Enjoying Festivult

That's right, the Festival of the Twelve Moons, also known as Festivult (or Festivus for those who've been playing since launch), has finally returned to Stormreach. And, with it, the Festival Jester has given us a bit of a change this year.

I guess the jumping puzzles we had to contend with during the Thirteenth Eclipse were so popular that the Jester decided to borrow the idea for himself. Personally, I like the idea, as I always enjoy the puzzles. But, then, I was a big Mario Bros. fan, back in the day. I've tried the puzzles out in the Harbor and in the Marketplace, but I haven't yet had an opportunity to check out the puzzles in each of the four house enclaves yet.

In the mean time, though, I've received some very interesting prizes from the Jester...

The most interesting thing I've received so far is a stack of Sun Flasks.



They actually come in a stack of 20. Which, as you can see, I've already reduced to a stack of 12. Particularly since they're such fun to use. Notice that they're classified as Dart weapons, so you can throw them at mobs. And they even do some damage. Of those I used while touring the Waterworks with a lowbie, they do from 2 to 6 points of damamge. They *seem* to also do a little fire damage when they hit, but the flash of light they produce is what makes them so much fun. I'll have to try them against some undead, to see how effective they might be in that case. After all, they are Ghost Touch weapons. And, the flash seems like it might be particularly effective against zombies. I guess I'll just have to try them out.

Of course, I've also been lucky enough to pull a couple of Irian, the Eternal Day Jelly Cakes. They're resurrection cakes. A great item to have in those groups where the Cleric isn't yet able to raise fallen characters from the dead. Fortunately, I haven't had reason to use them yet, as our groups have been lucky enough to be near a shrine whenever someone buys the farm.

The funny thing is, two days from now is my two-year anniversary in DDO. I remember that when I first started playing, I thought the festival coins were a regular part of the game. I was rather disappointed when the Jester retired at the beginning of January. Particularly with unspent coins in my various character's inventories.

I even saved up some coins from last year. Been waiting ever so patiently to take them over to the Jester to see what he gives me.

I think, this year, I'll have to save up all of the lumps of coal he gives me so I can join in the Festivult in July celebration next year. This past year, one of the players hosted the event in which you bring your lumps of coal to one of the taverns and have some fun in the PvP pit throwing coal at one another. But I missed out due to lack of supplies. :P

At any rate... good luck with festival coin drops! The Jester surely has something fun for you!!!

Trinarius Returns!

I think most would have to assume that, based on the number of Warforged you can find in the Trinarius clan house, that Trin has been spending a fair amount of time in his creation forge. Well, actually, Haywire's foundry.

With permission of Haywire, of course.

But, Trin seems to have been using his abilities as a Cannith-trained artificer to give everyone some new options when it comes to rounding-out adventure parties. Which is why most folks have seen very little of him in recent months. But, Friday, Trin returned to the guild-house for a bit of adventure.

That's right, Trinarius... the master of the multi-classed clan... has returned to the guild-house.

Which is as it should be, considering that Trin was promoted to Guild Leader of the Face Stabbing Misfits when Althenna decided she needed to take a vacation.

Sure, the Trinarius clan has been fairly well represented while Trin has been toiling away in the foundry, but I think it's only reasonable that all of the guild members should be able to see and talk to their leader on a fairly regular basis. Besides, I've greatly missed the kind of fun Trin allows me to have with any given adventure in the game.

Actually, it started earlier in the week when PuddinTan and I decided to join RedRaider for some Favor runs over in House Jorasco. Red was hosting a Levels 15 and 16 group to help some folks earn more favor toward their 1750 mark. Now, realizing how long it had been, I decided I wanted to bring Trin along.

And, I had a really good time running him. That's when I decided I wanted to spend more time with him.

Particularly since our groups sometimes find themselves in need of a Rogue.

I mean, despite the appearances of the icons on the player's screens, Trin's primary role is that of Rogue. Something that many folks often forget. Except Maeric. Maeric always seemed to remember that Trin's "purpose" in life is to gain access to the treasures most other would prefer he not have.

So, on Friday evening, when the guildies got together for some fun, Tan said he wanted to run some high-level quests. Perhaps some of those out in the new Syber Atol.

Well... that's where I told everyone I wanted to run Trin. Tan decided to bring the original Tanision, Bashal decided to bring Demab, and Belzur brought... of course... Belzur!

For the first time in a long time, all high-level characters.

And, we had a blast!

Well, mostly, anyway.

Demab was more than a little peeved at the number of times he died.

Granted, Trin *did* die a few times, but c'mon... this is Trin we're talking about. He has a propensity toward untimely demise. Not to worry, though, as Tanision, master Cleric was with us.

It did get a little frustrating at one point, when we tried to take on the red-named ice giant out in Aussircaex' canyon. So frustrating because we'd all run out of healing, including Tan. Hmm... It was at that point that I made an executive decision... It was time the guild bank footed the bill to help out the guildies.

And, once everyone had some healing again, the ice giant wasn't quite so tough after all.

No, nothing spectacular dropped, but we all had a lot of fun.

Isn't that the point of playing the game?

I think so.

Keep it fun, everyone. And don't be surprised to see Trinarius a little more often.

When Things Finally Come Together...

Despite the setbacks for our young adventurers the previous evening, Blarrney, Dascool, Factotum, Murders, Robinous and Obsydiian managed to collect themselves together for a small excursion through one of the Gianthold's greatest challenges... the Madstone Crater.

Of course, with any significant challenge, there must be some significant reward. Otherwise, why would anyone rise to face the challenge?

Well, I can certainly tell you that the reward wasn't in the offerings of Blaze ar'Rhind or his minions. Especially on completion of the quest. It seemed that no one was offered anything more than vendor trash. Although, I wouldn't really consider Madstone to be a "loot run" type of quest.

But, there was a greater reward to be had...

Experience.

You see, Robinous has been working, ever so slowly, to rise to the ranks of the elder heros. Unfortunately, he's still at Level 10 at the moment. Though, after a few more adventures such as the Madstone Crater, he'll be Level 13 in no time.

Particularly since he earned nearly twenty *thousand* experience points for his effort last night.

'course, he would've earned nearly twenty-two thousand, had he not released to resurrect himself. But, those are the breaks of the game. There are some times where you have to make a tough call. It's simply unfortunate when you do. I don't know many folks who enjoy the prospect of losing experience when they're working so hard to earn it in the first place.

The group was lucky, though.

The quest had been opened only on Normal, making it a Level 14 quest.

And, none of the group were above Level 13.

Additionally, most of the group were seeing the crater for the first time with the characters they'd brought along. And some even had the trinket, the Voice of the Master, earning them some bonus experience.

I must say, with the release of Module 8, the developers did make a few adjustments to the quest.

All in all, I'd say some very good adjustments.

Despite some of the challenges the group had faced, it seems to me that they had much more fun than in previous excursions through the crater. Mostly, I think, because the quest now requires players to be engaged the entire way through now.

And, that silly giant skeleton at the end is now susceptible to certain arcane spells once again.

I look forward to the group's next adventure out in Gianthold. I hear tell that both the Prison of the Planes and the Crucible are calling Robinous' name...

Keep it fun!

Not Again...

There have been quite a few occasions lately, where players haven't been able to log into DDO. Some of it's been acknowledged by Turbine as being related to the release of Module 8. Many of the other problems have simply been ignored by the customer service department.

Actually, I'm beginning to think it's called the Customer Neglect department.

Here's why:



This is the message I and many other players received when trying to log into the game this evening.

A short visit to the forums showed that *every* single thread in the most recent threads list was related to this issue.

But there wasn't a single response from anyone at Turbine.

