Quest Digest 14/6/95

From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk>

Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 00:00:00 +0000

____________________________________________________________________
|                                                                    |
|                          THE QUEST DIGEST                          |
|             The forum for the E-mailing Quest-players              |
|       Compiled by Josh Gallagher: J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk       |
|                        Date: 14th June 1995                        |
|____________________________________________________________________|

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JPG> This will be, I think, my second last digest before the summer.  In
the last one, I will give you details of who is to take over the digest
until I get back at the beginning of October.. that's if they will give
it me back.. *sniff*

JPG> On with the messages...

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Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 15:02:40 +0100 (BST)
From: Chris M Dickson <dickson.teaching@physics.oxford.ac.uk>

CMD> I had the pleasure to be at the London KJC pub meet yesterday, and a
damn fine occasion it was too. It was great to see Chris (Clarke) and Bill
(Godfrey) there - I just wish that others could have made it. (If others
made it, and I didn't speak to them... well, sorry. I was there from roughly
half past 12 to half past 4.)

Steve and Kevin were there as well, so plenty of occasion to have a good chat
to them about forthcoming improvements and such. I think the future for Quest
looks a bit better than the more pessimistic of us were predicting - with
another (or possibly two more) programmers on the way, the routines we have
been after for so long may not be so far off. Something I didn't know, there
are lots of half-programmed routines (for things like horses) which were
never finished off, but that it shouldn't take too long to do for a programmer
who isn't working on Fantasy Soccer, getting Crime! onto the central accounts,
etc. etc. :-)

Anyhow, for me at least the best part of the meet was handing over a printed
copy of the Quest Vote results to Kevin. Steve had seen them before (in the
e-mail that was sent out on the end of a Digest) but Kevin didn't even know
about the Digest's existence! He seemed genuinely interested in the vote
results and hopefully something should come of it. Therefore I think that
despite a few administration problems we can declare the vote a success. I'd
like to thank everyone who took the time to take part in it.

Anyhow, this was my first pubmeet, and I really didn't know what to expect.
Essentially there are just 20 or 30 people (perhaps... oh... 50 or 100 came
in and out throughout the whole day?) sitting, poring over turnsheets (not
just Quest, but mostly Quest), drinking, eating and chatting. It really is
that informal. It's a lot of fun, and a very worthwhile day. The pub itself
was perhaps a smidgeon small (what with the World Cup Rugby going on at the
same time, and quite a few non-PBMing rugby fans in as well) but very
pleasant - if you go in any of the "* and Firkin" pubs the atmosphere should
not be too dissimilar, and the food was good.

The next pubmeet is in Birmingham on the 24th of June (???) and I might be
there personally. I know that in future I'll be making a special effort to get
to as many as I can. I hope to meet more of you there in the future...

JPG> I know I'm being lazy, but could someone give me the pub name and
rough location of that meet, and the time too?  I shall be able to make
it, but only if I know where it is! :-)
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Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 09:16:48 +0100 (BST)
From: Lord of Spoons <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk>

> MC> That sounds like Legends, Clans, A bleadian Diary/The Apoch (I hate
> Spellbinder Games!!!) or perhaps even Adventurer Kings. Try'em out...

AH> Ta! I may give one a go.

> CC> I'd consider it. I think all of my groups capable of beating most
> groups. OK, I might lose a character against Black Void, but if these
> were outlawed, I'd bet them against anyone.

AH> If I can be bothered to scrape 10K together (should take about 2
turns in an empty town) I may advertise for a tourney. I think it would
be interesting at least seeing groups cope without the standard battle
spells.

> CC> Only when someone is asleep, I would guess. After all, Destroy/Kill
> Undead don't kick in when fighting other groups.

AH> I'll let everyone know if it does as it will be 1st ranked from now on.
Its the last time Black Death take someone on 8 against 15, even if they did
win.

> NB>  I don't want to play an evil group, I've done that before and it
> caused too much hassle with players who couldn't separate me from my
> completely meglomancial character.

AH> I've got trouble with this too. Okay my group may be evil, cut up
unicorns for fun and take great pleasure from fighting Garthranians, *but*
since BD are reasonably hard they dont go randomly killing groups just
because I know BD will probably win. Wheres the challenge in that? I take
much more fun from role-playing evil than actually being evil but its
annoying having to walk the thin line between playing evil and anti-social
gaming.

