I have another worry about the game to bring up. This is one that Turbine can do nothing about and is on our shoulders. Two letters, one from a hero of mine, brought this problem to my attention.
The first was about a new player. He was in the starter town when a 90+ ppl tromped in. He started calling everyone names, cursing and making a total ass him himself and the game. His intent seemed to show how much better he was then them. I'm sure that any new player would be returning the game to the store soon after seeing that, especially if a child's parents were watching over the game while he played.
DM brought a lot of new players into the game. They had to suffer the log in problem, download, passport debacle and now this. It is no wonder that we have stopped growing.
The second was more disturbing because reputation is everything. A famous author and the man most responsible to my writing style get fed up with EQ and moved to AC. He found a very unfriendly environment. No one talked to him. He got the feeling that the social aspect of AC was far less than EQ.
I cannot talk for EQ as I never played the game. I know that the social aspect of AC is very strong if you know where to go. The new towns don't seem to have it.
I use to spend a lot of time going to the starter towns and helping players. While it was not my intent I gained a lot of vassals that way. Not immediately mind you. I was not looking for vassals. Weeks or months later the people I helped would track me down and ask to be my vassal.
When the new player flow slowed down and I gained responsibilities within Elder I stopped doing that. With the loss of advocates there seems to be no one to greet, direct or help the new players. For the health of the game this must change.
An experienced player would have stopped the ass who was cursing at the new players in his tracks. The new people did not know to call an administrator to get him kicked. They would not understand that it is possible to have a 90lv player in a short time if part of a chain.
The major monarchs need to set up something in the three starter towns to help the new players and prevent the recurrence of the grief player's actions.
A good idea might be to have many of the groups who like to hang together and talk to move to one of the starter towns. Maybe one day a week they can do that. There are enough people who just talk that we could keep a group there most days. People might even get to know other groups.
It is more convenient to hang in the hall but we need a presents in the starter towns.
As for my hero, I wrote him and have hopes that he moves to MT. I have not got a reply yet but it is the holidays and he is a professional writer so his time is limited. I hope he returns to AC but we left a poor impression on him.
Some days it is better not to play
I was hunting in my normal spot in north ML. I had killed a few pods of Virindi and some Vapor Golems. I spotted a Kithless. I put cold vuln on it and it charged over the ridge at me. Before it got there two Ziffers hit me from the left.
I can fight two Ziffers most days and a Kithless is an easy kill. I fired a cold blast at the Kithless but got a resist. Second blast did damage but did not kill it. I had depended on a one shot kill and it was alive after two.
I know I had Imperil VI on me but I'm guessing I might have had piercing or slashing vuln as well. The turkey was doing a number on me. With the pecks from the Ziffers I was in trouble. I hit heal which got my health over 100, only to have one of the Zeffers toss a spell and bring me down. I tossed another heal and the second Ziffer hit me was a spell. Low on mana and being wore down I tried to take it on the lame.
I only get a few steps before the turkey got a good hit to finish me off. Hello Nanto Lifestone.
I was a long way off, at the end of several buffing cycles, when I had died. I figured to fight just enough to clear the vit on the way to the body. My loot had been bad that day no gems, sing keys or golem hearts. It was tempting to do a normal hunt until I got close.
I recovered the body at about the middle of the buffing cycle. I was at the west edge of a little plateau that surrounds the foothills. There was a light slope that leads to the flat plain of the center north. Right there was four pods of Virindi.
I hit a VE with Fire vuln and ran off from the blasts. Sometimes the VE is nice enough to chase and make it easy, not this time. I ran back and hit it with another spell to make it charge. It did not work, it stood its ground, tossing spells that hit a small hill in front if it.
The same hill that protected me protected it. I decided to run up to the edge of the hill, blast the VE and run. Most of the time I can escape without too much damage doing that. I got to the hill without damage. I stopped long enough to be sure I would not get a movement fizzle and fired the fireball. I took off running before it hit at almost full health. Hello Nanto Lifestone.
I checked the text to see what happened. I had just finished off a Vapor Golem, which meant I had fire Vuln on me. Sure enough I took two fireballs of 90+ right after I tossed the fireball. With lag, and when is there not lag these days, I did not even see the hits.
Another vit buffing, which means a lot of fizzles and I headed back. I expected a long fight as the body was right in the middle of a major spawn. I killed just enough stuff to clear the vit on the way and got back with plenty of time to clear and recover.