I'm guessing that this means Turbine has cancelled my run with the guildies out in Gianthold this evening.

And I was really looking forward to helping Robinous earn a new level or two...

I guess I'll keep trying to log in...

Just a Numbers Game?

Sometimes I sit back and think about some of the things I observe within DDO and wonder if it's all just a numbers game.

After all, computers deal exceptionally well with numbers.

And the core mechanics of D&D is numbers-based.

The mechanics of it, anyway.

But, I don't believe that the numbers are the basis for the game. Only that they're the way in which probabilities of success and failure are determined in any given "random" encounter.

Last night, before Belzur, Puddintan and Robinous had logged in, I'd joined a high-level group with Bashal (running as Confrag), exploring some of the new Syber Atoll content introduced in Module 8. To play things safe... for me, anyway... I decided to bring PEBKAC along. I mean, healing never hurts, right?

But, as I joined the group, I heard the banter of party members comparing weapon statistics, abilities, skills, and anything else they thought might improve their chances to defeat anything we might encounter.

The exchange wasn't based so much on what the weapons were called, where they were acquired, how they helped "save the day" in a given encounter with some notorious opponent, but how the numbers stacked up.

I have to wonder...

For the 1337 (that's "elite" using "leet speak") or über power-gamers, is it really nothing more than a numbers game? Is it nothing more than statistics and probabilities?

What about the...

prepare yourselves; this is huge...

sense of adventure?

I was just playing through Grinwhite's quest, The Swiped Signet. I hadn't run it before, at any level, and was looking to improve Trinarias' favor with the various patrons throughout the city. I opened the quest on Solo. More to take advantage of some experience, and to warm myself up for a more difficult challenge later.

For the most part, as I work my way through a quest, I tend to ignore the roll of the dice, as I prefer to focus on the adventure. I like to immerse myself in the environment that's been created to help visualize things often before seen only in my imagination. And, in the imagination of those like me who like a good mystery or a tall tale.

I was a tad surprised to find that Trin couldn't operate an Intelligence rune that he encountered.

After all, the quest had been opened on Solo. The easiest setting. A setting low enough that, unbuffed, Trin can normally gain entry to places usually reserved for Wizards with the highest of intelligence.

But, not this time.

Trin's current Intelligence is 21. So, I opened his inventory to see if I might be able to find a potion of Fox's Cunning. After all, it gives a +4 boost to Intelligence.

But, then I stopped.

This is an adventure.

Sometimes there're some things you encounter on an adventure that you simply cannot surmount without the assistance of others. As that's the way it was intended.

As part of the adventure, what might be concealed behind that rune-locked door?

It's a mystery.

One that Trin will have to return to at a later time. Next time, maybe Trin will be more prepared. Or, maybe he'll have some friends along who might be able to lend him a hand.

Maybe it's time to muddy the waters of the pure numbers game that provides the foundation for DDO, and allow the adventure to come to the surface.

Just a thought.

Keep it fun!

Hireling Preview

Last night was Turbine's preview event for the Hirelings on the live servers. Of course, I couldn't let the evening pass without taking a test drive myself, as henchmen have been an integral part of Pencil-and-Paper D&D for as long as I can remember. In fact, henchmen were especially important in other D&D-based computer games, such as Neverwinter Nights, even if they weren't MMOs. So, I think it's a step in the right direction for Turbine to add Hirelings to DDO.

I have to tell you, though, that my experience wasn't a resounding success...

In fact, if I were to base my assessment on first impressions, Turbine would've received an F- for a grade. Fortunately for them, I was willing to give my hireling a second chance.

You see, shortly after hiring himself a Cleric, I took Trinarias into the Sunken Sewer to finally complete the quest on Elite. Mind you, this is a Level 2 quest on Normal, and both Trin and his hireling Cleric were Level 6.

Now, before I get ahead of myself, I did take the time to visit the DDO Compendium to review the personality descriptions for the available hired help. And, I thought I'd made myself a suitable choice in the selection of miss Kendra Estleton. After all, she isn't what I would consider to be a battle-Cleric, but rather one who's more interested in keeping her benefactor alive. So, after speaking with the hireling vendor (aka "pimp"), Trin made his selection and headed off to see how his new employee would work out.

Not thirty seconds after she'd been summoned, Trin found himself picking up her soul stone and heading for the nearest resurrection shrine.

As it turned out, as soon as she'd been summoned, she locked onto a group of three Kobolds and headed after them. In fact, it was all I could do to have Trin join the fracas in hopes of salvaging the situation. Not only had Kendra gotten herself killed, but Trin barely survived the encounter himself.

It seems to me that, when a hireling is first summoned, their stance *ought* to be set to "Be Passive", rather than defaulting to a "Be Active" state that instigates an unexpected encounter.

By the way, Trin never did make it to the resurrection shrine. He was himself killed by a pair of angry glass spiders.

So, the first impression was that it had been a complete waste of the 2,060 gold pieces Trin had paid for Kendra's services.

But, there was still time left on Kendra's contract, and Trin was determined to get his money's worth out of her. So, Trin headed off to House Deneith, and entered the Depths series of quests. As is customary, Trin started with the Depths of Despair, entering through the sewer grate just north of the Hammersmith's Inn.

To avoid any unnecessary death and/or destruction, Trin entered the quest on Normal (a Level 4 quest). And, shortly after entering, Kendra was once again summoned. Of course, it didn't take long for the duo to encounter an Earth Elemental, which caused Kendra to immediately jump into action.

Mind you, she's supposed to be primarily a healer, based on the information in her dossier that the Compendium had presented. But, she was certainly swinging for the fences with her mace when that elemental came bounding down the tunnel at them. Fortunately, her initial encounter in this quest didn't end the same way it had in the Sunken Sewer.

But, I did notice that she didn't spend the time healing herself or Trin that I thought she should. She did, in fact, nearly meet with another horrible end, save for the fact that Trin was also beating on the same elemental with his Thundering Maul of Righteousness. I also noticed that miss Kendra also allowed Trin's health to fall dangerously low before she began to heal him.

What was the point of hiring a Cleric if it wasn't going to heal its employer?

Well, she did a little better as the pair worked their way through the tunnels, searching for the Troglodyte supposedly responsible for the condition of the sewers.

Actually, miss Kendra did surprisingly well when she and Trin encountered the caged Minotaur. Instead of barreling directly toward a bad ending, she held back a bit and let Trin do most of the work, and she kept him on his feet.

That isn't to say that she healed Trin back to full health, but that she didn't let him die. He still had to repair the remaining damage himself.

And, perhaps that was part of the problem... Trinarias is a Warforged; Clerics generally prefer to heal fleshies, as their healing isn't as effective on the forgies. Maybe Trin should've hired a Wizard instead.

But Kendra did finally do her part to keep Trin going, and they finished the quest with time to spare. So, Trin escorted her back to the rest shrine and directed her to use it, to replenish her mana, before they entered the second quest in the chain, the Depths of Darkness.

Now, because the Depths series allows adventurers to enter the next quest in the chain without returning to a public space in between, Kendra followed Trin right on in to the next quest without having to be re-summoned. A nice touch, I think, as it allows the hireling to maintain the same "posture" in the transition from one quest to the next. And, by "posture", I mean whether the player has chosen to set the hireling to being active or passive.

Both Trin and Kendra did very well in the Depths of Darkness, too. Though, I'm glad Trin didn't have to pay Kendra's repair bills. It seems that miss Kendra didn't care that she was bludgeoning the slimes and oozes with her primary mace. In fact, she didn't seem to have a Muckbane club, as she never switched to another weapon the entire time.

The final encounter was interesting, though, as Kendra demonstrated an amazing amount of initiative, as witnessed by this screenshot...



