Update

Well in the four or five months since I played regularly there's been quite a few changes. Too many to go into detail over though most of them are 'small' they do add up. The change to Vanishing Tower so far was the only one that gave me pause, and I still haven't decided whether it's a good thing or a bad thing in the current enviroment to cut back on 'farming'. I don't farm, heck I rarely even do 'The Run', when I'm an active player I tend to work on my own goals that aren't exactly xp-friendly. The War Band being an example of that.

Speaking of which during my absence and with hasty logins and bad logouts the War Band is down again to just Ruby. Keeping those little buggers alive would require LOTs of those gems I like so much and I might go on a drive to gather more than I should, say... 10? That'd give me 5 permanent followers and 5 permanent mounts and it would stop the xp that gets invested in them being wasted.

Might be nice if there was a way for higher level knights to recruit higher level yeomen/followers though.

My absence has been and will continue to be because of work, out at 7am usually back at 9.30pm and sometimes I have to fit a girlfriend around my free time though she's pretty busy too so I should be able to with a little effort make some time for my favorite MUD. We'll see.

BTW: Changing race names: Very cool but I wish we had some artwork on the wiki or main site.

Quest of this Day

I apologise, but our sweet Prince couldn't make the entry tonight. He claims to be too tired after todays feat and asked me to write it for him instead. He forgets that although he has the constitution of an amberite I merely human am also somewhat the worse for wear.

Our troubles began last night when the Lord Chaos inquired of the Prince as to whether or not he had attempted the challenge set forth by Feanor, to which my master claimed tiredness and distraction by some unearthly incantation about Deadly Arm. He did however promise to take up the Quest the next morn.

Upon rising we set forth to Liathyr to meet Feanor, an enchanter of the Noble House of that city. He bade my lord to find gems for his research, general types as well as a few specific. Upon making some inquiries we discovered we could find many such gems in Serpentina's Tower in the town of Corna. Of course, m'lord did feel the urge to battle his way through all the golems including the one encrusted with gems. Upon his destruction we relieved Galvanor of the stones, since he no longer needed them. We also found a stone saber. The Prince had heard rumors of this saber long before but as he is wont to do never paid much heed until the blade was in his hand. He inquired with the local guild who informed him of it's importance. When he raised the saber we were informed by a heavenly voice he was a champion of the town. Lord Gavadel took this as his cue to leave.

Still short of precious stones for Feanor, we learned more could be found in Banor Lok. Which is as far from this side of the world as it's possible to be. Fortunately the master has seen fit to tame Pegasi for myself and his squire some time ago. The trip was long (and the prince forgets often cold), but finally we reached the dwarven mines. It didn't take us long to find enough stones, but no malachite as requested by Feanor. Taking the idea from the miners we flew off again into the mountains where we spent MANY hours mining. Now M'Lord Gavadel is a brave and capable man, stronger than any I know but a miner he isn't. And neither am I. Squire Bardle who hails from Moria fared better than we did, and eventually he told the master we were wasting our time. Malachite tends to form around copper deposits he informed us and there were none there. There was however a shop, that might sell the stone. Back in Corna. Another long journey ensued.

We waited many hours for the shopkeep to return from 'Lunch' and fortunately when she arrrived there was the precious stone in question. Dirty and tired we hauled our load back to Liathyr and Feanor. Pleased with himself Prince Gavadel handed the stones over to the elven master smith. We were promptly informed to complete his work Feanor required 6 ioun stones. And one of amethyst if we will.

Now my Prince does keep ioun stones and I wear one myself, but he was reluctant to give up any of his own and even if he willed, there were none of amethyst. The Lord used his enchantments to summon advice from his fellows and Protax told us of a horde of iouns. Back in Shadow Tower. Which is all the way on the other side of the continent, over two oceans and south through Quetatl. Octavian was tired when we set alight on the Tower and explored. Our information was correct and ioun stones were collected. But again none of Amethyst. The Prince remembered the Green Lantern in Avalon had an ioun stone and he couldn't remember what type it was, we were on our way there when we recieved word from the ELF Porphyria to meet with her at Feanor's. Expecting a trap we travelled once more to Liathyr.

The mazikah dropped the amethyst and left leaving my lord dubious, but keen to complete his quest he took the stone and along with five others handed it to Feanor. The Quest was complete and along with wealth handed my master a stone. Smiling, Prince Gavadel took the citrine and rubbed it and handed it to me. It glowed red and he took it back. Patting me on the shoulder he grinned and said, "Ruby ol'son. The enchantments in this gem will keep you alive and if you die it will return you to life once more." His grin is infectious so I smiled back. "Who's going to keep Fledge in shape if you're gone?" I looked at the squire, but he was busy with his own pegasus. "Be a good lad and fill in my journal for me tonight will you. I'm off to sleep. Totally exhausted."

Finally!

Chaos bit the bullet and rewrote the turn undead. You can read about it in the changelog in the sidebar. Few teething problems (where for a while I was crushing heads) but they've been sorted. Apparently it was VERY old code and had to be done from scratch, but it works. It's still a super-power, but now if you can resist it somewhat you should fare a bit better. Which I think is fair.

Band is down to just Rubernel, there was a squire, but gem of pres didn't work there. So many of the little buggers I've gotten up to a half-decent level and then die. Usually during LH Raids I've realised.

Knight Wish List

Been a while since I done one of these, and I'm just looking at the Knights as they exist, not the long awaited rewrite.

Let's see...

Turn Undead
The bane of my enemies, and I'm sure my fellow Knights will hate me for this, but... it's too powerful. I have NO problem with the power it has over undead. That's what it's for. It's a VERY limited power as it's target 'audience' is a very small part of the overall game. However I think 5turn undead is a little silly. I'd love to see it completely reworked, but in the meantime a cooldown timer would go a long way, doesn't have to be long, 10 or 20 seconds should suffice from it being used more than once in a combat.

Yeomen
Very limited now since their ability to join affiliations has been reworked due to the spec system they now follow. But still useful for filling out the Band. Be nice if there was a way to see groups being able to assign them different roles. Scouts, Rearguard, Bannerman. The Bannerman would be a non-combat role. Something similiar to a permanent inspiration aura (it doesn't have to be a large bonus), combat mode always defensive and when he rides in it would say something like 'Bannerman Coricus rides in holding the Banner of the Band of the White Cross'. For me it's just one of those cool things.

Squires
No issues with squires at all. Hard to get them to Knight now, but I think that's a good thing.

Mounts
Still waiting for the day more exotic mounts are available to Knights. War-pegasi, drakes, lions I don't know. Something. And I feel like their should be something akin to the ranger bond. In legends, the Knight's mount is often a part of that legend. But when we go through a horse once a reboot, kinda difficult.

Knights themselves
Getting charge up and running again would be nice and I think there's something to be said for them being members of the Pantarchic Church. There's something there that could be exploited more though I'm not entirely sure what.

Camelot
I was thinking long and hard about the defense of Camelot and... I had a nice idea. Prior to Merlin buggering off to parts unknown he set up an anti-magick field around Camelot. (He has the key and can turn it off on his return). This wouldn't stop ALL wierd attacks, like psychic stuff wouldn't be affected, holy and unholy abilities wouldn't be affected either.

Disclaimer: As usual, these are just ideas, don't expect any of them to be taken up, nor will I be miffed if they're ignored.

Boo hiss

Well, first the good news. Lysator has a interesting post of the shape of things to come for the overland maps. Some of which I think will REALLY help. Overland maps, some better indication of cliffs and whatnot. You can read it here.

Last night I hatched a dragon (Ptolema) and was told I needed one more keep point to keep her. I'd just raised charisma having hit 70 finally and had a spec point. Specced in leadership and got that point and kept Ptolema. So I logged in this morning, Ptolema wasn't there and when queried it turns out my keep capacity is fluctuating. So despite being able to keep Ptolema when I logged out (something I'd just done when I logged out) I'd lost her by the time I logged back in. This is the third time I've noticed anyway that I've lost something in the last week. Following my rainbow pibrit and a SQUIRE. I just wish the keep system was a little more stable and if you've got something actually kept (I actually checked on logout that 'Ptolema disappears with you') it should be there on return. Keeps are a pain at the best of times and I'm not asking for it to be reworked, just... a little more stable. And yes, my keep capacity on checking is again maxed out. I don't know what's going on really.

