Burns

that was no ghost, though that a mistake anyone could make... That figure was the now banished Wodin Ullr, one of the earliest tries to make story come to life He was a leader of the shade war, and as MD-Char, his place was the road of battles so newbies would notice him and get integrated with the story right away. Thing is, Woody left, and Mur wanted the character to stay, played by somebody else who already had another character, which was an epic failure, the people who tried had not enough time to play two characters efficiently, and those who had time én masse were not suitable for filling his spot... But that's not the time to talk about old stories... Long story short, Woody was not there for you to train on, he was set to have stats and creatures that made him totally superior to any bypasser and dealt pretty high skill-damage to the morons who tried to hit him

As promised, the last paragraph: Suddenly inspiration strikes, and you summon a set of 6 very special creatures. But there is no fierce battle to be watched, no, your creatures don't even move, and yet, they win against the stupid angiens. As the last of them falls, beaten by its own weapons, you start raiding their pockets, and soon find a big iron key, which seems to be going quite well with the cage of Princess Apricot. And after all, you're already there, and four hands carry more gold than two, so you decide to get her out of that cage and pack her with golds, gems and all the other nice things you find. You bring her back to the plumber-empire all safe, but a little bruised from carrying all that gold of yours, and of course the toads are more than happy to get her back and offer you to get the new king. In a big ceremony, you receive the great mustache of power, the bright red cap of wisdom, and all the gold you'll ever want, after which a big party starts, where the wine flows freely, the girls go easy, and the boys flash incredible 6-packs. And they lived happily ever after... well, not forever, since at the following morning, the villagers from the drachorn-mountain overrun the hangovered armies and rot out the whole empire together with its history for slaying their gods. Scoreboard: Short explanation, the three number at the start of the lines are the scores from the three story-parts, negative points are the bad ones which get added, the postive points are the reductions (yap, that's my logic XD) Congrats to the winners, it was a very narrow game^^ dst 8+5+4, drachorns 1, demons 3, angiens -1 = 14 Clock Master 7+8+4, drachorns 1, demons 3, angiens 1 = 14 MRV 8+5+10, drachorns 2, demons 3, angiens 2 = 16 sasha lilias 5+5+7, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens 0 = 17 no one 8+8+4, drachorns 1, demons 2, angiens -1 = 18 ZeratulEx 7+5+7, drachorns 0, demons 1, angiens 0 = 18 Shadowseeker 14+6+7, drachorns 3, demons 3, angiens 1 = 20 Indyra 7+5+7, drachorns 0, demons 1, angiens -2 = 20 Czez 11+5+4, drachorns 0, demons 2, angiens -2 = 20 Freezeblink 9+5+4, drachorns 0, demons -2, angiens -1 = 21 ladytwin 9+5+4, drachorns 0, demons -2, angiens -2 = 22 Jester 7+8+11, drachorns 1, demons 3, angiens 0 = 22 unknown entity 13+5+4, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens 0 = 22 Ledah 8+5+7, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens -2 = 22 Leixer 8+10+4, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens -1 = 23 Princ Rhaegar 10+5+7, drachorns 0, demons 1, angiens -2 = 23 getschi 11+5+9, drachorns 1, demons 2, angiens -1 = 23 Phantom Orchid 14+5+4, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens 0 = 23 Shantu 14+6+7, drachorns 1, demons 2, angiens 0 = 24 Assurancetourix 11+5+6, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens -2 = 24 Mithrandil 8+5+7, drachorns -2, demons 0, angiens -2 = 24 apophys 11+5+9, drachorns 0, demons 2, angiens -2 = 25 blackwoodforest 11+7+7, drachorns 1, demons 0, angiens -2 = 26 mighty pirate 12+7+10, drachorns 1, demons 1, angiens 0 = 27 Nimrodel 12+5+9, drachorns 0, demons -1, angiens 0 = 27 MattyJames 11+5+7, drachorns 0, demons -2, angiens -2 = 27 Pipstickz 11+5+10, drachorns 2, demons -1, angiens -2 = 27 Manda 12+5+4, drachorns -2, demons -2, angiens -2 = 27 Totenkopf 12+5+9, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens -2 = 28 Cutler 13+5+10, drachorns 0, demons 0, angiens 0 = 28 imagine breaker 8+7+9, drachorns -2, demons -2, angiens -2 = 30 Skie Anderson 8+8+10, drachorns -2, demons -2, angiens 0 = 30 Eagle Eye 10+10+7, drachorns -2 demons 0, angiens -2 = 31 Dmik King 12+10+11, drachorns 0, demons 0 angiens 0 = 33 Grido 8+7+9, drachorns 0, demons 0, Famfrit Flamel 11+5+, drachorns -2, Miq 7+7+, drachorns 0 Deaths Verdict 12+5, drachorns 0 kiss my anthia 8+5+12, drachorns 0, demons 0 charliedave 8+5+, drachorns 0, demons 0 And from this moment onwards, the 'I wanna play again!!'-buttons are enabled and all requirements undone, you may freely browse through the storyline now^^ Thanks to Tara for awarding WP for me, i'd hate to not get prices to their rightful owners just because i can't xD PS: _I_ loved that quest =)))

