Thu Jul 17 15:40:36 2003


At 2 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 24th of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Smonund perished, never to return.

Well, Smonund was my first and possibly last Necro. Awesome class.
Killer in the right hands. The only tweak I would make, is either
reduce the timer on animate dead, or increase the chance it works.
I can't tell you how many times I went 8 strait storm giant corpes
and failed to animate one. That's alot of game time. Not many
players have that kind of time to devote to raising an army,
considering they play maybe two to three hours a day.

Empire. I had a few sub-par characters in the previous Empire,
nobody of note, but it was enough to see the difference in the two.

I like the promotion system in the new Empire. It really gives you a
chance to show who you are, and your not having to impress just one
person or an Imm, since a few poeple can give you that first or
second promotion. From there of course, you need to impress a few
key leaders and you can move up. I seem to have little trouble
moving up the Imperial ladder, I guess I came just when key events
were taking place, and I made the right friends on the way up.

I dislike the relationship with the Scions. I lived up to it.. but
honestly, and even from a game mechanics standpoint.. Empire is
really impudent without the kind of mages they are now lacking,
most notable.. invokers. Ease the restrictions, please.. at least
until the ratio of goodies to evils is more in line. A perfect example is regearing.. hard enough to do with 10 goodies in your
range, even harder, cause you just don't have the firepower to take
down mobs with clothes. (IE: Lich in Barovia, etc..)

I'm sure there is an arguement for adapting and overcoming somewhere in there, perhaps Nepenthe can give us a few examples on how to take down the afformentioned lich, with a kobold set of clothes and a practice dagger. But for the rest of us skilled and not so skilled players, well, it sucks and you just die trying.

Hrm, I don't want to give the impression of negativity, because I really had a good time learning the necro class.. and learning the ropes of the Empire way. In all, it was a good experience.


Zulg: Well, what can I say. When you said what you did about me, I about fell out of my chair.. and there was no way I was going to stay quiet and take it.. so I ended up smited and plagued. Woe is me. Not sure how we were going to recover from that, even with the bug fix. About my only regret in deleting is not getting to find out where it would have all went.

Onglurst: Two words - Universal Translater


Astilamos: Resign. Delete. Go away.

Kogefibo: I stole Dread Lord from you, heh. Hope you get it now. You deserve it. Thanks for the first promotion, and keep those killer donations coming in.


Rest of Empire (if this fits you, wear it):
If I only logged for a couple hours aday, when we had numbers,
I would have just shelved this necro, and played something else
during the other time. I realize some of you, only play a couple
hours in the evening, fine. But for those of you who only log on
when the numbers favor Empire.. See my advice for Astilamos.


Signing off,

Dugruain


PS Pretty much done until I get lucky enough to steal a Minotaur from the horders.

but didn't want it. So they are out there.

I'd not have guessed who you were.

I must say, I was shocked to see you as dread lord. It seemed like one day you were handing me Vaessima's loot, and I was thinking, "Silly bloodoath, I'd keeep that if it were me."

Then you rose fast, and in my eyes, became too cocky for your own good. While I realize it goes with an high ranking imperial, it seemed like you went a little overboard. But it was was fun - it allowed a few subtle insults to be tossed back and forth over the CB.

I would have been a little bit more caustic that day when I got anathema, but I was worrying about other things than you at the moment.

You should have stuck it out. I recognize there is a problem with snowballing logons in Empire, but it's not something everyone does, just a handfull. Usually it's a few core players who are on, and then the supplimental imperials decide to log on.

Point is...Empire lost a lot of people in a short period time, and it'll take some time to replace them. I personally have a weird schedule...I work on alternating weeks during the summer, so one week I have a lot of free time, and the next...I'm run ragged with work/school/real life. People do have real lives, and I like to give them the benefit of the doubt.

If you thought I came off as cocky, then my RP angle worked. I tried to be overbearing and cocky to those I felt deserved it. Once I became Dread Lord it became worse, I'm sure people noticed. I was trying to lich, of course, when the time allowed.. and I didn't see a timid whipy necro getting the Lich nod, thus the RP angle I took was opposite.

As for returning alot of that choice gear, chalk it up to two factors:

I was new, and didn't want to make powerful enemies right away.

and. I already had a better set of clothes than you, even with her stuff. So, I really didn't loose anything by returning the gear, especially, since I kept the 290 gold, and donated it.

Dug

>I dislike the relationship with the Scions. I lived up to it.. but
>honestly, and even from a game mechanics standpoint.. Empire is
>really impudent without the kind of mages they are now lacking,
>most notable.. invokers. Ease the restrictions, please..

You say that like there are restrictions...

>at least
>until the ratio of goodies to evils is more in line. A perfect
>example is regearing.. hard enough to do with 10 goodies in your
>range, even harder, cause you just don't have the firepower to
>take down mobs with clothes. (IE: Lich in Barovia, etc..)

