Calyx of Isis

Personally, I hope there is always some land unclaimed by any alliance. I see all these wanting a piece of that which is not yet claimed and I groan at the though of yet more AP barriers to travel and the like. There should always be neutral lands where players of no alliance and all alliances should be able to meet on equal footing on terms of AP and all else. As Happy as I am that the dojo has become rooted at Marble Dale Park, I would greatly love to have a second school (dojo) at the Plains of Tranquility, precisely because there are no homeland influences there. I hope people will leave that place free. Even if there is no dojo there, maybe it will become a place where sages teach their followers, and others pull up a soap box, stand on it, and start exhorting the crowds.

I wouldn't say it's a rip-off. You copied theme, person in the wind. BlackThorn did that, too. You've seen many people with their clothes whipping in the wind. Go easier onyoursef. Loose the boots, and you have the Calyx of Isis in one of her many moods and activities. I think she wears gossamer far more often than armor. Motion has always been important to me in images. Motion can come in many different ways. Sometimes through the impression of life. I recall walking into rooms with portraits by El Greco and Goya and stopping to apologize to those people only to realize I was talking to a painting.

Please check the initial posts from time to time. I do update them from time to time. There are edits to post #1 and a significant announcement in post #2. Dojo staffing is being formalized. I am looking for players willing to staff the dojo. This is hardly a full time commitment, but it does require you to visit on a regular basis and PM violators. I don't expect anyone to give up their game to be on staff.

@BlackThorn Your tree/mage in post 138 is spectacular. Wonderful Concept and execution. While I love you stuff and the avatar you made for me, so far this has to be my favorite on many levels. @Morrel Like your nasty bitch in post 140. She's not my style, but I do appreciate her. How very interesting to see one woman become another. We women manage it every day, but seeing it on the artist's easel is something else. Thank you for sharing that. @Glor Five new images for us!! (post 148) WoW! The execution is a bit uneven, but if anyone has totally captured the style of the original artwork of a year ago, it is you. All five fit so perfectly. My favorite is your tree in the wind, at least that's how I perceive it. Elsewhere I have a character named "Willow in the Wind," so it particularly appeals to me. The lady in waiting also deserves special mention. Very well done. If anyone is wondering what she's waiting for, it's to take off that damned corset!! <G> The sword of flame should appeal to some of the firestarters out there.

Thank you, Glai. I try to keep up. This is the only game in which I've wanted to stay current in the forum and remain this active. I take it you like my philosophical view point. You know, while I am still leery of of completely open attacks in both directions, there is something in your post that make me think maybe there is a point to upward attacks. For MP4's who can never find other MP4's, being able to attack MP5's might be a good thing. Making it possible to attack lower things is not something I would agree with. But upwards... maybe you guys have got a point there.

Hmmm... I've heard of this, but don't know the mechanics of setting up such a defense ritual. I think I have the stats and creatures, but not the knowledge.

LOL I have to agree one this. I can barely handle MP4's and would not care to take on an MP5 with a greater variety and levels of creatures. Age is essential in this game. MP5 have been playing for many months and have creatures that take two or even three months to reach certain levels. No MP3 will ever get close to those because of the XP limit, and I don't think they should. I hit Max XP at 64 wins and my other character at 34 wins and I whined in the forums as do so many. Then one wise, more experienced player asked me if I really was being punished for playing too well. I suddenly realized I was being punished for not having learned patience nor how to work the system. The issue is not how fast you can build up xp, but how much you, the player, are learning. The system attempts to enforce balance and it refuses to let you play as if it were a "hack and slash" game. The game is based on very deep philosophical ideas and Mur has tried to make us live by them. Not all of his ideas and formulas have been effective yet. However, please remember the game has not even reached beta test. It's still in Alpha because not only has it not been completed, but Mur has yet to see the whole thing in his mind. Mur hasn't said this to me, but watch the evolution for a month and study the structure of the game and you will see it. Like it or not the game is trying to teach all of us a different way of doing things. It calls for patience, balance, and cooperation! Of that last, there is far too little happening here. This is why I created the dojo and why Mur has supported me in the effort. I was ready to leave the game when I hit the XP wall. People encouraged me to stay and to learn the system better. I am very glad I did. It was VERY frustrating walking around collecting 66 wins and getting nothing from them (game-wise). I learned a lot as a person.

