This and that
Ok, I now look like I'm ready to play Jason on his death bed but I'm sleeping a lot better.
To reiterate I have sleep apnea. That is a condition where you stop breathing while you sleep. It is a dangerous condition and can cause a lot of problems with your health.
I was told the mask would be delivered on Wednesday of last week. By Friday it was still not there. On Monday they called UPS and they were told it would be delivered that afternoon. In hindsight I should have made an appointment right then and there. Because of a lack of communication or a lack of caring they sent the tech out to deliver some stuff and we had to wait until Tuesday. To say the least I was pissed.
The mask fits over my nose. It is attached to a hose that fits into a machine. That heats some water and blows a set air pressure into the mask. The system is nice and easy to use. I was lucky to read about this mask as many people I have read about have a big problem with fit and comfort. While having a mask attach to my face blowing air and straps around my head is not exactly comfortable it does not hurt.
It has a button that helps with sleeping. It makes the machine start with a lower air pressure and slowly ups it. This allows you to sleep before it starts feeding you the full pressure. I'm generally asleep before it gets to full pressure.
The humidifier was set to a low setting. That dried out my sinuses and hurt like hell. I raised the setting again and again until I had it on the max. While I sometimes wake up with a little water on my nose it is no longer drying out my sinuses.
As for sleeping I'm not sure how well it is working. The sleep study said I was sleeping much deeper. I have noted less dreaming but that is about it. I'm still tired but that could be a hold over from being sick.
I'm much better health wise. Still a slight cough but nothing to worry about. My back hurts like hell. I was coughing so much that I strained my back. I expect that to fix itself soon. I figure a few hundred miles on my mountain bike will fix me up.
Thanksgiving was great. We normally have around 30 people. This time we had more family arrive and ended up with almost 50 people.
We had three large turkeys (20 to 25 lbs) and a large ham. Ten pounds of mash potatoes were gone in a flash. We had a lot of help from Rosa's sisters so Rosa was not killing herself. Jeff cooked a turkey and it was the best of the three.
It could not have gone better. We were truly blessed.
I think for the holidays I'll write about my first Thanksgiving in the Marines. This will arrive for those on my Sea Stories and Donation list. To say the least it was nowhere near as good as this last one.
Congrats
There are a few players who have maxed out to 126 in Casa de Yuma. They have all done it without using a chain, macroing or using any exploits. Some have done it with few if any vassals. We had two players racing to 126 this month.
Cher'okee and Abin hit 125 about the same time. It was a neck and neck race to see who made it to 126 first. Abin had a big disadvantage in that he is in the middle of a big tax time. Being an accountant that means a lot less AC. Also his main vassal is me and I was too sick to play.
Cher'okee's vassals made sure that she won the race. In addiction to hunting their ends off they made a big fellow on the plains to push she over the last 50 million.
Cher'okee is the heart and soul of our allegiance. She is always there to help others. She is the one to arrange body recoveries. She is the one to listen to others who need an ear. She often refers to herself as the housemother. She is that and much more.
Many people are needed to make up a good allegiance. Our allegiance is far better off because of Cher'okee. She makes being a monarch fun rather than work.
Congrats on making 126 Cher'okee! No one deserves it more.
Abin Al-Sahad made 126 a few days later, Sunday morning. Typical of him he did it while hunting VoD solo. Abin is one of my oldest vassals and the oldest full time vassal. Until I put Deadeye under him he had no vassals. While I contributed a little to his rise it was mostly his own hunting that put him where he is.
Abin is your stereotypical solo hunter. His main hunt has been VoD for some time now. While a lot of people hunt VoD few do it full time solo.
Abin is one of my greatest friends. Being a solo hunter and loner he has not had a great effect on the allegiance as a whole. I hope that will change because his humor and skills would be an outstanding example for our younger players. Abin is one of those players who enjoys the game for the pure joy of hunting and a small handful of good friends. There is no better person to have at your back in a hard situation.
Congrats old friend. I'm sorry I was not there to see it.
Allegiance players
To make up an allegiance you need a lot of different players. One of the drivers to the direction of an allegiance is the monarch. That effect can be very large or minimal. I try to lean in the minimal direction. I help players when I can and set an example of honorable play.
I took over this allegiance and brought around half our current membership with me. The merging of our two groups was great. Those I brought with me were excited to be on our own and those we joined knew us well.
