Question Regarding Metals

[SirArtemis]

The following are metals that fit into the tier system.
Iron: The simplest material, and yet still with a degree of strength, iron weapons can serve an adventurer with need.
Steel: Providing a bit more strength than iron, steel also costs a bit more. Many an adventurer, including the great Devon Starslayer, used nothing more than a simple steel sword.
Plynt: A green metal that absorbs liquid easily due to some unknown property. Plynt is naturally flammable, and after burning for a while will be almost entirely consumed.
Damascus: Magic imbues into this light gray metal easily, but at the same time damascus provides little resistance to magical attacks.
Dehlar: Very heavy, Dehlar is extraordinarily magic-resistant. It does not imbue well, however, and its high weight means only the strongest can carry it.
Delyn: An alloy of Dehlar and Damascus that is a blend of both magic-resistance and magic-imbuing potential. It is a good all-around material for many weapons. However it tends to release its stored energy explosively when broken by a significantly stronger material.
Titanium: Titanium is extremely resistant to fire and explosive impact and is used in the finest gunpowder weapons of the Alerarians. Due to the difficulty in creating this alloy given normal metallurgy on Althanas, it is hard to find this material in large enough quantities for large weaponry and armor.
Mythril: Mythril is exceedingly strong and light. When unenchanted, it is weak to magical assault, but when enchanted to its threshold it will repel magical assault. A white metal, it is excellent for swords and other precision weaponry.
Prevalida: Although stronger than mythril, this blue metal is slightly heavier than Delyn. Prevalida is both resistant to magical attacks and capable of channeling the magic of its wielder to new heights.


So that's taken directly from the bazaar, but I have a bit of a problem. From what I know, iron is an ore you can find in the world. Steel is created from refining iron in a particular way, and damascus is a form of steel.

Plynt, on the other hand, confuses me. It is a flammable metal that absorbs liquid. However, how the heck would you mine/forge it? A spark could ignite an entire cavern, but I could come up with a creative way to mine it. That, however, does not remove the simple fact that you could never FORGE the weapon by normal means...

I was looking to write a story where my character comes across some ore, but finding iron seems so... anti-climactic. Finding plynt is possible, but I would need a concept for forging it. I'm level zero, so I don't think I'd be allowed to find Dehlar. (think)

Any ideas/comments

[Letho]

First thing you have to keep in mind is that real world damascus is not equal to Althanas damascus. While in the real world it's a variation of steel, on Althanas it's a material on its own not directly connected to steel, just like the other metals (except Delyn which is a Damascus/Dehlar alloy).

Regarding mining plynt... Uhm, mine slowly? ;) I figure forging of such a material would have to be done by magical means, or possibly with special tools that wouldn't ignite it. It's deliberately left vague so you can come up with your own ways of working with the material.

[orphans]

I'm also curious on the forging methods of Plynt, as well as the absorbent qualities it possesses. Such as, what sort of liquids are absorbable? Blood, water, chemical liquids?

[SirArtemis]

Well letho, I could always ask you to punch the metal into shape, with your 150 times normal human strength rofl.

Otherwise, what score would I need to be aiming for in a thread to make it reasonable that I am mining Damascus? (actually, this may be a better convo to have on AIM or PM, so feel free to contact me on either if it is easier)

[Dreamkit]

while Mining Plynt wouldn't be too hard, Coal is a flammable ore that's mined all the time, Forging it is another problem, I could see it as an Alchemical process involving Acids and/or a precise and low flame (just below the burning point.)

One suggestion that I have is to make up a fantastic Material and it's qualities. Assign it a strength, like a little stronger than steel and some unique attributes.

[SirArtemis]

while Mining Plynt wouldn't be too hard, Coal is a flammable ore that's mined all the time, Forging it is another problem, I could see it as an Alchemical process involving Acids and/or a precise and low flame (just below the burning point.)

One suggestion that I have is to make up a fantastic Material and it's qualities. Assign it a strength, like a little stronger than steel and some unique attributes.

