I've been spending some time over Break coin whoring with Siri. Coming out with Koric is pretty meaningless since I'm not interested in any kind of long, organized hunt. That makes Koric just a more powerful library Horus healer, and there are a ton of those around that people trot out at the drop of a hat. I brought out Koric to try the 4c test just for fun, and I couldn't believe it when he passed. About the only thing Siri can do well (crappy atkus/darkus but tons of swings and great defense) is coin whore, so that's all I do when I feel like popping on.
Siri can clear around 1000c/hour if I stay at it, even in pod forest (because Siri has decent Dentir training and can harvest mandibles). I figure I'll save up my coins for a few weeks while I have spare time, then blow it all on a big Orga bounty hunt like the old days. I think if I were going to come back to CL, I would keep Siri and Koric in the library and just start over with a newbie. The game has changed, and it really seems to favor the up-and-coming high-atkus tagger who can vanquish lots of stuff and has decent enough defense/histia to survive in a swarm for a bit. There's still a lot of stuff such a character can do solo, though coin whoring is tough if you're built for rank whoring.
Most times when I'm on and there are, say, 30 or fewer people on, there will be maybe 1-2 mystics, 2-3 healers and the rest fighters. Sometimes it's all fighters, out ore-hunting, coin whoring or whatever. I can always tell when a rank whore character (usually a one-swing-wonder zo or fen) is trying to coin whore because they always leave all the junk (rats, chiggers, vermine, birds) behind when clearing a sn'ell. Then it doesn't respawn as well the next time, but what can you do when you can only swing every so often?
Nobody bothers bringing their healers out into TC to socialize much during low-number times, from what I can see (I don't stay in town for longer than it takes to get out, though). When someone needs a heal, they get someone to bring out their library healer for a bit, then it's right back to all-fighters again. More than once, I've seen newbies standing around town center waiting for a heal but no healers on at all. I don't bother getting Koric out to help because I know it's usually just a matter of seconds before, right on cue, a library healer comes out when someone is injured in town. Algernon isn't around much (which is fine by me).
Koric used to be big on rescues, but from what I see on the sunstone traffic, most of the rescues are being done by fighters with chains now. Oh sure, sometimes someone will get a whole rescue party together with 1-2 real healers and go find a fallen, but more often than not, the fallen gets dragged to town (because they're all rat-chewed) and a couple of lib Horus healers come out to heal, then the clickers' fighters come back out and go about their business.
I guess that's just the natural evolution of the game. The biggest mistake (I think) was that Delta Tao made it too easy (cheap) for people to have other characters on the same account, at one point giving everyone an extra whether they wanted it or not. Now, since there are usually too few people clanning for a critical mass to organize a big hunting group (e.g. 5-7 fighters, 5 healers or maybe 4 + 1 mystic), everyone spends the majority of their time clanning with fighters, because they can go off and do stuff by themselves. Healers can't, at least not nearly as effectively.
That's one reason I originally tried to make Koric a rescue healer. I was on a lot when there weren't big hunting groups going out, plus I didn't know too many people (everyone else seemed to have an pre-CL ooc friend playing the game, but I didn't). So I figured rescue healing was fun and gave me something rewarding to do while I waited around for something big to happen. Sometimes, rescue healing was so fun I'd blow off hunts, then people stopped asking, which was my bad.
Oh well, just some random percolating thoughts while killing kitties for my 3-4 readers who know what the hell I'm talking about.
Posted by Observer at March 15, 2005 10:26 PMComments on entries can only be made in pop-up windows while those entries are still on the main index page. Sorry for the inconvenience this causes, but this blocks about 99.99% of the spam the blog receives.
I do enjoy hearing about how CL has changed. I guess Bavmorda wouldn't have a whole lot to do now. Other than look fabulous with her purple mohawk. :)
Posted by: Liz on March 16, 2005 07:14 AMI've been having surprisingly fun time with my newbie healer. He's been kept busy, I don't see any of lib healer issues you mention. I do see chain rescues a lot, but since I barely survive SF, and have zero horus, I can't rescue rat-chewed anyway.
I'm almost at the point where I think newbies should start with sunstones. It's really boring without one.
I don't trot Humbaba out now that he's passed 5th circle, other than for clan meetings, since like you said, there isn't anything for him to do.
They've got a bug now where anything you solo gives a "vanq" message, but not vanq exp. I get it for scav birds still, but not the xp.
Posted by: Humbaba on March 16, 2005 08:38 AMDepends on when you play. I've been on three times in the past week for a half-hour or more when there have been nothing but 15-20 fighters clanning pretty much the whole time. Occasionally, a healer will show up for a few minutes, but what's happening there is someone is just getting out a healer to heal someone nearby, then they put the healer back in the library.
More than half of the rescues I hear discussed over the sunstone are fighters with chains. This is typically during the morning central time slot. When I wasn't feeling well a couple of weeks ago, I was on a couple of times in the middle of the night to pass the time, and there were 7-12 people clanning. It's too bad it has been around so long, and they still haven't significantly broadened the player base, if only to make the game a little more fun. About 2x-4x would be about right, given the size of the world, I think.
