grummin
12-26-2008, 06:12 PM
Okay, so the quests are still in butcher land, but some temporary level limits have calmed things down and brought some minor semblance of order. But for the ardent non-PvP-er like me, that still leaves massive silver expenditure or begging quest items. How to handle this? Well...I've stated I refuse to PvP, and refuse to enter a PvP zone in furtherance of that postion. But...if I raise neither mace nor fist against another player, I'm not actually engaging in PvP- now am I? Agree with that or not, the decision works for me.
So, the ardent non-PvP player wanders into Apoline FBZ1 expecting a slaughterhouse. Yeah, there's a lot of killing going on- but I admit that from what I'd read, I expected a lot worse. Of course in keeping with my stance, my mace is in my pack as an obvious "non-aggressive" flag. Might not stop anyone, but I'm trying to make my intent clear anyway. How bad was it? Not bad enough to stop me from being in there from a half-hour after the maintenance downtime ended until I had to switch characters for the Christmas ball. What's that, somewhere around 15+ hours straight? Couple of afk vendoring (and grabbing some food irl) breaks, otherwise I was running laps, grabbing chests, and ducking attacks. Not once during this time did I strike a single blow at any player, nor during 8-10 hours on Teva Christmas day doing the same thing.
On to the meat of the subject...Oh yes, I expected to be killed repeatedly and I was by no means disappointed. I lost count of my own deaths on Apoline within a half-hour. Interestingly, on Teva I looted chests for 3 hours before dying to another player. The dragon, well...he's got a cold and has some perverse penchant for coughing in my face. The difference between the servers may have been "actual" or might have been more related to the time- Apoline I was in when higher levels were just discovering, and cashing in on, being able to spawn inside FBZ1 if they'd logged off there. By contrast later in the evening on Christmas day, Teva's FBZ1 got nearly deserted- maybe 15 people in there, and mostly moving in two packs so I could easily ransack an entire section of hallway as if I were the only one in the place.
I saw some spot-claiming type behavior, but saw it go both ways: groups playing "these chests are ours" and groups who ran them off then played "no, these chests belong to the newbs, so just try it."
So, advice, tips, and ideas: Finding chests- ignore no cranny, no matter how small. I've found at least 2 places that obviously aren't well known, where I can stand and farm a respawning chest with people 3 steps away unaware of my presence. My big tip on finding isn't so much the hard ones hidden out of sight as it is this: don't watch for chests when you're moving, watch for the respawn animation. It actually amazed me how often (if I kept running the length of the place) a chest would spawn with 4 steps of me, and didn't take long to get the hang of targeting it and being there with a clear "I was first by a mile" claim before anyone else even spots it. And I'm on a dog-slow machine...you'll play hell making me believe someone with a quicker-responding computer couldn't capitalize on this quite well.
Bribery works: No, not "please mister fighter, don't kill me and I'll give you a Mini-Santa." Indirect bribery. If you're in there for a while, watch the chat- people will start calling out needing a particular quest item. If you've got two, and you're planning on looting for a while, swap with'em. Even if you get a duplicate of something else, they've gotten something they want from you- and while it's not a definite, I've seen some really ardent "kill everything" types back off from coming after "me in particular" after a few trades. And as for that duplicate you took in trade, keep looking- you'll find more, and with more trading it's a breeze to build complete sets as long as you're finding any quest items. I saw someone turn 5 cotton-ball finds in a row into a complete quest set of one each in 10 minutes.
Just take it in stride- you're going to die. Period. Probably repeatedly. Think of the goodies you're after (whether to vendor for big bucks, or give away and play Santa...I've done more than a bit of both myself) and consider the nuisance of frequent dirt naps to be the cost.
Make your own games up, I did. I played "How long can I go between deaths" for a while. When harrassment of newbs started flaring, I changed my game to "How much can I interfere with the butchers' goals?" Even if you can't actually cast Invincible on a non-party member, do you have any idea how much even trying it will aggravate a dedicated lowbie-hunter? I do...and while it's not a sure thing, more than a couple of times a newb got a chest because the fighter about to maul him decided "teaching me a lesson" was more important. And the only thing I got taught was one more way to try and help the newbs while helping myself. The longer the lowbie-hunter chases me, that's time the lowbies get without him after them.
