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themuntdregger

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About themuntdregger

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  • Birthday June 23

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    Ban City
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    fluffy kittens and helping Burn.

    What else did you expect ?

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  1. Magic Suggestions

    To be fair, you didn't explain it very well first time round. Its still not explained well enough to support your conclusions. That seems a shame given just how much you claim they have to offer everyone. Not everyone has the attention span of goldfish and freaks out at more than two sentences. If an idea is good, be brave enough to detail it in full. I take issue with your use of the word 'specialise'. The whole point of perks/nexus/attributes/stats system (at least imho) is to allow for the widest range of char builds ? I also take an entirely different view on perks/nexus/items etc. Seeing them merely as a way to gain "a slight advantage over those that don't" rather overlooks the fact that the game is not simply about pk, but also competition with environment, trading, guilding and socialising. If you're proposing to increase mage skills, surely you need to explain how this will balance with other equally important aspects of game-play ? Actually no. Magic nexus is required for crafting, potions and manu, not simply as a way for pk'ers to avoid repeated long walks back from the Underworld. I certainly like the idea of expanding the potential uses of any skill to increase styles of play and teamwork. After all, whats not to like ? However, I fail to see how your particular example illustrates any of this. How exactly does raising/lowering the distance at which you can cast spells on others (relative to stats/items) create any significantly different style of play ? Where do the many new teamwork elements come into this ? How does this make mage skills offer "so much more" (other than in the limited world of pk) ? When you propose such a fundamental change, it needs to take into account and balance the interests of the widest number of players. I've nothing against simply copying aspects of other games, (as your idea seems to). However, EL is not (thank teh_god) merely a clone of wow. Long may that continue.
  2. Magic Suggestions

    Not quite sure how you go about integrating "proper" mages in a game which doesn't have rigid classes, unless you're intending to introduce them. Imho, the fact that EL doesn't have such fixed classes and professions is one of its best features. Why not simply use the pp system to progressively facilitate more 'mage like' features right the way up to a full 'Harry Potter' makeover ? I've never come across the term 'proper friendly buffing'. Sounds like the pk equiv of 'mutual grooming'.
  3. =hc=

    Why am I not surprised
  4. explorer daily?

    Indeed Zaer. What a great idea. Such a shame we don't have a button marked 'like' on these forums. and another marked 40,000 volts EDIT: Punchline
  5. explorer daily?

    This would be a monumental waste of time. People can obviously manage to do this kind of thing within a guild by themselves, they don't need any commands to do it. Ofc, there's the small matter of checking who actually manages to find 'the bee hive in teh woods', what order they arrive in, whether they arrive within the allotted time, not to mention sharing out the gc when they do. If its an exploring quest then fairly obviously you're going to need some first hand means of checking that they've completed the objective. However, if the nature of that objective is find a some small hidden item such as bee hive, birds nest, picnic blanket etc, then stationing someone over the top of it going to be just a teensy bit obvious, don't you think ??? Yup, you can do as Aislinn's guild does and get ppl to take screenies of the objective and email that back once they've found it. Its a great idea, but its still very manual and time-consuming. The point of my suggestion was to make it easy for guilds to hold explorer quests specifically as an alternative to having yet another general daily.
  6. explorer daily?

    Fair point, well put. I'd failed to appreciate the obvious limitation in the scope of quests set by Xaq/Haidir. Your comment took me back to guild quests i've enjoyed of a similar theme. Hence, rather than have yet another general game quest, the game could enable individual guilds to run their own exploring quests. This might allow for say a rank 19 to launch a guild quest via #command using parameters such as : [location to be found] eg : Desert Pines 100 100 [search clue] eg : Find the bee hive in teh woods in the next hour. First four finders get xxx gc [reward pot (gc)] eg : 5000gc [quest duration (minutes)] eg : 60 [pot distribution] eg : could support a range of options including 'first finder takes all', 'first X finders share pot' , 'first X finders get reducing amount' [eligibility] eg : could support a range of options including 'entire guild' 'guild plus allies', 'guild members below x rank' Guilds could run the above as often as they like, be it hourly daily or, weekly. I guess you could also have concurrent, or stacked quests. As long as you limit the reward to gc, you've got the option to distribute the reward in a variety of different ways, and can make initiating a quest conditional on automatically deducting the pot from the sto of the guildie who initiates the quest. Really liked this idea. Imho, this would make a great general daily, subject always to the nature and amount of the reward. Agreed.
  7. explorer daily?