Can we do comments with more than one line? If, how so? I just tried to make a clickie do something very tiny, without deleting the biggish codeworks already on it which i don't need currently, so i got meslef my php-manual, which told me to do big comment-blocks (to stop the unwanted codeworks from being executed) by using /*, which is unfortunately restricted language in MDS... Is there another command for MDS? Or do will i just have to comment each line seperately with // and hope nothing breaks? >.<

I'll go and use that opportunity to be first responder to brainstorm a bit, preferably with controversial stuff... Why do i feel the urge to tell you that? So you know right from the start that you'll get to see a lot of things you won't like =P So, why do people leave... I think a big part of people leaving is becasue of low population, really, when there's nobody left to play with, prey on, and do something for, what is my purpose of being there? Being Omega is fun for some time, but not very long... Since people tend to form tight little groups, and don't get to play with too many others, they actually feel that nobody is left when two or three if their group stop to log on regularly, and come around more scarcely, too, which vicious cycles to death. Now, that wouldn't explain why someone starts leaving i the first place, though... For that, i find several things to blame: -SG&GGG (who'd have guessed?) Fighting IS a major part of MD, no matter how you look at it, it's the most developed, most predictable, and probably most interesting part, at least for some. This doesn't contain just fighting in itself, but also crit-development and stats. Controlled Mass Training leads the system completely ad absurdum, anybody can get any creature, anybody can get any stats they wish, and nobody works for it, so people are not really interested in fighting after pretty short time, the interesting crits take too long, and the less interesting are just public anyways, even on mp3. -RPCs I think that abolishing RPCs was not such a smart move after all. Sure, at first i loved it, i could get abilities much easier that way, and knew that they were even kind of unique now, and had a feeling that not many people could get more than me in the new, just system, that rewards a sharp mind and dedication. Unfortunately, just that turned out to be true, the system is so very just that nobody CAN get more than the top few, and if you are fast, quickwitted, and probably pretty good at English, you simply solve more quests, find more stuff and win more contests than others. Who could compete with Shadow on speed? Who could get a better grasp on mechanics than No one and dst? Who could write harder quests than the Bunny? In a just system, newbies (whenever saying newbie in this post, i mean anybody under 100-150 active days) are nothing, they don't have the skills and tools, they don't have the right connections, and they are highly unlikely to make the right friends. Probably the unjustice of giving abilities to people who do a lot of chatting and trying weird new things was better than the justice of giving them to those who earn them through work, if only for the sake of giving newbies a goal to work with, 'Get a good role and you WILL get better things than dst and Shadow, even when you never catch up with their stats and WPs' -story Since AL stopped, and probably even before that, there is no _big_ story for this world, if you get my point. A newbie coming to MD doesn't know where to turn. Where's the right and wrong side? Where are the leaders? Who can help me choose? I had the luck of being born into the Shade War, when we had clearly defined sides, good, evil, neutral (without going into who was good and bad, that still confuses me), each with two-three leaders, pretty nice guys really, one of them palying a bit dark, one of them claiming to be right on all matters, and one... setting a quest instead of talking, mostly, but still, she existed. Nowadays, i'd find it much harder to pick a side, and a side to stand on makes life a lot easier at first... A clearly defined set of friends and foes gives you an opportunity to start working on something, make friends and foes, create your role... blabla, the things that make you stay and play imo. Enough for one post... Solutions to each go without saying

If you want a challenge, try and raise angiens without using SG and GGG, that's a lot more interesting ^^ And i'm pretty sure it's not about hating you, but hating GGG and aging MP3 in general... You just happened to be idle, not a very smart thing to do unless you don't mind the possible consequences

i think you are supposed to have exactly as many spikes pointing to an edge as the number in that corner implies... eg, when a 4 is in a circle, 4 spikes have to point towards it, when a 1 is in it, you should get 1 spike pointing to it and 3 others not touching it

that's just creature xp, it doesn't affect the kind of xp that make you hit cap... And yeah, wait til story is over, then advance ^^

4+, and not on mp3 lol, those are answers to both questions, as in lvl 4+ for crits, and no xp-losing in battle on mp3 saccing wouldn't pay for you probably, you want to have a bunch of creatures with a bit of age and a higher level, not just one or two and those are things that are in the announcements, that's why we tell them freely, Laz... LOL If he was asking for secrets, there wouldn't be any answers on the thread

happy b-day, Johnny (?)! =))

I don't even think that they'll be located on Golemus, at least not all, and probably a better title could have been 'Quests _from_ Golemus' I hope we'll develop some good ideas for you to have fun =))

you call that effective? what if i told you that a week is more than enough time to toy with it, find a trustworthy friend, trade it back and forth and have regenerated 7 days? and that a 30 minutes timer, even with popup and whatnot, implies that the quest-setter has to be online all day long at least every 20 minutes, lest he wants his quest-reward to be for nothing? Not all quest-creators work together, you know... There is absolutely nothing to be gained with a timer, it's either too short to work in a normal setting, or long enough to open the gates to all kinds of abuses... D'you think a timer of ten hours would stop me from holding to an item as long as i wish? Or do you think anybody would waste a second thought about an item that vanishes after an hour? No matter how you try to do it, timers are so very easily abused that it almost hurts... the only realistic option for MD, which exactly doesn't require permanent activity, is to have the items return after being used up, just liek Mur made it... You can try all kinds of weird stuff, like not allowing them to grab the item again for as long as they held it or disabling their ability to take more useable items when they already have two or three, but that won't stop anybody from holding to them with alts, either LOL

and again, only those who play 24/7 can do nice things with them? almsot all interesting things are randomly distributed amongst online players already, and i don't mind that, but if temporary items were given to people with a timer, that would destroy the point for the people who log in regularly, but not for long at a time... how are they supposed to do something good with an item that vanishes while they are asleep/at work/in RL?

It's a lie! It's got to be a lie!

I just got an 'you are not allowed to have this doc, illegal action reported'-message when i tried to save my q-doc after the editing session expired at 23:00 i know, a different problem, but fits with that topic imo^^

Not everything, Fenrir... Chewie deals with what moderators do in their moderator-positions for 'anything anybody says', you have a variety of moderators on the forum, and LH-slaves in game, and in case you have a problem with one of us, there's always Grido to talk to... so i think there's not a lot of things people could say that goes to Chewie, really :/

hmm... being nice is not my strenght -.- but to give it a try, i think Yrth does a pretty good job as king of golemus, even when we don't agree all the time, he's still a nice guy and generous king Granos, a rude and evil person, but still funny and interesting and doing anything he can to keep MD moving Grido and Chewie, you do great admin-jobs and are generally open-minded and nice And all my members, you are great, guys and gals =))

[quote]dst Don\'t bother praising this character: she is an alt.[/quote] too lazy to do a fancy print-screen... and not entirely sure which side is right, though i do think Nicola's entry is by far more offensive LOL dst's was there earlier afaik... and i saw nicola's in the recent PL-changes a few hours ago, so i'm pretty sure

Ah, finally a good outline! I'd like it better if all profits went into quests, but that's just me... Anyways, I think it would massively overflow the quest-market to do all those coin-quests in a week, since there'll probably be 300 or more coins involved in the end, so you might want to get those quests running within two months or such, not all at once

New Experiment: The 'Other' Race This race is not about real time, finding stuff, or talking to people, which all seem unfair in my opinion... Instead, this is a race of finding the easiest (not shortest) way through the obstacles on the way i set up There are 3 WP up for grab, the three persons with the lowest number of overall points get one each. You gather points on the way, the script will tell me about those, and can lose points in all of the three (combat-related) tasks. To start, enter the password 'Apricot' in the left step of GoE. Quest ends when 3 people found the perfect way (highly unlikely), or when i think that all people who bothered already tried (about day 55-60). Good Luck in reading my mind ) This is an experiment in the style of those old 'create your own adventure'-adventures. 41 paragraphs exist, which you can't see in one go, though Once the rewards are gone, i'll undo some keys so you can read it freely, until then, just one account per player, please, you won't want me to find out that you used more... seriously XD I hope you enjoy my story

row 4, column 48... exactly where your right thumb lands when you take a look at the shiny bubble wrap, nobody resist that XD lovely contest xD

uhm... i'm not sure if i understand your problem, but i guess you think that all ways you can go are marked with arrows to click... that's not the case, the alley between the trees is the way to go on^^

