Quest Digest 17/2/95 From: J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk (>>-Josh->) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 21:43:35 +0000 ____________________________________________________________________ | | | THE QUEST DIGEST | | The forum for the E-mailing Quest-players | | Compiled by Josh Gallagher: J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk | | Date: 17 February 1995 | |____________________________________________________________________| o This is not an automatically generated compilation, so if all contributions could be sent to me in a seperate e-mail with paragraphs initialled, I would appreciate it a lot. o Please do not use this list for your own purposes; people do not appreciate thousands of pieces of mail arriving a day! o If you ever want taking off the list, just say, and I will be happy to do so. I don't want telling off for any nuisance mail! o All material here is the exclusive property of the author and may not be used elsewhere without their permission. JPG> Material's been slow in coming in this week, but here is the Quest Digest nevertheless. I have received two e-mails for nominating topics to vote on. I shall forward them to Chris Dickson soon. More nominations would be appreciated! Just take your pick out of the ones that have appeared in the Digests if you can't think of anything off the top of your head. JPG> If anyone is still in need of back issues from '95, please e-mail me and I will forward them to you. But anyway, on with the messages... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: The Hamster <godfrey2@coventry.ac.uk> Quest Helpline service. This helpline is chaired a by a panel of experienced Quest players, who will be available to answer any queries or solve any problems to do with Quest. Send e-mail to <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk> and give "Quest help" as the subject line. Contact me if you want to join the panel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> *warning* The next bit has *nothing* to do with Quest, but I did ask the question. :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 17:06:49 +0000 (GMT) From: "Bill the Hamster, The Internet's resident rodent." <godfrey2@coventry.ac.uk> > JPG> Okay, I have been dying to ask the question... why Hamster?? Why > not some other furry rodent? BTH> Okay. I shall relate the story to you. [Bard leaps on with a lyre.] Twas a misty night in the town of Gilligham. In a house, sat Bill, Geoff and Jackie. Geoff, that noble soul, said that Bill looked like a big furry hamster. The name stuck. Bill was forever tarred. The name of the Big Furry Hamster spread far and wide. Over hills and rivers. Over mountains and seas. Bill soon decided that the name was too long. He dropped the Big Fuury part of his title. He is now, just Bill the Hamster. May his name be spoken throughout Kharne. I thank you. [Bard leaves the stage.] BTH> It odd to think that my identity on the Internet originated from a subtle hint that I should go on a diet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble) > IGO> Argh! Dean Shears, please don't refer to your party as team! Team is > for football! "Do I not like that" as CD would say. :) PN> whats wrong with teams? I get bored calling them groups and parties all the time. >SA> and thieves shoot with the missile weapons during the missile phase, PN> Bang outta line, all the characters should have the oppitunity (uh?) to shoot somebody in missile, and the bit about mages and priests not having a 1st round is out as well it would result in so many 1st round deaths it would be rediculous. > SA> Mages should not wear armour above leather... PN> aren't you getting a bit AD&Dist? just because they choose to study magic and priestly things it doesn't mean they have to be wimps, how would you account for the BM with 55to just wearing leather? It again would be the death of mages from even less than now. PN> I think that if a TEAM was completely outgunned I think they'd realise before the magic was even exchanged and would run away before any conflict or exchange of blows. This way a total mage group would be frightened by a bunch of fighters waving axes, this I'm sure could be calculated from the group size and the toughness. > something like a saving throw in D&D, AND/OR by making healing spells actually > WORK. I mean, Healing IV heals about 5 hp per character on a good day, how PN> The healing IV I don't know about but perhaps certain races should be more suseptable to different castings and there should be items which repulse certain attacks. PN> Ewan, I am going to Leeds and the organiser George Jones has volenteered to put up some people at his place but I'd talk to him about it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Feb 95 14:19:23 MEZ From: CHBRIN5@nyx.uni-konstanz.de KH> There has been a lot of discussion on how to make the game more interesting for groups that have been playing 100 and more turns. As I'm far "younger", I'd like to see more hints for the beginning of the game. How DID you get so powerful? KH> For starters, here is something I found out by accident: The cheapest way to get spell powders is to hire a mage for 50 gold. He will have two or three different spell powders, 10 portions all together. This even works in villages or other settlements without a powder shop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 23:31:46 GMT From: editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble) >AH> Onto fighters , all other classes have other advantages > except fighters who should excell , but not dominate , in >fights shouldnt they ? PN> Yep they certainly should but how to do it? Two fighter strikes per round is a bit over the top, perhaps the fighters should have more of an advantage ie a skill bonus of 10 onto what is presently available, I always find my more aware blood fighter is scoring more xp than my df, surely skill should count for more than awareness. I myself am getting pretty sick of finding out that awareness is the most important stat a character can have. PN> PN> I know that there has been a lot of talk (not here) that highest awareness casts first, but I've had less aware chars cast first, is it not a combination of most power points + awarenesss that casts first, it stands to reason that a drained mage would take more time to summon magical energies than a fresh mage. > AH> I dont mind losses as otherwise it wouldnt be much of a warzone , its > just I'd rather not loose 14 characters and 3 years worth of money and > effort . Thanks for the advice , anyone else got some advice too ? PN> where is the warzone in G3, my 8 turn old 3 strong party fancies a rumble! =) > AH> Then you know exactly the alignment of the group your fighting by > their miracles. PN> yeh, I think the 3rd opposite miricle should be excluded for +15 followers of the opposite Dog. > AH> Just a quick note, > The recruiting restrictions for new parties go after turn 5 as I just > offered 1500gp's for an elf mage . PN> I recruited a 1001gp thief on turn 4 > AH> I like it like this as no group can stay in town for ages just > doing TQ and getting good mages . PN> Yeh this seems more realistic, every settlement wouldn't have their own resident magi mage, a say half the cities shouldn't half magic skill in them, G3 is a bit extreme, I know of only 4 towns/cities that have magic training, AH could you mail me the five settlements that have mage training, at the mo I'm stuck in Bourt (6) which hasn't training or any monsters for the last 6 turns! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 17:51:29 +0100 From: Martin Lind Jans <mjxmi@carlbro.dk> MLJ> I vote for a vote with my vote. It's a great idea. How's it gonna be ? A questionare sent to all on the list or do we send our top 5 to someone? JPG> I think the best way is for people to e-mail me (not for the digest) or Chris Dickson with nominations for the votes, and once he has enough, he will (will you CD?) post me an article for inclusion with all the nominations on. Then we can all 'sign' it if we agree.. I guess.. Anyone with any better ideas, please e-mail me! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 12:13:33 +0000 (GMT) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> AH>Once again a few quick questions , AH>Once a theif has reached 99sk does training raise his awareness like it used to raise his skill ? AH>How does thief skill raise awareness , for non-theif characters , is it like strength skill raises strength ? AH>What sort of flee % should be used to make a party stay through a magic barrage but not get totally kebabed in melee combat ? AH>For the record my recruiting attempts have come up with these for 2000gp's: DF 57sk 87to - total stats ~240 DF 56sk 86to - total stats ~255 And for 1500gp's: EM 48sk 38to 64aw ??ch AH>I would say that offering the extra money in recruiting is always worth it as a way of saving in mage/strength/thief skills afterwards. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 13:34:17 +0000 (GMT) From: Rogerio Fung <l41186@alfa.ist.utl.pt> RF>Just have some Ideas I would like to have a comment on.. A nice improvement, as already told in here, was the following: Hostile attitude-> Min Flee Factor 20% Neutral attitude->Min Flee Factor 10%( after all, you're no chickens!) Friendly Attitude->Min Flee Factor 0% I think , as told before somewhere in here, that if you are walking around with an hostile attitude, you are to expect losses, 10% for neutral sounds fair, you are not expecting combat, but if it come, then so be it...0% friendly , well, this one you know.. Now, for Engage orders, every time you make one, your Flee Factor, should it be increased to 15%, but if it was higher, then no problem...so, a Friendly or Neutral party would have the Flee factor increased to 15% in case they made and Engage Order..so, no chicken play for those used to 0%!! Another point of importance, is the actual killing of parties...In my view, if I had my party all killed , or , leving only one or two members alive, I would quit the game, and It would be another player out of the game, so I THINK the best thing would be to establish a maximum number of members that could be killed. I think a minimum of 4 characters alive for parties with less than 12 members would be all right, and 2/3 max of the number of characters on the group for parties with more than 12. So, a begginner party with 6 members could only lose (die) 2 members in one turn, but a 10 member party could lose max 6 characters, now if the party had 14, it would lose a max of 14*2/3=9(rounding up)and a 15 member party would lose a max of 10, leaving 5 (battered, probably) members to rebuild what once was a super advanced party ...Any combats thereafter againt a party whose kills had reached the limit would have the same effect as if the party had 0% FF, only that no spells or missile fire could be cast at the fleeing party... Even if one party of 15 lost 2/3 in one turn, then next turn it would still be eligible to be fought, as it would have 5 chars, and could still lose one more.. Of course, if a 4 member party wanted to have combat( the party set a hostile attitude, or made engage orders) then all the blame was to the player, and more losses could still be taken... This idea needs more improvement, perhaps regarding to the min number of characters, but I think this to be a better alternative to the new no attack orders.. and I think that these no attack orders are really a stoopid thing..as told by someone, Kharne cant be all that YOU want it to be, and not to be attacked by other parties, there is no interaction between players, no evil acts can exist, if there are no victims!!!I think(and I would do it also) that once the order is improved, every weak party would turn it on,and thus, what can the stroger parties do??there are no weak parties to impose yourself to...!!!!this might sound a bit anti social, but it is a very good element of play:weaker parties get beaten by the bad powerful parties, and then the powerful good parties go rescue and avenge the weak ones!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 13:36:30 +0000 (GMT) From: Rogerio Fung <l41186@alfa.ist.utl.pt> RF> Another thing!!If presently, we can have as much as 10(20?-I dont know for sure) armor, why isnt there a Shild that acts against Magic?the way I see it, waht good is huge armor, if all it takes is a death spell, or fire Ball, or whatever to kill you?? Magic Armour(+1,+2,+3) should count somehow against magic...any comments?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Emma Moore <e.k.moore@uclan.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 17:48:00 GMT+0 EKM> Why doesn't Total Death work every time? According to the blurb it is supposed to. Is it too much to ask that the blurbs accurately reflect the spells effects??? Same winge about Deflect Magic III, why have it if it doesn't work properly?? EKM> Regarding the strategies for avoidance of hit and run groups..the new attitudes for groups, NPCs and Monsters should help that particular problem -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> Alright folks! That's it for the moment.. keep the stuff coming in. Should be able to get access to the digests on the Web soon if you are lucky! JPG> Happy Questing.. >>-Josh-> "Dreamer... Nothing but a dreamer..." Up