Fist de Yuma - May 28, 2002

Frustration, victory, anger There are times when a battle just goes bad and keeps getting worst. I was getting pincers for my players when I got a call about a Crystal Lord. I quickly ported to AB and started buffing. A player named Zach Morris was at the LS. This is a guy who has had several accounts banned for outrages behavior. This is also the guy who threatened to stab me in the Walmart parking lot. He started in trying to get my goat, as he does to everyone he meets. I ignored him, finished my buffing and headed out. We had a small group there. There were too few melee for my taste but I had been told we did not need many for this trick to work. The trick is one person runs into the pack and get all the flies to chase him away from the Lord. He runs in circles while someone heals him. The melees attack the Lord until dead. As I cannot touch a Lord with 397 Life I figured I'd be the runner. This worked well. Most of the Flies chased me and the healer kept me alive, barely at some points. The fighters were all in the mid 60's so we did not have any powerhouses. Still they got the Lord down to a under 5% health when a few flies started picking the melee's off. From there it fell apart. The Lord attacked me and my healer lagged out. I take big hits from a Lord so I did my beat feet mode. The fighters were all dead or ported. I think Qhi Shiwa had two or three bodies at this point. We regrouped and tried to do it again. The problem was no one was working together. People would arrive, try to recovery a body or attack the Lord. After two more buffs we had too many bodies on the hill to count. Qhi Shiwa was down to a blue robe for armor. Finally we got everyone cooled down and ready to work together. We let everything settle down. We had a good group of fighters now. Balash had arrived during the battle and had two bodies up there as well. While we waited for everyone to buff up I pointed out how nice the spots of blue Qhi Shiwa bodies made the hill look. At the end Qhi Shiwa had died eight times. I charged and got a bunch of Flies on me. I told the other runner I was going to run to the west and the second runner was to run to the east. He did not hear me as he ran west as well. This was a small problem but we worked it out. The melee's attacked and a few healers kept them alive. A few flies not chasing the two of us and did damage but we dare not kill them. We had one smart player name Cobra Khan. This was one of the two non-Elders there. He was jumped by 4 Flies in the last battle. Rather than try to keep fighting the Lord he became another runner, drawing off the remaining flies. This is one thing that should be pointed out. Anyone who had Flies attached to them should run a short distance from the battle and start circling. If you stay or try and fight the Flies, the battle will be a bust. The other non-Elder was Isawa Nodotai. He was my healer and overall leader at the end. He did a great job. Between us we were one of the few who did not die. Cobra Khan and Isawa Nodotai are good leaders and smart players. If you ever have a chance to team with them, jump on it. In the middle of the battle Zach Morris shows up. He starts taunting us. Everyone knows his game by now so we just acted like he was not there. He stayed up on the hill, well away from danger and fired off his insults. Finally the Lord falls. This was over two hours of work. We were elated and very tired. This was a hard battle with more deaths than any battle I have ever seen. I was at 10 hit points one time and several people had three or more deaths. This is the type of emotional high that is perceptible to falling hard. The killer goes to the body, picked a few items and lets the body go for someone else to get a few items. Zach Morris once again proves he is only in the game to cause grief for others. He runs up and starts looting the Lord. He is tossing insults between loot pick-ups. He grabs about 30 items before a passing PK named Akkah proves that Zach Morris is also one of the worst PKs to ever play the game. Akkah gave me the loot from Zach Morris's body but it is clear that he only dropped a few of his stolen item. This guy was given a permanent ban and has several accounts banned. I was told that he had to get a totally clean system to get back into the game. He has cheated his way back and repeated complaints to Turbine and MS have been ignored. I'm coldly angry at this moron. I guess that means he wins. Guys like that live to piss people off. Like most immature people he lied a lot when confronted. First he said he did it for revenge. I was paying people to lie about him to the Turbine. For one he does enough that there is no need to lie, for another if I did what he said, how would he know. After that lie did not wash he tried to say he was just looting his share of the kill. Of course 20 people saw him do nothing but toss insults while we fought. His lies are easily disproved but we still have to live with his actions. I got one bit of feed back from someone who knows Zach Morris's history from Turbine. He wants to know how he got back into the game as well. With luck he will be gone soon. Of course given his history that will mean he will find a way back and we will have to do this all over again. I think the only way to stop him will be to charge him with