[18:39] <Allerion> Pssst :)

[18:41] <Allerion> Can I get an interview out of you for the site? :)))

[18:42] <Myth> sure

[18:43] <Myth> lemme

[18:43] <Myth> finish raiding baishi

[18:43] <Myth> ;)

[18:43] <Allerion> lol ok :)

[18:45] <Allerion> ok, want to start off with a quick description of your template, and your current level? :)

[18:45] <Myth> ok

[18:46] <Myth> Myth is level 109 right now, 65m to 110, about halfway there ;)

[18:46] <Myth> She started with spec Lifemagic, trained creature/war/conversion

[18:46] <Myth> 45 str, 10 end, 10 coord, 65 quickness, 100 focus/self

[18:47] <Myth> picked up lore, item, leadership, healing, lockpick

[18:47] <Myth> in that order

[18:47] <Allerion> What do you think of mages overall in PVM?

[18:47] <Allerion> compared to bow or melee

[18:48] <Myth> Well I have to say that even considering the problems with mages right now.

[18:48] <Myth> I think I would still roll a mage as my main character over other character types

[18:48] <Allerion> Why? :)

[18:48] <Myth> because I enjoy verstality

[18:48] <Allerion> ahh

[18:49] <Allerion> to avoid the mind-numbing boredom of melee?

[18:49] <Myth> and melee is kind of inherently limited from hunting in a LOT of areas

[18:49] <Myth> because they can't cope with life/war magic

[18:49] <Myth> and because of sticky,

[18:49] <Myth> and because some monsters have a lot of natural armor

[18:49] <Myth> or shields

[18:49] <Myth> War/Life magic is kinda nice

[18:50] <Allerion> when they work.

[18:50] <Allerion> Which I suppose isn't so much a problem at level 109

[18:50] <Myth> drain 1 gives you a very solid consistent amount of dmg, and landing a war6 spell is guaranteed to do 100ish dmg

[18:50] <Myth> but yeah

[18:50] <Myth> Keep in mind that I'm a level 109 mage

[18:50] <Myth> and that my main character would be intended to lvl that high

[18:50] <Myth> and that mages are a real struggle to get to the point where they're mature like that

[18:51] <Myth> They have to deal with problems like getting resisted by everything, having their primary skills inepted, etc

[18:50] <Allerion> What is the strongest PVM template in your opinion?

[18:51] <Myth> Right now if I wanted to powerlevel up as fast as possible and not worry about PvP forever

[18:52] <Myth> I'd probably be a dagger fighter with a heavy emphasis on magic :)

[18:52] <Myth> maybe include bow in the template

[18:52] <Allerion> that obsidian dagger is nice, isn't it?

[18:52] <Myth> grin :)

[18:52] <Allerion> the damage is insane, even at low levels

[18:52] <Myth> so are the triple-strike hilts

[18:53] <Myth> Dagger characters are insanely easy to twink

[18:53] <Allerion> yep, all melees really.

[18:53] <Allerion> almost impossible for them to die

[18:53] <Myth> yeah but dagger especially

[18:53] <Myth> because it does so much damage from the beginning

[18:53] <Myth> raising coordination doesn't really affect their damage very substantially

[18:54] <Allerion> We theorized that they used the bow formula for damage mods on dagger

[18:54] <Myth> what matters with dagger is mostly what weapon you have and how high level item magic you cast on it

[18:54] <Allerion> explaining why the damage goes up so slowly

[18:54] <Allerion> yes, same with bow.

[18:54] <Myth> so a level 1 dagger user with level 6 spells on it

[18:54] <Myth> yeah, similar to bow

[18:54] <Myth> takes kills from level 45+ characters from other schools

[18:54] <Myth> when I'm twinking him

[18:54] <Allerion> lol

[18:54] <Myth> because he double-strikes etc ;)

[18:55] <Allerion> what would you recommend for a PVP template?

