Lothar's Lair

First thing that I experienced was the lack of “real” DnD feel of the rules/mechanics. The rolling for stats is nice if there was an actual random number generator from 1-18 for each and every stat when one starts rolling there seems to be certain stats that won’t go over 13-15, especially if there is an 18 rolled on one of ones main stats.

Second,watching the comments on the “Zone” chat is like watching an auction house listing rather than in game chat, whether role playing or not.Seems the main topics are buying and selling of mounts,and the diamonds used for currency. Cryptic should’ve just had a stand alone channel for that type of thing.

Third, graphics are not as good as I expected for most armor on the plate armor and shields, as well as the hair on the characters look like shiny rubber plastic-like coated items.

Fourth, there’s supposed to be a thin sparkly line going to where the next quest or place of interest is located, in most circumstances it works fine, however, quite a few times in the wilderness areas it goes up a hill into the sky or into a cliff face where it just ends. Several times it goes to supposed location but there’s no interactive feature to complete the designated action.

Periodically the game crashes and for unknown lengths of time..is IS still in Beta though.

————–Costs————–

It is a free to play game and still at this time in “Beta”(open Beta)

It costs real money to buy Zen* (in game currency) and zen buys “keys” to “Nightmare” chests of which can be bought or rarely found from killing mobs.

Cryptic is selling a “Founders* kit(to end supposedly May 31st 2013) which one receives a normally non- playable “Drow” race of elf, a huge spider mount that moves at 110% of normal character running speed (which is the huge draw to the kit), also there’s a bunch of codes to other games [not related to Neverwinter] (of which one has to spend real money to buy the nice things in them as well)..I think the kit also includes some superficial garmets for characters (non-protection types), and a title of “Founder”…all that for 200.00 USD. So far there’s no real collector’s physical game and or items for that outrageous amount of real money, for the normal gamer type of people with little to no disposable income that might be able to save 30-50 USD for a nice computer game this price is so far out there it’s non-imaginable. In GW2 I bought the collector’s edition and recieved some nice items as well as some good in-game items, As I did in Defiance MMO collector’s edition, as most collector’s editions/founders editions….except Neverwinter.

I will peruse forums and get an even more accurate determination of this game. I will return with more oppinions…..To be cont.

Defiance is (so far) as good as a scyfy movie series can be I guess. The characters seem cohesive and understandable and some have a nice mysterious back story. It is a soup of Firefly series/Star Wars w/o the light sabers. The series of which at this date I have seen 2 of seems like it will at least last through the season.
The MMO- Defiance MMO is a 3rd person shooter (camera up behind your character). It has at first a good sense of playability, but after one goes through the entire set of main quests/series quests/and side quests..so far there’s nothing left to do except do them over again and or do the PvP instances (fighting other characters rather than NPCs[non-player characters]) The game currency is in good flow as is experience points (EGO Points), there is a list of Pursuits which are things ones character can do to earn reputation/experience/scrip($$), with reputation one can use the reputation points as currency and buy items that a certain faction sells to those with favor of that faction. Items can be (so far) weapons/shields/vehicles/titles/clothing..There are 2 characters (NPCs) that were/are in the movie Nolan and Irisa who ones character joins up with to fight hellbugs at an Arkfall (a large bit of fallen once orbiting debris from an alien vessel) so they can collect items of alien origin that sells for scrip on/in the various cities/black markets.At the next encounter the 2 stars of the movie obtain a long gem from an Arkfall and nearly have it taken from them but with ones own character’s help they keep it only to give it to my character for payment and safe keeping but when they leave to go wherever they were going my character looks into the metal case where it was and it’s gone.But on the bright side Nolan gives ones character his assault rifle (purple item) [the items colored name from lowest to highest...white/green/blue/purple/orange indicate it level of power and or special abilities] of which my character still uses.

So far I have gone through the entire quest series 2ce. There are skill quests which test driving and shooting one obtains gold/silver/bronze medals for I see as do others on various forums there must be some type of hack or trick to achieve huge high scores in the millions because I can only obtain scores in the thousands hopefully Trion will fix the hack.There are driving and shooting parts and silver medals required to finish some pursuits. So currently I just queue up for the PvP matches and hopefully get some pursuits done if possible. Untill Trion puts out some more content (downloaded content)…I’ll write some more later on about my experiences with the game..