trespassing. The Crimson Order I posted about them having a thief in their alliance. They knew they had a loud mouth jerk in their alliance but did not know he was a thief. Several immature players stood up for him anyway. They think he is funny. After it got out of hand and expanded to the VN boards Morgus said he deleted the branch containing Zach Morris. Several people I had respect for showed me I was mistaken to have it. They trashed me in every way possible, totally supporting Zach Morris right to cause grief for others. One said that causing grief is Zach Morris's way of having fun, and as I think the game is about fun I should support him. I'm glad that Morgus took action. There are a lot of people who don't like Morgus. He has done some things that show a disregard for others from time to time. I have always supported him and think he is misunderstood. Many hate him for the stand he has taken on looting. I myself don't like looting. Nevertheless Turbine wholeheartedly supports looting. The way Turbine sees it Morgus's looting stand is they way PK should be played. I feel Turbine is wrong but who can say Morgus is wrong when Turbine wants it that way? With Zach Morris out of TCO all that is left is for Turbine to enforce their band and delete the account. This is about the forth or fifth time he as worked his way around Turbines Permaban. I think it is time to get the law in on this. The courts have stated that going to a place on the internet without permission is trespassing. I don't think MS would do it but I would love to see a picture of this kid in handcuffs. Frustration II I have worked hard on increasing my bow skills this week. I got it so I buff up to 342. I pushed to 50 and was on my way to get the EVL pincer. Balash said Ash'man was on. Ash has a major bow item and minor coodi leggings. He loans them to Elders to help string the bow. I ported back to the mansion and met them. With the two items I had a 359 bow. That should be more than enough. You can guess by the title of this part the results. It broke. Next week I'll have to spend another boring time searching for the guy with the bow. There is an old saying; "I would rather be lucky than good." I don't know if I'm good but I'm sure not lucky. Think and verify before you post. A guy tried to learn a level one spell after the last hot fix. With more than enough skill to do it he failed over and over again. I did a "Ah ha" and ran to the boards. "They have made spells un-researchable!" He posted. He did it in a taunting mode of, "You re-rolls are screwed!" Of course the real problem was he had a wrong comp in. If you're going to rush to the boards about something, it might be a good idea to double check. There is another old saying; "It is better to be thought a fool than post and remove all doubt." Well not exactly but you get the idea. The wrong way and fixing it. Turbine has made some errors over the years. Some of the errors are mild compared to other games of this type. What I like about Turbine is they listen to the players and fix the errors. What I don't like is their refusal to remove the people who bring the game down. A big problem from the beginning has been lines. It started with the Atlan stones. There was a long time between spawns so a big group would have to be there for hours. They fixed that by changing the spawn to 30 seconds. Another problem was large hard dungeons with no reward at the end. Many of the places were like OHN had a portal back at the end and nothing to reward the victory. Of course places like OHN are kind of easy today but when they first came out they were anything but. Turbine has fixed this with rewards. Some, such as the pincer quest, are more than outstanding. Another direction Turbine is going is requiring lot of places to fulfill the quest. With a fast spawn lines are not a problem. People know they have been in an adventure after some of them. I disagree with the switch quests but that is something Turbine likes. I would rather see them go away but only a general complaint by others will move then on that. That leaves only three real problems right now. Find them quests, group rewards and skill checks. The find them quests plain suck. Traveling all over the plateau looking for the skill guy is boring. It also leads to grief play. Moby Dick found the skill guy and called me. I had my Archer on the run and a few clicks away when another player ran by Moby Dick and killed him. The ease of his kill made us think he did it just to cause grief. He was high enough level that he likely had done the quest already and just wanted harpoons. There is nothing against the rules on this but it still caused a lot of anger. Quests like this distract from the fun. Boring and open to anger these quests need to be changed to make them exciting and not open to grief play. A few days later Moges and Deadeye hunted for the skill guy. Moges found him but unfortunately I was a ways off when he did. By the time I got there another group came up and killed it. The lack of group rewards for group quest is a big problem. Turbine has forced people to group to kill a Lord. After they do there is no way to fairly distribute the loot. It is also open for guys like Zach Morris to steal. The new Island quest is a great idea. This has made it a group reward and the island quest is well worth doing