Quest Digest 1/12/95 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 01 Dec 1995 00:00:00 +0000 ___ _ / _ \ | | 1st December 1995 | |_| |UEST__| |IGEST Let the festive season commence! \__ | / _ | | |_ | |_| | 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. ___ / _ \ There has been much talk of KJC membership packs, the NA | __/DITORIAL order and the newsletters scanned and printed at the end \___| of turns. A lot of changes like this that appear get slammed by players and I think this is usually because the players themselves didn't suggest them. As it really ought to be a priority to keep the players of the game happy, it is my opinion that KJC, and maybe other companies if this applies, ought to provide a more formal way for collecting players opinions. Perhaps the KJC news ought to regularly contain a voting form for new ideas to assess the popularity of them. This may well have resulted in only newbies receiving membership packs, and older groups not being allowed to go NA. Let me know what you think. _ / \ o John Larkin with a general reply to Tuesday's Digest. / /_\ RTICLES o Jim Sparshott talking about tougher monsters. / ___ \ o Jonas Nelson supporting NA for older groups, and talking /_/ \_\ about Quest games with various islands o Pete Clements apologising for accusing KJC of making spelling mistakes. They never ever do that. o Allan Hooper on the monetary misbalance due to official alliances. o Paul Damms with the new monsters names and numbers. Spoiler alert. :) o Allan Hooper (again) on the new services, mirrors and magical defence. o Roy Thomas on mage levels and why ASL's and Temple Quests do not take enough factors into account. o Roger Littlefair on game 14 and 15 alliance affairs, and in support(?) of the membership packs. So difficult to tell sarcasm in ASCII... o Erling Solheim, a new list member, with an insight into his position in game 14 o Chris Clarke announcing the launch of her Quest FAQ in _lots_ of formats! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 17:45:50 GMT From: John Larkin <colm@internet-eireann.ie> >PD> Could someone please tell me exactly how many new monsters have been added >to the game. I presume 8 monsters have been added and all the blurbs were given in the original First Class when the winners of the competition were given Does anyone else fee that First Class should be more regular than... once? a year!maybe lower the standard and increase the issue number. >> PB> About the game newsletters, <etc> This sounds ok, I presume it will be the same quality and maybe printed sideways on a page so all you have to do is... fold it!(That`s how it should be anyway!) >> COS> What is your opinion of: N/A Groups. They are all wusses who are scared of their own shadow, especially if the group is ove twenty/thirty turns old. I found it a handicap when I started a new group in game 16 recently, I couldn`t attack another new group in my town to gain valuble xp points. >DR> I'm preparing to go into combat with half a dozen Monks of Phyloqure >next turn. I'll let you know how badly I fair. They're worth 160gp/sec if >you're interested. THAT sounds pretty scary!I hope you didn`t spend too long preparing for it... ...moks of Phyloqure?! If they are anything like seers, I wouldn`t worry about it. See you all, Keep the Swords Sharp, John Larkin. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jim.Sparshott@jet.uk Date: Wed, 29 Nov 95 08:30:40 GMT JIM - With regard to monsters being tougher. I recently came accross 4 goblins (urr!) and managed to gain 592 exp. from the missile and melee combat. Those in the know will know what relation exp. gained in a fight has to how tough monsters are. Thats an average of 148 exp. per goblin. Surely they were never this tough? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Jonas Nelson, KTH" <NELSON@l.kth.se> Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 09:46:24 +0100 > DR> The NA status as it stands sucks. It's a great idea for new parties and > should be kept exactly as it is. Unfortunately for older groups, why? I don't > see the need for 100+ turn groups to go NA. ... > After a serious rampage over > the last 7 turns just 6 groups have killed 99 PC's and removed 7 groups from > play. Some the groups of the enemy alliance are now going NA to stop > themselves being attacked. If we continue at this rate the majority of the > groups in G14 will be NA within 3 Months. I do not want to see this happen, > not because I can't kill characters, but because it will kill the game stone > dead. JN>Sorry, but I don't agree with you on this. Some players want to explore the world and develop their groups, and they are not interested in killing off (or be killed by) other groups. For them, the NA option is great, regardless of how many game weeks they have played. Then there are those alliances who are constantly fighting each other. They obviously LIKE killing and getting killed, and so they don't need the NA option. BUT the cowards can't just go NA over a night, you know - you have to be friendly for 10 consecutive turns, and as soon as you are attacking someone, you will be back at no NA again. Thus, those "hostile" groups can't hide, at least not for long unless they decide to become "friendly" groups. And why would your alliance want to wipe out friendly ot neutral groups? >DR> Anyway the point of this incessant babble is this: I want to play in a game > where the are NO NA parties. I don't want to have to start from scratch again > and I want a game world different (made of lots of islands?) from the G14 > world where EVERYTHING is available in one city. JN> I too would like to see a world with islands and continents. Then KJC could implement boats and ships! Imagine your party cruising the seas in search for a new continent, the Treasure Island or whatever, fighting off giant sea monsters and pirates (or becoming pirates themselves!). Go for it, KJC! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "P.D.J.CLEMENTS" <CLEMEPDJ@bravo.aston.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 12:41:18 GMT+1 PDJC> After my comments on the KJC membership pack I thought I better just check their validity (better late than never) and unfortunately all I found wrong with the poster is crappy, uneven text, I still think it's pox. I am now attending dyslexics anonymous, if I can read the directions to get there! However I am sure that I saw spelling mistakes somewhere. PDJC> I'll check my facts abit better the next time and before hand aswell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 12:52:31 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> > From: Dave Rees <chaos@thanes.demon.co.uk> > DR> After watching OA's for the last few months, it's become obvious to me > that there are still a few failings here. AH> One of the main problems, IMO, with OA's is due to another failing of Quest in regards to money. Money is not really that too hard to come by but before when money was spent it was lost so it really wasnt that much of a game balance problem. However now with HQ's you can see the vast amounts of money accumulating where not only can 'spent money' be used again to hire out cheaper skills but also can be recycled infinitly by handing it back to groups. AH> Why is money too easy to come by? Tq's for a start are seriously flawed. Reward per person? Excuse me why I put "Drinks" "Are" "On" "Me" on the chatlist, walk into the nearest Tavern and get loads of people going for the reward. Also, as someone else pointed out, 1000+gp's per person because one mage cast a globe is silly. The rewards should be related to the effort involved and not paid per person. AH> The other great way of getting money is robbery. Crime pays, and it pays very well. With the proper spells and settlement some groups get over 10K in a turn. All this with no chance of getting any real penalty for your thieving ways. I like the idea of inprisoning characters until a fine and/or an unpaid quest is accomplished or a player enforced bounty system (but others dont like that idea). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 23:08:28 GMT From: Paul@smmad.demon.co.uk (Paul Damms) *****JPG> Spoiler alert, if you don't want to see the new monsters***** ***** names and numbers then defocus your eyes and skip a bit, or ***** ***** get a friend to page wrap a scarf around your eyes and page ***** ***** down for you. What I'm _not_ going to do is but daft blank ***** ***** spaces in the middle of the digest. :) ***** PD> It's me again and yes I'm still going on about the new monsters. Many thanks to all those that responded to my request for monster numbers. I have compiled a list of all the monster numbers that I was sent. They are as follows. If you think I'm giving to much away by posting this list in this Digest please let me know. PD> 893 WHOMPER, 894 GATHERER, 895 NIMROD, 896 KATRIM, 897 LEPERCHAUN, 899 SKY RAY, 900 MIST REAVER, 902 XOROA, 904 FARMER, 905 MONK PD> As you can see there are at least three still missing, 898,901,903. Help......... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 09:43:06 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> AH> Just a quick note: Has anyone seen anywhere that sells ressurection, depetrification or major healing? I'm curious at how much they are going to cost. From my latest turn Healing, Cure Poison, Cure Disease are all 25gp's and Etiquette training unsurprisingly 250gp's. Also sneeking un-announced into the game are Mirrors, how good they are will be interesting to see. Finally a note from KJC say that characters resistance to magic attacks have been improved - does this mean Deflect Magic III might <gasp> work? Or does it mean the death spells will work less often or spells do less damage? We shall have to wait and see. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 11:11:45 +0000 From: thomas@enterprise.bt.co.uk (Roy Thomas) RJT> Does anyone know the names given to mage levels? I know that: level 7 is Mage level 8 is Sorceror level 9 is Master Mage But I don't know about the others... RJT> (For anyone who does not know, if you know all the spells at your current level and you then buy spell research, you are given a spell of the next level and raise in Skill so that you can cast it. At this point, you are told that you are now a Sorceror(8) and can handle level 8 enchantments - for eg) RJT> Since everyone seems to be talking about ASLs: evidence suggests that it is only the monster levels that trigger the ASL, and the levels have not changed. All monsters have been jazzed up, and some VERY tough monsters (high levels) have been added, but the old monsters have not changed in level. That means that your old ASL will still fail to trigger spells against the old monsters despite them being tougher. RJT> Also, it seems that the number of monsters does not matter. 