I thought about coming up with my own metal but I'm not sure whether or not I want to do that for finding an ore. I'm sure other people have come up with ideas like that, they just aren't listed. Does no one care that there are likely over 100 unique metals? =p

[Duffy]

Simplest way to mien and temper Plynt would be to do it underwater ;)

[SirArtemis]

Simplest way to mien and temper Plynt would be to do it underwater ;)

how would you heat it under water though?

[Duffy]

I guess the material could be volatile explosive and not heat based, i.e - needs a good knock as opposed to exposed to temperature.

You could heat it slowly and carefully and then use farrier techniques/dive into water and twat it one perhaps?

I'm swatting at flies, the mining bit is easy but after that my secondary school science fails.

Magic?

There, magic it is :D

[SirArtemis]

haha I think I'll make up a metal before I revert to magical smithing =p for now at least. Look out for a new material!

[Taskmienster]

You can make metals... as many as you want I suppose. But it kinda throws off what little economic system we have in place already for Bazaar. Don't expect to really get a good deal for it if you sell it and it's not available to buy at all.

The reason we have the metals listed like that is because 9-10 metals is significant enough, and they have their own differences, so that we don't have everyone making up their own thing. Sure, we approve people with a sword made out of an indistinct metal that is as strong as steel, even if it's named. But if you wanted to sell it, it'd be like trying to give a twig to someone and expecting they'll buy it to make a regular sized bow. Just not going to happen, because it's something that nobody knows about, nor would spend money to figure out.

At least, that's my perspective on it. It's the reason I've always kept Ranger mining already made metals, because they can be sold, turned into weapons and sold, or used in combat and everyone knows (at least in general) the strength of them and can go to a quick list for what other attributes they might have.

[SirArtemis]

Taken From Bazaar Submission Thread.
Author: 016573
Material Name: Rythadine

Description: An alloy of mythril and dehlar, rythadine is the future for enchanted weaponry. The item is crafted first from mythril, enchanted, and then a process known only to the creator is used to blend molten dehlar with the enchanted object. This solidifies the enchantment, making it unchangeable and giving it defense against any other magic. Rythadine retains the strength of mythril with the added defensive properties of dehlar, and can be made any color depending on materials added in the alchemical process. Rythadine was born here, created by the alchemist Edward "Tinker" Rythadine.

Location: At present, only in Salvar, for that is where the alchemist lives.

You know, it's interesting because that seems a lot like the metal I thought of when I made the temporary dagger I'm using in my Cold Coincidence story. In fact, it's a combination of the same metals, but I never specified the manner in which it was made.

However, the original person who came up with that has not logged in for about two months, so I added him on AIM hoping to cross his path and ask permission to do something some information from him. Given that I am in the Salvar region, and I had thought to use a similar combination, it seems like it would be perfect.

However, again, I find myself simply wondering "How far can I stretch this?" with respect to my level and what I come across. I had an idea of running across a small untapped mythril deposit and coming back with two dwarf npcs I have in my plotline who are masterwork smiths and have a vast knowledge of metal. I thought that I could work in the excavation with them so that they take most of the material, cut me a small finders fee, take me on as their apprentices (which was already promised in part 1), and set aside some ore for me to use to craft myself some daggers of my own at a future point. Does this seem reasonable at level 1?

[Letho]

Yeah, I doubt you'll be able to manage to get anything as strong as mythril at this point, especially if a special kind like the one you mentioned. I wouldn't shoot at anything over Damascus at this point, but the spoils will probably depend on how well you score, so if you do real good, you might end up with more. But in the long run, the strength of the material doesn't matter that much. Letho's gunblade is made of Dehlar, been like that since I made it, and so far I found little reason to upgrade it. It's how you use it that counts.

[Visla Eraclaire]

The simple fact of the matter is that unless there's an inhuman power behind your weapon or what's striking it, even meager iron and steel are unlikely to break. You might win a few points by saying that your lower tier metal got nicked or scratched by a higher tier one but unless you're fighting one of the world-crushing behemoths of the forum, high tier metal is all show and no substance.

