User:Aberlon

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> scull bottle of whine
Your lips pucker as the juice of sour grapes passes them.
The whine has no effect. You cannot get any whinier.
> say And to put a capstone on it, I can't remember where I got this stuff!

(How do people put up with their multi-royal custom clothes being so easily broken? only TPA goes on top of your clothes, backfire damage ignores most shields ('tis a backfire, after all), )

something to do with numberchasing

with pass/fail results and thingy and Experience is the primary control on how fast you advance. (That is more-or-less rate limited by GP regen.)

hundreds of levels in many skills.

If you don't have a hundred levels in a skill, you don't have a skill. That's the impression I get. that is, the first few levels of a skill - especially after receiving a new command from that advancement - don't let you do anything.

  • I can only portal from the TMs gotten before Jogloran's was made harder. I've got no idea how I got to 294 ma.sp.def.
  • The goalposts for Al'Hrahaz's Scintillating Blorpler were moved out of reach ages ago. You will carry hundreds of pebbles (the pebble is almost always consumed).

You WILL NOT use or even carry any unreplacable or expensive gear. Water rooms happen. So does the Thieves' Guild. (100 adventuring.perception is not enough.)

  • On the plus side, material expenses (advancement fees, carrot supplies) are cheap. In Ohulan-Cutash, for example, the weakest human NPCs have the money. Tougher things like yetis and trees and giant spiders often carry less loot.
    • And if you're absolutely flat broke, you can always put a massive brake on your xp/hr and sell everything.
  • Most skills are non-primary, by definition.
  • Most things guilds do involve non-primaries. (Just ask witches about throwing and me about methods.)
  • When you earn a ritual, you need, what, twice as many levels before it's worth typing the ritual's name after 'perform'?
  • Instruments and crafts need at least a hundred levels.
  • Climbing is not a primary for most folks, either.

This costs millions of experience.

From http://bonuses.irreducible.org/formulas.php

From 0 to 100 200 300
Primary 206,903 1,304,237 4,794,651
Non-primary 2,218,162 9,991,242 25,673,456

And the truly frightening thing is that back in the day I was told that I wasn't supposed to worry about the difference between non-primaries and primaries because the cost of post-max completely dwarfed the cost of the first 300! HAH!

You WILL have to earn millions upon millions of exp. Somehow.

Rule Three 
You need to invest millions of experience in the relevant skills before you can do <the task the rule is being applied to>.


Subjectively: 130kxp/hr is not enough. TODO grey dust and that solo command numberchasing theoretical maximum.

[imagine a paragraph here about numberchasing through guild commands. (It probably mentions the rules on botting.) As a wizard, I'm wossnamed to mention it as an alternative to killing things. I only got 50kxp/hr when I tried it, but the above link gives that I didn't bring nearly enough options for mass gp dumps. (I never would have thought of scribing. (Or recharging, for that matter.))]

Or a methodology for the experiment that did not involve adding a focus to a log parser. Update: with 30x commands, 140-150kxp/hr. (Curious to see if removing the extra palm is noticable.)

EFF isn't enough either.

Once your floater goes down, against a single target the continued usefulness of your ma.sp.def bonus (TPA+CCC) is measured in rounds.

  • In many areas, you can't afford to leave the room to refloat.
    • Ramtops: *splat*
    • Genua and KLK; other fighter-types in the new room help
  • That short duration is against a single target. Multiple targets would, therefore, shred me far faster. This, too, limits where I can fight.

Plan:

  1. Switch to a defense that doesn't shut down at random. Of the melee defenses, only dodge works when spellcasting:
  2. Acquire 300+ dodge bonus (same as my ma.sp.def, plus having no AP to defend with because I'm using spells, plus the massive penalty for dodging during a spell.)
  3. > bang head against wall ; see Rule Three.

Why am I still using magic?

I'm ... not sure. Part of it is Rule Three; I've already got 100 fi.melee.{dagger,polearm,heavy-sword}; I can't get it any higher without raising my xp/hr. Catch-22.


