Posts Thanked By User

1

General Discussion / You Will Be Missed

« on: March 16, 2010, 08:09:54 pm »

Jonathan Selmek aka Daren Valhaikor aka poohbear383340 died this morning in a fatal car crash.  

He was a great roleplayer and really knew how to throw you a curve. His characters were well known and quite diverse from each other.

You will be sorely missed.

2

Just for Fun / Rap?

« on: January 20, 2010, 04:40:13 am »

Well I'll confess, I never liked rap due to the profanity and the image they gave to woman and all. Beside the 4 measure beat repeating itself over and over and over and over an .. er where was I? right. And over.

But I got to say that today while waiting on my mates to come back from their dreaded, drink and smoke break, I stumbled on this.

Guess what?

I like it hehe!


ps, for the more metal people around..... like me. Check out his song called Wake up

3

Just for Fun / If only...

« on: December 14, 2009, 12:54:41 pm »

=D

4

General Discussion / Discharged and Leaving

« on: February 27, 2009, 03:50:39 pm »

I wish to inform you that as effective right now, I'm discharged from the DM team and leaving the server, effectively being banned too.

The story goes that once upon a time, months and a year from now, I did grow tired of how the security matters of the server were being ignored. While the DM team can be trusted in the majority of the cases, it is not unknown for some to have left in "rage". Considering that there are countless ways for a DM to exploit his powers for his own gains, I thought it was not too unlikely for such a person to have cheated before leaving (or if you have a DM that is tired of the world and doesn't care anymore... or worst case, if someone actually cheats because they want to cheat).

As the proposed counter-measures to such actions, to monitor and keeping track of everything was deemed unnecessary, I made this last fatal error of actually wanting to prove those claims wrong. That's where I came up with this not-so-clever idea of triggering one of these exploits myself, in this particular case a one that involves acquiring XP. My hope was to accumulate very huge amounts of it and lay the cards on the table afterwards to present the horrors of the situation, fully realising that when doing so, I would highly likely be banned.

But then there was this WLDQ approval and I so dearly wished to have the quest run first (I realise now that it was a very selfish wish), and the WLDQ got delayed. Something that I wanted to be handled in a relatively short amount of time (a few months to prove that it could easily have been done in an undetectable fashion) got prolonged. A lot.

Over more than a year, this particular exploit managed to generate about 3,550,000 (yes, you read it right - I was very keen to keep track of all of it) XP without setting off any alarms. And this is where disaster struck. While I was fully aware of that all XP is logged in an easily scan-able manner, I didn't think anyone is nowadays actually bothering to look at those logs anymore (recall a very early case of someone doing a quest-XP exploit and getting caught?) and hence didn't realise the mess I was creating for Dezza who had so kindly accepted to finally run the WLDQ.

The attempt was "caught" and my intentions seriously backfired. It is highly unlikely anyone will believe my words now since I was literally caught with my hands in the cookie-jar and I understand you. It's unlikely I would have believed myself if the situation had been reversed. Maybe if I had "confessed" first, but not now. As pointed out, this is the same sort of arguments someone would use in order to make him or herself look innocent.

If there are any suspicions of me helping someone else using this exploit (or any other fashion helped them); put those thoughts to rest. I'm certain the team will be more than happy to confirm that I kept this localised to me, myself and I only. There are no items or gold dropped to anyone (not even myself). There are no freebie levels given to anyone (those who know me probably also knew I was one of those who were very strict in even handing out RP ones). There was no "porting others to the emeralds". It was I who did it to myself and there was no reason to involve anyone else (keeping all the fallout on myself). My wish was to prove a point, to increase awareness and actually prioritize the fixes, not to help people cheat.

In hindsight, this was rather stupid.

I deeply regret that all the efforts Dezza has put in are now getting tossed out of the window and do feel I owe him the greatest of all apologises.

I also regret to have misused the trust that the team and the community had put in me as this certainily was not handled in any manner even close to being acceptable. While I believe my original intentions were pure to the spirit, the method I choosed isn't right, and I feel guilty about creating this whole mess.

