This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Topics - AeonBlues
41
« on: March 20, 2007, 01:19:48 pm »
I have agonized over promoting a WOW music video, but it's too funny! YouTube - WORLD OF WARCRAFT TOO SEXYI rate this video as G, appropriate for all audiences.
42
« on: March 18, 2007, 10:11:22 pm »
This is an official rant thread. If you are not ranting, then please don't respond. Also, I am not posting this because I am upset about anything, I am posting this because I have been quietly brainstorming for about a week now, and it's starting to rain. My purpose is not to make people feel defensive, it is to encourage character development onto a new level of RP.
First of all, I would like to thank Gary Gygax for making D&D in the first place. Second of all I would like to quote my sister Tai, "An entire generation of roll players has suffered because roll playing was conceived by war gamers and not by cultural anthropologists." You might be asking yourself what this means. It means that the system we use to govern our characters personalities is a stupid and archaic system that was made up by a war gamer. I swear, the only reason Wizards did not make a better alignment system for D&D 3.0 is "If it aint broke, don't fix it." It's not a bad system for beginners but it has way way too many limitations. Good characters should have the flexibility to do things, on occasion, that are malicious, vengeful, greedy, and vindictive. Evil characters should have certain weaknesses where they behave in a generous manner. A good example of this is when Raistlin Majere demonstrated love and compassion to a gully dwarf. All you RP elitists talk about something not being realistic to a character's alignment, and you miss the point that alignments are incredibly unrealistic. No one, and mean no one fits into any one alignment perfectly at all times. In real life, we call actions and comments that are out side of our normal personalities, "mistakes" or "moment of weakness" or "I was drunk" or "Christmas spirit"
When I make up a character, I do not chose an alignment and then make up an appropriate personality. I make up a persona and then pick an alignment that best fits that persona. When I RP my characters, I never think about alignment. I always think of my characters personality. I don't think, what would I do, I think what would my character do. Some times it comes down to my characters experiances when deciding what they say, and how they would react. Never once though, since high school, has anyone accused me of not playing my alignment. Now is it that I don't care about alignment, and I never think about alignment, but my characters RP fits with in his alignment? Answer, I made the personality first and chose the alignment that fits that personality, and I do stay true to that my character's personality. Hmph, we should just throw that old arcait alignment system out the window, and evolve to better roll playing.
My next rant, is Power gaming. You know, it took me a long time to figure out why power gaming is a bad thing. It is pretty ¤¤¤¤ natural for us to want to be the best at things. We want the strongest, fastest, smartest, wisest what ever character in the world. The hardest to kill, and deals a punch that legendary. There is a problem with the power build. It is called game balance. The more uber your character, the harder it is for a DM to create encounters that are challenging. Encounters that are too easy are boring, and encounters that are too hard are frustrating. When all the stats significant to your class are maximized, every feat works perfectly to maximizing damage dealt and minimizing damage received, then you have just set yourself up for a bad time. Either you are bored, or you are dead. Never did you stop and think about what is most fun. You ever notice that most encounters just seem to get harder. I blame power gamers. We have players soloing the rift, and what happens, the rift gets made so difficult, only power gamers have business being there. In the time I have been playing here, I have seen this as a continuous trend. The more players power game, the harder the DMs make the encounters, the more players feel like they have to power game in order to not get DTs. The answer to this, is to take feats that do not work best for your character, but take some good RP feats. Do not get the very best equipment you can possibly have, but allow your character to have some weakness. Weaknesses and disadvantages generate good RP, and allow DMs to create fun and interesting encounters that challenge parties. My gut feeling here is that if we the players make conscious efforts to not power game, then the DMs will balance our game world accordingly.
Where power gaming is most painful, is how it effects new players. In the Amber roll playing game, Erick Wugic writes, "If I put a 200 point character in the hands of a novice player, and a 100 point character in the hands of an expert player, the 100 point character will kill the 200 point character every time." Notice that if you power build build your character, you are relying less on your own skill as a player, and more on the brute strength of your character. By this you not only handicap your skill progression as a player, you handicap your personal enjoyment that you get from playing.
Now, what happens on Layo is that new players start playing. They do not have enough playing experience to create a power build, and they lack technical skill. They enter into a game world that is balanced for highly skilled players with well built characters. Bad time. We as players need to turn this around. We need to be patient. Not rush to get as many kills as possible. We need to embrace new players, and coach good RP and technical skills. We need to build characters that are well balanced, and then avoid areas that are too dangerous for a non power built character. Only then will our changes be recognized and certain areas re balanced to be more fun for everyone.
