Quest Digest 14/6/96 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 14 Jun 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. ___ / _ \ Hello and welcome to yet another Digest. I'll have to | __/DITORIAL make this intro brief due to time constraints, but I'd \___| like to thank everyone who sent me anything for the Digest. Apologies to anyone who sent me an email I haven't replied to yet - been flu ridden for a while. On the up side, I got a 2.1 in my degree... good luck to all those awaiting results! Right, after that entirely non-Quest related intro, on to the articles! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 07 Jun 96 17:27:32 +0000 From: zedzuada@innotts.co.uk (Dave Jones) DJ> If anyone wants a copy of the game 14 history, send mail to me at: DJ> DJ> zedzuada@innotts.co.uk DJ> DJ> with the subject "Send G14 history". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 02:52:01 +0100 From: Paul Noble <editor@elbon.demon.co.uk> > >JPG> So I can hear about any developments in the game and pass the >information on to the readers... Do editors get communication from KJC >often? Do they send details of pubmeets...? That would certainly be useful. > PN> ok, Oi! KJC put Josh on the list of reprints and letters (the letters we get are about every 2 months and anything relly inportant I roport to the digest - apologies for the crap spelling and typos - I have just returned from a night club - drunken in gharge of the internet - again! JPG> Hehe... >ES> About horses; What would happen to them when you go underground? PN> If you go underground you can either exchange them for a 'chit' at the nearest blacksmith or try and hide them with a H 99 <horses> 0 order - remember mounts are just items that allow you to move further. PN> further info on the fighter weaponskill bit, if you buy them a training (even if they have xp) on their first turn their weap skill will again start from 0. I have tried this in a couple of games and it never works. Also if you do a 'J' order for a recruit then it is effective in all settlements - you can do a J order in Xinch and then move to another town and do a X order to recruit him - you will still ge the recruit. >DR> Thanks for the support but I caught him kipping rough, and killed 12 >chars on a fair 'S' order. I.E I didn't precast any spells. I'm waiting to >see what happens this time. PN> tell us who it is please... >DR> I'll definitely second that. > >JPG> Cheers. :) Now convince Paul... PN> whaaaat? JPG> Never mind... I'd thought you had some objection to me being on such a list! >KJC and harrass 'em. Anyway I've just managed to push a DF over 70 skill >this week, hopefully if I can find something worth attacking to see if this >makes any difference. PN> as far as it goes is 3 hits - I don't think you get 4 hits if your total is over 200. >JPG> Okay! Finished... time to go catch the cricket and the sun... Happy >Questing! PN> Yarh we is winning! JPG> Now we is won. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 18:50:09 +0100 From: Geoff Blakey <geoff@gtblakey.demon.co.uk> >Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 15:22:49 -0400 >From: PSykes@aol.com (Philip Sykes) > > PS> I have had a letter from Steve Scutt, who runs Steve Hoard in Game >11. He says that he is on a Temple Quest to kill a Life Bringer which >does not seem to want to die. So far he has hit it with `everyhing apart >form the kitchen sink' and has only slightly wounded it over 5 turns >worth of battles. > PS> Can anybody help? GB> My group in game 13 just finished a quest for one of these blighters in two turns. The quest was for 2160 gold per character. I accepted the quest, moved out of the city, Teleport II'd twice and moved to where I hoped I'd be. It left me one sector away from it. Next turn, I moved to its last location, Tracked it, cast Engulfing Globe, Teleport II'd twice, and did an L to the city. I then issued the Y order. 32,400 gold for one turn out of the city. If you haven't got Engulfing Globe, Black Void does the trick on most monsters! :-) GB> One quirk I have found is that casting a Black Void against the odd monster which is quite immune to magic (eg Valkyries) still seems to get you the experience - even though it hasn't worked. My girlfriend's group chased a Valkyrie on a quest with only a single Black Void Mage. Cast BV at it 7 times one turn. The 7th sucked it up. By the time she got back to the city and finished the quest for it, her 60 ish skilled mage had enough xp to be in the 80's. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 14:34:20 -0400 From PSykes6420@aol.com (Philip Sykes - Game #11) >ES> I have another question for those who have experience with dungeons. I've >been through some small dungeons of about 4 to 5 levels, but I've never seen any >undeads. But what I find really disappointing is the low number of monstergroups on >the same level. I've never seen more than 4 monstergroups on the same level. What >have you others experienced regarding this? Has anyone been into dungeons with >monsters in almost every room? And how many levels have you seen at most, 10, >15? PS> I have been down 2 dungeons in my limited experience of dungeoneering - an 8 level dungeon East of Intafel before Dungeons were given names and a 9 level Dungeon, The Hall Of Ultimate Evil, West of Halidai. PS> The most monsters I came across were 5 monstergroups in 10 rooms searched and the least monsters I came across