Quest Digest 18/2/96 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ___ _ / _ \ | | 18th Feb, 1996 | |_| |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 initalled 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. o For answers to specific Quest-related questions, you may want to get in touch with the Quest Helpline; queries sent to quest-help@kokodan.vivi.com will be sent to a panel of experienced Quest players, who will endeavour to answer your problems quickly. Thanks to Bruce Cota for his help. ___ / _ \ Thanks again for all the emails you sent for inclusion | __/DITORIAL in the Digest, and thanks for contributing to the Top 5! \___| We have five suggestions that have come out on top, but I'll leave it another week before I send them in, as 5 & 6 are fairly close. If you haven't voted yet, then please get a move on! I'm not sure whether much improvement of any notice will come from this venture, but we can only try! On with the articles anyway. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 18:16:45 +0000 (GMT) From: David Tyler <dmt@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk> >>are a bit harder. After all good press about Monks I was expecting a good >>fight - to be honest four giant beatles gave us more stress. PN>You think 4 giant beetles would be easy? In G1 a 100+ old group with mages >in the 80s and priests in the 70s just lost 13 out of 14 characters to 5 >giant beetles! DT> No, the previous person was talking about Beatles, the Fab Four, not just four giant beetles. One is a group of fearsome insects, the other is a bunch of old, stoned hippies, one of whom is dead and one of whom is enfeebled by an enforced vegetarian diet; a much less significant threat, don't you think? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1996 20:05:26 GMT From: editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble) > teleport to a target unless it is a city, and you can to > an L order to find it after you have gotten close. PN> WHat I think would be best would be if when you see a monster on the map and then teleport out to it you should be able to locate the monster as you actually already know the secotr that they are in, or KJC should provide a grid reference so that you could locate that sector. > 4. Undead (Has anyone ever seen one?) Are the gods playing with us or > something? Why do we have spells / miracles relating to undead.They may as > well give us spells like Zap Invisible Bound Dwarf (Only works if you > catch him and tie him up first)!!! PN>I met some zombies once, fryed them with lightening blast in a dungeon! Perhaps such a spell shouldnt be allowed indoors, how does the lightening get through the floor? Or have I got it wrong? I don't think I did ever read that blurb. > 5. Different professions. A nice idea, but I would like the idea of older > characters specialising after a while - a gret fighter joins the Paladin > guild, a thief decides he is an assassin after he has mastered his skills > etc. PN>yeyyeyeyeye, top Idea! Having a group of Ninja or samurai would make it much more interesting (for a start it would give some use to the hands skill) but I think you'd have to specialise early in the career of the char otherwise the elite parties would just become more elite. The different techniques would be excellent coupled with the Gladitorial arenas, who would win? 15 Beserkers or 15 cold blooded Ninja? PN> Josh am I allowed another top 5? JPG> Nope. :) After the first 5 have been sent to KJC, then yes! > Preferably with an ability for a coordinated attack by several > groups. (I know, fat chance). PN> another mint idea, the ability for two or more groups to coordinate attacks on one monster group at the same time! impossible I know it this is a wish list =) > play (some being) :- Piracy, Long haulage, Special deliverys as > today but with special prices, deadlines and bonuses etc. PN> a friend of mine already wanted to try the highwayman trick but to actually do it as an alternate source of income would be excellent, perhaps a new NPC/Monster a trader who has a horse and wagon (obviously eat the horse - this is Kharne after all, and burn the wagon, or maybe eat that as well). > > (JPG> I'll include this too as a vote for horses, see the other comment I > made though.) PN> I very much dont think this is a vote for horses, it had nothing to do with them except mentioning movement! Whats up Josh? You got a horse fetish? If the trade idea went ahead I reckon the group would be shown up as traders and thus in that status they could not attack others but could carry much much more, thus groups could disguise themselves as traders to be a target for highwaymen and thus catch the would be looters. JPG> I'll take a vote off the horses then! > 2) Organised fights between 2 or more groups in city arenas. > With a choice of how far you want to go before a winner > is announced, and what type of fight to have (melee, > missile etc.). Possible prizes given. PN> Another Hurrah, perhaps linked with the artifacts thingy, the champion of a city would gain an artifact of power. The contenders in the fights would get and xp bonus for competing (to stop groups using it as a xp machine a minimum flee factor would have to be installed) the winner gaining twice the amount as the loser. PN> On artifacts, perhaps there should be say 20-40 items which play off against each other so a clash of big groups who have some of these items then the result of these items against one and another would have unforseen consequences... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Jonas Nelson, KTH" <NELSON@l.kth.se> Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 10:48:19 +0100 > PN>You think 4 giant beetles would be easy? In G1 a 100+ old group with > mages in the 80s and priests in the 70s just lost 13 out of 14 characters > to 5 giant beetles! JN >That's what happens when you walk around with a 99% retreat factor. Remember, there are times when "it's better to flee and fight another day"... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 14:14:35 +0000 (GMT) From: Bill the Hamster eats Cod <godfrey2@coventry.ac.uk> BTH> Hi all. Some of you may know me as the editor of the Quest KJC-5 newsletter, the Seer Kharne. Well, I am he no more. Due to a four month delay in the newsletter and the fact I had not been playing the game for three months led to them beliving that I was dead. The new editor is Alun Salt. His first newsletter should be out in two weeks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Feb 96 15:07:26 EST From: Karl Wasley <101523.2365@compuserve.com> KW> I am looking for Ideas to change my game (game 10) into a more game rather that combat orintated game. As the game seems to have only about 70 players there is less interaction between them. any suggestion would be helpful. KW> I agree with some of the top 5's but mainly the ones that allow game expantion rather than moving between games or canceling NA orders. KW> The NA was prouduced to stop groups jumping on other groups that were not battle ready. another suggestion is that when you talk to any shop that sells skill improvments that give you helpful hints to there wares. EG you look a little weak I should try some strength training or If you were taught you could learn how to shoot that arrow straight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ewan Jones <c2ej@dmu.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:17:08 GMT > PN> Does anybody know what alignment goblins are? EJ> Erm, Fleyshur I think, I have a list somewhere, let me know if you want it. > PN> About a change world <snipped> EJ> Wouldn`t it be fairer to say you can only shift between games with the same turnaround rate, I don`t think theres that much of a difference then. Game 17 would be stuffed but then again hardly anybody is playing there anyway ! > COS> Is there anyway that you can force your thief to rob particular > items from a shop ???? EJ> Nope, you can`t specify which item you want from a shop, it`s down to chance more often than not, most times you will get whatever is cheapest in the shop, you won`t be able to steal plus items, similarly the best jewel i`ve seen stolen from a shop is a 1000gp one. EJ> I may be organising a pubmeet in Leicester around Easter since the Leeds one looks as though it will not happen unless someone cares to sort it out, how many people would be interested in a Leicester one ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 12:22:00 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> > From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) > RJT> Teleportation - I agree with the comments about the > unpredictability of distance. It means that you can never > teleport to a target unless it is a city, and you can to > an L order to find it after you have gotten close. > RJT> I figure that you can add a number to the end of the > direction code: if 1 is north, 19 is nine sectors north. AH> If you could teleport exactly then (S)teal order groups would be deadly. Teleport onto anygroup within 15 sectors, avoid the spell round and butcher them in melee. > From: Paul Noble <editor@elbon.demon.co.uk> > PN>You think 4 giant beetles would be easy? In G1 a 100+ old group with mages > in the 80s and priests in the 70s just lost 13 out of 14 characters to 5 > giant beetles! AH> I guess 3LW'd was not too bad after all then =)! The toughest (most hitpoints) monster I've met so far is the Sky Ray, over 800exp for two. In the melee round 100% weapon skill characters kept on missing, so I only hit about 10 times a round instead of the usual 25 odd. Fortunatly the Sky Rays only hit once - for 26 damage on a chaimailed character, ouch! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________ ____________ |___ ___| | | | | ____ _ __ | _______| | | / __ \ | |/ __ \ | |____ | | | |__| | | |__| | | \ |__| \ ____ / | |\____/ |_______ \ | | \ | |_| _______ / | | / |__________/ i) Please put your Top 5 in a different email; it really helps me when I'm compiling them. ii) Limit your suggestions to one or two lines _at the most_. The more detailed the suggestion, the less likely it will be to have widespread support, and it won't make the list below. 1) New & Interesting Quests(14) * Rescuing artefacts, clearing dungeons, clues from library, involve NPCs 2) Horses (& other mounts?) (10) * include horses in the game to increase movement points (+ feed Kreorses) 3) Artefacts (9) * Include artefacts in the game, might increase attributs for eg 4) Change world spell (of some form) (7) * change to either another game or a new, tougher game 5) Follow Road (6) * implement a follow road order - - - - - - - 6) Mixed and large groups of Monsters (5) * New monsters, mixed race monster groups, villages of monsters 7) Separate Spell rankings (4) * one ranking for monsters, another for parties 8) Less rewards for Temple Quests (3) * max 10K? 8) New miracles/spells (3) * Examples: Regeneration, locate underground location 8) More varied battle reports (3) * Examples: include names of oponents 8) Gladiator arena (3) * organised fighting area in town; prizes offered, choice of weapons 8) Catacombs/sewers (3) * under the city, poplated by monsters/bandits/NPC's 9) Town politics and trading (2) * Trading between towns that specialise in produce, politics in towns 9) More races and professions (2) * professions possibly just for more experienced characters to specialise 9) E-mail game (2) * Set up a game that sends turns by email. Charge less. 9) Computerised situations (2) * Wars between cities, waring groups, news and events 9) NA order for groups under 40 only (2) 9) Computer moderated alliances (2) * eg. offer special quests, based on religion -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1996 23:20:50 GMT From: Paul@smmad.demon.co.uk (Paul Damms) 1) Artefacts. These could be simple things like a sword of strength that increase toughness or a helm of charisma. 