Hap_Loder

He did not violate any rules, but behaved dishonourably. Me and Jettai from SaH were training in a TG PK area. OldSchool popped out of the door and attacked, killing both of us. Since we were obviously training (we had no weapons out) it was dishonourable for him to interrupt and interfere. Unfortunately, OldSchool does not seem to speak English very well, and I could not determine what his native language was (otherwise I might have tried to talk using babelfish). Nevertheless, by PM he made it clear that he had no intention of returning my belongings. There is a difference between free-for-all PK maps and small dueling chambers like the room we were in. When players want to train with one another they must use small maps like the one we were on. To participate in player training requires a different set of equipment than when player-hunting on PK maps, and it is dishonourable to take advantage of players who are trying to train with one another this way. I would of course be satisfied with the return of my belongings but I don't believe OldSchool ever had any intent of doing that. Hap_Loder

That's right, we were not in KF. We were in the little arena in the TG magic school. In fact, I had not realized it was a multiple combat map until we were attacked by OldSchool. On the CEL website (http://www.el-cel.com/info/maps.php?Det=27) which generally is an excellent resource, it says that it is a single attack map. I know it's not an official resource, but it's such a well-built site that I do a lot of research there, and it had me fooled. Since we're talking about arenas, where are there good arenas that only allow 2 players to fight? Hap_Loder

How about a boxing glove? Stats: -2 damage, -4 critical to hit, -1 accuracy, +1 defense Nexus to use: Human 0 Requires: 4 leather, 4 thread, 6 cotton, 2 rat tails Tools needed: needle Nexus to make: Artificial 1 Recommended skills: Manufacture 15 Manufacture EXP: 75 Food Subtracted: 9 Weight: 4 EMU Counts as a weapon, so you can use it with a shield. Hap_Loder

I think the vial mold is a great concept and am delighted to see that it is in the game. But the breakability of the item is a real concern. I recently bought a vial mold and made about 50 vials before it broke. I didn't count failures but they were less than the successes, maybe 25 or so. For an item like a mortar and pestle or a ring mold, it would be no big deal. But for an item that uses EFE there is an expectation of higher quality. Which makes me wonder why the Vial Mold is so expensive to make in the first place. An item that is used to make something worth 5gc should either be much cheaper or very hard to break. Consider that the vial mold is still essentially a low level item, in terms of use - the recommended level for making vials is CRA 14. Other tools that are used to make items at this level cost at least one order of magnitude less, such as a mortar & pestle or a ring mold. Furthermore, use of the Vial Mold still produces a net loss in cash when used. The use of an Alembic, on the other hand, involves a very high level harvest item (cinnabar) and a higher level skill (ALC 25). It also grants 5 times the experience. Furthermore, with the use of an Alembic it is possible to make a profit. It does make sense that the Alembic would be an expensive item of use to high level players, so the need for an EFE is perfectly justified. But the cost of the Vial Mold in comparison to its lifespan is a real issue. What are the implications of it? It really means one of two things: A: Crafting is meant to be extremely difficult to do, so players must effectively throw away money to get good at it. This seems a bit mean-spirited. B: The Vial Mold needs to be adjusted to reflect it's actual use and value. I like the suggestion of allowing the Vial Mold to have a "damaged" version; this makes sense for an EFE item. If so it shouldn't be too hard to fix. If the issue is a matter of getting gold out of the game, remember that the Vial Mold itself won't accomplish that, since it will be sold amongst players. I totally approve of getting gold out of the game, but I think this might be better accomplished py pulling gold out at the top of the scale rather than at the low end. New players need to buy all kinds of things... tools, books, cloaks, etc. This gold will usually find it's way into the hands of the big players, who will sell their moster drops and manufactured items to players who are newer and cannot get them on their own. So the gold coins in the game will tend to gravitate to the top. So means need to be made for high level players to spend their gold. Gold already disappears fast if you are a low level player. Peet

Perhaps if an animal like a wolf was attacked but not killed, it would turn "rabid" and attack people as if it was a monster? I think MM should still work against this, though. Peet

I never said that it was illegal, just dishonourable. However, if he was doing this to noobs as well (and I was pretty new at the time) then that IS illegal. Hap_Loder

