Astrology

[big_duo]

I searched the forum and haven't found a post like this so I thought I'd ask. Now that astro has been implemented for a little while I am wondering if anyone has any good success stories about it. Or better yet, does anyone have any horror stories caused by bad astro at the time? I.e unexpected deaths, horrible fails etc...

[Ateh]

It hasnt limited me in any way whatsoever, on a day with increased harvesting events I live with it and carry on. On a bad make rare/fail day I dont mix expensive stuff, not a problem.

 

I dont fight much, and dont train in anything more than leathers, so doesnt really matter if my a/d is up or down I carry on, if its down I use more HE, which means I get more magic experience, all good there.

 

And if my degrade is high, i dont mind as i only loose leather, which i would anyway.

 

Theres been days where I thought dammit I might take skeptic perk, but I wont, all in all I like astrology. Its been good addition to the game IMO.

 

Only thing is, ive probably broken 3x as many pick axes as i used to , but hey who cares i wont loose sleep over that LOL

 

Astro is a nice addition, the only thing I would suggest is perhaps making it more known to new players , ive run into quite a few who had absolutely no idea about it.

 

*edit* IDK if the Tutorial NCP mentions it at all to new players, I havent spoken to him since astro came in

Edited March 17, 2008 by Ateh

[Theladin]

Personally I love the new astrology and take advantage of it an every opportunity. It's great being able to manu things that I would normally would not be able to when my fail rate is low.

[korrode]

Unlike Ateh, i am a solid a/d trainer / PK'er, and i consider the 30kgc i spent on Skeptic to be by far the best 30kgc i have ever spent in EL.

 

Then there's my char on the PK server, trying to train fast on that server with astro was a nightmare. By 30's a/d i'd given it the flick and gone Skeptic on there also.

 

(EDIT: i point out my PK server char to show i not only know what it's like to have astro at high a/d, but i also know what it's like for a brand new character who wants to be a fighter, and it's bad either way.)

 

Astrology: Fine and wonderful for you all-rounders who like to mine, like to mix, and like to a/d train. You can just do the task best suited to your astro, or like aTeh your a/d training is something you'll do in leathers and no CoL cause your not serious about leveling it fast due to an urge to become strong in PK... honestly, if Astrology had been implemented without the option of skeptic, i'd probably have quit EL.

 

Skeptic FTW!

Edited March 17, 2008 by Korrode

[masterpiter]

I.e unexpected deaths, horrible fails etc...

After some time i realised that always when i got good astro toomy has bad, so we r kinda opposite signs, gave me nice boost on pk, but few times got slayed badly when i wasnt able to hit/block him at all at negative astro

Now after 48 cap i think astro is even more important while u pk, before it was like+-20 coord, now with max48coord those additional+20 is alot, same like 20 coord less is big pain

[Sayre]

Unlike Ateh, i am a solid a/d trainer / PK'er, and i consider the 30kgc i spent on Skeptic to be by far the best 30kgc i have ever spent in EL.

 

Then there's my char on the PK server, trying to train fast on that server with astro was a nightmare. By 30's a/d i'd given it the flick and gone Skeptic on there also.

 

(EDIT: i point out my PK server char to show i not only know what it's like to have astro at high a/d, but i also know what it's like for a brand new character who wants to be a fighter, and it's bad either way.)

 

Astrology: Fine and wonderful for you all-rounders who like to mine, like to mix, and like to a/d train. You can just do the task best suited to your astro, or like aTeh your a/d training is something you'll do in leathers and no CoL cause your not serious about leveling it fast due to an urge to become strong in PK... honestly, if Astrology had been implemented without the option of skeptic, i'd probably have quit EL.

 

Skeptic FTW!

 

Baby.

 

S.

[korrode]

It's ok Spleen, i dont expect someone who's been 70's a/d for months, is it a year now?, to understand

Edited March 17, 2008 by Korrode

[Sayre]

Hey! You peeked at my apathy!

 

You're still a baby.

 

S.

[korrode]

Lets not forget some of the reports we've seen from people training with bad astro:

Welp, just broke 2nd Crown of Life in maybe 48hrs. (thereby trumping my old record pre-astro of 2 in a month).

 

So once I recover my loss, I will be taking the perk. This games expensive time wise as it is.

If not breaking 60kgc items constantly makes me a baby then GOO GOO GAA GAA.

 

EDIT: Or, if quitting a game cause i wanna be a fighter, but i have to spend most of my time replacing broken items, not actually fighting, makes me a baby then i still stand by my goo goo gaa gaa

Edited March 17, 2008 by Korrode

[Sayre]

I hope you aren't one of the more sterling examples of the Victorian education system when it comes to statistical analysis.