The Band other than the loss of Ptolema is doing quite well, no losses to report despite some action last night. Fledge is nearing level 37 finally. Man she levels slow. And Squire Crissa is level 15. 10 more levels until she's Dame Crissa. She'd only be my 2nd squire to be knighted since the level changeover. I ain't holding my breath just yet, had a few reach the 20s before loss.

Updates, Recommendations and Commendations

The Band of the White Cross

Well the Band has had an eventful week. Remembering we had to leave the field after myself and Fasius died during the First Battle, myself and Rubernel decided to try again. Losses were high, the saddest of which was Lt. Butler who fled the field. He'd survived the first Battle and numerous other adventures since then. At first I was angry he'd fled (and died later), but Rubernel calmed me down. With Butler of course went Parmenion his drake.

What was left of the Band headed to Losthaven, where (whilst I was afk) there was an unfortunate accident involving Bill. Rago attacked Bill the Town Fool and soft-hearted Fledge defended him. This brought about half of the Band into the fight, including Seleus the last of drakes. Rago aquitted himself admirably and I returned to find the Band in tatters. Only Rubernel, myself and Fledge had survived. It took a few days to find enough pegasi to mount a new Band. Current membership is my Squire Crissa, Captain Rubernel of course and his eagle. The three yeomen are Coricus, Gelumin and Altenius. A new group of pegasi have been found to keep the cavalry in the air. Seleus and Parmenion are missed especially as the new group lacks any heavy artillery.

The new group is also alert to a new threat to Losthaven, Zaruzahad the Undead Black dragon. Fortunately we've managed to drive him back during all recent engagements.

Recommendations

A few of the blogs are really shaping up to be something special. Arc's tale of corruption continues here, Elronuan keeps an interesting blog with some nice articles, Lysator keeps us posted on his developments here and my favorite and shaping up to be a real treat Esmene is writing an IC Story that is of a very high quality. Definite kudos.

Commendations

Just like to welcome our new players, I've had the pleasure to know Tuinia, the very chipper Boreality and Aalina (Fasius's wife, both RL and IC) this past few days. I hope the new kids stick around on this block. And a BIG thankyou to Chaos for making Knight guild equipment keepable. It just seemed VERY necessary after the size of the maps got MUCH bigger. Now if only my yeomen could join guilds again...

Back...

Atman deleting and then creating a new atman (I never said I was gone gone) is sort of like being able to attend your own funeral, which is part of the reason I decided to return, more people liked me than I thought, funny how you tend to focus on the negative. It's no secret (though I'm not going to be explicit either) as to why I left, in particular some harsh and constant criticisms from someone I respect. When I was considering returning I was thinking about asking for modifiers to Gavadel to keep him happy. (Getting rid of the dual guild, losing the donation items etc). Because, really, they are for me, just ways of fleshing out my character, not about the additional power. However, in the end I thought: Why the hell should I play in a certain way to keep HIM happy. (His rebuttal will be: 'You just took Gav back cos you missed the old power and you're just saying this to justify yourself.' But screw him, I play to have fun, I play for escapism, I play Gavadel because I love this character).

So... Travellers of Ganesha have finally been released. I love the challenges aspect and the versatility and yet ANOTHER way of gaining experience and advancement whilst avoiding the hack'n'slash. Another step in the right direction I think. My current exploration challenge has me being given an anti-magickal field. Which I think rocks, but I try to be sad about it for Ganesha. Thinking the field would work against the Bez, I took the Band into battle against him. Eventually we were forced to retreat and one of the pegasi, Yeoman Juxinner and squire Agla died and the band was badly beaten up.

To replace the yeoman, we've recruited... Yeoman Agla, to say I was surprised when I found a yeoman with the same name as my departed squire is a bit of an understatement.

Retirement

Just to quote my removal of atman:

Hmmm... I'll be back with a new atman (shortly). I've realised over the last few months that I've despite being here for... 15 years I've kept my head down. Over the last year I've raised my head above ground level and really honestly tried to accomplish some LONG term goals (Prince of Amber being among them) as well as give my POV for the community as a PLAYER. Sticking that head above has meant some potshots came my way, and I've realised I'm not so insensitive as to be able to dismiss them. Because I'm the sensitive sort really and the insults that came my way from Players and Devs really got to me in the end though I preferrred they didn't. I'm exempting Chaos, Twilight and Elronuan from any dev interference as any criticism (and there's been some) I've only ever taken as constructive. There's a lot of good players and good Devs and even if I don't see eye to eye with all of them, this is my fault for being the way I am, not theirs. I am NOT gone. Just restarting.

Or basically: I seem to have set myself up to be a community leader. And I'm really not cut out to be. (I'm just way too soft).

This is also the end of this blog.

Thanks to all who supported and took up the banner.

What the deuce?

Gav! One minute you're all over the place, wiki, blogs, game and now you've disappeared. You bored with us?

Nah, I do try to check-in, but just after Dyne visited me in March (no connection I'm sure) RL sort of exploded on me, I'm not going to go into it here. But between RL exploding and a couple of (actually minor in real terms) incidents on the game I found my temper frayed and playing the game became less fun for a while.

So you're quitting on us?

Nope. I've played Lost Souls since 94 and I come and go, the incidents in question are things I can usually handle, but on top of the RL stuff (which is serious) I thought it'd be better if I made myself scarce for a bit. I don't blame the people involved (you know who you are) at all. Disagreements are part of human nature and normally I'd be cool with it all, but not right now.

So when you coming back?

I doubt I'll really be away to be honest, but I'll definitely have less input for now. I'm having to move out of my apartment this coming week and at the end of June I'm heading back to Scotland for the summer, depending on the situation there.... Could be around non-stop over the summer or you won't see me until September.

Disclaimer: Imaginary conversation with some little goblin who lives in my head just to put the points across easier like.

Lost Souls Video

It's been in my head for a while so thought I'd give it a whirl.

Made using VideoSpin (it's actually only my third video ever) and it took a LOT longer than the video I made for my sister. You try telling a story in 4 minutes based on a few hundred lines of combat which took about 50 seconds and getting those 160 lines down to around 20 cards and try and make the story interesting....

I'm not sure I succeeded, but here's the result:

Reply to Lysator

On Lysator's Blog. He says: The knight came armed with full armour, steel shield, broadsword, halberd, crossbow, and morning star. Much better equipped than most of the player knights, though the show didn't have the gratuitous drake mount, pegasus mount, donation weapons, iouns, and lay on hands. The morning star did some heavy damage, as did the halberd, yet neither of these weapons are used to any extent on the mud. I guess players are either narrow-minded about how they have to use the sword, or they are greedy and want all of the special attacks built into the artifact swords. Though there are plenty of crossbows available, they are severely underused, and apparently beneath a knight on the mud to wield one.

Just to clear up some confusion, Lysator is totally right on the historical issue (and it's one I'm interested in and know a little about). In fact he ends the post with: Just as I had predicted last week, and validating that the knights are failing to live up to the legend. However I should point out that most people come to any MUD or roleplaying game, not to study the historical accuracies, but to live up to that legend. I mean if Knights were as amazing as legend and myth (and a lot of fantasy books) they'd never have died out during the gunpowder age. And they did. I don't think dissing peoples choices or poo-pooing on their gaming style or way to pass time is necessarily helpful or productive. I mean, any student of historical warfare knows that the spear was A LOT more useful than the sword in large scale combat, but we all grew up watching Robin Hood and Errol Flynn movies and think that sword-play is a much cooler image in our heads, even if it wouldn't really be that practical in large-scale medieval combat. (Reach being the biggest issue with the sword).