2) Change world spell (of some form). 3) NA order for groups under 40 only. 4) An experience point total just like gold, to let you know how many exp's you can waste on skills before you drop below TQ level. 5) Maximum character power points in brackets next to the actual power points in the "Party Spells and Powers Section". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Feb 96 15:06:57 EST From: Karl Wasley <101523.2365@compuserve.com> Here is my top 5 1/ longer more complex TQ's and Quests 2/ Artifacts and Relics 3/ Arena of fighting 4/ town politics and trading 5/ computer generated waring groups, news and events including mega baddies -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: thierry stoclet <Thierry.Stoclet@epita.fr> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:08:39 +0000 (GMT) 1) Change to either& another game or a new thougher game 2) New &interesting Quest 3) Follow Roads 4) Mixed group of monster and village of monster is a good idea... 5) Catacombs/sewer, yeah i love that ! ****))) BUT please, PLEASE ! No horse, it's so unrealistic! Imagine one of your horse die, what did you do with this character?(with no horse) And when you go to a donjon, where are your horses ?... JPG> If a horse was to die, then people could double up on horses, up to a point, depending on what the maximum weight the horse could carry was. Alternatively, or perhaps in combination, one or more people may be forced to walk, and the entire party to go at the same pace as the walker, hence reducing the movement points to the standard amount. And in a dungeon, either let them free (lose them) or tether them and hope you're not down there so long that they die after running out of available food or water. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ewan Jones <c2ej@dmu.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:44:58 GMT 1) New & Interesting Quests 2) More varied battle reports * VARIED HITTING DESCRIPTIONS 3) Change world spell (of some form) 4) Artefacts 5) Horses -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:14:04 -0300 (BST) From: THOMAS LARKIN <TLARKIN@tcd.ie> 1.Longer/better quests. A nice one for the money lenders would be:track down group xxxx and kill at least one of their members..... 2.follow road order 3.change world spell (of some form or another, my favorite being teleported into hell or someplace equally nasty.) 4.cities of different alignments- Spellcasting would be allowed in chaotic cities, evil groups might be attacked by NPCs in good cities, theives put in jail/killed in lawful cities etc etc. might be hard to program, but it would be a nice touch. Temple quests might then have a different dimension. 5.separate spell rankings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 13:02:09 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> My top five changes everytime I think about it (probably depending on the state of the ionosphere or something =)). Below is how it stands at the mo:- 1) New & Interesting Quests Why does a temple of Fleyshur care about local farmers?! More varied and longer term quests please. Reduce Tq's rewards too (max 10K?). 2) Artefacts Both one off powerfull and unusual items - Venomblade, Firebrand, Soulstealer should be relatively easy using the Poison, Flame and Ythcals Touch code. 3) New miracles/spells Make them hard to gain, rare mages tomes in dungeons? Give priests some high end power, an 80+sk priest should command some respect. 4) Racial/Class limits on stats Perhaps its just me, but I cant see an elf mage being as tough as a veteran stunty fighter or a dwarf mage matching master elven spellweavers. 5) Errrrm! (I guess the below wont count, so a vote for dobbins instead!). Various game balance thingies like looking into HQ skill abuses, multiple engages, NA abuses, holiday abuses (some much worse than others). JPG> I guess they _ought_ to count, but really they are problems that KJC should be looking at individually, not additions to the game but fixes of problems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 11:55:44 +0100 (CET) From: ui99@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Roland Ottl) RO> Well, I've off the net for a while but here are my TOP FIVE 1) Mixed Monster Groups. Just like the idea of everzbody else 2) Seperate Spell Rankings for Monsters/Player Groups 3) More complex Quests 4) Powerful Artefacts 5) Computer moderated Allainces, like knightly orders etc that you could join. Forgot the name of the pal who suggested this, but I definetly like it! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> That's the lot for the moment. As I say, keep it all coming in. There are some great ideas above, and if you want to discuss any of them in the regular digest, feel free! Also please tell me if you think I've made a mistake in the counting of the votes. It's a bit of a difficult task, as everybody wants to make their own subtle changes to ideas, and I have to decide whether they are similar enough to constitute voting for the same thing. JPG> Well, until next time, Happy Questing.... >>-Josh-> "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 Up