First step was to clear a group of Feral Carenzi. I hate the little pigs. They do have some nice loot but not what I'm looking for. Sometimes I don't even bother to check their bodies. They hit hard, especially with a lot of de-buffs on me. When fighting in North ML I'm always fighting with de-buffs.
I hit one with Bludgeoning Vuln and blasted it before it got to me. I hit the next one with Vuln. Blink, I'm at the desktop. Dag-blasted.
I quickly reload AC, hoping the pigs ran back to their spawn or I had logged before dieing. Hello Nanto Lifestone, some day's it is better not to hunt.
I did another vit buffing and a long run. On the way I found an Elder and former vassal, Meeks. I asked him if he would give me a hand. The major spawn had gone away before we got there. A few battles and I had both bodies recovered. I thanked Meeks for the help.
I was able to clear one more Virindi pod before my last buffs dropped. Got a sing key for that effort, the only good loot of the trip.
Not cool MS
When I signed up for the passport thing I had to create a new e-mail. This was so I could use my second account at the same time as the first. Getting a hotmail address was not hard but I made the error of using a long name. I hate typing that in when I log on.
I have only used this e-mail to log into passport and go to the zone. It has been used by nothing else and the only letter I sent off it was to myself to keep it active.
A few weeks ago I started getting advertisements. That in itself would be enough to piss me off but the advertisements were for porn! So not only is MS selling my hotmail address but also they sold it to a porn site. Not cool MS.
Now this is what really pissed me off. At the bottom of the advertisement was;
This is not Spam! You are receiving this mailing because in a horny frenzy you subscribed and confirmed that you wanted it. If you no longer want to receive Daily XXX Emails and FREE Porn, feel free to scroll down and Click on the unsubscribe Link. Your Loss!
I never signed up for this and only MS has this address. I have tried to unsubscribe to stuff like this before. Mostly I get a bounce on the mail and keep getting the advertisements. This one opened not one but three windows of more porn advertisement plus another e-mail with more porn saying they are sad to see me go. One said it canceled my subscription, I'll see if it keeps coming. I'm lucky my wife, who had no humor on such things, did not see it.
North ML
I really like hunting in North ML. The xp may not be as good as being in a fellow fighting corals but it is not bad. The loot is ok, no great armor or magic items but enough to pay for the trip and replace plats. The sing keys I use to trade for the loot I don't get there.
What I like best is the challenge. It is possible to die at any time there. There is nowhere safe and you cannot let up your guard.
A good example is my last death. I had just finished a quad group of Virindi. There were a lot of bodies I had to wait on. What I'm looking for off Virindi are Sing keys and Yellow Jewelry. Ever so often they will drop a pyeal pea and I get a lot of taper peas. Taper peas are light and worth almost 3k at the mage shop.
Sixth Sense pops up as the first group rots. A pyreal pea. I trot over there and grab it. Close by are three Pigs I knew I would have to battle. As I had to wait for the Virindi bodies it was no big deal. I killed one and was starting on the next when I was blasted by a fireball.
Reading the text I saw Vapor Golem. A glance at the radar showed there was two of them. With the damage the pigs were doing I was under 100 points. I always get nervous when that happens. I blast the second Pig and try to retreat and regroup. Normally a vapor golem is not spell happy. This time was an exception.
With more fireballs I was at 20 hit points as I took off running. Two clips from a pig and it was Hello Nanto Lifestone.
I can only imagine a load of keys and YJs that fell to the ground as the Virindi rotted. It took me a bit of time to kill them all and I was blasted before I could get the loot. Like I said, at any time you can die there.
Can anything else go wrong?
A few days before this I was talking to Hsiao at the Plateau entrance. He wanted to do the Queen quest again and wondered if I would lead it. I agreed to lead and we set Monday for the first one.
I logged at the time we had set and found that Hasiao had joined up with Paraduck to do the quest. I figured I would go from leadership to support. While that quest was not as smooth as I like we got it done. Paraduck then asked of we could do it again later that day. Of course I agreed.
I logged just in time to catch the quest. They were just short of turning in the fifth bell. A few players were getting sprayed and others were at the entrance of the Royal hive. I was buffing at the Plateau entrance when Hamlit the Heatseeker put me into the fellow. A quick run to Mont E and a fast run to the bottom of that got me to the Royal hive.
Paraduck wanted to try my route through the hive this trip. The only problem was several members of his group had memorized the other route. Sometimes people hate change; even with the change is more efficient.
Cobra Khan was the designated killer. Hasiao was to be the meat shield. I would de-buff and provide stamina and heals to Hasiao.