were 0 monstergroups in 24 rooms searched! PS> The only undead that I found were 3 Shadows on Level 8 of the Hall of Ultimate Evil and 7 Skeletons and 2 Ghouls on level 2 of the 9 level dungeon. PS> Just as a matter of interest, casting Kill Undead at the Shadows had no effect and I didn't get one hit on them. The Skeletons kept on fighting until they were all dead. >ES> About horses; What would happen to them when you go underground? PS> I have been lucky enough to have been sent a copy of `Ideas About Horses' by the Game 11 newsletter Editor which says the following - `Dungeons: Horses can not follow a party down a dungeon. You could use the H order with a target of 0 to try hide them close by the entrance but another party could possibly find some of them (but not all). You would only need to do a I 0 in the square where you left the horses to find them again. It would need to be stored on the mounts who owns them.' PS> The newsletter Ed asked me to pass the info on to other Quest players, so if anyone wants a photocopy, EMail me your address or write to: Philip Sykes, 73 Greenway Road, Heald Green, Stockport, SK8 3NU. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 20:41:11 GMT From: John Larkin <jlarkin@cyberclub.iol.ie> >>JPG> Just a final comment before I go... when recruiting a fighter, such >>as the 59 skill DF I got on the last turn, I thought that buying them a >>weapon fixed their skill in that weapon as their skill as a fighter, i.e. >>59. However, buying him a great axe resulted in a skill of 29 or so. >>What went wrong?? Pretty annoying having to train him up. Oh well... > >PN> Did you have a fight that turn? If so that is your problem - if you >fight anything (even if you kill everything in magic) then your fighters >weapon skill will begin from 0 again. JL> I presume you send in your turns by e-mail, all you have to do is write a little note at the end of your turn aking them to adjust your weapon skill to equal your skill. You know they are usually very helpful at KJC (and sometimes too helpful -the group resurrection!). JPG> I'll give it a go, certainly... ES>My advice is that those players that enjoy this aspect of the >game split up, and make an opposition to the BKA yourself instead of blaming >others for "hiding" behind the NA-option. JL> Somehow I think that is wishful thinking, the whole point of being in an alliance is to be allied to eachother (hence the name) not against eachother. You know, it is quite a good feeling when you know that your alliance, which you put so much time, effort and money into, is the best in the game, and won't be defeated unless everyone else joins together. Why don't you start an alliance against the BKA, and turn off the NA status, maybe then other old groups will follow your initiative and also turn off the NA. All you have to do is raize 30K for the new alliance HQ and then you are safe from the BKA. They can't attack you if you are staying in your allaince HQ... ES>Why isn't dungeoneering as fun as group wars? JL> Simple, because having a fight is the most exiting part of quest. You are testing the strength of your group against another. There is nothing better than getting your results back after having defeated a group and killed some of their members. Alliance wars are even better because it is the same as above except with many more groups involved. Oh, and dungeoneering is also not as good because af the crap map and movement system. > PS> I have had a letter from Steve Scutt, who runs Steve Hoard in Game >11. He says that he is on a Temple Quest to kill a Life Bringer which >does not seem to want to die. So far he has hit it with `everyhing apart >form the kitchen sink' and has only slightly wounded it over 5 turns >worth of battles. JL> This happened to me a while back, if you are casting call monsters on it it will take at least five turns to die. What you can do is cast any death spell, that'll kill the bugger. If you don't have them, attack it with enchant weapons cast, and make sure you don't cast any offensive magic on it, or it will run away. You should be able to kill it this way. The only other solution is to zap the quest and get a new one! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Jun 96 12:14:52 GMT From: Dave Rees <chaos@thanes.demon.co.uk> > PN> Whos the cad? It's not Flames of Fury is it? Give us a group number > so all G14 can gun for them. DR> You know I couldn't accuse a player directly without cast iron proof as I had the information passed to me second hand, So I can't name the Flames of Vengeance (1034) to let you know, I'm sorry. > ES> In what kind of way is the BKA on top? On top of what? As I see it <ETC> DR> As with all things, things grow and flourish while others wither and die. I don't deny that the BKA has been successful as a combat alliance but we have found little else to do. We are by no means a majority in the game and there are a lot of players who would love to see the BKA fall apart. It will happen sooner or later, but it is not my fault that the enemies of the BKA could not organise the preverbial brewery run. DR> With reference to 'Anti-Social gaming', alot of people still do not accept what the BKA does as Role Playing, by now you should have seen the latest G14 newsletter with the imposition of military rule by the BKA. We do nottarget groups because they are run by a particular player, we are hostile to everything that moves. We don't recycle