Quest Digest 9/2/96 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ___ _ / _ \ | | 9th February, 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. ___ / _ \ Hello there to all the new people I've just put on the | __/DITORIAL list! A couple of you haven't asked me specifically to put \___| you on the list, so if you don't want to be on it, just let me know and I'll sort you out. Thanks everybody for all the Top 5 suggestions again. Please keep them coming so that we have a good idea of how many votes have been cast for whichever points. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 11:27:04 GMT From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) > CC> What the *#? is a level four mage? KJC's mages don't work on levels, > although what a mage can cast depends on his skill to the lowest 10 (IE > 10,20,30 sk etc) RJT> Actually, KJC do implement a level based system. A mages level is their skill divided by 10 and rounded up. Level 6 mages are mages with skill 50-59. RJT> If a mages go up a level (through research) they are told for instance that they are now Sorceror (8) and can cast level 8 enchantments. Level 7 is a Mage Level 8 is a Sorceror Level 9 is a Master Mage. RJT> In the same way, spells have levels, so a level 7 mage can cast / learn spells of level 7 or lower. (That means he/she must have a skill of 60-69) RJT> Incidently, a mage of skill 10 is a level 2 mage. The lowest conceivable skill is 0 (- Level 1)!!! 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. RJT> A bit confusing but better than now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 19:17:01 GMT From: Paul Noble <editor@elbon.demon.co.uk> >CC> Enchant Weapons III works on most things. 70sk I think. PN>Enchant Weapons 3 is 50 skill PN>Ops, deleted a few too many lines again =( CC said something about quest mages not working on levels, but if you get your mages casting all the spells possible, when he/she goes to buy spell research for the next spell up, it *does* say 'you are well versed in magic, you are now 6th level mage' and gives a title for the mage level your on. CC> I play in G8 - fancy a fight, I'm bored. PN> Whats up with Frenzy? >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! JPG> <snip Top5, it'll appear at the bottom> PN> Does anybody know what alignment goblins are? My G16 group just beat up on some when they were monster friendly and on +16 Ythcal. Just wondering why. PN> About a change world -or a ship journey as it is looking like it will be- spell I think it would have to be heavily regulated as old groups would just jump into newer games and duff it up. And old slow developing games like game 6 will be easy pickings from the killers in G13, 14 and 17. Maybe if the groups that were going into a new game would be penalised, ie the group is 100 turns, the game is 90, therefore the group has 10% knocked off all stats that have been improved upon. 1% per turn, this way the hardest groups would be taken down to about the level of a 90 turn old group and any weaker groups would be reduced to below what the game has to offer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 11:42:12 +0100 (MET) From: Finn Theodorsen <theodor@diku.dk> FET> Suggestions for QUEST?? How about my old chat-extension. If you meet monster on a friendly basis they check their knowledge list aginst your chatlist and might give you some info. Why not when you meet parties on a friendly basis. If both have eg. YTHCAL on their chatlist you can get message like: "You meet Invoked Devastation ..description.. Chatting with Iggwilv, their female halfblood priest, you learn, that they are also interested in YTHCAL. Then they went." Yes - also include single character names in more messages. The only way I ever get names on other, is if I specifically investigate them - which is kind of sad. Sure - you dont exchange names when fighting, but when you just meet and chat at least some name should be learned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 08:16:40 EST From: "Carl Speed" <carl_speed@uk.ibm.com> COS> Would somebody let me know how many Power Points it costs to cast Insanity please (Direct to carl_speed@uk.ibm.com). Do you also have a full list of costs ???? COS> Is there anyway that you can force your thief to rob particular items from a shop ???? I found a +3 Sword in a shop which I thought I could filch. However the thief took his time, grabbed 263 gold and decided to take a sling !!! If I give the weapon that the thief is wielding, will this make it more likely that he will try to take one from the shop ???? >Stefan Andersson (SA) > > SA> Automatise the inputting of E-mail turns, and reduce the price for > them. Start up a pure E-mail game with 7-days turnaround. COS> I have noticed (might be to do with all the Catch-Up turns I've been given (only 17 turns played). I have found that I send the turn via E-mail in the morning, and the following morning I receive the results !!! This is quick enough for me !!! Also, E-Mailing the turn is saving me 25p a turn (as I get free internet access via work). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________ ____________ |___ ___| | | | | ____ _ __ | _______| | | / __ \ | |/ __ \ | |____ | | | |__| | | |__| | | \ |__| \ ____ / | |\____/ |_______ \ | | \ | |_| _______ / | | / |__________/ JPG> Whew! This is quite a mammoth task actually... Let me take this oppurtunity to remind anyone wishing to write in with Top 5's of their own to obey these simple two rules: 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. JPG> Here is the list of the most popular suggestions so far. Only those suggestions that have been made by more than one person are listed. This may change to more than 2 people later, depending on response. A record of all the ideas that haven't been agreed with by other people yet is being kept for future reference. JPG> The Artefacts suggestion doubles up on a couple of the votes for New & Interesting Quest, as are the reduce temple quest awards. JPG> Finally, before you read the list, all ideas with an equal number of suggestions have been awarded the same place to show no bias towards them. 1) Horses (& other mounts?) (9) * include horses in the game to increase movement points (+ feed Kreorses) 2) New & Interesting Quests(8) * Rescuing artefacts, clearing dungeons, clues from library, involve NPCs 3) Follow Road (4) * implement a follow road order 3) Artefacts (4) * Include artefacts in the game 4) Change world spell (of some form) (3) * change to either another game or a new, tougher game 4) Mixed and large groups of Monsters (3) * New monsters, mixed race monster groups, villages of monsters 5) More races and professions (2) * professions possibly just for more experienced characters to specialise 5) Less rewards for Temple Quests (2) 5) New miracles/spells (2) * Examples: Regeneration, locate underground location 5) More varied battle reports (2) * Examples: include names of oponents 5) E-mail game (2) * Set up a game that sends turns by email. Charge less. 5) Gladiator arena (2) * organised fighting area in town; prizes offered, choice of weapons 5) Catacombs/sewers (2) * under the city, poplated by monsters/bandits/NPC's 5) Separate Spell rankings (2) * one ranking for monsters, another for parties -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 11:27:04 GMT From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) RJT> The Top 5 1. HORSES - I wish!!! What do Kreorses eat anyway? How come they have survived so long if there aren't any horses! 2. Exciting Quests!!! I would like something a little out of the ordinary, rescuing artifacts, clearing a dungeon, get my drift. 3. Artifacts! It seems that everything falls into a neat catagory, life is not like that. Items that do different things when used. 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)!!! 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 12:45:02 +0100 (MEZ) From: "Silvio C. E. Tosatto" <silvio@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de> - Horses - More variated Battle Reports - Separate spell ranking and ASLs for monster/party combat - Catacombs/Sewers under cities populated with monsters/bandits - More complex quests with rare artifacts, guardians, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: N Olver <np-olver@uwe.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 12:33:54 +0000 (GMT) 1). Horses (Set up to be afordable for medium groups) 2). More varied and less rewarding TQs 3). Change Game possiblities. (Once and One way only) 4). Horses 5). More Horses and possibly pegasi (flying pigs :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 14:31:28 +0100 (MET) From: Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@stud.unit.no> LRM> Here's my top five inclusions for quest: 1. Hostile Villages: Large, immobile monster-groups. (Say 50+ orcs) Preferably with an ability for a coordinated attack by several groups. (I know, fat chance). 2. More, larger and more detailed incidents. (_How_ many times have I had a character chew on something poisonous?) 3. Mounts. Prefferably many different with various abilities in different terrains. (I.e. horses might be good on roads but worse than useless in mountains.) JPG> I'll take this as a vote for the horses, for simplicity's sake for the moment, but if anyone wants to agree in a top 5 of their own with point 3 here as it is written, then I'll add it to the list above. 4. Artifacts. (More or less unique equipment - "Excalibur", "Armour of God" etc.) (I know - fat chance.) 5. Follow road order. (It can't be that bloody difficult to program!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "M.B.Walker -Ben Walker" <M.B.Walker@open.