again. More fixes like that would be welcome. Lastly is the skill checks. With a random chance for failure this is the most frustrating thing Turbine can do. An unlucky player, due to no fault of his own, is left out. Combine this skill check with the boring random spawn and two-week wait you have pure frustration. I had a friend fail to make the Crop with 330 skill. Turbine needs to make a point where the skill is guaranteed. At least we will have a goal to work for. They way it is now, no matter how good you are you can fail. Turbine has worked to remove frustration from the game. The new changes will make it even better. Turbine is to be applauded for their efforts. I hope that the above problems can be addressed as well. Frustration fixed My vassal UR III and Sissy have been looking for a house for some time now. Houses have been another frustration with the game. I think the current changes are good but would still like to see a way to make a waiting list. This would stop selling on E-bay and other problems. The below is UR's story on getting his house. wow.. talk about weird.... We log in tonight to mess around. We see a house is available. I run up to see what the item is, a Timber siraluun claw, Dang, don't have one. Total stranger comes up and buys the house. I'm a bit miffed since I had someone who had just messaged and said they had a claw. I admit I got a bit rude. I apologized to him and Darken Rahl and we start talking. All of a sudden ANOTHER is house available. I haul booty to the location and sure enough, it's open. Mansmoke gives us a claw and me and sis haul to the house. It is a beautiful little cottage in the woods. BINGO, she gets it, she's happy as can be. Meanwhile Total stranger had very generously led me to his old apartment and I grabbed it with a mule to give as a gift to another friend, an ex vassal who returned after a break. I then notice, OMG ANOTHER house open. I take off thinking maybe I can get one. I get another claw from mansmoke because I was gonna get this house for a friend who has helped us out a lot. I get to the house and lag a bit. I see the item is a copper heart, I portal back, grab a heart, portal to house and some guy is standing there. I explain to him I was there and am going to buy the house and he starts yammering about how he was there first.. blah blah. Well I forget to let go of my apartment and he gets the buy. I'm not happy and I tell him so. Well I figure I'm not gonna have any luck but at least Sissy got one. All of a sudden ANOTHER house opens. I take off like a bat ouuta hell. I have all the items in my pack I can think of. I portal jump, lag and cuss and swear at my pc till I get to the house. YES!!!! It's for a copper heart. BANG. I snag the house as 4 other people portal in. WOOHOO. And not only do I get the house but it already was full of NICE items. So me and sis both got a house and I gotta thank these people.. Total stranger, for the Apartment, the random house items and the encouragement and not taking my bad mood personally. Darken Rahl- for the writ and the M note and also helping out with encouragement. Mansmoke- for the 2 claws. If you need it bud, ask. And for the XP chain kid who jacked the empty cottage. Thanks to him I got one with Uber-Goodies. We had luck of luck and are no longer homeless... and both of us have smiles a mile wide. Thanks to all the people who fed me info and coords and made it possible. HOE ROCKS!!!!! Apologize to Stay Puff I did something I should not have done the other day, watched a PK fight. With all the frustrations of this week I should have just hit North ML and mindlessly killed vapors and Virindi. The battle was between Stay Puff and someone over 30 levels below him. It was one of those battles that proves PK in AC needs a lot of work. For one the flickering of the people back and forth from lag must have been a lot more frustrating for them than me. The battled was over 10 minutes long when Stay Puff said something that got me going. He said, "I'm a PK God". In hindsight it was a joke about how long the battle was taking. I took it literally as bragging. We had a war of words that got well out of hand. Two points to make here. One he was in a big battle and had time to make a joke. Two he continued the battle and at the same time had the words with me. This shows a command of the keyboard I could only wish for. Stay Puff has a lot of problems and needs to check his EGO at the door but nevertheless I was wrong. I apologize to him and those who were around to hear it. We did not curse but I did not need to distract from the enjoyment of others with my comments. Back in the Saddle After gaining 20lb over the last two years it was time to do something about it. Even my wife started pointing out that I was gaining a bit. I use to ride my mountain bike in the desert around 100 miles a month. This was over rocks, sand, washes and other obstacles that made it something of an adventure. When I hit 50 I found it harder and harder to push the line. As long as I could ride faster and farther I had a goal. I could still ride people 30 years my younger in the dirt but than a small EGO boost it did not mean much. I also started writing more and playing AC to much. It got harder and harder to get up at 5am for a bike ride. Believe me you don't want to go much later in the