While Trin was fighting several Hobgoblins on the floor, he was being ranged by a Hobgoblin Cleric from the mezzanine above. Kendra decided it would be in the best interests of Trin's health if she took care of the problem herself. And, took care of the problem she did. As you can see, she even decided to climb the ladder to reach the problem Cleric on her own. There was no direction to do so on my part; it was clearly a matter of her own initiative.

I was curious, though... the time on Kendra's contract had long since expired, but she remained with Trin throughout the quest. I decided that I had to see whether she would remain with Trin into the next quest in the chain despite the fact that her obligation had ended. So, I had Trin step through the next manhole, into the Depths of Discord. And, sure enough, Kendra came right along with him.

I thought that was very interesting. Technically, this was a new quest, and her contract had expired some twenty minutes prior. So, I had no expectation that she would continue through, but instead that I'd have to take Trin back to the pimp for another hour's time. But, she surprised me, and continued beyond her obligation.

Unfortunately, I had to log to make dinner for the wife, so I had to let Kendra return to her pimp, but it had been an interesting experience to that point.

After dinner, I joined Sephrena (Bashal), Plagiarist (Tanision) and Bastim (Robinous) for a little turn through Splinterskull Fortress. Of course, I had to bring a hireling, as the preview event was still going on. I decided, this time, to bring a tank along instead. After a brief chat with the hireling pimp, I decided to add Kastinalia Windblossom to our group.

All-in-all, I think Kastinalia was a better value than Kendra was. But, I think that was the result of a completely different set of expectations. After all, you expect a Fighter to jump into the fight and swing away. You don't expect them to stand back and heal everyone. And, in accordance with such expectations, it wasn't entirely surprising that Kastinalia bought the farm when she took off and engaged three Hobgoblins at the same time, while the rest of us were all engaged on a single Hobgoblin Cleric. Especially with the quest set on Elite.

I did find, through trial-and-error, and with quite a bit of help from the others, that the first shrine in the Splinterskull Fortress is unusable by the hirelings. It must be some kind of pathing issue, as the room in which the shrine is situated is rather cramped. Although you could issue the instruction to the hireling to use the rest shrine, and they would acknowledge your orders, they simply could not comply. We did discover that they could use the more spacious second shrine without problems, so it seems there's something that requires a bug report for the developers to work on.

Eventually, the fatigue of a long work day was too much for Sephrena to continue with us, so she (he) logged out for the evening, leaving just Plagiarist, Bastim and myself. This was the perfect opportunity for us to fill the three remaining slots in the party with hirelings.

Since Kastinalia's contract had expired, I decided to try one of the battle-Clerics, Plagiarist hired himself a Fighter, and Bastim hired himself a Sorcerer. Here's the group we ended up with...

















As you may or may not be able to see, Trin had hired Arias Oreth, Plagiarist had hired Ormol Soggybottom, and Bastim had hired Azala Fireshaper.

I think that, considering that half our party wasn't able to use any form of human intelligence to guide their actions, we did pretty well. We made it through the first five chapters of the Splinterskull chain, and had quested well beyond the duration of all three hireling's contracts, and could have continued had the human players not needed some rest.

In fact, at one point, Plagiarist had used his Bardic abilities to charm a number of the Hobgoblins, too. It seemed to be a contest as to how many NPCs our party could control. But it was all very amusing, too.

I think the folks at Turbine have found a way to really improve the way players interact with the game. Surely it's still a social platform. But, for those who can't find a full group for what they want to run, or for those who simply want a little insurance while they attempt to solo their favorite quests, hirelings seem to be a nice complement to the game's other features.

And, if this works out as well as it promises to, Turbine may be well on their way to adding persistent familiars to the game, too.

For those who missed last night's preview event, rest assured that Turbine has already offered a second event for tomorrow (Friday) night.

This should be fun!

Is the Blog Dead?

I think a lot of folks have been wondering whether I've finally given up on my blog.

Well... no. Not really.

The problem has been that I've had to focus more of my energy on finding a new job. Which also means that I've spend much less time playing.

In fact, I haven't even had any entries related to the release of Module 8, even though I've actually managed to find the time to log in with my new character slot and kick the tires on Turbine's "New Player Experience," also known as the NPE.

Although I like what Turbine has done with the NPE, and the way in which it works, I feel a certain sense of loss when it comes to what they've done to "remodel" the Harbor.

Sure, the Harbor looks more lively now than it once did. Especially with all the new boats docked at the various piers. But, they closed the old Aspirants Corner, and all of the streets down to the original Wavecrest Tavern. In addition, several of the quests have been removed from the game. Notably one of my favorites, Sewer Rescue. And I can't imagine why.

Granted, Kobolds really aren't as much a factor in the Eberron realm as maybe they appeared to be within DDO. But, given the production schedule Turbine must have had to launch the game, I can understand why Kobolds were used so prolifically while the developers tried to figure out how to implement Sahuagin. Especially since they play such an important role in the story of Eberron, for those adventurers crossing the Thunder Sea from Sharn to Stormreach. Anyone who's vessel has to traverse the region known as Shargon's Teeth had better have a Sahuagin escort. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't reach their destination.

Still, Kobolds became a part of the fabric of Stormreach because of the work Turbine did. And, it seems rather callous to simply remove the majority of quests that once included them. I think I'd've preferred the addition of quests that include the Sahuagin, rather than replacing existing ones. After all, Kobolds in other realms are often likened to sewer rats in the larger cities, precisely because of the way they can proliferate in the buried infrastructures.

Of course, Hirelings haven't been implemented yet. Turbine is hosting its Hireling preview event tomorrow. They had decided not to release Hirelings at the same time, as they didn't want to try to figure out whether the game was crashing due to the Hirelings, or because of some other technology they had implemented with Module 8. It think it was a sound development decision, as the game was actually pretty stable following the release.

Sure, there were a few teething problems, but Turbine has managed to work most of those out by now. Which is why I think the game will be going down today for an update which will make Hirelings possible for the event tomorrow.

Now, if you haven't been in-game for a while, don't think that Module 8 was only about the New Player Experience. The folks at Turbine also added four new adventure areas, each supposedly with a new quest in it, tied to the previous content for the Gianthold and the story of the Reaver's Fate. I've visited the area only briefly with Trinarius on the first evening following the release of the new module. I took Trin out to one of the new frozen adventure-scapes with Demab (Bashal). It didn't take long for the two of us to find ourselves in the middle of a party wipe.

I think it had something to do with the fact that we'd encountered a party of Ice Giants and, in the process of trying to explore the areas beyond their camp, Trin had placed a few Maximized Walls of Fire. Understandably, the Giants weren't happy about the excessive heat and banded together to remove the Dwarf and his companion from their frozen tundra. It was a spectacular battle, though. Demab even managed to survive the initial encounter, being only incapacitated by the Giants, but the second encounter with them was far more decisive in it's outcome.

So, we returned to the cavern in which the quest had begun, and decided to save any further adventures for another time.

Since that time, I had tried to host another Titan raid for the allied guilds, but turnout was mediocre at best, and we decided to go run the Vale of Twilight instead; PEBKAC is currently working on preparing himself for The Shroud, along with Belzur, PuddinTan and Bashal. We're trying to include as many others as we can, but filling a group for Vale quests is rather difficult at the moment, when most folks are out playing on Korthos island, or out exploring the new high-level adventure areas.

I'm not sure whether four explorers are sufficient to tackle the challenges of quest such as Rainbow in the Dark and the Coalescence Chamber. I suppose we'll just have to find out.

Oh, and as far as the blog being dead... why have I finally posted a new entry?

Well, I finally had my first interview in seven weeks of searching, and things are looking up. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

In the mean time...

Keep it fun!

