Fast Overlord Tille was running the Overlord for the alliance.
Unfortunately she lives in England and her playing time is hard to match up with most players.
There are a few of us who play in the afternoon but the majority of the alliance plays in prime time.
With one person having to drop out to take his wife to dinner and Raven needing a few days before her Overlord timer is up we ended up with only three people, counting Tille and me.
I was not sure how well we would do but Fist solo'ed it the one other time I did it so I was not worried.
Tille gave us a portal to Teth where we buffed up.
I did a full buff, which takes forever to do.
While not as bad as the 12 minutes buffs some do taking over 7 minutes can be boring as hell.
It turned out to be overkill as I did not take many melee hits but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Finally I was done and we started off.
Other than a few stops so Tille could kill Crystals we got there fast.
We got separated going up the hill.
I was not sure if I was the one who was to pick the gate or not.
Tille said we would pick the gate and she knew I had lock pick.
Unfortunately I did not have any picks on me.
I've been using Jr to carve Sings and never bothered to grab a pick.
I solved that problem by jumping over the wall.
I had added a lot to my jump skills because I want the option of buffing on the pillars overlooking the Hollow caves.
So far I have not used that option.
As I had just enough skill to jump over the wall to the fortress the XP proved worth the cost.
The inside of the fortress had a lot more Tommies than I remembered. Of course it was Fist before and he kills a lot faster than Jr and is never bothered by spells. Jr magic defense is well below Fist's so he had to be a lot more careful.
So it seemed like a lot more Tommies but I knew better.
I also did not remember the Gold golems that are there now.
I either passed them up with Fist or Turbine has modified the quest again.
I got the gate open and ran outside to heal.
Stopping in the middle of the fortress invited death or getting trapped.
I ran back in and headed to the tower with the portal.
I was waiting for them and trying to keep it clear.
The lag was bad, very bad.
It is not as bad as when I had a slower computer and bad phone lines but the last few months are showing the wisdom of server upgrades.
While trying to fight a Tommie I lagged into the portal.
The other melee with us said the lag got to him and he had to portal out.
I asked Tille if she needed me to come out and help.
She said no and quickly joined me.
From there we did not waste time.
We ran by what we could and fought what we had to.
I was regretting not grabbing the key I got the last time I was here.
It still had two uses. Somehow I totally forget about it.
With Tille's vulns things went fast. We quickly cleared to the door and were ready to take on the Virindi and Overlord.
Tille gave me a pick and we started working on the door.
I had put a lot of XP into lock pick as not to waste the Sings I was finding.
It still took me several tries to pick the door, even with Tille's spell to weaken the lock.
We got it picked and headed in.
This time the battle with the Virindi was touch and go.
I did have to run once to heal and the lag had me unsure at times.
We finally cleared and headed to the Overlord. With Tille's spells the battle was not hard. They quickly fell and I got the key. It helped that the Overlord ran by me to attack Tille. That give me back shots and it died fast. I thought we would have to wait one more spawn but Tille said her timer was not up yet. I opened the chest and got my loot. After we ported out I had to log so I have not checked to see if I had found anything worth saving. I've cashed in a lot of Sings and have had no luck so this is likely the same. Nevertheless I'm keeping at it. I figured it is only a matter of time before I find some outstanding item. What surprised me was the time all this took. From start of my buffing, the run to the fortress and the battles to the chest, we spent less than half an hour.
