Quest Digest 28/1/96 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ___ _ / _ \ | | 28th January, 1996 | |_| |UEST__| |IGEST Superbowl night! \__ | / _ | | |_ | |_| | 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 to all who sent in the Top 5 stuff. Some people, | __/DITORIAL who shall remain nameless, Rogerio Fung, didn't quite get \___| the idea of a top 5 and not a top 1 repeated 5 times. :) I'll print the results at the bottom of this Digest so you can mull over them and make your own decisions on a top 5. Keep sending them in! Also below are the promised instructions on how to get hold of Chris Clarke's FAQ V.2... at last. :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 06:48:26 +0000 (GMT) From: Chris Clarke <ctc@coventry.ac.uk> Here is it, finally, the questfaq v2 "This time it's AmigaGuide". Technically, it's also HTML and text, but I like the name. I really must apologise for the amount of time this has taken, (as Bill Godfrey put it "It's taken longer than Windows 95"; hopefully it won't crash your computer, though!). If you are using OS3 then use qfaqOS3.guide and MULTIVIEW; if you use AmigaGuide then you will lose over half of the nodes! For this reason, users of AmigaGuide should use qfaq1-3.guide. Make sure all three files are in the same directory and the computer should pull in the external links. This will be slightly slower, but I could not find another way to do it. HTML users will find a zip file qfaqhtml.zip which they should uncompress (after making a directory for it). Startfile is Main.htm (!). This version had to have major alterations because of my node names being longer than the measly eight characters allowed by MSDOS. Even my C64 could handle file names of 15 characters! Unfortunately (as someone was kind enough to point out), the links are *.html, while the files are *.htm; some browsers do not like this and will require the extensions changing. I can only apologise for this and when I get a break from coursework, I hope to get it fixed. Until then, bear with me! The text version is a little unfriendly; it doesn't scan too well but all of the information is there. File sizes are (give or take): qfaqOS3.guide 107k qfaq1.guide 39k qfaq2.guide 50k qfaq3.guide 23k #?.html 231k (total of all uncompressed html files) qfaqhtml.zip 71k qfaq.txt 94k Please let me know what you think. Chris Clarke November 1995 173 Grange Road Longford COVENTRY CV6 6DD ENGLAND (01203) 365164 ctc@coventry.ac.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 07:12:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Chris Clarke <ctc@coventry.ac.uk> > I would have been able to offer you all precise instructions as to how to > get hold of Chris Clarke's wonderful Quest FAQ (version 2!), but... um... > I seem to have mislaid both the FAQ and the instructions. Ho hum. Gives > you all something to look forward to next time anyway! CC> How long before the Digest ceases to exist because Josh lost his terminal?! JPG grins embarassedly. > DR> Temple Quest rewards are now becoming unrealistic. I have seen with my > own eyes a TQ for a dragon 18 sectors away. Yes thats 3240 / char. And it was > completed with a Globe. This is redicularse. His last 3 quest have grossed CC> Personally, I think the T Quests have improved. Recently I've been offered 800-1200 gps for monsters 6 to 9 sectors away. I think this is reasonable because with those sorts of distances, it takes two or more turns to locate the particular monster. With the unreliability of teleporting, that just isn't an option (but see later for an idea from Bill Godfrey). Perhaps there should be higher rewards for T Quests completed without death magic (this would also benefit younger groups who generally need the money more), but I suspect it would be too difficult to program. CC> About Bill's teleporting idea; an extra power point per character to be able to issue another parameter which states distance. Unfortunately, I don't know where this parameter would go as the current order uses all four spaces on the card. CC> Does anyone have any idea how to buy one of my groups some spectacles? Let me explain. In G7 RP found some +3 Axes for 3068 gps and bought some of them. After much money grabbing (despite the best attempts of KJC to sabotage that - more later) their sister group, TT, wandered to the relevent town in order to buy some +3 Axes for themselves. Now RP and TT are in the same town - RP can find the Axes - without an I0 order - but despite I124 and Ishopnumber TT can't find them. Are my groups thick or is KJC taking the mickey again? Wish me luck; my second attempt to find the axes should be happening sometime later today. CC> In the past two turns KJC have made two simple inputting errors. I haven't complained, because by the time they get it all sorted out, I would have missed a couple of turns and the way my Temple Quest rewards were going, I didn't want to hold things up. Basically, whoever is doing the typing is a bad shot; B 99 62 6237 instead of B 99 62 627 and T 1024 instead of Y 1024. Come on ladies; type what we write, not what you think we wrote! > RJT> PS. Does anyone know how to kill a Sleech? Do I have to cast > a death spell, or can I fight it to its demise? CC> Either; I went hand to hand in G1 and death spelled in G7. Ignore the blurb; they're not so tough. > My group is currently trying to defeat a Jinx. However, they are not having the > success they would like. As normal weapons are useless against these creatures, CC> Enchant Weapons III works on most things. 