There was some worry that I would try to change things. I learned long ago in the Marines that coming in like a bull will only create resentment. Even leaders who came in to make positive changes that really needed to be made got a lot of resistance from those who had been at that station for a while.
The fact that RD had created one of the best allegiances on MT did not hurt. If it works then don't try to make a lot of changes. The other advantage we had was those who did not like me left before I took over.
The main drive to make me the monarch was Nena Romanova. Nena has assumed responsibility for the allegiance boards and other help. I'll always be grateful for that and do my best to live up to Nena's standards.
Soul Riper is one of our handful of 126 players. He makes the big push for hunting parties and is a quest leader.
Another big quest leader is Dread Lord Boba Fett. He runs the weekly Bobo quest and many other quests. Dread Lord is also our PK leader. PK is mostly a non-issue these days. Even PKL is not something that draws us. I expect to have a few allegiance wars someday but right now PK is on the back burner.
There are a lot of players like this in the allegiance. We have mid to low players who supply salvage and other items to the allegiance. We have players who help others or just hang around to create a friendly atmosphere. I would like to name them all but it would be a long list indeed.
One thing lacking lately is questing. Me being sick and school restarting meant less players available for the bigger harder quests. Now that I feel better I hope to fix that. The holidays will help us more people together for the quests. One goal is to get as many as possible the new items in the game.
Our allegiance is a layback have fun allegiance. We help each other when we can and console those we cannot. While the monarch can have some effect it is the members who are the real force in an allegiance. I feel honored that this group lets me lead them.
State of AC
There was a long and very good essay on the VN board the other day by Ryinn Gwyndylin. I was tempted to ask if I could post it here but it is as long as my normal column. Instead I'll take the points she made and support or debate them.
I encourage you to read this essay before reading my points. The essay can be found at;
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=59986916&page=1
It is long but well worth reading.
Ryinn starts out with a review of how she got into AC. We all remember the magic of those times. Everything was new. The monsters were frightening and the mystery of magic puzzling. Some of us were blessed to experience this as it was meant to be.
We struggled to get even the most base armor. We spent five minutes fighting a monster low levels would not bother to kill today. We spent hours and hours trying to learn spells. Our weapons were weak and our skills lame. In other words we had a blast.
Many if not most of today's new players are giving al 220+ armor the day they arrive. They are shown a buff bot and sent out to make experience for their patron. As soon as they are high enough they are placed into the chain. Months if not weeks later they at levels we did not dream would exist when we started. They also look at hunting as work rather than fun.
This is a pity as the new players are missing so much. They need to be brought along slowly and not given too much too soon. Sadly this will only happen if they find that rare patron who is more concerned with the new players enjoyment than the xp produced.
For the rest of it I agree and disagree with Ryinn. Whereas a lot of AC has been spoiled by the cheaters and exploiters it is possible to play and ignore them. There is still a lot of joy in the game.
You can discover quests without using Maggies to guide your every step. I mostly use Maggies to get me started and then stumble my way through it alone. This is mostly to prevent dead ends. If you need some rare skill, such as missile or lock pick, to make it over a part then I need to know that before I start.
I use a lot of third party utilities. Buffing is boring and error filled. Having a program that will do this for me is a god sent. When looting having to click each item to ascertain if it is worth picking up is boring and takes far to much time. Having something that flags those items speeds up my game and enjoyment.
Nevertheless this same thing gave us the macro problem that still haunts us today. Despite the best efforts of MS and Turbine people are still macroing players from 1 to 180 in less than two months and chaining up mules to close that at the same time.
Just what they do with these players is a mystery to me. At first I thought it was to sell them on E-bay. I've checked E-bay and have not seen them for sale. Unless they have a different outlet for sale I have no idea why they bother to macro them like that. Again it is possible to just ignore them and play your game.
The loss of third party utilities would hurt the player base. It is doubtful if that loss would be compensated with many new or returning players. I would stay but many players would leave.
Whereas there is a lot of content for high levels there seems to me a lot of content for the mid to low levels as well. This shows me a determination on Turbines part, as the majority of the players are 50+ if not 80+. I applaud them for sticking to their guns and keeping the game low level friendly.
I agree that there is a great divide between the players today. Even Fist with his four years of constant play, many vassals and now as a monarch, has a fraction of the xp many players have. Treestats.com does not have all the players but it has enough to give us an idea.
