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Re: Minipet Requests
I'd like more minipets linked to completing quests. To me, those sorts of pets feel more connected to the world than ones gotten through promotions. Maybe an Indyuk Villager that sells mugyik calves to honorary indyuk warriors? Or elemental pets from the Elemental Branding Ritualist?
I was also a fan of the living books sold at the barge, and would like to see more sentient inanimate objects. Maybe chests? Or vases?
I was also a fan of the living books sold at the barge, and would like to see more sentient inanimate objects. Maybe chests? Or vases?
Re: POWERBASHING NEWBIES: A Bad Practice That Needs to Stop?
So back before we had systems that would bash for us, or a list of Areas to choose from, every org had a handy-dandy file called HELP BASHING or HELP HUNTING or HELP LEVELING that listed areas, how to attack, and what to bring with you. While I am not a fan of autobashing in its current incarnation for unrelated reasons, it is a bit disingenuous to suggest this is a recent issue of ignoring the world at large.
I will agree with @Savas in this that bashing doesn't teach you much about your class outside the basics of how tanky you are and perhaps which bash attack is best, but I will also recognize @Tetchta point about bashing being a skill, but here is the thing with bashing being a skill. Very little of that skill is learned or applies prior to endgame. Most low-level areas are "hit thing, sip health, touch shield, apply mending, sip immunity" and that's about it, and that's all handled by firstaid apart from the "hit thing" and "touch shield". Colors in health tell you when you're low on health so you know to shield or run, but again, that doesn't really teach you much about the skill of bashing.
Nothing at low-level truly prepares a new player for the threats of Xaanhal, the density of damage found in level 99 areas such as Tiyen or Dovan or Tcanna. Nothing at low-level prepares you for the rolling blackout or the wandering groups of aggro mobs found in Arbothia, or the bursts of damage found in Luzith or even MORE blackout in say Forgotten Dome. Yes, bashing at low level may give you the basics, but the comparison of the two, to me, are comparing learning proper techniques to jog and run, and then jumping into a marathon and realizing that the techniques you learned only barely apply to the task ahead of you.
As for the commentary regarding holding back Yeleni and Azudim and making the 'task' of getting them more indepth, the issue we run into is balance. People severely underestimate the difference 5% damage reduction makes in bashing, and many forget the insanity that occurred when Tekal and above had built-in resistances and regens before raceskills that made it impossible to balance bashing areas correctly. If you want an example of how hard it is to balance endgame with massive boosts, look to Achaea's dragons and the damage input of "endgame" areas. Many areas are built in a way that even with artifacts, you will struggle to survive outside Dragon unless you are a true whale.
So, lot of words. Solution? Take those that want powerbashed out to powerbash. Take the time -as- you powerbash to talk to them about the areas they can explore, the world, and RP with them some before/during/after to get them engaged. Share with them the things your character or you love about Aetolia in a meaningful way. It may stick, it may not, but we all play differently.
Bottom line: Enjoy what you want, share that with others, let people enjoy what they do and encourage that enjoyment if you get a chance.
I will agree with @Savas in this that bashing doesn't teach you much about your class outside the basics of how tanky you are and perhaps which bash attack is best, but I will also recognize @Tetchta point about bashing being a skill, but here is the thing with bashing being a skill. Very little of that skill is learned or applies prior to endgame. Most low-level areas are "hit thing, sip health, touch shield, apply mending, sip immunity" and that's about it, and that's all handled by firstaid apart from the "hit thing" and "touch shield". Colors in health tell you when you're low on health so you know to shield or run, but again, that doesn't really teach you much about the skill of bashing.
Nothing at low-level truly prepares a new player for the threats of Xaanhal, the density of damage found in level 99 areas such as Tiyen or Dovan or Tcanna. Nothing at low-level prepares you for the rolling blackout or the wandering groups of aggro mobs found in Arbothia, or the bursts of damage found in Luzith or even MORE blackout in say Forgotten Dome. Yes, bashing at low level may give you the basics, but the comparison of the two, to me, are comparing learning proper techniques to jog and run, and then jumping into a marathon and realizing that the techniques you learned only barely apply to the task ahead of you.