Customer Service

A funny thing happened yesterday...

My friend Roulph/Belzur was able to log in during the day to run a few quests with me, in between all of the other things he has going on in the middle of the day.  And, we decided to take our lowbies, his Krinjen and my Trinarias, through Redfang the Unruled, with the difficulty set to Hard.

I'd tried to solo this quest earlier in the day with Trinarias, also on Hard, but found the CR:7 Troll to be a bit more of a challenge than Trin was up to at the time.  Especially since he didn't have an appropriate weapon for such an encounter, and was relying solely on the fire traps to bypass the Troll's natural damage reduction.

Mind you, that didn't stop Trin from making three good attempts at the Troll, before finally dying by the swing of the Troll's club.

Still, it was far more interesting when Krinjen joined me later in the day.

As we made our way through the quest, I'd noted to Krinjen that in my earlier attempt to complete the quest, I finally discovered why it was not possible to earn the Conquest bonus for the quest.  As I learned by paying close attention to the Experience Report, the Baby Glass Spiders that spawn from the many spider eggs within the quest are *not* counted in the report's Monsters Killed section.

In previous attempts to complete the quest, both Krinjen and I had made a point to try to force each and every spider egg to spawn into a Baby Glass Spider, in an attempt to finally earn the Conquest bonus.  As careful attention to detail revealed, it was a wasted effort.

Which is why I submitted a Bug Report on the issue.

I mean...  why put them in there if they aren't going to be counted!?!

But, Trinarias still needed the Favor granted by the quest, so we set out for another go.

As we made our way down through the chambers, we found we'd earned the rare encounter for Goliath the Gargoyle.

This is always an interesting encounter, since Goliath likes to curl up into a regeneration cycle after he's suffered a certain amount of damage.  Meaning that if you can't beat him down quickly enough, you might not survive the encounter.

So, Trinarias took swigs from several potions to buff-up his Strength and Dexterity, and threw a Shield spell on himself.  Krinjen similarly buffed himself and summoned a Gray Wolf.  Then, we initiated the encounter...

After what seemed to be only a couple of hits landed on Goliath, he curled up into his regeneration cycle.

And he continued to regenerate.

Over and over again.

In fact, he became stuck in his regeneration cycle.

How disappointing.

For some odd reason, I decided to attempt to contact a Game Manager to see if someone couldn't help us out with this bothersome little glitch.  Mind you, I wasn't necessarily expecting anything, as in-game Customer Support has been notoriously slow and ineffectual in the past.  Still, I decided to give it a shot.

To my surprise, in less than two minutes, I received a message from Sparker, on of the Senior Game Managers.  Clearly, he took the time to read the ticket I had submitted, as he asked to verify whether Goliath was still stuck in his regeneration cycle.  Which I promptly confirmed.

Then he asked me what seemed to be the strangest question...

Had there been any other members of the party who were no longer in the quest?

Huh...  no, just the two of us, which I conveyed to Sparker by reply.  But I thought it an odd question, so I let Krinjen know what question I'd been asked via voice-chat.  He thought it a bit odd, too.  But, then he said something that clued me in to why Sparker had asked such a question.

"Nope, just you, me and my wolf..."

The wolf...

It had been active when we initiated the encounter.

And, then, shortly after Goliath entered his regeneration cycle, the wolf disappeared, as his timer had run out.

Quickly, I typed a reply to Sparker that, while there hadn't been any other Player Characters in the quest with us, there *had* been a Gray Wolf with us that had since "left" our group.

While Sparker didn't formally confirm this was the problem, I suspect that the wolf had somehow pulled Goliath's aggro shortly after we initiated the encounter, and that, once the wolf had disappeared, the focus of its aggro was gone, so it got stuck in its regeneration cycle.

How funny.

It's often difficult to tell what a computer program will become hung upon until you put it into play.

But, it was more interesting that Sparker went the extra step to help us complete the optional encounter by attempting to re-spawn Goliath for us.  Notice what happened...

Notice the inactive form of Goliath still perched upon the crates in the top-left corner of the image, while the newly spawned version on the floor has suddenly entered a regeneration cycle, even though his health is nowhere near the threshold used to start such a cycle.

Sparker noticed that Goliath had bugged out on us again, when the second Gray Wolf finally disappeared.  So, Sparker killed Goliath for us.  And, his action gave us credit for the encounter and unlocked the chest.

I thanked Sparker for his assistance while he finished out the support incident.

But, as we moved over to see what Goliath had kept in his chest, he spawned for a third time.

This time, without any Gray Wolf, or any other buffs, both Krinjen and Trinarias managed to defeat Goliath without any unexpected surprises.

It was funny how Sparker had noted that Goliath just wasn't interested in playing nicely that day, as Goliath had become stuck a second time.

I have to tell you, I was rather surprised by the timeliness of Sparker's response, his helpfulness, and his sense of humor through the encounter.

*THAT* is the kind of customer service I can really appreciate.

Thanks, Sparker!

Keep it fun, folks!

Wow...

Time flies when you're unemployed... I can't believe it's been ten days since I last posted something to my blog. This despite the fact that I've had ample time to play DDO during the day. Which has given me the chance to bring both EmmDee and Trinarias up to Level 5.

But, much of it has been through solo play; I've had several bad PUG experiences lately, so I'm not inclined to run my characters with groups who don't also value playing to earn all of the XP bonuses within any given quest. Which may seem silly, but I was looking to level my characters up, not zerg through every quest just to see how quickly I could get it done. Odd as it may sound, I prefer to enjoy the quests Turbine has given me. That means I would probably find more entertainment value in completely exploring the quests, rather than taking the shortest path to the end boss. I mean, it's not like the end rewards are all that stellar at low level anyway...

I've also had plenty of time to work on my little side project. I've decided to write a novel for the Eberron setting that actually spends a significant amount of time in Stormreach, and which takes place almost exclusively on the continent of Xen'drik. It's been rather entertaining to imagine some of the interactions my characters might have with many of the NPCs any player can find in the game. I look forward to substantial completion of the project, as I may have to obtain permission from Turbine to use the names of the NPCs in the game. But, I think that's what's so interesting about this project, too. It might be something someone who's never played DDO picks up off the shelf in their local bookstore, and then, after reading the book, decides to join the game, and meet and see some of the things I've written about.

It's an interesting diversion, anyway, when I'm not looking for a new job.

And, Module 8 must be getting close. There seems to be an awful lot of uproar about when it's due out and what the various new features will be like. Time will tell, but I think it's going to be a few more weeks, myself. Turbine tends to run a little long on their estimates. That whole bug thing, I think.

At any rate, I'm still around, and I'm doing what I can to keep things fun.

See you in Stormreach!

What it's All About

Friday evening was the first time in quite a while where I think we simply gathered a bunch of folks together, and laughed our way through the entire evening.

Sure, there was XP to be had, some favor earned, and plenty of "über" lowbie loot to be had.

But I think it's pretty safe to say that we quickly forgot about the fundamentals of game-play...

Depending upon how you look at the group composition, we had three Face Stabbers and three Lifetakers. I could be counted as two and four, if you consider the fact that I was running EmmDee, who's technically a Lifetaker, but my only alternate character in that guild. Still... It was an unusual combination of players, and things digressed rather quickly.

Which is what made it so much fun.

In many ways, it hearkened back to the days of running with Kruella and Meany, in which *anything* could be said in voice- and party-chat.

And usually was!

Yeah, Friday was more like a guy's night out than an evening's questing in DDO.

But, I suppose that's what made it so much fun. Especially since we were running some of the less thrilling quests in the low levels.

There were several times where I was laughing so hard that I couldn't keep the other members of the party healed up.