desert. A few weeks ago I had to make a change. I put some slick tires on my older bike for some street work. I started out slow and short, around 12 miles and hour average and 5 miles distance. Each week I'm pushing a few more miles and trying to go faster. How much faster I don't know yet as my bike computer is broken. Being goal oriented I need a few benchmarks. Some of our sister's kids broke the bathroom scale so I have no idea of my weight, around 215 last like I looked. I don't know my exact speed or mileage. This might be good. It is letting me ride for the pure fun of riding. The plan is to have myself in shape to ride in the dirt by mid November. I made the mistake of planning a long ride on November first one day, over 100 degrees. This time I'll wait a few weeks. The ride I want to do is around 21 miles through some very hard county. It is a old gold mine in the middle of the desert. There is a lot of climbing with most of the trail cut by washes. There is one ride I have always wanted to do. There is a trail through the Gila mountains. I tried to ride this trail one day but ran out of water and food halfway into it. I did a lot of suffering on the way back and never had a chance to try it again. That was second attempt. When in the Marines I had a group of around 10 young strong Marines with support jeeps, family and friends. When the Jeeps could not get past a rock everyone decided not to continue. Being stubborn I wanted to go alone but was not allowed. Never take your officer on a trip like that. It will take teamwork and planning but I hope to try it one more time. I'm still young enough to do it but I cannot wait 10 more years. I have to travel through the Marine Bombing range. Last time I looked the environmentalist were trying to stop people from using the trail. Why my bike would bad when bombs are ok I'll never know. (Ok not real bombs, dummies but you get the idea.) Royal Wedding One of the really long time players and monarchs is Romside. He is a natural leader who created a great alliance right from the start. Being from Germany it was natural that many of the overseas players joined him. Many people may not know him as he was never the biggest but he was one of the strongest. The different playing times than most stateside people also affected his fame. I had not heard too much about him for a while. I was not even sure if he was still playing. Then something happened bring him into the news. Archmage Lara is more well known. She has been on the boards a lot. I'm not sure when she started playing but I only started hearing her name last year. It was announced that Romside and Archmage Lara was getting married a few weeks ago. I hoped to attend and made my plans. I was sure that Saturday the 25 was clear. Well the best laid plans and all that. My wife Rosa was in Mexico visiting friends. The plan was her to come home on Friday. Friday came and went so I knew she would not be returning until Saturday. I was to pick her up at her fathers house when she returned. It is a 20 minute trip there and most of the time she would arrive about the time the wedding was scheduled. I got a phone call from Rosa around 1pm. I asked her if she minded me picking her up a few hours later. I lucked out. Her sister was visiting and she was happy to stay there for a while. So I could attend. I got to Holtburg and acquired a portal gem to the wedding hall. I ported Fist there and logged. Then did a little more cleaning so I would not get too balled out for any mess. I logged in about 30 minutes before it started. It was very well attended. Dao-Sao had a plug in that counts people and came up with 135. It started great. They had it well choreographed. There were two lines of people, one in the Lady's robes and the other in Matties, so black and white. Romside walked the black robed side to await his lady. The ladies in waiting came first and then Lara with Og II as an escort. I agree with many that have said the wedding bod is far to fast. There should be at least a 10 to 15 second pause between text strings. The wedding itself is over in a hurry. This is where it broke down a little bit. We did not know what was going to happen next. The wedding party delayed a bit and many thought it was over and started celebrating. As they tried to restore order and go on with the wedding, Martine showed up. I did not know what to expect. I know he is ran by Turbine so I really did not expect him so show on Saturday. He never said anything at first. He floated down to the alter. Several people started attacking him. Martine did nothing and the attacks were less than effective. I thought it was very thoughtless to try and battle Martine at the wedding. They finally backed off but a few people were buffing, not a good sign. Romside and many others called for no attacking Martine. He wanted everyone to sit down because the wedding was not over. Most did which left them set up for what came next. Finally Martine killed a few of the attackers and I thought that was the end of it. I was seated all this time on the front row right. I got the message that Arch Mage Lara was killed by Martine. Now that was uncalled for! Then he fired off a ring spell that killed everyone between the alter and the first few seats. I was killed shortly after. I hit the LS alone with Romside. We both thought this was