In defense of exotic mounts, fantasy literature is FULL of Dragon Knights and as Lysator's pointed out, Gav's own 'artwork' is really just stolen and photoshopped Warhammer image. So I'm not the first to think Pegasus Knights are a cool idea ;)

Developer Thoughts...

Between my wish lists and criticisms, it might seem as though I'm not that happy with the game. Au contrair! (Is that how you spell it?) I've been happy with the current dev team since I returned last year and I think I have a good relationship with most of them. They seem to be good people. However that's not particularly why I'm happy with them. Ironically one of the ones I'm happiest with is one that I actually don't seem to get on with (:(). However I like them because for the first time in a long time I'm seeing a LOT of results. And no, not because my ideas are taken onboard. A lot of my ideas are ignored, or what might seem like my idea is actually a long term goal they've had for friggin ages and it's just coincidence. (Tactical combat is one thing I've wanted but once when I laid out a plan to Twi or someone they went: Oh Chaos has been working on a system like that).

A lot of the stuff that's come in lately has little to do with ideas of /mine/, but very much their own. The exploration xp is one for example. There's a lot of backroom stuff we don't see too.

My ideas are just my ideas, my thoughts and my wishlists. And they don't really need that. They have ideas and goals aplenty to keep them busy probably until we all retire in 30/40 years time :p. What is nice is when my stuff and their stuff overlaps and fortunately that seems to happy a fair bit.

Newbie thoughts.

Well, sorry. I've been dealing with some RL issues lately that have distracted me from the game. (QQ!) But I've been lurking, posting and doing my own research. Ironically I'd been doing something similiar to what Lysator has been doing. Independently. I took a day on Iron Realms' world of Achea to have a look at what they do that's different.

Website

I have to say, their website is a lot prettier than ours. But I think our wiki does a very similiar job, though it could be organised a bit better. Every once in a while I do actually go through phases of blazing through our wiki, in fact, the current setup of the main page a good deal of the stripping away the pages on 'races' and 'guilds' and the like and organising those pages into categories has been my doing. But I'm not really a wiki-fiend. My talent is for seeing stuff I like elsewhere, grabbing the code and then trying to make that code fit our website. One thing I'd like to understand better is templates. We used them on otherverse.wikia.com for characters, worlds, races and the like and applying them to our own wiki would actually make things a lot neater. Another problem we have is character art. Yes, Gav's /is/ a stolen image (from Warhammer), paintshopped and edited. I'd like to see character art at least for our race pages, and preferably original and not stolen from elsewhere.

However... here's the difference between the Iron Realms stuff and ours. Ours is a 'hobbyist' mud as they'd refer to us. They're professional, a business, they make a lot of money and actually seem to have money to spend for development and the like. We don't, so we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.

Getting New Players

My own thoughts on the actually game-play of Iron Realms? I actually stuck around for the tutorial, the basics aren't that different though their interface is rather similiar to something I've thought would be a good idea for us for a while. An in-browser interface and it's very pretty. The casual passerby isn't going to want to download client software and figure out how to install it and input our game data. If (as the mudding community in general agrees) we want to grab new players we have to reach beyond the current mud-community. And grabbing /that/ lot means not assuming they know squat about telnet interfaces and port numbers. To get some of those guys we need a clicky click interface. Personally I can't think of anything better than 'Play Now!' *click* 'Welcome to Lost Souls'.

And beyond that we need a tutorial, Wardens do their best, but I think a nice little tutorial script (and no, not a 3 hour introduction to all the nuances of the game) to introduce the basics before letting them loose on Gaia. (And I'm starting to have problems with Gaia being the name of the world, goes against our whole new original theme approach).

And I think plague really needs to be reworked. Nothing worse than a n00b catching the plague in their first five minutes, Chaos knows about my dislike of that particular mechanic and I'm not going to go on about it again here.

I think that's enough for now.

Quiet?

No things aren't quiet, but I have so many thoughts churning around in my head right now that I think it'll take some time to sort out.

However, briefly let me say this: Donators. Definitely not entitled to anything on Lost Souls other than their benefits. You have no more or less say in the development of the game because you chose to donate. However. We're not entitled to less. Donators are NOT cheaters. A character with donation items is not worth less than someone who doesn't. Most importantly, donators shouldn't have to put up with derision from fellow players or developers.

I find myself on the defense too often lately. Defending myself, my character, my choices and I'm not entirely comfortable with that.

Adventures of the Band of the White Cross

So, whilst reworking my navigation aliases (yes, even I use navigation aliases, I don't do the xp-per-minute loop, but you know sometimes I have to do the circuit) I decided to add Ry'leh to the loop. I used to do it about 10 odd years ago, but I just never got into the habit of going there when I went back. So I led the band through the usual abominations and ranting orcs and cold-eyed giths, what I remembered and came to the Strange City that used to scare the crap out of me years ago. And I came across a couple of gogtzul. I've fought these guys a few times since sometimes they lead the odd raid to Losthaven. I didn't expect a gogtzul horde swarm. I rallied the Band to me and with a few choice words inspired the lot of them to a heroic defense around my banner. (My imaginary banner, bannermen are on my wish list). About half-way through the epic defense I had to go full defensive and did my best to keep my men alive whilst they did their best to bring the gogtzul down. And they did. And we suffered no losses.

After this little fight which ended /just/ in the nick of time I decided to retreat, but not knowing the layout of Ry'leh so well and after a small rest I fought my way down. Until I came across a deryni, thinking he was no more or less than any other wierd creature I'd faced in Ry'leh we attacked. And Yog-Sothoth was summoned. Even I... Prince Gavadel of Amber had to retreat before the Elder God. But I didn't get the chance, it didn't take me long before my spirit found itself with Father Michael. I pray to Yehovah to show some mercy and summoning Fledge we flew back to Ry'leh like the wind. And promptly died because I had nothing. Finding myself back at Michael /again/ and sure the War Band was now dead I first headed to Camelot to re-arm myself from our armoury (something I rarely do these days). I then headed back to Ry'leh. The Band had scattered to the four winds, and it took me some time to find them all again, but losses were a lot lower than expected and only Yeoman Gelamio had perished. 'Only' I'm sad to lose Gelamio, he's the longest surviving yeoman from the new band who wasn't part of the 'Dream Team'. I also have to report the loss of Dame Alirizel, when I rearmed at Camelot I found a hauberk and cloak I'd made myself and gifted to her. She died defending Lancelot so that's something. She's the first member of the Dream Team to die.

We also lost three pegasi, so Juxinner is currently flying around on Seleus. Instead of concentrating on rebuilding the Band, Captain Rubernel informed me it'd be better if we continued plotting out our routes. We'd just finished a raid on Bloodmoon Temple when the Vigil informed me there was a huge raid on Losthaven with multiple parties. The Band formed around the rune of the keeper and we launched to Losthaven's Defense. As did a lot of other Guard members. Our first mission was to dispatch the horde of zombies, which we did easily, but to the east there was a massive army of orcs, probably in reprisal for my assault on Yevath earlier in the week. The main problem was the orc berserker. I fell twice (as did a few other PC Guard) but kept launching myself back into the defense of the City.

Finally when the Battle of Losthaven drew to a close I counted casualties amongst the Band. None.

Three Battles in one day and only Yeoman Gelamio fell. I consider myself most fortunate. We'll finish mapping out our route and then I'll rebuild the Band and hunt some more pegasi.

War Band No: 15

Awe, crystal cubes and the Band.

It's Sunday evening and after having a few days to wander the map, it sunk in last night just how huge and amazing the new map is. And everyone's excited, from Dev Corps' new plans as to what's now doable to the players' exploring and discovering their old favorite haunts or just taking in the view.

