You don't.

I am attempting to do one of the Newton Caverns quests with no success so far. I've noticed that items such as rivets, chains, or widgets tend to disappear after a while. Would anyone happen to know about how much time I have before these items start disappearing on me? I'm asking because I'd like to collect a bunch of chains or widgets so that I may have them available when a portal closes from the caverns.

If you're really quick you can finish the quest during the time that one portal is open, as only certain steps actually require you to pass through it. I suggest using lots of portals to quicken the process - if you're in Lolliprin and need to get to a denizen in Newton, you can just portal, north, whatever and be there.

As for quest items, they typically reset after 45 minutes to an hour, though this can vary.

Newton quest items have an decreased reset time, I believe.

EDIT: Meant decreased, as in shortened

I thought it was the opposite, actually. that stuff in Newton's decays faster than, say, the crystals in Shanthmark.

It depends on the items. Short-term quest items (such as chains and widgets) tend to repop quickly; I'm guessing at 10-15 minutes here. The more long-term quest items that aren't as readily available take a longer time, perhaps 45-60 minutes.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Post edited!

Then it sounds like the quests are more about being familiar with what needs to be done. Thanks for the tip regarding usage of portals. I would never have thought of using them. I'm getting precariously close to level 21, and it would probably be a better way to try finishing at least one of the quests before then.

I have another quick, unrelated question. I'm sure there are many reasons, but in general, why do bards typically choose glamours over ecology? If it makes any difference, my character is a harbinger.

Ecology (unlike tarot) is actually an acceptable choice. Consider it personal preference. However, if you want to pursue serious combat, but you're going to need advice to really ramp yourself, then you should consider choosing the skill that your tutors are more familiar with.

If you can get the timing down on the Newton Quests, you'll have no trouble with most of the others (once you figure out how they work, of course). Sometimes I think that's the point of the Newton Quests.

Bah. I thought not, but a girl can dream.

Not sure if this is a simple question or if it warrants its own topic, but does anyone know how the resistance to influencing-attacks and the overall strength of the attacks work? I've got a few "influence chains" set up that repeats, and I've noticed no difference at all between them... The chains are as follows:

Weedling, Weedling, Supplication
Weedling, Supplication, Begging
Weedling, Supplication
Weedling

All of those four take the exact same number of arguments to completely influence someone as far as I've seen.

I just go in order - beg, supplicate, wheedling.. repeat. I figured that was the point. :<

Fast question: how many posts until you can change the skillrank thingy beneath your avatar? And how do you do it?

I heard 1000, and you can do it in your profile (click your name top-left).

501 posts, if I remember right.

You probably don't notice the difference because you're influencing things that're awfully weak, but here's how it works:

Denizens have ego. Influence attacks drain ego.

Denizens have influence resistance based on each individual attack. Using an attack increments that attack's resistance. The higher the resistance, the more ego is taken from you and the less ego is taken from the denizen.

Because influence resistance is based on each individual attack, rotating attacks equally works the best for laidback denizens. For example, if you use wheedling over and over, you get all the resistance stacked on one attack. If you rotate all three, the resistance is spread out. This is not always the case for willful or stubborn denizens, but willful/stubborn does not mean that you can't influence that guy anymore. Analyze reports only the highest resistance on the denizen, and that resistance doesn't bleed over to other influence attacks.

EDIT: Also, yes, 501.

So... if I did
Wheedling 5x
Supplication 5x
Begging 5x

That's the same as (Wheedling->supplication->begging)x5?


Whoa.

Hm, alright, I'll go try this out.

The things I influenced took about 10 arguments, so I figured I'd see some differences. Good to know though; I thought their resistance against an attack decreased if I used another attack (thus the weedling/weedling/supplication).

This does mean there's a "perfect chain of arguments" though, which wouldn't be a repeating pattern... Hmm. Theoretically interesting, but likely not practically feasibly attainable.