[18:55] <Myth> hmmm

[18:56] <Myth> I don't particularly like characters designed "specifically" for PvP

[18:56] <Myth> I personally for PvP rolled a spec life/magic D mage

[18:56] <Myth> I trained item and conversion and lore

[18:57] <Myth> and I'll pickup creature at 9, war at 60, and healing at 90

[18:57] <Myth> 100 str/focus self, sho...that's my darktide character

[18:57] <Allerion> that's a very nice theoretical character, mine is only 31 still. :)

[18:57] <Allerion> they take a lot of work to complete

[18:57] <Myth> grin, my levelling plan is mostly to let my friends level him up to 45

[18:57] <Myth> via allegiance exp

[18:57] <Myth> then to macro him in a private spot I've found

[18:58] <Myth> *sinister smile*

[18:58] <Allerion> break it out at 90 and go say hi to Darktide? :)

[18:58] <Myth> yup yup

[18:58] <Allerion> Do you have opinions on runcasting and if Turbine should nerf it?

[19:01] <Myth> A few guidelines for PvP characters would be to make them as versatile as possible

[19:02] <Myth> on darktide a competent high level mage almost never dies

[19:02] <Myth> but he can't really kill anyone who doesn't want to be killed either

[19:02] <Allerion> and being competent means runcasting right?

[19:02] <Myth> Involves alot of things, but that's defenitely one of them :)

[19:03] <Myth> My favorite pvp experience on dt actually

[19:03] <Myth> is playing a gimp level 80 melee named Yukon Jack

[19:03] <Myth> who is level 80 and spec uac/melee

[19:03] <Myth> and has no lifemagic

[19:03] <Myth> spec item too

[19:04] <Myth> he just casts 5 buffs and slaps on some jewlery and run around with extra crispy hacking at everyone with his ua weapons, usually hollow katar

[19:04] <Allerion> and this is enough to kill every incompetent person you meet?

[19:04] <Myth> well he hangs around with high level mages

[19:05] <Myth> pvp on darktide is all group stuff

[19:05] <Myth> and it's actually alot of fun to be a gimp

[19:05] <Myth> because the 100 str/coord/quickness uac people with 250 str are the ones getting all the kills

[19:05] <Allerion> Yes, Nerf's last main was a gimp. :)

[19:05] <Allerion> and he has a lot of good things to say about being a gimp in the company of mages. :)

[19:06] <Allerion> and I agree. Any fun character should be able to solo, even if you usually play in groups.

[19:05] <Myth> but personally I wouldn't roll a gimp because I'm into soloing

[19:06] <Myth> My main character has to be able to solo any monster in the game and be able to lockpick anything, and be good at solo PvP'ing

[19:06] <Allerion> Sometimes nobody else is around, and it is best to be self-sufficient rather than standing around towns begging for buffs lol.

[19:06] <Myth> so gimps aren't really an option for me as my main, although they are alot of fun to play if you have the right mages around :)

[19:06] <Myth> yeah

[19:07] <Myth> being limited like that really sucks

[19:07] <Allerion> I agree completely.

[19:07] <Myth> which is why my main would always have to have a heavy emphasis on magic

[19:07] <Myth> ok

[19:07] <Myth> I wish there was another way (referring to runcasting)

[19:08] <Myth> to get warmagic spells to land

[19:08] <Myth> but balance problems have really mucked up that issue

[19:08] <Myth> especially with the addition of level 7 spells, lol

[19:09] <Allerion> yes, and all non-mages feel it is unfair and keep using that stupid "Godmode" phrase for runcasting. hehe

[19:09] <Myth> i don't like the fact that people cannot be sticky-meleed while they are runcasting

[19:09] <Allerion> I suppose they figure with that name Turbine will think it is more powerful than it is.

[19:10] <Myth> before level 7 spells came out

[19:10] <Myth> I'd generally argue that they should

[19:10] <Myth> do something to fix warmagic pathing

[19:10] <Myth> something like

[19:10] <Myth> make scarab/talisman motions take less time as mages raise their quickness skill

[19:11] <Myth> and make warmagic travel faster as mages raise their warmagic skill

[19:11] <Myth> just fix the pathing issues somehow, right now, a mage says some Zojak Words, and anyone knows its coming far before the projectile is launched

[19:11] <Allerion> I'm a long-term fan of quickness effecting spellcasting speed.

