scafativ

Another very good resource for this sort of thing is the CEL website. It tends to be more up-to-date than the encyclopedia, has more info, and has a really nice presentation, being a website and all. As an example: http://www.el-cel.com/info/magic.php

Wizz, A couple of things- First- gossip will only match you to someone else who is looking for a match. It seems pointless to match people to players that already are hooked up with a partner, or are working on other skills, ATM. Also- the matching routine is only run every day or two to permit the numbr of requestees to build up. This leads to relatively good matches. I'm sorry that you haven't had a match yet- so far, more that half had- scafativ

I was contacted by Harriette (who's having difficulty posting here), and she says that she pvps quite nicely w/o restore by using remote heal on herself! I must admit, I didn't even know that one could do that. With a bit of will, the number of regained mat points is quite useful, apparently. So- my plan (implemented in the next week or so) will be to match sub-restore players with the like, and restorable players with each other. That will be just a refined match without leaving anyone out of it. scafativ

Wow, Terena! It never occurred to me that someone would request a match without restore. As Mr. Lee and others suggested, it's a must for pvp training. I'm going to do a few queries to see how many unrestorable folks have requested matches. I'm considering rejecting matchup requests if they don't have the magic level. I'll do some research and figure it out from there. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. scafativ

As much fun as this may sound (to the cruel mind), gossip will never do anything to violate the public trust. People would stop using her. Dozens of matches have gone out already- once you've been matched, you have to type '/gossip matchme pvp' again when you're ready for a new match. Feedback on the quality of the matches is encouraged, so we can tweek in the formula. scafativ

Why else do you think that you have to indicate "pvp" after "matchme"? Well, it currently isn't once per RL day, actually- think of it more as a 24 hour cool-down. Since you asked nicely, I'm going to change it to a 12 hour cooldown, and see how that goes. Entropy suggested that gossip have a 10% chance to have admiration privacy "break", thereby revealing the admirer, but we won't be doing that. (just kidding, ent). scafativ

kl4Uz- it's going to take a bit of time before you'll get match results, because she needs a bunch of people to sign up before she starts maknig matches. You were one of the very first to request a match, so there wasn't anyone to match you to. Give it a bit of time- and the more, the merrier. scafativ

I swear I'm not crazy... I logged on, noticed that there was a special day(half food), harved a load of Yarrow, then went off to manu. My food level was -46! I used an FP and it went to +4. Is that intentional? Is this a previous change that I missed? scafatuv

And I'd be happy to. Everyone can create an up to four line biography / description of themselves on gossip. It will be displayed to people who type "/gossip about yourcharname", alone with your stats, when you were last on, etc. To set your bio, do the following: /gossip mybio # biography line…. You must place a 1, 2, 3, or 4 in the # position. The length of the text is limited as any pm is. Example: /gossip mybio 1 I was a green little boy growing up in South Redmoon. Enjoy! scafativ

This was an awesome explanation of the change and the solution, and I'm sure that I speak for all the bot builders when I thank you for advance warning! scafativ

I'd like some opinions on what skills/attributes come into play when choosing a PvP partner, and how close do they really need to be for decent XP w/o burning through a ton of HE. My questions are: 1) Do you agree that the only factors that are important are a/d/p/c? 2) Are some factor more important to have very close than others? 3) Does the margin increase as the stats get higher? In other words- if your a/d is in the 30s, does your partner have to be within a couple of points, but if they're in the 80s, do you have more leeway? 4) Take 60/60/26/26 as an example- what would a reasonable margin be for a partner. It seems to me that, as you get higher stats, the match doesn't really have to be all that close. I appreciate any discussion, opinions or examples. scafativ

The update went smoothly enough. To make our testing more efficient- can you post a list of things you want tested, exactly? Where are the new swords and armors available? Which map are new, and what's the best way to get there (i.e.: from portal room, frm bethel, etc.) Some hints on what you want banged on will get us banging faster.... Also- does this update make any changes to the client-server protocol that you could imagine would break bots? scafativ

Well, gossip has been 100% stable for 10 weeks she's been around, and she's running on a debian linux box that is perfectly stable, so at this point, she's started manually. She reconnects automatically if there's a server reboot or a blip in our bandwidth without the bot code or the box being "rebooted". I'd normally have a watchdog cron to restart a process like a bot, but gossip's been so stable that I think I'd prefer to diagnose before restarting her if (when?) she did crash. scafativ

Me too. No ping from ther server scaf

Sounds good- but like you said- the amount of XP is very important, because swords require a lot more effort than other summoning ingredients. scaf

How do you die harving flowers? scaf

Actually, Gossip does all of this, and isn't buggy. There's no need to "fetch" messages from her, because she senses when you're on and delivers them automatically. WHat's nice about this is: you can send messages to players who don't even know about her, and they'll get them automatically. If you PM her about something else, she'll give you your messages then too. Soon, she'll be able to forward your messages to your email, if that is your preference. Details at: http://www.el-cel.com/info/gossip.php

In fact, I think that all players should be TPed to IP on startup. People can leave the place of peace as they desire. scaf

Didn't you just say that you were out back on a chaise lounge reading? Do you have to keep blowing the snow off of the pages to read? Scafativ

Thank you- I understand your point now, and I agree. scafativ

How do you define "message bot"? I'm working on one, and I think that it will be very useful. scafativ

What rule are they violating? They may be rude, but that's the thing about AI. I have yet to see them break a rule. scafativ

It would be interesting and useful to have a ring that teleports you to where it was made. That would make it possible to teleport anywhere. Of course this would be a ring that only very high level crafters could make. I also don't imagine that it would bring you across continents. It would only work on your current continent. Technically, it would be challenging. I don't know if the architecture allows for items to have an additional fields. If so, a map number / cartesean coordinate could be tagged onto the item. The user would be able to discern between various possessed "Universal Teleport Rings" using the eye icon. Each location type would use up one of the 36 inventory positions, and one of the 300 storage slots, so hoarding of different locations would inherently be discouraged. I don't remember seeing this idea before and couldn't find it on a search, so if it has been made, my apologies. scafativ

It seems logical to me that when a player engages a skunk, they should always become poisoned, like there is a chance of being when fighting a red snake. Anyone who has tangled with a skunk IRL knows that it really is a matter of being poisoned. scafativ

I think that having a second server with the identical world, but where everyone starts from scratch is fabulous! However, I think that not having names reserved is going to lead to much teeth knashing and chaos. As an alternative, can't you just move all the character names and passwords over to the new server? No skills or personal resources- just give ppl the chance to "claim" their name? Seems fair. scafativ