Fist de Yuma - Spetember 28, 2004

This and That One problem with writing, is assuming that everyone understand your point of view. It is easy for the readers to have a totally different idea of what the words mean. I ran into this with two phases in the last column. Those were, "XP Hogs" and "Looting Player." I'm defining those terms later in the column. I was surprised to learn that, taken a different way, I looked like a total fool. Of course, if I was more careful to define what I meant by those words, my point is clear. Let that be a warning to those who contemplate becoming a writer someday. Never assume that the readers understand your terms. If there is any chance they are unclear, define the phrase somewhere. This column will be on the short side today. Gladius for Xbox has taken up a lot of time this week. (g) Highlights of the week Fist's Armorer made 126 this week, thanks to Turbines full level xp reward. That is four of you're counting; Fist de Yuma, Fist de Mage, Fist de Yuma Jr and Fist's Armorer. I can remember when I though it an accomplishment to have three players over 100. He went over 125 after turning in some Tusks, and grabbed the reward shortly after. I almost have the Cliff Bowman transformation done. He will be a combo Armor and Weapon tradesman. In about ten days, I'll have the finally strength increase. I still have few hundred million xp to put into weapon, before I match what Fist Mule two had, but it is getting there. I moved Fist Mule two's drives to other players. It gives me more flexibility, and opens up opportunities with the mule. My current thought is to make him into a Melee Defense mage. The new melee MCI's make that something that works now. It will take many months to move his stats, but it will be an interesting player to have. Careful with names I had good reasons to make my mules with mule names. I really never had any intention of having them do anything but what I originally wanted them to do. Of course, like everything in life, things change. I now have a Greif BM with the name of Fist's Armorer, because my intent was for him to be an armor tradesman. He does not even have the Armor tinkering skill at this time. While that is not a god-awful name, it could be better. Having a melee defense mage with the name of Fist Mule two is god-awful. I hope that someday Turbine gives us the option for a one-time name change. Of course, a name change is unlikely. The main reason will be because of griefers. We know who the bad people are, and the ability to change their name would not be welcome. Still, I would help if Turbine will make a process whereas we can make changes to mule names, to player names, because of a change in status. Meanwhile, don't make the mistake I made. Name your players with real names, not ID names, as it is likely you'll regret it if you don't. Rebuttle: Tir Nagoth I've been reading your column for several years now, and only today do I feel compelled to reply - re: your recent article on "XP Hogs". For years I have played a non-levelling game, but since all my friends are very high level now, and my max char is 86 to so, I have chosen to level almost exclusively in an attempt to catch up. I was recently in the 60+ hive, and found it quite annoying that some of the looters in the group were really dragging down the xp intake. I don't mind people looting in principle, but when you take the group DOWN, that's just wrong. In fact, I was once in a fellow of 4 people, including myself, and the entire group's xp intake was well under 10 mill/hr, when I can personally make 12 solo. That kind of decline makes me feel someone is really taking advantage of me. I have so far been too polite to say anything, and make some excuse to quit the fellow, but it should go the other way too. I guess this two solitudes here, and clarifying the "nature" of the fellow (loot, non-loot, both) would go a long way to keeping the peace. But both types of players need to acknowledge the rights of the others to keep that peace, not just the xp-levellers. Rebuttle: R Scott White Fist I'm sorry to disagree with you, but on the XP hogs you are way off base. From my own experience in fellows, and also from talking to others there, is a very simple reason for a fellow to loot or not loot. If one person in a fellow is looting, then he is getting free experience from the work I am doing. Also, he is lowering the experience that the others who are working are earning. If I create a fellow, I let it be known ahead of time if it is going to be a looting fellow or not. And when I join I ask the same question. That way I can know if I should stay in the fellow, hunt on my own in the same dungeon or hunt somewhere else. It depends on my mood if I am going to be looting or not. Sometimes, I just want to kill every monster I see, and others I want to pick through the corpses and see if there is anything interesting. Many people are the same way. To lump them together as "XP Hogs" is doing them a disservice. Also thinking that "XP Hogs" will quickly move on is crazy, power levelers are here to stay and you know it. Hell Mol is writing up a guide on power leveling for you to post in the column. Common ground One point I want to make. As more people come to a dungeon, the xp will drop. In the matron dungeons, at about 7 people, it does not matter if people loot or not. The lack of anything to kill makes stopping to loot moot. Then there are white players. If there are people there, and not part of the fellow, the xp drops badly. It soon becomes where there is far less xp for the fellow than if everyone looted, far less. However, after a bit of back and forth with Tir Nagoth, we hit on common ground. There are dungeons where there are only a few hunters, or it is so large, that people looting will drop the XP flow. Also, a looting player staying out of the fellow will not affect anyone in such a dungeon. Tir Nagoth brought up the 60+ matron, but I feel this fits very well with the Olthoi Armor dungeons. In those cases, it would be best for a player who wants to loot to remain outside of the fellow. It is mostly a matter of common sense. I'll agree that I might have lumped in XP Hogs without explaining what I think they are. People that love to level are not necessary XP Hogs. If it were, I would have to call myself an XP Hog. Mol and Abin both come to mind as players who love to level, but would never inflict their idea of play on anyone else. No, what I mean by XP Hogs are those that want to level as fast as possible, and demand that others never do anything to slow them down. Indeed, they want others to help them as much as possible, as if it is their right to level. This means they will tell people to "shut up and