Surprise. I was talking to Goddess of Fire and Moby Dick at the mansion. I mentioned I was going to turn in four Olthoi Acid vials for xp and cash. This is a great deal for us. The acid vials were items that some needed but most of us have just let them rot for sometime now. With the advent of xp and cash rewards they are well worth picking up. Of course just one is not worth the trip to turn in but after you have saved up three or more it is more than worth it. I said I was going to turn it into the Olthoi hunter in Arwic. Fire said I could get more xp for it in GW. I had not heard of that before. It has been some time since I had been in GW so anything was possible. I loaded up Jr and got a ride to the Sub from Tille. Later I did some research and found the xp and cash reward is the same for either GW or Arwic. Now like I said, it had been sometime since I had gone to GW. Those of you who know it may see what is coming. I don't have any armor on at all. In fact I'm not even carrying any. The armor was on Fist for his Pincer run the night before. Other than leadership and pre-buffs I don't have any buffs. So I have just a shirt and pants with no protection whatsoever. As I descended the hill I saw a horde of yellow dots. Magma Golems and Fire Elementals abounded. I quickly took to my heels hoping to get to a safe spot and break contact. I mostly succeeded. I picked up an Imperil along they way but that was not biggy as I was out running everything. I got to the far side of town and thought I was safe. Then I noted that a Magma Golem had somehow chased me all the way across town. Magma Golems are not much to worry about. Even if one could hit me it could not do much damage. Mostly in a situation like this it will take one swing and then head back to the spawn point. As it advanced I debated killing it or just letting it take a hit and leave. I could just as well gone into a building and ignored it. With three options I ended up doing nothing as it advanced on me. Sometimes it is better not to have options. (grin) It hit me and then walked back to his spawn point. Of course that one hit was, to quote a movie, "murder death kill." It turned out that I was not facing a Magma Golem, I was facing a Magma Golem Exarch! It had not chased me across the town. The spawn point was very close to where I had stopped running. It seems they have put it in the middle of town, much like the Coral Exarch in AB. If course I was more than pissed. What a way for a 114lv to grab his 12 death. I quickly logged the other computer and gave Jr some armor. I logged Mage to buff him. I could buff myself but it would have been a long fizzle fest. I portal recalled back to GW for my revenge. First I cleared out the entire spawn coming off the hill. I then was ready for some serious golem ass kicking. The Magma Golem Exarch did not die fast in the first battle so I got smart. For the next one I imperiled and Vuln it. With my melee defense buffed it could not hit me, even when I had an orb in hand. After debuffs I was hitting in the 100's with crits close to 300. I killed more of them than I could count. I ended up with two bars and around 4 million in XP. I never found who to give the acid to but I got my revenge.
Good news, bad news Overall I feel this is great news. I have been hoping to see this but, being someone with a lot of followers, I'll be one of the big losers. It also might be the thing that pushes me to be a monarch someday. After the next patch Monarchs with a Villa can have their followers use alliance recall. As one of the main problems with being a Monarch has been limited Mansions and the difficulty of holding rank six we should start to see a lot more monarchies forming. This will hurt the non-chain monarchs a lot more than the normal ones. The chains are a big attraction. Non-chain monarchs will have to give their followers a reason to stay. This will mean that the monarchs who only play a few hours a week will quickly start dropping followers. Meanwhile I'll have to find a way to get a Villa. I have no plans to leave our House as we have a good group that is generous and fun. This will me more a "just in case" thing. I have a core of followers I can count on if we do start building something different. That is a great feeling to have. As the curse said, "May you live in interesting times." The below essay has some great points and good ideas. I hope people at Turbine and MS read this. It is never too late to fix something. As the author plays on DT, the cheating capital of AC, he/she has suffered more than most with the cheaters. How to stop cheating; by Halloween-DT The recent "hacking" of the Shadowbane servers brought to forefront the whole general issue of cheating in on-line games. Cheating in on-line games has been a problem for years that has harmed many games. Duping, speedhacks, aimbots, etc have all contributed to the problem. Cheating in on-line games is a different animal that cheating with real world games. In the real world, the social penalties concerning cheating tend to discourage would be cheaters. If you are caught stealing money from the bank in a game of monopoly the social repercussion will be swift. At the very least you are likely to lose and damage some friendships. And it is quite possible you will end up