The top cheaters/exploiters have over double Fist's xp and less than two months of play. This is real months not game months. You have to scroll down to the 150+ player to find one with a year under their belt. After that you find hundreds of players at over 200lv.
Nevertheless there are ways around this problem. I will not go on quests until the crowd stops going. I spent far too much time in lines when the game started to do that again. After a week or so the super cheats get bored and go back to their macros. Then I can go out and do the quest.
That may mean I miss out of a few of the live events but with a dialup system it is likely that I could not go anyway. More than 20 or so people and I start to slow down to a crawl.
I agree with Ryiinn that they did housing poorly. Nevertheless I for one have a hard time coming up with a better way. It is impossible not to give an advantage to those that play a lot. I think Turbines attempts just created more stress by stretching it out. Of course the housing issues is long past so I'll just call that a bump in the road.
Housing has seemed to have the unattended consequence of killing towns. I look back with a fondness at Arwic. Years ago Arwic had a large lawn with shops surrounding it. It was always packed with people. Hebian-to was also a big place for people to gather. I'm guessing that Arwic was putting a strain on something because they destroyed it long before Mansions empted the towns.
I have noted that most Mansions don't have many people at them so I'm not sure where all the people are hanging out at. Our mansion almost always has people hanging around. The William the Bat Mansion has a lot of social players as well. Exception seems to always have players hanging out.
We did take steps to get players more involved at the mansion. We have good Trade players there for one. Another was moving out buff bot to the lawn. We had players who we only knew as they ran through to the bot. Now we can get to know them a bit.
It is sad to see the numbers for AC go down. We need more players! We need to stop what new players we get from being spoiled and being pushed past the low levels before they are ready. That will be harder than getting the new players.
I for one am still having a good time. I enjoy leveling. I enjoy hunting. I enjoy searching for items what will help one or more of my players. Each point I push on a mule for better odds in Tinkering gives me satisfaction.
Of course there are things that irk me. I'll be writing about one in a few minutes. Those are more rare than not and easy to get over.
As for the state of AC? I could call it aged but not old. We have lost players and are not gaining many to replace them. Unlike real life there is a cure for this aging. An expansion that gives us AC with the AC2 engine would be ideal.
Because of the seamless land mass expansion in land may not be possible for a while. I think the shutting down of Asheron's Island was to help the server load. There are a lot of islands out there that are undiscovered. Of course there are a lot of open space that are mostly unused. The V islands and Caul are places with a lot of unused potential.
The most important thing is MS to get behind AC in a bigger way. Advertising is nonexistent. Finding a copy of AC requires a proactive search. Right now the marketing of AC is the biggest hindrance to the health of AC.
AC has a few advantages that no other online game has. These advantages need to be stressed to the general gaming public. The ability to solo and play casually are two of the biggest. I have vassals who log on every other month if even that. They play and have fun and them move on to something else. Games that require a solid group of players to fight cannot draw those players.
It is possible to log in after a month and pick up a group but it is risky. You will likely not be successful. That type of game requires people to balance skills and abilities. It is very hard to do that without a set group of friends.
Every other online game I know of makes solo play almost impossible. It is possible but only for the most dedicated and knowledgeable players. Even then they need to have a special template and the risk reward ratio is pathetic.
With AC even the lowest level player can solo. There is no need for a special template. There are a lot of places for a new player to learn and have fun. That special magic we all had is still there. We just have to keep the immature greedy players away from the new players long enough for them to find the magic.
There is something I did and have seen Jeff do that shows the true power of AC. After an intense battle my hands would shake. I thought it was just me until I saw Jeff doing it. If you give a new player to much power they will never fear so much that they shake.
The last advantage of AC is flexibility of templates. AC was always way ahead of the other games in template control. The ability to change templates had made it even better. Players like William the Bat can spec Jump and max it out just for fun. I cannot be sure but I think AC is the only online game that allows this.
So there is a lot of life in this old game. It can be rejuvenated if MS/Turbine really want it to be. I have great hopes that this will happen. I know Turbine will do their best. It will be up to MS to do their part. In the end it may take Turbine breaking from MS to do it. I cannot say if this is even possible but I hope it is at least an option.
Really lame
I was hunting Owanda in the 80+ Matron. Again I find myself the lowest player in the fellow. It is easy to understand why people are complaining about being bored. Far too many hunt way below their level.