I liked Oblivion because it can possibly be a forerunner to a series or just the first in a group of several movies based on the premise. I see Tom Cruise is back doing his flying/ship to ship(orb) fighting again I guess that’s why he got the part…lol
——————————–SPOILER ALERT—————————————

Ok, if anything needed to be done to polish it up I’d say it would be the coalescing of knowledge about the war and what happened to start it. Some questions I have are as follows–Is the tetrahedron inside the alien craft an individual or a colony of some sort? How did the alien(s) know/or find earth and why? What does the alien need with our water, there wasn’t any water on the ship as we could see.Is the alien seen just a scout ship for a different life form to come here at a later time to live? Are the orbs and flying machines we see in the movie built on Earth just for the clones or for another race that’s not arrived as yet because of the “scav” threat? Does the alien do this to alot of planets or just Earth so far? I didn’t see any factory like place inside the spacecraft so I assume the alien life form can just create an object (rifle/pistol/radio…etc.) no matter it’s complexity and let the cloned species of any planet use it as needed.There’s more queries about the alien,it’s origin,it’s desire for water…etc. but over all they just need to make it more understandable by some sort of back story.

I’ve played Trions MMO Rift now since it has been available. I enjoy the PvE aspect to some extent, however some of the story line is quite confusing.

But today I will discuss the PvP aspect of which, as many people are, very disappointed. Trions excuse for not having the rank/levels closer in disparity is that the queue times would take longer. Well, unfortunately this is true, however not because there isn’t a want or need for the warfront instance, it is because of the lack of Trions subscriptions by PvPers mainly because of the main problem, 11 rank differences within the 50th level “matched warfronts” and the 11 level differences in non- 50th level instances. People will not play an MMO PvP game when in most of the instances one side or the other is so over powered by the gear given to the higher ranks and the higher levels that the entire lower side mainly “sits-out” the entire warfront at their spawn point. This gets boring/tiresome…etc. and offers less favor/experience/prestige to both sides. The one more powerful higher rank normally runs to the other losing/lower ranks side and “farms” them when they are within range to do so. Personally I do not get near the area the higher rank/better geared can effect.

Items for PvP are bought on “favor points” during the course of a warfront one might gain 100-1000 pts these warfronts which usually take around 20 minutes. The favor point “price” the base of 50th level items are from around 12k-20K each. Helmet,shoulders.chest,gloves,legs,talisman,2 rings,trinket, belt. The weapons depending what classes one is and what souls they have either are a two handed weapon or 2 one handed items. Trion after awhile since made public, added vengeance and valor which is an equivalent statistic which figures into damage done and protection, seems Trion back then even saw the mismatch in levels/rank exposure so they tried to “fix” it by adding these stats.Well that didn’t work either. Ones character if not of the highest rank possible wearing the top PvP items normally gets 2 shotted (killed by the enemy with 2 consecutive successful hits) waiting for 1-24 seconds till one can then cast their protection spells and get back to being killed again just as quickly. So all in all I am very upset that Trion will not or seemingly cannot correct the imbalance of their Warfront instances. There’s alot more that adds into my dissatisfaction concerning their PvP part of their game system.

Update as of 12/08/12
Now Trion has opted to allow one to buy level 50 PvP items w/o having to buy the items for previous “ranks” and turn those in along with the favor. However they transferred this routine to the 60th level (now max level)”Mercenary” items have to be bought with just favor but “Freelancer’s” items have to have freelancer’s tokens as well as favor as well as the equivalent Mercenary level items. So the process is going to take longer and way more expensive.The last “Tier” is “Warlord” and requires warlord marks/freelancer’s equivalent items turned in and favor as well as even more wins (to acquire tokens/marks..etc). However with all these unmanageable ways to gain the power to stand ones ground in warfronts and actually have any satisfaction fighting in a PvP style people still actually play Trions MMO, I can’t understand why however Trion gives as rewards more powerful (except for valor and vangence which is to limit healing and increase damage) items which are soulbound and cannot be given to ones alts.Still at level 60 (of which I have 4) we experience as PvP warfront groups complete sit-out warfronts with stagnate spawn points which/where the losers side is spawn point “camped” Trion doesn’t seemingly see the problem and if they do they offer no answer to fixing this imbalance, my suggestion was having spawn points random(except for the starting one) and as characters die collect them and respawn them 3-4 at a time (within the 20 some seconds) in a consistently changing spawn point. This will slow/stop spawn camping. The side might still lose, however the other side isn’t going all gather and kill the lesser geared/ranked/leveled group at their spawn point.

The players initial compulsion is to kill the adversary close to them and not to run around the enemy camping their spawn and taking the goals of that warfront. So in my opinion, the Warfronts are still as corrupted and the ranks even at 60th level are absurdly hard to gain the gear for ones satisfaction in PvPing.

I started playing Rift and saw it was different than any other MMO I’ve played so far! I love the soul system within the main classes with the exception that with ony 66 points one really can only (effectively) put around 30 some points into any one soul within the class otherwise the soul use is really not worth it’s points assigned.

