Quest Digest 11/1/97

From: ">>-Josh->" <Joshua@dial.pipex.com>

Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000

QUEST DIGEST 11th JANUARY 1997

JPG> Not the usual header, I know, but you'll have to put up with it for
now.  One of my new years resolutions was to make efforts to send out
the Digest regularly again.  Consider this a rocky start up period.  I'm
using the September version of the address list, so apologies to any
addresses this shouldn't be sent to.  There are a number of addresses
that should be on the list but aren't, so if you get a duplicate copy of
this Digest in a week or so when I get hold of the latest version of the
address list then I apologise in advance.  Hopefully I'll be sending out
a new Digest at the same time.

JPG> You may notice that I have two addresses now:
Joshua_Gallagher@scada.ccmail.com is the address that I read most
frequently and will be most likely to reply to emails on.
Joshua@dial.pipex.com is the address I will be sending the Digest from,
so it's the most convenient to send contributions to.

JPG> I send off the Digest in two parts due to Internet problems with
any more than about 150 addresses per email.  Last time I sent out a
Digest was November (I think), and for reasons entirely beyond my
control the email to the second group of addresses (P-Z I think) went
AWOL, so apologies to those who didn't receive it.  Apologies also to
those who have asked what happened to the Digest.

JPG> Anyway, after an hour at an internet cafe I've gathered (I think)
all the emails sent for this long overdue Digest, so here we go....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From : Thomas_Franz@t-online.de (Thomas Franz)
Date : Sun, 17 Nov 96 21:04 +0100

>Scaled down temple quest rewards:

TF> At the end of October my group in G17 got a TQ for 4050 g.p., one
fire elemental
13 sectors away. I talked to the programmer about that, and he said:
Oooops, I
thought the rewards were lower now.
The next TQ I got was 1140 g.p. for one Valkyrie, 8 sectors away from
town. The
Valkyrie would have been 1440 g.p. (9x20x8), so the TQ rewards were
scaled down
by then, but I don't know how they calculate the value now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Digest
Author: INTERNET:mead@rmplc.co.uk at CSERVE
Date: 17/11/96 22:34

PS> Does anyone have any info on what the new monsters do in a battle. I
know
about Monks and Sky Rays, which pack a punch but can be beaten
eventually by
casting lots of spells at them (if you haven't got death spells or
aren't
very good in melee like me). I've fought a Farmer and killed the poor
bloke
in missile fire! But what do the others do?

CM> The only other one I have fought is a Leperchaun... quite amusing,
ridiculously easy, but the little swine diseased me. Luckily, it only
lasted for one turn... but the fight is well worth it if only for the
hilarious blurb.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : ViperPDC@aol.com
 Date : Mon, 18 Nov 1996 13:44:40 -0500

VIPER>I have a very bad feeling about this no zero flee factor, as i
generally find loopholes in stuff, but if i understand it correctly,
this
could be very bad news. Right a group with a FF 0, walks on top of
another
group, i take it that this means a fight will not start, regardless of
the
other groups FF? So what is stop the FF 0 group moving on top of the
other
group (with no danger of getting hit), casting losts of spells at this
group
then increasing their FF and engaging them ?? As far as i see it, it
makes
the problem even worse than letting FF0 groups fight. I would just like
to
say, i personally never use the FF of 0 and that's what concerns me, as
this
tactic would work against my groups !!

VIPER> All monsters that can't be hit, use enchant weapons 3, that will
solve
the problem. Although saying that, if you find a werewolf engage it lots
of
times having all spell casters ranking heal only and watch those fighter
skills rocket up !! I did this with one group and off 3 engages a 53
skill DF
went upto 59, over my 6 fighters (all over 50 skill) it averaged out at
one
point of skill per fighter per engage order.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : Ian Mitchell logjam@logjam.demon.co.uk
 Date : Tue, 19 Nov 1996 10:34:16 +0000

> Due to personal circumstances I have very little
> access to this net account at present,

IM> Know the feeling... I didn't realise how much I depended on email
till I
lost it for a 6 week period recently! :(

>Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 11:48:30 +1000 (EST)
>From: Ian Sutherland
>... an good robbery in our game will get you 100gp...