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 29 Jan 96 14:18:00 GMT 1. Horses and/or Speed Spells 2. Follow Road Order 3. More varied/long term Quests involving npc's/artefacts/ dungeons/clues from library research,etc. 4. Larger groups of monsters and/or more monster groups in the wilderness 5. More realistic pricing policies for official alliances i.e. cheaper 2nd HQs and lower start up fees / higher overheads for provision of training. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 08:16:40 EST From: "Carl Speed" <carl_speed@uk.ibm.com> COS> Now for my 5 ideas (in no particular order) :- COS> How many of you have played the traditional trading game ?!?!? IE that famous game Elite ???? Why cant the city/towns/villages be set to a particular status ?? Ie Farming, Manufacturing, etc. Then set selling and buying prices for items. The values could flutuate as parties trade between settlements. This would give lots of new game play (some being) :- Piracy, Long haulage, Special deliverys as today but with special prices, deadlines and bonuses etc. COS> I think that travel is important for the game as it is today and if the above was to be incorporated. Therefore I would like to see horses, but also other types of transport !!! (JPG> I'll include this too as a vote for horses, see the other comment I made though.) COS> A treasure hunt for artifacts would be good !!! Traveling to libraries, talking with NPC's, investigating strange dungeons etc could have paths led to a final item of power. The paths could be setup from several starting points !!! This would bring the role playing aspect to the game.... COS> A bit far fetched, but what about being able to setup a village, then onto town and city. Having to pay for the building process, the protection etc. This would be a lot of coding but would bring new levels to the game. COS> I think that there should be more computerised situations... IE a war between towns/cities... Bringing the parties into situations that they could gain experience via missions etc.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 19:17:01 GMT From: Paul Noble <editor@elbon.demon.co.uk> PN> I liked Erlings idea about catacombs best, sorry I forgot about putting my big five ideas down, just utter crapness I suppose. Can I put them down now? 1> Further quests for old groups, liek the dungeon one I thought up ages ago, bounty hunting monsters: a certain number of monsters have to be culled. 2> NA groups get their own game. 3> NA groups cannot be older than 40 turns. 4> Groups to be expelled from town for a turn (or 2) for either starting fights and being caught, robbing and being caught, or castin spells at the opposition. 5> A way to force an alliance into collapsing without having to wipe out all the members. PN> I ain't bothered by horses, mules or following roads, just get a Map wilderness 2 out and you can do it just as easy, teleport 2 & 3 easy journey times, it just takes a bit of working out. To reduce loads, well tough up the chars or don't carry so much. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jan 96 13:22:13 GMT From: Phill Coleman <colemanp@cs.man.ac.uk> Phill's Official Top 5 : Monster Groups Improved - Monster spellcasters, Goblin Shamen etc - Mixed Monster Groups, Goblins on Wolves, Orcs & Hill Giants etc. - More new monsters More Variation In Descriptions - Someone suggested battle reports from towns along the lines of : during the night, you were woken up by the sound of XYZ clashing with ABC....... - The competition for improving the wording of attempted S orders was a step in the right direction. - 'XCYUAJHDGSJH the shopkeeper comes over to deal with you............ gets a little tedious after a while - etc. Horses, Follow Roads Order, Some new miracles / spells -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Sparshott@jet.uk Date: Tue, 30 Jan 96 16:06:15 GMT TOP FIVE JOBBERS 1) More interesting and varied quests - 'go to Dantil (2) and try out all the inns for their sleeping facilities. Let me know which one you prefer' - 'Travel to bonklots mountain and issue 15 'P 3' orders, just for the hell of it' 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. 3) The use of Email to run a quest game. Its a lot cheaper as I have found out with the Australian version of Quest. 4) The odd surprise - Shopkeepers getting drunk and starting fights with groups. - Characters suddenly dying of heart attacks - Natural disasters 5) Oh go on then.......horsies please. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> There, finished! Sorry it's late again... standard excuses, so I won't go into them. Keep those top 5's coming in. Once we have enough (shouldn't be too long) I'll compose a letter to KJC with the most popular 5 ideas in and once those have been implemented we can set about pestering them for another 5! Happy Questing folks! >>-Josh-> "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 Up