70sk I think. > they are casting spells only. However, the mages are only level 4 and most of 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) > RS> I was wondering if there are anyone here who are playing in the excellent > Game numba 8. If there is anyone who wants to join the excellent alliance, CC> I play in G8 - fancy a fight, I'm bored. > JPG> Send me your top 5 favourite ideas, either taken byte by byte from a CC> 1) Get KJC to type what I send in 2) Do something about those teleporting spells 3) Do something about the Locate spell/Revelation miracle 4) Less Quest games & more players per game; get rid of those unused/abandoned positions 5) Get KJC to learn how to photocopy (see reverse of my newsletter for general complaints on this subject) > JPG> I guess that's it for the moment! Thanks to everyone for the > contributions, keep them coming in. Apologies again to Chris for > managing to lose her FAQ. :( CC> Don't grovel, Josh - give me MONEY! JPG> Um, sure, whatever. :) > Happy Questing folks! CC> KJC permitting. > >>-Josh-> > "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 CC> Josh probably lost it ;-) JPG> Insults, insults! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 15:07:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> > From: Dave Rees <chaos@thanes.demon.co.uk> > DR> I fought 8 Monks of Fleyshur last turn, I Globed one and fought the rest > over 3 rounds of combat: > Apart from some characters not hitting, this was a superb battle. The most > damage suffered was 30 hp's on a DP. Tough as you like. AH> One of my groups fought 6 Monks of Molwanh and completely shat on them, receiving only one LW'ed. I assume that the Monks of the warlike gods 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. > DR> Temple Quest rewards are now becoming unrealistic. I have seen with my > own eyes a TQ for a dragon 18 sectors away. Yes thats 3240 / char. And it was > completed with a Globe. This is redicularse. His last 3 quest have grossed > nearly 7000 gps / character. Even he agrees that it's got out of hand. AH> Surely after 10 sectors the monster is no longer threatening _that_ cities farmers. So a limit of 10 sectors on TQ's would be reasonable. > From: j9452689@wlv.ac.uk (J.Spencer) > Is the money-lender 1000 gold limit per character or per > group??? And what is the punishment for not repaying??? Thanks! AH> The limit is 1000gp's per group - not all that much really. If you dont pay it back (+20%) you will be barred from using a banks services ever again and any money you have already stored will be lost. JPG> Is it really _ever_ again?? And why don't they just take the money out of your savings with them, with interest? > From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) > RJT> Does anyone know how KJCs turn order correction system works? AH> It doesnt. > RJT> PS. Does anyone know how to kill a Sleech? Do I have to cast > a death spell, or can I fight it to its demise? AH> A single Void should do it - or simply eat it in melee. > From: list_s@svhdev.bt.co.uk (Stuart List, PST PP201, Tel. Ipswich 293433) > My group is currently trying to defeat a Jinx. <snip> > The priests have found that Ythcal's touch works, but only occasionally. > Does anybody have any idea why? AH> Without a deathspell your going to have to hit it with about 30+ Call Monsters or Flame your weapons and kill it in melee. Ythcals Touch is all a bit cack really - use Call Monster instead. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 96 15:00:43 GMT From: Phill Coleman <colemanp@cs.man.ac.uk> pjc > To Jim Sparshott, re. the skull (I've been away from uni, so I haven't caught up withe the digests yet!), Skull - 1gold -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 13:43:10 GMT From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) RJT> Well, I have finally tested out the increase in Toughness limits. Strength can go about 100 permanently! I have seen strengths of 106 (improved further by strength spells). This probably means that 250 IS the limit for training as well as spells - anyone with any other theories? RJT> I was depressed to find that Ettiquette Training uses up 400XP and only gives you +3CH, but I guess that this is counter balanced by the difficulty in increasing charisma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 28 Jan 96 15:52:17 EST From: Karl Wasley <101523.2365@compuserve.com> KW> Since becoming the editor of quest 10 at KJC I have noticed that the game if very compat orientated. I have been trying to think of other facits that could keep players, that were scared to fight incase they loose there group, in