But done is done and my fate was already sealed the moment I first made my decision.

The team were very kind to open the door for something less than a permanent banning first but in the end it was agreed upon that the most proper thing to do here is nothing short of a ban, which I'm sure you all agree with too. Using an exploit of this kind, especially in a position of a DM, regardless of whether you believe my reasons or not, can really result in nothing else than a banning.

This was plain and simple a screw-up from my side. No one asked me to do this and I'm smart enough to realise this was crossing lines.

I therefore wish to make a last apologise to Dezza, the team and all of you here for the troubles I've caused.

We will walk separate paths from now on... and I do hope that you will have a continued pleasant Layo-journey.

Sincerely,
Weeblie

ps. I would kindly ask people not to quote every single line here and start a lynching process of the team or myself. This post is more or less final from my side, though I'm certain the team would like to express their official view too. I realise what I did is doubtful at best and there are thousand and one ways to question me and my motives. It is my preference to have this locked.

5

General Discussion / Hmmm..... I've got the itch

« on: October 31, 2008, 02:55:26 pm »

Hello fellow players:)  Wow, it feels like it has been forever!  We are settled now in Northern Alabama and we love it.  I will have to admitt that I do miss the warm Hawaiian Ilses right now as it is sooooo cold, and I have heard this is not cold for this time of year here.  YIKES!  Some of you know we have horses, which are my passion, and it is getting a little chilly for me to ride all the time.  I still need to put about 40 pounds on my frame some say.:\\ Then I can weather the climate more here.  But....enough of that.  I  guess I am thinking about bringing Peanut back in for a bit;) but I don't even know if that will work with our internet being sooooo slow.  It is AT&T cellular which if you have ever used it is so unpredictable.  We have the lower Smokey Mountains all around us so to even see a tower is basicly nill.  Any suggestions?  I know the world has changed some since my absence so I wonder if poor old Peanut should even show herself and check things out.
Anyway....*waves*......hello to all of you who remember Mooneyes!

6

General Discussion / Finally back

« on: October 18, 2008, 10:29:45 pm »

well I didn't mount the super dooper computer I want yet but it's in the process of getting there. But my withdrawal from layoness was too much. So I went and got 4 gigs of ram with a new mobo and a newer video card and a new casing, put it all together... and now I can finally get back in game. ONly thing left of my old faithful buddy is the cpu and hard drive hehe.

WEEEE!!!

7

Fixed Bugs / Spawn on a TA

« on: October 07, 2008, 07:46:28 am »

A while ago we returned some lost SS due to a spawn that was put right on a TA in the thunder peaks. It is the one right after the ropes. The SS were refunded and the spawns were removed due to it being a death trap. The spawns are back and it is just a bad place for a spawn. Before you can even react you have been pounded a bunch of times.

8

Just for Fun / Why work and play should never mix

« on: September 25, 2008, 12:27:11 pm »

Had a fairly messed up dream last night.  It began with a few of my friends telling me that they had gotten us a new house (currently househunting irl) so I figured, hey, great!  Went to visit them in this dimly lit run down building downtown, which for some strange reason had a produce store with vegetables on display and a cash register.  "Dude, this is a store, what are we selling produce now?"  "no no no man, the living space is in the back, come back here".  Ok, I thought, maybe not so bad.  Went to the back and there was this HUGE Home Depot sized warehouse which didnt seem to have any particular theme at all, it was like a massive eBay bonanza warehouse. (currently work in a home renovation warehouse).  Ok what gives man...  At this point I start realizing that before all of this I was just sitting in my room (before I went to sleep, heheh) and instead of just figuring out that I was dreaming, I started screaming at them, "what is all of this?  I don't even remember coming here!  what year is this?  It was just 09/23/08!"  I'm all thinking that I suffered some kind of amnesia, and they're telling me its been 2 years since then.  That we're now in the post apocalypse.

All of the sudden there some hard knocking on the front door and all of my friends scatter in the warehouse.  "Open the door, NOW!  Open up!"  Oh great, they tricked me into tresspassing or trying to steal something, now the police are here...  So I figure that the cops probably have the place surrounded already, and being an overweight smoker theres no way in heck I'm going to manage fleeing this place, and I'm already ticked off at my friends so I might as well rat them all out for a reduced sentence.  So I let the guy in, and it's Ronnie Cordova from the sockbaby.com martial arts/comedy series.  He's all sweating bullets, freaking out and ranting about how we have to get out of here, now, with his hair slicked back dressed in his aviator sunglasses and leisure suit.  Huh?  What the heck is a P.I. doing here?  Shouldn't he be protecting the Sockbaby?  Where's Burger?

So Ronnie Cordova now sprints out the front exit of the store. *shrug* I go back into the warehouse to try and find out where those buggers are who even tricked me into coming here are, and why I don't remember anything for the past 2 years.  Now the warehouse is infested by rats and dire rats.  And not only that, they appear to be the NWN dire rats that for no good reason have demonic voices and scream "your soul is mine!" all echoey and stuff.  I look down and I'm completely naked and unarmed... eeep!

I run around the massive random item warehouse looking for ANYTHING that can be used as a weapon, a blunt object, anything, but the prospects look grim.  Baby-wets-herself dolls, placemats, pirated DVDs, and finally, aha!  Tiny 2 inch pocket knives!  "what the heck, 1d4 is 1d4" I distinctly remember saying aloud.  I sprint around stabbing the smallest of the rats with it, pinning them down and twisting as they go "eeee! eee! eeeee!".  I finally come across a pallete of concert T-shirts in the warehouse, Blind Guardian I think, and think to myself... "aha!  Now I just need some pants!" and scour the place until I find a pair of cargo shorts and a pair of sandals.  Not much, but at least the rats dont get a clean shot on my bum... I'm still wary about kicking them unless I find some decent shoes though, (rabies!) and that would be so much easier than getting on all fours and stabbing them with a 2 inch blade.  In fact, I dont even know why I wasnt just punching them.

N00bly equipped in the worst sense ever, I then stumble upon the motherload crate...  cheaply made swords!  The kind that say "made in china" on them, that you'd typically find in a spencers or RPG shop and you could likely sunder with a broomstick.  Ah well! better than the 2 inch pocket knife.  So I appropriately pocket the pocket knife and pick out the best flimsy, poorly constructed, unsharpened sword for myself in my main hand, and run around with another the same size in my offhand, not so much to use, but just in case I run into any allies in the warehouse, like my friends who were hiding.  The rest of the dream devolved into hacking apart dog-sized, demonic voiced dire rats.  I think I might have made level two.

The moral of the story?  Don't fall asleep right after playing NWN and watching sockbaby online while you're househunting, especially if you work in a warehouse for a living.  That combination just isn't good for your mental health.

9

Layonara Server / Yllyrryon has been banned

« on: September 25, 2008, 09:45:49 am »

[SIZE=16]I have banned Yllyrryon for making threats against me and my family. Since he states he will take legal action against me for HIS addiction I don't take that kindly or well at all. At the same time since he is claiming addition and he has asked to have his characters deleted this should mean nothing to him and it will indeed just help him to "cure" the addiction as requested.[/SIZE]
 [SIZE=16][/SIZE]
 [SIZE=16]I have posted his character deletion request below so that you know what is being talked about.[/SIZE]
 [SIZE=16]"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""[/SIZE]
 [SIZE=16]Bioware Name: Krysthalion

Character Names: Ael Rynthien, Krysthalien, Krysthalien Dawnstar[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16]Reason: I wish to end an addiction to computer games from which I suffer. Deleting both of these characters will help with that, and I will need all the help I can muster. Many people laugh about the addictiveness of these games; many people talk as if the addictive nature of these games is something desirable.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16]Yet I have come to view this as a clinical addiction - fundamentally similar to addictions to drugs and alcohol - or other behavioral disorders such as eating disorders. And having such a disorder or addiction is intolerable for me, personally.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16]Furthermore, I am requesting this after consulting with my family - and they will explore legal action against Dan Scott and others involved in the Layo business if these characters are not deleted. This is something very important that I need to pass on to you.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16]Farewell and have a good one folks! [/SIZE]
 [SIZE=16]"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""[/SIZE]

