Cheaters, macroers and those who cannot play within the rules are hurting us again. From the very beginning of the game people have been finding ways to get advantages over others with exploits.
The first big exploit was the ability to use Quarry shafts with bows. They had the speed of a bow with the increased power of a crossbow. Perabuffs, macros, overrunning the buffer, duping and many other exploits have all been used to the honorable players disadvantage.
The question given a lot is what does this cost the normal player? Well we have a much worse game because of them for one. Time and resources have to be put into fixing these problems. How much more would the game have today in quests and events if a whole month was not put into fixing the island quest?
The island quest has been moved, tweeked and totally written to fix macroing. Would the Lugie fort near Qbar be up and running if they could work on that instead? Who thinks the new quest is worse than the old one? Of course as soon as the new details were out on the quest the current problems were predicted, and soon fulfilled.
The other disadvantage to the normal players is downtime. There have been sundry hot-fixes and other downtimes to fix exploits. What I'm hearing is the 28 March hot-fix is because some players found out how to get around the bandit sword four month time limit. There are several players walking around with five hilted swords.
I wish MS would get off the stick and put their foot down on the cheaters. Several players have called for banning of the players for the bandit exploit. I'm not for that, too extreme and not warranted. I do think having all their bandit swords deleted would fix and punish. I know of at least two players how have given the extra swords to a crier. Those should be forgiven.
The second step is to ban the use of macros for all but trade skills. Players like Blinks Mule provide valued service and should be left along. The others need to be told to stop, one warning, then a month ban. If caught again, permanent ban. Wasting time on rewriting places to stop macros and bots hurt the players who really play the game.
The real abuses these days are battle bots. A high level player has set up a macro in a low level room of the Citadel and kills everything that spawns. Of course this leaves the new player to the Citadel with no way to get xp. Leaving the weak room will lead to many more deaths and possibly quitting.
I could easily set up Fist in BSD with such a bot. Tuskers cannot hit me. There are several spots where I could attack and kill with a macro. This would net me millions of points a day with no risk. Those points would come at the expense of the other players, players who are really playing.
The only way to stop this is to ban it. As programs get better and the tools for lamers get better we will see a lot of this. It needs to be nipped now!
Stupid mages
As I said in the last column I have put Fist back in BSD. Faster xp, less cost in healing kits and mana stones. I have the ability to use full combat buff instead of magic protection.
I try to only hunt there very early in the morning to avoid the rush of players. I met a mage there today. First thing he did was start draining a tusker I was fighting. As there were two Tuskers, one free, this did not make much sense. He would have gotten more off the free one. I saw his body a short time later. Guess he has trouble fighting on his own.
Later he did it again and I asked him to please not leach me. He said he hates melee and they leach him all the time. Then had to gall to say BSD was a mage place and I should go to the Olthoi Nest. As my level is above Olthoi I don't get much xp from then anymore. I still get full xp from Tuskers. Given that he cannot kill a tusker by himself having the melee leave would not do him much good.
There is a board discussion on tactics used in melee + mage. There is general agreement that such a team is much more powerful than either alone. This lame loser will have to grow up if he ever expects to be successful in the game.
Speaking of tactics.
It was pointed out that my way of working Mage and Melee works well at high level but is unworkable at low and mid levels.
My way to work it is for the mage to start de-buffing the monsters. One or more will charge the mage and the melee kills them. Mages at high level have powerful protections. These protections are for a relativity short time of course but very strong while they last. The mage can stand up to the abuse using drain health and stamina. In the end his main hope is that the melee does not kill too fast.
For lower and mid levels this does not work at all. The mage at these levels has several problems a high level does not have. His protections are much weaker. They don't last near as long, so short that hunting time is severly restricted.
It is not uncommon to see a low level mage die with one shot. For a melee and mage at these levels totally different tactics must be used. To begin with the fighter must do the drawing. De-buffs from the mage are nice but you must be sure the monster is not the type to switch if hit with a de-buff. In that case the mage must be in total support mode. Healing and Revitalizing are the two spells he will use most often.
