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Messages - Crunch
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101
« on: February 08, 2006, 12:31:09 pm »
Please reserve tickets 85, 67, 03, 36, and 43 for Esimon (5 total). If any of these numbers are taken, please just substitute another available number.
102
« on: February 08, 2006, 10:15:01 am »
I am interested. I will look for you in game.
Esimon
103
« on: February 06, 2006, 02:12:40 pm »
I haven't tried using tenser's while buffed to the max, but I can see the point made above about the power of repeatedly casting this spell. Since I'm an evoker, which by the way has seemed an extremely poor choice for this world, I can't use summons to bail me out when I get in too deep. I try to have one of these spells in my hip pocket to get out of a bad situation and it has often worked for that. I've also used it when the party I'm with is in danger of getting overrun by creatures with magic resistance. I would hate to see the spell go away entirely, but it might not be too bad for it to be limited to maybe 2 or 3 castings per 24 hour period.
I haven't really spent much time at all on Xantril, but based on my limited experience thus far fighting creatures with magic resistance, I probably would be useless for anything but buffing without this spell. If I had my feats to do over again, I might be able to find room for the spell penetration feet, but as it is I usually can't seem to get spells through even on fairly weak demons. This seems to be one of the few ways that a mage can contribute directly to fight against creatures with magic resistance.
104
« on: February 06, 2006, 12:45:01 pm »
I think it would help if we defined soloing and had a rule similar to the camping rule for soloing. At some level I think a character should be able to get resources by himself. (e.g. It seems obvious to me that my 14th level fighter should be allowed to get copper by himself. He can also easily get platinum by himself in the bottom of haven and I think this is probably OK). My 15th level mage can get fire opals by himself. Is that OK? I really am not sure on that one.
Perhaps soloing might be defined by xp per creature. (i.e. if you get 1 xp per creature it seems obvious that you are only getting resources. The giants are closer to 200 xp apiece so they do give pretty good xp) Any thoughts?
105
« on: February 05, 2006, 12:33:42 pm »
Another thing to remember regarding soloing mages here recently is that DT's have been turned off for a while. I certainly have done a lot more soloing recently as a result and I imagine a lot of others have too. I have a died a lot of times and learned a lot more about what works and what doesn't against various creatures. I think if you look back through many of the fast leveling soloing mages of the past you will find that many if not most ended up in DT trouble. I think the system has generally worked well that way. I have found that soloing as a mage I go very rapidly from complete controll to death. Conversely when I play my fighter, I can note that hitpoints are disappearing too fast and often get clear without dying.
Another idea. If at least some of the spawns included a chance of some other monsters (e.g. a 15% chance that forest of mist spawns included spell casting giants) the tailored buffs for each spawn wouldn't be guaranteed to work. It really isn't that realistic that when buffing up for a fight, we always know whether we will need elemental protection or not.
One final note, the power of a higher level mage is matched by the weakness of a low level mage. A strong breeze is about all it takes to kill a mage through his first 5 levels. It seems like most of the previous adjustments have weakened the low level mage as much or more than the high level mage. Please keep this in mind when making your adjustments. I think many players get so frustrated with low level mages that they either quit playing them before they become effective, or compensate by excessive power play when they get to a decent level
106
« on: February 05, 2006, 01:50:26 am »
I have used tenser's recently to good effect, but I really don't think that tenser's by itself is that much of a problem. I think what you are seeing is that around 11th/12th level, a mage/sorceror finally has enough cash to flesh out his/her spell book or in the case of the sorceror finally has enough known spells to come up with some good spell combinations. Also, the arcane caster's spell duration now covers a full rest period so that a buff/rest/buff cycle becomes much more realistic.
I think that some other tactics, most noteably the darkness/ultravision tactic, are far more unbalancing.
I agree with the assessment that many arcane casters are driven to transformation and hit me and you'll get hurt type tactics (e.g. acid sheeth) by the weakness of the offensive spells. It takes a huge number of elemental attacks to kill anything and most of the hold or instant death spells will quite frequently be saved against by the target. I find the lost spells from tenser's to be a major pain in planning my rest periods so that I fully reset my spells, otherwise I don't get them back.
The other thing about mages is that they remain quite fragile even at mid-levels when not prepared. Unless you spend some time buffing, you can easily be killed by a single misclick when sneaking around Mistone doing invisible resource gathering.
The most efficient use of a mage seems to be to get together with a bunch of fighters, stoneskin them, flame their weapons, cast other appropriate protections and then haste them and stand back and watch them fight. It is efficient, but not very rewarding. It would be nice to see my spells do more damage than a critical hit from the fighters, but it almost never happens. So, a fireball becomes a convenient way to bring the bad guys into an ambush by the fighters, but doesn't really harm them that much.
My experience at low levels was that I lived by the charity of the fighters who allowed me to party with them. I could make them invisible in a pinch to recover graves and things like that, but my spells didn't last long enough to have any significant effect.
In closing, I would like to note that many or even most of the front line fighters in the quests I've seen or discussed with others who participated have been druids or clerics. At the high levels, fighters seem to be the most under-represented class. Of the fighter types I have seen at high levels, almost all have been either rangers or paladins.
107
« on: January 06, 2006, 03:09:00 pm »
So that is where this journal went. Stuck in with my old hickory scrolls. No wonder I haven't seen it in a while. It's been years since I last wrote here and so much has happened.