I like the ability to have pet classes,although the pets really don’t do enough damage to PvP (Player vs.Player) with and to do any real damage and survivability one needs to invest around 30+ points into just the pet part of the class. As seen as described above this creates not a 3 part (soul) class but a 2 soul invested class (Unless one splits the other 30+ into the other souls making neither one of those particular souls very strong.

PvP to me is very nice to have in an MMO, The developers seem to believe that players like to either, kill other players too quick for it to be an enjoyable fight or to get killed so quickly it takes the fun out of the PvP experience. Not sure why they won’t balance the warfronts so as to facilitate a more enjoyable MMO in the PvP area. Some things I would like to see implemented-PvP equalization in the areas of rank and tier at 50th level/warfront, Ability to “hire” NPCs to help with PVE areas when a server is slow and not enough other players are willing/available to complete ones quests.These NPCs could be handed weapons/armor/items from ones equipment for the quest completion after all this is supposed to be a role playing game and it makes sense for ones character to have the ability to employ “Hirelings”, I would enjoy an ability or an NPC ability one could buy to add “texture” to ones equipment as well as label/name their weapons and armor, various “companions” are found and or acquired but unable to be re-named-they need to allow one to name them.

I will say the game needs improved upon and hopefully the developers will take good advice and follow my suggestions.

I see the ranking system is so un-equal in warfronts the rank 7-8s sweep lower ranks so fast it is not only disappointing for the lower ranks but no doubt boring for those upper ranks.  The devs need to match (within no more than 3 ranks) ranks of all war fronts. If that would slow the queues down then they could allow a pop up to inform of long queue times and to just accept nominal xp/favor/prestige…etc for the amount of people who had queued based on ranks and bonuses. example-if normal queue time is 3 minutes but because of rank equalzation makes it 10 minutes+ then the pop up window announces that the player can (if they click the yes box) to just accept the nominal rewards that particular war front would have given, they can however stay queued and possibly win the warfront and gain extra or the total normally given for a winning side in that particular warfront. Also it seems there are so many different types of currency that it is getting very complicated and unreasonably complex to buy items and or abilities..etc. Let’s cut back on all the currency types. My suggestion-Rift currency (one type) for rift reward items..etc. Dungeon currency(one type) For completing dungeons and rewards within them, Crafting currency-(one type) for crafting recipe acquisition,items for crafting..etc.,PvP currency for buying PvP items for rank related items (each rank has or gives a complete set of armor/items, not split up as it is now) World event currency-(one type) for world event items.

All types should be able to be “bought” with either planerite or platinum.

The “rewards” for the veterans of the game are a bit lame, especially the potions which once used cannot be re bought.Some of us veterans can only get queued for PvP 3x an hour and win or lose the potions like the xp and the favor get wasted because of queue times. Very little reward there. The “good ole boys group” can get all types of items and mounts just because they have a group that can be online together which makes it favorable to them not the people who don’t have those small groups of real life friends that game together. Guilds seem also to have those small groups within them as well so guildies are not the answer to getting the “good” stuff. Rift needs to reward solo adventurers as well as groups with better(useful) items. Chronicles tried but failed.

Jesus may have been the first gamer. He hung around with a small group of all male friends except one or two gamer chicks.They met in a park and talked about fantasy adventures. He may have been in a LARP being a Mage/Cleric. The group very infrequently bathed.Had long hair.Lived with his mom and step father till he died.Never really held down a decent job.Disappeared for awhile “On adventures”. Never got married.Had anger issues that was never addressed and he let off steam by disrupting organized business places.Books were written about his adventures and thoughts. Talked with invisible beings (may needed medication). Only kissed a girl once but no one knows where he kissed her because that piece of the scroll went missing…uh huh..People referring to things he said argue alot about the “rules” he and his buddies decided on. Hmm. well again gaming could extend itself into even a “real” religious aspect….lol

Over the years, I have created and continue expanding my fantasy world I call Wyrmworld.This is a flow of history of the world and thus a backdrop for any type of campaign depending on where in it’s history one wants to have their character adventure, some of the timelines are mainly for low level while others are for higher levels. However I can regulate the power level of any time period one just may be more suited for a certain level range of starting characters, anyway. The magicanation ages can easily be high levels through use of artifacts or items in use. The dark ages can be a nice low level starting era(s). If more dungeoneering is of ones liking the time directly after the great cataclysm comes to mind, possibly being trapped in the underwyrm in an obscure cavern or dwarven city system.

It is in a solar system called the Wyrm system.It is the one planet that can sustain life in that system. In it’s fantasy historic development, Celestial dragons with deity abilities found it would sustain draconian life and thus populated it with species that would evolve and live as they saw fit.