The first go around we did it smart. The switch puller stayed back so we did not have to hold doors. We all got to the Den and started killing the guards. I killed a few and then moved to the exit and started de-buffing the Queen.
After everyone had moved to the exit we started blasting her. She died quick and I beat feet to the exit. As we got out we read "You fellow Corba Khan has died." Humm, he was a key member. Cobra Khan said no one told him he had to run after the first Queen died. I had no idea this was his first trip or I would have taken him aside.
We did a quick survey to see who had not killed the Queen. Hasiao had gotten the kill that morning so even our strong melee was out. It turned out that the only person who did not have the kill was a UA named Little Bones.
We headed into the hive after setting people at the doors. We got everyone set and buffed up Little Bones. I de-buffed the Queen and said to move fast, the de-buffs don't last long.
Little Bones jumped down and ran to a spot deep inside the Den to fight. No one told him to fight were we could reach the Queen. So it was totally up to him to get 100% of the Queens health. Normally they only need to bring her down to 50% or so and let the mages finish her off.
I was feeding Little Bones stamina and health for a while. I became aware that the buffs had to be dropping so I switched back to the Queen. She was at full health. I knew at that point that this was futile but figured I let the others figure that out on their own.
I de-buffed the Queen, switching back to Little Bones ever so often to add stamina and be sure the healers were keep up. The Queen never showed any damage. This went on so long that I had to de-buff the Queen a third time.
Staffstroker II decided to give him a hand and jumped down. A mage cannot stand up to the Queen so he died fast. At this point I told everyone we needed to port out and regroup. They were reluctant to do that but we had no choice.
I had been getting a lot of tells from different people all throughout the quest. Normally I always answer tells but this time there was no way I could. One of the tells was from Ladon. He had not been on for a while.
I had to do a big buff at Plateau as the spawns were hot and heavy by this time. Little Bones needed someone to guide him back and met up with me at the entrance. As we started the run it occurred to me that Ladon had not killed the Queen yet. As a mid-70s BM he would have no trouble killing her.
I sent him a tell saying to rush to the Hive. I told him to be sure to buff big as the run as nasty and a half. He was with Sky Bleu so the two of them rushed to the hive.
Little and I got down there fast as it sounded like they were ready to leave without us. That was a misconception as most of them had not even got there yet.
Paraduck said he had a 101lv mage coming who had not killed the Queen. I was disappointed for Ladon but figure his turn would come soon.
We got most of the party together, including Ladon. Bleu Sky had died in Mount E. Ladon and I figured to go recover his body right after we killed the Queen. Sky had dropped some of his armor so getting passed the spawns would not be safe.
We were missing members. They were in the hive so I figured they had started down or were at the switches. It turned out that they were at the other entrance portal. We finally got everyone together and started down.
After the first trip Paraduck said my route was far better than any other he had seen. Some people still wanted to do things the hard way. With my route you never have to move very far or fight too much. Players kept wanting to run into the cavern and fight. We would have to call them back to get us going again.
I held the second door after seeing no one else was doing it. I knew that it would take me five minutes to buff so when my timer showed five minutes left on my buffs I started re-buffing. That way even if I had to stop and fight I would still be buffed.
Paraduck told the fellow he was starting down. He hit the first door, the one you can pick and found no one had held it. I was sure I saw someone setting up to hold that one. Our lack of unity was showing.
One of the players was an expert at wall jumping. He ran back to the start and jumped up to the door. Before he did it I would have thought it impossible. I'm going to have to work in that trick, very useful.
So we finally got down to the Queen again. I de-buffed her and Hsiao jumped down. I was hoping that Ladon would out shoot the 101 mage. It was taking longer that it should and I had to re-apply the de-buffs again.
In the middle of the battle I saw that Ladon died. I figured he fell to the back spawn. He sent me a message that he thought someone said to jumped down. Imagine his surprise when he was only one do jump.
The Queen fell to less than half and we started blasting. Even with over 363 war and a lot of de-buffs on the Queen I had trouble hitting her.
We finally saw her drop and we all jumped down to finish off the Guards. After a lot of killing we cleared it. I had some trouble finding Ladon's body. He messaged me that it was close to the exit portal. I found it right at the edge, he almost made it out. Someone else got Staff Strokers II's body and we exited in triumph.
It was a long hard fight with a lot of up's and downs. We did run into another groups time because it took us so long. I wish I had remembered Ladon sending me the tell earlier, the 101 mage might not have been called in. As was there was no room for Ladon in the fellow he did get any reward.
After that Ladon and I went back to Mount E and got Bleu's body. I made a portal to the hall and we all met up there.
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