So let's use feruchemical iron as an example and say a skimmer ferring stored 50% of his weight in a metalmind for 10 hours. We already know there are diminishing returns on tapping a lot of a feruchemical attribute at once. The example used here is, "...you spend one hour at 50% strength. You could then spend one hour at 150% strength, or perhaps 25 min at 200% strength, or maybe 10 min at 250% strength..."
I think we can assume the same ratios hold true for storing weight. In our example, the weight stored in that metalmind could be spent as: 10 hours at 150% weight, 4.167 hours at 200% weight, or 1.67 hours at 250% weight.
We can also look at this as losing an additional 16.67% of the time you should be able to get (without the diminishing returns) when you tap at twice the rate you stored at. If you tap at three times the rate you stored at, you lose an additional 50% of the time you should get. Now, following the example with strength, where 5 minutes were lost at twice the rate and 10 minutes were lost a three times the rate; one could argue 15 minutes would be lost at four times the rate. But at four times the rate, one would only expect to get 15 minutes anyway without the diminishing returns, so this would be a 100% reduction in the time.
Does this mean it is impossible to get to that 4x rate and you'd have to settle for 3.999x or something like that? Or does it mean that 4x tap happens in a single instant?
All that said, I'm now noticing a problem with this rate of diminishing returns. It would mean the most weight one could ever tap from a metalmind is 4 times the percent they were storing at. So, using Wax as an example, I remember him talking about storing weight at 25% most of the time. With this understanding of the diminishing returns, he could only get up to 200% weight at any point in time, which doesn't seem right with some of the things he does. Just as one example of that, in the prologue of SoS, he tapped all of his weight and broke through the floor of a Roughs tavern. Sure the construction might not have been amazing, but I imagine that would take a lot more than 200% of his weight to break through. Even if he'd been storing at 100%, 500% of his weight still seems a little bit questionable. So the only conclusion I can make is that I'm not understanding something correctly about this, or that this rate of diminishing returns isn't quite accurate to how Brandon intended it to work.
What actually seems to be happening is that you can tap at much higher rates than what you stored at, but if that rate is over a certain amount, you only ever get that one instant of weight. But then we get into issues of just how much time is that one instant, and if we can quantify that, then why can't all that feruchemical power be tapped in a shorter amount of time? Is there something special about that amount of time? Then on top of that there's the issue of compounding. Actually, on that note, does anyone know if there is anything confirmed on just how much extra feruchemical power someone gets when compounding. I know it says it multiplies the power "tenfold" in the wiki, but seeing as that was based on a quote from Wax, I figured there is a chance his understanding of compounding may be incorrect.
Anyway, I'm now tying my mind into knots trying to figure this out and would greatly appreciate an explanation if there is one.
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Zantis
So let's use feruchemical iron as an example and say a skimmer ferring stored 50% of his weight in a metalmind for 10 hours. We already know there are diminishing returns on tapping a lot of a feruchemical attribute at once. The example used here is, "...you spend one hour at 50% strength. You could then spend one hour at 150% strength, or perhaps 25 min at 200% strength, or maybe 10 min at 250% strength..."
I think we can assume the same ratios hold true for storing weight. In our example, the weight stored in that metalmind could be spent as: 10 hours at 150% weight, 4.167 hours at 200% weight, or 1.67 hours at 250% weight.
We can also look at this as losing an additional 16.67% of the time you should be able to get (without the diminishing returns) when you tap at twice the rate you stored at. If you tap at three times the rate you stored at, you lose an additional 50% of the time you should get. Now, following the example with strength, where 5 minutes were lost at twice the rate and 10 minutes were lost a three times the rate; one could argue 15 minutes would be lost at four times the rate. But at four times the rate, one would only expect to get 15 minutes anyway without the diminishing returns, so this would be a 100% reduction in the time.
Does this mean it is impossible to get to that 4x rate and you'd have to settle for 3.999x or something like that? Or does it mean that 4x tap happens in a single instant?
All that said, I'm now noticing a problem with this rate of diminishing returns. It would mean the most weight one could ever tap from a metalmind is 4 times the percent they were storing at. So, using Wax as an example, I remember him talking about storing weight at 25% most of the time. With this understanding of the diminishing returns, he could only get up to 200% weight at any point in time, which doesn't seem right with some of the things he does. Just as one example of that, in the prologue of SoS, he tapped all of his weight and broke through the floor of a Roughs tavern. Sure the construction might not have been amazing, but I imagine that would take a lot more than 200% of his weight to break through. Even if he'd been storing at 100%, 500% of his weight still seems a little bit questionable. So the only conclusion I can make is that I'm not understanding something correctly about this, or that this rate of diminishing returns isn't quite accurate to how Brandon intended it to work.
What actually seems to be happening is that you can tap at much higher rates than what you stored at, but if that rate is over a certain amount, you only ever get that one instant of weight. But then we get into issues of just how much time is that one instant, and if we can quantify that, then why can't all that feruchemical power be tapped in a shorter amount of time? Is there something special about that amount of time? Then on top of that there's the issue of compounding. Actually, on that note, does anyone know if there is anything confirmed on just how much extra feruchemical power someone gets when compounding. I know it says it multiplies the power "tenfold" in the wiki, but seeing as that was based on a quote from Wax, I figured there is a chance his understanding of compounding may be incorrect.
Anyway, I'm now tying my mind into knots trying to figure this out and would greatly appreciate an explanation if there is one.
edit: grammar
Edited by Zantis3 answers to this question
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