I'm frankly only bothering to get something made in titanium because I enjoy being consistent with things. Titanium meets all the requirements I need and I have little use for my money otherwise.

[Paragon]

I had an idea of running across a small untapped mythril deposit and coming back with two dwarf npcs I have in my plotline who are masterwork smiths and have a vast knowledge of metal. I thought that I could work in the excavation with them so that they take most of the material, cut me a small finders fee, take me on as their apprentices (which was already promised in part 1), and set aside some ore for me to use to craft myself some daggers of my own at a future point.

If you'd like to turn this solo into a duo, Dorian is an experienced blacksmith. I think they'll let you have some mythril as a reward, just put some limitations on how much it'll cost to refine it or something. I don't see a problem with a level 0 acquiring powerful gear if they can get the money for it.

[SirArtemis]

I'll be honest, this is really demoralizing because of the contradictions. =(

On one end you are saying that I can't get that quality at low levels, but then in the same breath you say that quality doesn't matter anyways. If quality didn't matter, then it shouldn't matter if I acquire that material. I wouldn't even get any equipment out of it until later on in other threads when I finish a story arc about the actual apprenticeship. I'd probably be level 2 by then. My whole intention is to acquire some of the ore for now and bring it back to the shop where I'll be apprenticing so that it is there and available for when I do finally choose to craft the blades.

Later on, I'll write a quest where the blades get enchanted, maybe around level 2 or 3, and then finally around level 3 or 4, I'll write a story about the dwarves I work for hearing rumors of an alchemical process to apply dehlar to the mythril blade in order to solidify the enchant and increase magic resistance.

It's honestly not like I'm saying give me these dehlar reinforced mythril masterwork crafted blades with god enchants at level zero. It's a story line that needs to be built, and I can't build it because either I'm being misunderstood, or just shot down. =(

Is it such a bad spoil for the end of the quest to say "knowledge of a small mythril deposit." Then at level 1, I'd be able to go and acquire some of the ore and the reward would be "small reserve of mythril ore to craft into daggers at a future point." Is that so absurd?


If this is a pointless thing to argue and people are firm in me not being able to pursue this questline, maybe ill just shoot for damascus. whatever. It just doesn't align with my goals. =(

[Taskmienster]

It's not that anyone's saying that you can't have it, just saying that it's not a realistic goal. Think about it. If you just started learning how to swing a sword, you wouldn't expect to be Letho in a straight sword duel. Its about beginning from you know... the beginning. Lol. I'm not saying a level 0 couldn't beat Letho, OOC'ly or IC'ly, it's just a matter of how it's written. And the bottom line for Althanas is quality helps get your spoils.

If a level 0 and a level 5 miner (like Artemis and Ranger) start a thread, independently from one another, and attempt to mine the same thing (mythirl of this example). If you score a 60, and I score a 50, the judge isn't just going to give me what I requested for a spoil just because I'm 5 levels ahead. Actually, there's a much higher chance that they'll just look at it, tilt their head, and be like.. you can have damascus instead. That's not about level, as it's a skill based technique (mining) and depends on your writing not your level.

If you want to pursue mythirl, go for it. The majority of us are just saying: "Don't feel bad or offended if you don't get mythril but get something like damascus instead." If I wrote Ranger poorly I wouldn't expect to get mythril, I'd just have to take the score and the commentary to heart and try to do better so that I can try and get it next time...

[SirArtemis]

thanks task. I appreciate that response. I'll think about it. I might just leave the metal open to determination between either mythril (if i did really well on the score) or damsacus (if i did well but not good enough for mythril) and iron (if i was just bad)

[Savas Tigh]

Brotip: When someone says, "No you can't!" just do something worse.