As for the commentary regarding holding back Yeleni and Azudim and making the 'task' of getting them more indepth, the issue we run into is balance. People severely underestimate the difference 5% damage reduction makes in bashing, and many forget the insanity that occurred when Tekal and above had built-in resistances and regens before raceskills that made it impossible to balance bashing areas correctly. If you want an example of how hard it is to balance endgame with massive boosts, look to Achaea's dragons and the damage input of "endgame" areas. Many areas are built in a way that even with artifacts, you will struggle to survive outside Dragon unless you are a true whale.
So, lot of words. Solution? Take those that want powerbashed out to powerbash. Take the time -as- you powerbash to talk to them about the areas they can explore, the world, and RP with them some before/during/after to get them engaged. Share with them the things your character or you love about Aetolia in a meaningful way. It may stick, it may not, but we all play differently.
Bottom line: Enjoy what you want, share that with others, let people enjoy what they do and encourage that enjoyment if you get a chance.
Saidenn
5
Re: Quotes & Misquotes: Falling Off of Bridges
You use Sanguis Sire on Bulrok.
Sliding a nail against your wrist, you open a small wound into the flesh. You offer the blood to Bulrok, so that he
might suckle and create an everlasting bond with you.
Bulrok nervously reaches for your wrist and brings it to his lips, taking a short suckle of the blood. As it seeps into
his mouth, you feel the bond forming between you. As Bulrok releases your wrist, he bows his head towards you.
(Web): Bulrok says, "Xarian did it."
(Web): Bulrok says, "Yay."
(Web): Mazzion says, "Cool."
(Web): You say, "Now sire me."
Bulrok uses Sanguis Sire on you.
Sliding his nail deep into the flesh of his wrist, Bulrok creates a gash in the flesh. He offers the blood to you, in
order to create the bond of Sire and Childer for all of eternity. You must AGREE if you wish to create this bond. This
is a permanent relationship, and is extremely difficult to break. Choose wisely.
[ ALERT ] - Socket got disconnected.
Reason: The remote host closed the connection
I didn't choose wisely
Xarian
7
Re: LOVE
I love everything going on in Bloodloch, from the events, to the player participation, to the huge activity in the news boards--city hasn't been this active and popping since I came back in January and, honestly, it's better than any of my nostalgia-colored memories of OldTolia. Havin' an absolute blast right now.
Tetchta
5
Re: POWERBASHING NEWBIES: A Bad Practice That Needs to Stop?
This thread has ben an unexpected coincidence for me, because I took the mantle of powerbashing with novices not too long ago and the main point of this thread has been something I've been toying with for a while.
Below are some examples of an OOC conversation I've had with a novice prehunt this morning, before I even knew this thread existed:
I personally started giving these warnings, because, I think people who enjoy the game world through exploration according to their current level, solving quests and therefore taking their time to learn things at their own pace, instead of being welcomed to the endgame and trying to sort everything out at once, are having a much better time in the game and therefore sticking longer with us.
However even with all those kept in mind, I will not say powerbashing is a bad practice. I think it depends a lot on the invidiual's game knowledge or their expectations from the game. If I warn someone about what they might be potentially missing through powerbashing and they are still interested in that, that's good enough for me to do it.
Below are some examples of an OOC conversation I've had with a novice prehunt this morning, before I even knew this thread existed:
I personally started giving these warnings, because, I think people who enjoy the game world through exploration according to their current level, solving quests and therefore taking their time to learn things at their own pace, instead of being welcomed to the endgame and trying to sort everything out at once, are having a much better time in the game and therefore sticking longer with us.
