QuestDigest 15/12/95 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 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 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. ___ / _ \ Hi there again folks, another Digest from the back end of | __/DITORIAL nowhere as far as the net goes. :) Sorry if you received a \___| rather messed up Digest last time. I can't promise this won't be messed up either, but better than nothing, heh? Anyway, on with the show! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "jonas nelson fotogrammetri" <NELSON@l.kth.se> Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 14:07:09 +0100 > DR> BKA standard policy. If you're not allied to this alliance, you're an > enemy. Which is why we are the dominant alliance in G14. JN> I guess G14 doesn't attract many new players then... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Sparshott@jet.uk Date: Fri, 08 Dec 95 13:08:09 GMT JIM - (Reply to Dave Rees) - I am embarrased about the fact that I couldn't kill 4 goblins in missile fire. Don't rub it in. If its any consolation, I took 3 out and seriously wounded the other one. It only took one hit in melee to kill the last bastard. JIM - (Reply to Dave Rees) - JSD are quite tasty but the IOT's are'nt too bad themselves duckie. As for your dead priest, I reckon it will cost you about 10000 gold to get him alive again. Do I win a prize if I get it right? JIM - (Reply to Ben Walker) - I still havent recieved a membership pack yet either. I sit by my front door waiting for the postman to arrive every day and cry myself to sleep every night when it fails to materialize. JIM - A long time ago, I stole a skull off of some group, and have been unable to find a use for it. Does anybody know what I can do with it, or is just another (mirror type) useless item? I can't recall seeing one for sale, so I dont know how much its worth either. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 12:11:34 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> > Am I the only player still not to have got a membership pack ? AH> Nope, I havent got one either - I'm so upset. JPG> And I was hoping for an early Christmas present... *sigh* > ASL levels - Is it true that the ASL is for the monster type and not the > quantity ? AH> I have to admit that my small amount of research into ASL's said that in some cases the number of monsters do count, but not often. Three halfbloods were ASL 2 and four halfbloods were ASL 3, but pehaps my mages are just trigger happy ;). > Finally, mirrors have been in the game for years. I've been wandering round > with one in my backpack for the last 100 turns or so. It's not exactly come > in useful but I didn't want to sell it just in case. AH> Well they've only just appeared in the shops in Blockboro in G3. Mind you in G3 I have not seen anywhere that sells scalemail or platemail either. I havent seen all the shop lists but I've visited at least 13 of the cities with no sign of them. AH> I'm just wondering why an ACE fighter is no better at blocking blows than someone with 'poor' weapon skills? Perhaps the first 50% skill you gain should improve your defensive skills whiles the 51-100 range improves your chances to hit and damage (plus multiple attacks if a fighter). It might even make big group fights last a bit longer and be of most use to inexperianced groups caught via the S order, so they dont get blitzkrieged in a single round of melee. Anyway its just a thought, anyone think its a good idea? AH> Oh no! One of my groups (Skulking Vermin) killed a Gatherer over two engagements last turn. Apparently such an act will enrage Phyloqure - the Vermin are positively crapping themselves <snigger>. I shall let you know if anything interesting happens....like:- "Events between turns" You have enraged Phyloqure! Phyloqure casts Wrath of Phyloqure against us hitting all 15 members. Kosh is annihilated. Nebuchadnezzar is annihilated. Tauron is annihilated. Etc, etc.. Phyloqure cackles and spits on your dead! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 09 Dec 1995 02:00:46 GMT From: editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble) >DR> You have a valid point, but when I see groups that are happy to mouth o= >ff in a newsletter against my alliance, then we pay them a visit, then they go= > NA and alot of allied groups do the same. This is NOT what the NA status was PN> I agree entirely, other than this flaw in the gaming (nothing KJC can do about it either) NA status is ok, but I fear loads of groups just being twats for the sake of it and stayin NA thus untouchable. NA spys in towns also piss me off as there is no way to deter them other than appeal to their sense of fairness which in most cases in non existant. I heard of some talk about being able to hit NA parties with spells is this true? >> JN> And why would your alliance want to wipe out friendly ot neutral grou= >ps?=20 >DR> BKA standard policy. If you're not allied to this alliance, you're an > enemy. Which is why we are the dominant alliance in G14. PN> Indeed, I've just started up an evil alliance in G16 which is enemy of everyone, attack innocent groups? well they had warnings, I have repaetedly put in the paper & rumours don't come to Fentham or you die, but still players of no renown turn up, and are battered beyond recognition. A prime example is the group outside town that I wiped out, also a group just turned up in town and was found on a late turn, they also will not have a group by the end of the turn. If the warning ain't enough then they deserve a kicking just to show them we're serious. >casting in town. Oh and the player you were refering to now no longer plays >in G14. Feel free to mail me if you like, everyone else does:) PN> That player was me. I remember well, five turns old and the Hairy Terrorists (as they were then) got hit by 4 wrath of sundonaks and shot to ribbons. With 90% of the party under 10 health I deemed it