And along with the "trade/bribe" angle, don't underestimate plain old good will. After about 5 hours in Teva's FBZ, quite a bit of item-swapping, and a few outright giveaways, I saw something that forced me to go vendor because I was laughing too hard to do anything else. I duck down one of the narrow alleys after a chest, and note that just as I enter the chat line reads "Hey get off him!" <shrug> No surprise, another call to arms to rally against a lowbie-hunter. I start unlocking a chest, see a 2h sword fighter enter the alley behind me, and wham! Half my health gone- and before I can react, I'm caught in a flashing-attack-lights lag storm about 6 seconds long. It settles and I have just enough time to turn my view and see 9 people exiting the alley (at least 4 of whom I'd swapped an item with at some point or other) while stepping over the corpse of the fighter who was after me. Oh...so that's who they were yelling "get off him" about- me. Go figure...maybe there's something to be said for being the "crazy unarmed cleric" after all. :D
As long as you're not one-hit-killed, don't panic...I've also noted that some people will take one (and only one, then move on) swat at you for beating them to a chest, and some will open fire when you approach an area but not pursue you. No big deal, I call that survival practice. Heal a couple times, once you're out archer range cure that poison, and move along. Being under fire is irrelevant, getting my goodies is relevant.
And I admit, if someone really wanted a Brother Maynard kill point (or Abrovid, on Teva), fine- but don't think me being unarmed means I'll just lay down and hand it over. If you can't drop me in a hurry, then you'll have to run out my SP first then take the last HP. And while I rarely used them otherwise for any reason, stun me and see how many stones and pots I'll suck down until I can cast Heal again. You wanna swat flies, look for the newb suits. You want me, I'll play- but I don't play for giggles, and I'm playing by my own rules. ;) I once looted 5 chests, from the Stone guard to the Entrance guard, with a sword/shield fighter chasing me and pounding away. He finally killed me...but not before I found 2 quest items and 2 Mini-Santas, so who really won? Both of us...he wanted me dead and got it, I wanted goodies and I got'em. It's all good.
Although I still wonder about one thing in retrospect...heheheh...for about 40 minutes or so midmorning-ish eastern US time on the 24th, there was one female cleric running laps of FBZ1 in the opposite direction I was. Every lap we'd pass in opposite directions- and every single time we passed, she'd Bash me once and smile. I was going on around 18 hours awake at this point, and running on auto-pilot as much as actually thinking. Was this some FBZ tradition I'm not aware of, or was this someone who likes it a bit rough flirting with me? :D
But anyway...there's my observations, and a few ideas. Use'em, explore'em, analyze'em, trash'em. That's what I saw, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
And if you see a crazy unarmed cleric in FBZ1 named either Abrovid or Brother Maynard, yep- that's me, until the Christmas quests are over and I resume avoiding the area entirely. Yell if ya need a quest item, if I got it we can work something out easily. Take a swat at me...I know and accept the risks, just know I'll do every Healing trick I can to stay on my feet. And have fun, whatever you're about in that bizarre hellhole. :cool:
So, the ardent non-PvP player wanders into Apoline FBZ1 expecting a slaughterhouse. Yeah, there's a lot of killing going on- but I admit that from what I'd read, I expected a lot worse. Of course in keeping with my stance, my mace is in my pack as an obvious "non-aggressive" flag. Might not stop anyone, but I'm trying to make my intent clear anyway. How bad was it? Not bad enough to stop me from being in there from a half-hour after the maintenance downtime ended until I had to switch characters for the Christmas ball. What's that, somewhere around 15+ hours straight? Couple of afk vendoring (and grabbing some food irl) breaks, otherwise I was running laps, grabbing chests, and ducking attacks. Not once during this time did I strike a single blow at any player, nor during 8-10 hours on Teva Christmas day doing the same thing.
On to the meat of the subject...Oh yes, I expected to be killed repeatedly and I was by no means disappointed. I lost count of my own deaths on Apoline within a half-hour. Interestingly, on Teva I looted chests for 3 hours before dying to another player. The dragon, well...he's got a cold and has some perverse penchant for coughing in my face. The difference between the servers may have been "actual" or might have been more related to the time- Apoline I was in when higher levels were just discovering, and cashing in on, being able to spawn inside FBZ1 if they'd logged off there. By contrast later in the evening on Christmas day, Teva's FBZ1 got nearly deserted- maybe 15 people in there, and mostly moving in two packs so I could easily ransack an entire section of hallway as if I were the only one in the place.
I saw some spot-claiming type behavior, but saw it go both ways: groups playing "these chests are ours" and groups who ran them off then played "no, these chests belong to the newbs, so just try it."
So, advice, tips, and ideas: Finding chests- ignore no cranny, no matter how small. I've found at least 2 places that obviously aren't well known, where I can stand and farm a respawning chest with people 3 steps away unaware of my presence. My big tip on finding isn't so much the hard ones hidden out of sight as it is this: don't watch for chests when you're moving, watch for the respawn animation. It actually amazed me how often (if I kept running the length of the place) a chest would spawn with 4 steps of me, and didn't take long to get the hang of targeting it and being there with a clear "I was first by a mile" claim before anyone else even spots it. And I'm on a dog-slow machine...you'll play hell making me believe someone with a quicker-responding computer couldn't capitalize on this quite well.