 

Never mind the long stretches of time where it would be far less likely to break things due to good astro. Such things don't get noticed because you only notice when things break.

 

I recall you had astro going for about 7.3 seconds before switching to skeptic. In all the time I have been subject to astro, I have not broken a single col, nor any armour actually.

[Khalai]

I am with Korrode even if I consider myself versatile player. When astro was implemented, all my harvested stone events has gone out of the window. Since I took skeptic (about new year time), I found approx 15 stones including 1 removal. So skeptic has been also mine best invested 30kgc in EL I had. I love to choose what I want to do, not what my astrology decide. Independence ftw!

[korrode]

Never mind the long stretches of time where it would be far less likely to break things due to good astro. Such things don't get noticed because you only notice when things break.

As i've said many times before, and has been my main argument against astrology from day 1, I wont have "the stars" dictate when i can train. I've got more time in my life for EL than most, i'd hate to think what it'd be like for someone who works full time and has many other RL commitments... whatever few hours a week they get for EL, half of them they cant use for training?? screw that.

 

It seems to me Spleen u leave out a lot of factors when you do your analysis of the effects of Astrology, perhaps it's not Victoria that needs to worry

 

As for how long i had astrology; there was weeks of testing with skeptic not being an option remember, i had it for that time... and as i mentioned, there's my experience on the PK server.

 

 

In all the time I have been subject to astro, I have not broken a single col, nor any armour actually.

Um duh, ofc u haven't, u cant break stuff if u dont train a/d

(fighting some monsters here and there in an invasion is not the same as spending hours on end a/d training btw)

 

--------------------

 

Oh, and i know everyone likes to praise MP's word as gospel (and he's been somewhat supportive of astro in other threads), but always remember it's a very different situation to keep Astrology when you've only had to start dealing with it when you're already rank 3/1 a/d... bit different when you've still got a lot of training ahead of you before you're top 20 a/d.

Edited March 17, 2008 by Korrode

[Vanyel]

I sincerely hate astrology. Makes my EL-gaming more interesting. I wouldn't know why one would like it

[Bernie]

After testing astro when it finally became permanent in the game, i took skeptic.

 

I tried to harvest just one load of flowers one day, and took me forever with all the tele nexus, bee stings, cavern walls, mn getting pissed at me.....omg!

 

For about 12 days straight i think it was, i could not train a/d at all, everythng was bad bad bad, so i harvested and did alch, of course those astro signs were bad as well, crit fails almost every 10-20 of whatever i mixed, and all the pick axes, leather gloves, cavern walls, tele nexus, bee stings, mn...etc...

 

I am very happy i had choice

 

Having said all this, i'm not saying its a bad thing, some ppl love it, and get good stuff from it. Adding new stuff to the game makes it more interesting, and this must have taken some time to come up with, as far as programming and stuff (i'm computer illiterate, sorry). I have some crafting friends that absolutely love it!

For me, just was not for me, i like to kill st00f, and not break st00f.

 

my 2 cents

Edited March 18, 2008 by Bernie

[anima]

being slightly odd i "assign" my free time, a lot of it to EL, i also assign that EL time to individual tasks within the game, e.g. i wanna spend this week making steel bars then next week training a/d, but astro messes this up, some days i look forward to a couple of hours training to relax when i get home from uni but i get home and have bad astro its not so relaxing.

 

earlier today i took skeptic and i am intruiged to see how it will affect me harving/training/mixing.

 

P.S. if anyone wants to buy 18 a/d indicators let me know

[bkc56]

I really don't mean to be critical of anyone here, but it's pretty funny to see the misinformation about astrology being thrown about. I don't deny that the skeptic perk is appropriate for some people, but some of the justifications used here are pretty far out there.

 

First, the astrology cycle is about 2 real-time days long. That means that out have less than a day of good astro (for any particular form) and less than a day of bad astro (with the rest of the time transitioning between the two). It's simply not possible to have more than a day of bad astro in any one area.

 

Of course if you want two different things (with opposite curves) to be good at the same time, you'll wait pretty much forever. But the different astro effects are spread out so that there's always something one can work on if one works on multiple skills (not limited to just a/d training for example).

 

The other amusing thing is that the critical (fixed error) failure astro hasn't even been implemented yet (along with one of the others). So until Entropy turns that one on, one can't claim bad astro for failures.

 

Anyway, enough facts and logic. I now return you to your regularly scheduled rant.

Edited March 18, 2008 by bkc56

[Hompf]

The other amusing thing is that the critical-failure astro hasn't even been implemented yet (along with one of the others). So until Entropy turns that one on, one can't claim bad astro for failures.