1 Goblin may trigger your ASL but 1000 Gnolls (I think that Gnolls are of a lower level but I can't remember) may not. It is a bit of a case of the ASL not taking into account enough factors. RJT> It seems that this is true for quests too. You get 20 Gold per monster level per sector distance for a simple kill quest no matter how many monsters there are. Does this seems right? It may well be if only some of the monsters can attack you at any one time, ie four Gnolls out of 1000 at a time. If you kill one Gnoll then another joins the fight until there are no more Gnolls... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: roger.littlefair@unn.ac.uk Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:35:18 GMT RoJ) Most my groups are going on holiday through G14 and G15. However I have heard that TNB has been the target of Phoenix rumours? can anyone shed light on this? Is it they`ve chicken from BKA and started on an alliance that`s leader hasn`t entered a turn for months. I aint quit the groups, just awaiting something interesting to happen. Don`t suppose anyone fancies a 100% flee-factor fight? (smirk) RoJ) The membership pack is very nice. i`m sure all the newbie PBMers will gasp in awe and feel compelled to play KJC games. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 95 17:14:03 -0800 From: Erling Solheim <solheim@james.avh.unit.no> I'm rather new to emails and newsgroups, but I think its fun to read Quest-related articles on the netscape, as long as I can find them. I've been playing a position in KJC G14 for 2 and 1/2 year now, doing fairly well but learning everything the hard way. The problem is that I am a norwegian player, and a student. So sometimes I can't keep contact with those players I meet in the game, and the BKA member player who runs "Invincible fools" (1740) even attacked me because I didn't respond to a letter. In the early start of the game I exchanged letters on a regular basis with Mark "Scruff Williams" and Mark Woolrich, as I was a SWC-member. But as this alliance was closed down, and I like to wander on my own, there wasn't any suitable alliance to join, as most of them are based upon killing other groups. My game-goals are somewhat different, as I like fighting monsters, going through dungeons and increasing my characters' stats. I run a "life-position" and have set myself several goals that would need quite some time to fullfil, and I don't want any other player to destroy this by casting "total deaths" and killing my characters that I've spent so much time on building up. Therefore I think the NA oportunity is great, as I wouldn't bump into other groups and be attacked/insulted by players that doesn't understand my way of enjoying the game. Therefore I think some groups should be allowed to be on NA even if they are 100+ turns old. The players absolutely has to duel/trash other players' groups, and want this so much that they wouldn't allow groups to be on NA, should rather play a game like IAC, or as sugested here, play in a game where players agree not to be on NA, a "killer" game. But KJC should give any player the possibility to play a RPG through PBM without being pushed into a game environment where your hardearned experience is wiped out by some players with a different understanding of the game. I would like to get in touch with any G14 player with an email-address, and you could send mail to solheim@james.avh.unit.no I would very much like to exhchange information about dungeon-locations, lairs, caves etc. One monster you haven't mentioned on this side i a whomper, which I was offered 800 gold per character for killing, 5N + 2E of the city. I dont know the monster-number, but it would be possible through casting a miracle against the monster-group-number. I'm also very interested about discussing what should be added/programmed into the game in the future. A "locate dungeon" spell wouldn't have been a bad idea, or what? I hope to hear from any of you. Yours sincerely, Erling Solheim, The Berserks of Nidaros (1020), G14. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 23:26:04 +0000 (GMT) From: "C.H.E.B." <ctc@coventry.ac.uk> CC> My FAQ is finally finished. Who wants HTML, ASCII, AmigaGuide OS3, or AmigaGuide < OS3 versions? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> A long issue indeed! Thank you all very much for your contributions to it. Welcome to the new additions to the list, and a small apology for Erling for posting the entirety of his email. I just thought some of the other game 14 players might like to make a few comments. JPG> I'll see if I can get out a new edition of the List Of Questers now, excluding all those that have left the list since the last edition. It will obviously be missing many many of those here on the list, but I'm sure you'll fill me in. JPG> Until next time... happy Questing again! >>-Josh-> "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." - U2 Up