AeonBlues
43
« on: March 14, 2007, 05:44:19 pm »
A large party entered the 3rd area of the black dog moors. Upon entering this area we were ambushed on the transition by a group of lizard men.
We were standing as a group on the transition for about 10 seconds, and it did infact seem like an ambush spawn to me.
No one had time to wander off the transition, the ambush just appeared on us. I believe this might be a bug, because to the best of my knowledge ambushes are not suppose spawn on transitions. I apologize if this is suppose to be this way.
I took a screen shot of the location, so please PM me if I should post that as well.
AeonBlues
44
« on: March 13, 2007, 09:54:32 pm »
Rough biographical outline:
Joshua Miller born 4/19/72 somewhere in California.
Being that both my parents were officers in the U.S Coast guard I moved many times while growing up. I discovered PnP D&D and then AD&D while visiting my sister when I was 16. I fished Ultima I - V and was very exited to play the original Pool of Radiance game on my comodor 64. I also played many other PnP games, and some warhammer 40K. My best PnP experience was playing in Amber games ran by Erick Wugic in Detroit Michigan, before the Amber roll playing game was printed. I even let the party fail miserably in a mission because I chose not to meta game. In this instance I knew OOC that we needed to dump some chaos blood on that ghost pattern, but my character was too busy being tormented by her dead father the entire session to know IC.
After I graduated from high school, I enlisted in the U.S Army and was in basic training when Sadam invaded Kuwait. Dumb luck prevailed, as I requested to be stationed in England. I was later told that this was stupid as there are no Army bases in England, but lo and behold, I was stationed on a Air force base under the Army's United Kingdom Signal Company. I was trained to trouble shoot field radios, but there were none on that base and so I spent a lot of time doing paper work and hanging out in English pubs.
I moved to Santa Cruz California in 1992, and started using the name Aeon Blues, while DJing for Free Radio Santa Cruz.
Jobs was never my strong point.
I moved to Humbolt county after going there to tape a radio interview with Julia Butterfly. I sat in redwood trees for North Coast Earth First!, and helped with fund raising, training new activists, and re supplying the sits.
I ended up back in Santa Cruz, where I got a job with a worker owned bike messenger service called Pedaler's Express (Not a typo), where I worked for 3 years before playing poker professionally. I played poker for another 3 years before I got too bored to make a profit. I ended up in Olympia Washington where I started playing PnP again, though I never stopped playing computer games.
I am currently living in Olympia WA, working a boring telecommute job that is poker related. I DM a PnP D&D game for some friends of mine, and I volunteer for Books to Prisoners here in Olympia.
I am huge fan of science fiction, fantasy, and animation.
I've been playing on Layonara for almost a year now, and love every minute. Some might say that I am wasting my time, but I am having more fun here then anywhere else I have ever been, and having fun is my only goal in life.
My favorite movie is Princess Mononoke.
The greatest lesson I have ever learned is: Don't date two polyamorous scorpios at the same time.
AeonBlues
45
« on: March 11, 2007, 09:21:05 pm »
I am having trouble locking in my display options for forum thread. I have read help pages. From "My Account ~ Edit Options" I am able to control how threads look once I am reading a post. That is not the problem I am having My problem is when viewing a thread. On some threads, like Forum Discussion for instance, the view locks posts in alphabetic order. So, I go to the bottom and select my display options. Sort by: Last Post From the: Beginning Sort order: Descending I then click the Show Threads button and wammo, it lists all threads in alphabetical order  AeonBlues
46
« on: March 06, 2007, 01:27:24 pm »
I logged in after server reset and Legodia, caretaker of the high forest (name needs to be changed?) was casting defensive spells on her self. A badger entered rage and attacked her, followed by her killing said badger. Her partner is no where to be seen, presumable he got killed by a badger or some thing while Legodia was casting protection spells, but I did not witness his death.
AeonBlues
47
« on: March 05, 2007, 01:01:51 am »
I walked in with my ox, and doggy went hostile and started attacking another PC's ox which was stabled there. I did the animal empathy trick on this one and left him in the south west corner of hempstead fields.
Aeon Blues
48
« on: March 04, 2007, 12:48:56 am »
This a bit complex, so let me explain.