I've never been stuck at the press though I admit in the beginning I had no idea what to do with the VE except fight (what a waste). On the other hand, as Meiche say, I think quite a lot before I even wander over to a press. Then I examine the rewards for each one of my creatures and think some more. Choosing to sac or keep your creatures and doing it when you have 100 AP and the the recycle timer on 10:00 makes a biiiig difference. My problem is that as an MP3 my story choices gave me access to Fenths Wielder, but I lost that access with my MP4 choices. Only one press accessible right now.

I agree with you completely Gchick. It would make life a lot easier for all of the dojo staff, including me. However, until we have such a function, please see my post in The Way of the Dojo, also in response to this issue. In the instance of the dojo it is usually possible to track people down without leaving the dojo. However it's a pain and it does not solve the problem for people in story mode or in other circumstances.

Corrections for the topic starter. I know it's confusing for all you non-Americans. <G> By the way, where are the Chinese, "Russians" (I use it generically, I don't want to offend anyone), and Aussies?? They all have multiple time zones. What do they call them?

I would assume he means the east coast of the US. In the colonies (US and Canada) We have EST (Eastern Standard Time), Central, Mountain, and Pacific. There is a time zone to the east for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia which is called, I think, Maritime. Alaska has it's own time zone (I don't think there is any other land mass in that time zone other than a few assorted islands). I don't know the names of the time zones for Alaska and Hawaii. I do know how Alaska got it's name. It's a perfect example of a language where there are verbs and few nouns. Everything is an ongoing process. Alaska is a transcription of the Russian pronunciation of an Inuit word meaning (approximately), "That which the force of the ocean is directed against." Now isn't that a delightful bit of trivia! <G>

Most of these issue have been raised elsewhere in the forums and I'd be surprised if Chewett did not come and say the same. The issue is why does the ritual die when all the creatures die. The accepted answer be because none of your creatures remember it. When you resurrect your creatures, they still have their skills, but it's as if they had a stroke and forgot all the rituals they knew. Regardless, most of us would be confused if rituals simply disappeared. Many, including me, encode information about the creatures and what they do in the ritual name. It is a way of remembering the specifics of a ritual as there is (at present) no way lot look inside a ritual once it's been set. In addition, I use such a name to recreate the ritual should I need to do so.

This may very well be the reason why it has the most votes! LOL Personally, I've used "Bob" only because I didn't think anyone would know what I was talking about is I simply said "Sage." But as a real word apprentice to sages, I like "Sage the tree." I voted for it! I like the rap, but I am having difficulty with the rhythm in a few places.

What I and other staff members do in this instance is carefully examine the list of people in black and grey. Almost always the attacker can be found, his/her name clicked on, and a pm sent. There is a bug that names sometimes disappear and sometimes we just don't get the information before it's gone. As the dojo's creator and Mistress I am very persistent about tracking down violators. I can't see any change happening to the PM system, but there is a program I am writing for Mur that might eventually be able to help. Provided, of course, I can take enough time away from the dojo to actually focus on it. I confess, I've given the dojo the highest priority this past nine days. By the way, here is the message I usually send to offenders (unless I know otherwise I assume they are without knowledge of the doj0). You are free to use this or a similar message. I am working hard to get some sort of formal recognition of the dojo. I am pressing for an adventure log entry and a sign at each dojo location stating that the location is a dojo and listing our rules. I need to catch Mur or Shoeps at the right moment. Mur is so overworked, but has been and continues to be tremendously supportive of the dojo.

Amorte... My first thought on looking at this was... "God! I don't want to run into this in the dark! That's terrifying."

And a spell checker. I do Both professionally.

I like both. Wicked creature! I think Siala Lone Wolf might try to snap up your wolf when she come up on the market. Very nice.