As it went as it does, with most sentient species, there were numerous draconian races which vied for supremacy through power and subterfuge. Till the day came that the power struggle had weakened most of the entire population. To a point where other deities found a niche were they could and did create a way for their particular believers/worshipers to descend on the planet and befriend the draconian races which were of their own ethos. Various races were thus born unto this war torn world. The elves first came (the ones in most of the books we use for elven playable races) They erected magnificent elven citadels as well as using tree forming to form natural expanses of cities from the giant trees that grew there.

The planet had been embedded with crystals of which exude magical power. These crystals had come from outside the sphere that encased the solar system Wyrm was in. When they entered the atmosphere they didn’t burn or explode as meteors usually do,, these seemed to bury themselves deep with in the planet and come to rest where by creating vast open caverns by pure magical force it is presumed. Various crystals having different properties found out about by the next race to inhabit this planet.

Dwarven deities saw a niche for their varied species and all underground species of life forms evolved in the various large caverns created by the as yet unknown crystal nodes. It was during this time that the species that would become dark elves or Drow would find solace in one of the crystal caverns. Gnomish races found these areas to their liking as well and were shown how to exist there on the vast under wyrm areas.

Humans were one of the last main species to arrive by way of guidance from the human deities. On many other planets humans had existed and had created the ability to explore the Phlogiston and visit many spheres to search for power,wealth, just a new place to call home. They arrived through Spelljammer ships, with the help of deities as stated before. They found an area that was inhabited by elves and fauna of the fey realms,they quickly made friends and along with peaceful negotiations and guidance of dragon kind to help kindle relationships all was well. The elves and humans inter-cohabited and not without instances of squabbles which were snuffed out quickly by dragon influences. The fey that recoiled from mankind were left to fend on their own and were not bothered nor offered assistance by the elves or other creatures than Fey dragonkind and creatures evolving in those lands in which the fey considered useful and friendly.

The Meadlings as we call “Hobbits” were among the populations in the Spelljammers and fit in well within human society for awhile till racial indifference’s arose and the leaders of the Meadlings took most of their population to the borders of the elven lands of which were consistently pushed back through the population growth of human expansion.

Behind the scenes during the millenniums of this planets development the dragons had a royal court set up by the celestial dragons where all dragon-kind was represented. The celestial ones ordered by decree, all perspective races other than dragons would be able to govern themselves and only by threat of war would dragon-kind interfere with the laws and governments of those other races. Most dragons understood and obeyed these manifestos through the ages and some felt differently. The ones that felt that the celestial were wrong at not using the other species as a labor force and food source decided to split off from the council attendance and some were hunted by the councils military and some were left to die without any help from the council or celestial order of dragon-kind. These rogue dragons rallied other species setting themselves up as gods and or potentates that were to be obeyed to the letter or face horrible deaths. Various evil deities saw this time to side with the sect of dragon-kind all across Wyrm to infest their ideals into any and all who would worship them and pay them homage. The evil dragon coup didn’t mind this allegiance for it corresponded with their agenda as well.

Hence good and  neutral deities sided with the dragon-kind administration overseeing most societies development and using/employing draconian influence to sway the unbelievers and protect the believers from the coup of evil dragons and their accompanied evil deities. Most races respected the word of dragons and obeyed their influences. But still governing themselves and only in the most dire of circumstances resorted in requesting help from dragon-kind.Great industrial discoveries were made and inventions were developed from all sentient races and places of power.

As eons went by dragons, like any other sentient race fell victim to love/hate/envy/malice/jealousy…etc. They fell further away from the great celestial draconic way of life style. They inter-related with other species to produce offspring and was chastised for it from the more truer of the dragon races. It was frowned upon by dragons but was admired by the other species. The evil dragons however spurred on by the evil deities had been mating with other species as a general rule to strengthen the other races species long before the good/neutral dragon-kind did. These inter-relationships created a rift in the council as to whether the dragons were actually needed on Wyrm any longer.The facts that their “children” are now part of the very races they were to protect,and that their “children” were sometimes at the crux of the problem was very disconcerting to the council. The council met less and less often. Where now it has become all but a figure head and a reference to older times. The celestial dragons seeing this occur had left Wyrm to look for other worlds to populate and maybe correct this type of error from occurring.

