 in 5.3-weeks
A level 3 loci will produce 63 essence a week, and be drained of 21 in a week, growing to level 4 in 3.5-weeks
A level 4 loci will produce 84 essence a week, and be drained of 28 in a week, growing to level 5 in 2.6-weeks
A level 5 loci will produce 105 essence a week, and be drained of 35 in a week, having 70 at the end of the week.

If we do that as 5-essence drained per/day.

A level 1 locus will produce 21 essence a week, be drained per week of 35, never growing.
A level 2 locus will produce 42 essence a week, be drained per week of 35 leaving 7, growing in 21.4-weeks.
A level 3 locus will produce 63 essence a week, be drained per week of 35 leaving 28, growing in 5.36
A level 4 locus will produce 84 essence a week, be drained per week of 35 leaving 49, growing in 3.06-weeks.
A level 5 locus will produce 105 essence, and be left with 70 essence at the end of the week.

I'm not sure that I like the idea of a locus that can't grow. Nor do I like the idea of a defended locus still having a drain rate on it if the wolves that protect it don't wish there to be.

The 'minimum number' at levels above 3 seems a little bit ridiculous, as no pack is going to have 15 werewolves in it at a level 5 locus. I'd make it no more than 7, because given past experience with a very large pack, you start running into problems with more than that. An ideal number would be one werewolf per level of the locus to be protected, as most loci are only a few feet across until you get into 4 or 5.

I'd much rather see something like 'an unprotected locus, at the end of the week, will be drained of 2/3 of its total essence'. Which allows it to steadily gather an essence pool and still be able to grow, while keeping the growth small and managable.

Well, clearly this means we need to run a few more 'Spiritz stealin yer essences!' stories

I'll get right on that.