A party was in the Battlehlm moors, 3rd area in. We were stationed at the transition, waiting for reinforcements. We waited there for about 20 minutes before our party was fully assembled and we were about to continue our exploration. Then a shaman spotted us. We faught a group of baddies. Every thing was cool, and we were about to make a camp to get ourselves collected. My character had not rested in over 30 RL min. Then a spawn popped up of the one we just faught and attacked us again. Then every thing got real confusing. It seemed like 2 groups of baddies were instantaneously spawning on us. Every one fled, and that transition there heading back out of the third area is a hard one to get through. When we got to the other side. Same story. Every critter with in the entire area it seems made a b line for our group and attacked us. End result was my character rolled a 1 against the soul mother.
I don't think there was a DM witness, so I am not going to file for a re reimbursement, but it is very frustrating as my character has only died 10 times and he already has 2 DTs.
AeonBlues
49
« on: March 03, 2007, 05:29:20 pm »
In this location there is a CNR floating way up high in the air.
AeonBlues
50
« on: March 02, 2007, 03:06:52 pm »
There is a targeting bug here, and in other places of Hammerbound as well. It is like monster are ethereal or something. They can not be targeted and can not target PCs. This is only true of one or two in area. In some places PCs can not target PCs or self. The transition in and out of this area is workable though. Getting in takes a bit of finesse.
Aeon Blues
51
« on: March 01, 2007, 01:47:24 pm »
I cast hold monster a half dozen times today and no small iron rods were removed from my inventory. This is a level 4 spell, and my character definitely does not have eschew 2 feat.
Aeon Blues
52
« on: February 25, 2007, 07:35:14 pm »
Ok, I want to make a list of things Layonara is not. Every thing on this list should be something that other online game worlds have or do that makes Layonara the best on line game world anywhere.
1. Layonara is not a place where third world workers farm gold for your character while you are asleep.
53
« on: February 11, 2007, 04:31:08 pm »
I travel north from my tribal lands. I come to a great wall made of fallen trees. I scout around wall and found good hunting, but my skinning knife is broken. I wait several days out side of wall, watching many races of people go in and out very quickly. I yell Ha Ha at them, but they keep going. An elf woman comes by and tells me about this Hint. She never tells me her name, but she tells me that I can buy a skinning knife in Hint. She tells me that I would be not be more safe there then anywhere, but I can go in. She says I can buy skinning knife for trade coin. Man in town tells me to go east and find “merchant” I ask around for a skinning knife and a dwarf sells one to me for coin I got from a goblin near town wall. I am hungry, so I go out and hunt deer. I eat the deer, and come back to hint to trade pelt. I shake deer pelt, but people seem confused. A dwarf tells me that I can take it to a pelt trader in the craft hall. I ask, “Is this the building where man named craft lives.” I have see the building marked with his name, so I go there. He tells me that he needs a rat pelt for his sick mate. He must think it is her time to die, so I help by getting him a rat pelt. I check the Inn, but there are no rats there. I find a place under hint, and I hunt rats. I would eat wood rat, but not under Hint rat. There are many many rats, so hunting them is a good thing as they seem out of balance.
Later I saw elf lady again, and I asked her where I could buy a badge for crafting. She said many things with an angry face, it was hard to understand her quick high elf words. She was mad at me for trading furs. I am confused by this. She said I should feel in my heart that this is wrong. I eat what I hunt, I hunt to survive. She told me I should leave the pelts in the wild for the wilds to take. She also told me that I could make coin in other ways. Than many people around Hint were offering work. I met a guard, and went to hunt goblins. The goblins almost killed me. I woke up and ran away.
Later, I meditate on her words. I am a protector of the hunt. I hunt my prey and leave the rest of the herd alive. I take the weak so the strong may breed. When I was with my tribe, I would trade pelts for spear, or hide to wear. Trading with the pelt man is not so different. Soon I will work my pelts with my own hands.
Later, out side of Hint, I met a nature priestess called Sara. She and other hunters joined with me to do work. I learned many things about hint and Sielwood. After we finished hunting kobolds and goblins, I went to Seilwood to see more of this great forest. I hunt deer because I need food to eat. I meditated at a sacred temple. I used my spells so I could pass through the woods not to be seen. I saw dire bore, I saw entrap, I saw giant thing. I continued deeper into the woods. I hunt nothing, because I needed nothing, and I was here to observe. I did not observe signs of wear wolf. I did not hear them. I did not see them until their jaws were at my throat. At that moment, I wish I would have stayed with my tribe in the lands that I know well. I awoke in a spirit world. I was startled to see a dark elf. I sensed that I was going back to the wilds, but he was going some where else. He was leaving the great cycle.