Racial co-mingling even with deific agents such as Solars, Planetars, Eladrin…etc had become possible and the direct influences of deities had become less obvious. After all with the children of deific representatives roaming the world keeping order or causing chaos depending on the deity represented what could the deities existence be reason for besides to grant magical abilities? Items of great power were created. Great cities of magical power were created mages flourished as did priests of great renown. Warriors of wondrous power and influence rose to power and gathered armies and legions to conquer lesser or try and overthrow stronger nations of all races and beliefs. These wars raged through centuries both above ground and below.This is considered the first age, it is abundant with magicanical weapons and protective devices, which use crystals both naturally formed and artificially formed some with powers that dragons imbue within them some with powers priests/clerics imbue within them, some with necromantic magic that necromancers and liches imbue within them.

One nation found a way to keep war out and stood the test of time. Atlantia, or Atlantis as it is now called. A handful of mages and priests saw the strife and obliteration of Wyrm that was ensuing. They found that where the city was built was directly over an underground crystal of immense power. The crystal was not compromised by underground races and was pure and without being connected to any other vast underground cavern systems. The group of Priests and Wizards and Sorcerers enveloped the city in a magical shield that warded it from any attack magical or other wise.  The location from the mainland made it very defensible. Few if any navel assaults were launched against it and aerial attacks were even fewer.  it is recorded that it is believed during this time a great meteor (whether summoned or called or had just broken through the sphere itself) plummeted to Wyrm destroying most of the  life forms waging war on the mainland. Few elves,humans,Meadlings,fey…survived. The great cataclysm split the continent almost completely through (The great Chasm) and an almost complete darkness covered Wyrm and some say had it not been for the few survivors Wyrm would have surely needed repopulated from an outside source. The elves had seen this meteor approach from their vantage point in the ring of elven armada spelljammers and had gathered races whose ideals mostly fit theirs and some that were different but not to the point of anger or corruption by evil. The impact of the meteor created an island chain off the mainland to the east of Atlantis and to the south east of the mainland named “Sonne” for the bright ball of light which made it rise from the ocean floor.

Life thus had changed in a moment of time. The great cities were covered with ash and some sea side cities sank beneath the waves  the great armies were dispersed and war stopped. Now it was all the races could do to just survive. Dragonkind still limped through this time and was not as integral to Wyrm as it once was. This time was called the second age. Darkness was commonplace, and the time the sun did show though it was regarded as a sign from  the gods that they approved of life and the decisions made by the existing races. Within several thousand years Sonne become populated with a race never before seen on Wyrm (Sonnese-looks racially similar to Asians of our world ) [In game all Asian races come from here or at least have genetic roots from here..aka, Oriental Adventures compilations] This race has it’s own society and normally the various clans/guilds/organizations…etc.

Some variations to life forms and racial generalities emerged from this time of darkness (Dark Ages) Atlantis survived but unfortunately the power of the great crystal dimmed and only is a third of what it once was. In fact a lot of Underwyrm perished and got cut off from other areas, some areas were flooded some with water some with magma some just collapsed on itself. Thus starts the Third age.

After thousands of yrs. most civilizations have barely become a shadow of their once great power. Small bands of a mixture of races  roam the wilds and mountains and seas. Some just surviving, others are preying on those trying to establish a permanent village/town/city…etc. Ruins are everywhere, and periodically great magical finds are discovered. These finds generally are bought up by any prevailing organized power structure and used in defense of that area of control. Most races have forgotten about power nodes of crystals and some found that some of these nodes do bad things to those near them especially in the Underwyrm caverns.  Great magicanical (meaning combination of magic and mechanics of which the latter half of the first age had built for doing mundane and war like functions) items are being unearthed finding that power crystals were used to control them or used to power them, a great hunt for the magicanation instructions(instructions on what type/kind/magic spells contained in crystals needed to power the artifact,what to do to use the crystals properly and how to attach the crystals to the magicanations) as well as for artifacts are in place through out the world by seats of governments and powerful cities or both. It is in this era that Bio-magicanical and Bio-magimechanics (use of a souls or spirits to power mechanical or magic-mechanical items/golem like devices) re-emerge as an item/personae of power. Some may view this as an evil act some individuals have seen it as eternal life and strive to have themselves merged with these devices. No matter it’s use it exists in Wyrm and can be role played through according to the character’s beliefs.

As it stands now this is the current era in Wyrm and like stated before as a campaign we can insert the start of it anywhere we choose.

I have in an extreme amount of D&D campaigns over the years. I have played with people from all over the world.Presently I am playing in an online virtual tabletop type of campaign using MapTools for the visuals and Ventrillo for the voice com. The players are Br,Ga,Cl, and a new guy who I haven’t had any communication with. A guy we will call him Ps has been recently running his game.

