Requests for information

About the wiki

This wiki can be used as a reference guide as you explore the island of Shartak. Players are constantly adding and improving information about all aspects of life on Shartak, but it is always possible for information to be incomplete or out of date. All visitors are invited to create an account, read Help:Editing, and improve the wiki along with us. The Main Page has a list of pages and projects you can contribute to.

Vital statistics

Hit Points (HP)

See Gameplay#Hit Points.

Action Points (AP)

See Gameplay#Action Points (AP).

Experience Points (XP)

See Gameplay#Experience Points and XP.

Death

See Death.

Character deaths

Q. How can one avoid being hunted down when logged out? --LouisB3 00:19, 16 May 2006 (BST)

A. Your best bet is to hide in a place untraveled and unpopulated by members of enemy classes (see the uber map for ideas), or in a friendly village (Durham, York, Derby or the Shipwreck if you're an outsider, or Dalpok, Raktam or Wiksik if you're a native). Sleeping in a non-resource, non-trader hut is a good idea, since it hides you from anyone who doesn't bother to enter, but if you're in a hostile camp a hut may be more dangerous than the outlying jungle. Note that Stamina can help you stay alive, since it increases your HP cap and, by extension, the average number of AP required to kill you. — Elembis (talk) 07:33, 6 June 2006 (BST)

If you are a non-violent character, clearly describe yourself in your character profile. That way, characters using Identify Friend or Foe will not attack you.
Choose a clan affiliation if appropriate, to protect you from being killed by potential friends or allies.
Remember line-of-sight and movement AP costs, and take advantage of them. Sleep 3 or more spaces away from roads, or 3 or more spaces into water. Hide behind a thicket of heavy jungle or beyond a swamp, so that the enemy has to spend AP to approach you and to retreat from you.
Keep a general idea of where the wandering shamans are and how far you are from your home camp, so that you can minimize AP loss on death. By moving toward the wandering shaman who is closest to your final destination, you might be able to teleport forward rather than backward using the 50AP "contact roaming shaman." You can also take advantage of spirit form to travel safely.
Use the forum and wiki to gather a clan or a group of friends who travel together. A large pack of like characters on a single location will dissuade most adversaries.
Use the forum and wiki to negotiate for truces and protection agreements when traveling through hostile areas.

NPC (Non-Player Character) deaths

Q. The 'statistics on kills' page [1] shows each group has killed a shaman numerous times. As I understand, there is always 1 shaman in each town/village. What are the consequences of this? Unable to be revived until one respawns? -Jackel

A. If the shaman of your town/village dies, you cannot be revived. Attempting to contact the shaman of your town/village while he "a spirit" yields this message: You sense that XX wishes you to be patient and ask again later as he is a spirit as well and is trying to return to his body so he can help others. It is unknown how long it takes for a shaman to be revived.

Q. Do animals have a players killed listing page, where the rabid tiger of raktam can compete for top billing with the brutal biter of bonobo? --Tycho44 09:05, 13 May 2006 (BST)

A. No. Animal kills are not reported. — Elembis 02:14, 25 May 2006 (BST)

Items

See Items.

Q. Can items that you are carrying be destroyed or damaged? Specifically, can a machete ever be broken or become dull with use requiring sharpening? Is there any reason to carry around more than one machete? -Arminius 01:59, 24 February 2006 (GMT)

A. Yes, melee weapons can be damaged and destroyed. Machetes can be dulled by chopping at the jungle (but sharpened again with a sharpening stone, and any bladed weapon can be broken in an attempted attack on a person or animal. or broken by attacking a person or animal. The chances of a blade breaking or becoming dull are rare but relatively unknown (see Special weapon event odds). — Elembis 17:23, 21 May 2006 (BST)

Q. I would like to ask for everyones help in finding more about the elusive heavy sword, like what density of jungle did you find them in, is there a hut underneath the jungle or was it a jungle square with a hut? Or if you actually find them in the jungle? THe info on them right now is shaky. Im currently going on a search-a-thon but help is greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to add some data to Search Odds or Search Odds Condensed to help in the effort to work out where to find this item and others! -- Fitzcarraldo 10:27, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

Q. Do poison darts poison?

A. Yes; see Items#Ranged weapons and ammunition. — Elembis 00:34, 19 June 2006 (BST)

Q. Are poisionous berries useful for anything, such as the making of poison darts?

A. All you can do is eat them and gain experience for doing so. This is actually rather common, especially among players who role-play (play their characters as they would be played in real life; a scientist, for example, would not attack other people unless provoked). — Elembis 17:23, 21 May 2006 (BST) (Note that an empty bottle/gourd for salt water is now more efficient than a poisonberry bush. --Tycho44 05:22, 10 July 2006 (UTC))

Skills

See Skills.