Not that that was a huge concern, as everyone was carrying *some* sort of self-healing with them, but it was obvious when I couldn't concentrate on the Clerical tasks.

My cheeks hurt well before we were done with the first few quests, and felt as though they'd fall off my face by the time the evening was through. It was a rather insane but thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an evening with friends.

I look forward to more of the same.

Many thanks go out to Danthrag (Elainee/Killiayn), Krinjen (Roulph/Belzur), Sephrena (Bashal/Confrag), Sundiata (I don't know any alts yet), and Truesong (True... many things), for an entertaining evening. We'll have to do that again some time...

Keep it fun!

The Hazards of Playing Against Level-Cap...

As you may have read in my previous post, I've been using EmmDee as a pet project to see if I can run and re-run quests "at level" to maximize the XP (eXperience Points) he earns so that he spends the smallest amount of time in the mid-level "wasteland" as possible.

He ran into his first level cap as a Level 2 character, at 49,999 XP; one point shy of the Level 4 XP threshold of 50,000. At that point, the game stopped him from earning any more XP until he talked to his trainer and became a Level 3 character.

Since that time, I've been working on bringing him up to the next level-cap at the Level 5 XP threshold of 90,000. I'd done a pretty good job of running all of the content solo up through yesterday, when I found that attempts to complete the quest Missing in Action on Hard to be much more difficult than "hard." In fact, it required the assistance of a couple of the lifetakers, without whom EmmDee would not have survived the quest.

But that quest didn't bring EmmDee up to the cap. In fact, most of the week, I've been running EmmDee solo through various quests, but I've run into a couple of problems...

First, there's the whole thing with blind invites.

It seems that EmmDee has been the only Level 3 Cleric online most mornings, resulting in a rather preturbing pattern of behavior from some of the folks on the server at those times. Such as incessant blind invites. I've talked about this before... I *don't* do blind invites. I believe in good manners, respect and consideration for one's fellow players. Blind invites exhibit none of these behaviors. In fact, blind invites are rather telling as to how selfish some players are. And, I simply don't care for that.

I realize it's cliché, but there is no I in team.

Well, it's gotten to the point where I've had to squelch a couple of players. Skyrathiel, for one.

*Every* morning this week, the player behind this character has insisted on sending me a blind invite *while* I'm in the middle of a quest.

Usually when I'm in the middle of a battle of some sort. As if keeping EmmDee alive isn't difficult enough, try fighting through a blind party invite!

The first couple of times I tried to ignore him.

The third time, I sent a /tell in return: "Welcome to DDO. It's generally considered impolite to send blind invites to other players. Please send a /tell to ask whether I'm interested in joining your group first."

That shut him up for a while. But, then they started again. Yesterday, they got to the point where he sent *THREE* blind invites in a row, *while* I was attempting to negotiate The Butcher's Path on Hard.

I was fed up!

I sent a /tell in return: "Didn't your momma teach you any manners!?!"

No reply by /tell.

Instead...

Another blind invite!

/squelch add Skyrathiel

But, I was so aggravated by the whole thing, I was telling allied guildies about the whole ordeal in the chat panel. Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to check on the Who panel to see if this character belonged to any particular guild. Perhaps chatting with one of their officers might help clarify the fact that not everyone appreciates a bull in a china shop.

That's when I found this...



















Now... *THAT* is pathetic!

*NO* one at Level 4 *needs* a Cleric *IF* they play smartly.

*NO ONE!*

In my view, it's the true mark of a selfish player who can't even bring his own self-healing to the party.

Unsatisfied with the fact that I wouldn't respond to him, Skyrathiel passed the star to another player in his group, who then sent a blind invite to me. I could tell he was in the same group because their group was listed on the Grouping panel, and there was Skyrathiel in the character list for that group.

Some people just don't take a hint.

I was surprisingly close to filing a harassment report.

But, I decided to let it go and continued with my morning's quests.

When I was finally able to return to playing EmmDee late last evening, well after most everyone else had logged out for the evening, I was presented with another annoying situation.

A group had asked me if I'd like to join them to run the Kobold's New Ringleader on Elite. I had only run it to Normal so far. And, as a Level 3, running it on Elite, above level, would earn me a sizable portion of XP toward the ever-so-close level-cap that I'd been working toward. So, I agreed to join them.

And, they zerged their way through the quest.

The only times I saw the other characters all together was when I stepped in, they were all waiting for me so I could throw them some buffs, and again, just before the end battle with the Ogre, for another round of buffs.

In fact, one of the group died because he'd zerged off away from the Cleric. I had absolutely no idea where he'd gone. It took me a while to finally find his soul stone and haul it off to the shrine... while the Ogre was still running around trying to kill everyone.

But, he managed to get himself back on his feet at the shrine, I threw a couple of heals on him and he decided to take on the Ogre again, with only half health, after electing to not use the Rest shrine to recoup his own health.

I see how it is...

Knowing the behavior of the group, though, I elected to remain with them, as they decided they wanted to run the Waterworks on Hard. Something I could really use to close the gap of the final 2,700 XP that EmmDee needed to reach the level-cap.

And, I told them that once I'd earned the requisite XP that I would *have* to level, as the game would not allow me to earn any more after that, and that I wouldn't run a quest for no XP. And, the group leader acknowledged this.

HOWEVER! Once I'd finally hit the cap, and told them I was off to take my level, they jumped right into the next part of the quest chain. Not that I'd expected them to wait for me at the entrance, but I did expect them to wait to open any chests.

Wow, was I mistaken!

I saw chest loot messages begin scrolling across the chat panel and thought WTF?!?

So, I sent a message in party chat asking them what they were doing.

No response.

"Did you not see my statement that I *had* to go level?"

No response.

Okay then... I guess they don't need a Cleric after all...

So, I dropped group and logged out.

And, with no apologies.

They deserved none.

I can see that there won't be very many groups with which EmmDee gets to run. Certainly not PUGs, if that's the way they choose to behave.

You know, I try not to impose too many of my personal principles on the other players in this game, but one principle I WILL NOT compromise upon is respect for one's fellow players.

And I *expect* other players to show me some respect if they want to benefit from my Cleric's services.

And, that's just the way it is.

So, I guess that EmmDee will be left to playing in groups with only allied guildies from now on. But that seems to be my only choice if I have any hope of maintaining the discipline I need to play my characters the way I want to. Because that's what makes playing this character fun for me. Otherwise, I might as well just go ahead and delete him right now.

But, I'd prefer to keep it fun!

What Happens When...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you played a character to the point where they'd earned a level, but didn't take it and kept playing? Have you wondered how far you can go without leveling up? I did...

Meet EmmDee...



He's my liason to the Lifetakers and Heartbreakers. Obviously a Drow, and in keeping with my previous history, another Cleric.

Mind you, he isn't one of my most played characters, as I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to earn Obsydiian those Seven-Fingered Gloves. But, with some spare time on my hands during the days now, I've been dabbling with what he might become.

While first getting started with him, I found myself running much of the early content solo. Granted, I didn't make any effort to solicit EmmDee's services to the local PUG (Pick-Up Group) market, as I've had my fair share of experiences with PUGs, but I also haven't bothered any of the Lifetakers, either. After all, most of the early quests are just as easy solo as they are with a full group, so long as you've run them... oh... fifty thousand times already.

As I started running the quests, though, I discovered that he had a decent enough build that I could continue to run many of the quests solo, right up to his level. So, in an effort to maximize the eXperience Points he could earn, I ran most Level 1 quests on both the Solo and Normal difficulties.

It didn't take long before EmmDee had earned enough XP to progress to Level 2. But, instead, I decided to finish the list of quests so that all of the quests had been completed "at level." As I recall, EmmDee had earned enough XP that he'd earned the equivalent of two action points into Level 2 by the time I completed the list.