10

General Discussion / A Happy farewell

« on: September 15, 2008, 01:35:54 pm »

I am stepping down from the GM team. It has been so much fun being a GM for all of you. Thank you all for the energy that you have brought to my quests. I am doing this now because I feel I dont have the time to commit to quests that it takes and needs to be a good GM. I will still be playing though and maybe more so .

Being a GM is not an easy task on Layo. Not only is there so much you need to know but the player base is very sophisticated and that means you had best be on your toes at all times as a GM. By the end of some of my quests I would just log and pass out from the amount of multi tasking it took. Please keep in mind that most of the time there is only one GM there and he or she is trying to track all text (many times in multi locations), use a plethora of tools to call forth this beast or that NPC, play the NPCs, turn area spawns on and off, balance and re balance encounters, and set the mood and stage. All of this is after a couple of hours of set up. Be nice to them they work really hard.

Thank you all,
Jrizz - Happy

11

General Discussion / Thanks to all...

« on: September 13, 2008, 10:32:15 pm »

..who attended the masquerade ball and made it a great time.  All the musicians and performers did a great job, the costumes top notch, and the rp by all even better.

12

Layonara Server / Can't Connect Today/Last Night (or laggy)

« on: August 30, 2008, 10:45:59 am »

There are a few people reporting that they could not connect to the server last night and a few are still reporting that for today. I have also seen reports of the server being laggy.
 
 A few things.
 
 1) The company hosting the servers had problems yesterday with their core router. They sent me an email at 5:59pm stating they would be doing emergency repairs on their core router at 6pm. Sadly I did not check my emails until early this morning so I did not know this was happening and could not give you any updates. Sorry about that.
 2) It seems that their emergency maintenance took quite a long time (at least 30 minutes) but the servers are up now.
 3) I have restarted the world servers so the lag should be cleared. I don't know why they would be laggy due to the down time that the company caused but perhaps they did, I rebooted them just to be safe. This should cure the overly laggy issue (see #4 below though).
 4) I don't know what is going on with the some of you not being able to connect to the servers via gamespy or via direct connect. I am able to direct connect just fine (just did a few minutes ago). Currently there are 17 players online (after the server reboot). I am thinking that perhaps the company did something that is causing DNS to update across the internet (though our server IPs remain the same--so perhaps something on their router). If this is the case it will take a while for the information to propagate to the world (no more than 72 hours and probably less than 24 hours--of which it has been at least 12 now)....if this is the problem. I am not sure how else to help here other than to suggest waiting.
 
 Sorry for the inconvience.

13

Rumour Has It / A gathering in Krandor

« on: August 26, 2008, 12:56:53 pm »

A small group seems to be gathering around the crypts of Krandor, there is talk of the Shining Hand and vampires and undead.   It seems that they think the Hand may be somewhere in the crypts.  They seem to be accepting of anyone who wishes to join the cause in rescuing him.

14

General Discussion / A travelling bazaar!

« on: August 21, 2008, 04:56:14 pm »

Dream of opening an ingame shop?
First Friday Fair at Stormcrest

As much as I try, I cannot resist doing more than just hacking at giants ingame.  It is a curse, a plague, a feebleness of the mind.  So...

One thing about running a shop is that when there's no one around, it gets pretty boring.  You're standing there twiddling your thumbs when you suddenly get a whiff of an adventure afoot.  Do you join them and abandon your RP post?  If you do, you might miss that RP that is walking down the path just out of sight.  If you don't, you will likely kick yourself later as your buddies are leveling and you're dreaming of new PCs to submit for approval.

There is a solution provided to us by the very capable Layonara development team:  [lore]PC Quest System NPC and Chests[/lore].  See this image for an example of what is possible:  Dubbel's Store.