AH> This does not so much apply with my other groups as they are both
pretty young and in alliances. As far as I'm concerned anyone in an
alliance should pretty much expect to have fights from groups opposed to
their alliance.
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 08:41:09 +0200 (CES)
From: ui99@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Roland Ottl)

RO> Hi folks ! Wonder why most of you quitt this time of the year...I'm
having my first exam on 28th july, you are far too early !

RO> I just need to make this an official compliment to NB. I'm quite fanatic
about roleplaying, but my efforts in Quest have been meagre in realtion to
yours ! Whenever I write my letters "in style" they are either not answered
(game315 is VERY lazy !) at all or not in the same style. Bit frustrating !

RO> About that two sided printing. I don't understand why you don't like it.
Do you throw your old results away or what. I don't and now I'm glad that
this will take up less space...my room is best called small. I have to admit
though that I did something very silly the first time I got those ! I wrote
a complaining letter to KJC accusing them that parts of my reults were
missing. Fortunately, after nearly sending off the letter, I saw my mistake.
Now ain't that silly ?

RO> This might be an embarrasing question concerning the fact that I play
Quest for more than 4 years now. Anyway, how do you guys know what ring etc
you buy. I never did buy anything so far, but I robbed a ring that I can't
identify (in game 15 my mage is too powerless to use 98 :( ). Now AH talks
about that "ring of resurrection"...I always thought the ring etc you buy is
random. Or does one "abra cadba magic" only sell one type of ring
etc...mumble, mumble...I'd be grateful for any info :). Coming to think of
it preferably directed at me personally rather than the QD.

RO> Looking for a local "Quest". Well, what I've heard of the German version
so far I'm really not interested. First, it's more expensive and Second, I
cringe when I read "Hoehlensystem" or "Verlies" instead of "dungeon" etc.
Probably this is some weird knack of my own, but really guys: the
translations of anything to do with Fantasy into German are mostly sh...Not
that I would do better, mind you, but...I guess you get the idea.

RO> Anyway, good luck wishes from me to everybody out there for your exams
etc. I'm on the net all the time, so please do keep up with the QD :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Neil Benson <9365040@mull.sms.ed.ac.uk>
To: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@dur.ac.uk>

NB> Since I restarted Quest I have played twelve turns.  Last turn I
counted up all the orders that have failed.  I didn't include W
orders because they are an accepted risk but just trying to Cast
spells, Talk to shop owners, Train, Investigate all seem to have a
chance of absolute failure.  The worst offenders were researching
spells and buying library research.  Of the last 12 turns, 42 orders
failed.  Thats about 1 in 4.

NB>  In the last 12 turns I have seen a total of 13 monster groups on
my maps, and of those, eight were seen when I bought a 21x21 map and
 they were all out of fighting range.

NB>  In the last 12 turns I have been offered three minor quests.
One was to a town, the rest to villages.  The highest was for 92
gold.

NB>  In the last 12 turns there has been 1 newsletter, and there are
no alliances in game 5.  Just goes to show you how enthusiastic the
players are.

NB>  I have written to KJC several times to have my group description
corrected and to cancel my First Class subscription.  These have all
been ignored.  So finally I wrote to cancel my position, and ask for
my money back.  Cathy gave me a note saying "Sorry to lose you, but
Steve is working on some improvements".  I got the same message two
years ago when I last quit.  There was no refund of my stlg24.10.

NB> Does anybody have anything good left to say about Quest anymore?

JPG> This is too bad, but usually if enough of my orders mess up, I will
ask for a free turn.  I usually get it too... As I see it, it is
reasonable to expect your 1.80 to pay for a decent turn, and if it
doesn't, to get some kind of compensation.  I only ask if it is an order
that has been messed up somehow (as the one on todays turn had been
*sigh*, lost another good recruit, at a critical stage too).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ewan Jones" <c1ej@dmu.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 13:04:45 BST

EJ Just a note to say cheerio to those of you still here and good luck to those
   of you who still have exams. Oh yeah, nice to see some of you at the London
   pubmeet and I hope you were all humbled by my 15 ACE [100] weapon skills, ha!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 14:10:17 +0100 (BST)
From: "C.H.E.B." <ctc@coventry.ac.uk>

> From: dynamic@dynamic.DIALix.oz.au (Peter Read)
> >CC> Probably getting someone to explain what I said to him and why it was
> >insulting ;-)
> Not quite.   I am more interested in a rational discussion.

CC> Then I suggest you post rationally in the first place instead of a
load of "I hate players, they are *so* annoying" tripe.

> I am not in the least bit interested in a slanging match with some
> female who has to have the last word, tell lies, ignores the truth,

CC> Nice to see the Autralian equal-mindedness showing itself again. I
thought only British Quest players assumed women didn't know anything
about the game. My stats prove them wrong and the fact you have to resort
to that reply proves you wrong too.

> won't recognise a valid comment, can't communicate without abuse
> and uses foul language to prove she has bigger balls than all the
> blokes on the system.

CC> I don't believe you have any balls, Peter.

> Regards Peter :-)

CC> Obviously I have no regard for your bilge.

> CC> Kevin, _please_ get rid of that printer. PLEASE. I will discuss that
>
> NB>  Sorry, I vote that it stays.  Looking at Quest from a business
> point of view, the effeiciency in terms of paper costs is a good

CC> Not according to Kevin at the London meet; he said the paper savings
were "negligible".

> if KJC should dare to try and increase turn rates again then perhaps
> I will have something to say.

CC> They will, they always do. Personally I'd rather pay the extra and
get results which look professional. Ask yourself the question (I do)
"Why have I just paid #1.80 for three pages of A4?".

> NB>  I don't want to play an evil group, I've done that before and it
> caused too much hassle with players who couldn't separate me from my
> completely meglomancial character.  I still haven't received any

CC> I remember ... heh, heh.

> > > AH> An option largly ignored is getting involved in the game
> > CC> Guys, guys. I *edit* one!
>
> AH> Actually it was meant to players in general rather than to you Chris,
> but just for you - why not edit *two* newsletters? =)

CC> Because KJC won't let me. Last time I asked about any free newsletter
positions, they passed the note onto an unfrequent editor who happened to
be a friend of mine. I'm still bloody peeved - I almost lost a good
friend over that. It was also rather irresponsible - the note had my
bloody account number on it.

(JPG feels sick in the stomach having only recently put himself in the
same position as Chris.. I hope they don't forward it...)

> JPG> *grins* Two free positions?

CC> I wish - it's getting expensive running three groups, especially over
the hols. And it's even harder to justify when the results look so tacky :-)

> AH> Thats what I did. Out goes 22sk BF, in comes 57sk 87to DF! What you
> could do is throw out your BT and recruit a HT called C.M.O.T. Dibbler.

CC> Not a chance, there is no way I am dumping my 99sk thief (in any group)!

> AH> Why do newspaper reports not give casualties taken in spell combat?

CC> Stupidity. OK, if I Black Void a character it may not be as
satisfying as killing two more in hand to hand, but that is still three
dead chars!

> AH> Right following the requests heres the possible bug. Buy a ring of
> resurection then hand it around all the groups members and none of them
> something to do with a flag not being cleared I would think you should.
> Dont blame me if it doesnt work, its probably total rubbish but it would
> be a major bug if it was true.

CC> Yeah, and you've just started Steve looking for it ;-)

> RS> I wonder if you have any maps covering some of the lands in Quest Game
> 8. I would appreciate it very much if you had any, since I have started to
> use Excel 5.0 along with the mapping projects. Do you know any who have
> more maps???

CC> I have some G8 maps, but they are hand draw and absolutely huge. I
was considering getting them transfered to Dave Rees' mapper, but I want
a word with him about it first. Mail me and lets see if we can work
something out ... ctc@coventry.ac.uk

> JPG> I got a personal message from Cathy on the end of my turn today!
> *grins*  Cool.. just like the old days.. hehe...

CC> And are you going to stop sending her dirty postcards now?

JPG> Slander!! :-)
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 14:30:41 +0100 (BST)
From: "Bill the Hamster." <godfrey2@coventry.ac.uk>

The e-mail address for help and advice for playing quest is;
quest-help@kodokan.vivi.com

Bruce Cota, bruce@kodokan.vivi.com supplied the list software.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

JPG> Yes, that is it, the new Quest Helpline advert. :-)  It could do with a
bit of work on the presentation, Bill, but looks good.  Okay, that's all
from me for now...  I'll see you once more before the holidays kick in
for me.  Exam results tomorrow.. urk...

Happy Questing!

>>-Josh->
"Dreamer...  Nothing but a dreamer..."