@HDE226868 One for you?

I made that question and after I posted it I saw that I needed to clarify some things after reading your answer. I made 3 updates yes, but they were all within 2 minutes from each other so I thought it would be ok. Sorry though!

@Robin It should have gone to the sandbox first, I think. The basic premise of the question, that the cost should be expressed in modern money, is way out there.

Sandbox? And I know I was in a rush and I took it for granted that people would take it as cent/ dollar.

@Robin There's a meta post where you can post your question proposals to get soem comments for them before you post them in earnest.

Ah I did not know this, thank you!

@Robin And the issue is not with specific currency, but rather with the fact that the figures would be completely meaningless, because purchase power is so different.

Basically, $100 dollars today won't buy you the same amount of things the equivalent amount of gold would buy you 500 years ago.

And it's not just a matter of inflation, it's a matter of some things having gotten a lot cheaper and conversely some things having gotten a lot more expensive.

Yeah I understand that, but with Pipperchip's answer I now have some sort of baseline to move on from. His resource links are also a big help. I understand the basics of economy so I think I can extrapolate it to my world now. It was also more of a question to get a view of what it could cost.

@Robin Fortunately in this case you didn't change it so much as to completely invalidate other answers, but in general you should be reasonably sure of the for of your question before you post it so as to avoid this type of situation.

Don't worry about it; learning experience.

@Robin Well, his answer also contains a couple of mistakes, but I'm not going to nitpick unless I have time to post an answer of my own.

Yeah normally I make sure that my questions cover everything I need but somehow I totally forgot the essentials of the currency and what kind of troops would be in an army. And yeah, Stack exchange is teaching me stuff day after day!

That's what it's here for :D teaching people stuff

The "dwarven clothing" question is intriguing.

@ArtOfCode I missed out. Curses.

@HDE226868 Please, do go and answer it. It's had a pretty bad reception and I still don't have the answer I'm looking for.

@ArtOfCode I'll give it a try.

I'll have a go at the newer one first, actually. I'll take a shot at the other tomorrow. Sorry; I'm kind of busy for a short while.

That's fair

The new one might let some of the people who got angry at me with the last one vent a bit...

@SerbanTanasa thought I'd treat you to an answer in your own storytelling style. Food for thought.

@ArtOfCode, I was gonna try my hand at your (suddenly hair-dryer powered -- sorry if i induced confusion with the Ampere-hour comment) hovering city question, but @Jim2B has it covered quite well, and lots of pertinent comments.

@SerbanTanasa true. Feel free to answer anyway if you fancy, you can always get more imaginary Internet points. Not that you're short of them...

no, people peppered me w/ so many points on the wall-walking wizard 2 liner, it was frankly embarrassing.

fair :)

Jesus. I started the day on 2990 ish rep. Now I'm on 3137. Been a long time since I had a day this productive.

@ArtOfCode "productive" :)

@MikeL. True. Should really have been doing chemistry work... but hey. Rep gets you into uni doesn't it..?

I wish

@ArtOfCode Allow me to test a hypothesis here: are you British?

@MikeL. yep - what hypothesis is this?

But yes, I think we all come here to procrastinate. That's what I'd be doing if I had time, at least:)

@ArtOfCode That pretty much only the British call it "uni"

@MikeL. oh fair. I'm just too lazy to type out university

@ArtOfCode You're not the only one I know to use that, but I haven't been able to figure out the American equivalent yet; generally they'll just say "college" most of the time.

@MikeL. That's a point actually - never figured out the differences in education systems between there and here

@ArtOfCode I'm not really clear on either; we basically use the German system here.

@MikeL. Interesting. What's that like?

Also, apparently when you go to college in the US you go to a "fraternity" that is assigned three greek letters according to some key or other?

@MikeL. Don't ask the Brit :) I have no idea about the American system

@ArtOfCode You have universities, which are either general (usually named for where they are) or specialized (mostly technical ones); these are divided into faculties according to the field of study. Faculties internally have departments (originally cathedra) which further specialize.