Here's what I'm thinking:  A group of RP-minded players band together and form a travelling market.  The goods in the chests would be RP items (foods, ales, pipeweed, etc.).  If you were there in person (between adventures) you could hawk your more durable goods.  Remember that the chests are not persistent across resets, nor are there any safeguards to theft since payment would be by the honor system.

I have some more ideas for this but following my own advice I'll think big and start small.

• Sign up one or more food, ale, and pipeweed sellers
• Partner with an existing PC-run business
• Send out bird messages with the week's menu and small tidbits about the vendors
• Have the paperboy sell the menu
• Work towards establishing a new tavern in a location like the Thundervalley Crossroads

15

Rumour Has It / In Memorial of Shiff Dragonheart

« on: July 21, 2008, 06:35:17 pm »

Word goes out quietly and with invitations to friends of the Dragonhearts of a small memorial service being held in Haven.  Shiff's remains will be interred on the hillside overlooking the town and the family Shiff worked so hard to protect during his life.  Those wishing to remember Shiff are invited to do so.

Shiff's armor and helm have been placed in a stone casket set in the ground, arranged in a manner recalling how they were worn in life.  Laying the length of the armor is Shiff's greatsword.  The arms and gauntlets of the armor have been placed on the hilt of the weapon, as if Shiff were holding the sword against his chest.

Val stands off to one side of the casket, supported on her left by her father.  Standing at the head of the casket is thirteen-year-old Drakus, feeling both important and scared.  He is holding an urn containing the ashes of his father, Shiff.  Val, refusing to cry, stands quietly, occassionally turning to speak quietly with her father.

After waiting a short while for those in attendance to settle, Val steps forward slightly to speak.  Her voice, none too pleasant to begin with, is noticeably rougher than usual, but is still strong and she is clearly heard.

"I'm not much for ceremonies, but I have a few words I'd like to say.  Shiff Dragonheart was a good man.  He was a strong man, a dependable man, a firm man, one who could be depended on, a loving man, and a protector.  He was a man who I always knew would support me.  Shiff was strong willed, unyielding in the face of adversity, and a man who worked tirelessly to accomplish good."

Looking upwards, Val continues: "Shiff, we are proud of you, and will remember you always.  As you kept us safe, we will keep your memory safe."

She takes on a slightly more formal tone:

[indent]"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will!
 
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."[/indent]

As she speaks the verses, her voice gets rougher and breaks several times on the last few lines.  Clearly barely able to contain her emotions, she says in a voice so quiet, even those in the front can barely hear her. "Shiff... you're finally home."

She steps back to her father, and he puts a comforting arm around her.  After a bit, when it seems clear she is too distraught to continue, her father moves towards Drakus, but Val reaches out a hand and stops him, quietly murmuring "I'll do it."  She reverently takes the urn from Drakus, setting it carefully under the breast of Shiff's armor.  The family then steps back, allowing others the opportunity to pay their last respects to Shiff Dragonheart.

//[size=-2]the poem is Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson[/size]

16

Rumour Has It / Fresh from the Fort

« on: June 26, 2008, 06:17:50 am »

Nus the Bard was seen around Fort Wayfare obtaining the latest reports from forces posted in the Dark Peaks area. Corathite necromancers and foul plotters were litterally unearthed within their deep burrows by a Lucindite led sortie acting on behalf of the Army of Wayfare. Initial reports suggest they chose to go down fighting, and that their infernal summoning were destroyed.

A group of Gnomes and a small order of monks were said to have fled the scene, their presence there at odds with the Corathites but concerning nonetheless. Best information suggests they have been searching for lost relics.

Found among the remains of the fallen was a Gnomish scroll which made references to the location and strength of defences at Fort Wayfare. This important find was put to the general at the fort who said. " No need be alarmed at this time, information like this occassionally goes astray, and whilst we do not feel there is any cause for concern we advise citizens to remain alert while a review of the defences is carried out."

