4 YPP Tip of the Day - How does "Decay" work?

Which items will decay?

Fortunately for you, only things that you "use up" will be subject to decay.

This means badges, clothes, and weapons. 

What is the concept of Decay?

In YPP's sense, it means that some items have a timer to them (usually in days), and that they will disappear after a given amount of time.

Items that decay will start out at "New", and then go on to "Good", "Old" and eventually "Dust" (i.e. disappear)

This concept will initially be difficult to wrap your head around if you're used to games where when you buy something, it is yours forever.

How does it work exactly?

As always, we begin with resources that are already available.

Yppedia page on Decay - This page documents the basics, but it is rather... confusing to say the least. 

Do items have the same decay rates?

Nope, you can check this page :) 

YPPedia List of Decay Rates - Lists all the items too. 

What about this old -barnacle- that I just got from that SMH?

All old items that you get from SMHs (HS, CI & Atlantis) degrade in 10 log-in days.

So all clothing doesn't decay the same way?

• When you have clothing of the opposite gender dust(filed under misc.), they just disappear.

• When Hats and Feet dust, they just disappear.

• When Torso and Legs dust, 

1. If they were the only item of clothing in your invent, they turn into new rags of their primary color.
2. If you had lots of other clothes, they just disappear. 

• When Rags dust,

Galene greeter chats, "All rags when dusting, can dust randomly into any of the 4 starter colors, regardless what color they were initially."

But in my experience...  

1. If the old rags were of a non-starter color, they turn into new rags of starter colors (red, blue, tan, white). 
2. If the old rags were of a starter color (red, blue, tan, white), they dust into rags of random starter colors. 

So in the screenshot at the beginning of this post, 

will turn into Spring Green Rags Torso.

What's the dealio with furniture decay?

Furniture does not decay when you leave it in your inventory. 

Instead, it only decays when you:

1. place it / remove it from a scene (decays by 5 points)
2. move it around the scene by clicking "commit changes" (decays by 1 point)
3. Old furniture doesn't dust. Instead it degrades to a prop, which you can no longer move. And then when you decide to "trash your prop", that is when it will dust.

Make up your mind before you place furniture, and even old furniture will last you 5 years. (at least) 

You can always use preview mode to see how it will look before placing it for realsies. 

Not all types of furniture decay.

Sleeping Animals, Decennium Furniture, Various Boxes do not decay.

(Even if you move them 50 thousand times.)

What about Chart decay?

Yppedia page on chart decay - I know... they're all on different pages. Why can't it be easier?  

(Look who's talking, your own blog isn't that great either. I know D; but at least I'm working on it.)

Calendar days vs. Log In days?

Log in days = only days that you logged in on.
(E.g., If you only log in on Saturday and Sundays, then the log-in dusting will only apply 2 days out of 7.)

Calendar days = every single day 
(Following the above example, things that dust according to calendar days will apply 7 days out of 7, even if you only log in 2 days a week, or even not at all.)

The decay of an entire log-in day applies instantaneously to everything in your inventory the second you log onto the game after you click on your pirate.

i.e., The entire day decay applies regardless of how long you are online for that particular day, even if you only log on for 10 minutes. 

How do I slow something from decaying?

The official party line is that you put that stuff into the their respective storage furniture.

The "cheating" line is that you can pretty much use alts as "storage", and put a set of clothes, charts or whatever on the alt to use for later.

This is useful for storing charts for memming and preventing them from dusting before you get around to them.

The trick is that you cannot log on the alt when you don't need it, and you have to keep in mind that everything on said alt dusts a day when you do log on it. :P

Another trick is that because things only dust when you log-in again, you can trade an item that is due to dust in a set time (e.g. A BK compass) to a pirate who isn't logging off to "keep it alive".

You can play hot potato with it for as long as you can manage :P

Why is it necessary?

In every game economy, there needs to be money fountains and money sinks.

Explained in very simple terms, money needs to come from somewhere (e.g. Pillaging), but in order to not have infinite money in the game (causing the PoE you just earned to be worthless), the money needs to "disappear" somewhere (e.g. things dusting, ships sinking).

(*plays Circle of Life from Lion King*)

In this game, there are many fountains and sinks, but in this case it means that things need to have a reason to be replenished so that the economy can move along.

Not unlike the real economy. ;o

(Oh my god, I just KNOW I definitely need that latest i-insertnounhere even though my current i-insertnounhere works just perfectly fine!!) 

Hope this was an entertaining read! I know it was a bit longer than my regular YPP Tips xD but anyhow~ 

Squishat