IM> You are joking, right? *FEARED!* If I turn Novala fanatic, I can
easily
get 1,000-2,000gp from each miracle-boosted robbery on a regular basis!
(this is KJC's Quest)

>From: Al_Coleman@mon.bbc.co.uk
>Date: 18 Oct 96 12:45:00 EDT
>A cry for help from another Quest Player. Two of my (lesser) characters
>have been turned to stone by a cyclops in Dynamic Quest 5.

IM> KJC now have 'Depetrification (629)' on sale from some Temples (try
Baldor first) for a reasonable 500gp. I don't know if your company, has
this. So far as I know there is no Depetrify spell and I don't think any
of the miracles will do it (I could be wrong...).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : Explor555@aol.com
 Date : Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:46:10 -0500

Ex> Does anybody know when horses are going to be added to other games
than
just game 17?

JPG> Um, sorry, a little late this message I guess.  As a point of
interest
though, they added them to Game 11 and quite a sizeable number of the
groups
lost all their cash.  The result was that KJC had to rerun an entire
week of
the game and many people got virtually the same turn twice.

Date : Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:46:19 -0500

Ex> I have a fighter at turn 30 who has 81 axe skills, 58 crossbow
skill, 38
fighter skill, A heavy crossbow and a Plus one axe. I haven't really
concentrated that much on training him up. Is this good?
P.S
I also have a priest on about 60 skill. And my other fighters are
almost as good as the pre-mentioned one.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 12/2/96 3:03PM
Sender: andy-crasi@u-net.net

(JPG> This is an email I received from Andy as is - an advert for
 Crasiworld's Quest...)

Dear Josh,
Just read your Quest Digest and was most impressed. It is good to see
what players think about the game and thus help those of us who run
versions of Quest to develop the game in the directions the players want
to see it go. If you wish, I'll try and send my internet players to the
Quest Digest.

Now my reason for writing is to ask if you could announce the exciting
new developments which are coming forth from the Crasiworld Office at
the moment. Firstly we not only have an on-line turncard but also an
electronic 'drag and drop' turncard which can be freely downloaded from
the Crasiworld web-site. This very user-friendly interface can be used
to fill in turns off-line with 'drag and drop' orders, intelligent help
facility and even a checking system which tells you if you have input
any invalid orders. Then all you have to do is go on-line and submit
your orders in seconds.

Secondly and the most exciting is sending turns back the other way.
Peter has done wonders with his Email Ozzie Quest but we have taken one
giant leap ahead and developed the ability to send turns back over the
internet with not only colour graphic wilderness maps but also
animations, colour alliance shields, colour dungeon maps, newsletter
every turn, a simple interface to enable you to print out your own turns
and much much more.

During the work on the programs we were able to properly implement a
system for major NPCs and Special Encounters, something which never
worked as well as we had wanted in the original Crasimoff's Quest World
programs.

This is just the tip of the iceburg of what we now find we can put into
the game and all we need now is for more people to play and see for
themselves what Crasiworld is offering.

Set-up and first three turns are free by simply filling out the joining
form which can be found on the Crasiworld web site;
http://www.crasiworld.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : "Hooper, Allan" Allan.Hooper@ratec.raufossas.no
 Date : Wed, 11 Dec 1996 15:38:48 +0100

>
>Re: 0% Flee Factor=No Combat

AH> Reading the KJC news again I wondered exactly how this would work.
It says that 0% flee groups cannot _initiate_ combat. So what happens if
a 0% flee group walk over another group with a hostile attitude, does it
count as the second group starting the fight? Or if no fight is started
at all then cant the 0FF group just cast death spells onto the other
group (players who run 0 flee groups are not renouned for their sense of
fair play)? Alternatively could a fighter group use a 0% flee to get
ontop of anther group without a fight then up their flee, issue a Steal
order bypassing the spell round? Either way I cant see how it would work
fairly, or am I missing something?
>
>Re: Major Improvements

AH> I'd like to see very rare spells that are found on mages tomes in
dungeons. The book then would be very valuable item to be stolen (burnt,
disintigrated?) due to the rarity of the spells it may contain.