Nus was later seen to pack his bags and head south.

17

General Discussion / Champions of Toran and Lawful Goodness...

« on: June 25, 2008, 03:26:41 pm »

I was reading a very interesting article on LORE last night about [LORE]Champions of Toran[/LORE] and saw something very interesting...

[SIZE=10]"The final stage is the Divine Champion. These elite few have found the path of temperance. They have progressed beyond the code of the paladin. Oh, they follow it when they can, but they also fully understand that evil doesn't play by rules. That it's rarely that easy or black and white. They do more than fight evil, they seek it out. They climb down into those black pits and let the light of Toran shine there. Where the Paladin combats any evil they find, the Champion's duty is to seek it out. Fight it head to head. Tooth and nail, smite it hip and thigh. Where the paladin tries to sway away from baser emotions, the Champion fills themselves with righteous indignation and divine wrath, for they know that there is power in emotion. They aren't afraid to get dirty, in fact that is part of their duty. Toran forgives them all, as long as their fight is pure and their duty unwavering. They aren't above taking the quicker path if it means Toran's greater purpose is served. They understand the greater good and are willing to make the sacrifices that the others of their ilk are not willing or capable to do."

[SIZE=13]So...  this made me think a bit...  Divine Champions seem to be willing to break some rules to achieve the Greater Good...  So why do they have to be Lawful Good?

I guess you could say they have to adhere to the Oaths and Code of Toran's Holy Warriors, but there are more laws then just those of the Gods...

Part of the Reason I'm asking is cause one of my Characters is Neutral Good, but I've always thought that while not a Paladin, he might one day see if he's worthy to become a Champion of Toran, and was curious about how strong a Req the LG alignment was, and maybe why its there...  Anyway, just some feed back would be good, then this can get buried back under the piles of posts in the forum vault.  
[/SIZE][/SIZE]

18

General Discussion / On hindsight: Dissolution, Dwarf-slaying and Timebubbling

« on: June 23, 2008, 04:09:06 pm »

Greetings!

As most of you are aware, there were/are posters out there posted by Kobal Bluntaxe after certain events during a session of my Dissolution series.

This series was (and still is) timebubbled until the series ends (which will be quite soon). I hadn't entirely considered all this when I gave Harlas permission to post on the forums already, in hindsight, I should probably have waited until the end of the timebubbling. My mistake.

Anyway, now to fix things.

Therefore, the following things apply:
1) Until further notice, please consider the posters as not posted yet. Once Dissolution is released from its timebubble, I will bump them.
2) Until the bumping under #1 has happened, please do not act against the characters mentioned, or Kobal, or NPCs, as technically this has not come to pass yet.
3) The people on Dissolution who are Voltrex will not have heard of this yet, even though they are in the same timebubble. This incident coincided with you leaving the cave and returning to the Golden Forest and the events that transpired there.

Then once Dissolution is re-inserted into the timeline, we'll kick events in motion again and everyone can RP all this.

My apologies for the confusion, but I think the above is the best way to handle this.

Thanks,
EdTheKet

19

Rumour Has It / The old dwarf finally falls for good

« on: June 22, 2008, 11:53:49 am »

He needed exercise..his tired legs, bad knees, and slightly stooped back felt good today.  The axe was sharp but the trip was short.  He became surrounded by bandits because tactical position was broken.  Foolish?  Perhaps, but that is neither here nor there now.

The aged dwarf Dorax Windsmith finally gave in completely to the Soul Mother and now his soul prays from beyond this plane for Vorax to escort him into the Halls so that his deeds may be remembered.  A Blood War Veteran and friend to so many who have gone before him.  Certainly not the brightest, but a good dwarf none-the-less.  Rest in peace.

20

General Discussion / Finally!

« on: April 04, 2008, 06:31:42 pm »

So I just turned in the final copy of my portfolio for approval. I'm so close to getting my master's degree I can taste it.

(And yes, that means I'm starting work on all those CDQ's sitting in my que, heh. Not to mention quests in general. Oh... and playing.)