with a punch in the nose! The on-line environment allows for anonymity that makes it difficult to punish the cheaters. As such, borderline personalities that would not dare to risk cheating in real life have no qualms about cheating their favorite on-line game. And cheating begets cheating. Once cheating is perceived to be common (i.e., "everyone does it") this tends to spawn even more cheating. People end up feeling that they must cheat in order to be competitive with those that do cheat. Once cheating escalates people start to quit the games. Not many people like to compete in a game that is rigged against them. People want and demand fair play. I believe that a few things can help eliminate cheating on-line. 1. Establish and communicate a clear no-cheating policy. Every on-line game publisher should make it very clear that cheating will not be tolerated. A clear definition of what constitutes cheating needs to be explained before the game is launched. Such a policy would eliminate many arguments as to what really is a "cheat". AC suffered for many years because of a lack of a clear policy. 2. Deal with cheaters swiftly and harshly. Cheaters should be banned from the game. The characters and all equipment associated with the cheater should be deleted. In Las Vegas casinos share a database of know cheaters with other casinos. In a similar fashion, game developers should share the names of known cheaters and refuse to accept their credit cards for play. If you are caught cheating in a game it should be difficult for you to find any commercial on-line game that will accept your money. 3. Put as much code as possible on the server, not the client. 99% of the hacks are client side hacks. All critical information should be stored on the server if possible. 4. Police the game Every on-line game should have employees who play the game and are in the position to observe and act on cheating. 5. Hold monarchies (clans, guilds, etc) accountable for the actions of their members. Dissolve clans that contain multiple cheaters. Most game publishers already claim the right to dissolve clans that are based on objectionable terms (e.g, hate groups, etc.) This same policy should be used against clans that continue to have multiple cheaters discovered. 6. Give players the tools to ignore cheaters. If I discover someone cheating in a game of Monopoly I have the power to cease playing with that person and proceed to play a game of Monopoly with a new person. I do not have that option in AC. If I want to PvP in AC I am forced to play on Darktide with well-known cheaters. A solution would be to give me the power to specify the character names of people that I refuse to interact with. Such an option would prevent the person from attacking me, talking to me or trading with me. The character would be invisible to my client. Think of this as a super /squelch option. With this option I could simply choose not to play with anyone what I suspect of cheating. Known cheaters would quickly be unable to interact with many people on the server. This alone would be a powerful social deterrent. The rest of this is what I would do if in charge of AC. I write this with the knowledge that many players would quit AC if my ideas were ever implemented. I also understand that I'll anger some people by saying this. It is my feeling we gain new blood and revitalize the player base if we eliminate cheating. I would take these steps because I honestly believe the player base has come to accept cheating and only harsh steps can reverse it. Many of these steps would hurt me a lot. It would hurt me far more than most players. Nevertheless I would gladly take the hits if it would give AC a better/longer future. 1. Eliminate all macros. This will mean portal bots, buff bots and any means to run a player without a person hitting the buttons. While I like vender bots and portal bots and can accept buff bots I feel that the inch-mile people will take advantage of any crack given them. Only the complete baring of macros will solve the problem. 2. Change xp pass up so only direct vassals give you xp. If there is any XP going up the chain it should diminish at each link. I would raise the percentage a direct will give a patron with time. I would also require that the patron match the playtime of the vassal to get that gain. 3. One strike punishment. If you are caught cheating you should be gone forever. This forgive after a short time encourages the cheaters. I would also track down any accounts the cheater may have and delete them as well. The message must be, "Cheaters are not welcome here." 4. Lastly this is a change that others online games have. That is dungeons that only one person or a party of people can go into. Each person or group that enters gets their own dungeon. This would let them hunt or adventure without interference with and from others. I would only do this if steps are taken to eliminate all cheating. As AC is right now this would be exploited to the hilt. Of course I'm not in charge of AC and never will be. It is unlikely to the point of improbability that any of my subjections would be followed. Nevertheless Turbine/MS has to so something. AC is rapidly becoming a culture of cheating and cheating acceptance.
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