However even with all those kept in mind, I will not say powerbashing is a bad practice. I think it depends a lot on the invidiual's game knowledge or their expectations from the game. If I warn someone about what they might be potentially missing through powerbashing and they are still interested in that, that's good enough for me to do it.
Saltz
6
Re: POWERBASHING NEWBIES: A Bad Practice That Needs to Stop?
I couldn't disagree more. You don't learn anything about 'class nuances' from bashing.
Most classes only have a couple ways they can even attack NPCs, and among those ways there's an optimal way to do things and a suboptimal way. Once you read the relevant GHELPs or ask a friend the best bashing attack for your class, you've pretty much achieved bashing enlightenment in Aetolia. Some times classes have PVE utility like reflections or priestess tarot, but do you really need to bash for hours on end to understand those mechanics? I don't, but maybe I'm some kind of super genius.
This all being said, I do believe in letting newbies stand on their own two feet. I powerbash newbs a lot if they want to hang out, but I try to make sure they understand where they can be hunting at whatever level I leave them off at.
Most classes only have a couple ways they can even attack NPCs, and among those ways there's an optimal way to do things and a suboptimal way. Once you read the relevant GHELPs or ask a friend the best bashing attack for your class, you've pretty much achieved bashing enlightenment in Aetolia. Some times classes have PVE utility like reflections or priestess tarot, but do you really need to bash for hours on end to understand those mechanics? I don't, but maybe I'm some kind of super genius.
This all being said, I do believe in letting newbies stand on their own two feet. I powerbash newbs a lot if they want to hang out, but I try to make sure they understand where they can be hunting at whatever level I leave them off at.
Savas
6
Re: MAD 2: MADDEN'S MADDENING.
(Cursed): A splinter says, "This poem is titled "WO' betide thee that stoppeth the One Who Rises"."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Ahem hem."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Booooo! Put the comedians back on!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Get a day job!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Please stop..."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "I'll be taking records if you go further. Stop."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "My feelings are really hurt."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Taking records? What does that even mean?"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Means you'll get in trouble. Stop while you're not in trouble."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "In trouble with who?"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Think about it."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "On whomst's authority? WHO ARE YOU TO COMMANDETH ME?!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "This communication is not without observation."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "In favor of stopping this: Tiur."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Whomst is that."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Is it really worth risking the ire of those that could make you stop?"
(Cursed): You say, "... this, yet another reason this event is "Regrettable swears" stupid."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Okay... That's enough. Let's use this for it's purpose."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Alright, that's enough. Swearing on here is absolutely a no-go."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "I agree."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Can always optout if you dont' want to partake....as per help CURSE."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "AYE! BEGONE THOSE WHO WOULD NOT SERVE!"
(Tells): The Divine voice of Someone powerful echoes in your head, "Just wanted to give you a heads
up: You've been opted out of the curse event by force for violation of HELP LANGUAGE RULES. Please
try to be more conscientious of this sort of behavior in the future."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Ahem hem."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Booooo! Put the comedians back on!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Get a day job!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Please stop..."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "I'll be taking records if you go further. Stop."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "My feelings are really hurt."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Taking records? What does that even mean?"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Means you'll get in trouble. Stop while you're not in trouble."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "In trouble with who?"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Think about it."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "On whomst's authority? WHO ARE YOU TO COMMANDETH ME?!"
(Cursed): A splinter says, "This communication is not without observation."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "In favor of stopping this: Tiur."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Whomst is that."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Is it really worth risking the ire of those that could make you stop?"
(Cursed): You say, "... this, yet another reason this event is "Regrettable swears" stupid."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Okay... That's enough. Let's use this for it's purpose."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Alright, that's enough. Swearing on here is absolutely a no-go."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "I agree."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "Can always optout if you dont' want to partake....as per help CURSE."
(Cursed): A splinter says, "AYE! BEGONE THOSE WHO WOULD NOT SERVE!"