Table of damaging offensive spells from Sekiri's research:

Spell Est. Offensive Multiplier Notes
Malich's Penetrating Ocular Lance 0 Rat killer.
Memories of a Vicious Chicken 0 Rat killer.
Calm Embrace of Illusionary Beauty 1.5x Do you know where to get firecrackers?
Kelleflump's Irritating Demon 1.5x The damage is low and the amulet inconvenient, says Sekiri's notes.
Narquin's Mist of Doom 1.5x Incompatible with CCC, may disrupt itself.
Fiddelmaker's Auriferous Embrace 2x Prohibitively expensive component
Pragi's Lost Gaze 2x Not being in the same room is claim unacceptable and rumoured to cost XP.
Kamikaze Oryctolagus Flammula  ? What are you going to do while the bunnies count down?1
Effermhor's Hypersonic Assault 3x Candles aren't found in pairs in people's skulls
G'flott's Olfactory Nightmare 3x Neither are blocks of sulphur.
Pragi's Fiery Gaze 3x The only other useful one, except for the AoE bit...
Nargl'frob's Empyrean Spear 4x Methods require breaking Rule Three.
Doctor Kelleflump's Deadly Demon 5-6x BWAHAHA AHAHA GWAHAHA *sknrk* AHAHA...
Journey of the Heavenly Storm Dragon - This kills the caster.
  • 1: That is, I can cast it, but I can't merge it. Murphy's Law says one of backfire results is the merged sixteen-bunny carrot ends up on my head. There goes my gear...

TODO Roll a warrior alt and determine once and for all if 200kxp/hr sustained is possible[1]. Why? Melee-type skills are the only other option for higher XP grinding I know of, and as the the above table outlines it would be significantly faster than trying it on my alts.

Or not. Warrior alt rolled, only got up to 150kxp/hr, but: I heard a rumour that consider is based on: armour (no effect), weapons (half a notch of effect at best - which is odd, considering parry relies on, y'know, holding weapons) and hit points, which are no-one's primary. That is, the only way to know if a class of enemy is going to rip your head off is to try and kill a lot of them. Argh. I'm going to get dodge, and possibly tactics, because that appears to be, despite the time it will take, the only practical way of knowing if I can, as it were, manage Ex Peas 4 Me solo.

Oh, and killing the same below-me critters in OC for 'over two days of playtime'? Ergh. I'm lucky I picked sword so I could -use- iai, giving me something new to play with. (Also, there's a non-bonus way of increasing your power (in this case, attack rate): dual wielding. This goes against everything else the MUD has told me.) At no time did changing swords change kill speed in a way I noticed. In the end, I hiked back to AM and bought a foil for the offhand, being the lightest sword that isn't expensive. (Rapier in onhand for tossing in slash for, although I haven't actually checked, an increase in command XP.)

  1. This is the same as saying "possible solo".

Idlechasing

Grouping

Groups get more xp. Details:

  • When you get command XP, your groupmates get xp too. (That is, more xp enters the world if you're grouped.)
  • When you get bury XP, your groupmates get xp too.

(In at least one other game, groups getting more xp is a loading screen tip, i.e. publically documented.)

It's key for Ex Peas 4 Me; grouping with a couple of people just trying to TM pushed me over the 200kxp/hr.

Against

There is no refutation for these:

  • "Splash xp" for commands doesn't make as much sense. Burial xp has splash because groupmates can assist (group assist, shield) but only one person can bury. Command xp you can't assist with.
  • Should completely risk-free idlechasing generate between a half and three quarters of what numberchasing (with three deaths an hour) does?
  • Idlechasing is equivalent to every groupmate killing and burying as fast as they can - while in the same room. (This conceptual wossname doesn't matter so much because killing, grouped or solo strictly generates more xp per gp than idlechasing. Howeverer.)

Advantages

None of these arguments in favour are strong. They are given in hope that some fragment of idlechasing playstyle will remain, rather than remain untouched.