@MikeL. Correct - there are very few technical unis compared to the generalists

As a student, you attend a study programme that is run by a faculty and may or may not eventually only deal with a single department. The degree you get is (in my country) dependent on the type of university you're on.

Here is where we start to differ - there are a few basic types of degrees here and they persist across universities

Basically, on the bigger universities you identify with your faculty first and with the university second; occasionally faculties of the same university will run competing programmes.

Two major types: Bachelor's degree and Master's degrees. Masters are longer programmes.

They are subdivided by topic area

BEng and MEng degrees are engineering

@ArtOfCode Eh, the difference is mostly cosmetic. Under the Bologna framework, you can get a magistrate on a general university or an engineer's degree on the technical ones; that's for the 300 ECTS equivalent

for the 180, everybody gets a Bc.

BSc and MSci science (MSc is a Masters programme different to a Masters degree)

BA/MA arts

Damn it I'm 15 rep away from Mortarboard

Anyone fancy helping out and finding a couple of my good posts to upvote...?

Doctorates are where it gets murky; it used to be that there were professional doctorates that you would get if after getting a magisterium you did another year of study and passed a rigorosum examination, but these are being phased out and we mostly do regular PhDs these days instead.

Never looked into doctorates here. I only know the basics of uni education

@MikeL. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

Like, you could get a RNDr. (res naturalis doctor) in the natural sciences, JUDr. (juris utriusque doctor) in law, etc.

@ArtOfCode almost 26, but I'm not an entirely typical representative here.

@MikeL. no, just getting an idea for what kind of ages we have around here

I'm one of the younguns

@ArtOfCode that's 17 or so?

@MikeL. Dead on. Not the youngest I know of here and there may be even younger people around that I don't know of

@ArtOfCode Do you write?

@MikeL. I can. Writing is one of those things that's been on and off for a long time

I know plenty of people who say I'm a good writer but I just can't be bothered most of the time

I'm just curious what got you (and, well, everyone else here) into worldbuilding.

I dabble myself, but don't have the sitzfleisch to actually become good at it.

I'm here because it's fun. It has to be said this is one of the friendliest communities I've come across, and the stuff we do is complete nonsense sometimes

It's brilliant

I find that it requires a certain compulsive need and perhaps a bit of a narcissist streak to actually write something and publish it.

And that I enjoy worldbuilding for its own sake a lot more than writing.

@MikeL. I'll agree with that. And a lot of time, dedication and effort, which is mostly why I've never got that far into writing.

In fact, both of those points I agree with

@ArtOfCode Well, that's what I meant by sitzfleisch :) you have to do it and publish (and receive critique) to become good at it.

The latest thing that I started and never finished was a My Little Pony military-fantasy fanfiction. I think I still have it on my google drive.

Aye. Here is a lot more lighthearted, and the critiquing element is well downplayed. It's just here's what I've got and here's what I want, what does everyone think?

Nice

I have this nasty feeling that I'm going to end up being just a few points short of 200 today

But in my free time I act as a consultant for my friends who do write, which I enjoy more than writing, I think.

Now that actually sounds like fun. Gives you a lot more topics to look at instead of focusing on one all the time

Oh look, God just joined this room... interesting

@ArtOfCode None of the results are in English, sadly.

At least, not that I'm aware of. One of them talked about getting something translated.

It must be interesting to see your influence spread across lots of things

ArtOfCode; will that make one feel better?

Well, "influence"... if you try to talk some sense into a writer, he'll just go ahead and write it the way he wanted to in the first place anyway:)

True

God is talking to me. This would be strange if it wasn't the Internet.

It's mostly either the high-level abstract things and technical details that end up getting incorporated.

Fair enough

Still, it's nice having influence on things

Well, you do know the one about arguing with engineers? That's generally how it goes.

And I am an engineer. I have a diploma that says so.

Ah that old one

I won't argue ;)

No, I meant when I discuss worldbuilding with my writer friends:)

Aaahhh

Sense made

Anyway, I'm heading off to sleep. Procrastinating is hard work you know.

Night all

At 11PM? Filthy casual:D

Well good night, I should probably go too.