What astonishes me is how Lysator did ALL of the building himself. When you wander the new map and realise how big everything is, how the scope of Gaia has just expanded. What was once Almeria is now at least 11 maps (9 main regions and Tetlacana and Quetatl). Not to mention Mordo, the first region of Esartur released. A 'dark' continent is more than welcome. And if you've tried going to Mordo you'll realise the ocean after Avalon is HUGE. Whether you love the new map or hate it (I think most of you are in the former category along with myself) you have to be in awe of the man behind the work. I praised him on release, but that praise is all the more heartfelt after wandering the new maps. I gave him Kudos before. Now I can only say: Lysator I salute you.

Twilight released Crystal Cubes to allow people a small map readout of the region they're in. It has been /vital/ to me in imagining my explorations as well as finding my way around. Thanks for releasing them.

The War Band has shrunk. We lost Suzasti during my original explorations and we got stuck in a region of what I think now is Korindim. I ended up disbanded the Band temporarily, left the horses and packs and spent two days rounding up pegasi to remount the Band as a small aerial band. We added a firelizard and an elicat to the mix, and Captain Rubernel dismissed Truct and bonded an owl, so he could stay with the Band. He's becoming a fearsome warrior in his own right now. So the War Band size is now Six Humans, Eight Pegasi, 2 drakes, an elicat, an owl and a firelizard and myself. So from 26 to 19. There's a free pegasi I use for when I'm helping newbies. We've raided Mordo and hit some other places. S'been a lot of fun and I don't regret using Gavadel to test the new map, even with the loss of Suzasti, makes me prouder of my little Band.

Kudos to my fellow players...

Honestly... I was expecting a lot more whining and bitching after I figured out about the rollout. Issues, bugs, things not working how you expect (my own experience with the trees and the STEEP mountain that led to the death of Suzasti) aren't what I'm talking about. They're valid issues. I know some people are worried, even good sorts, but just about everyone has attacked the new map with gusto and enthusiasm.

Sorry, my negative expectations were based on the last MAJOR rollout with the new spec system or before that when HPs were detached from levels, both of which led to a lot of whining and big name players leaving the game. So I'll have to say I've been pleasantly surprised. Really, thanks for being great and supporting Lysator and the rest of the staff.

Navigation

Quick post... you know what'd make navigation a LOT easier... a global co-ordinate system... from -200 to 200 or however it'd work out. Personally I don't find it too much of an issue, but I know some people are finding it difficult to get their head around every map being on a different system. Not sure how feasible the idea is.

Almerian 3D Map Launch....

THIS SUCKS! HOW THE F*CK AM I GOING TO DO MY XP CIRCUIT NOW?!!! My xp circuit composes of alternating between Bill the Town Fool and Trixie, so I'm actually all good.

Me and Lys don't seem to really get on that well, though I wish we did as we have a lot of the same interests. Not a loathing or anything, but we're not buddies, we have a... 'professional' relationship. I'm only saying this to make one thing clear. My support of his work isn't personal.

I LOVE the new map. Despite our differences I've been a big fan of Lysator's /work/ since I first stepped into the Northlands. I love NL, Avalon, Gardagh and what I've seen of Mordo. And the new Almerian map is ambitious and long overdue. And I think only Lysator could ever have had the patience to do something like this. I'll probably be more full of praise when I figure out where stuff is.

For the record I'm exploring with the War Band (bad idea) so me and Fledge are being forced to explore on foot. So far we've found... Togrek, the eastern entry point and a wild dog pack (don't let those beeatches catch your low level adventurer btw).

The common complaint about a Lys-map is IT'S BIG AND EMPTY. Only if you're a numbnut I think. His maps have flavor, they're thought out, the descs are gorgeous and there's attention to detail (you can examine the flowers and the like). Lys puts a lot of work into his wandering monsters even if he won't let me keep 'em. And space... all that space.... is asking for expansion of content, new towns, new villages, new areas. For the first time in 15 years, there's room to expand in a way that makes sense.

Kudos Lysator.

And to all 'em Devs who helped him finish it up and put hours and hours last night into loading it up. Thanks.

Affinities and Resistance Skills...

Here's something I've thought was wrong for quite a while... the affinity and resistance skills. Problem is they're so inherent in our system now that reworking them would be a MAJOR project (well I think so, for all I know Chaos goes 'hold on' tappety tappety tap 'Done!').

Here's what I think is wrong from a purely philosophical standpoint. Aligning yourself with any major power means that you gain affinity with that power (fair enough). So Gav doesn't suffer from holy or ordered attacks and can actually benefit from them if his skills are high enough. However. There's a price. He's wide open to attacks from Unholy and Chaos, moreso than someone who hadn't aligned with Holy or Order powers. He can offset that by buying Chaos Resistance to help /offset/ his order affinity and holy fortitude to offset his holy purity (holy affinity).

Now gamewise that means that I tend to fight unholy and chaotic beings more than I fight holy or ordered. Fighting those guys would actually give me some benefit. The main reason to buy these up is to benefit from artifacts, but I'm really not sure it's worth it, especially with being so open to attacks from my enemies, even with some resistance skills bought up. In fact Gav's got his holy fortitude a lot higher than his holy purity to try and have some benefit when he's fighting the unholy powers. He has no access to chaos resistance and tends to get the lowest of his orifices violated when he goes up against chaotic powers.

Now if you've read the chronicles of amber, remember when Corwin comes across the Black Road (a Chaos Construct) as he's fleeing from his currently enraged brother Benedict. You don't want Benedict mad at you. EVER. Even for an amberite he's pretty damned powerful, best warrior ever and the reason the Courts lost the Patternfall War. So when he's pissed at you. Run. In desperation Corwin decides to cut through the Black Road. Not having much effect he summons the Pattern to mind (effectively this would in game mechanics, give a boost to his Order Affinity), it's with this power that he manages to cut his way through the road. Temporarily losing his pissed off brother.

I'd like to see the Affinities and Resistances merged. It makes sense if you fill your body with Holy Spirit that spirit reinforces you against the effects of the Unholy. And vice-versa. Same goes for Order Affinity, it aligns you with the forces of Order and protects you against the forces of Chaos. It'd also mean that two opposite-aligned characters or NPCs meeting on the field of battle actually have a half-decent chance of being able to be roughly of equal strength. Also in a game where skills are so many and spec points are so few, freeing up some will stuff to allow you either a) to focus your strength on that power alone or b) Throw some will stuff elsewhere would be much appreciated.

Addendum: After talking with Twilight and Beasty some more, it's helped me refine my argument. So... let's look at it this way. FireBoy has fire affinity. To a high level. He's attacked by a bucket of water. Under the current system, with no water resistance, he's be staggered by the bucket of water. Now if his fire affinity is 240 and the bucket of water attack is water affinity 60 attack, under the new system, he'd just laugh it off as it's turned to steam. No problem against the bucket of water. Let's say he runs into WaterGirl. WaterGirl tries a few bucket of water attacks to no affect. FireBoy launches his fireball attacks, also to no effect under the new system. But WaterGirl is much higher level and Bucket of Water attack is her lowest power. She now launches LAKEOFDOOM area attack, her most powerful spell. LAKEOFDOOM is a strength 300 attack. Now because this power is 60 higher than his affinity, he doesn't actually take 60 damage. His pool of resistance from his affinity is overloaded and he takes a double-effect, not the full 300 doubled, but the 60 doubled, so he takes a 120 attack strength LAKEOFDOOM. Who's laughing now FireBoy?

My two cents.

At Full Strength

Well, since the Dream Team came back and after ironing out a few kinks (pesky gems of preservation, though they seem to be working better now). The Band is now at full strength. Probably subject to the occassional change, losses still happen (Kotanan, was tragically lost at sea earlier today) and only the higher levelled types are currently under the gem of protection.

Band of The White Cross (War Band)
Prince Gavadel's Warband, primarily attached to the Pantarchic Church, worth noting is all the human members are mounted on horses. Despite Gavadel experimenting with elven steeds, warhorses and hanoman horses, he's settled on good ol' Losthaven horses from Emor. So each of the yeomen, the squire and his Captain are mounted on steeds. Gavadel himself rides his pegasus, Fledge, a level 36 familiar.

Captain Rubernel
My right-hand man, originally assigned to us by the Pantarchic Church, but he went native, joined the Rangers and his warg Truct has tentatively taken command of The Pack. Level 25 Ranger-Templar.

Squire Agla
Another one of those squires who refuses to specialise in invocation, but she's held her own somewhat. Currently a level 6 squire and she's hopeful of succeeding as her predeccesor Dame Alirizel did.

Yeomen
Lieutenant Butler - Level 15 Yeoman Along with Rubernel and Dame Alirizel, survivor of the Battle of Shadow Tower. Beware his mithril spear, he ain't half bad with it. His familiar is Parmenion.
Sergeant Gelamio - Level 14 Yeoman, one of the first recruited since the Band's reformation and has now survived plenty of battles in his own right.
Yeoman Hasadan - Level 6 Yeoman, latest recruit and a half-decent swordsman.
Yeoman Juxinner Barber - Level 6 Yeoman, saved from the plague in Camelot by Gavadel.
Yeoman Sazusti - Level 12 Yeoman, another of Camelot's fierce valkyrie warriors.

Pack
Truct - Captain Rubernel's pit warg he adopted. Surprisingly taken to the rest of the hounds, and she's quite protective of them. Anyone with the ability to sense of the heart of others will see Truct's is as pure as any Knight's. Definitely unique for her race. No idea as to his level as he's Rubernel's familiar, not mine.
Trix - Level 6 Newcomer to the Band, replacing Nenia who decided to leave last night of her own accord, lord knows why.
Lucky - level 12 hound. Like her yeoman counterparts, been through a number of battles by now. And survived the plague a couple of times too.
Bruno - Level 11 hound.
Tiger - Level 11 hound.
Gwynn - Level 11 hound, named after Gwynned.
Walker - Level 11 hound.

Heavy Artillery
Parmenion - The Lieutenant's familiar, so like Truct, no idea as to her level. She is however an Ice Drake.
Seleus - Level 24 Red Drake and Parmenion's mate.

Including mounts, Gavadel and Fledge Warband Strength: 25

Other news: Check out Esmene's Blog. There's already 3 posts including two VERY nice articles on Witches.

Blogging

So...

Been an interesting couple of days and I almost lost my temper a couple of times. The posts from yesterday are deleted, written by me and other people in the heat of the moment and keeping those there words up for posterity is probably counter-productive. So let's look at todays little issue. The blog itself.

Why should I blog?
Pain in the butt innit. Having to drag yourself to a site login and then maintain the damned thing so that you're not posting once a month and nobody is reading it. Why I try to post fairly often, even if there's not much to say, so that when I do have something to say I already have a reader or two. It's true, Developers like the blog. That's not to say my blog is the best blog ever, or am I so damned interesting. The point right now is it's the only one out there. Developers like the format because it can be read at their leisure, not having to deal with a tell in the middle of their coding, idle or whatnot. It's a permanent record, so it can be referred to later too.

But Everyone Loves Gav, How Can I Compete?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm just fortunate because I'm the first who tried this approach and it's been discovered to work. That's not to say your blog should be a wish-list. Mine isn't, though problems and whatnot are pointed out in it, specifically to do with problems in my guilds or my specific goals. Also, realise Developers have plans and projects of their own and your idea might not fit in there. Not all of mine do, and it's sort of implicit, especially with requests for guild benefits or whatnot. I've had a few tells like 'Nice idea about the keep Gav, but it can't be a Knight power because it goes against something we're working on' ORLY?

Basically the blog has been proven to be a useful format for charting your progress, problems and triumphs with the game. It's passive, not intrusive and that's why it's taken off. A forum would maybe work as well, but as we don't have one.... I heartily recommend you to make your own. Honestly? I don't like this distinction that's fallen on my shoulders and I've been uncomfortable with it for a while now. Help me out? Make your own blog or whatever charting your own journey through the game. Much obliged.

Gav

Return of the Dream Team

So Chaos kindly decided the other night that because the Dream Team hadn't been lost to battle, but due to the disconnection problem he'd reinstate them for me. After wrestling with the matter somewhat we decided to fully reinstall Gavadel from a backup. There were plusses and minuses to this idea, the main minus being losing the Captaincy of the Guard and all my xp since January. The plus side of this the Dream Team returning and... FLEDGE. Seems Chaos was kind enough to overlook my err... Emo-phase a few weeks ago. About the downside, I /think/ if I pushed it, Snr Chaos would probably have let it go, maybe. But I'm inclined to think there should be a price for the bad decisions and bad luck, so I'm more than happy with the reinstall. To celebrate, using the knowledge I've gleamed over the last few months I've rebuilt a warband. And lets see if I can build it into something... great. I'll give the rundown, note the 'special' characters. Those guys are the famed Dream Team, so-called because before I learned anything about running an NPC squad they actually survived with no real help from me and even my ill-advised assault on Shadow Tower. Here's the run-down of the new-found....

Band of the White Cross
Captain Rubernel - Level 23 Templar-Ranger, my right-hand man and he comes with his rather strange choice of familiar, his warg Truct.
Squire Alirizel - Level 14 Squire, riding her horse Swan a level 12 warhorse.
Lieutenant Butler - Level 12 Yeoman-Ranger, a force in his own right, what makes him more than dangerous is his ice-drake Parmenion.
Yeoman Pisius - Level 5 yeoman, riding his level 13 warhorse Achilles.
Yeoman Dellalis - Level 5 yeoman, mounted on his level 11 warhorse Guyan.
Yeoman Gelamio - Level 5 yeoman, mounted on his level 13 warhorse Galin.

Hounds
Lucky - Level 5 hound
Nenia - Level 5 hound

Hopefully I can add another few hounds to the pack. And yes, this does now mean the Band of the White Cross is now a cavalary force.

Not happy....

As happens from time to time, fell asleep without logging off, this morning I had to run to the bank and didn't check the computer. Logged in now to find the band wiped out by the plague. Selius, the Templar and the Squire survived. Yeomen and hounds gone... Pretty pissed about it and my loathing of the plague ups another notch.

Motivation to start a new warband: LOW.

War Band Update....

All was going well until I decided to pit the Band against the demons of St. Paedrics. I simply defended for the first half of the battle and it shows the band still needs more training. Lieutenant Virultis ended up having his eyes gouged out by one of the demons and Uxonius had his foot torn off. Uxonius survived, Virultis didn't. I think... I think they need better training before we attempt that again. Nymardart has been promoted to the Lieutenant of the Band and we recruited Yeoman Heran to take his place. The Band took a bit of a beating, but the rest escaped. Parmenion has been replaced by Selius as my warhorse though and I picked up a new hound, Tim. He joined us at level 3, but quickly made it up to 8. The rest of the hound pack is still around thankfully and benefiting from my ability to command them better. A pack of 6 well-trained hounds, you want them aggressive at you?

Rest of the Band has gained a level or two. And I actually discovered who the toughest member of the group is, only yeoman working on his hardiness is the ol'Sergeant, our albino. Well the new recruit is working on his and Egonis has hers at 1st degree but is yet to improve it much. So Heran's the one to look out for, he's also the only one I still need to get baptised, but the Church only insists on that after they reach 10th level.

Two ideas...

High level knight ability, at least hero. Build Keep.

Standard simple desced keep. It can be build in any 'friendly' terrain, such as Avalon, mountains or neutral parts of Losthaven. It doubles your 'keep' ability, but only for items dropped there. ie. I could train the War Band for example, leave them in the keep and go and recruit another (as an example). The keep itself is of a standard desc (so yes, all knights keeps look the same built on the same design, personalised by a 'banner of Prince Gavadel' for example). It consists of an open hall for everyone and armoury. The armoury is locked to the PC and where items/whatever can be dropped.

For everyone who can ride. Saddles.

Lost of possibilites there from standard leather to artifact and ranger skinned.

Band of the White Cross

So, the warband I started on... Thursday has survived the weekend. I didn't blog it since naming things tends to seem to have 'em wiped out soon after. Still here's the current setup.

Band of the White Cross

Squire Merimeth Sorcalisson - Level 18 squire, but a bit of an idiot. Specs in all the wrong stuff like leadership and ownership instead of invocation and has a low sword skill. Makes me wonder why he's my best squire to date since the change. Maybe has something to do with his shield skill.

Parmenion - Level 15 warhorse and honestly most likely to die, she's survived a day, but her predecessor was a level 20 warhorse and he got toasted. Warhorses, go through them pretty damned fast.

Sir Jousla Poeta - New comer, level 20 He joined us today, but a welcome addition. I like Templars. He's the liason to the Pantarchic church.

Yeomen
Lieutenant Virultis - Level 12 yeoman, ostensabily my right hand man.
Sergeant Gefmartiath - Level 11 yeoman, Virultis' second and an albino. He's kinda bitter about that.
Yeoman Uxonius Fisher - Level 11 yeoman
Yeoman Egonis Hunter - Level 11 yeoman
Yeoman Nymardat Knight - Level 12 yeoman, also the group's best swordsman amongst the yeomen. If he keeps up the good work, might promote him to captain of the warband. I'd make him the Lt's right hand man, but that'd really piss off Gefmartiath.

The Pack
Gwynned - Level 27 war hound and pack leader (also my familiar). She leads the hunt and honestly, not even her sister comes close to her in a fight.
Gelert - Level 24 war hound Gwynned's sister
Sheba - Level 13 hound, apart from Gwynned one of the first to join the new band, quite fond of her.
Victor - Level 12 hound
Bruno - Level 12 hound He and Victor joined the pack the day after Sheba.

Caim's the only one missing, one of the original hounds, I might add another hound or yeoman, but the War Band seems big enough.

Alternate Systems....

This post is based on a conversation I had with Lysator a couple of weeks ago, discussing 'alternates'. Erebus and Twilight (as far as I'm aware) have paved the way to 'Grinding' alternatives. And alternate advancements systems to xp with 'honor' and 'ka'. Which in the Guards case more honor gives different abilities, priviliges and spec access, the Wandslingers (which I believe were first) give access to new abilities, bonus specs and spec access with higher 'ka'.

They're both similiar in that both systems still rely on kills, Wandslingers with their Vigils, Guards in their defense of Losthaven. So in that sense they're still both tied into the old system, but in a much more different and more dynamic way. When will the next attack on LH happen? Who will it be? And in both cases it's reaction rather than action. You react to happenings in your vigil or watch. This is important actually, because it prevents 'grinding' honor or ka.

I'd like to see more alternate systems, with alternate ways to gain power or ability, and perhaps not based on kills but some other mechanism. Healing for example or crafting. It's important there be mechanisms in place to prevent grinding it too and LONG development times such as the guard has.

They offer nice alternatives to grinding, which me and a few others bore of, but we do, because it's the only way to get those levels up and levels translate into attribute points and specs.

Not everyone will like every system and that's as it should be. Variety is indeed the spice of life.

Tame!

Nice change from Twilight, it's actually something I've thought about before, Rangers, being the wild-life guys that they are, should I felt have some extra ability for taming wild creatures. I mentioned it today on the channel and an hour or so later....

System Change 4276
Summary ranger power: tame |
Number 4276
Type content expansion
By Twilight
When Mar 28 2009 1:44 PM
the ability to attempt to acquire ownership (though not an
empathic bond) of other creatures of your familiar type.
lot of familiar types get this (all except the solitary types)
Result more stuff to do with rangers
Reason gavadel asked for it
Projects Rangers
Ratings Not yet rated; use 'perform change rating' or
http://lostsouls.org/changelog to rate
Version not updated

It's limited to animals of your familiar type (so I can tame wild dogs etc) and there's an auto-limiting feature in the keep system. I'd hate to see it abused and having rangers with 100 DRAKES or 200 RATS going around, abusing it, having it taken down again. I'm also aware lately that when I talk people listen. I just hope I'm saying the right things and people realise I say what I say for the good of everyone and the game, not out of any sense of... what's the word... powergaming. It is true most of my opinions surround my own guilds, but that simply because they're the ones I know best. Knowing that I'm listened to does make me feel... responsible in a certain way, not a bad thing.

Btw, a classic example of how something I say or do could be judged as looking for personal power is my write-up of a Prince of Amber Faculty, not that I ever expect my version to ever be coded up. I wrote them as POWERFUL, not because I wanted that power for myself (though being a Prince I would get that power) it was because I felt that's how the Princes SHOULD be. And it's power I wouldn't like to see handed out willy nilly either. I don't know if I'm making myself clear on this...

An NPC Group question...

NPC Groups are the topic of the week seems like... Here's something I'm wondering. Do NPC groups get xp in a similiar way to PC groups. ie... if I make a kill does it get shared between them all or just me? If yeoman blog makes a kill how does that get shared between the group? Just seems like it's pretty unbalanced for NPC groups OR that might just be the group's so unbalanced I'm not sure what's going on.

Tactics...

Twilight and Chaos have mentioned in the past their being a bonus for groups... what I'd like to see....

A group bonus calculated from the leader's leadership and tactics skills and added as a bonus to attack and defense of every member of the party. The bonus has a multiplier depending on the number in the party. How that'd translate to guard I don't know... These things are always more complicated than you first think, but I'd really like to see this added, you get swarmed, you're REALLY in trouble.

Group Issues....

Okay, I've been trying for months now to keep groups of NPCs together. Sometimes better than others, always ending in failure. Here's some issues and where possible... solutions.

1) I keep losing them as I run/fly around the world.
Actually the reason I stopped creating NPC groups for a while. The solution here is actually simple. Trust 'em. trust yeoman, trust slave whatever. I assumed I was automatically trusting them because /they/ were trusting me. Trust them, you move slower, but you keep your group together.

2) Keeping them alive.
I ultimately have the most difficulty with this one. Main thing is an auto-succor or 'followers, go west' or 'hounds, stay here' if you're in for a big fight. Equipping the talking kind with shields and "followers, set combat mode to cautious" can go a long way too.

3) Plague.
Followers catch the plague and ultimately it's one of the biggest off-puts. There are solutions open to me for small groups, especially with lay hands. I've even given them masks, but still lost them. For larger groups laying on hands isn't that effective as the plague jumps from a sick one you've not healed yet to a healthy one you just have healed. Lysator has proposed breaking the group up into smaller units by sending them in different directions, but I haven't gotten around to trying this yet.

4) Link-death.
Reason for the loss of the Dream Team. I understand there's a mechanism for link-death (followed by disconnection) that means you lose your followers. For someone with a tricky internet connection like mine, a real pain in the butt reason to lose your level 10+ group of battle-hardened followers.

5) One life.
A solution I neglect too often to this are gems of preservation. Problem here is your level 12 yeoman is gonna come back as he was at the time you activated the gem on him. So best to update when possible. Also if you die and lose your stuff the gem isn't going to be helpful. It's nice they have one life as it maintains balance, but it can be frustrating when you've lost your level 30 drake you're not going to see anytime soon.

Sigh... And nice stuff...

Gwynned nears 26, but the group of yeomen and hounds have gone... damned plague.

In other news, this blog has inspired a change to list your blog on your 'whois' (actually still finger to me, I'm a creature of habit). A couple of blogs have materialised and Wilson wrote a very nice backstory. I like having things to read, so hopefully there'll be more stuff produced soon. I think Chaos doesn't agree with me on the former point, but is in complete agreement on the latter.

Yes well...