[19:12] <Myth> giving them plenty of opportunity to step to the side a few inches and watch the bolt sail off in the opposite direction

[19:12] <Myth> Warmagic doesn't even really hit monsters very well

[19:12] <Allerion> I agree

[19:12] <Allerion> the pathing is just terrible

[19:12] <Myth> you get one shot

[19:12] <Myth> I one-shotted myself today

[19:12] <Myth> with a level 7 bolt

[19:12] * Myth grins

[19:12] <Allerion> I have a great screenshot of me casting a frost VI and the bolt travelling at 1 foot per minute straight up

[19:13] <Allerion> shot at a malus shreth at point blank range

[19:13] <Myth> I think it would be weird if warmagic started landing all the time though

[19:13] <Allerion> I wasn't aware you could hit yourself with your own war.

[19:13] <Myth> because we're talking about 150ish damage no matter how well protected you are

[19:13] <Myth> after a vuln

[19:13] <Myth> which is not really possible to counter

[19:14] <Allerion> yes, in PVP

[19:14] <Allerion> Did you want to share your views on macroing? :)

[19:15] <Myth> macroing, grin

[19:15] <Allerion> Nerf did a nice piece on it. :)

[19:15] <Myth> A long time ago

[19:15] <Myth> the level of your character used to be kind of an indication of how much experience you had playing this game

[19:15] <Myth> not so much in retail

[19:15] <Myth> especially in beta though

[19:16] <Myth> you could walk up to a high level person and he could answer alot of your questions for you if you could get the time of day from him

[19:16] <Myth> AC has changed alot though

[19:16] <Myth> There are so many ridiculously easy ways to gain massive amounts of experience

[19:17] <Myth> without really doing anything that involves any active thought process

[19:17] <Allerion> Yes, we built a level 45 from character creation in less than 12 hours.

[19:17] <Myth> I wish that people had to

[19:17] <Myth> get out on the obsidian plains

[19:17] <Myth> dodge war magic

[19:17] <Myth> fellow together in groups

[19:17] <Myth> and level that way

[19:17] <Allerion> level the way we used to before BSD and OHN? :)

[19:18] <Myth> yeah

[19:18] <Allerion> I agree that BSD took a lot away from the older high level players as far as distinction

[19:18] <Myth> I think macroing is just the latest evolution in this process and exp just seems to be getting easier and easier to accumulate

[19:19] <Myth> and macroing is like the ultimate in thoughtless, painless levelling

[19:19] <Allerion> so you agree that level is no longer a benchmark of player skill?

[19:20] <Myth> for all practical purposes, yes

[19:20] <Myth> Wintersebb is going to have quite a few people hitting level 100

[19:20] <Allerion> Should player skill be measured by the number of palliums they have muled? Or through PVP? hehe

[19:20] * Myth grins

[19:20] <Myth> that's a tough one

[19:21] <Allerion> Yes, I don't know the answer to that question. That's why I'm asking. :)

[19:21] <Myth> I would say that a skilled player can figure things out on his own.

[19:21] <Myth> Is not dependant upon other people.

[19:21] <Myth> And is just good at what he does ;)

[19:21] <Allerion> yes, a good player pulls levers to see what happens instead of messaging 20 people asking what levers open what doors etc. :)

[19:22] <Myth> yeah

[19:22] <Myth> and a good player doesn't sit around in town begging for help etc

[19:22] <Allerion> definately :)

[19:22] <Allerion> What is the biggest issue you have in Asheron's Call these days?

[19:23] <Myth> hmmm

[19:23] <Myth> give me a little bit to think about that one

[19:26] <Myth> there's ridiculous little things like 2" dirks doing more damage than 50 pound axes cleaving through tusker flesh

[19:26] <Myth> but

[19:26] <Myth> Balance is kinda something that I recognize will just never be where it is supposed to be

[19:26] <Myth> It's not the big issue for me

[19:26] <Myth> I think ac would be alot more interesting and better

[19:27] <Myth> if players had more opportunity to roleplay more

[19:27] <Myth> like

[19:27] <Myth> I've been frustrated over the last few months

[19:27] <Myth> as developers have kinda written the storyline

[19:28] <Myth> and just sort of expected the isparians to play their designated role

[19:28] <Allerion> ahh, the Thistledown event! I can't let you go without asking about that. :)

[19:28] <Allerion> go on :)

[19:28] <Myth> i.e. we were supposed to release Bael'Zharon, then we were supposed to kill him.