(Tells): The Divine voice of Someone powerful echoes in your head, "Just wanted to give you a heads
up: You've been opted out of the curse event by force for violation of HELP LANGUAGE RULES. Please
try to be more conscientious of this sort of behavior in the future."
While I'm sorry for doing swears, I'd have happily opted out if you hadn't opened with "If you opt out, you will get no prizes!".
Zantiln
6
POWERBASHING NEWBIES: A Bad Practice That Needs to Stop?
Hello, everybody, I have a hot take today, but I do have some evidence (anecdotal and personal) to back it up. A really common practice, at least in Bloodloch, is to take newbies/lowbies to end game areas and powerbash them up to high levels. I think, while this may have some immediate benefits (who DOESN'T like levelling up 60 times in 20 minutes?) I think we may overall be hurting our newbies more than helping them, and by extention, hurting ourselves and our orgs.
For one thing, bashing in Aetolia is more complicated than a lot of us oldbies realize, having been normalized to it, and what's more, it scales in complexity--meaning that early bashing areas require less trial and error and have bigger margins for success than endgame areas. This means as you progress through zones and gain levels, you get better at a somewhat steady pace. You've had plenty of time to learn about vigor, resistance enchantments, miniskills, and vital room-reading things like "hey I should run away!" I've seen some newbies complain that bashing is too hard because they've been rushed to the 80's or 90's and are bashing areas "for their level" but they're totally underprepared.
What's more, and this is something I discovered when I was exploring to get Aetolian Ranger, is that we end up essentially shrinking the world down. There's a vast swath of the game with really dope quests and cool atmosphere that make Aetolia feel humongous, and they're places you're meant to find organically as you progress through the level system. Places like Dun, Catacombs beneath Djeir, and Riparium end up entirely ignored. The game feels a lot smaller as a result, and unless you go out of your way to these zones on purpose later, you'll essentially never have reason to see them.
This also essentially limits all new content to Aetolia to Endgame, Newbie (Intro and maybe the lowest-of-low level zones), and things that are fun regardless of level. I think we're overriding half the fun of progression by overwhelmingly skipping the entire midgame for people, and we should consider stopping unless people explicitly ask for it or people are known alts who want to skip all that content.
This is not to say that we can't do some bashing with lowbies as a community-building event--especially taking them bashing and watching what they do and giving them pointers can go a long way, I just think we should consider reducing the amount that we power level lowbies.
What do you guys think?
For one thing, bashing in Aetolia is more complicated than a lot of us oldbies realize, having been normalized to it, and what's more, it scales in complexity--meaning that early bashing areas require less trial and error and have bigger margins for success than endgame areas. This means as you progress through zones and gain levels, you get better at a somewhat steady pace. You've had plenty of time to learn about vigor, resistance enchantments, miniskills, and vital room-reading things like "hey I should run away!" I've seen some newbies complain that bashing is too hard because they've been rushed to the 80's or 90's and are bashing areas "for their level" but they're totally underprepared.
What's more, and this is something I discovered when I was exploring to get Aetolian Ranger, is that we end up essentially shrinking the world down. There's a vast swath of the game with really dope quests and cool atmosphere that make Aetolia feel humongous, and they're places you're meant to find organically as you progress through the level system. Places like Dun, Catacombs beneath Djeir, and Riparium end up entirely ignored. The game feels a lot smaller as a result, and unless you go out of your way to these zones on purpose later, you'll essentially never have reason to see them.
This also essentially limits all new content to Aetolia to Endgame, Newbie (Intro and maybe the lowest-of-low level zones), and things that are fun regardless of level. I think we're overriding half the fun of progression by overwhelmingly skipping the entire midgame for people, and we should consider stopping unless people explicitly ask for it or people are known alts who want to skip all that content.
This is not to say that we can't do some bashing with lowbies as a community-building event--especially taking them bashing and watching what they do and giving them pointers can go a long way, I just think we should consider reducing the amount that we power level lowbies.
What do you guys think?
Tetchta
8
