Quest Digest 6/8/96 From: Joshua Gallagher <od88@dial.pipex.com> Date: Tue, 06 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ...___ _ / _ \ | | | |_| |UEST__| |IGEST \__ | / _ | | |_ | |_| | An e-mail discussion forum for the fantasy |_ / \___/ play by mail game; "Quest". Compiled by Josh Gallagher. J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk o This isn't one of those automatic list thingies, so could all articles be sent clearly marked with paragraphs initialled to me. o If you want off the list, just say! No hassle, no pressure. o All material here is the exclusive property of the author and may not be used elsewhere without their permission. ___ / _ \ Hi again folks, and sorry again for the delay. Just a | __/DITORIAL small note to precede this Digest, and it's a request \___| to keep the quoting down to a minimum. Where possible summarise the subject you're talking about in the text of your inclusion. Not a major gripe, but it's always nice not to have to trawl through lots of quoted stuff. Having said that, I am very appreciative of the inclusions I've received, especially in the summer vacation - keep them coming! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: <Roy.Thomas@ubs.com> Date: Mon, 29 Jul 96 13:21:12 +0100 > MDS> I also had this problem. My group was carrying a little 21,000 gold > and lost around 1,400 gold (ouch!!). If my understanding is correct you > can't be robbed in an inn when you buy sleep, so an alliance HQ is like an > inn for alliance members, therefore it should be impossible to be robbed by > city thieves during your stay in the HQ. RJT> A friend of mine was robbed inside an inn. They broke through the doors! It seems that staying in an inn is no protection! An Alliance HQ would be the same, though whether or not it is hidden, and its defence level would be of importance. RJT> My suggestion is not to carry all that money. Put it into the bank, or spend it! > question to QD from Stig Norland: > have any of you ever tried to buy items from a cursed shop > ??? you see , a friend of mine tried to buy a platemail in a > shop, but the shopkeeper throw him out of the shop telling > him that he didn't sell platemails !!! (the shop number was > right) > Or put it in another way; what is the effect of cursing a shop ??? RJT> How do you curse a shop? Is this by casting ritual? If so, you would have to have an evil alignment - am I right? Surely all this would do is dedicate the shop to the deity involved, hence followers of that deity can use the shop as normal. > >KW: I have recently had a number of complaints about the abuse that > thealliance s are giving to the system. I seems to many players that if you > are not a member of an offical alliance you are going to be beaten into a > pulp due to ther ability to increase ther skill scores and gain cheap plus > weapons and armour for nothing. > >KW I would be intersted if anyone has any ideas on this subject? RJT> You can not get items for free! There is an upper and lower price you can sell them at and they cost money for the alliance to stock in the first place! The best you can do is to undercut (slightly) the shops. But there is a cost associated with running an alliance so this has to be paid for from somewhere. RJT> If you can gather enough trade together, you can balance this cost by only making a little profit on each item, just like real life! RJT> Only Strength Skill needs balancing because that is a real freebie. All the other skills cost XP when you buy them, so you are limited on how much you can buy before you run out of XP to spend. Strength - not so. The solution is for strength skill to cost 100XP RJT Points to note about 'supposed' free skills! RJT> The lowest price that skills can be offered at is 200 Gold. However these skills cost 1000 Gold a game week for the alliance to maintain. If alliance members are getting strength for free (presuming the alliance is refunding the gold to the group) who is paying the 1000 Gold? RJT> You can only transfer 1500 Gold per game week to a group. That means 5 * 15 * Strength Skill. This is not a real advantage, since parties can easily make this much money per turn (+XP) doing quests RJT> Only the Treasurer and Head can do these orders. Do they waste all their turns doing this for other members? RJT> Are alliance members really becoming all powerful through the alliance, or is it that they are gaining power anyway, and the alliance is only helping a little? RJT> In my case, the alliance has helped only in offering goods that I would otherwise have to visit other towns to get. The price of goods is negligible, and I only buy strength skill from the alliance as a way of contributing to alliance funds (it is quick and rewarding and slightly cheaper than in the gym). > RJT> On the subject of quest acceptance. Has anyone ever managed > to accept a quest after the required game week had expired? > JPG> Yup, on my second turn ever. :-) RJT> The last time I tried this, I was told that the quest has already been