History-
This game we are playing in is or was based entirely from my original campaign in the “Wyrmworld campaign” of which was started near 1989 at our condo on the dining room table. using the standard core books and a smattering of additional books written for the game by other companies than the big WotC/Hasbro/TSR. Over the years as our group of sometimes ten to only four played the various editions of the game we started seeing more and more exciting variable ways to incorporate magic and the natural abilities of our characters. In fact we had found out that there was a guideline written in the DMs book on how to take some creatures we had always thought was an NPC (non-player character race) and allow it for play within the confines of the written material we always had been using. This was a fantastic idea, because so often we had wondered what it’d be like to play one of those types of characters but didn’t have the knowledge to fit it within the game world (mechanically). So, I believe this was right before our “epic” campaign where characters were going to be allowed to go to eventually become 40th+ in levels.
This part of our campaign went nicely over the yrs. with the normal amount of people having to stop playing due to work schedule conflicts, moving out of state,college attendance, joining the service…etc.So after the majority left for one reason or the other we were down to 3-4 and mostly just three. So we put flyers up and notices in various hobby stores but we were finding fewer people wanting to play D&D. We talked it over and figured it’s due to online gaming and the internet in general. So as we would continue to look for new players (which we are still doing), we found that most new players didn’t like the high level so much or that they were un-used to the power of those character levels. So we discussed toning it down and creating a more lower lever game using regular rules rather than the epic rule system. Then as luck would have it I found a free software utility called “MapTools” in which on can build maps,roll dice,have character sheets, and play without using a webcam focused on a vinyl mat as I was doing. This for the most part, revolutionized our play style, at least mechanically. So this went on for a year or so and the players downloaded the tool as well and we all found it to be usefull and smooth, however different so we all had to adjust the way we built maps and encounter areas. It took longer to build maps, it took more thought as to the layout of areas, it took hours of learning the use of the different tools and what they could and couldn’t do. So the player I’ll refer to as Ga decided to hive off from the campaign world we had been using that I originally created from scratch. We put our thoughts together and I expanded one of my fantasy continents in my gaming world to contain an area he wanted to run the group of players through. So it was, I played in his setting using a character I built and enjoyed the game with the others as we could all play as PCs in Ga’s area. So time past and he changed the area and then one day said he was going to run the game in a city called “Ptolous” which is a pre-designed game area designed by a famous writer- Monte Cook. In asking Ga where this city is or the world in which it is located he said he didn’t know really and it didn’t matter at the time. In my opinion, Ga found that to do the work I’d been doing in a campaign world took time and interest and so much work he didn’t want to invest in that immense responsibility. So I was disheartened in the fact that he pretty much gave up trying to be original. We all enjoyed the game and all, but again maybe a year later he changed again, and used another pre designed area called “City State of the Invincible overlord” Still no world creation from him, still no histories from the fantasy area, just plop! there it is across the bay from “Ptolous” whatever bay that was or where it was on what planet, who knew? I was also finding he wanted to change things nationally, as various concepts I had implanted in my original campaign that he was using as a backdrop. I explained that it’d be nice to ask me and talk things over prior to just making assumptions and exploiting my yrs. of creation. He then stated one day, “Well, it’s no longer in my world then it’s somewhere else and not for me to worry about any changes”.

Slap!! So this is how it starts...Friends glean off someone till they feel confident about themselves enough to exchange friendship for notoriety. In this case it was small and of no “real” tangible thing. But the knowledge, my time,my friendship was put aside, why? so he could seemingly have the limelight? So he could call the shots without the need to talk anything over with the guy he’d been friends with for over 20 yrs. who knows? Ok, I thought it’s just something he’s going through and he’ll make a nice world to adventure in and I shouldn’t feel all broken up about it after all I was the one he’s trying to copy and I should feel praised and feel some accomplishment. Months passed and we lost another player to working needs and money making, all understandable reasons. So “Ga” puts on a forums page that he needs more players in his game and a couple people started playing. The game then consisted of “Ga” who was running the game, Cl,Co,Ps,Br, and myself and another player who is an entire story all together I won’t mention here. The game was going well but I started hearing complaints about the “power level” the “high stats” and the unreasonable high level NPCs we had to encounter to give us a challenge. Looking back this was the start of the end of my interest in the play style of Ga and later Ps as a dungeon master. The guys without any acknowledgment from me or very little discussion with me as a player or an ex DM, started contorting the guidelines as we were used to them. They cut out things that made the races and classes strong. They subdued abilities/traits, and overall power of the races in which we found we could play and loved to play because of those same abilities and powers and traits…etc. Ga claimed players said they were not going to play in his campaign because they were uncomfortable playing with such high powered races. He claimed they stated that the reason they didn’t want to join his campaign was because of template usage as well as creatures as players combination. During this debacle Ps said Ga and him had talked it over and that he was going to take over as DM fo awhile to let Ga play. In my opinion, Ga saw that the game is failing to be fun anymore and didn’t want to be responsible for a declination of interest. So now Ps is running and again no world background,no world back story, nothing…just plop! there the party is without so much as a reasonable explanation. No world work up no real campaign history…etc. No remarks when asked “Hey, where are we? what world are we on? What do our characters know of each other, or the continent…etc. This is an example of a “new” DM they don’t care to flesh out an environment or consider anything other than roll the dice when the encounter occurs. It is sad that they wouldn’t even ask me, or talk it over with me, I have the time and the energy to help them but IMO they don’t care as long as they are in what they see as control.