    I can't see how this really differs that much from the haidir/xacelina theme, ie look for XX thing in XX map. The only real difference in this case seems to be that you don't even have to harv/kill or achieve anything much other than search/find. Exploring is an element in just about all quests, so there seems precious little reason to make it an end in itself, especially not on a daily basis. As such, it seems little more than another means by which players who prefer certain elements of the game can avoid grind and level quickly. Surely it would be better to fill in some of the more obvious gaps in the daily quest regime, ie potioning, crafting, summoning, ranging, tailoring, magic etc ??? Could these not be structured so as they not only require/encourage/incentivise players to find things on maps, but in far more constructive and interesting ways ??? No offence, but this one seems on the level of a wandering daily dung quest No offence, *direct insult* lol Hardly! But just so we're fully clear what a 'direct insult' actually is, its when you refer directly to someone in a demeaning, contemptuous or disrespectful way, eg by describing that person as a 'windbag' or 'asskissy'. An 'indirect insult' would be when you set out to achieve the same ends without direct reference to the person, eg by making fatuous comments on the length of a post, simplistic and poorly justified criticisms of their pov/ideas, or simply using charmingly descriptive terms like 'shit' when drawing your comparisons. All i've done is little more than disagree with your pov, and its hardly as if its unjustified. Get over it lol. Actually, what I said was "One of the great aspects of EL is the design and artwork that goes into the maps. Not sure if i'm in a minority, but I often go to places just to enjoy the scenary and sunsets. Shame therefore that, aside from the aesthetics, there's little practical reason for players to visit large sections of maps". Not sure what you see, but I count two sentences, from a single thread, which hardly seems to count as 'windbagging'. As for 'asskissy', not sure if that infers criticism of the games artwork, me personally, or a mixture of both. If you're going to make these kind of remarks, at least be clear on who's ass you think i'm trying to kiss and why you think i'm trying to kiss it. Regret I don't agree with your assertion of a contradiction in my pov regarding 'exploring'. Yes I would agree your quest suggestion would result in more of the design and artwork being seen and appreciated, but not in a way that (in my very humble opinion) would be particularly imaginative or balanced. You miss the point. The exploring element is common to both Haidir and Xaquelina, therefore why repeat it for its own sake? The only major difference between Xaquelina and your quest appears to be finding and clicking multiple items on a map, rather than one. I'm simply saying that, imho, it seems like a comparatively minor variation. I could understand if the quest activity was directly linked to a specific skill which was not already covered by a daily, ie a ranging daily that involved ranging and gave ranging exp. However, hunting worms seems to have little direct relevance to any skill exp reward. That might be fine for a one-off quest, but as a daily, it simply seems a way for players to avoid grind. EDIT: punctuation, diplomacy and length
  8. I like this idea very much. It develops an existing theme in a way that's logical, challenging and interesting. No way you'd otherwise get me interested in having anything to do with dragons unless there was a fairly big mixing incentive at the end. Even so, i'd rather be inclined to buy the dragon scale and avoid that peril lol.
  9. explorer daily?

    I can't see how this really differs that much from the haidir/xacelina theme, ie look for XX thing in XX map. The only real difference in this case seems to be that you don't even have to harv/kill or achieve anything much other than search/find. Exploring is an element in just about all quests, so there seems precious little reason to make it an end in itself, especially not on a daily basis. As such, it seems little more than another means by which players who prefer certain elements of the game can avoid grind and level quickly. Surely it would be better to fill in some of the more obvious gaps in the daily quest regime, ie potioning, crafting, summoning, ranging, tailoring, magic etc ??? Could these not be structured so as they not only require/encourage/incentivise players to find things on maps, but in far more constructive and interesting ways ??? No offence, but this one seems on the level of a wandering daily dung quest
  10. Storage Slots - A suggestion

    Yeah, maybe. But I'd still rather put my 2 cents in as to my preference, and why, rather than let it be assumed I think the bot solution is "just as good as" or even "better" than reworking the slots. If I could do it, I would. Yes, reworking slots would seem a far better solution. I'd agree that its also prudent to avoid situations where abuse is likely. Where have you ever seen me say I like that, either? I don't. I'd rather see things that don't affect game play for sale for $, such as houses or rooms, clothes, horses, stalls, appearance changes, etc. And I'm sure you can find where I've said as much, probably many times. I support your view when it comes to the selling anything for $$$ that significantly devalues the effort, skill and patience of the majority of other players. However, I don't agree that purchasing advantage/convenience for $$$ automatically gives rise to the latter. In the case of selling additional slots, I disagree (or at least don't see the case for suggesting) that the degree of advantage/convenience is likely to skew game-play in any material way. However, I can see how the potential revenue might assist in developing the game in any number of ways, if only to provide a clear incentive for tackling the complexity involved in reworking the slots problem.
  11. Storage Slots - A suggestion

    Personally, i'd rather have the option to buy storage slots than no option at all. Moreover, I can't quite see how having to pay $ for extra storage could be any more unfair than charging for rostogols, bots or any other of the myriad of items available at the el shop. Until such times as server costs are payable in gc, surely the willingness of players to pay irl $$$ for the convenience of a few extra slots, or a store bot, is something that should be applauded and encouraged ?
  12. Storage Slots - A suggestion