Scavenging skill

Q. The scanvenging skill for settlers and villagers says that it "Assists in finding things within certain areas." What are these 'certain areas', and how much does having the skill improve your search odds? Arminius 03:31, 24 April 2006 (BST)

A. I don't know! Please post your Search Data to Search Odds Condensed or Search Odds, and help us find out. You don't need to be a Scavenger to post your Search Data -- we need more data to determine the baseline search odds. --Tycho44 08:46, 29 April 2006 (BST)

It appears that, in herbal huts, settlers with scavenging have a one-in-two total find rate and a healing herb find rate of one-in-three, while people without scavenging have a one-in-three total find rate and a healing herb find rate of only one-in-five. (this info was recently added to Search Odds Condensed) Arminius 21:14, 30 April 2006 (BST)

Locations

See Locations.

General gameplay

Q. What time period is the game based in? Excepting the GPS, the choice of items available impies anywhere from the 1600's to the early 1900's. The GPS unit seems a little out of place but implies that the time period has to be present day. Maybe i missed some other items or note about the date? --Frisco 21:52, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

A1. I'm not sure there is really an answer to this as such.. or perhaps many answers.. but.. the whole thing has a kinda lost world feel to it I think. Natives cut off from civilisation. Outsiders from the modern world stranded. Such an idea could explain almost any range of technology, except something like a satellite dish or long range radio transmitters that would allow outsiders to broadcast their distress and get rescued of course.

Q. Today my level 7 soldier attacked a parrot with a machete (normally 3 damage) and got the following message:

Maybe it's luck or maybe it's skill, your attack is right on target and inflicts more damage than normal.

You attack the parrot for 5 damage. It dies.

Is this new, or just very uncommon?--Frisco 16:26, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

A. It's an uncommon bonus. Another uncommon event resulting from an attack is that a melee weapon will break and become useless. See Special weapon event odds for more information. — Elembis 17:23, 21 May 2006 (BST)

Q. Has anyone experienced the luck/skill effect while using their fists?

A. Well, there we go. My lucky hit dealt a target 4 damage (with Body Building). --Lint 00:23, 23 May 2006 (BST)

Maybe it's luck or maybe it's skill, your attack is right on target and inflicts more damage than normal.

You attack the elephant for 4 damage. It drops to 41 HP.

Good thing you didn't break your fists! --Tycho44 18:16, 31 May 2006 (BST)

Q. Has anyone experienced the luck/skill effect while using a rifle or blowpipe?

Q. Are knives and daggers breakable?

Q. Is there a way to make the curse thing go away?

A. Yes: if you don't continue to anger the spirits they will lift the curse after a few days. See also the FAQ. A curse will wear off automatically unless the zerging continues.

Q. How do I get rid of my cursed accounts? Can I delete my zerged characters?

A. If you want to remove a character from Shartak, stop logging in to that character. After a week, that character will become inactive, and will essentially disappear from the Shartak world. If you want to keep using a character but free yourself from the ancients' curse, simply move that character away from all your other accounts. It is rumored that mild curses will disappear in a couple of days. Be patient.

Animals

See Animals.

Easy elephant

Q. Are elephants easier to hit? I attacked and killed one with it's full 60 hp and missed only once. I have a 45% hit rate with my machete and deal 3 dmg per succesful blow. I did not get one of those flavour texts and did 3 dmg each time. --One of many doctors 02:15, 21 March 2006 (GMT)

A. There's no way that an elephant would have been that easy to kill.. 21 attacks with only 1 miss is 95% hit and you certainly don't get that! I guess the RNG (Random Number God) smiled on you. --Simon 14:44, 21 March 2006 (GMT)

Common edits

Clan pages

Q. How do I make a clan page?

A. In the search box on the left side of the page, enter your clan's name and click "Go". If the page doesn't exist, you will then see a notice at the top of the page that reads "No page with this exact title exists". Clicking on "this exact title" will allow you to edit that page, and when you save your edit the page will be created.

Please categorize your clan by including "[[Category:Clans]]" (no quotes) somewhere on the page, as well as "[[Category:Clans for outsiders]]", "[[Category:Clans for natives]]" or "[[Category:Clans for both]]" so people will know who your clan accepts as members. Clans are strongly encouraged to use the Clanbox template to present their information in an orderly fashion.

Linking profiles

Q. How can I link my game profile?

A. If you know your ID number (which is at the end of the URL of your profile) you can use Template:Profile to link to your profile. Simply enter {{profile|6|Example}}, where "6" is your ID and "Example" is your name, to get Example as the result.