PRESENT DAY-Ps still is running Ga seems to be creating rule contortions acknowledged by Ps who is using Cl to apply them to the utility “MapTools” program. At least three sets of different character creation processes have been issued one more less powerful than the last. I email them regularly for updates and in several weeks I get some type of minimal response that does not completely cover what I asked or tried to discuss. I get “corrected” during play as if I had started playing yesterday. The friendship is seemingly gone from any relationship Ga and I had, Ps and my relationship was purely a gaming one since he had never seemed to want to actually befriend me socially outside the game. The others I never have met face to face and therefore don’t know at all socially. I at this time feel my fun in this game is gone. I will take a hiatus and possibly drop in the game in several years to see how it has changed. It is a sad day indeed.

I am looking for people to start in my game world and to evolve a nice friendly social/gaming party,where friends can talk and discuss daily lives as well as gaming information. I will continue to use my Wyrm world campaign and adjust it according to play style of the group not just my rules s I have always done. If anyone is interested contact me via–lotharlocnar@columbus.rr.com I look to run every other Saturday from around 1 pm to midnight or eleven pm. I can use vent,yahoo messenger, or any other voice program that’s free. I run a 3.5 edition D&D campaign setting.

Well, I have been playing Allods online since the closed beta test, and have noticed a sharp trend in more and more complexity that is not needed. This patch in July has created various unnecessary problems.My personal objections are as follows-In the game now if ones character dies he/she could possibly have their items “cursed” which means all of the bonuses turn into negatives for the characters stats. If one wants to remove the effect the person has to buy (with real money) at the Gpotato store a scroll that “purifies” the item in question. One can get around this effect if they buy with real money a set of “holy charms” which when a character dies a charm is used so nothing is cursed. So it is not financially frugal to put ones self at risk. Hence people won’t group with you if they are not almost guaranteed that they will live through the ordeal. Also the more rare or legendary that item is that might get cursed the more real money one has to spend to get it uncursed. The cost of the most gpotatos is 50.00USD for 5500 Gpotatos. The price for 500 holy charms is 475 Gpotatos.
My next problem with Allods is- there is now items that “can” have a rune slot etched into them so as to receive runes. These runes give items either better defensive abilities or if put into weapons, offensive power. However when the game came out if one took a rune out of an item whether the item was bought or found, one could put a different rune into the item which met their perspective patron’s symbol. Same goes for now too, except that there are items that state “this item can have a rune slot etched into it”. Ok fine, untill one finds that, yep, your right, ya have to pay real money to buy Gpotatos to pay for the “rune etching kit” depending on the “level” of rune one wants to put into the item. The higher level of the rune the more it costs for the ONE TIME use of the kit. I bought a level 1-4 rune etching kit and clicked on it then on an item I found that stated clearly it could have a rune slot etched into it and got a message that this item cannot have a rune slot etched into it (even though on the item it states it could), this cost me 50 Gpotatos (steel rune slot engraving kit) So I bought a better one just to see if it was just a one time glitch, it wasn’t!!

So now the only possible good thing I see the new patch did was to allow less PvP ganking in a zone called Assee Tep (or some such, as well as many other zones) because unless the other guy wants to risk dying and having to loose a holy charm or having to buy a “Purification” scroll they might leave your character alone long enough for it to at least do the PvE quests in the area. However They increased the difficulty on most NPC enemies and gave some even new abilities to kill ones PC with. There is an item called Incense which increases ones damage dealt and healing done as some other minor things, before the patch they lasted till used, now they (in ones inventory) only last 7 days. So one can spend 350 in Gpotatos for an item that is not permanent and one hasn’t even used or had reason to use.

A lot of people have quit the game and moved on to lesser expensive free to play games. So the economy is getting tough when ya see things like this occurring to MMORPGs that’s touted to be free to play. Sure they are free to play but one will not have the enjoyment of seeing their character level nicely as the people who have the disposable income to invest in the items needed to just get their character leveled in a reasonable time.