    I guess that depends on the structure on the server database. If the number of slots are reflected as table fields, its not difficult to dynamically allocate how many are used, just less efficient than a structure where slots are reflected as table entries (as per 3nf). Other than that, you'd need to change the adjust the protocol used to pass data from the server to client to include the number of available slots, possibly by tacking on the value at the beginning of the STORAGE_LIST data structure. You're making the assumption that the EL server uses a database. It doesn't. Radu has said before that it's flat files and making the change to sto size will be difficult since he needs to modify all the files for each character's sto too. I'm assuming that since it's a flat file, that the size for the storage info is preallocated and fixed. It would be possible to use only a portion of that reserved space of course, but it does add to the complexity. Interesting to know its implemented as flat files, but kind of surprising. I wonder if that arose as a distinct design choice, or simply as a result of ad-hoc coding? However, it does suggest the scale of the difficulties involved in modifying certain aspects of the game. I guess its easy enough to pack out each individual file entry with enough space to hold the maximum permitted slots, and then (as you suggest) use only a portion of that space. However, if only a minimal number of players are likely to qualify for the full allocation, its going to result in a lot of wasted space. I guess that's not a problem if there's no issue with storage capacity, but i'd agree with your point on complexity. Top idea. Buying and selling is massive fun and very profitable.
  13. Storage Slots - A suggestion

    I guess that depends on the structure on the server database. If the number of slots are reflected as table fields, its not difficult to dynamically allocate how many are used, just less efficient than a structure where slots are reflected as table entries (as per 3nf). Other than that, you'd need to change the adjust the protocol used to pass data from the server to client to include the number of available slots, possibly by tacking on the value at the beginning of the STORAGE_LIST data structure. Have to confess I like the concept of having slots dynamically allocated. Just not sure that linking it to levels is the best way to implement it. I'd suggest books might be better due to its potential as a cash sink and avoiding the 'reset issues' mentioned previously. Other than that, i'd have thought extra slots were one of those items that would be ideal for selling through the EL shop.
  14. Issac Walton strikes again

    Take a look at the average map in EL and admire how 'insanely minutely detailed' they are. Some in particular (pv is my fave) are an absolute work of art. Not sure if its always appreciated just how much thought and imagination must go into designing aspects of the game that players tend to overlook or take for granted. No doubt the same probably applies to code as much as art. However, there are occasions when code simply seems more clever than it actually is. Relatively simple recursive algorithms can give rise to incredibly rich and complex behavior, eg mandlebrot. Hence, designing an algorithm which gives the likelihood of a fish being caught in a particular tile under a particular set of rather limited circumstances is hardly 'rocket science', especially when compared to plotting movements of individual 3d sprites.
  15. Issac Walton strikes again

    A few ideas for fish AI.... Irl fish movement and feeding is determined by environmental factors. Not all of those are easily replicated within a mmorpg, but there's enough in EL to give finding and catching the degree of challenge necessary to make it a fun activity. So what kind of factors are we talking of .... Time of day - Fish have daily feeding patterns, being more inclined to feed within certain hours and less so outside these periods Weather- Irl, barometric pressure affects the inclination of fish to feed. We don't have the former in EL, but we do have rain and shine which could essentially reflect the same. Time of year - Some species are more inclined to feed in certain months and less so in others Depth - Atm, we don't have depth in EL. I guess it could be approximated simply by how far from land a particular water tile lies. Bigger fish typically prefer deeper water, whilst smaller ones prefer shallow (at least during daytime). At night, its not uncommon for bigger fish to move into shallower water. Sensitivity - Some species of fish are more sensitive to disturbance (particularly during the day) which means you might have to wait longer for them to appear. Bigger fish are in any case for sensitive than smaller fish, which also makes them harder to catch. As per irl, clothing can make a huge difference, so maybe penalise those who wear gaudy armor, heavy boots or bright colored items, whilst favoring the skunk hat wearing fraternity. Cover- Most fish prefer to be close to cover during the day, be it man made objects such as boats and jetties, or natural ones such as trees and rocks. Plenty of nice fishy looking places already in EL, some even in pk zones. Might give a reason for those of us who mix to come and permanently own places like kf. Bait- Any bait will catch any fish, but some baits work better for some species depending on the time of year. Existing in-game items that might work well as baits could include meat (raw and cooked) bread, fruit and vegetables. If you wanted a good money sink, you could invent a range of new ones which could only be bought from general stores, eg 'training worms', 'red dragon flies', maybe even 'pk maggots'. Luck - As per irl, mother nature is likely to take her toll on equipment getting broken, tangled or simply wearing out. Not to mention the penalties that might apply for getting caught fishing from the back of a moving boat Equipment- Opportunity for a great money sink, particularly given that bigger fish mean a greater chance of getting broken, and sooner or later mother nature is always gonna make you cast in the bushes. Either way, depending on your quarry, you'll be buying increasing amounts of hook and line lol. Irl, rods don't make a huge difference, but no reason why the reverse shouldn't apply in EL. No reason why they couldn't be made or bought in-game, but no doubt EL shop could offer a 'titanium trout slayer' plus 'cape of no more tangles'. In terms of how you implement such an ai in code, its just a series of random number algorithms which increase or decrease the chance of catching depending on where the player fishes, hence no need to model movement directly as per other creatures. No need to make the size or species storable, allocate the information at point of catch and use it merely to determine that nature of the drop. That way you can have as many variations of size and species as you like, whilst retaining a single server protocol for all fish.
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