the game. I would be interested in any suggestions. KW> With respect to fighting, the battle league and Hall of fame can be daunting to new players. With this in mind i've started the great monster hunt. This involves each gropu trying to obtain trophies for each monster killed. They are only allowed one monster Kill of each type. I can get monster kills form the Battle reports but any kills in dungeons must be sent to me as proof. In each newsletter there is an update of thecurrent leader and other groups close behind. The main advantage to this is that all players both old and new can take part on a fairly even basis. As the hunt will end each year all totals will be zeroed so all players start again with the same stats. Well what do you think? JPG> Sounds good to me. :) As for equal footing though... the only trophie a young group is going to get from some monsters is a bloody nose or a short cut to the afterlife! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> Okay, that's all the articles, now for the Top 5 stuff... ________ ____________ |___ ___| | | | | ____ _ __ | _______| | | / __ \ | |/ __ \ | |____ | | | |__| | | |__| | | \ |__| \ ____ / | |\____/ |_______ \ | | \ | |_| _______ / | | / |__________/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 21:04:05 +0000 (GMT) From: "Rogerio Fung < Rapa >" <l41186@alfa.ist.utl.pt> Suggestion: CHANGE WORLD SPELL Um..if it matters, my four next suggestions would be: CHANGE WORLD SPELL -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 23:12:44 +0100 From: Magnus =?iso-8859-1?Q?Cassersj=F6?= <magnuz.aemp@mnet.medstroms.se> I don't think there's any special order in which I've written these... * Follow Road, Makes the party follow the road they're on or beside. Shouldn't be impossible! * Horses, Yes, I wanna see my adventurers on a horseback. * Monstergroups, Like a group of orcish warriors led by an orcish shaman etc etc... * More races and professions, Yeah, dream on... * More varied battlereports, Why not state the names of the opponents, I know you don't ask them first, but it would give a better feel than just 'fought one DF...' etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stefan Andersson <t94stean@und.ida.liu.se> Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 15:26:06 +0100 Here are five improvement ideas from me: * Separate spell rankings and ASL's for monster/party combat. Would enable you to rank deathspells for use against monsters without risking them to go off in an accidental fight with a newcomer. Easy to implement. (3 lines, sorry!) * Reduce rewards on todays temple quests and invent more complex ones, including rare artifacts, guardians etc etc. * Make it possible for alliance leaders to send a message of max 150 chars each turn to its members. * Invent the bloody horses sometime! Alternatively some "increase speed"-spells could be invented that could increase the movement points. * Automatise the inputting of E-mail turns, and reduce the price for them. Start up a pure E-mail game with 7-days turnaround. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 17:36:18 -0600 From: Erling Solheim <solheim@james.avh.unit.no> These are the "top five" sugestions I have. As I've sent in a long list of sugestions earlier, I will only write some very short coments to each sugestion. Players who want the complete meaning behind the sugestion should look back at the issue of QD where all my sugestions were printed. 1) Religious alliances. Computer-moderated alliances. Offering different services to members, special quests, war against other rel. alliances etc. 2) Gladiator-arena. Playergroups could either meet each other in an arena, or meet a fair opponent created by the computer. This making group-fighting more fair. 3) World of Immortals. A new world populated with immortals and monsters, no settlements. Travel by miracles/spells. Immortals offering quests etc. 4) Catacombs under cities. Populated with monstergroups/bandits. Name the leaders of bandit-monstergroups/npcs and set bounties on their heads. 5) New miracles/spells. See old "digest" for sugestions. (Spells: Regeneration and locate underground locations). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> So the most popular so far is Horses, being the only one mentioned twice in the above suggestions. The change world spell, Rogerio... do you mean to another existing game, or as suggested later by Erling (a world of immortals) or something else entirely? We don't want to spread ideas too thinly; a general idea might be a new, much tougher world with some of the ability score limits taken off. JPG> I'll start a list up of anything that gets mentioned more than once, and try and keep a track of how many people have mentioned it so we can rank them. So far... it's a little small. :) 1) Horses (2 ppl) * Include horses in the game JPG> Anyway, that's it for the night... guess I can go to bed now! Sorry it's been so late in arriving; been bogged down with work. Until next time, happy Questing folks. :) >>-Josh-> "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 Up