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).

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.

7-28-08

Posted on July 28, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Sheesh, seems like it’s been forever! Well, I’ll bring it up to date. I’ve started my patrol path, which means I’m patrolling one of each of the different kinds of terrains in Achaea. Just today, I did my yearly patrol of the Black Forest. In fact, let me quick do something while I’m thinking of it.

Okay, I’m back! I just scanned my hand-drawn map of the Black Forest, with my reference designators on it (personal room numbers). At least I’ll be able to point to this image if anyone asks what I mean when I say “Room 38 change to blah.” That’s the idea!

That’s it for now. Not much else, except I did start a Facebook in order to get that extra 25% XP Gain when I level up (and I am now at 70 (woot)). I probably won’t use the Facebook thing, since I think that sort of thing is dumb, but I DO like the gain, so I’ll just let it sit, like the Pentad suggests if you don’t like Facebook and now I’m rambling so I’d better shut up!

Anyhow, enjoy the map…oh yeah, I’d better at least upload and give reference here! 🙂

Stupid computer…I just scanned the map, and it turned out to be 11×17 600dpi, which essentially came to 10200×6000 px. Well, I’m resizing to somewhere around 1000px high, like a photo, and the resize hit the memory like crazy. In fact everything else has been pushed to the bottom, and my pagefile is having a real time of it. Hopefully it’ll finish soon. It’s been already 5 minutes at least…….okay!! Now it’s done! Here we go:

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.

Wed. June 4, 2008 – Denizen Afflictions List Part 1

Posted on June 4, 2008September 5, 2019 by samakhulis

Denizen Afflictions List Part 1

Here is a list I’ve been working on that puts together some specific Denizens and their afflictions that they can hit you with:

Minia:
Imp – None
Pixie – None
Hellcat – None
Pygmy – None
Kobold – None

Actar Valley:
Goat – None
Rabbit – None
Crow – Runs away
Deer – None
War Goat – None
Cyclops – None
Halfling – None
Fish – None
Ghost – None
Owl – None

Savannah:
Hare – None
Gour – Unknown

Mohjave Desert:
Rattlesnake – None (Can Flay)
Sidewinder – None (Can Flay)
Hyena – None
Monitor Lizard – None
Gecko Lizard – Unknown (too weak and dies after first hit)
Jarbo – None
Coyote – None
Unformed Thing – Stun (may also have venom)
Scorpion – Paralyse, Stupidity (yellow are aggressive)

Great Rock:
Stirge – None
Cerberus – None
Cultist – None
Bearnath – Shield
Beastlord – Shield
Ophidians – Loki (can flay Sileris)
Beetle – Unknown
Arinas – Unknown
Kasha – Unknown
Lotash – Unknown
Slug – Electricity (no effect, but strong)

Black Forest:
Boar – Runs away
Wolf – None
Grizzly – Equilibrium strip
Woodsnake – Curare (following command not followed) and Epilepsy
Fisher – None; causes a lot of bleeding

Aalen:
Fox – None
Rabbit – None
Basilisk – Paralysis
Grizzly – Equilibrium Strip
Black Bear – Leg Break

Western Vashnars:
Sheep – None
Mt. Lion – None

Dun Valley:
Opossum – None
Frog – None
Crab – None
Lion – None
Snake – None
Gorilla – None
Hippo – Stun
Elephant – Stun
Elephant – Stun
Soul – Freezing
Wight – None
Warthog – None
Rat – Venom
Beetle – None
Water Strider – Venom
Mud Crab – None
Swamp Wyvern – Flame
Crocodile – None
Parrot – None
Jaguar – None
Piranha – None

Dun Fortress:
Ogre – None
Orc – None
Xulu (Orc Witchdoctor) – Flame
Ogre Mage – Freezing
Water Snake (Sewer) – Unaffecting venom (only really hard health hit)

Zanzibaar Island:
Cobra – Loki, Paralysis due to hypnotism

Green Lake:
Bear – None
Python – None
Fox – Runs away
Mosquito – Lose Footing
Horned Toad – Lose Footing
Clam – None
Eel – None
Pelican – Lose Footing
Flies – None
Qurnok – DSTAB Loki
Muskrat – Loki (got me with Voyria)
Troll – Unknown
Crocodile – None
Frog – None
Catfish – None

Siroccian Mountains:
Wolverine – None
Skunk – Stink
Treesnake – Voyria
Dwarves – None
Orcs – None

Water:
Salmon – Blindness
Oyster – Blindness
Carp – None

North Ithmia:
Lamassou – None
Tamarin – None
Buckawn – None

East Ithmia:
White Elk – None

Manara:
Gnoll – None
Mingruk – None

Mesmerium:
Dream Horror – Web, Venom (can flay)

Mhaldor Isle:
Leviathan – Doesn’t need any tricks.
Lycopod – Lose Footing, Web

Isle of Harae:
Wasp – Unknown, VERY nasty

Gypsy Village and Enverren Marsh:
Gypsy – Unknown
Mosquito – None
Slugfish – None
Rat – None
Glubber – None
Salamandrin – Venom (cannot flay)
Glubbian – Unknown
Enverren – Unknown
Bubblefish – Stun

Forestwatch:
Slugbeast – Flame, Lose Footing, Web
Buckawn – None
Buckawn Mage – Freezing
Zombie – None

Xhaiden Dale:
Weasel – None
Yak – Loose Footing, Crushes Limbs
Rajamala Villager – Unknown
Coyote – NoneMole – None
Ishkynd Worm – Venom, Breaks Legs (can result in lost footing)
Water Strider – Flame from Acid, Blindness
Crane – None
Caribou – Loose Footing
Veshina – Cold

Ulangi/Mysia:
Balai – Freezing
Moose – Lose Footing
Stag – Lose Footing
Fawn – Flees
Doe – Flees
Bobcat – None
Buck – None
Balai – Frost
Drunken Pirate – None
Jarvace – Chases
Oyster – Blindness

Magma Caverns:
Beetle – Blackout
Wyrm – Flame
Ancient Wyrm – Deafness, defoot
Leech – Flame (I think)
Nuskuwen – None
Spindly Fire Centipede thingy – Flame
Wyrm Lord – Holocaust super-hit (3000+ health)
Whelp – None

Southern Vashnars:
Drake – Freeze
Grizzly – Equilibrium Strip
Manticore – None (Rear Cave Manticores are VERY hard-hitting)

Here is a list of the denizen probe descriptions in descending strength.
Almost glows with nearly god-like power
Does not even register your presence as a threat
Exudes an aura of overwhelming power
Has an air of extreme strength
Looks to be crushingly strong
Appears to be extraordinarily strong*
Is quite powerful
Is not one to be trifled with
Seems strong and confident
Exudes a quiet confidence
Seems to be unafraid
Appears to lack strength
Does not look particularly dangerous
Is a humble-looking creature
Looks relatively helpless
Looks weak and feeble

Note: as the Help scroll says, these descriptions are absolute. They are not based off of your current strength. They will be the same for everyone.

So, at Level 59, being a 20-year-old Druid with a Hyena Morph and a flailed quarterstaff, I have found that I can take out the White Elk of the Eastern Ithmian Forest, which registers as a Strong and Confident Denizen. I tried a Black Lamassou of North Ithmia, but she brought me down into the red at Not One to be Trifled With. I have a feeling that some Denizens hit harder than others, even if they have the same strength.

Samakhulis of the Druids

Tag: strength