I have achieved successes in tailoring that I could only dream of when I started this journal. Lion bags have become tedious to make. I still remember when I started tailoring. I made the decision while soaking in a warm tub to ease my aching shoulders. My pack always seemed so terribly heavy and scribing required so many different little components. Someone mentioned that if I had cougar bags my pack would be lighter. I half heartedly started collecting cotton. Then, when someone showed me a lion bag, I got serious. Hundreds of dire badgers and dire boar later I finally made my first lion bag. A few months ago I tried something really new, a malar bag. I knew I was stretching myself a bit, but I decided to try. At first I thought I had suceeded, but as soon as I tried to fill it a rip developed. Somehow I missed coating one stretch of a seam with enchanting oil. That was all it took to ruin the whole thing. Kavil tells me we have enough hides now to try again. So far I haven't worked up the courage to try again. So much effort collecting the hides, not to mention curing them, and such small mistakes result in an expensive pile of garbage.
I have discovered that the paths in my brain are too firmly set to ever learn how to conjure. As I have watched Kavil's summons hold back hordes of nasty creatures while he incenerates them, I often reflect on the errors of my youth. If only I could tell my younger self, don't give up conjuration, it is vital to your safety. I have learned how to bring forth a helmed horror for a short time. It is an impressive tool, but doesn't last long enough to do what Kavil's summons do for him. I have discovered the incantation to bring unlife to a corpse, but I still find that too distasteful and disrespectful of life to use. I will not foreswear all necromancy, it is part of the weave after all, but bringing the dead back to unlife is repulsive to me.
108
« on: January 03, 2006, 05:45:00 pm »
Thanks Orth. Thought that might be the case.
109
« on: December 21, 2005, 10:58:00 pm »
I have a theory as to how Riley may have, inadvertently, caused the PK. He told me he had just cast deafening clang on his weapon. I know that wizards have to be careful casting into a melee because spells such as magic missile can just as easily be targeted on a friend as an enemy. Was what he perceived as an attack enhanced by deafening clang actually treated as a magical attack? After the intitial (magical?) attack I would expect the AI to continue his attacks with sword until told otherwise or target is dead with no available cleave target.
This is just a theory in that I have never cast paladin spells. *mutters under his breath* Actually I've always wondered about the wisdom of letting muscle bound people with swords cast any spells.
110
« on: November 30, 2005, 10:19:00 am »
If you notice the new daisies in serpent mountain on the far side of the hill from black hills, you have seen the final resting spot for Yar. (cool cut scene, but not worth the price of admission). Happened last weekend. Dorax is at 9 DT's and has reduced his play time accordingly. Yar had been on light duty for quite a while after getting in 9th. It's a dangerous world sometimes. We had been collecting silver, fire opals, dire bear and so on for quite a while. When it is 1100 at night and you all say "sure, why not bugbears" you sometimes wish you could rethink that after a good night's sleep. I'm sure Yar will be posting more on this.
111
« on: November 29, 2005, 03:43:00 pm »
I will buy the horrid wilting for 25,000. Please contact me. I will be looking for you.
Esimon Clearpeak
112
« on: November 23, 2005, 05:37:00 pm »
Having started playing here with Rawkwin and adjusting when he quit, I have a good appreciation of the value of clerics. It took us a long time to adust to adventuring without a cleric, but with the right buffs from a wizard/sorcerer, things still go ok.
That said, there are areas where my group still doesn't go, mainly due to death magic. Higher level wizards can survive due to shadow shield, but the fighters are at too much risk. It is part of what I find interesting in the game. The adjustment was very painful at first, but I've learned far more since Rawkwin left than I ever did while he was playing. Evolution in action I guess.
113
« on: November 17, 2005, 05:50:00 pm »
As far as I can tell the spell component may as well be a box of enchanted emeralds. Why would anyone ever use this spell? It seems completely useless do to the need to use it on your own race. Maybe some drow comedian would find it helpful, but I've never seen it used.
114
« on: November 16, 2005, 04:42:00 pm »
Was this changed in the update on the 11th? I didn't see it in the list of changes.
Thanks
115
« on: November 11, 2005, 03:12:00 am »
I can vouch for the griffons not always causing death tokens. When Esi was around 5th through 7th level wizard, a strong breeze would kill him. The griffons ate him several times with no tokens.
116
« on: November 06, 2005, 08:15:00 pm »
What, not enough meat on a rat? The English navy in the days of wooden ships would have starved, even more, if not for tasty rats they caught. 
117
« on: October 31, 2005, 12:19:00 pm »
For starters I think the economy isn't badly messed up as it is. However, if you want a change to extract more gold from the players, rather than a town tax a craft hall tax seems more reasonable to me. If it took some gold for equipment rental on each item you make, people would think twice about making huge numbers of items they don't need.
The town tax idea would be kind of hard on people who just hang around town socializing and seems counterproductive.
118
« on: October 24, 2005, 01:18:00 pm »
Behind the crafthouse worked great for mine right up until he died. I wasn't there to see it, but I assume someone brought something through the gate. Unfortunately, there are no guards on that side of Hlint so the oxen are a little vulnerable. Now I leave mine close to the ox merchant, hoping he will kill any mercs or whatever else someone drags into town.
119
« on: October 09, 2005, 11:03:00 am »
Could a server up time or something of the sort be added to the server status page? There are times like now when I know it's been a while since the server crashed but I see only a couple of people on. Would I be rushing? Don't know so I'll wait a couple more minutes
120
« on: October 07, 2005, 04:34:00 pm »
How can I tell the difference between a server crash and a problem with my computer, router, internet connection, etc. This time when I dropped off line I looked at server status on the webpage and saw half a dozen people or so were on and tried to reconnect. then I got the can't connect message and decided to give it some time. It seems like there is some lag in the server status report. I am using the direct connect method that was discussed on the forums so I don't see ping when I connect.
Thanks. I don't mean to be a pain in the ah, urm, what is the acceptable term? Ah yes, rear. : )
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