Hi! I bought the "potion of Crafting" book from Frukas and am now reading it. However, I have noticed that when I click open the knowledge window, the total progress appears in the bar, but the name of the book I am reading does not appear beside it. Also there is no recipe for the potion in the encyclopedia. Am I supposed to guess? Hap_Loder

I am not sorry to see "Usaarmy" gone. When I was a relative noob I was training with Thieve and 666Firerob at Lucky Punch Arena. Usaarmy came in and attacked us just after we had disengaged to heal up and killed us very fast. When I checked usaarmy's stats online I discovered that he had very little actual experience (mostly in combat) but had a Physique rating in the 50's. He must have taken all the negative perks and put the points into physique (coord was still at 4 for some reason). After Usaarmy PK'd me and took all my stuff (fortunately mostly leather stuff) Pyewacket volunteered to give me a bunch of low-level armour and an iron sword, which was very much appreciated. Thieve, Firerob and I got to be pretty wary of Usaarmy, and would bug out when he showed up. Nevertheless, one time later on I wasn't fast enough and Usaarmy killed me at the arena again. Fortunately some other guys killed him and retrieved my stuff for me. While lurking looking for opportunities to PK weak characters who are trying to train isn't technically illegal, it certainly was dishonourable. Hap_Loder

Not that kind of fetish... Peet

For the record, the term "Totem" does not refer to a physical object. A Totem is an iconic spiritual entity. You could use terms like "charm," "fetish," or perhaps "medicine bag." Hap_Loder

Since the events are there to prevent AFK harvesting, perhaps the spell would nullify the effect of the next event, but you would still stop harvesting. Then you could cast it again and start harvesting again. Hap_Loder

There are a number of other options for random events when harvesting aside from the ones we have now. For example: 1. You find a pickaxe that someone threw away because they thought it was broken 2. You are suffering from sunstroke and you lose 10-20 mana points 3. You are exhausted from all this work and lose 10-20 food points 4. You lose 10-20 units of the item you are harvesting (you dropped it somewhere...) 5. Looks like someone died here long ago. You find 1-5 bones. 6. Concentrated earth energy has produced 1 Earth Essence. 7. You hit the mother lode! Harvest rate is doubled for the next 20 seconds. 8. This vein has dried up... harvest rate halved for the next minute. The one thing I would REALLY like to see, though, are gender-specific messages. If the computer can recognize that my character's name is Hap_Loder when issuing it's message, it should also be able to recognize that Hap_Loder is in fact male, so it doesn't need to use the stupid "s/he" messages anymore. This would be about ten minutes of coding, tops. Hap_Loder

So far all the inhabitants of the world of Draia seem to be "civilized." They live in houses, etc. How about an area where nomad barbarians live? Possibly a grassland or desert, or maybe a forest. They'd live in yurts, hang around campfires, and some horses would be standing around. A barbarian NPC would be a good person to buy flowers and herbs. Another would be a good person to buy leather items from. Also, having a big stonehenge-type landmark on a map would be really cool. Hap_Loder