[19:28] <Myth> They like to choose our enemies for us

[19:28] <Myth> and kinda give us a script and expect us to carry it out

[19:28] <Myth> and there are these inevitable outcomes

[19:29] <Myth> and this idea that if we don't do what we're intended to do, then at the end of the month there's going to be some admins in godmode doing it for us

[19:29] <Myth> I'd like there to be ways for players to choose which actions to perform depending upon their philosophies and alignment

[19:30] <Allerion> that is tough to work in without servers diverging

[19:30] <Myth> if i have a character that I like to rp chaotic evil with, I'd like there to be something challenging and exciting for me to do

[19:30] <Allerion> AO promises it, but I have a feeling they are just going to use a modern implementation of the old "choose your own adventure" books

[19:30] <Myth> "Choose your own adventure" events would be great

[19:31] <Myth> I wouldn't ask turbine to go so far as to effect server divergence

[19:31] <Myth> but well...they dedicate a LOT of their efforts towards balancing the classes against eachother, trying to fix broken skills...

[19:32] <Myth> and overall I don't see alot of progress in the right direction despite all the efforts they exert

[19:32] <Myth> it's sort of a "two steps foreward....three steps back" type of thing.

[19:32] <Allerion> I tend to agree

[19:32] <Myth> I wish they'd exert more effort towards making the monthly events more interesting

[19:32] <Allerion> I was happier with PVM balance at day 1 of retail than I am now.

[19:32] <Myth> me too

[19:33] <Allerion> PVP had obvious issues though.

[19:33] <Myth> this is true too

[19:33] <Myth> but I would rather PvP have been broken than them hack it and implement stuff like hollows

[19:33] <Myth> but that's just me ;0

[19:33] <Allerion> same

[19:33] <Allerion> or they could have addressed the whole problem

[19:33] <Allerion> which was players being able to achieve godly AL levels

[19:34] <Allerion> hollows were like avoiding the actual problem

[19:34] <Myth> yeah, agreed

[19:34] <Myth> I do alot of player-run rp events

[19:34] <Myth> and in my events, I kinda have an intended outcome

[19:34] <Myth> but the way I achieve my goals is by working behind the scenes, pulling strings

[19:34] <Myth> soliciting help for the side that needs to have the upper hand

[19:34] <Myth> etc etc

[19:35] <Allerion> there were a lot of RP efforts on Frostfell in the early days

[19:35] <Myth> Developers wouldn't have to cause server dievergence

[19:35] <Myth> to effect a more dynamic storyline

[19:36] <Myth> yeah there were; I watched kynn and gargamel and Jin Lee and their PvP roleplaying stuff, it was really interesting and cool

[19:36] <Allerion> but eventually they all gave up

[19:36] <Myth> AC would be alot more fun if players got more involved like that

[19:36] <Allerion> like the "Abduction of the Sage" event

[19:36] <Allerion> 20 pkers came to protect the sage...

[19:36] <Allerion> after 5 minutes they got bored and started killing each other etc

[19:36] <Allerion> by the time the sage abduction happened, there were 3 defenders

[19:36] <Allerion> and 500 white dots

[19:37] <Myth> it takes leaders

[19:37] <Myth> and cooperative people

[19:37] <Myth> to make these sort of things work

[19:37] <Myth> and even then, it's difficult

[19:37] <Myth> but turbine could sponsor this kind of stuff

[19:37] <Myth> they already do, to a limited extent

[19:37] <Allerion> yes, and it takes a lot of work

[19:37] <Allerion> and the planners and people that put the work in often get flamed

[19:37] <Allerion> like the Frostfell Fight Nights

[19:37] <Myth> They recruit dark masters

[19:37] <Myth> and Asheron talks to people

[19:38] <Allerion> this recent event was the best so far (December's)

[19:38] <Allerion> as far as breathing some life into BZ and Asheron

[19:38] <Myth> The event was exciting

[19:39] <Allerion> and it widely effected people

[19:39] <Myth> but it isn't something that is easily reproduced

[19:39] <Myth> what happened is

[19:39] <Allerion> far more people got to talk to or get killed by BZ than usually get to participate in world-altering events

[19:39] <Myth> We saw the opportunity there to generate a really neat rp event

[19:40] <Myth> turbine was kinda playing "pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey" and they scored and provided us with some really magnificent potential

[19:40] <Myth> but the only reason it worked on our server, and that people grasped that and took advantage of the opportunity and used it to roleplay

[19:40] <Myth> is because there were alot of high level influential people working behind the scenes

[19:40] <Myth> to make it happen

[19:41] <Myth> and I'd really like to see turbine encourage it more

[19:41] <Myth> and work behind the scenes to foster that kind of spirit

[19:42] <Allerion> Tell your version of the Thistledown Shard defense story, and the issues it raised?

