Altar Prep For Dailies

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

From yesterdays' daily, we found out that Conjunction does something else extra in addition to increasing the number of altars to 4.

I think there can be 2 possible theories for this, so maybe we should do more tests in the future when possible:

Theory A:
- Prepping Conjunction "moves" the 4th altar in the default list to the front, in other words, when you prep Conjunction, you will get the 4th altar in the list for sure.

Theory B:
- The order of Conjunction matters. If you have prepped several "altar preps" and Conjunction is the first (or front-most slot), then you will get the 4th altar in the list as higher priority. If you have prepped at least 1 other god that is "in front" of Conjunction, then Conjunction only gives you up to 4 altars without giving you the 4th altar first.

Theory A makes more sense, and Theory B seems a bit too complicated. However, we should perform more tests in future dailies to get a better conclusion.

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

From today's daily (31st Dec 2015), evidence shows that Theory A is the right one. So, that should wrap up everything we need to know about multiple altar preps in dailies,

[Tinker]

I think that's pretty cool! Now, all there's left is to wikify this (though already we're a bit behind with the whole items part, I think a Daily-centric overhaul is in order).

There is one minor detail that I'm still somewhat curious about, with respect to fringe cases surrounding Conjunction...

So in DERP 28-12-2015 we had conjunction with several possible altar preps. Conjunction gave The Earthmother, however she was also available as a (higher-slot) preparation, and preparing both Earthmother and the later Conjunction meant that we got back the Binlor who normally fell out from the default list. Which could also imply, that Conjunction gives you not a specific altar but the nth unused altar (picked in advance), so in this case Earthmother was the #1 unused altar, and after she was prepped (and Binlor fell out), Binlor became the #1 unused altar.

However, in DERP 31-12-2015 Conjunction normally gave Mystera, and I deliberately prepared TT (known to "unload" JJ) in a higher slot, half expecting Conjunction to pick up JJ instead of Mystera (as new "unused altar #5"), however Conjunction stuck to giving me Mystera.

Now, this might mean one of several things (in no particular order of likelihood):
1. Conjunction always picks the nth unused altar, however the Altars are ranked in a non-alphabetical way, and somehow Mystera is before JJ;
2. Conjunction only looks for an alt altar to pick up if the one it would normally pick is prepped (perhaps via a daily-specific-prep-conflict-resolution-script or something); otherwise it just gives the one it would've picked anyway;
3. Conjunction locks a "list" not a specific altar, and picks the next altar from that list, meaning it could have (up to) 4 altars as (up to) 3 altars can be prepped before a slot #4 conjunction;
4. Variation on the "list" above, the list might be skewed in a way that Conjunction always gives you back the altar you "lost" thanks to the (or an) earlier altar preparation.
5. ??? (I'm not even sure what else if anything )

I know, I know, I need to get a life...

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[Tinker]

So the Daily the day before yesterday kind of changed my opinion about how altar preps work...

Default altars were PM, TT and GG; I prepped Binlor in slot #1 and Conjunction in slot #3. I got Earthmother, Binlor, GG and PM. I guess in this case, Earthmother was simply the Conjunction altar, and TT was lowest seated in the list of default altars. (I would have expected simply to get Binlor on top of the default three altars, but maybe due to effect interactions or order, it swapped out one existing altar even though Conjunction was also prepped.)

Maybe I just got confused again about this whole lot...

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[Tinker]

For some reason I kind of noted for myself that if you prep both an Altar and Conjunction, you get the default three altars plus the one you prepped. Like Conjunction kind of puts back the altar taken out by your altar prep. But I guess this is not the case, at least not as a general rule; it might be the case in case of specific Conjunction altars overlapping with the prepped altar...

I guess it's just me forgetting stuff. I need to clean this up and put it up on the wiki, to make sure I don't forget next time...

[dislekcia]

IIRC conjunction happens before god swaps, so the only way to get the behavior Tinker is talking about would be if the prepped god was already in the selected list of gods when the prep was processed. Otherwise the prep would always swap out a random god from the selected list for the prepped god, even if that list is 4 gods instead of 3. The game doesn't "remember" what was swapped out, there's no need to.