AH> Some forces of law and disorder would not go amiss either. I dont
mean militia groups beating up thiefs (as they would either be too weak
everyone would hope for fights, or too strong so no-one would rob). At
the moment most experianced players play 'evil' groups to get more group
fights which makes the game world a dangerous place for new players
dropping the NA. However if there was a bounty system for both the law
(town officails) and chaos (assasins / thieves guild) it would help even
things up.
The more successful a group became the higher the bounty/contract
placed on it would be. So if an evil alliance dominated a game there
would be more of an incentive and reward for those who held back the
tide of darkness. Similarly if the forces of good domintated a game the
assasins guild would pay a hefty sum to remove some of the troublesome
do-gooders.
Bounties/ contracts would be offered for a certain number of
deaths/injuries, or in the case of a NA party they could be 'captured'
and forced to pay a fine or have some characters imprisoned. I think I
may have mentioned both these ideas before so I will shut up about them
now :)
>
>I would also like to see the order flexibility increased. I personally
>could really use a 'H 99 ' order. I would also like to see
>wider use of the 97/98 (Priest/Mage) groupings, and have them extended
>to fighters and thieves. eg 'B '
>or 'C '

AH> And 'C ' which is probably why it is
not being implemented. Otherwise once another group gets ontop of yours
they could just void your group into dust with ease.
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From: Explor555@aol.com
 Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 15:36:52 -0500

Ex> I took TF's ideas on artifacts and monster lairs and sent them to
Comments@KJCGAMES.com, they then replied with something along the lines
of:

"Artefacts are items which we shall see come into the game. It was our
idea
to have a limited number of them, each with a unique name. They could be
found on the lowest depths of some dungeons or by completing a
particularly
difficult quest.

When quest wwas originally designed, there was a series of monster
villages
(lairs) which were supposed to generate monsters and send them out. This
was
never completed and monsters currently appear somewhat randomly. Several
years ago we did add a couple of new types of dungeons. These were
monster
lairs and cave systems. They are just one level deep but are another out
of
town feature which is good.

When we upgraded the monsters last year, this was no done exactly as I
had
hoped. I did want the more intellegent monsters to move around together
in
massive bands. They could then terrorize villages and more powerful
groups.
Anyway, it gives us another thing for the future!"

Can people who read this digest please write to me and tell me their
group
name if they currently play in quest game 14 with KJC games?

Fraser Bain
Monarchs of darkness (1204) Game 14

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: PSykes6420@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 16:49:58 -0500

PS> I recently had a message back from KJC on the topic of how long you
have
to accept a Temple Quest after being offered it, which I thought might
be of
interest.

PS> My group had been offered a Temple Quest, but I (stupidly) forgot to
accept it on the next turn. As the blurb says that you have until the
end of
the next turn OR game week and as I had a catch-up turn, I sent in my
catch-up turn thinking that I would still be able to accept the Quest.
However, I just received a message saying that I was not on, or had been
offered, the Quest last turn, so I wrote a quick note to KJC about it.

PS> KJC replied with the following message on my turnsheet - `A Temple
Quest
must be accepted the following turn to the turn offered. It does not
matter
that it was still within the stated time'

PS> I hope this is of help. I don't know what happens if you leave your
next
turn for a couple of weeks, but I think that you can still accept it, as
I
seem to remember doing that a while ago.

PS> Also, I have three new orders that I thought I would send in to the
Digest. They are:

PS> 1) How about changing the amount of damage that weapons do, so that
they
actually do what the blurb says, eg. a Mace doing a lot of damage to
armoured
opponents and a Great Sword doing a lot of damage. Also, how about +
Maces
and Flails?

PS> 2) How about the inclusion of a spell reference list on the
turnsheet,
so that you don't have to keep looking up blurbs, if you can't remember
how
to cast the spell properly.

PS> 3) The inclusion of an order so that you can change the ranked
spells of
all Mages and/or Priests in one go, eg. change the first ranked spell of
all
Mages to Black Void.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JPG> As a final note, if this appears to come from Onil@btinternet.com,
please do
_not_ reply to that address.  My friend Onil has threatened to Void me
if he gets
any... :)

Until next time (hopefully under the two month mark) happy Questing!

>>-Josh->