I like the suggestion very much, especially since I maxed out two characters in MP3. One as 34 wins, the other at 66. After that it was like -- why keep playing? At last I accepted I had no choice but to walk around killing people with my extremely underdeveloped creatures. Now that I have said I like the suggestion... It is clear that Manu wanted to limit the amount of power a player can accumulate at any level. I see two reasons for this, (a) to limit the number of god-like players, and (B) to prod people to take the next step forward. The problem the the suggested solution is that it would remove any caps on development in a given level. The Player XP gets ignored except for MD Shop purchases and a few other things. At first glance the suggestion seems to permit what Manu was trying to prevent. Here's an alternative solution that might better serve both needs. Once player Max XP is reached the player stops accumulating XP. Creatures continue to accumulate wins so long a you are below the required number of fights. Creature XP is accumulated as a decreasing rate. For instance, the XP earned could be scaled by the ratio of the number of wins you still need to the number of wins required. In this scheme if you need 100 wins and already have 80 you will only net 20%, i.e. (100 - 80) / 100 , of the XP. It's still possible to exploit this at MP4 and above as one could simply deliberately fail to increment the win counter. Preventing this might be be possible by using the ratio of victories to the total number of battles fought. This will keep getting lower (and can be made to get small very fast) so that the amount of benefit drops as the number of battles goes up while the number of victories remains the same.

More thanks for the birthday wishes! @Gargant -- I like that, "walker of Words." Very nice.

I had no intention of putting them on the forum. It never occured to me and I agree with you about it being a spoiler. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who has thought of this. Very few of the ideas behind the dojo are mine. I've collected them from you and others and put it all together in one location. My suggestion is that: In the dojo when combat occurs the attacker should automatically copy the log and PM it to the defender. When both combatants agree the log could be shared with people present at the time of combat. This would be akin to students in a real world dojo watching other students spar under direction of the Master. Additionally, if you or some other lecturer were to demonstrate a ritual, then the log should be shared if appropriate students -- if they have sufficient experience and or creature levels. I hope this is an acceptable way to handle the problem of learning from the combats of others.

I am greatly looking forward to this, DST. Please PM me here or in game and we will work this out. Now I have to share this news with Mur! I think he will be as excited as I. I only wish it were possible for others to watch battles and learn from them. What I did today after a very close win was PM the battle log to those who are interested. At the moment it is the best we can do. Having done this, I now realize that we should routinely copy battle logs and PM them to the person who defended against us. This way both can grow from the experience and examine the interplay of rituals. Battle logs should be shared with others only with consent of the defender as she might not want to disclose her ritual. Every day of the dojo we seem to find ways to improve the experience.

What is this Bright Warlord, who summoned it and when and where? How come I've not heard of this? Did I miss it in the adventure log? In any case, I would like to understand about the events of which you speak.

Meiche has made me well aware of the difficulty of holding on to loyalty points. Some things just need to be bought as the moment you have the needed loyalty. As for being in an alliance, the pro's and con's are difficult for me to balance. At present I am quite pleased to be strongly attached to two alliances though a member of neither.

WoW! Now I am a mother! Way cool. Don't forget me next mother's day! <G> Thank you. We greatly appreciate your support. It's been on my mind for a while to ask if you would be a guest lecturer at the dojo from time to time. I've read your posts on rituals and greatly appreciate them and the experience they are founded upon. Let me know if you're interested in doing this and we'll find a way to publicize it and record the chat log. @Morgana le Fey -- I think you have a lot to teach at the dojo as well -- provided your other duties and adventuring don't soak up all your time. Actually, given my conversations with Mur in the week prior to establishing the dojo, I have good reason to believe he would truly like to see such active teaching going on. There is history on this and a dissatisfaction with a prior attempt to get such teaching started.

Hey doll, keep this up and I'll have to get out my ropes and whips and fight you for bottom! I don't see you in the way your portray yourself, so please stop. Ok, I know you're joking, at least a bit, but still I cannot imagine you a cow in a paddock. Well, you're right in a way. I began to get bored with the unchanging scenery by the third day, and getting to MP4 and finding I could access less than I could as an MP3 was truly disappointing. Yes, I would like to see new stuff being added, but this game requires patience. On the other hand... I have a vast interior space in my head that is far richer and is inhabited by wonderful and interesting people -- including fascinating you -- and that's where I play. I've come to realize that Manu watches everything and farms our chats, actions, and posts for ideas that flesh out his vague framework, and lots of things get in this game that did not originate with him. The game is in Alpha test, not even beta test. While I really want to see more, faster, I am content that we are all cocreators of the game. Most of the time I just want to travel, do my stuff, and follow my own path, just like you. But every once in a while I find I need to exert myself a little to change the scenery for others, as well as myself. It's just the way I'm built and we are each unique and deal with the tedium differently.