rather tasteless of Turbine at the time. Later we felt that it made the wedding that much more important. It added to the story line nicely. Of course it is easy to laugh off this after the fact, while it was going on is a different matter. I quickly ran back to Holtburg and got another gem. By the time I got back to the hall Martine was gone. I recovered my body, death 85. The wedding finished up with some nice words by several of the wedding party. The last step was to go outside for fireworks. Of course with that many people it was instance portal storm. After getting ported away I decided to clear the vit and go get Rosa. I find I really need to add a lot more to Creature. It already cost me 20 million a point but I need a lot more. It was a painful buff when I have vit, a lot of fizzles. I'm glad that people posted some screen shots because there was a lot I missed. Lot of message traffic made it hard to know what was going on. Here is what Martine said. Martine says, "I do." Martine becomes very still. Martine says, "From now until the end of my days I shall cherish this time with you." Martine says, "Query. What is time?" Martine says, "A measure of moments." Martine says, "Query. Moments?" Martine says, "A unit of time." Martine says, "No." Martine says, "Query. How can one exist without the other?" Martine says, "They dont. They are the same, but one is a distinct measurement and the other the overall." Martine says, "Query. Is everything that your race does so complicated?" Martine says, "Query. Is this why you long for Ispar?" Martine says, "No. Some things just are, like...love and marriage. Knowing that when you see her face, and the face of your child that no matter what horrors you are faced with you shall get through them." Martine says, "You wont get there! You hear me! You wont! She is mine, my one...my only! You cant have her Asheron!" Martine says, "Query. Am I then free?" Martine says, "Are we here?" Martine sobs. Martine says, "Marriage is a farce." Martine says, "A nonsensical union that bonds two souls irrevocably for life, until death do you part!" Martine says, "Love is a front for reality." We should have gotten the idea about then that this was not going to be a friendly visit. If I had seen that text I think I would moved back a bit. What came next I only saw the humming part. I was also unaware that his ring spell is a bang your dead spell. Martine says, "Such a happy couple... I was once part of a happy couple..." Archmage Lara prays. Zanator Moonblade says, "You can be happy again, Martine." Archmage Lara hugz her new husband! A soft hum begins to emanate from within Martine Martine says, "Marriage, a union that bind to souls. You see. No? Perhaps I shall make you understand." Martine says, "Believe me, I'm going you both a great favor." "You'll thank me" was what he said as he killed most of the people there. Remember when reading this that it happened so fast I did not have time to stand up. Martine knocks Bunnykiller II into next Morningthaw! The thunder of Martine crushing Arizzen the Lord is followed by the deafening silence of death! The thunder of Martine crushing Stefanie the Cute is followed by the deafening silence of death! Jagged Edgess body is shattered by Martines attack! The force of Martines assault flattens Shin Ki-jun! Martine sends Xira alEspiranxa to death so violently that even the lifestone flinches! The force of Martines assault flattens Ihsahn! The force of Martines assault flattens Warped! The thunder of Martine crushing Fist de Yuma is followed by the deafening silence of death! Logan says, "ok time to kick his ass " Martine beats Askani to a lifeless pulp! Martine obliterates Brian the Swordsman! Martine obliterates Saelar! Martine slays Xnedra of Riva viciously enough to impart death several times over! Lou Cypher catches Martines attack, with dire consequences! Martine beats Desire to a lifeless pulp! The force of Martines assault flattens Sheralyn Jade! Martine beats Domaris to a lifeless pulp! The force of Martines assault flattens Cristo Adicto! Martine says, "YOULL THANK ME!" Og II catches Martines attack, with dire consequences! The force of Martines assault flattens Romside! Minifusss body is shattered by Martines attack! Martine smites Caziopia mightily! Martine beats Towada-sho to a lifeless pulp! Fizzelles body is shattered by Martines attack! Martine says, "Youll all thank me in the end!" Martine obliterates Arastar! Hamlit the Heartseekers body is shattered by Martines attack! The deadly force of Martines attack is so strong that Thor Azaroths ancestors feel it! Martine says, "I can teach you no more!" After seeing the hum message I saw Lara die. I was shocked to say the least. Lara was calling for piece and not attacking. I did not even have time to stand up before I died. From the pictures I saw he killed most of the people there before leaving. From the story line Martine is driven mad by his separation from his wife. When he was ported to Dearth he lost his family forever. So his trying to disrupt a wedding to save them the pain he has felt fits his madness. I'm not sure why but the line; The thunder of Martine crushing Fist de Yuma is followed by the deafening silence of death! Was the most quoted line on the boards, with a bunch of Ha Ha's added in. There are a lot there who really dislike me.