[19:42] <Myth> alot of us felt like they took it away from us

[19:43] <Myth> There were several criticisms we had of their courses of action

[19:43] <Myth> ok where to start...

[19:43] <Allerion> I know it sucked, but their only other solution was to have the shard die to shadows during the patch

[19:44] <Myth> well

[19:44] <Allerion> ie, like the war with the shadows in Cragstone, Arwic and Uziz. They were terrible because we missed the coolest thing that happened in a month.

[19:44] <Myth> They didn't really design the dungeon to allow us roleplayers to do what we did

[19:44] <Myth> we had to use portal exploits to actually setup a workable defense of the dungeon

[19:44] <Myth> the summon-to-logoff bug

[19:45] <Myth> It would've been nice if they had designed the dungeon in such a manner so that it could be defended

[19:45] <Allerion> yes, and accidentally caused that bug to be fixed by bringing attention to what could be done with it. :)

[19:45] <Myth> it also would've been nice if they had helped us with the npk bug

[19:45] <Myth> grin, yeah, alot of people didn't appreciate that; they liked that bug alot ;)

[19:45] <Myth> It took a LOT of work on the part of the string-pullers

[19:46] <Myth> like myself, amid, legacy, and a few others

[19:46] <Myth> to talk people out of NPK killing the crystal

[19:46] <Myth> and that was an issue that shouldn't have even come up

[19:46] <Myth> I emailed stormwaltz before it even became an issue

[19:46] <Allerion> I agree. That was a design error

[19:46] <Myth> and proposed solutions etc

[19:46] <Myth> and I irc'ed nei

[19:46] <Allerion> actually the error was in not fixing the portal bug a year ago when it was first posted publicly

[19:47] <Myth> that's true

[19:47] <Myth> but they weren't really interested

[19:47] <Myth> so we had to do it all ourselves

[19:47] <Myth> and it was a LOT of work

[19:47] <Myth> and then they sorta came in at the end and killed it with godmode admins

[19:47] <Myth> and the problem most of us had

[19:47] <Myth> was not that they had an agenda and a pre-determined outcome

[19:47] <Myth> because almost all my player-run events have pre-determined outcomes

[19:48] <Myth> but they could've done it with alot more finesse

[19:48] <Myth> rather than barge in with super-godmode admins

[19:48] <Myth> The shadow generals could've recaruited an army...

[19:48] <Myth> Approached certain individuals of influence

[19:48] <Myth> maybe attempted to get some of the defenders to betray their companions

[19:49] <Myth> (offer chaotic evil people the opportunity to do some nifty rp)

[19:49] <Myth> and then the players could've effected it themselves

[19:49] <Myth> but what happened is they kinda killed it

[19:49] <Myth> and we couldn't do anything about it

[19:49] <Myth> and then the person who did it npk'ed

[19:49] <Myth> and that was the end of the roleplaying

[19:50] <Myth> then the next month everyone was all excited and praising them

[19:50] <Allerion> So you think they should have worked behind the scenes instead of directly interfering?

[19:50] <Myth> because they were so excited about this Bael'zharon guy in town

[19:50] <Myth> and the ones of us who had been roleplaying were totally uninterested

[19:50] <Myth> because Bael'zharon was completely invincible and he didn't even show up most of the time

[19:51] <Myth> What was going on is some admin was logging him in once every few days, having some fun, then taking off

[19:51] <Myth> we felt like the event had kinda been taken away from us

[19:51] <Allerion> right

[19:51] <Allerion> but I think it entertained a lot more people that way

[19:51] <Allerion> more than most events in the past

[19:51] <Myth> and then we were expected to go kill bael'zharon after that.

[19:52] <Myth> right after we'd released him

[19:52] <Myth> and now dark revenants are saying stuff like

[19:52] <Myth> As it collapses into a mass of bone and rot, the ancient mage mutters, "Faugh! Human, ever do your people play the pawns. First you unwittingly served the Hopeslayer, and then you banished him at the direction of others..."

[19:52] <Allerion> heh

[19:52] <Myth> and its just kinda offensive

[19:52] <Allerion> just mocking your defense attempt

[19:52] <Myth> how we're expected to fit into this little niche

[19:53] <Myth> and as isparians, we're just supposed to kill stuff

[19:53] <Myth> it's very discouraging to the community that would like to rp

[19:53] <Myth> and most of us feel like

[19:53] <Allerion> "why bother?"

[19:53] <Myth> yeah

[19:54] <Allerion> that was the attitude on Frostfell about killing BZ

[19:54] <Myth> what i did with Bael'Zharon

[19:54] <Myth> lol

[19:54] <Allerion> they finally only did it in the end because they didn't want the other servers to think they were better than us lol.

[19:54] <Myth> I tried to roleplay, but it was pretty ridiculous

[19:54] <Myth> I went down there

[19:54] <Myth> and I was sending him tells and trying to have a conversation with him ;p

[19:55] <Allerion> heh

[19:55] <Myth> because I didn't really want to kill him ;)

[19:55] <Myth> there's a nifty little screenshot-gallery of that event

[19:55] <Myth> at www.yourcult.com/chosen/bael (Editted comment: Go read this people, good entertainment :) )

[19:55] <Myth> and it has information on the new rp event we're doing, for those of you on thistledown who are interested ;p

[19:56] <Myth> anyways that's my biggest issue with the game right now

[19:56] <Myth> not balance, etc

[19:56] <Myth> although those things are significant

[19:56] <Myth> it's mostly community

[19:56] <Myth> I'd like to see turbine fostering roleplay alot more, and designing their monthly events to stimulate and encourage people to work together as a community

[19:57] <Myth> and pit themselves against eachother, let there be options for everyone from all different alignments

[19:57] <Allerion> that is a GREAT play by play with Bael. :)

[19:57] <Myth> something exciting and challenging ;)

[19:57] <Myth> i criticize their events alot because i don't think they're challenging enough

[19:57] <Allerion> as do we :)

[19:57] <Myth> I dunno what challenge would satiate the needs of a lvl 109 archmage...grin

[19:58] <Allerion> Aerlinthe was the most challenging quest we were given, and it didn't take long to make it into simple routine.

[19:58] <Myth> but I'd like to see more stuff that most people have alot of difficulty doing

[19:58] <Myth> Yeah

[19:58] <Allerion> Same here. I'd like more high level content.

[19:58] <Allerion> Aerfalle dies about once an hour now on Frostfell.

[19:59] <Myth> People stare at me crosseyed in disbelief when I say "this game is too easy"

[19:59] <Allerion> it won't be long before there are lines hanging around in her chambers.

[19:59] <Allerion> We were going to make a mule called "This Game Is Too Easy"

[19:59] <Allerion> just for the aerfalle kill message ;)

[19:59] <Allerion> but my point is, high level content is for everyone.

[19:59] <Myth> :)

[19:59] <Myth> High level content is nice

[20:00] <Myth> because it gives everyone goals to work towards

[20:00] <Myth> even if they can't participate at the moment

[20:00] <Myth> yeah

[20:00] <Allerion> the things that used to be "IMPOSSIBLE!" are now terribly overcamped

[20:00] <Allerion> time for them to raise the bar again.

[20:00] <Myth> yup

[20:01] <Myth> anything else you want to ask me about?

[20:01] <Allerion> nothing hits me right now

[20:01] <Allerion> I usually have questions ready

[20:01] <Allerion> but I haven't seen you on IRC in a while

[20:01] <Myth> I haven't been on sorcery net in a while

[20:02] <Myth> The guys in #asherons-call don't like me very much :)

[20:02] <Allerion> Do you plan to play on Wintersebb?

[20:02] <Myth> Probably not.

[20:02] <Myth> I can't make up my mind about that completely

[20:02] <Allerion> too bad, we could use more competition lol.

[20:03] <Allerion> Do you have any advice for the people planning extreme specialized mage templates there? :)

[20:09] <Myth> I was thinking very seriously about making one on wintersebb

[20:09] <Myth> I worked out my little plan

[20:09] <Myth> Can't really divulge my intended levelling spot, because I might actually follow through with those plans

[20:09] <Myth> although I don't intend to anymore

[20:10] <Myth> I have two computers...