If fighting one big monster imperil is the best spell. When fighting beside Zane Fist de Mage never tossed an attack spell. (Of course with no war it not was not really an option anyway.) Even a drain stamina would cause problems.
We hunted Lugies in Forking Trails. It had advantages of walls, lots of walls. When Zane fought he would call out what was needed. Heal, Stamina, Imperil were his three key words. Imperial was only used if I was safe behind a wall. The last word he used was drain. This meant it was almost dead and I need to get a stamina drain off it. This set us up for the next one. A pity Zane had to stop playing. The two of use would be stomping the Island right now.
Quests
One good thing about gaining and losing the pre-shadow armor is it forced me to add strength. I was already strong for a mage at 170 but not strong enough for comps and the armor. Even peas are heavy if you carry enough of them. So I added 5 more points, which now buffs to 214.
With the lighter Mattie I'm under burdened for the first time in a while. What that means overall is I can take mage on quests. Before he was so overweight that he could barely run, let along jump.
Lighting Stone
I found a very nice bow on the island. 113% mod, +8% skill and a lot of spells. With the composite my archer is set. Jeff's wife Markey is going to be playing an Archer so I figured I would mule it for her.
S L U G said he would help me mule. After he handed all the stuff to my mule he asked if there was anything I could trade for that bow. Hell, I have a load of good bows, if he needed it he could have it, so I gave it to him.
That did not sit well with S L U G. He wanted to return something of value. Ended up getting some armor I might let Markey have and a key. He said he would give me more keys and I said there was no need. So I got, "If I have to hack your account and plant the keys I will."
While I was there someone asked if I was going on the lighting stone quest. I it was on but said I would love to go. This made Motorhead very happy. At 16lv he figured a good mage is what he needed to keep alive. I made it a special project to do that.
It took a while for the quest to form up. We had about 10 people. Run was not too long and I only got off track once. Most of the time I was leading the pack. We were following the river so getting lost was not a problem.
I had about 700k in points saved up before the quest started. I poured the points into quick and run. Ended up with a buffed run of 257. Not bad or a 10 quick start.
We found the portal and everyone made it. I had put a lot of buffs on people before the run started, especially the weaker members. At the start of the lighting vault we all buffed. I tossed lighting protection VI on everyone.
We had a good leader but the mob was not use to being lead. Everyone pushed forward like it as a race. We found a room with a lot of Yellow Dots in it. I was imperiling everything from the hallway. The problem was everything in the room was dead and I was imperiling stuff a floor below.
By the time I figured this out everyone had run off ahead of me. I tried to catch up by following the floor trash. I got close a few times. I saw someone say, "Where is the mage?" but then lost track again. Had to fight once and of course I'm on the wrong bar.
Change to war bar from support bar. Now where is that acid vuln. I had acid blast hot keyed so no problem there. Finally the party leader hunted me down and got me to the stone room.
Everyone got the stone and no one died. Good quest.
Focus Stone Part one, "The Key"
I have needed the focus stone for my mage. It will add 6 points to all my magic skills. Especially nice is 6 points of war. I'm at a buffed 312 war now. Using level VII spells a lot. Still I can have 3 or 4 fizzles in a row at times.
I ran mage from Lin to the subway and then took the Qbar portal. A long run from there got me to Three Towers. I was hoping to join a group as I did not know this quest very well.
No one around when I got there. After killing 5 or 6 Lugies I decided to try it on my own. Killed the undead. Got into the tower and pulled the switch. That opened the door to the second tower. I went in and that spawned a load of Liches.
I quickly killed the Liches which opened the door to the third tower. Going in there spawned another load of Liches. I killed them and then the last undead who opened up a portal to the quest.
I was careful to keep my mana up. In each battle I smoothly dispatch the undead, nothing to hard. Found two doors. A switch in the hall opened one of them. That led to a room inside a room. I hit the switch there and ran back.
The door I had gone in was closed. Outside was a PK player. Name was Rob something. In hindsight I figured out he had hit the switch again and closed the door. English is his second language so we had a little trouble getting the door opened.
After getting that door open I went into support mode. Made a no xp fellow and recruited him into it. Neither of us had done the quest before. The time I had been there I just stood at the door while someone else hit the switches.