hunt." They demand that no one loot, even their own kills, and even if looting has no effect on the xp flow. The will do their best to run out anyone who does not fit their idea of how to play. They are unpleasant and hurtful. I'm sorry if I did not define that better. This type of player is thankfully rare, but they have a very wide reach. I spend a lot of time smoothing the feelings of players who have run into XP Hogs. I also was not careful to define a looting player. There are players who loot with little or no killing. They move through the dungeon, looting every body they see, and do their best to avoid battle. Those players should not be in the fellow. I don't even like them in the dungeon. Of course, they have every right to be there, I just don't like it. What I meant by a looting player is one that loots his or her own kills, and no one else's! It is a matter of extremes I guess. Some of the bad players have so affected me that I'm turning off shared looting. I don't mind someone looking over one of my kills, if they wait for me to look first. Nothing will tick up off more than to be checking my kills, only to find someone else looting them. Guest writer: R Scott White I was in the mood to play Abin this weekend, so I took him out to the Caul to play. I didn't want to just stand around. I wanted to explore. Before I met Fist, when the game was new, and we were all young, my original patron used to refer to me as the wanderer. I wasn't always about hunting, but running around exploring. So on the Caul, I decided to head north to tempt fate (more on that later). I was running and dodging all the monsters, to just get a feel for the area. I was up against the huge wall that I think is the barrier to the sea. When looking, I saw what I think was a lighthouse complex at the top. I figured there had to be some way up there, but I wasn't sure what way it was. So I'm doing some running, and it was almost like a zig-zag path, but I made it up there. Mind you, there are a bunch of static spawn sites in the area that will figure in highly soon. I get inside and start running up the ramp, and running, and running. I get to the very top and change my view perspective. I really think it is one of the highest points on Dereth. I sure am not nuts enough to try the jump....what am I saying of course I am, but not when I'm wearing my good stuff, lol. I did a bit more exploring, and tried jumping in an area that, unfortunately, was an area that you can't land in. I was stuck in jump mode, getting hammered. I died; I know you are all as upset about that as I am (grin). I had to use urgent assistance, and had no problem. I explained what happened, and the envoy was very helpful. He moved my corpse enough for me to get it. He said this to me "I moved your corpse to where you can get it but I can't do anything about the monsters around it, you have to deal with them". I responded to him by saying "what fun would it be if it was easy", and he came back at me saying "that is what I wanted to hear, my original patron says if you aren't dying, then you're not hunting in the right area"...I laughed at that and told him to have a great day. I went back, and after some fierce fighting, I got my corpse. I decided to use the lighthouse complex to my benefit. I did a lot of hunting back and forth and was having a blast, picking up some valuable loot for salvage as well. I now have a few items for my trade bot, whenever I set him up that is. Non-AC stuff I have not written about it, but I have been keeping up with my bike rides. It is starting to get cooler, finally, so I'm ready to take out the mountain bike. I have been riding an eleven-mile loop, three times a week. It takes me just under fifty minutes. I'm glad I have my MP3 player, as the ride is a touch boring. The only real excitement is on those rare days when I can catch a ride from a water truck. They are building or have built over most of my old riding paths. My old paths are either housing, or part of the golf course now. Much of it is still under construction. Too keep down on dust; they have big trucks spray water. These trucks fill up on the other side of town, and they drive over the upper part of my loop in the morning. If I'm lucky, I can sprint as they drive by, and catch up with them. If you can tuck behind a big truck, and petal like hell, you can go faster than you can believe. The truck will break the air, and you can fly. I can generally keep up with them for a mile or so. There is a slight hill at the end of the road that forces me to break contact. For a few minutes, I get a big thrill. I'm not sure what the drivers think about it, but I wave and they don't seem mad at me. So, with it getting cooler, I was ready to take on a more exciting ride. I started out with the intent of riding to the Goldwater bombing range. I don't have permission yet, but I did not figure there is anyone patrolling, and I was not going to where the planes go. I'm going to fill out the paper work before I start doing the long rides there. The day before, I had a lot of work to do on the bike. I had to cut the seat post, as a new seat made it to high, and I had bottomed out the post. I also had to fix a flat on the rear tire. I ended up having to replace the tube, as there was a split near the valve stem. Replacing a tube, even on a rear tire, is a three-minute job for an experienced mountain bike rider. So I was ready to head out this morning. There was a slight delay, as I needed to adjust the seat a bit. It was a touch hotter this morning, but nothing bad. I headed up the road, and only got about a half a mile, when I head the rear tire let go with a hiss. Now a fast flat, that makes a hiss, is not something you can repair. So I had to walk back to the house. I dug out a new tube. I figured the one I put in was old, and had rotted in the box. I have seen that before. I did not like it that the rip was in the same place as the tube I replaced the day before. To be sure there was not a problem, I added ten more pounds of air. This time I decided to head into the hills. The ride is shorter, only about ten miles. It was getting later, and I did not want to get into the hotter part of the morning. About a mile from home, while climbing a hill, the tire let go again. So I had another walk, this time a lot longer. The rip was in the same place as the other two. I'm thinking that something got on the rim to make it slippery. I'm sure that the problem is the tire slipping on the rim, and bending the value stem until it rips. I'm going to take a careful look at it tomorrow, and use a harsh cleaner on it. If that does not work, I'll have to order a new tire. Meanwhile, I'll be street riding a bit longer than I wanted.