offered to another group (and I was told the other group name) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: <paul@pilat.co.uk> Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 18:47:24 +0000 >MDS> If my understanding is correct you can't be robbed in an inn when >you buy sleep, so an alliance HQ is like an inn for alliance members, >therefore it should be impossible to be robbed by city thieves during >your stay in the HQ. PLR> As I understand it, if you're carrying a fair amount of gold and you >sleep on the streets, you get robbed. If you're carrying a LOT of gold, >you can be robbed in the inns. I have been carrying upwards of 40k >however, and still been safe in the HQ...I'd thought up until this point >the HQ's were therefore safer than the inns? >RJT> KJC have stated that mail sometimes takes a few days to travel >over the internet, and that could be the problem. However, with my >experience of the internet, a few seconds is usually the longest mail >ever takes. Could there be something wrong with KJCs internet >provider? It is not an inconceivable reason given the prior history PLR> Internet mail is a process of bouncing a network package from one server to another until it reaches it's destination. If one route to a server is down, an alternative route can usually be found, which is where the lag comes in. My personal experience of messages has been from 2 mins to 10 hours (when demon lost one of their mail servers. A delay of a few days is only *ever* possible under two circumstances: 1) the sender's server is down 2) The receiver's server is down. Being as this is my first copy of the Digest (Hi all *wave*) I don't know the full history of KJC and email problems, but your supposition that KJC's ISP has a problem is a darn good one... We could always spam their mail server until they realise it's just not up=20 to scratch...(Heh, I did *not* say that...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jens J Loesel <Jens_J_Loesel@sbphrd.com> Date: 30 Jul 96 9:24:38 EDT THOD> To avoid confusion I changed my initial from JL to THOD. Hope four letters are still alright, but JL was already occupied. THOD> I've just read some old Quest-Digest from Jan/Feb 95. Real fun. A lot of ideas from this time are now implemented. For everyone who has lots of time. Read old digest. Lots of questions you find today have been raised already some time ago. THOD> Sorry if this is quite long, but players like Stefan Anderson (is he still playing ??) have written longer ones in the past. THOD> But the reason why I write. I'm the head of Germans first official Quest alliance. Our alliance is mainly dedicated to seek for knowledge (and of course to use it). We might be less mighty than a few English alliances in respect of money and warpower, but official alliances are around only since a few month (in Gemrany) and we make a lot of progress. THOD> Where we might be really famous is the base of knowledge we have. At the moment Kharne is mapped with over 39.500 sectors and should be complete in a few weeks. 130 shoplists with 7000 items and a few hundred journeys are also in out database. THOD> A few blurbs are still missing, but I guess most of you have never heard about the few ones we don't know. Ever heard about Arena Betreten (Entry Arena 602 ; yes this exists, just it doesn't seem to be implemented, like spears, having been around for years before you now could buy them at least in headquaters ), Grosse Heilung (Great Healing 606), Diebstahl (Robbery 613) or Unfall (Accident 615). THOD> Sorry if some of this numbers are now used for new services as ressurection or etiquette training. I don't know if some not implemented numbers are overridden or new ones above 632 were created. THOD> If you don't believe me, try a I 602 inside !! a town. You should get a message, your group was unable to find Entry Arena or something similar(only know the german original and free translations my be slightly wrong). And afterwords press KJC why this isn't implemented yet. THOD> Being tired of just gathering all the information und doing lots of statistics I have started to write a new Quest guide. THOD> A new Quest guide ?? What is different to the ones that are around ?? What I try to do is to publish everything on a topic I can get and write an article about this. The second difference is, that I gather rumours, but I check them befor I write them down. THOD> Where to find this guide ?? Go to the homepage of our alliance: http//:member.aol.com/BRUDERSCHA/welcome.htm or follow a link from the German distributor http://www.stevens.de/ just look for Bruderschaft. THOD> Don't worry if you arrive at a german Website. Just look out for a link 'Quest Guide' and a small British banner. This guide is written in both English and German. THOD> At the moment you find a slightly corrected version of my article about recruiting (see Ewan Jones pages) and 15 K of how to read a battle report to get out some information you just dreamed off. A third article about everything you