  • A form of non-combat advancement!
  • The opportunity to chat. (Or, knowing how to correctly disposing of GP while chatting/arranging your playerhouse/et cie.)
  • Compatible with kids, cats and call center duty, where playtime is taken in snatches of a couple minutes anyway. Or even if you're waiting for a phone call; no having to hike out to the middle of the desert when you've only got ten minutes.
  • Being logged on is better xp/hr than not being logged on. Er. Something like the previous point only with more looking for a free lunch. :S (Or while writing about things on the Discworld MUD wiki! Or for the AM Daily or Green Slab.)
  • Idlechasing doesn't care what level you are. It doesn't matter if you're less than a day old or have been chasing numbers since Filigree Street went north-south, you can join and contribute equally to a numberchasing group. The same might not be able to be said for combat.
  • Grouping for Whappens. You can give commands in a predictable fashion at your own pace, rather than having to react to combat and discovering everyone's dead before you've typed "ctpa groupmate".
  • No risk of being dragged off to a) kill anything you don't want to b) Djelibeybi when you've got a visit with the crocodiles coming.

Areas, given the above

We were told a long time ago to leave everything but the money and jewellery. I guess trying to repair-and-sell ten pound ploughshares might slow you down a bit. Also, you can't get the adventuring.perception to hang on to the gear money gets you, so you don't need much money.

  • Therefore, no notes on loot.

Criteria include but are not limited to it being safe to use Pragi (no cats to fireball, no wandering warriors jumping in, no groups of strong things) and no Watch.

TODO Djelian end of the Circle Sea, Skund (where's those fatally large packs of trolls?), Ramtops (WAAAAAH *splat* - better not), vampires and werewolves (riiight). Does Genua have a terrains yet?

Ankh-Morpork

No. Those passing citizens that are an aff that appears as a line in the description? They can rat you out to the Watch. There is no fighting here.

Sto Lat

No. Getting past the Royal Guards after murdering something is like getting past the Imperial Guard without losing your weapons. (At least legend has it the Royal Guard won't kill you.) On the plus side, the local vegetable stall sells carrots at a discount!

Djelibeybi

No. A cat or priest walking in on your Pragi gets you a trip to the croc pits. Those are terrains, which means that you've lost your gear. Oh, and a life.

Meleeists, on the other hand, isn't so bad. There's some stuff tougher than the fightable things in OC, and I was distracted by figuring out what's most valuable to sell (there being no tramps with five dollars in pennies about). The priests talking to the soon-to-be-deceased, and the soldier groups who may or may not have been talking about the fights spooked me away (didn't leave warrior alt any GP for language TMs).

Genua

You'd think so. I attended the public information lecture on what gets you done by their coppers, and they don't mention murder (except of their coppers). However, Genuan fighter-types assist passersby. If I knew how to get 300 levels of dodge in a timely manner, I'd be whining about something else.

Terrains original (Sur) - Ankh Morpork, Sto Lat, all the way to Rham Nitz

Plains and cabbage fields. (Cabbage fields add cabbages that Pragi ignores.)

Yes. Map every <sight range> miles, though; stepping into a river is the same as losing a life and all your gear. (Remember, it's 100 levels of a non-primary to do something; in this case swim, let alone with two dozen carrots.)

Probably all the non-human enemies will flee - despawn - after a short time. Don't bother with Wungle's, just go for the Pragi. (However, chipmunks and rabbits are rat-class., that is killed by one successful melee round or Malich's.)

Solitary unless noted:

NPC flee?
rabbit y Rat-class
chipmunk y Rat-class
red meadowhawk y Leaves room on spawn, sometimes.
quail  ?
fox y Melee base rounds just give them time to flee.
grass wolf  ? Comes in packs! Yes! *ahem*
wild boar  ? Knocks floaters down easily, don't bother.
horses y Often comes with one to three horses and one to three foals. More than one horse is too many.
poacher n
hunter n
ranger n may, after a brief delay, whistle up their wolfhound. Leave them.
silver birch n Floater goes down too often, too much hassle.

Drawback: not much in the way of humans means no Myrandil's Mask of Death and no coinage.

However, the experience may be better, and with the size of the terrains there's no competiton. (None of that embarassing 'sorry that's your strongarm I'll just shuffle on through now'.)

I can get 190kxp/hr here; idlechasing gets me 150-160kxp/hr. Cool.

On the roads

You get different potential opposition. TODO Check. However, rumour has it the groups of fighters are to avoid.

Bes Pelargic

No. They all know about spells. (Weird, why don't I have any logs of Myrandil's Vicious Seizure over there?) Also, weapons permits are prohibitively expensive at my age. (That's probably a lie, but also I'd feel far too obliged to use the darn thing.) Oh, I'd forgotten about the odds of being spitted by the Imperial Guard for fighting. Checking that the next two rooms in all directions are clear quite possibly slows things down a bit.

