Unintended Use

In the movie Apollo 13, there was an excellent line spoken by Director Krantz: "I don't care what anything was designed to do, I care about what it can do." This mentality is prevalent in gaming as much as anywhere else that hosts opportunists, and PK is no exception. I've found a few examples of clever use of game mechanics to achieve various ends of which were likely not expected, even given the means to achieve them by the developers.

My favorite so far is brick sales between kingdoms. Normally, bricks are not a liquid resource, as players and kingdoms can not expends them save to invest them in their associated kingdom, usually through structure development. However, in war there is the option to surrender, and with it comes the cost of surrender: bricks. When one kingdom surrenders to another, 30% of the surrendering kingdom's and its members' bricks are lost, with half of those going to the "enemy" kingdom. Fortunately, war can be as short as the involved kingdoms like. So, after a little math and bartering: money is moved, war is declared, surrender is made, and business is business. Very clever, indeed.

Also kingdom related is a practice of banking. About to overflow your purse, but want to save up? Open an account with your kingdom! Don't see that option in the menus? Well, it's a little trickier than that. Interestingly, members with the right permissions can withdraw money from the kingdom store, but can not deposit it directly. The solution: set a flag price to your deposit amount and hop on it once. You'll have to leave the kingdom temporarily, and you'll need the help of a privileged member, but that's an acceptable inconvenience to protect your funds.

The newest dungeon, the Tower of the Golem, came with a new twist: after the final boss is destroyed, the tower crumbles and rebuilds elsewhere. Similar in a way to Hallowed Castles (though those don't respawn), it adds to the excitement of finding one, as well as the annoyance of unpredictability. If one were to spawn on kingdom land, that's quite a few bricks we could make. If only we could keep it like other dungeons... but, we can! Just leave the final boss alone, and we have a new brick generator. Great success!

While I feel none of these are in the realm of cheating, here's one that might be: faking hats. There are a few hats, such as the Slumlord Pimp Hat and the Hilton Headress, that appear to have left room for some cooperative abuse, as I've seen discussed in chats. A couple friendly players could give each other expensive flag passage, then trade flag hops all day. Fortunately, hats are nothing but status symbols of sorts; even still, such misrepresentation devalues the achievement.

I'm curious to see any sort of opportunism arising from the addition of the kingdom embassy; hopefully, it will be something positive for involved parties. In the meantime, remember to unequip your weapons when fighting silk burrowers to spawn as many as you can.