ever wanted to know about armour is ready, but Christoph who maintains this pages has a broken Computer at the moment. But hopefully it will be fixed before you get this digest. THOD> The next article I plan: Everything you need to know about skills and how to increase them. THOD> I think I just cracked the formula how the priests get skill above 50. Believe me, you don't want to know it ... The increase seems to be slower and slower with increasing skill. THOD> So to get a priest of 60 is easy, to get one of 70 is just a matter of time, to get one of 80 needs veteran players, to get 99 I estimate around 180 turns at the moment ... Starting at 50 of course !!! THOD> Is there anyone around with a priest above skill 90 ?? Please contact me !!! Priests like this should exist in some ancient groups (if they haven't been killed to early or the players dropped) (JPG> Turn 115 (or thereabouts) and priest skill of 82. Priest was hired on turn 7 to replace a deceased one. Still increasing periodically.) THOD> Still some time to go, I'm between 73 and 77 with my three priests. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: <stuart_2@tds.bt.co.uk> Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 13:33:52 +0000 > From: Jens J Loesel <Jens_J_Loesel@sbphrd.com> > Date: 8 Jul 96 8:51:45 EDT > > Here two more bugs some people probably don't want to have > fixed: > J order again, this time together with quests: Just hire a > character before your second Y order and he gets full > money and XP. This should only work if: > SDL> I've always done this right from the word go. I agree that it isn't right: the priest (or whoever gives you the quest) should count the number of characters in your party and only pay that number, however many return, otherwise he is being conned! > RJT> On the subject of quest acceptance. Has anyone ever managed to > accept a quest after the required game week had expired? > > JPG> Yup, on my second turn ever. :-) SDL> I'm sure this has happened to me on a number of occasions. I sometimes completely forget about quest turns (!) and consequently send them in late. This has included quest acceptances. I think it is more a case that if you accept it after the end of the turn week, it could be offered to another party. If, like mine, your party is always somewhere devoid of other parties, then this means that the quest is still available (presumably) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 14:07:34 -0400 From: PSykes6420@aol.com > Since this turn was accepting a very valuable quest, I > had a very great interest in accepting it before it timed out. > RJT> Imagine my horror when I discovered later that the turn had not > been processed until two days after the turn week! (Fortunately, and > for some inexplicable reason, I have still been allowed to accept the > quest) > > RJT> On the subject of quest acceptance. Has anyone ever managed to > accept a quest after the required game week had expired? PS> When you are offered a quest, the blurb says that you have `until the end of the next turn OR game week' to accept the quest. I may be wrong, but I have always assumed that even if you don't send in a turn accepting the quest until after the end of the next game week has expired, you can still accept the quest because it is on your next turn. Similarly, I have assumed that if you send in two turns before the end of the next game week has expired, you can accept the quest on the second turn. PS> I've never tried accepting a quest on the second turn of the next game week, but I seem to remember sending in turns after the next game week had expired (I don't pay all that much attention to game weeks) and my quests have always been accepted (except for once due to a KJC inputting error, which they kindly corrected). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 12:57:01 +0100 From: Mark Jones <mark@samlet.demon.co.uk> >>PS> One of my groups stayed at the Alliance HQ with 9117 gold and got robbed >>of 820 of it. Is this supposed to happen? I thought Alliance HQ's were safe! > >MDS> I also had this problem. My group was carrying a little 21,000 gold and >lost around 1,400 gold (ouch!!). If my understanding is correct you can't be >robbed in an inn when you buy sleep, so an alliance HQ is like an inn for >alliance members, therefore it should be impossible to be robbed by city >thieves during your stay in the HQ. MJ> Inns are no safer than sleeping on the street. The best course of action is to move 1 sector ouside the settlement.That way you don't get robbed by npc's >>KW: I have recently had a number of complaints about the abuse that >thealliances are giving to the system. I seems to many players that if you are >not >a member of an offical alliance you are going to be beaten into a pulp due to >ther ability to increase ther skill scores and gain cheap plus weapons and >armour for nothing. >>KW I would be intersted if anyone has any ideas on this subject? MJ> Why not do as I am about to and set up your own official alliance to offset the imbalance. You only need five groups (or another two players with two groups each). You do know four more groups do you ? I believe this is a ploy by kjc to get players involved in the official alliances. However do not be surprised if the strength training loophole is closed soon - perhaps by causing each training session to use up experience as does the weapons training. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 14:38:35 +0100 From: Mark Jones <mark@samlet.demon.co.uk> RJT> Imagine my horror when I discovered later that the turn had not been processed until two days after the turn week! (Fortunately,and for some inexplicable reason, I have still been allowed toaccept thequest) MJ> In my experience Quests are timed by group turns rather than game weeks. i.e. Even if you send your turn after mising a couple of weeks then you are still allowed the quest offered the previous turn. In a case where you are allowed a catch up turn and you chose not to accept the quest until your next turn you will not be granted the quest. Even if both turns get processed before the beginning of a new turn week. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong). PS> If a character tries to put more money in the bank than the account limit, he just puts the money in up to the limit (OK! I copied this one fromQuest Digest!) MJ> Er, what limit??? (JPG> 50K isn't it? Or am I wrong...? And what's the carrying limit?) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 19:48:40 +0100 (BST) From: Chris Mead <mead@rmplc.co.uk> CM> Yup, it's "improvements for Quest" time again... I had these two ideas during a fit of boredom today. CM> 1. How about a system whereby players could pass messages to each other through KJC? Obviously this would take up a lot of time for KJC staff and a lot of computer power too, so there should be heavy restrictions on its use, such as a cost of 30 gold per message, or have it as a shop service meaning you have to be in a city with a "post office" to send a message. Just a thought. CM> 2. My other suggestion is an improvement to the "T" (talk) order in towns... how about an extra parameter to the order so you can ask a shopkeeper about a specific subject or item, instead of relying on chance or the items on your chatlist? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: <Roy.Thomas@ubs.com> Date: Mon, 5 Aug 96 15:30:15 +0100 RJT> Well, I seem to have survived the postal strikes, (even though I E-Mail my turns in anyway). I was rather astonished to find out that KJC found SOME of my turn card difficult to read!!!! I know that the formatting was fine (I have my own copy), so it must have got dirty during transmission, and perhaps smudged at the gateway. Or perhaps KJC have a dodgy printer??? RJT> I am still having problems with E-Mail turns being inputted incorrectly. Is this part of the same problem? Maybe KJC print out these turns in Micro Font. RJT> I just can't understand how Quest can differ so much from Beyond the Stellar Empire! In the Latter, if you make an obvious mistake, the GM corrects it for you (at the cost of movement). If the GM makes a mistake, the results are displayed immediately and I get turn results containing "Ooops" and "Adjustment" immediately after the mistake. The service there is faultless. And the game is run by the same people!! RJT> Anyway, on a better note, although some of the other PBMs I play have suffered during the postal strike, the KJC games have not and it does only serve to add to their reputation of reliability. RJT> The real reason I am writing this is to ask: Does anyone remember the good old days when you could teach a mage all the spells available to them at their level, and then send them for Spell Research? The Archmage used to agree that they were well versed in all spells, increase their level by 1 (SK + up to 10 points), and teach them a spell of the next level. RJT> Well, that seems to have changed. One of my mages has twice now been taught spells of the level above those they can cast. Although they have not tried to cast either of these spells, the question does arise, what has changed? and why? I liked the old system. It seemed logical, not overly advantageous, and plain 'right'. RJT> Is it reasonable to assume that now mages can learn spells that they cannot cast? Can they learn these spells on their own without having to have first advanced to the required level? RJT> Alternatively, is there now a new way for mages to increase their SK? Buying Magic skill is just so wasteful of Experience which would be better served with other skills (Awareness / Charisma etc.). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> Thanks again to those that have written in, and apologies (again) for the lateness. Better than last time though, eh? :-) I'm on holiday to Wales for a week starting tomorrow, but based on current performance nobody will notice. :-) Happy Questing until I return! -- >>-Josh-> "I never saw it as the start; it's more a change of heart" -- Ocean Colour Scene Up