Melee: stuff takes longer to kill. This is possibly because everyone being unarmed means all your AP gets soaked up parrying.

Ohulan-Cutash

Yes. (Though I haven't been brave enough to 'accidentally' fireball the cow, a mommet or the local soldierly types.) They're all (aside from the dogs) human-type enemies so there's fuel for Myrandil's Mask of Death and Wungle's Great Sucking, and all the enemies carry coins, and there's jewellery on both types of sailor.

dog1 easy target Rat class.
tramp lot weaker Four pounds in spare change
barge sailor lot weaker silver ring, moves two rooms to get away from spells
Zoon sailor (lot) weaker gold ring
peasant (lot) weaker
farmer (lot) weaker Takes a little more Pragi than peasants.
town guard TODO (fightable)
soldier TODO (fightable)
strongarm tougher than you, pretty nasty Specials, but so long as the TPA's fresh this isn't fatal. Also trips and shoves, but with a floater you don't have AP anyway.

1 I appreciate the work that went into the variety of dogs, by the way.

However, it seems to be slower XP, even ignoring how there's always someone else grinding there.

Plus: no-one pitches in to fights, the area is Pragi-safe and often you want to.

Warrior alt: after 250+levels of parry and sword, town guards, despite con not co-operating, became fightable. At 290 levels of parry, even some soldiers and the occasional strongarm(!) became reasonably killable.

Hillshire

Villagers wimpy.

Mad Stoat

Shepherds wimpy.

Sheepridge

Did I mention the wimpy? It works great for their survival.

Gloomy Forest

Sure, there's usually only one giant spider at a time. I hear they're extra good at bringing down floaters. Oh, and there's the spider venom.

That and trees are rumoured to kill you by landing on you when they come down. If there's a skill check, remember Rule Three: you need a few million exp in a non-primary to even think about it first.

(The druids I can handle, more or less, but time is wasted not fighting where there's trees.)

Further up the Ramtops

Not going to bother checking. I remember the lynxes pursue. Also, the giants are rumoured to throw you off the mountain. Terminal velocity means a lost life and gear as always.

Closer to Cori Celesti, I heard, you'll find penguins. And (the) ice giants. Legend has it this is where the blue crystal ring will take you these days. (Unless you know how to get around Rule Three, of course.)

Containers and inventory slots

A useful page: http://luckycat.pbworks.com/ContainerInformation

Following not up to date, I'm pulling this from logs going back to 2003.

Scarlet silk sash, A$50, AM Thieves' Guild

You cannot put on the scarlet silk sash since you are already wearing a utility belt.
(Thieves) Meben wisps: ...and only one belt slot now. Argh.

Idle curiosity at some point Things were Changed so there's only one layer of armour on feet. (Can probably dig through the Wayback Machine to find a page on armour layers.)

I know that cloak's a custom, but it's not in the logs. Nicolette?

You cannot put on the maroon linen cloak since you are already wearing a drab trench coat.

Black trenchcloak, Magical Supplies Emporium, A$65

>> appraise trenchcloak
The black trenchcloak is about six feet long and about a foot wide.  It is made of
leather and looks like you could wear it.  It can hold less than one pound or eight items.  It is
in excellent condition.

>> wear trenchcloak
You cannot put on the black trenchcloak since you are already wearing a drab trench coat.


You cannot put on the staff harness since you are already wearing a light grey silk backpack and a deep red silk backpack.
You cannot put on the large backpack since you are already wearing a colourful sash and a large gourd.
You cannot put on the Sarilak scabbard since you are already wearing a dark green obi and a large backpack.
You cannot put on three large backpacks since you are already wearing a hunter's pack and a large backpack.

Some scabbards go on the hips:

You cannot put on three belt loops since you are already wearing a Holy Blade of Soyin scabbard and a belt loop.
>> smile
You smile.

Others on the back.

You cannot put on the deep orange silk satchel since you are already wearing a large backpack and a huge tequila bottle.
You cannot put on the dagger scabbard since you are already wearing two stiletto scabbards.
You cannot put on two thief's dagger scabbards since you are already wearing a stiletto scabbard
and a dagger scabbard.