In a real society, medieval or modern, those who become wealthy tend to spend their wealth on the trappings of the rich. They build great palaces, throw banquets, and use their wealth to demonstrate status. As a result you often end up with people who have great amounts of property but who still are in need of money to support their lifestyle. At present there are very few such opportunities to do this in the game. One way to do this would be to allow wealthy players to purchase noble titles. One would first become a squire, which represents the desire to become a knight. Then, perhaps after completing a quest, one could become a full Knight of the realm, and be knighted by Lord Luxin. This would cause a green "Sir" or "Dame" to appear before the character's name, or perhaps a special symbol denoting knighthood. Royal orders of knighthood could be added. In the UK there are many orders of Knighthood, with differing levels of prestige, and there are generally three ranks within each order. Then comes the rank of Baron, which could be a generic title not related to any particular place in Seridia. Then there are Earls/Counts and Countesses. Above them are Marquesses and Marchionesses, and above those are Dukes and Duchesses. I also like the Idea of a Dwarven title of Thane rather than Count. These titles would be tied to a specific place on the map and only one person could hold any given title. Here's a list of possible titles: Earl of the Evergreen Woods Earl of the Kamara Desert Earl of the Desert Tropics Count of Matajin Earl of Mortos Valley Count of Fort Caladak Count of Fort Hallgan Count of Ywartstav Count of Omlinor Earl of Styks Swamp Count of Fort Baarg Count of Fort Mardyn Count of Fort Garisn Count of Carmien Earl of Roanof Island Count of Orvimon Count of Lakeside Count of Grahm's Villiage Earl of the Forest of the Fall (Elf only) Earl of Northern Woods Earl of Elavro Mountains Count of Orasul Curvelor Earl of Orasul Wood Marquess of Morcraven Marquess of Corren Marquess of Kilaran Field Marquess of South Kilaran Marquess of Naralik Marquess of Tirnwood (Elf only) Thane of Mynadar (Dwarf only) Thane of Nordcarn (Dwarf only) Marquess of Isla Prima Marquess of Tirnym Duke of Tahraji - (requires high-level a/d) Duke of Desert Pines - (requires high-level manufacturing or alchemy) Duke of Portland - (requires high-level crafting) Duke of Tarsengaard - (requires high-level magic) Duke of Grubani - (requires high-level summoning) Lord Luxin - Grand Duke of Whitestone Not sure if we would want to go as far as Princes and Kings since Lord Luxin (or perhaps another NPC) still needs to be the ultimate noble authority. Becoming a Duke would require a huge amount of cash, perhaps 500k. Becoming a Marquess would be less, perhaps 160k, while an Earl or Count would need 50k. Barons would need 20k, and you'd need 5k to become a knight. You'd also need to pass through one title level to move to the next, and possibly fulfill some difficult quests while you're at it. Being a noble should have certain perks... like certain map areas become noble-only. Also nobles might have special abilities in their territory, like some limited mod powers. What do you think? Hap_Loder

One thing I would like to see with deathbags is ID. Basically when you pick up a deathbag, something tells you who the bag belonged to. It could be an item that appears in the bag (which disappears when you "use" it to find out who it belonged to) or a message when you pick it up. If it is an item that appears in the bag it could be programmed in the same way that furs and bones appear - as a part of your "corpse" when you die. This means that when you find a deathbag in the middle of nowhere you are able to track down the person who died much more easily. Pros: - more people will get their deathbags back when dying - new players who haven't figured out how to work the channels have a better chance of recovering their things - net result - better sense of community Cons: - none that I can see aside from coding it in... bagjumpers still have no obligation to return the deathbag... they will just know who it came from. Hap_Loder

I accidentally ended up in the HQ of *CO* and was ambushed by their guard-bot. I was killed instantly (couldn't even see the bot from my angle), and lost my mm cloak. By the time I was able to use my WS ring I was already in the underworld. However, CrusadingKNIGHT of the *CO* guild kindly returned my cape to me. My thanks to CrusadingKNIGHT and *CO*... that would have been difficult for me to replace at this stage. Hap_Loder

Perhaps RICH should challenge its enemies to an essence-making contest? Hap_Loder

I like the idea of players rallying to meet the threat. I also would like to see some extra incentive for fighting off the invasions - possibly contests could be held to see who kills the most invading monsters, or maybe the monster drops for invading monsters could be enhanced a bit. I also think it would be cool if a sound effect could be added, like the sound of a horn blowing, or a church bell ringing, when an invasion occurs. It would be like a call to arms. Admittedly, I'm not a combat character, so at the moment I will just run like hell when an invasion happens, but it's a cool idea nonetheless. Hap_Loder

Edit: I seem to have posted this twice. But there's no "delete" function. How do I delete the redundant post?