money, just for the sake of gaining large stats without having to work for it. If you must have someone to blame for the alleged atrocities early in the game, then I suggest that some people should not get personal as none of us here consider ourselves 'Nazis' and do not like personal insults of that ilk. DR> I feel that the NA status is here to stay, I am just concerned that some people will abuse it to avoid attacks from BKA members as some people used the holiday option to avoid them. I accept the need for the NA option, but the ability to change it at will (even with the turns of delay) should be curbed. DR> I have campaigned for more services and items to be made available to OA's, but with no effect so far, it will take a long time to mature Quest from the basic hack and slash game that it is now, in a serious role playing game that alot of people would like to see. ES> Why isn't dungeoneering as fun as group wars? DR> Damn good point, considering the rewards gained for entering a dungeon it just isn't worth the effort or orders. > PS> I have had a letter from Steve Scutt, who runs Steve Hoard in Game > 11. He says that he is on a Temple Quest to kill a Life Bringer which > does not seem to want to die. So far he has hit it with `everyhing apart > form the kitchen sink' and has only slightly wounded it over 5 turns > worth of battles. > PS> Can anybody help? DR> The Life Bringer fully heals itself at the end of every turn. You must do enough damage in one turn to kill it. If you don't have (128) or (179) then try sending 2 turns in together and using 30 orders to attack it with. DR> Group cash You may or may not be aware that KJC have a bug in the program that will cost you money. The program can not handle amounts greater than 9999gp on each character. Several players have had to complain to KJC about losing money due to this bug. The current best loss is 82000gp in one turn. KJC are refusing to fix this at the present time. One player has had his orders changed by KJC (allegedly) to stop the program crashing and therefore his turns failed. If this is true this is unacceptable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Neil Benson" <9365040@mull.sms.ed.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 10:31:23 +0000 NB> I'm still working on my own PBM. We've got the basics all sorted: gameworld, stats, items, combat and algorithms for all the actions. My programmer is now beginning coding for the character generation programs while I finish the algorithms for the rest of the actions. NB> The game hasn't got a name yet, I'm targetting TSR players as well as regular fantasy pbm players so I may go for DRAGONLANDS, but I'll need to check with my IP lawyer. I believe we can offer a substantial improvement over Quest but I'll let the playtesters decide. NB> If anyone would like to get involved in providing feedback on what we've got or signing up for playtesting then give me a line, but don't hold your breath for the playtests. I really need some ideas for the magic system. I have plenty of ideas but I am looking for something new and original for a magic system in a PBM. So far the power of the wizards is drawn from the Dragons they follow, while the priests draw their power from Gods (not much unusual there); but how are spells cast, what mechanisms does the program use, how complex can we get here? Any useful ideas will get credit, and my thanks. NB> I have a page which rounds up this new game telling you what will be available. If anyone would like to see a copy then let me know and I'll forward it to you. BTW, finished my finals!!! Result tomorrow :( -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "M.B.Walker -Ben Walker" <M.B.Walker@open.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 14 Jun 96 09:04:00 BST ES >> But what I find really disappointing is the low number of monstergroups on each level. I've never seen more than 4 monstergroups on the same level. BW> In game 4 I spent about 12 turns on level 10 of a dungeon without encountering one single monster group. Casting Reveal Monsters showed up a monster group in 1 room, but every time I got there they seemed to have disappeared (or moved).Surely the whole point about going down deep dungeons is to encounter some of the tougher monsters, or a least large groups of weaker ones. BW>Whilst on the subject of dungeons, does anybody know how the Bags of Gold amounts are calculated ? I'd always assumed that it was 100g.p. per level, but on level ten I was pulling in 1500-1600g.p. a bag BW>One of the main problems with Quest is the under population of some games. I agree with whoever suggested everyone from the digest moving to a particular game (not necessarily game 14). Ideally this should be one of the less developed games so that few groups will start with any particular advantage. This makes more sense than starting up an entirley new game specifically for digest players. BW>One final point for any CrasiQuest players - Andy suggested that there was to be an important announcement last week, but I missed it - was it worth the effort ? Also, anyone who wants a copy of the Rumour Monger - a collection of Crasi rumours / Artefact / NPC info, please e-mail me ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> Well, c'est ca, until next time anyway. Happy Questing, and keep sending me your comments! >>-Josh-> "You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need" -- Rolling Stones Up