Bribery works: No, not "please mister fighter, don't kill me and I'll give you a Mini-Santa." Indirect bribery. If you're in there for a while, watch the chat- people will start calling out needing a particular quest item. If you've got two, and you're planning on looting for a while, swap with'em. Even if you get a duplicate of something else, they've gotten something they want from you- and while it's not a definite, I've seen some really ardent "kill everything" types back off from coming after "me in particular" after a few trades. And as for that duplicate you took in trade, keep looking- you'll find more, and with more trading it's a breeze to build complete sets as long as you're finding any quest items. I saw someone turn 5 cotton-ball finds in a row into a complete quest set of one each in 10 minutes.
Just take it in stride- you're going to die. Period. Probably repeatedly. Think of the goodies you're after (whether to vendor for big bucks, or give away and play Santa...I've done more than a bit of both myself) and consider the nuisance of frequent dirt naps to be the cost.
Make your own games up, I did. I played "How long can I go between deaths" for a while. When harrassment of newbs started flaring, I changed my game to "How much can I interfere with the butchers' goals?" Even if you can't actually cast Invincible on a non-party member, do you have any idea how much even trying it will aggravate a dedicated lowbie-hunter? I do...and while it's not a sure thing, more than a couple of times a newb got a chest because the fighter about to maul him decided "teaching me a lesson" was more important. And the only thing I got taught was one more way to try and help the newbs while helping myself. The longer the lowbie-hunter chases me, that's time the lowbies get without him after them.
And along with the "trade/bribe" angle, don't underestimate plain old good will. After about 5 hours in Teva's FBZ, quite a bit of item-swapping, and a few outright giveaways, I saw something that forced me to go vendor because I was laughing too hard to do anything else. I duck down one of the narrow alleys after a chest, and note that just as I enter the chat line reads "Hey get off him!" <shrug> No surprise, another call to arms to rally against a lowbie-hunter. I start unlocking a chest, see a 2h sword fighter enter the alley behind me, and wham! Half my health gone- and before I can react, I'm caught in a flashing-attack-lights lag storm about 6 seconds long. It settles and I have just enough time to turn my view and see 9 people exiting the alley (at least 4 of whom I'd swapped an item with at some point or other) while stepping over the corpse of the fighter who was after me. Oh...so that's who they were yelling "get off him" about- me. Go figure...maybe there's something to be said for being the "crazy unarmed cleric" after all. :D
As long as you're not one-hit-killed, don't panic...I've also noted that some people will take one (and only one, then move on) swat at you for beating them to a chest, and some will open fire when you approach an area but not pursue you. No big deal, I call that survival practice. Heal a couple times, once you're out archer range cure that poison, and move along. Being under fire is irrelevant, getting my goodies is relevant.
And I admit, if someone really wanted a Brother Maynard kill point (or Abrovid, on Teva), fine- but don't think me being unarmed means I'll just lay down and hand it over. If you can't drop me in a hurry, then you'll have to run out my SP first then take the last HP. And while I rarely used them otherwise for any reason, stun me and see how many stones and pots I'll suck down until I can cast Heal again. You wanna swat flies, look for the newb suits. You want me, I'll play- but I don't play for giggles, and I'm playing by my own rules. ;) I once looted 5 chests, from the Stone guard to the Entrance guard, with a sword/shield fighter chasing me and pounding away. He finally killed me...but not before I found 2 quest items and 2 Mini-Santas, so who really won? Both of us...he wanted me dead and got it, I wanted goodies and I got'em. It's all good.
Although I still wonder about one thing in retrospect...heheheh...for about 40 minutes or so midmorning-ish eastern US time on the 24th, there was one female cleric running laps of FBZ1 in the opposite direction I was. Every lap we'd pass in opposite directions- and every single time we passed, she'd Bash me once and smile. I was going on around 18 hours awake at this point, and running on auto-pilot as much as actually thinking. Was this some FBZ tradition I'm not aware of, or was this someone who likes it a bit rough flirting with me? :D
But anyway...there's my observations, and a few ideas. Use'em, explore'em, analyze'em, trash'em. That's what I saw, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
And if you see a crazy unarmed cleric in FBZ1 named either Abrovid or Brother Maynard, yep- that's me, until the Christmas quests are over and I resume avoiding the area entirely. Yell if ya need a quest item, if I got it we can work something out easily. Take a swat at me...I know and accept the risks, just know I'll do every Healing trick I can to stay on my feet. And have fun, whatever you're about in that bizarre hellhole. :cool: