Thoughts on Roleplaying and PK

Posted on September 29, 2009September 6, 2019 by samakhulis

Over the recent months, I’ve noticed an increased amount of PK, especially in my area of allegiance. Of course, it is acceptable and allows for a bigger player-base. However, it seems as though much of the PK that occurs is due to spite and grudges. None of it, in my opinion, is roleplayed very well. As I’ve been working on my own MUSH, I read through the PennMUSH developers’ writings on roleplay, factions and things. And I have to say that they brought up some very good points.

From what I see, and from what I perceive, those factions specifically aligned against my own seem to know when our defenses are low and make gigantic and harmful attacks at those times. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s how it seems to be. Javelin, or was it Raevenos, or someone else..I don’t remember, said that factions and roleplaying should be best brought together with agreements by faction leaders. It seems a little backward from the way things are, and I admit that true underhanded playing adds a LOT that you would not have with roleplaying agreements. But the idea was this: HL1 gets together with HL2. House1 is enemied to House2. HL1 says to HL2, “I want to try a roleplay where our houses fight it out and do such and such” and HL2 says, “Okay..but make sure you do it around this time, because my members will be around then and you won’t have an unfair advantage.” And so it goes on and the house leaders make some sort of arrangement.

I really like this idea, simply because I’m horrible at PK. And it seems more enjoyable to me and I’m sure to others like me. I mean, I’m not into PK. I’m into roleplaying and monster-hunting. If I experience an unexpected and unfair attack by an enemy faction, well, it pretty well depresses me for days on end, because I can’t stand how I’m not that good at doing what I’m supposed to be good at doing (specifically DEFENDING Nature). So this idea of agreed roleplay between factions seems like a very nice idea.

Of course, I know most people will disagree with me, and even -I- might disagree with me, because, like I said before, underhanded and unannounced roleplay is so much more exciting than a planned out war.

Okay. I’m done! And it’s late. And I’m tired. And I don’t want to wait for the Fairy Garden to shut itself down (which it now does at 3:00am EST).

9-28-09

Posted on August 28, 2009September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Oh..my. So, it looks as if I’m finally being ‘discovered’ here. Nixxe just found it and went crazy..well, I don’t know if CRAZY is the right word, but it was sure funny. So that makes four or five people now that have commented at all…maybe more see it.

So there’s this staircase in Pandora’s temple. And the railing disappears right up there at the top. And I discovered you can jump off..but it’s not very nice when you jump off. I was going to say something, but then I figured I’d get in trouble for saying anything AGAINST Her, so I didn’t. But this isn’t THERE, is it? I hope not. Because Mischief is trouble…and when you can’t get rescued because of mischievous kill rooms, well, praying is a HUGE hit on one’s experience. So I’ve been spending the last three months trying to get back up to where I WAS in my level. How annoying. How perfectly annoying. Still..it DID do some good because I’ve made about 25000 gold out of it all, which is really really nice.

I’ve been getting ideas about updating my affliction list. There were a few comments as to how nice it is to have. But I haven’t touched that thing for a VERY long time. So I’m not sure..it’s been so long in fact, that I’m not sure I can get everything there is to get.

8-2-09

Posted on August 2, 2009September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Okay..for a special request from Alynia who is the second person to discover this thing and actually TELL me, I’m posting.

Now to get back in the mood…I was writing these in first person, was I not? I think so. So I will.

Things have been quiet. I got HR5 in the Druids, which is the BEST! Also, Alynia, a long-time friend of mine has come to stay permanently at my house as a sort of house-keeper you might call it (thanks for the inspiration, Alynia. I almost forgot this blog existed!).

So I made HR5, Level 81 and reached 2 million sovereigns in my bank account. What else? Not much. A huge credit and crown sale just started and I can’t do anything because my soul is penniless.

It’s late, and I’m tired..almost a zombie..and I must get going. Hopefully I’ll remember this thing a little more so I can get it updated more often than not.

Take care and sweet dreams (which reminds me.. I also joined Valnurana’s pre-Order – The Emnia Ecstasia).

-Samakhulis Moonflair

P.S. Where’d the Moonflair come from? I was bloodlined to Aohara, if you didn’t already know.

10-24-08

Posted on October 24, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

I freaked myself out! While searching on lore about the Ka’ahlen Swamp in Xhaiden Dale, I saw my name pop up on a Google search! Well, I’m one to try and follow directions and not give away quest solutions, so I went in to the link to see what I had given away. Turns out it was just a hint that the quest described existed. Whew!

Anyway, big news!! I’ve killed my first grizzly! I’m so excited! Actually, they aren’t that bad, except when they take a bite of your head. Now THAT hurts. I’ll have to go back in the logs to see how much one of those types of attacks hit for. I don’t quite remember. But it was something around 600-800hp. A lot when they’ve already worn you down to 1200hp total. And they’re a little quicker than you might expect. Probably 110-120% faster than I am at regaining balance as an Atavian. So they can hit two times to my one every once in a while.

Eww…it’s almost Mayaween (obviously to correspond with Oct. 31) and there is festivity decor to be sold in New Thera. Well, I bought a jack-o-lantern and a scarecrow for my grove. Well, the scarecrow is going to last through the holiday, but the pumpkin is only good for 5 days, meaning that it will decay before the actual holiday rolls around. So I’ll have to buy another. Anyway, I was just resting to regain endurance here while typing this out and I saw the jack-o-lantern grin dark and wickedly. Even though it didn’t move. Freaky. I suppose waiting around in one room for a long time will cause things like that to happen.

Okay, update – I turned 31 about 6 months ago, and I’m on level 75 (Almighty) and 55% through it. Wow! I may hit 80 pretty soon here, in which case I will gain stability while flying! I can’t wait. And I’m 1606 lessons in to Groves, which means I have 130 left! I’ve never gotten this far in a skill before. I haven’t gotten my hypercure yet, but it’s coming soon. I mean, 8.5 lessons per regular credit = 16 credits to trans in groves, with a few lessons left over! Woo! And I can probably get 2 credits per day if it is a good day, and one if it is slow. And on top of THAT, there’s October’s lesson bonus of one lesson per credit-lesson conversion, meaning that each unbound credit is worth 9.5 lessons! Which doing the math again, comes out to 14 credits instead of 16! A HUGE savings of 2 credits worth. Haha.

I’m thinking…I have a spreadsheet I use to budget my Achaean bank account. Maybe I should attach that somehow. Put it on a public drive somewhere or something. It’s really useful, actually. I have categories for lesson credits, artefact credits, housing, credit sales, mounts and general spending. Plus there are a few columns to allocate where free or unallocated credits will go (if I win or buy one not from either the housing, lessons or artefact funds). It’s not perfect, but it’s really quite useful, as I know that I can’t just pull all the gold from my bank account and spend it frivilously on lessons. I used to, and I still don’t have any artefacts. Of course, the way to do artefacts is to buy them online, but I don’t want to do that just yet. I don’t have enough stupidity to waste real money on that sort of thing.

Okay. I think this is getting long enough. Ta-ta for now!

10-19-08

Posted on October 19, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Here, I’ve done it again! It seems I can never keep on top of this thing. But oh well. Okay, so I was wondering how I was doing blog-wise. I read a help file on questing a few weeks ago and found that publishing answers and guides to quests is a huge violation and can result in permanent kicking from the entire game. Yikes! So I went through all of my posts and it seems that I’m alright. I mean, I could be getting pretty close to the line by saying which denizen gives gold and such, but I haven’t actually given any information on how to get the gold, so we’re good there.

On another note, all’s going well. For starters, I found a hidden village south of the Muurn river valley about 2 months ago. Can’t quite remember what it’s called, but it sure was interesting. Then I was taken to the bottom of Manara Burrow, into a hidden tunnel and down into a lava-filled place. Not sure what THAT was called either, but I at least died there.

Progress note: I’ve almost transed in Groves. I’m so excited. I gained my golem probably a week ago and just received harmonic dampening about 2 days ago. Now all I have left is hypercure and portability and I’ll be transed! Less than 50% left in the current skill level. As for meta, I’ve gotten my jaguar, which has been REALLY nice, since now everything dies in about 2/3 as many hits.

Apart from the war and my progress, not a lot is happening, so I’ll hang it up here.

Oh, that’s level 74 I think. Things are starting to slow down experience-wise.

6-24-08

Posted on June 24, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Wow…it seems I’ve forgotten about this for a while. Well, not all that long, compared to other things I forget. But anyway, I’ll do my best to bring you up to date.

So I’ve been hanging out, getting gold and getting stronger too. I found a new place for gold, only it’s a bit higher level than most. You will note that I have mentioned Actar as being good for fresh-out-of-newbie-schoolers. Well, there’s another that I would say is good for those who are fairly strong, and can take out a low-hitting Extrodinary Power denizen.

It turns out that the strongest I can take is probably the wolves and boars in the Black Forest. These are classified as the “Appears to be Extraordinarily Strong” types and I have died frequently to them in the last few months. Most people equate your strength with your level, but I have found that this is not always the case. Defences and experience in certain skills affect your percentage strength also. I mean, I figure a good solid experience-gain denizen should be easy to kill, but not too easy. It should not hit too hard and yet, if it doesn’t hit hard enough, you will not gain much. I have found that most Extraordinarily Strong denizens will hit, and I can hold out just long enough to kill them, but they slowly wear on my health and more often than not I have to retreat in order to regain health. The wolves in Black Forest are this way.

Anyway…back to the place. It’s the island of Ulangi. If you’ve been around a while, you know about it, not only because it’s there, but because IronRealms has included a map with it. So here it is: Ulangi. Very nice for making gold. It includes some rather strong buck deer, and extraordinarily strong moose. Both of these have extremely high gold return, which I really like. They amount to about 8 Actar goats each (a little more than 600 gold). And there are quite a few, so you will get a credit’s worth of gold in no time. Plus there are a few quests that you can discover that have very high return (I just completed the Pirate Treasure one).

So I’ve been hanging out there. In fact, I have my soul “bookmarked” there for when I return because too many people were hanging out and making all the gold in the world, while I struggled to find any serious game to hunt (they hogged it all first).

Another trick I just came up with…that is Grove Vigour. It boosts your health about a third per hit. Very nice. I didn’t remember it and because of it I’ve died I don’t know how many times in my grove when I could have sacrificed a hit on the denizen for a Vigour boost. Unfortunately, last time I tried it, I almost died, so it still didn’t do much good. I think the problem is that I’m not used to using it. I’ll have to practice on them wolves.

I’ve been at level 62 for the past 3 months and can’t seem to get further. I’m hovering at 63 and for some reason keep dying to stuff and dropping below. This happened at least three times just this month. Fortunately I used those 5 lessons before I died the last time, so I had my abilities heightened before I died.

More later…because I can’t think of anything else.

One more thing I forgot…next month is my birthday. I’ll be turning 22 I think!

6-10-08

Posted on June 10, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Wow, I’ve been out of the loop for a few months. Probably just trying to get something actually interesting to talk about. Which I did! Our dear Rinji got engaged this month! Actually it was even on the New Year. And who’s the lucky lady? Why, it’s Miss Linelle! Congratulations to them both! (Oh, and Happy New Year!)

On a different note, before the festivities and a few months ago, I got to kill my first wolf in the Black Forest! I’m so excited. Of course, I had to retreat to heal about five times, because he hit hard and my health elixer could not keep up. But I did it, and gained a bit of experience (more than the usual quarter percent).

A few of you, and others from different houses, have been asking about quests after the newbie area. Well, there are many, many places you can go. From fresh out of newbie training, a good money-maker is the valley of Actar. Experience can be gained there as well as in the Great Rock and the Enverin Marsh. If I’m not busy, you can send me an in-game tell, and I’ll see if I can help you out.

Of course there’s always the little animals like the jarbo and gecko lizard in the Mohjave Desert, as well as rabbits, groundhogs and what not everywhere else. The big advice you will get from anyone is PROBE THE CREATURE before attacking. Recall my previous post showing levels of Denizen strength and their respective descriptions. Figure out what you can handle and stick to that strength until you advance in the circles. Be aware that not all denizens who look “weak and feeble” will have the same attack scheme. A rattlesnake is rather weak, but venomous. Some denizens web in order to trap you so you can’t move. Others hit rather hard but will die within a couple of hits, while others don’t hit that hard but, for some reason, keep on living.

All in all, experiment and if you are getting low in health, get away. Don’t live by the old hunting saying of “put it out of its misery.” Don’t feel sorry for it. Remember that if you leave for a long while, it will go to sleep to regenerate its health, just like you do, and will be chipper and ready for the second round in a few minutes. And if you die, just remember that the Great Mother Maya is waiting for you.

Another idea from leaving the Newbies: if you have not already done so, you can work on your tasks. No doubt you have already seen some, as catching butterflies from Vellis and buying vials from Seasone will accomplish those respective tasks. There are some tougher ones though. You can get hints by looking at TASK DETAILS. Some fun ones for druids are the fire drill and the scavenger hunt tasks.

So here’s the rest of the story…late into the month, I attended an anti-theft class. Hopefully I’ll be able to deter any more attempts at this sort of thing, as I have been targetted by a few others lately. I won’t tell my secrets, as that will give them strategy on how to circumvent them. Heh. But I will say this. It’s going to be harder from here out.

Samakhulis of the Druids

Tag: bashing