Quite an experience, running around trying to figure out how to open up a door. We got to the last tower and were stuck trying to get the door open. Missed the switch you have to jump to. We were both at the bottom. Rob was fighting a Lich and I moved to hit it with a de-buff.
I lagged. I came out of lag in a portal. While lagging Mage had run into the exit portal. Sooo close. A short time later I got the message that Rob had died. I repeated the process of killing the undead to open the portal. I think my vassal Menelaus was having a good laugh as I told him what happened.
Right after I got inside an old friend ported in. I guess he saw the portal and got there in time. Crusher had died at the last part and was there to recover. Between us we had little trouble. Crusher really loved the buffing I was glad to be able to buff him. I could not buff Rob because he is PK.
At the last undead we found one other person. He was logged in there and was hoping to pick up another key. I helped kill the undead and Crusher and I got the skull and key. We took the portal and cashed them in. I got about 50k in stuff but nothing I could keep.
Last part involved a long run. I ported to AB and took the Baishi poral. From there I ran to the South Shore Heights portal. Up over many a mountain I got to the NPC Le-Ai Rea. I gave him the High Acolyte's Skull and got two keys.
A short run from there is the Mines of Despair. Next step is to get a party of Elders together. If we cannot find a lock picker I will have to get Fist there. I'll log Mage at the door and bring Fist to the switch. That will let me unlock the door, log Fist and bring up Mage.
Focus Stone part two.
I logged in Mage hoping to catch a party doing the stone quest. After a few times of this I was getting discouraged. A vassal told me that a party was being formed in AB and would be there soon. I tried to contact the leader several times but did not get a response.
About 15 minutes later the party ported in. They were glad to see a high-level mage there to help. I was recruited into the fellowship.
It went smooth if a bit chaotic. Several players did not want to wait for anyone and ran ahead. After we hit the second section I toss acid VI and armor on the low levels.
Many of the players were doing downloads but that did not stop the rabbits. We were lucky that the spawn rate was slow enough that the back party did not run into a mess. The leaders were able to slow up the front runners long enough for the rest to catch up.
Only problem after that was people who thought it was cool to stand in the red fog. This made it so the rest of us had a hard time getting the stone converted. Had to say several times "Please move out of the way." Really wanted to use stronger language.
Three towers part two.
With Mage safely having his stone I decided that having another set of key would help. People do die in the place and another set of keys would help in recovery.
Bleu Sky and his vassal wanted to go as well. We met in Mayoi and took off to the south dires. Lag was a problem and Bleu's vassal was a bit slow (mages are slow.) We got close when Bleu's vassal had to leave to help his vassal.
Bleu and I got to three towers with no problem. As we did someone said that the quest was broken again. I saw the door to the second tower was open so I went in. Sure enough the liches spawned. After killing them the door to the third tower opened as it should.
I backed into that tower and set off the spawn. (I back into the towers so I can set off the spawn and run out.) Bleu and I were killing the liches when I saw the quest lich was there. I ran over and killed it. I told Bleu, "Take the portal." He kept killing liches but we both got in before it faded.
I hit the switch to open the first door and ran to the next switch. Bleu got delayed and the first door closed. I hit the first switch to opened it, then ran into the open second door. Bleu had ran back to the switch, forgetting that it opened the second door, not the first.
Both doors closed so I could not open the first door for Bleu. We waited for a bit but no one showed up to open the door for Bleu. He ported out. Bad timing as someone showed up a few seconds later.
Ran though the quest fast. Got it down well now so it goes quick. I met two using the chests at the end. They gave me a set of keys for the Mine. That gives me three sets of keys.
Focus Stone Part III
I posted on the family board we would be going on the Focus stone quest. I also posted Fist rules of questing. As Mage had his stone I was using Fist for the quest. Simple stuff like, we go off on time, no running ahead, keep the posting down and obey the leader. Rules like this can make a big difference in making a quest successful.
I had planed for a run to the Mine but William the Bat had a portal. He was also the lock picker and door opener. At 11am sharp William made the portal and we were off. William knew the Mine well and the doors both opened quickly. It took us little time to make it though the first section.