Interesting thing about keeping a blog is it's also a record of... mess ups for a polite way of putting it. Yeah, the 'Dark Captain' thing didn't last very long since it's not really me. I don't actually really regret the loss of Fledge, though I do miss her a bit, but I'd been playing the same setup since... July so I did feel the need for a change. Gwynned fits that nicely. I'm also /trying/ to keep a couple of yeomen together, a squire and a pack of hounds (just the normal variety). It's one of those things where I waste a lot of xp, there's no real 'benefit' from keeping these small groups together other than the fun of it. I've had a lot of groups and followers over the last seven months. My favorite of course being 'The Dream Team', a mixed bunch of yeomen rangers and a templar-ranger I had before the specialties thing. They were part of the group of the infamous 'Battle of Shadow Tower' and I didn't actually lose them to battle. They fell during my month long fight with my internet connection back in january. See... if you manage to login for a sec but can't quit, eventually with a linkdead disconnection you lose your followers :( That's how I lost the dream team.

So, building a new team, only yeomen and hounds, but a few are getting up into 8/9th level. This does mean avoiding PvP since that's where I tend to lose followers more than The XP Run. And Gwynned's on 25th, but nearing 26th... Templar's... the guys that tempt me to play with the Deck of Changes... MUST NOT LISTEN TO THE VOICES!!!!!!

Advancement automatic

One of those nice changes you just don't see coming. Be nice to see in operation (could take a week at my rate) and of course now perform elevate is irrelevant. Going to the guildmaster to advance is just something we've always done and keep doing for no other reason than we always have.

Random complaint: And this isn't for me, it's for the younger race knights. I really hate we're forced to spec in 3 weapons. Let's take an average human of 70 dex. Force specced in spear, pole arm and sword he'll pick only one of those (usually sword) and be left with maximum 5 spec in his weapon of choice. And no spec points for the other nice dex skills. Even raising that to 100 still leaves him with only 8 specs really to have in the dex category. I'm not against being made to spec in skills for your guild or association but I wish they'd be more useful. Splitting weapons specs over 3 skills seems like such a waste.

Captain of the Guard

FINALLY!

Actually hit the honor requirements a few days ago, but messing with law skill, warp effects and a few other things delayed that until tonight. Actually been a consuming passion for months now to the point I've done little but sit in Losthaven rather than adventure. So first there was the elation of completing the task and now there's a sense of 'now what?'

In other news, Fledge is gone :( Due to the warp stuff and the general run of bad luck I felt that need to reinvent Gav. I went through a dark phase and switched to raven ranger, but that didn't last long. Still sad over Fledge I couldn't just pick up a random pegasus and a horse would have been too close. So I've went with warhound. Actually wanted one of those for a while and discussed dual-ranger guilding (impossible I hear even with donations) to bond one. With Fledge gone for other reasons, seemed like an opportunity. So I found this monster of a hound by accident and named her Gwynned. Level 25 right off the bat, nice dog.

End of an Era?

So three days ago whilst raiding Shadow Tower I picked up a warpstone. And didn't notice. It warped Gav and messed with his stats in a way I didn't like. So to fix it? Warp again. Didn't like that either. Change sex with Kurd. Nope, even worse. So... well warp can improve stats right? So I began a warp campaign that finished last night and has SERIOUSLY messed over Gav.

At this point I thought of maybe ditching my favorite character, but seriously? That's not my style of play. This run of bad luck began almost a week ago the night Dyne arrived and it's gotten worse since to the point that Gav is seriously messed over, so I thought a dark re-imagining of everyone's favorite Prince was in order. And that's what I'm doing. He's still a knight, he's still a guard, he's still 'good'. But he's a whole lot darker, moodier and not as friendly as before. As well as the cosmetic changes, there's a few others too.

BUT IT'S GAV! I know, but I'm a character player and in stories characters suffer, change and grow. This is definitely a suffer and change period for my character and okay, he isn't the same anymore, but that's what makes stories interesting I think. I'm actually happy on a level with this makeover and I don't think I'm betraying the fundamental character which is great.

Developers...

I might complain about something, I might even not like a change and sayso. I might have a problem with a specific issue or I might notice lag is worse than usual...

However.

Developers as the name implies 'Develop' this game and we play it free of charge (remember donations are voluntary and we get something out of it anyway). So please please please treat Developers with respect and thank them occasionally for their work, new guild, association or area or whatever. It's not 'ass-kissing' either, these people have no power over you other than in a very limited part of your life, so a simple thank you isn't like sitting on your boss' lap and feeding him Tiramisu (happened to me once, Manuela wanted a day off or something and tried manipulating me).

And if you have a problem, try raising it in an intelligent and respectful way rather than bitching, whining or going emo.

My two cents on this issue.

Oh and Developers (ALL of you - 'cept Smizz). Thanks ;)

Knights and Dyne (Knight Wishlist)

Dyne's gone. Which means I can put those two single beds back to my usual double bed setup and I can smoke in my room without feeling guilty about it. AND I can get to spend some quality time with Chiara. She's getting dinner tonight in a restaurant for the favor of chaufeuring us around over the weekend.

Still, gonna miss having a fellow geek around, and it's nice to have finally met one of you crazy bastits. :).

OK, with Lysator tentatively off the Knight Project (or if he does get to work on it, with the rest of his plans, might be a while before he gets around to it, already been a year since I first heard of the rewrite). OK, so here's my wishlist based on the current Knight setup. ie. Not a rewrite, just additions and mods. For the record I loved Lysator's plan and still do.

OK.

1. Similiar to Rangers and mixed with Aligned/Guard I'd like to see three /consistent/ followers.
a) Warhorse. Similiar to ranger followers, all of these 'named' followers can regen after death, no other ranger-like benefits though. Unlike presently I'd like to see some 'requirements' before you're allowed access to followers. Level, rank and skills. So the warhorse is tied into having a certain skill in riding and mounted combat. Once you have him, he, like you can come back from death.
b) Captain. For leader types, he commands your yeomen and like the other named follower types he's consistent. Requirements would be leadership and tactics combinations. For the record other yeomen can die as per the current setup (though can still be kept).
c) Warhound. Leader of your pack. Not sure about what pre-reqs would be involved here. Hounds can be recruited from a kennel similiar to yeomen, your warhound is your pack leader and tied to your legend.

Leadership
Knights can only have as many hounds/yeomen ie. army as their leadership/tactics/logistics can limit them too, it currently has that system, but it should be expanded to hounds. It would give some real value to those skills. I like the idea of larger groups being given an attack and defense bonus. It would make town-killing solo almost impossible and encourage the recruitment of small armies and give Knights something at which they're actually particularly good at.

Turn Undead
Completely agree with Lysator this needs reworked. I don't like my ability to one-shot and would like to see it tied to a timer and lowered in power, but also see defenses weakened against it. With the current setup it's oneshot or useless, I'd like to see more variation.

That's all I can think of right now, whatcha think?

Dyne Weekend (and stuff)...

Well Dyne made it for the weekend as per my last post. We took him down to Siracusa (Syracuse in english) on Saturday, which he enjoyed. We showed him a 2500 year old greek theatre (and we sat in it) and a roman amphitheatre, I had to explain a lot of the history of the place to him, and because Chiara is a geologist she pointed out some of the seaweed and shellfish fossils from the miocene era in a lot of the stonework. He commented 'Now I can tell the guys why you're such a lore buff'.' Only downside to this trip was the tickets for the temple area had shot up and my pocket money for that particular day disappeared in one swell swoop. (Last time I was there was 3 EUR a head, this time 10 EUR or 30 for the three of us, so my 50 EUR spending money minus the gas and breakfast went to 3 bucks 50!) and it meant bumming gas money from Dyne to get home...

Today was a more relaxed day, we slept in (actually he's slept in every day, but today I managed to too) but we did go up the volcano in the afternoon. I kept Chiara amused by snowballing fights and dam-building across a little stream, whilst Dyne mugged some kid of their sled for a sleigh-ride down the volcano himself (this is becoming a common theme). If you imagine a high speed sleigh ride down a burning volcano, dodging lava and avalanche... death waiting for you on either side, either fire or ice... it'd be really really cool, but not that accurate. I'll stick to the inaccurate action-image myself.

I think he's impressed with the food too. As for my own impressions of Dyne? Nice guy, quiet, yes but nice to talk to, nice to have someone around here I can make mud-jokes with and he gets on with my animals and Chiara which is cool.

Game news:

I've not been around much this weekend but when I have... boy has it sucked. Lost my first group to Coma on Thursday, another group to Brak last night whilst trying to recover from the plague and a third group tonight whilst Dyne was calling home my hounds and Templar were decimated by the plague whilst idling in the forest. And I lost Ironman to the deck of changes... So that's both my nice talents gone to that particular game after losing Planeswalker months ago.

You pays your money you takes your chances. But I really really hate the plague, the game lately seems to be about plague and plague avoidance more than anything else which I find frustrating and that's from a player who himself doesn't worry about it for himself to much and has the ability to cure himself and his followers. I wonder what other people think of the plague? I have no problem with it being there, but should it be the dominating factor of the game? I think not.

And Dyne arrives safe and sound...

After getting lost...

I actually missed half an hour of class (which is not so good when you're the teacher, people tend to notice) trying to find him before giving up. (I still don't know where he ended up). But he ambushed a passing italian, stole her cell phone (after his own money ran out) and we managed to arrange a rendesvouz. 2 and a half hours after he hit Catania, my girlfriend and I showed up in the car, took him for a sandwich and then home.

Nice chat, and he's sleeping with my cat, now we know the origins of the Sekh.

And he's gonna kill me for this in the morning.

Camelot Defense

Most of my group were wiped out last night.

I defended Camelot from Coma I think, not something I usually do. I was just there and couldn't turn my back on Arthur. I drove Coma back, but I was afk for a bit after. Looked back at the screen to see a nasty arrow attack in it's final stages. Every member of my group but for me and Fledge were dead. Thankfully there were two clerics on hand to raise some of my followers back, including my squire, yeoman, templar and a couple of my hounds. The drake and two of my better dogs (Tess and Randy) were amongst the casualties though :( My latest knight wish... knight war hounds. I don't know why, I just get these strange desires from time to time.

That'll teach me.

Perform Elevate

A new ability for my favorite guild the knights. In few words it allows higher level knights to promote lower level knights in the field (including their NPC squires). The first thing that sprung into my head was the image of some poor battle weary lad being knighted after the field of battle. Very cool.

Thanks Chaos

Deck of Changes

Oops.

Logged in from the gf's last night for an hour or so, decided to draw some cards, so of course the first I drew was the one that sent me to the stone cell. No escape...

Slow

I'll be pretty slow over the next week or so. Flatmate's back, so some quality time with the girlfriend before Dyne arrives. Then five days of showing Dyne around Catania though I'm sure we'll check in from time to time. Try to keep the blog updated though.

If you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen...

Came up again last night. It's an attitude I find... almost insulting.

We're a rude bunch, if you can't handle it, don't play our game...

Being newbie friendly in my opinion isn't a bad thing. At the very basic: courtesy and helpfulness to new players goes a long way. Jumping into the game to find some insults and bad language can be off-putting, even if you do roll that way yourself, you might not grasp it's humor right off the bat.

I suggested last night that OOC became an optional channel rather than a default. The newbie channel serves for a new player and despite what I said earlier, players on that channel tend to know the rules and ARE helpful and courteous on the new player's channel. Maybe after level 5 or something a new player gets a 'You can now add OOC, a general channel which is non-PG, you might find foul language etc' or whatever.

On another newbie friendly note outside the realm of courtesy, a newbie tutorial is badly needed to ease new players into the game. It should be optional of course, but a lot of people like to have their hands held through those first steps.

In other news, Gav's original hound group is down to 2. I've added a Knight Templar to the mix too.

The Dev Team and the Playerbase

Honestly...

I think the community on Lostsouls is a little more 'rough and tumble' than a lot of places I've hung out. But that's good :) I enjoy the atmosphere and conversations I have, whether it's theme stuff with Chaos, content stuff with Elronuan or Erebus, talking with Brak about anything, or insulting 'Smizzmar's Mom' or any of the other players I come into regular contact with.

Our playerbase is small and we tend to know each other pretty well, in a 'sitting at the bar having a beer' sort of knowing, tending to be not too deep, more shooting the breeze. I miss the days where we had 40+ players online regularly a little, but I enjoy the small community scene too, though I can understand why it can be off-putting to new players. However I've seen more than a few of these new guys fit right in.

It's a nice group and pretty close knit. And if you're a new player, it won't take long to get in on that community spirit too, they're a pretty accepting bunch.

Idle-following Tredwel

Hmm.... Seems I've angered other guards, which probably means Killingsworth since he's the only other one on I ever see.

Something I was guilty of from time to time, mainly through not logging out or falling asleep. It tends not to happen so much these days due to the extreme danger of doing so. I do however spend a lot of time in LH, to the point where I'm not levelling much. Because I spend so much time in Losthaven just sitting waiting for the attack it doesn't mean I'm idle. I might be watching a movie or reading something or blogging, but the screen is active in front of me. But I tend not to idle-follow. As for following Tredwel? Makes sense, too often by the time I arrive at a scene, Tredwel and the guards have either taken care of it or been smooshed.

As for why I spend so much time in LH? I want to make Captain and I've defended LH since even before there was a ranking system or rewards for doing so, ask Erebus.

In other news, the followers I picked up last night are coming along nicely. A pack of hounds (not the warhounds I was told I could pick up from Camelot, but I can't find those :( ...) and a yeoman. I've decided to forego the squire. a) Having to run back to Camelot every half an area to get him to level is a pain in the butt and b) I tend to lose them a lot anyway. Hounds range from levels 6-8 and the yeoman is at 9 (when he levels).

The Guards

The Guards are an association set up by Erebus to be a group of PCs and NPCs who defend the 'newbie' town of Losthaven. It has a bad habit of being attacked by NPCs and higher level PCs. I love the Guards. It's single-handedly done more to attract a form of RP and rivalry than any other guild or association I've seen. Some of Losthaven's defenders (including myself) take the role pretty seriously. And some of those who attack the city take it pretty seriously too.

I've been a little annoyed lately that the attackers all tend to be MUCH higher level than the defenders, so there's little we can do to stop them. And no, not just talking about you Brak ;). Another tactic is the deployment of discord, a chaotic magick used to make everyone in the room fight. It's annoying because there's nothing we can do to stop it and it means the PCs (well usually me) are then banned from the city until the next reboot, and worse still lose 'honor' for the inevitable slaying of guardsmen that occurs.

Yes it's annoying but I won't move for discord being removed or anything. And I think for those of chaotic alignment it's probably one of the few occasions they can use such a spell effectively and probably a lot of fun for people on that side of the fence. Just wish that something could be done that would mean we're not sitting outside the city for two days.

First Thoughts....

OK, this blog is about my OOC thoughts on the development of the mud Lost Souls. Lately there's been a lot of changes, some disagreements and agreements. Please note before we go any further that on the whole I agree with 99 percent of the content and changes and appreciate the hard work and dedication the development team show.

The blog will keep you informed about the progress and thoughts about my main character Gavadel. It should be noted I love this guy, but as I get bored easily by 'The Run' which is running around killing stuff for XP, my progress in his levels are extremely slow for his age. Not something I worry about too much.

Lost Souls is a fantasy based mud, originally a mish-mash of various themes from Tolkien to the DC Universe, though the lead developer Chaos has shown a desire to move away from that and despite being inspired by various themes he's moving towards an original themed MUD. It has a complex skills system and currently experience, levels and whatnot are based on killing NPCs mainly though there is a desire amongst the development team to move away from that. You can get more about Lost Souls from the wiki at http://www.lostsouls.org/wiki or the main website at: http://lostsouls.org. Or you can drop by at lostsouls.org 23.

This isn't a bitch blog either though I'm sure there'll be times I disagree with some of the changes, implementations or content. It's an honest commentary, so if I love something I'll yell about it, if I don't. I won't.