10.14 Archaeological Research
Research on Archaeological findings (see HELP ARCHAEOLOGY) is conducted in the back rooms of museums (see HELP MUSEUMS). Research allows factions to work together to unlock discoveries about prehistoric ecologies and material culture.
Accessing back rooms requires membership in the museum's faction, or alternatively just for someone with permission to let you in.
Research
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To start researching at a museum, you may wish to begin with MUSEUM RESEARCH STATUS to examine any ongoing research projects at this museum. You can make further contributions to the same research projects to help progress the targeted fossil or antiquity further along towards a discovery.
Research is conducted in MUSEUM RESEARCH SESSIONs. Research sessions are a form of free-form roleplay, with some overarching rules to keep your roleplay in good faith (see Research Rules below). While in a research session, all your says, emotes, and premotes will be logged and can be publicly viewed afterwards (see Research Boards below).
To start a research session, the full syntax is MUSEUM RESEARCH SESSION BEGIN <ANTIQUITY|FOSSIL> <#> <style> [item_id]. Let's break that down:
<ANTIQUITY|FOSSIL>: Whether the object of study is an antiquity or a fossil.
<#>: The ID of the antiquity or fossil record you wish to study.
<style>: The style of research you would like to conduct. See Research Styles below.
[item_id]: Required in conjunction with Invasive and Balanced research Styles, but unused for Passive.
Once you begin the session, your communication starts to log. Others may join your session using MUSEUM RESEARCH SESSION JOIN <person>. You can leave a session prematurely using MUSEUM RESEARCH SESSION EXIT. To conclude a session, use MUSEUM RESEARCH SESSION END.
At the end of the research session, you will make progress towards the next Discovery on the targeted fossil or antiquity.
Research Styles
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Research comes in three different 'styles': Passive, Balanced, and Invasive.
- Passive research is entirely non-invasive.
- Balanced research results in a bit of wear and tear on a specified fossil or antiquity item instance ID (see HELP MUSEUMS, Curation section for information on these specific instance IDs), and can even destroy very poor quality items.
- Invasive research, on the other hand, completely destroys the researched item.
The more destructive the research style, the more revealing it can be about an item, providing you with bonus progress towards your next discovery.
Research Boards
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Research logs are posted to the OOC MUSEUM RESEARCH BOARDS. From here, you can view the research logs of other players using MUSEUM RESEARCH BOARD <#> READ, upvoting good research and downvoting research done in bad faith (see Research Rules below) using MUSEUM RESEARCH BOARD <#> <UPVOTE|DOWNVOTE>.
Each time you upvote a log, both you and the recipient will receive additional bonus progress for your next research session.
Every 20 upvotes, you will receive a Kudos. A Kudos can be granted to a particular board posting led by someone of another faction using MUSEUM RESEARCH BOARD KUDOS <#> [ANON], consuming the Kudos. A Kudos will grant both you and the recipient a large amount of additional progress in your next research session!
Upvoting a research board log will provide the bonus to ALL its participants. Having assistants in your research session doesn't add any extra progress, but it will help the assistants build up upvotes and gain progress towards their own research sessions in the future.
Research Rules
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Given the free-form nature of the research system, the Research Boards are here to provide a critical first line of defense for moderating the integrity of Research RP. We ask that you use your Downvotes only in cases of Bad Faith RP, defined below.
Bad Faith Research RP is defined as any RP which goes against the spirit of the system, which is to provide a free-form outlet for roleplayers to express their characters' research activities and have a true, mechanical impact on the game. If the RP in a log is either non-existent or has absolutely nothing at all to do with research then it is likely in Bad Faith.
DO Downvote a research log if:
- The log is incredibly short (hard to define since word count or line count alone cannot capture this).
- The RP in no way involves an attempt to engage in Research on the studied item. The RP doesn't have to be serious; it can be fun and silly if you want, but it should still involve some form of research.
- The log lists multiple participants, but some of them aren't actually participating but are instead farming upvotes!
DO NOT Downvote a research log if:
- It passed the above checks, but you really dislike the person(s) involved.
- It passed the above checks, but you find their RP distasteful or "not good".
Note that downvoting a log will flag the log and will be reviewed by Administration. Players found by the Administration to be conducting Bad Faith RP will be warned once, twice, and on the third infraction may lose access to the Research System on the character permanently. Conversely, players found Downvoting logs for personal reasons may lose their ability to vote on research boards after a similar 3 strike rule.