Satisfied with the result to that point, I went ahead and took him through the level progression and then repeated the process of running all of the quests at level. This meant going back and completing all of the Level 1 quest on Hard, as well as completing all of the Level 2 quests on Solo and Normal. By the time EmmDee had completed the majority of the Level 2 quests, he was well past having earned Level 3 XP and was rapidly approaching the 50,000 XP threshold for Level 4.

And, as I've indicated, EmmDee still hadn't completed *all* of the Level 2 quests at level.

Of course, with such a juicy goal at hand, I couldn't resist throwing in some of the Level 1 quests on Elite. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Then it happened...

As EmmDee ran Dalsamira's quest, Recovering the Lost Tome on Hard, he earned the last 400 XP, and then some, to take him over the the 50,000 XP mark, but the game capped him!

Capped!

And he hadn't even completed *all* of the Level 2 quests "at level!"

The game forced me to bring EmmDee up to Level 3 before continuing with his progress.

Wow!

Oh, sure, EmmDee did die a couple of times, but only a couple. Shrewd tactics have kept him alive the vast majority of the time so far. But, he ran *every* quest to this point all by himself.

I'm quite interested to see how far I can take him solo.

Mind you, there have been quite a few blind party invites that have made adventuring with him rather tenuous. Especially when facing a CR: 3 named Ogre in the Waterworks.

To which my standard reply has been "Welcome to DDO. It is generally considered impolite to send an invitation to join your party without first asking. If you will check the Who panel carefully, you will see that I'm already in a quest."

So far, no one has replied with so much as an apology for the interruption. Durned WoW players!

At any rate, running EmmDee has been entertaining, and I look forward to seeing where he goes next. And, in case you're wondering, here's what he'd completed before he was forced to level up...

(click the image to view a larger, readable version)















So, I'm off to see if I can earn EmmDee Level 5 XP while he's still only a Level 3 Cleric!

Keep it fun!!!

AAR, Titan Raid

For those of you who've never served in the armed forces, you may not be aware of the abbreviation AAR. It stands for After Action Report. It was one of those things that can sometimes be a rather tedious and boring part of the job for NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and Officers, following the execution of whatever mission happened to be on-tap. It was a chance for everyone to recap what the mission's goals had been, and to examine how well those plans had been executed, what went right, and what went wrong, and most importantly, how to correct deficiencies before the next mission.

Well, I must say that our series of Titan raids hasn't been as successful as any of us would've liked. Each time, we had *something* go wrong somewhere along the line that prevented us from seeing the maniacal machine meet its demise.

Of course, this time was no exception. The Warforged Titan, once again, prevailed upon our party of adventurers.

But, we were very close this time.

Very close.

Still, it seems that there were a few things we did that I thought deserved some attention.

First would be to determine precisely what everyone's roles are.

One of the biggest problems adventurers face when they take on the Titan is his rolling aggro. That is, he will target one of the adventurers in the party and attempt to kill them, then change targets and attempt to kill that adventurer, and then change targets yet again. Managing the Titan's aggression isn't as easy as most of the other quests in the game, simply because no one player can hold the Titan's attention for very long. It's kinda like playing with a two-year old... the attention span is simply too short to be very effective.

As a result, it's necessary to designate which players will serve in which roles. And, there are four basic roles to be served. The first is that comes to mind is that of the aggro manager. This player's sole purpose it to try to keep the attention of the Titan while the others perform their roles. The interesting thing is that the majority of the players in the quest should fill this role. That is, as many as nine of the twelve should be filling this role.

To be successful aggro managers, though, the players filling this role *must* stick together, in one position, so that when the Titans aggro rolls from one player to the next, they're all together, and the Titan doesn't wander around the room, making life difficult for the folks filling the other three rolls. To make things more interesting, the aggro managers *must* move together each time they have to reposition the Titan for an attack. If the aggro managers don't stick together and only move as a single unit, keeping the Titan in the right spot can be almost impossible.

The next role is that of the shooter. One of the players has the responsibility of aiming and shooting a large laser-like device. It's the only weapon that can penetrate the Titan's shields. The problem is that this player has to maintain a position that's relatively exposed. So, when the Titan's aggro rolls to this person, they really need to have the ability to deflect the titan's weapons and/or keep themselves healed up once they've taken damage.

Another role is that of the crystal runner. The laser-like device can't operate without power, and its up to the crystal runner to bring power crystals from the storage room over to the power slot on the device. Again, this is a role where the player is relatively exposed, but this player gets to move, and has a chance to evade the assault of the Titan. However, this is still a role in which the player serving stands a significant chance of dying, and really needs to have the ability to keep themselves healed.

The final role is that of the Titan killer. This role is challenging because this is the player who has the dubious honor of taking down the pillars that temporarily disable the Titan while the shooter takes his shots, but is also the player who has to be on-hand to deal the final blow once his shields are finally down. The killer has to be able to endure a significant amount of damage and/or be able to keep themselves healed, or be able to make their way to within range of one of the healers in the party.

In the past, I've seen the role of shooter be successfully filled by, of all things, a Cleric. This isn't to say that it couldn't be successfully filled by some other character class, but that a Cleric, by their very nature, is usually well defended because of their heavy armor *and* they have the ability to heal themselves.

The role of the runner is also often successfully filled by a Rogue. And, again, this isn't to say another character class couldn't do it, but that the Rogue's typically high Dexterity and Evasion gives them the ability to maneuver across the game board relatively quickly and easily.

Of course, the role of the Titan killer is usually best filled by one of the tank-type characters that has a *lot* of Hit Points and a high Armor Class. Usually.

Everyone else, by default, becomes an aggro manager.

Mind you, we've tried to keep the players in these roles as much as possible, but the battlefield rarely sticks to the plans you've made for it. Particularly because the developers at Turbine have tweaked the behavior of the Titan with each successive Module they've installed. And, this last Module has made things more annoying than ever. The Titan can launch your character across the game board pretty easily. It really makes it difficult to keep the group of aggro managers together when they're sent flying against their will.

Now, knowing what we normally like to do helps us evaluate what actually happened this last time.

I wanted to start with the suggestion that folks take off their armor and don a balance item. I *completely* understand this suggestion, as it allows each character a better chance to regain their footing when the Titan knocks them down. Which happens a *lot*. But, I do have to question the suggestion for *everyone* to take off their armor. It seems to me that there were an awful lot of players in our raid this past Friday night who took a lot more damage than was necessary. Particularly since many were aggro managers who were simply supposed to be remaining in a single location until instructed to move to the next. In such a role, it should not matter that they're knocked off their feet, except when they need to heal themselves. So, it might not be as good an idea for everyone to take off their armor.

Of course, there are alternatives. There are Shield spells and Sphere's of Invulnerability, and things like that for those folks who would like to increase their dexterity without sacrificing their character's survivability.

But, I believe this is something everyone in the raid should be aware of. That the removal of armor may *not* be the best idea for every character in the raid. And that the ability to self-buff and self-heal are extremely important for those who do choose to increase their Dexterity the old fashioned way.

The group had also made the decision, once characters began to die with rapid succession, to let characters remain dead so the Clerics could concentrate on keeping the key role players on their feet.

At the time, this seemed like a good idea. Until there were only four left on their feet, that is... The two Clerics, the shooter and the Titan Killer. At that point, the Titan's aggro could only roll amongst the four of them, because everyone else was dead. At that point, there was no way the four remaining characters could successfully manage the Titan's aggro, and this eventually led to our failure of the raid.