I was back in Hint, at the temple. I felt weak and dizzy so I climbed a small hill near Sielwood and meditated. The wear wolfs where such great hunters. I admire their skill. I will have to learn more about them. I have never seen them hunt before, so I do not know their ways, or if they over hunt their territory. Still, to take the shape of a beast, seems like a great blessing to me. An elf woman came to the hill and spoke with me. She told me that there were dark elves in Hint. She told me that I should not assume that they were evil. I told her that I would mediate on dark elves after craft badges and magic banks that move your trade coin all over the world.
54
« on: February 04, 2007, 04:18:43 pm »
I want 10,000 gold. Will take raw sapphires, sapphire dust, or a raw diamond as trade.
Cymeran Vrinn
Undead Slayer of Az'atta
55
« on: November 01, 2006, 11:46:22 pm »
NWN2 is awesome. I am glowing it so incredibly awesome. It runs very smooth. I have encountered no major bugs, nor crashes. Runs with a great windows mode interface ALT Enter. I think it is funny that they didn't update the character voices, though it has the best roll playing options I have ever seen in a PC game. I really like the fact that the deep gnomes are almost the same as layo deep gnomes. I can get the feel and experience of playing the the Ranger / Illusionist that I have been waiting to bring into Layo. Favored enemy Elf  I could ramble on and on about how right they made this game. I keep noticing little improvements they have made in the game play and tactics, that removes so much of what made other D&D PC games annoying. Like the balance between real time and D&D being a turn based game is remarkable. I like the non death system they are using, where if a character falls in battle, they get up to 1 hp when the battle is over. That makes it so I spend less time re loading the game. The AI is reasonably smart about tactics. Like they will ever make an AI that competes with a seasond Layo player, hmph. There are good options to set how the henchmen interact when following the leader. Or how your character interacts while you are micromanaging a henchman. On and on I could ramble. Awesome game Obsidian, and everyone that contributed to this game. Aeon Blues
56
« on: October 30, 2006, 01:02:51 pm »
I personally witness Jaunita being killed by mercenaries just a bit ago. Adventurer Gak and me self just stepped onto the Road to Fort Llast, while invisible, and we witnessed Jaunita running from a group of mercenaries. They followed her to the gates, and then she turned south a bit, not entering the gates herself. Three mercenaries from a near by camp then slew her in cold blood. Gak and me self then slew the mercenaries, but I am very confused about why Jaunita left the gates in the first place.
Gleam Tinkerwise
57
« on: October 30, 2006, 01:06:07 am »
I found some things on the alchmist table, *big eye rolls* in Hampshire Hall of the Weave. Please describe lost items and they shall be returned to you.
Gleam Tinkerwise
58
« on: October 19, 2006, 02:10:43 pm »
An umberhulk has been spotted tuneling around around Hint. Perhaps it was fleeing the gaint purple work that came out of a hole recently, and I'm not talking about gaint for a worm, this thing was gaint for a giant and could gulp down and burp the bones back out of any gaint you ever saw. The worm was slain by a group of brave loiterers, but the umber hulk may still be wandering about and below the town of Hint, so watch out!!
Gleam Tinkerwise
59
« on: October 18, 2006, 12:10:19 am »
Spell: Greater Sanctuary:
Description from Lore: "The caster becomes ethereal. No other creature can detect the caster. Attacking or performing a hostile action will make the etherealness vanish."
It is also normal that when greater sanctuary is in effect all prepared spells which are cast will fizzle. Spells that are not prepared, but are racial or feat spells will function normally.
When this spell works it works greater. Excuse my pun. There is a bug, though, in bioware I have been told, that will cause the greater sanctuary to fail with the following effects.
1.You will be detected by all manner of creatures.
2.You will be unable to remove the greater sanctuary by rune stone, or even by attacking something.
3.You will still not be able to cast prepared spells, even after you attack something with your weapon.
This bug will occur always after spawning to a bind stone.
This bug will occur sometimes after adventuring on the server for a couple of hours or so.
If you are intending to use greater sanctuary as a means of safe travel, the fix for this problem is to always log and reload before trusting greater sanctuary to function properly.
Aeon Blues
I am puting this post in Bioware issues, because I was told that this problem is a bioware issue. If that is not the case, then please move to an opropriate place. Thanks!
60
« on: September 29, 2006, 06:09:15 pm »
*A trail of sand leads to the message board*
Storan has came out of his crypt. He has undead minions that are extremely dangerous. He came out side of the crypt to guard the entrance. His guards were much more powerful then he is.
This is all we know for sure.
Cymeran Vrinn
|
Forums
Show Posts