[20:10] <Allerion> of course I wouldn't expect you to divulge your spots, nor anyone else. :)

[20:10] <Myth> and I was basically going to level an archer up using a society bow

[20:11] <Myth> with him sworn to my mage

[20:12] <Myth> and meanwhile be macroing the mage at the hall

[20:12] <Myth> My friend alianna is really good with the scripts, I'm too lazy to write them myself ;)

[20:13] <Myth> but we tested our little plan and a spec life/magic D mage actually is pretty optimal for macroing

[20:13] <Allerion> yes, but they are terrible to level by playing

[20:13] <Myth> yeah

[20:13] <Myth> My mage is lvl 52 now

[20:13] <Allerion> I'm afraid most people will create these monstrous templates...

[20:14] <Allerion> spec'd creature/life/magic defense and others like that

[20:14] <Allerion> and quit well before they finish them

[20:14] <Myth> she basically levelled from allegiance exp up till 10

[20:14] <Myth> then she macroed herself up some

[20:14] <Myth> and now I have her tied to a nice draining spot

[20:15] <Myth> which I could easily access on wintersebb if I decided to go there

[20:15] <Myth> I don't expect it to become camped, not yet anyways

[20:15] <Allerion> ok...

[20:15] <Myth> So essentially I guess my plan for building an extreme mage on wintersebb would be

[20:15] <Myth> use allegiance exp/macros to get off your feet

[20:16] <Myth> then find a nice little private spot

[20:16] <Myth> where you can drain without anyone bothering you or messing your script up

[20:16] <Myth> and grin, yup :)

[20:16] <Allerion> macro to the moon? hehe

[20:16] <Myth> (but you prolly don't wanna post that in the interview because we both would prolly rather not have alot of other people doing that)

[20:17] <Myth> That's one thing about wintersebb that doesn't appeal to me

[20:17] <Allerion> I think they'll do it anyway

[20:17] <Myth> in order to be competitive nowadays

[20:17] <Allerion> at least 20 people I know of are planning to get there and do keep macros

[20:17] <Allerion> under the assumption they are going to have it to themselves

[20:17] <Allerion> (a very wrong assumption)

[20:17] <Myth> well you don't just make a character and run around levelling it up

[20:18] <Myth> you have to find a spot to macro in unless you want to play for an insane amount of time

[20:18] <Myth> and even then it's unlikely you'll be competitive with the people who are running the right macros in the right spots

[20:18] <Myth> I don't want macroing to become a widespread thing in AC

[20:19] <Myth> I would say that I'd want the developers to find a way to make it less profitable and discourage it more

[20:19] <Myth> but I don't really trust them to do that without mucking things up or changing their attitude

[20:19] <Myth> and I really appreciate the way turbine developers have been friendly with the players

[20:20] <Myth> being lenient etc, they accept responsiblity for their mistakes and don't blame players and punish/ban them

[20:20] <Myth> like some other gaming companies would do

[20:20] <Allerion> hehe yes :)

[20:21] <Myth> there's ups and downs...but I'd like to see macroing discouraged by something maybe as simple as not designing dungeons with profitable macroing spots

[20:21] <Allerion> They've beed extremely patient as far as not killing us or themselves after some of the harsher days on Dev Board :)

[20:21] <Myth> and there are a few other places besides the keep where these things can be done :)

[20:21] <Myth> lol

[20:21] <Myth> (I wouldn't even read the dev board if I were a dev) :)

[20:22] <Allerion> yep, I'd have quit lol

[20:22] <Allerion> That's why I could never work for Turbine, even if they asked me :)

[20:22] <Allerion> one day of listening to people bitch I'd be like "Bite me" :P

[20:22] <Allerion> referring to dev board

[20:22] <Myth> I think turbine is a little too player-responsive

[20:22] <Myth> like they listen too us too much

[20:22] <Allerion> I tend to agree

[20:22] <Allerion> lately they've been buffing players to insane levels

[20:22] <Myth> I'd like my gaming company to have some

[20:23] <Myth> evil mastermind wizard working behind a dark curtain

[20:23] <Myth> who designed the system and balaced everything

[20:23] <Myth> and who doesn't pay any attention to player griping

[20:23] <Allerion> and the game was easy before then

[20:23] <Allerion> like the bow buffs...