reasonable to assume that the most hostile and unwelcoming Beserkers of Nidaros were indeed my enemy. But I received a letter apologising for the attack and asking for information. Perhaps I was foolish to accept his offer of friendship for despite sending two letters over about 4 months I still did not receive a reply, not even a rumour of message in the newspaper. It was from this that I re assessed my opinion and again placed the Beserkers on my hit list, why? Because they were taking all and not giving, was I offered recompense for lost equipment? was I offered anythign at all? No. So I continued my time in G14 and finally got round to thinking of my old enemy, my first enemy in G14. I put a message in the paper sayign I was a hunting the BoN. I arrived in town and was defeated and lost 3 characters to the BoN. I was not worried, it was par of the course, so I went a hunting again, waiting for the BoN to re emerge from the wilderness in which they hid. So we come to my last few turns in G14, I had been wronged not once, not twice but three times and when my time of revenge arrives some 'unknown groups' hassleing the BoN force the BoN into NAP status. This struck me as being very strange as the group had been Hostile for as long as I'd lived in G14 (75 turns) and had just put in a rumour saying that they would deal with any other group in G14 as they had the Fools (new name for my group). So not only did they boast about their victory they denied me my chance at retribution by going NAP. Come along, play the game. You may be willing to wipe another group out but not willing to have the same group have the same chance against you? Was I unreasonable? I don't think so, I was not the player who crapped on another 4 times and then hid. >First of all I'd like to add my 2gp's worth about the official alliance sho= PN> Pleaseeeee! don't start the 2 cents worth! It pisses me off the most in newsgroups! Anyway, how come the same person can put in his 2 cent/gps worth more than once? PN> If you ask me I reckon it would be alright if the alliance money dissapeared if there was either no initial cost to put up or if you need only do it once or if you didn't have to paly a turn fee for the skill. Remember that 30k is alot of money for a new official alliance (unless your in an oldgame and have an old group) if you have to put another 20k for strength it's a bit much not to see any of it returned. Plus whats this 50k for a new HQ? Surely once established a new HQ should be cheaper than the original rather than more?! >Apart from the fact that several of my fighters with +3 axes (100%) missed >these aren't much cop. I can't draw any conclusion from this at all. PN> I just got the battle reports from game one back, it seems two groups fought monks, Phyloqure and Fleyshur. Both lost the battle with 9 and 8 wounded to none of the monks wounded. Plus weapons the order of the day for sure. By the way did anyone know that you can get weapon skill over 100%? You can I have seen 2 examples of such skills. PN> About the characters sucked up by voids or globes, they leave the party and can not be resurrected. PN> It gets me that not only have they inputted resurrection, depetrify (if petrification wasn't useless with that power drain, it is now!) and got the Deflect magics working but the also knock down the effectiveness of disintergrate, deathspells and call monsters. Plus the increase magic resistance. They almost made the balance right between fighters and mages, now they have really unbalanced it in favour of fighters! Can't we have a compromise where they don't go rabid on one thing? Why have deathspells if they are just uneffective? Just to piss people off? Why have a natural magic defence if they have just improved deflect magic? I dunno, it seems that they can't seem to get a suitable balance between the elements in the game, I reckon it's only a matter of time until the new spells are implimented, then you'll se huge priest groups being good again, then the mage spells will be discovered and Mages will be best, then the spells will be slugged and fighters will rule the roost again (by this time I expect deathspells to not work 100% of the time =)). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 00:13:07 GMT From: Chris@dickson.demon.co.uk (Chris M. Dickson) CMD> Your last Digest seemed littered with spurious "=20"s all over the place. No doubt some Internet guru will be able to explain exactly why with some complicated explanation as to why carriage returns/line feeds are turning into printed ASCII... still, not my problem any more as I have relinquished the joys of the holiday Digest! ;-) Quoting Dave Rees: > It would be far better if you could only turn the NA status off and on once. > Therefore any new group would be allowed to start NA then drop the status and > see if they enjoy it, leaving them to go NA again if they don't but not > allowing them to drop the status again. Older groups would be able to go NA > and return from it once and not allowed to set the status again. > Something has to be done to stop the abuse of this. CMD> I agree with your sentiments, though not with your method of solution. New players may well let their NA lapse (a thought: perhaps it could not be put in terms of "issue this order to let your NA lapse" but "your NA will lapse the first time you do an offensive order against another party") and then get trounced by a half-decent old party, not knowing just how good old parties are at trouncing new ones. You may say "They deserve what they get" and to an extent they do, but punishing them by forbidding a return to NA seems a bit extreme. > DR> It's just too easy to build up shed loads of cash. Currently my 3 group > are wandering around with 40000 gold between them. Quests have become too > well paid. There should be an upper limit (10000gp?) on quests and the amount > of monsters should make a difference. CMD> Agreed in