An invoker isn't going to make or break a fight with Xoltrindar. I've solo'd him with a few different characters (and seen others do it as well)

>I'm sure there is an arguement for adapting and overcoming
>somewhere in there, perhaps Nepenthe can give us a few
>examples on how to take down the afformentioned lich, with a
>kobold set of clothes and a practice dagger. But for the rest
>of us skilled and not so skilled players, well, it sucks and
>you just die trying.

I can also tell you, that even knowing how the prog works (since I wrote it) that bastard has killed me a couple times too

>Zulg: Well, what can I say. When you said what you did about
>me, I about fell out of my chair.. and there was no way I was
>going to stay quiet and take it.. so I ended up smited and
>plagued. Woe is me. Not sure how we were going to recover
>from that, even with the bug fix. About my only regret in
>deleting is not getting to find out where it would have all
>went.

Well, what I said was what I'd seen, apparently I didn't watch enough. I talked to a couple other people afterwards and they agreed with some of what I said and disagreed with some of it. I was making a point to pay attention to you more for the next talk. Yeah...the bug...damn that bug...and I wrote that code too! Right after our talk I went and dug through the logs and felt bad because you were right and had fixed it before you posted. I too was waiting to see how you'd handle it when you came back, but I guess we'll never know.

Good luck with the next.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

That was far too soon. I had my reasons for not accepting the position in the Empire you saved for me at that time. I was looking forward to traveling with you later in life (ranking an uncaballed necro is a bitch) , we could have made a formidable pairing -- oh well, I'll just do it alone now. I could have shown you a thing or two too, since this is about my 8th necro and nearly all have had a PK ratio around 95%

I liked you as the DreadLord and knew you would get it over anyone else. You did well i thought, I wish you had stuck around more. I knew the Empire could count on you. GOod luck with the minotaur!

Haaslett

Damn, first Yllorok deletes, now you. As you two and Kogefibo were the only ones who attacked the tower on a regular basis, I probably will have a lot less to do. And you still owe me a couple of deaths too .

Anyway, you were one of my main enemies, and I enjoyed our fights. Good job.

Everytime I saw you try to Nova me outdoors, I just giggled, knowing you are probably new to the Invoker class. (I had just gone through all those lessons with Blrindlefrin, so I felt entitled to the giggle). I liked our fights, you showed a lot of spirit, picking up and driving on after some of those deaths. Good luck in the Tower.

Dug

Those two PWKs were just brutal. Great job, and good luck with what ever you play next.

You got your ass whooped in Organia baby!

I thought id be able to pull it off and give you some support during the days. Our play times overlapped alot. I was not going anywhere with this charactor and despised playing it. You were one of a few Imperials I liked and thanks for the ranking aid....Was getting pathetic with all the useless anti-paladins and warriors geared for offense to try to rank with. Being rank 45 with everyone in your PK range and no real options to fight them broke me....WHen I finally got my first major form, didnt really like it due to all the beasts I was fighting, with no support.

Your comments on the people selectively logging on was bang-on. Once a week some of them would log in right with the hoard and contribute nothing. You played with skill and enjoyed watching you take down people. Vansia with PWK was hilarious. Nice job overall.

Thanks for the kind words..

I know it was perfectly within Empire RP, and especially considering I was the reason you were in the Empire.. I still felt bad sending you around like an errand bitch boy, which Is why I tried to make up for it by helping you rank (under the guise of raising an army of course).

I enjoyed your character as well.

Dug

As Vhenelcar, whenever I saw you on the who pk list, I got worried. I knew, somewhere, we were gonna end up fighting. And you were one of maybe 3 or 4 people who worried me, even in a solo fight.
I wish we could have fought one-on-one a bit more though, but the way Empire and Fortress are these days, that's asking for alot.

I honestly expected to see you as a lich, sometime. Too bad. But then, if I can't hold on, why should I expect you to.

I probably should have been Anathema'd for saving you, but it's in my nature - and I thought I could explain it away as being connected with a raid situation.

I never saw the attitude you gave the Blades except in logs, and never would have guessed you had it from interacting with you. So good roleplaying, there.

>Hrm, I don't want to give the impression of negativity, because I
>really had a good time learning the necro class.. and learning the
>ropes of the Empire way. In all, it was a good experience.

For your first necro, that was excellent. All things considered, I think a second attempt at it would bring you up to par with the most feared necromancers of the last year or two. Not that you weren't feared, I think every time you were on someone in the Inn commented on being afraid to go out at all because you might find and kill them. I wasn't very afraid personally, but that was probably a false sense of security since you seemed to have a habit of starting with sleep every time.

Try it again some time, I think it could be another landmark character for you.

Seems like all my old enemies are deleting. We had some pretty close fights on both ends. I think I got away from you at like 49hps that one time, and got sooooooo lucky on the healer who cured my scourge in one try. That usually takes quite a few tries in my other attempts. Oh well. Anyways, you always had me planning carefully when you were around, necros can ruin a paladins day like nobodies business.

Take care.