Date:Sept.27th 2010

I have continued playing Allods online, but now I’m hearing the people who have stuck with the change are saying things like “It’s boring to attack so and so, because it’s too rough trying to beat them, they spent too much money on their character and hence, too hard/difficult, especially when they stay near a safe zone/spot they run to when sorely injured. Also, I’m finding out that the “scrolls of knowledge” are just a way to “buy” ones levels for  they give +100% extra xp for killing mobs as well as +100% reputation from the different factions a player is trying to get the rank of “Respected” in, which allows access to the best items that particular faction has to offer, which are generally rare items (blues). So it seems with the available purchase of potions of stat increases/scrolls of knowledge…etc. A player with more disposable income will legally be leveled faster and have the best of items he/she can get faster and easier than people that just play the free to play game without spending money (as it was supposed to be played, hence, free to play)!! Also they have increased the time limit from 7 days to 30 days on items(scrolls,incense,potions) bought, since last update here.

I have found it extremely annoying to be trying to kill the mobs that a portal quest gives and marked on ones in game map, only to find that the portal guardian (the entity to which one is killing the mobs for) asks for something completely different from anything listed on the map or in the original quest.  When this happened to me at first it was an incorrectly named wolf species, ok, so they may have mis-interpreted the name from Russian to english, and I didn’t think any more of it. Although the more and more I adventure to other Allods and new zones to acquire more portal access I am finding the names aren’t even close. For instance the portal guardian for a portal quest for the Inn wanted vultures in a zone called Coba Plateau, but on the map markers no vultures are even listed(listed are jackles, and Rhinoceros cows, and one other I can’t remember)  in the zone there are several types/species of vultures. So the naming is completely wrong, it isn’t any more of just a different type of the same species, or a translation problem.

The game is definitely a game that NEEDS a lot of work!!

Update as of 10/13/10

I was in a guild for around 3 months called “OCEANICEFFECT”, they seemed to be a nice guild at first with a character named Tofudream and another named Gibbonic both Gibberling archetypes. There were others in the guild but these 2 I had the most contact with. They were helpful and respectful of me and anything I said. However just today one named Riveria(sp) created a problem of what we were joking around about which centered on an old joke and something I’d heard on the Simpsons. He/she took offense to it and the Guild Master (of whom he refers to himself as a Regent) asked for me to leave because “several” guildies were too thin skinned and didn’t like the way I said things. Gibbonic” is the Guild Master,aka regent, and we talked it over saying that they are not too worldly and are easily offended, if it was just us he’d have no problems. However, my character is 5 levels away from the max level of 42 and only 2 of the guildies are 40th. So in my humble opinion when the others saw me raising in levels faster then them, getting the help to level more than them, having better equipment better than them, they got jealous and wanted to find something to kick me out for. Being retired and having a lot of time I game a lot more then they did. It is my conclusion that guilds are nice if, and only if most people in the guild are in and around the same time zones, have enough max level characters that can help up and coming guild mates close to max level, are not concerned with JUST helping their real life friends more than any other guildie. In many other MMORPGs the same is true, If 2-3 people play regularly together and form a guild they seem to be the ones that decide to normally keep it around their own levels or below, so it seems they are helping people level and gain items, etc…But, if a person is not in their clique they tend to either ignore them or boot them out relying on any possible reason to do so.

When the Guild Master cannot treat everyone equally and starts singling people out on the whim of other guildies it definitely is time to re-think being a Guild Master (regent). So in my book, Oceaniceffect is a narrow minded guild run by “sheeple” who just follow along and have no mental ability to be morally tough enough to stand for the rights of freedom of speech. When I nor anyone else talked negatively toward any one guild member or any thing except the re-telling of jokes accepted in the mainstream of society and the Guild Master says people didn’t like the way I talked, it’s a sad guild to be a guild member of.

My advice is do not become a guild member of Oceanic-effect unless of course you are a sheeple and will not say things that might in any way be offensive to narrow minded youths!!

Oceaniceffect is a guild on North American English server of Allods(tm)

My feelings about the economy and what the government needs to do is nothing short of going bankrupt.
If a company goes bankrupt they can change their name and keep on going.Why can’t the USA?
If we consolidated our 50 states into 5 10 state areas and rename the USA into something like (United Federation of States, National alliance of federated states,United Coalition of States…etc) Then each separate set of states would/could have their own uniform federal government like system and then break that down to each of the states have their own state government within that group. That way they all can micro manage the small areas interdependently. If they have problems managing their own areas then there could be a spending council to oversee their expenditures. The President could/would still be the President except there would be 10 small units, each to govern their own affairs within the continent not abroad. Anything that is overseas belonging to one of those 10 groups is watched and overseen by the security commission of that particular small group. I could go on but my limited ideas and in depth knowledge of our government is very sparse indeed…this is just a conception to correct government spending and get the USA out of hock.