principle, but my Life Membership party in G14 (who I haven't sent in a turn for since about August. Is there anything left of them, Dave?) seem to be doing pretty well at going around penniless and starving! This is due to a succession of poorly-written turns by me going wrong rather than anything else... > DR> Ok I concede but I don't think that groups should be allowed to change > the status as they please, regardless of how long it takes. Hostile groups > are using it as a 'get out clause' in G14. It's unfair to the players like > yourself who had to struggle throught the 'good old days' of offensive spell > casting in town. Oh and the player you were refering to now no longer plays > in G14. Feel free to mail me if you like, everyone else does:) CMD> Big disagreement in philosophy here - I'd like to know other list subscribers' opinions. I firmly subscribe to the opinion that if a game of some sort has been wrong in some way in the past which has disadvantaged old players, but the wrong has been put right, the disadvantaged players shouldn't try and claim some other sort of disadvantage (or deny some publically available advantage) to the new players "so we're all on level terms". Hey, just don't forget that if the new players step an inch out of line and lose their NA you can slam them in what will feel like the most heinously unfair fashion to them. > DR> Let us know and maybe we could help U2 look for it:) CMD> Oi, I do the bad jokes around here! Quoting Ben Walker, twice: > because I'm in Game 4, which is possibly the most peaceful of all KJC games> , > I've not had to suffer the power players mindless attacks on innocent > groups. I think that the idea of a no NA game specifically for war hungry> > players is an ideal solution. > > Am I the only player still not to have got a membership pack ? CMD> I think that a no NA game for war hungry players is a good idea. Personally I think the idea of a closed-ended Quest game (50 or 100 parties to start with, specific victory conditions to aim for, both for players and alliances, once all these victory conditions have been achieved, the game reverts to normal open-ended Quest, possibly with transport to another "finished" closed-ended game) is ideal. I haven't had a membership pack either. Don't lose sleep on it! > PJC >> Now as I (like everyone) was once a new and novice party I would have > liked a NA option. KjC now have an even better idea - free resurection for > parties under the age of 20. BUT why have both! If parties want to be NA why > can't they just set a flee factor of 0% (run away every time?). I've nothing > against parties who want to stay away from combat, but there has to be a > happy medium between no combat and combat all the time. CMD> Um - players would just start flee factor 0% parties and use lots and lots of free resurrection over the first 20 turns to attack parties they didn't like, then drop the party. Now I agree that you could/should start one game like that just for players who thought that this is a fair and encourageable tactic to be used, and a really ruthless no-rules no-NA all-sneaky-tactics- allowed-and-in-fact-encouraged game would be a superb thing to have happen ONCE (why are we all thinking of the same player who would excel at this?) but just for players who did know every trick in the book... > PJC> Which powerful groups enjoy running around and killing brand new parties? > Surely its more of a challenge fighting (and beating?!) older parties? CMD> I ain't naming names, but there are people like that in this world... :-( CMD> Oh, in case I don't mail the Digest again before the 25th, have a Merry and a Happy, wherever in the world you are... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 95 13:34:00 +0100 From: "sjaak zomer" <zomerosi@box.nl> SZ) Just tried the email-option out, it really works and they even sent me a new turncard. I might wonder can you send a Rumour Card with this system in????? If so they will have do some new programming, becuase I could imagine that some players wants to send a lot of rumours in. I also tried to killed sme Sewer Demons, horrible in two rounds they gave me over 100 points of damage. Even with the help of a spirit aligned to Ythcal. (BTW most of the damage I made was done by Miracles, I really like my NINE Priests). One small problem. I tried to pay tithe to a Baldor Temple, they took my 72 gold but I have got nothing in return, what is the use of this tithe?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: j9452689@wlv.ac.uk (J.Spencer) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 16:29:25 +0000 (GMT) I have a group in game 13 which is just 7 turns old. After a chance encounter with 4 halfbloods (yep 4 halfbloods!!) one of my characters , an elf mage , died of wounds. With the new free ressurection rules this should not be much of a problem. However he died exactly ONE turn before they were detailed on the turn sheets. Does anybody know if I can still bring him back from heaven (or wherever elves go when they die!). I know his location burial perhaps I can dig him up and get him fixed up?? Any help on the matter would be appreciated. If none is forthcoming then feel free to send wreaths! :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Dec 95 11:55:00 GMT From: Dave Rees <chaos@thanes.demon.co.uk> DR> I ressurected the dead priest this turn. Two turns after being killed. It cost 8028 gold to have 50KV shoved up his arse, 2000 gp less than what was returned from investigating the char. But on that turn he had rotted slightly losing 3 Sk, 4 To, 2 Aw and 3 Ch. Time is definately not on your side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> There, finished, and it didn't crash... *crosses fingers*... Now all I want is my Quest turn back. :( Delay the Christmas post... we all know what should have higher priority! Happy Questing! >>-Josh-> "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 Up