 

Just out of curiosity, do you mean by this that the make rare/fail stones you can make right now have no use?

Or is the make rare part implemented but the fail part isnt?

[anima]

The other amusing thing is that the critical-failure astro hasn't even been implemented yet (along with one of the others). So until Entropy turns that one on, one can't claim bad astro for failures.

 

Just out of curiosity, do you mean by this that the make rare/fail stones you can make right now have no use?

Or is the make rare part implemented but the fail part isnt?

 

 

i think the first guy is saying you cant blame astro for failures which is wrong because there is a failure astro and that stone tells you it, but there is no critical fail astro, you always crit on 1/3 of fails i think? i heard that somewhere once.

[bkc56]

i think the first guy is saying you cant blame astro for failures which is wrong because there is a failure astro and that stone tells you it,

I mean that failure astro has not been implemented yet. It was stated on the forums when astro was turned on that two of them weren't implemented, and I have the forum PM where I asked Entropy and he confirmed that they still aren't enabled (but will be "soon"). So until he implements them it really doesn't matter what the predictor stones say.

 

Feel free to go find the post in the updates section yourself.

[heu]

Of course if you want two different things (with opposite curves) to be good at the same time, you'll wait pretty much forever. But the different astro effects are spread out so that there's always something one can work on if one works on multiple skills (not limited to just a/d training for example).

 

What I noticed from my astrology is that I always get everything good or everything bad, and that always alternates every RL day (I mean good, bad, good, bad,...). But I found that out a couple months ago before I went away on vacations, so if that wasn't changed, it's not like I have many options on the bad days.

[bkc56]

What I noticed from my astrology is that I always get everything good or everything bad, and that always alternates every RL day (I mean good, bad, good, bad,...).

Well I only studied one sign, so it's clearly possible that other signs have different relations between the curves (which ones track together).

 

Also, taking harvest events as an example, my definition of "good" (low events) may be different that another's definition of "good" (lots of events).

 

But your alternating every RL day is 100% consistent with my findings of a 2-day cycle in the curves (a day of "good" shifting into a day of "bad", rinse, repeat).

[Omnivision]

Simple question does skeptic prevent you from harvesting stones?

[Tempest]

Skeptic only disables astrology not the chance for finding stones or anything else. you'r still able to find/make all the special items (if ur lucky enough)

[Ermabwed]

Simple question does skeptic prevent you from harvesting stones?

Finding rare stones is a random harvest event, astrology influences the probability of harvest events occuring but not the type of harvest events occurring.

So, the answer to the question you meant to ask is "no".

[TooMass]

Astrology limits you big time. Because usually u either have all good, except harvesting/degrade, or all bad. At least it was like that with my sign and it didnt change at all.Astro was implemented in the end of august i think and till january i couldnt see any changes. I either had a/d,failure,make in positive(green) and harvest,degrade in negative(red) or a/d/failure/make rare in negative(red) and harvest/degrade in positive(green). And because it usually takes like 1 and half real day to change from netative into positive(positive into negative) you are very limited in what you would do in el. I mean if i wanna go kill some giants or dragons i have to wait 1 day to do so, or train on yeti with high degrade isnt good either.

Besides i did some testing of astrology in january and i found out that it doesnt work as it supposed to work. a/d/harvest/accuracy/hit/damage works fine. When i was in negative, i couldnt hit a sh*t. With all in positive i killed a giant pretty easy(after caps). But the rest factors dont work as they should. Degrade factor still depends on probability so it's still only a luck. u can degrade COL or thermal serp on 1 hit with degrade astrology in max green and nmt on or u can hit some1 hundred times with astrology in red and no nmt and you wont degrade it. And for failure or make rare.....i was testing it 3 weeks and i found out that the best results i get when both factors are around 0. i failed more stuff when failure was in green than it was 0. And of course i failed much more when it was in red. And i tested it on potion, alchemy and crafting stuff. all showed the same result. and finally make rare...well this depends on luck as well. i tested it on srs(rare emp), fe's(efe), magic ess(eme, i even had artificer cape on because of it ) and all showed that the best result is 0. with make rare around max in green and arti cape on i made 1 EME from almost 10k magic essences. with make rare 0 i made 2 eme's with no arti cape. Maybe bad luck...maybe not

After considering all this i took sceptic and i must say i made a very good choise. now i can do w/e i have mood for and i dont have to wait 1 day or so till my astro gets better. I log on and i feel to pk some1, kill some dragons or make some potions etc so i do that.

P.S. when i did this testing i already had high lvls in potion craft alch(all top100) so i cant imagine having astrology when i was on low lvls. that would be a pain.