[20:23] <Allerion> I owned everything in the game just fine with bow

[20:23] <Allerion> and now they are making it even better?

[20:23] <Allerion> weird :)

[20:23] <Myth> They're going to buff bow AGAIN!?

[20:23] <Allerion> no, they just did a few months back

[20:23] <Myth> oh

[20:23] <Allerion> but it was a totally unneccessary buff

[20:24] <Allerion> and there are still rumors of these peerless arrows

[20:24] <Myth> well I dunno

[20:24] <Myth> people had the notion that bow was supposed to inflict more damage than melee was

[20:24] <Myth> because melee gets a shield etc

[20:25] <Allerion> melee didn't need a buff either ;)

[20:25] <Allerion> when they increased damage variances on everything but UA to 50%

[20:25] <Allerion> but...that's another story :)

[20:27] * Myth talks about quest rewards.

[20:27] <Myth> and about (effort exerted) vs (reward for effort)

[20:29] <Myth> I have a problem with the way we've been being rewarded for the quests we do

[20:29] <Myth> This ties in with ebay issues as well

[20:29] <Myth> at the beginning of retail

[20:29] <Myth> we had collecter quests, and we had treasure-chest quests

[20:30] <Myth> If you killed a mattekar, you would get a hide and you could turn it in for a coat or some sleeves or something

[20:30] <Myth> and that something was generally always useful to somebody

[20:31] <Myth> Either I would use it myself or my vassal wanted it and could use it

[20:31] <Myth> etc, etc

[20:31] <Myth> or in the case of treasure-chest quests

[20:31] <Myth> You'd get an undroppable non-xferable reward

[20:31] <Myth> like a SoLL

[20:32] <Myth> or a Trembalt's Ivory Staff.

[20:32] <Myth> And there wasn't any real issues with people milking these quests for ebay.

[20:33] <Myth> People participated in these things and had an interesting and exciting experience

[20:33] <Myth> and then at the end they'd get a reward that would be nifty to show off, and always useful to somebody.

[20:34] <Myth> Recently, however

[20:34] <Myth> there's been alot of quests

[20:34] <Myth> that really don't provide any useful reward for completion

[20:35] <Myth> like in the case of the Aerlinthe quest

[20:35] <Myth> Aerfalle Palliums and Ashbanes reside almost exclusvely upon player mules

[20:35] <Myth> and very very very few people use the Staff either

[20:36] <Myth> This quest could've been the type of quest that all the mages want to complete so that they can get their nifty staff

[20:36] <Myth> if say, the wand was non-xferable

[20:37] <Myth> or if the robe was non-xferable and didn't have all the spells and wasn't enchantable

[20:37] <Myth> most people are entirely uninterested in going through all the troubles of performing a quest like that

[20:37] <Myth> just so that they can get something they won't ever use

[20:38] <Myth> So players like me wind up having it all to ourselves, and just repeating it over and over again because it's the only thing mildly challenging for us to do at our level

[20:38] <Myth> and then we wind up selling the surplus robes on ebay because neither ourselves nor anybody else has any use for them

[20:38] <Myth> Then people are unhappy and complain alot about the activity, etc, etc

[20:39] <Myth> all this could be avoided if quest rewards were implemented more effecively

[20:39] <Myth> Nobody ebays Major atlan stones, and everyone goes to get them

[20:39] <Myth> I thought that the aerlinthe quest would be something of an isolated weird fluke type of thing

[20:40] <Myth> but it appears like it might become something of a trend

[20:40] <Myth> What with the reward for releasing Bael'Zharon being a hasty trip to the lifestone ;)

[20:41] <Myth> and the reward for killing him being an al 10 trophy that takes up 200 bu--that a majority of the essential participants don't even get to acquire

[20:43] <Myth> developers should think about these things and provide motivations for players to do their events

[20:43] <Myth> alot of my vassals were totally uninterested in killing Bael'Zharon

[20:43] <Myth> because it cost them alot of death items and they didn't really get anything out of it

[20:43] <Myth> I'd like to see quest rewards that participants can benefit from

[20:44] <Myth> and they don't have to be items...

[20:44] <Myth> or anything ebay-able

[20:44] <Myth> I'd like to see something maybe like

[20:44] <Myth> A nontieable portal to the halls of xandu in a secret door at the end of aerfalle keep