Many of the people that are going to the 80+ are 126+. I cannot complain as that may be their only player and they don't know a better spot. Given the crowding of the matrons these days I wish they would move but would never demand it.
There is a player who had taken the name of an old movie. He is a monarch of an average size allegiance. He is a 172lv mage. I'll leave it to the reader to ascertain if he belonged in the matron or not.
The leader to our fellow left and he assumed it right after join us. I was hunting around one side and saw him fighting in a cubby. A half an hour later I ran by and he was in the same cubby. That sparked my suspicion.
The cubby was not in a really active spot. I waved at him and he did not respond. I said "hi" and he did not respond. In fellow I said, "Jxxxx Mxxxxx, wake up." A second or two later a few Olthoi ran up the ramp. I started to fight and Jxxxx Mxxxxx started tossing war spells. In other words he was macroing.
Now the matron is not exactly macro friendly. You have to move around a lot. So he was not getting much xp by doing this. Where his gain came in was leaching off of our hunting.
I told the fellow what was happening. We met at the top, dropped fellow and created a new one. I also reported the macro. I'm not sure if it was because he could not leach off us any more or if a +admit logged him off but a short time later he was gone.
Guest Writer: R. Scott White
Well yesterday morning after a couple hours of hard hunting, with a specific goal in mind, Abin Al-Sahad hit 126th level thanks to a Virindi Paradox. At this time I'd like to thank those that made it possible, specifically the tired mage in Mayoii for allowing me to buy tapers and scarabs at a lower price than in towns. Savings like that allowed me to hunt more instead of loot. I'd also like to thank the shopkeepers in Lin for buying at 90%. Finally I'd like to thank my monarch, my friend, Fist. Without him, well I'd still hit 126 but not until Feb or March of '04.
Now in just 10 more days and I can respec magic d and teach those monsters around AB a lesson. So joyful was I that I hit 126 that I actually took a screen shot of it and mailed it to Fist. Mind you I forgot to change it from a .bmp to a .jpeg file so I sent him a 2meg picture. He was a good sport about it, he only booted me from the monarchy for 1/2 hour. Just kidding.....
Recently I haven't been playing much. I figured I was getting tired of the game. Aloric hadn't worked out as a character to play. Even though a decent swordsman I just wasn't happy with him. So after hearing about how much fun Fist was having I decided to roll up a macer.
Gonder was born yesterday and I swore him to Arkahana who is directly under Fist's armorer. I would have sworn to one of Fist's characters but that no good rotten bastad of a monarch doesn't log in much anymore. Can't blame him really at his age it is tough to get out of the rocking chair. JUST KIDDING FIST!!!
Anyway I had given Gonder good armor to start but since he was a spur of the moment decision to create I had no decent weapons for him. Not wanting to annoy my new patron, I hunted with the academy weapon. Mind you this was after getting life/creature/weapon buffs from Zintar'.
I used a mage gem and ported to the Mayoii master mage and started hunting. I was having a blast, just fighting, not having to think as much as I do when playing a mage. Not that there isn't any thought when playing a melee character but once you hit attack you can pretty much just worry about health until the monster is dead.
I got Gonder quickly to 12th in my first buff cycle when I remembered that Toromada had a back door portal to the Grenenaldine Consulate. What better place to hunt? There is a great respawn rate, monsters aren't too difficult and some decent loot. So I loaded up Toro and realized, damn, I don't have any comps, foci, wands on him.
So I had to make a comp run as well as get a wand onto him. Sure enough once I did that I got Gonder into the Consulate and he went to town. At first I had to be careful because of low stamina but I fixed that soon enough. I've been pumping most of my experience points into my mace skill and I can see the difference in my crits because of that. Gonder is now 25th nearly 26th level and I haven't used any of my skill credits since 3rd level.
Fist, I built Gonder like this since I don't know how you did yours 100,40,100,30 (I think), 20,10, spec'd mace, melee d, missile d, trained healing and lore. This is my first totally non magic character since retail when I used the bladesman template. The only skill points I used were the 4 to buy arcane lore. I used the Gharu race because of the free item tink.
R. Scott White
Editor: I went the 100, 10, 100, 100, 10, 10 route. I plan to make him self-buffing in time. He has Life and Item and is working towards Creature. You might want to rethink Missile but as you're not going the Olthoi only route Missile is useful.
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