I personally would like you to be able to pick up a piece of wood, or bone, and use it as a weapon. They would suck, but hey... they're free! And they would still be better than fighting bare-handed. Maybe use a piece of ore or quartz as a blunt instrument as well. Or be able to take a bottle of ale or wine, break it, and attack with the broken bottle! Heck, allow you to hit people with flowers! They would do even LESS than fighting bare-handed, and they'd break very easily. How humiliating would that be... "he killed me with blue lupines!" Hap_Loder

Correct me if I'm wrong, since I don't know a lot about how the client works, but let's imagine you made an illegal patch on your copy of the client to make invisible characters FULLY invisible. Wouldn't that make it so YOU couldn't see invisible characters at all? But other people with the un-patched client can still see the invisibility effects as normal? So doing that would only hurt yourself. In that case, patch away! Hap_Loder

I'm not sure people wouldn't move up if experience was static. After all, I no longer make Fire essence or cast heal just for experience. They provide too little experience to be worth it. Now I make Magic Essence and cast shield and restore for the experience, because they provide a lot more experience for my time. I do understand the complaint, that someone with an a/d of 30/30 shouldn't be able to use rabbits to level up quickly. It gives them lots of experience for no risk and also gets in the way of newbies trying to kill their first 10 rabbits. The current system is designed to give more exp rewards for fights that are difficult and near the limits of a player's ability. Normally if a creature takes more hits for you to kill then theoretically it is more dangerous for you than one that you kill in one shot. But people already have found ways to exploit this, by not using weapons, and so on. I would like to see a system that rewards a static amount for each monster, but the amount is modified based on your stats. For example, you receive more Attack exp for killing the monster (or per hit point of damage done) if your Attack rating is LESS than it's Defense, and you get less exp if your attack rating is higher than its defense. This would make people more inclined to seek out more difficult targets. It would also inspire people to get the best equipment they possibly can when fighting for exp, because it enables them to tackle higher-level monsters. What think you? Hap_Loder

Pikes were mainly used in military formations and in the late middle-ages and early renaissance were considered the ultimate infantry weapon. You're right though that in a one-on-one fight they aren't too useful. Halberds, on the other hand have a great deal more flexibility and even one-on-one are quite useful. The main advantage of shields is that they are simple to use, and they are good for protecting against missile weapons, but they are also clumsy and block your view. Yes, that was the idea in my previous post. I had also envisioned the two equal weapons concept, but that would not be possible with the current code configuration, so I didn't bother bringing it up. A left hand dagger however could be programmed so the program thinks it's a kind of shield. However, you've got your order backwards here... using two swords of equal size is much more difficult than a sword-and-dagger combination, and was never adopted as a fighting style here on Earth in any significant numbers. Nevertheless it sounds cool, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in the game, but it should be harder than using the left-hand dagger. Hap_Loder

Having a character be able to become completely invisible would probably be completely unfair. People would be casting their detect invisible spells all the time out of necessity. But as long as there was some visual effect to indicate that a character is present (like the visual blurring in the predator films, for example) then other characters would be able to spot invisible characters if they are watchful. Another way to handle it would be that an "invisible" character is still visible in a graphical sense but can't be PK'ed or attacked by monsters while invisible. Perhaps they will also be unable to chat or send pms, or interact with NPCs while in this state - they are not only invisible but also inaudible. A character who is invisible in this way should have it represented somehow... like their character visibly darkening or turning from colour to greyscale. I think even 30 seconds might be too long a duration for a spell that works as a temporary MM. 15-20 seconds would be fine and still very worthwhile. Hap_Loder

Since this thread says "art related things" I figured I would add something regarding visual representation. In particular the representation of female characters through the 3-d models. I always thought something looked "wrong" with the female characters but it took me a while to put my finger on it. If you look at the two characters on the login screen (I assume these were done using the 3-d models and are not simply drawings) you will notice that the female character's shoulders are quite broad. Compare them to the width of her hips and the difference becomes striking. Her shoulders are nearly twice as wide as her hips! While dwarven women might be like this (who knows?) normal human females do not have these proportions, unless you are suggesting that all the women of EL are of the "battle-amazon" type. The hips ought to be broadened and the shoulders narrowed. The change doesn't have to be too drastic but should be there. Realistically the with of the hips and the width of the shoulders should be similar. Just a thought... hopefully the implementation won't be too difficult, as things do look pretty good already. I should say that while this may sound like a complaint overall I am quite impressed with the visual quality of the game and this comment is not of especially high import, but I would like to see a change in this regard if possible. Hap_Loder