I don't really see that happening, though... At least if you leave honor-alts out of consideration, that is What I'd see that way would rather be like that: Most people want balance, and people who are pretty strong can make it. When they are there, they try to avoid vics and losses and probably set defences with tokens and stuff and be generally unbeatable, which doesn't change much for the 5-newbies, they can't beat people now, they won't do it in future. However, that strong bunch gets into honor issues when they fight against(=kick rears of) people who are weaker and less balanced than them, so newbies would be grinded through our wheels until they are 300-400 losses off balance, and then we just don't want to afford the honor loss for those wins anymore, which basically protects them from veterans. Right now i see really strong people attacking just about anything, the honor they lose for beating up weak people can easily be regained by beating up a few more balanced people, so there'd be a whole lot of change for the weaker players, namely a division of the mp5-society into the good fighters at and around balance and the weak fighters (either because of actual weakness or lacking age on crits) around 400-500 losses. Both would be pretty much unable to attack each other, out of different considerations, and some time the weaker people might get their age and knowledge, probably by losing against evil defences of the balanced people on purpose just like we learned it and advance, getting them into a stage where they still can attack their old enemies and gradually get incomings from the balanced guys, and little by little getting from weak to strong. So, no, i don't think that there'd be less activity, but probably even more activity when the real bottoms of mp5 don't get into skill damage because there is nobody who can afford to push them there. And yes, i took the allies into consideration, but honestly don't think that there'll be much of a problem with that, if they get too low, they get out of ally and train back up... and if they are too lazy for that, why, then i don't see much reason for them to be in any ally, those are still kind of elite-ish, not just for anybody who likes it... btw, this post is not really related to the ideas, it's just my personal view on why mur made a balance and honor system that we managed to screw up because balance is not cool enough XD PS: MAKE BALANCE ATTRACTIVE! *points to token-idea*

no matter how random your rits are, people can farm off them with ease... unless the attacks are like... 12 freezes and stats beyond any reason and such LOL When you get attacked by NPCs, it's just farming without working from some strenght onwards, and insanely annoying for anybody who gets their butts kicked by the NPCs And we have a few gathering points already, we call them Golden Globe Gazebo, Marble Dale Park and Gazebo of Equilibrium, people you don't find there are either uninterested in fighting at all or have some other training methods they wouldn't want to share anyways xD So... no, completely against it.

Chewie [quote name='Burns' date='03 February 2010 - 09:56 PM' timestamp='1265230603' post='53783'] >Perfect balance against off-balance: tokens of perfect balance work with full power (50% normal plus 50% balance bonus [-the part they lose for being attacker in case]), tokens of off-balance work with 0% power (50%-50%) [/quote] Yeah, whoever is too unbalanced gets absolutely no token-power against someone who is perfectly balanced. Shadow: Definitely a good idea, i think we already had that some time... But it's probably better to work on one thing at a time, extension of balance would be the next step if things failed with the current system On the other hand it might simply be part of the challenge to get a victory when you need it, and a not-victory when you don't need them... I've been in balance for a few weeks now and toyed with it, as long as i have balance, i can pick and choose whom i want to attack and whom not, once i'm out of it i need to get back without choosing, which often means burning 300-600 hard earned honor in a few seconds, and i consider that just another part of the balance challenge.

new input to get my reputation lowered: Both balance and tokens screw our combats, and not just a bit imo. Balance is not attractive, and tokens overpowered. So, i suggest to combine them to probably solve both. In my head, it'd make sense in that way: All tokens are set to work with just 50% of their power by default. By being in balance you can improve your tokens to get full power, steps to and from balance working just like the bonus reward. e.g. perfect balance makes +50% on token power, summing up to full present power, 1 battle away from perfection makes +47,5%, etc. As added bonus, you lower the opponent's token power by up to 50% by being balanced. Same system as above, -50%, -47,5%... Figures base on present full power, which is assumed to stay the same and the base for all %-calculations. Example of how things work together: >Perfect balance against off-balance: tokens of perfect balance work with full power (50% normal plus 50% balance bonus [-the part they lose for being attacker in case]), tokens of off-balance work with 0% power (50%-50%) >off-balance vs. off balance: both sides have 50%, no boni for nobody >balanced vs. balanced: both sides work on 50%, each gets 50%+50%-50% (normal plus bonus minus opponents bonus) >perfect balance vs. 10 battles off: perfect has 50%+50%-25%=75%, 10 off has 50%+25%-50%=25% token power Sounds evil, doesn't it? I like that... Why that way? Because for any normal player, it doesn't make much of a difference if their tokens give them full bonus or half, the difference is not _that_ much, and they still could pick if balance pays or not for them personally. But if people want to play in the highest class with their fully tokened crit-boost rits, they have to play balanced, and therefore leave the newbies alone when they can't afford the honor-loss anymore. And if they don't get balanced, well, then anybody who is can make their tokens practically disappear for their fights. This is not nice, and a lot of people will hate it, but if one of my weird ideas still makes sense after i read what i wrote, it's definitely worth being posted xD