It seems to me that it's imperative that as many characters be kept alive as possible, so there remains a large number of aggro managers in the group to keep the Titan's attention. Without this group of aggro managers, the shooter, runner and killer are all subject to the Titan's wrath, and the chances of success drop significantly. The problem is how to go about doing this.

In the case of what we had this past Friday night, both of the Clerics were running about trying to keep everyone alive. It quickly became an overwhelming task for them. And, this despite the fact that many folks were doing all they could to heal themselves. In fact, neither of the Clerics were serving as shooter or runner, so that meant they often had to break away from the group of aggro managers to go throw a heal on the others. This wasn't so much a problem in terms of keeping folks healed, but it did reduce the effectiveness of the aggro managers because folks were more spread-out than what we'd have preferred.

We did also have a couple of mis-fires. And I'm not trying to fault anyone. One of the mis-fires happened purely because the Titan decided he didn't like where he was standing. Although the pillar did knock him down, the laser wasn't in the correct position to hit the Titan once he'd fallen to the floor. The other was a miscommunication, and a pillar was knocked down when the laser had no power. The funny thing was that these two mis-fires weren't quest-ending events. In fact, we still had two pillars left to succeed with.

No, our problem was that we had a party wipe before we could use the last two pillars.

Of course, this is DDO. So, using what we learned from each of the previous attempts, we have a much better idea of how we can be successful the next time. And, because it's DDO, ther *will* be a next time.

After all, Obsydiian is still looking for that elusive pair of Seven-Fingered Gloves.

But, next time, I'm hoping we also have a full party of twelve adventurers. Perhaps having three Clerics would be helpful, too.

Who knows, though...

We'll just have to see what we can put together.

Keep it fun!

Many Apologies

I just wanted to take a moment to apologize for the lack of entries this past week. As it happens, thanks to economic conditions, I was laid off from my job and I've been pretty busy over the past week trying to find a new place to call home. Hopefully, I'll find a position with a new firm that will be more in-line with my career goals. In the mean time, I'll try to get back on track with the blog entries, and keep things entertaining.

Keep it fun!

Changing Direction

I've recently finished reading Storm Dragon, by James Wyatt.  I have to say that this first book in the Draconic Prophecies series is *far* superior to the trilogy of books in Keith Baker's Dreaming Dark series.  Especially from a technical standpoint.

For those of you who may have missed by "book reports" on The City of Tower, The Shattered Land and The Gates of Night, I was less than thrilled them.  It seems that whoever was Keith's editor on the books knew less about the English language than a first grader.  All three books were rife with spelling, grammatical and editorial errors.  To the point where these errors interrupted the story.  I vividly recall a point in one of the books where an entire paragraph was repeated.  If I were Mr. Baker, I'd be embarassed to have my name on those three books.  The story was largely lost due to the technical problems within them.

Of course, I'm not him, but I can't imagine how Wizards of the Coast could publish such a series.  I can only hope that if the series ever merits a second printing, that they spend some time cleaning it up.  Perhaps, then, the story might shine through, and make for a better read.

James Wyatt's Storm Dragon, though, was nearly flawless.  And, I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the second book in the series, Dragon Forge.  The only issue I have at the moment is that it's only available in hardback.

You see, I ride the light rail network on my daily commute to work.  The trains can be rather crowded, and holding a relatively heavy hardback book in such an environment can make it difficult to enjoy the story.  And, since paperback editions usually follow their hardback editions by at least six months, it may be some time before I see a commuter-friendly edition.  I *may* have to break down and buy the hardback, and simply read it at home, in my spare time.

One thing I've noticed about the Eberron-based novels I've read so far, though, is that they don't spend much time in Xen'drik.  And, in the time they do spend there, accounts of any time the characters spend in Stormreach don't quite mesh with what I would consider to be canon for the realm, in what Turbine has created for DDO.  After all, Turbine has to obtain permission from Wizards of the Coast to implement the various aspects of DDO.  So, it stands to reason that much of what we see in DDO should be considered canon with respect to the way the novels interact with Xen'drik and Stormreach.

That got me to thinking...

Perhaps I should write a novel for the Eberron setting.  One that's based in Stormreach, and spends the majority of the story on the continent of Xen'drik, rather than simply using it as a pit-stop on the way to Khorvaire or Sarlona, or some other destination.  I mean, Xen'drik is a fantastic destination in and of itself.

Sure, it'd be nice to be able to visit Sharn, and maybe some of the other locations in Khorvaire, but those locations are already well covered by the majority of the published Campaign Setting and its associated works.  But, there's more than enough to Xen'drik to tell an entire story, and then some.

So, I decided that I'd try my hand at penning a novel.

And, I've decided that, not only should it start in Stormreach, and cover a decent portion of Xen'drik, but it should reveal a fair bit about the city that Turbine has created under the guidelines established by Wizards of the Coast.  Enough that it shows people who've visited Stormreach inside of DDO some things they recognize, and that might even bring some folks into Stormreach who've never visited before.  Something they can read about, and then, if they decide to log in, that they might find familiar once they arrive.

Of course, the story isn't simply an advertising scheme for DDO, but the elements Turbine has created are far easier for the casual player to wrap their brains around than some of the information published in the series of books that describe the campaign setting.

So, I think it would be fun to see references to some of the areas of the city, and some portions of the continent that Turbine has created, and for the characters in the story to interact, even if on a limited basis, with some of the NPCs players can find within the game.  It might make the game a little more interesting for some of the players.

And for some of the folks who have yet to give DDO a try.

So, be forewarned that, as I wander into the waters of fictional writing, I may not be posting as many entries to my blog as you may be accustomed to.  In fact, since I've already begun the process, you've probably already noticed a decline.

Don't worry, I won't give it up.  Afterall, there're still plenty of tales to tell...

Such as a recounting of the impromptu Dragon raid several of us attended on Friday evening.

Which, incidentally, netted Factotum the Ring of the Silver Concord...

It's a great item for a Cleric, I think.  Sure, it'd be nice for a Sorcerer, too, but considering the many Charisma based skills Factotum is able to use, I think he'll find it to be rather handy.

But, I've droned on long enough for this entry.  I'll have to tell you about the runs a little later.  In the mean time, I have some writing to do...

Keep it fun!

Speaking of Adventures in Plumbing...

Despite my loathing for sewer tunnels following my recent challenges with liquid engineering, I found myself in the Waterworks on Monday, running Medyq, my lowbie human Cleric on my second account.  He wasn't able to make his way into the Marketplace without having to cough up twenty gold get Captain Killmarten to look the other way.

I'm thinking my choice for the forthcoming Mayor of Stormreach election has narrowed to a race between Lord Gerald Goodblade or Scraps, as Harbormaster Zin seems to have only his personal wealth in mind.  I'm sure that at least ten of that twenty gold goes into Zin's pockets...  I mean, look at Killmarten's armor.  Yeah, it's a little nicer than you might see any of the NCOs or enlisted wearing, but you expect that of an officer.  At twenty gold a head, you'd expect his armor to be that much nicer than everyone else's...

Anyway, my poor 28-point Cleric build doesn't have twenty gold to frivilously throw Killmarten's way, so I decided to suck it up and take him down to the Waterworks.

As usual, Guard Tember's cousin, Arlos, was "missing" again.

Y'know, Zin has a hell of a racket going here!  It wouldn't surprise me if Zin is the one really responsible for the Kobold infestation in the sewer system.  I mean, they're worse than rabbits, so all he had to do was get them started, and then he had himself a pre-made threat to quash and found himself would-be heros to take care of the dirty work *for* him.

I don't think he realized what how poorly this would reflect upon his reputation amongst the populace.

Still, Medyq decided that it was time to address the problem that had been fabricated for him.

And, I should note that when he started, he was still a meager Level 2 Cleric.  Yet, he still managed to *solo* the first two chapters of the Waterworks.

