Until 'obsidian' becomes an addition to the commodities list that you can see with DESIGN LISTCOMMS, all sources of obsidian will only come from infernobeetles.

How do I withdraw ministry funds?

You can't if it's Culture. You can withdraw arena funds, though. Most of the Ministries have no access to their funds, and no one can explain why the ones that do, do (e.g., Ambassador), and the ones that don't, don't. But it's Not A Bug™. We always got around it by using a clan's bank account -- it also gave us better logging and better control over who could get to it.

Well, I suppose that since Ambassador is supposed to help newbs, it would be helpful for them to be able to withdraw funds to help with stocking a city novice shop or for a newbie contest prize. Trade also could use it to go buy out comms for the city comm shop. I'm not really sure why most of the rest of the Ministries can't withdraw though, since all of them could use funds to be able to buy prizes for their own contests/sponsor play viewings at the stage/whatever else.

How does beast battle work?
Do you have to order your beast to make each attack or will it just attack until what it's fighting is dead? If it continues to attack and there are several of the thing you ordered it to attack, will it keep attacking the stack or do you have to re-order it to attack each mob?

Also, does anyone have any estimates on the damage it does?

You order it to attack, and it uses beast balance. It does 100-200 damage, give or take.

As Iasmos said, it works like any other ability that consumes beast balance. For my bashing alias, I just stack it in front of the swing, and get a lot of "you must wait to order your beast again" or whatever it is. I'm sure there are more elegant ways to do it, but that was simple and entirely effective.

As for damage, it is paltry in the extreme, but it is present, and if the beast is going to be sitting there otherwise, why not? When you manage a world shattering or annihilating with it, you actually notice it- those two might actually raise the damage level knights see by one against linked astral mobs. Outside of the criticals though, do it for fun, or because the beast is purely for bashing and you've the points to spare.

Would it be okay to refer to a design as using sterling silver (it's a type of alloy) or would it be better to directly mention what metals the silver is alloyed with? Which commodity is used for copper? And can you only use the gemstones that can be cut by jewellers in designs?

I don't see an issue with it. If I remember correctly, there is a sterling silver ring quest item.

Not sure about the copper.

I got away with using tigers eye, if I remember correctly, so yes.

Any precious/semi-precious stone we don't actually have can probably be emulated with uncut gems, although it will drive the price up. I still don't understand using them for clear crystal when we have diamonds available.

If I remember correctly, I think iron is the default metal that you can use as a stand-in for all the metals that aren't recognized commodities.

In fact... Aha! I just ran a search and found a post from Lendren, who's probably the most knowledgeable player when it comes to designs (and theater, and lots of other things):

Great. Just submitted my first design now, so I'm hoping it turns out well.

I couldn't find anything that would do this but:

Is there a way to create one way exits in a manse?

Is there some sort of passive power gain that doesn't show up in powerlog?

All power gains and losses should show up in POWERLOG. However, POWERLOG SUMMARY can, at times, be off.

Has the PDA forum skin changed to show posts as a branching tree, or have I done something? I don't like it and want it back how it was before.

If defending someone, from someone who has status on you or you have status on
, does that clear status?
Same with attacking someome in enemy territory.

Skillflexing with the doctoral cord is still restricted to one full skillset a day, correct?

Right.