William was able to get back to the start and join us at the end. The next part was fast and easy. Undead died quickly and I was able to take off my armor and relax.
After everyone got their stone we headed off to the second part. We had mages to toss acid VI on everyone. We had three under 30lv and one 19lv with us. They were told to stay back. One hit would kill them in the second part.
Leading the way we had some nice battles. I was down in hit points during one battle but lucked out with a 105 point heal. After that it was fast and easy.
Everyone did as they should. They got their stones converted and ported out. I made a subway portal for those that wanted it.
Total quest was less than an hour. Most of that was waiting for the stone monster to spawn.
Blood Bath
The Morningthaw server had a great PK idea. Two large teams in desert towns. The towns were about a 5 minute run from each other. Idea was to take the other teams town. This meant defenders and attackers. The two teams were Sword and Shield. Fist de Yuma was there to report on the action.
This was a great idea but one the server could not support. This was clear in the very first battle. Sword had a portal tie to the hall of the other town. A large part of Swords players ported there. After buffing up they took the exit and attacked.
The other team was caught in complete surprise. It might have been over with right there except for lag. As soon as the battle started we were in to a flickering, stop and go, total freeze fest.
The only way anyone could fight was to exit the town. There were some great battles but overall the town battle was unworkable. I had already had a long day so I logged off and went to bed.
With the current state of tech we can only have small battles. Large battles are just not there yet. The same problems show up with monsters. A really bad monster is that much harder to take down because of lag. My only try at the island quest ended up with a lag death. Sad to say but the more people on a quest, the greater the danger. Nothing is worst then being killed with no chance to defend yourself.
New Armor Part II
UR IV sent me a tell asking a question. The question made me think the deal he had for the pre-GSA had fell though. I was right as he later asked me if I could get the following for the armor. Mattie robe, two V amulets and the Ladies staff and robe.
Surprisingly I had three amulets by this time. Two vassals did the quest to get me one and Maddie gave me hers when she quit. I really like my robe but after using the GSA for a few days I knew I could part with it. Elder is working on the last two items for me.
I met UR in Lin hall and we made the exchange. The last two items he gets later. So I now have my pre-GSA for keeps. (Jumps for joy!) Of course with strength VI and dumping every heavy item I'm still at 104 burden. I have 176 strength raw so it is not like I'm weak.
I sure cannot see how other mages, which much lower strength start can move. For the rest of this level and part of the next I'm adding strength. I figure 180 is the minimum I can have. Otherwise I will not be able to go on quests. Keeping up is a major part of questing. I'm not all that fast and if at burden I'm even slower.
Human nature and alliances
When Killean was in charge of our alliance we had over 1600 members. Killean decided to step down and Elder stepped up to Monarch. I knew we were going to lose a lot of people in the process.
People come and go in alliances. There are a lot of reasons. A lot of people are thinking of leaving an alliance but need a little push before they do. A change of monarchs is one such push.
Our alliance dropped to under 500 members in a few days. Our reaction to those that left was cordial and friendly. We understood how things were and knew the members left were the hard core of the alliance. I also knew that some members of those that broke will be leaving their patrons and coming back to us.
This worked well. In a few months we had the old numbers back and have taken off from there. At last look we had 3700+ members and Elder is rank 10.
This could have been done differently. We could have ranted and raved at the people who left and called them names. It would have done nothing but cause hate and Elder would not be the alliance it is today.
I think the fact that we expected to lose people gave us an edge on this. There were also great leaders to direct the way. Both Killean and Elder displayed solid leadership and foresight with the transfer.
Sadly another great alliance is going through the painful throws of a break up. The leader is retiring from AC. Baal was the reason many were in the alliance and without him people were going to move on.
The problem was that Baal and others did not expect this. It caused bitter feelings that spilled into the boards for all to see. With a little work and friendly interactions this could have been avoided. The alliance was going to lose members but could have rebounded stronger than ever if done right.
I expect the splinters of this alliance to have great effect on MT for a long time to come. I'm hoping the former brothers can put aside the bitterness and work together in the future. Human nature is an interesting thing to watch. The history of MT will have a special chapter on this one.
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Since we started with cheating I though this fit in well. While reading this keep in mind that many mages go to BSD at mid to upper 20. This was posted in the VN board.
........make myself a sandwich and watch my gf play a bit while I'm eating. She's rendezvousing with a few of her friends and they're off to Aerlinthe Island but while she's waiting for them, decides to play with the monkeys at BSD.
She's buffing at the entrance, and here comes a familiar site - some player running like a bat out of hell with a monkey on his tail and he jumps into the exit portal leaving the monkey for the rest to take care of. No big deal - happens in all the fast-spawn dungeons, you just need to be on your toes in case it happens. But after 3-4 minutes, this same guy comes back and gives my gf a tell - we'll name him Homer.
Homer: I'm kinda new at this. Could you give me some tips?
GF: First time in BSD?
Homer: Yeah. I just made level 43 and am here for the first time.
GF: You ever fought Tuskers on the outside?
Homer: No, like I said, I just made level 43 and I macroed LONG AND HARD to get to this level so I could come here.
GF: (glancing over to me as she knows how I feel about this little topic)
Me: Tell Homer that if he stands real still, the monkeys won't hit him as hard. And it's best that he gets more than one monkey to play with at a time.
GF: (ignoring my well-intended comments) Well, I made Level 46 the old fashioned way. (Then, because she's a very nice person, proceeds to explain how to drain/imperil/fireball Tuskers).
Excited with his newfound knowledge, Homer, (the hard working macroer), runs back into the BSD and it isn't 2-3 minutes before you see the little announcement: "Tusker Guard wipes the walls with Homer's puny carcass!"
About 5-8 minutes later, Homer arrives who hides behind walls and other players until it is clear to get his stuff (that's OK - we've all done that too). So he's ready to give it another shot and it's not long before we see another "Tusker Slave rips off Homer's arms and uses them to beat him to a pulp!"
Back he comes again....begging for help in the entrance to recover his corpse. My gf and a couple others escort him to his corpse where just as he's recovering his stuff. BUT Murphy's law catches up to him big-time and a handful of Tuskers spawn right on top of him. "Tusker Slave drop kicks Homer over the nearest goal post and says "Thumpity Thump! Don't come back!"
Dunno what happened after that as my gf took off to meet her friends.
But initially, after I thought that Homer got his just-rewards for being a macro-bot, I began feeling sorry for the guy. Because due to his statements and actions, he clearly hadn't a clue as to how to manage even the game basics. So unfortunately, it appears that some "good buddies" of his, gave him the sage advice that "AC ROCKS!!.... but "don't bother playing the lower-levels" because they're "no fun" and you "need to macro" to get to a point where you can kill "the real stuff." So for poor Homer - he's NEVER going to be able to really experience what AC is really all about.
For all you macro-gods out there (you listening Tik?) do your fellow players a favor and letting them figuring out exploits on their own if that's what they want to do. You're only an AC virgin once. This is the 3rd guy I've run into who has very obviously been given the absolute worst of advice by his "friends" who think that exploits/macros/extreme templates are the ONLY way you can play AC and basically the game has been ruined for them.
And of course, that is 100% WRONG.
Watashi Semi-Retired UA, Life & Creature Mage Anonymous New Melee (Prowler of Thistledown)
"If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum." - Chinese Curse
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I was asked to put this in the column. Sad to see this happen but RL can be unfair as well.
Tribute to a friend
Being the first online game I have played, I was apprehensive about the social aspect of an online community like Asherons Call. After a few days in the game, my apprehension dissipated as I became part of a small but good allegiance that was committed to friendship and honor. With good leadership and superb vassals we adventured, quested and talked together for many hours. I became good friends with many people, especially Jaydee. He was the same level as me and was a constant companion throughout the citadels and atlan stone vaults, as well as a muling partner and ally.
Unfortunately Asherons magic could not protect him in real life. He recently passed away at a young age leaving a loving family behind. I'd just like to offer my condolences to them and to pay tribute to a great patron, vassal and most of all friend. He will be sorely missed by all who met him, especially those close to him.
Jaydee, I salute you
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