Perhaps that isn't such a surprise to some of you, but it was for me.  Medyq is my first character to ever solo the first two chapters of the Waterworks *at* level.  The fact that I did it with a Cleric mystifies me.

Sure, it was a bit precarious a few times, but he did it.  Of course, it helped that I had a solid understanding of the quest, but still...

Y'know...  I had a *lot* of fun picking my way through the two quests.  It required a great deal of discipline and aggro management to keep from killing my poor little Level 2 Cleric.  And, even without any Rogue skills, I still managed to make good use of Rogue-like tactics to pick mobs apart.  Managed to earn the Conquest bonus in both quests, too!

The funny part was that Medyq was *just* shy of earning Level 3 when he exited the quest.  One spider and two Kobolds later, as he made his way out of the Waterworks, and back to Harbormaster Zin's house, the advancement animation played!  Needless to say, I was pretty excited.

Now that he's Level 3, I need to start working more seriously on his Favor.  That account *still* doesn't have the ability to roll-up Drow characters yet, and it seems a Drow Cleric holds the key to opening 1750 Favor for that account.  Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.  After all, I earned 1750 on my primary account with Trinarius, and have yet to earn it with any of my other characters, but the second account would seem to need a more in-demand character to make it happen quickly.

I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

Keep it fun!

Adventures in Plumbing

Let's start things off by saying that I'll be happy to avoid any quests that involve sewer tunnels, or any other plumbing-related quests for a while.

Back in the February-ish time-frame, the washing machine in my home decided it wanted to retire, so we replaced it.  But when I connected the new washer to the 1954-vinitage pipes, the shut-off valves began to leak.

Badly.

Thinking I should be able to handle the job myself, I headed over to the local home improvement warehouse and picked up some parts.

But, it didn't take long to realize that I had a much larger job on my hands, and that it would probably be a better idea to have someone more knowledgable with plumbing than only myself.  However, the wife didn't like the idea of hiring a plumber; she's begun to develop her father's miserly ways as she ages.  (She loves her plat more than anything...)

So, at the time, her decision was to let the leaky valves be until and unless they proved to be a larger issue than they appeared to be.

Fast-forward six months...

"Have you seen this quarter's water bill?"

"No.  Is it bad?"

"It's 40 plat more than it normally is."

"Wow!  That's a lot"

"Yeah, especially since we haven't been doing any extra watering; anyone looking at our lawn can tell that."

"Y'know...  I'll bet it's that leaky valve in the laundry room."

"You don't really think it leaks *that* much, do you!?!"

"Let's go take a look..."

...

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

"Yeah, I'd say it leaks *that* much."

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

"You have one week to get it fixed."

[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]

...

Thankfully, Belzur knows a thing or two about plumbing in the real world.  Which is why I asked for his assistance.  I realized the threaded parts I'd purchased probably weren't up to the task, but that I didn't know how to sweat pipe to fix it the way it needed to be.

...And that calling a licensed plumber out of the yellow pages would likely cost me several hundred plat more than my wife was willing to part with.

But, again, that's why I called Belzur.

Now, I have to tell you that I was a little intimidated by the task of sweating pipe, but I quickly realized it was the best solution to the problem at hand.  It also gave me the opportunity to install some shut-off valves in the supply lines so I could isolate the branch of pipes in the laundry room from the rest of the house, without having to shut off the supply to the rest of the house.

Did I mention the fact that any time I'd hinted to my wife that I'd need to shut off the water to the house made her feel as though she needed to pee?

Ah, yes...  the psychology of needing to do something you can't...

Truth be known, I was a bit concerned about shutting off the main supply to the house, as the original shut-off valve is still in-place.  Fortunately, when we bought the house, the city required the selling owner to add a new meter to the system.  More fortunately for me, when they added the meter, the plumber doing the job added a new main shut-off valve, meaning I didn't have to mess with something that might mean having to have someone from the city come out on the weekend to shut off the water at the street.

Thanks to Belzur, though, this little problem of a leaky valve provided me with an opportunity to fix something else, too...  the faucet to the landry tub.  Although it didn't leak like the valve for the washer, it dripped unless you used a crow-bar to shut it off.  And, also being of 1954, it was extremely difficult to operate without said crow-bar.

Particularly since the faucet is on the same branch as the valves for the washer connection, but that you couldn't work on either without shutting off the water to the entire house.  Which explains why I decided I needed to add branch shut-off valves.

Funny how a relatively simple project turned into something more elaborate.  But, it was one of those things where you really only want to fix it once, rather than continuing to patch things together.

And the wife already made me promise "no jury-rigging."

She clearly wanted a water-tight solution, if you catch my meaning.

Well, Belzur arrived nice and early on Saturday, even though we'd been out kinda late, digging up trouble in Stormreach the night before.  Once he'd arrived, we made a trip back over to the home improvement warehouse to return the parts I'd previously purchased and exchanged them for the small truck-load of parts we figured we'd need to do the job right.

Except that we hadn't been able to find a replacement faucet.

Which meant a trip to another home improvement warehouse.

Which also did not have the replacement faucet.

Which meant a trip to a *real* hardware store.  One of those old-fashioned, neighborhood hardware stores you used to be able to find before the advent of the big-box warehouses.

And, we finally found what we were looking for.

Once we were back at the house, we started laying out all the parts and began the process of measuring things up.

*I* wanted to cut and pre-assemble all of the parts, but I quickly discovered why Belzur chose to custom cut and fit each part as we went along.  Especially in light of the 1954 vintage of the house and it's associated plumbing.  And, in the end, it proved to the best decision, even though achieving the right fit was a touch more challenging, it was perfect.

More importantly, once we'd finished and tested the new system under pressure, we found only one minor leak, which we corrected with a brief touch of the torch.

All said and done, and no leaks that we could find, Belzur headed home, and I did a quick clean-up of the laundry room.

Of course, it couldn't have been as simple as calling the whole thing done at that point.

Both Belzur and I had decided it would be a good idea to run the washer through an empty load, to be sure all of the left-over flux and solder had been cleared through the line, and wouldn't end up ruining a load of laundry.

If you hadn't guessed, I let this wait until after dinner, after Belzur had already headed home.

Now, while the empty load was running, I would periodically go down to the laundry room to check that everything was still in good order.  After all, the constant changes in pressure on the pipes while the washer runs could reveal something we'd missed.  But, after the first two checks, I decided I wanted to log into the game for a little recreation.

I hadn't been in-game long, with both Stonehands and Belzur, when I heard a funny noise.  So, I excused myself for a moment and went downstairs to find out what was going on.

I had no sooner opened the door and turned on the light when I discovered a river of water running to the floor drain at my feet.

Thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!

I looked around, but didn't see any leaks from the newly installed pipes.  Instead, it sounded like water was overflowing from the tub in the washer, as the washer was still running.  I quickly reached over and cut the supply using the newly installed shut-off valves, but the water kept coming.  It took me a few more minutes to determine that the washer's discharge hose had come loose and fallen free of its gravity connection with the drain, fallen behind the washer and, during the rinse cycle, began to discharge rinse water across the floor of the laundry room, creating the river I encountered.

So, I shut off the washer, called the wife down to assist me, fixed the hose and helped the remaining water find its way to the floor drain.

Again, thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!

Only then did I manage to find my way back up to my computer to re-join Stonehands and Belzur for a little time in Stormreach.

Funny, though, that once I'd returned to my keyboard, they asked me what I wanted to run.  They had a good laugh when I said "nothing involving any pipes or plumbing!"

I think it's time for my lower-level characters to spend some time in some of the outdoor adventure areas.  Time away from sewer tunnels and slimes and such...

Keep it fun!