I agree that it's much less fun to play without a sunstone. When I left, I know Kiriel and the WoD clan was doing a pretty good job outfitting newbies with sunstones, but I don't see them around much anymore. Again, though, it could be the hours during which I'm on.
Posted by: Observer on March 16, 2005 09:18 AMI just had someone in TC ss to Krandor and made him buy me a sunstone. :) It's good having friends.
Posted by: Humbaba on March 16, 2005 11:44 AMI've been playing other characters more frequently in the last couple of years, mostly at around 8:30-11:00pm central time recently. (I really can't clan during the day unless Abby is elsewhere and I'm off from work.) When the upsurge of new stuff started coming on (rangers, etc) and the reactivation of old accounts happened, the numbers at that time went from a consistent 35 to a strong 55-70. That's been very nice to see.
The OGL stuff is beautiful, but I can't run it on my mac without crashing. sigh.
Posted by: Perkusi on March 16, 2005 03:24 PMNot that this will mean a whole lot to most of you I suspect (sounds ilke you play for old times sake as much as to play) but World of Warcraft *is* Mac compatible.
MacŪ System OS X 10.3.5 OS:
933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
MacOS X 10.3.5 or newer
56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
It is, of course, a very different concept since it allows for player vs. player combat in various circumstances. It also has a much larger audience drawing from MMOs, Diablo players and Warcraft players (allowing me to see hundreds if not thousands of people per night) but I am impressed with the degree of polish in the product considering its age and the state of other new MMOs.
WoW is one reason why there are so few people left playing Clan Lord.
Posted by: Humbaba on March 16, 2005 04:06 PMI've never seen CL, much less played it so I don't know whether WoW compares favorably or not. I know that there are positive and negative aspects to WoW from my perspective but most of those come from biases developed in PC games.
I am very picky about PvP because in my opinion it is too easy to make stealth all-or-nothing. Either stealth always wins or it is meaningless. I have not hunted other players in WoW enough to have an opinion about that at this time but it was one of the big risks this game took (in my opinion).
Other things that I am picky about include immersion, the ability to both solo and group easily, the ability to participate in multiple aspects of the game (hunting, crafting, socializing, exploring) instead of just mindlessly pursuing one aspect, the advancement rate and a reasonable degree of risk vs. reward...
The list goes on and on...
I have less than a week's experience in WoW and am enjoying myself. It seems to be pretty nice technically and the mechanics work for me so far. We'll see whether or not the death penalty is enough for me to care about it in the long run. Right now I am not overly scared of dying which could become an issue since it can seriously diminish the risk vs reward aspect.
Posted by: Seattle Astronomer on March 16, 2005 04:24 PMMy computer can't adequately support WoW, so it doesn't exist to me.
I coin whore with Polerand a lot, because at least in that, there's always progress (more coins, yay; shiny, prescious, metal ...), but I also enjoy chain-rescuing.
If I do play, though, I'm not playing at a time that requires the support of 'foreign' time zones, so I don't see the healer problem.
Posted by: Polerand on March 16, 2005 05:30 PMIt's been good to see Siri and (occassionally) Koric back around lately. During those off peak times, most everyone seems to be doing solo things. If there is a real hunt going on, it's usually a small invite-only one (say 2-3 fighters and 2 healers on KI) or a single fighter with his slave healer nearby. Even more than the relatively low player numbers off-peak is the issue of what to do for experience that does not require a long time commitment, individual-based entry (Mystics or advanced pathfinders), and/or more power than the few players around can muster - since they are at all levels. The Portal being parked in Camp Dred has allowed nearly continuous hunting in Dredwood by small pick-up groups, which has been very nice for all involved (PMF's disdain notwithstanding). And there are lots of interesting things going on: healer tests, Rangers, metalworking (and armor "soon"), very advanced pathfinding. One thing I know you will appreciate is that many of the stories that started during your efforts to explore the Orga Outback and Foothills still continue to keep our interest, and we are making actual headway toward the Orga Stronghold at long last. Overall, these are pretty good days.
Posted by: Azriel on March 18, 2005 02:02 PMYo, gamer geeks. Sad news.
Redmond Simonsen died last week. Google the name and you can find obits and passing salutes.
If you ever played them boardgames with the little cardboard squares on the funny hex-grid paper more frequently than an occasional basis, you probably know who he was. If you didn't play 'em, ah well.
Posted by: Feff on March 18, 2005 03:24 PMGlad to see the portal stuff seems settled in a way that gives everyone equal access, and I'm even more glad I was never involved in the flame wars about it. I'm also really glad to see Azriel and other characters making more pf advancements. Anything that demotes PMF to "just another hunting group" equal to all others is a good thing for CL.
I've had some fun coin-hunting with Siri. The arcade-style game play of CL has always appealed to me, while the social interactions have been a mixed bag. Siri is easier to play because he mostly just squeaks and hunts alone.
I loved Azriel's journal. I've been sending you gk for that. :)
I'll probably wrap up with Siri soon, once I get to a nice round number of coins (at about 25k now). I've had some time to play this week since it is Spring Break, but that'll change soon enough.
Posted by: Observer on March 18, 2005 03:51 PM