I've been doing that in Raiaera since Sighter. It usually ends up being more fun anyway. :D

[Godhand]

The Althanas staff force is a perpetual, disgusting disappointment to me. Disregard these shitmongers, Artemis. Your goals are fine and within reason; how anyone could see any problem with your "level 0 = knowledge of small deposit of mythril ore gained as a spoil, level 1 = enough ore to craft two daggers when forging skill is gained at a future level (with the caveat that the ore can't be sold if absolutely necessary) gained as a spoil, etc" is beyond me. Furthermore, if any of these incredible prickmagicians give you any guff about it when the time comes, don't worry about it. I'll just straight up give you the gold to buy the ore you need at the bazaar if it gets refused as a spoil and you can canon it like you mined it; no one gives a shit.

[SirArtemis]

The Althanas staff force is a perpetual, disgusting disappointment to me. Disregard these shitmongers, Artemis. Your goals are fine and within reason; how anyone could see any problem with your "level 0 = knowledge of small deposit of mythril ore gained as a spoil, level 1 = enough ore to craft two daggers when forging skill is gained at a future level (with the caveat that the ore can't be sold if absolutely necessary) gained as a spoil, etc" is beyond me. Furthermore, if any of these incredible prickmagicians give you any guff about it when the time comes, don't worry about it. I'll just straight up give you the gold to buy the ore you need at the bazaar if it gets refused as a spoil and you can canon it like you mined it; no one gives a shit.

ROFL! thanks for that godhand. that was a great freaking response. In fact, if my abs didnt hurt so much from situps, i'd laugh more.

[Letho]

The Althanas staff force is a perpetual, disgusting disappointment to me. Disregard these shitmongers, Artemis. Your goals are fine and within reason; how anyone could see any problem with your "level 0 = knowledge of small deposit of mythril ore gained as a spoil, level 1 = enough ore to craft two daggers when forging skill is gained at a future level (with the caveat that the ore can't be sold if absolutely necessary) gained as a spoil, etc" is beyond me. Furthermore, if any of these incredible prickmagicians give you any guff about it when the time comes, don't worry about it. I'll just straight up give you the gold to buy the ore you need at the bazaar if it gets refused as a spoil and you can canon it like you mined it; no one gives a shit.If we're such a great disappointment then why are you still here? I'm sure there are other places on the Internet sturdy enough to suffer your gigantic overcompensating ego. Bottom line is, you won't be able to give anybody anything if you call out the staff in such a manner again, because you will be banned.

[SirArtemis]

letho, I'm pretty sure he was just kidding around... =/ he was just trying to be supportive of my goal for mythril

[Visla Eraclaire]

Yeah, their problem is that he did it in a boistrous, offensive, typically Godhand way.

Oh, and of course the serious problem: He's right.

[Silence Sei]

Oh, and of course the serious problem: He's right.

I take slight offense to that. A good portion of us are trying.

[Visla Eraclaire]

I take slight offense to that. A good portion of us are trying.

I don't think he genuinely meant everyone. Just those who have been actively participating here thus far. Of course, he wouldn't admit that. He's got to continue looking unreasonable and irascible.

[Duffy]

Vast majority of the problem with what was said by the aforementioned, is in fact nothing to do with what he said, but the manner in which he said it.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Vast majority of the problem with what was said by the aforementioned, is in fact nothing to do with what he said, but the manner in which he said it.

Thanks for the bulletin, Duffy, we all already realized that. In fact, I already said it.

Look, point is, the system for dealing with abilities is cobbled together through various forum administrations over years. It's a hodgepodge of half-rules and traditions. And that's the part that's gotten attention.

The bazaar and by extension equipment as a whole has been the neglected step-child of the forum for a long time. It's even more messed up. Looking at it too critically is going to result in dissatisfaction.

The point that Godhand is right about is, So what? Write what you want and enjoy it, on Althanas or not. Don't let people tell you "how things work" because they only work that way for as long as everyone cares what that person says, which around here isn't very long.

Have fun if you can, make your own fun if you can't, and give up if all else fails and find something you do enjoy.

Althanas on a whole is taken far too seriously.

[Duffy]

We posted at the same time Visla, I hadn't realised you'd responded as well.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Post #24. Just because I don't hate your guts anymore doesn't mean I can let you get away with being flat wrong in public.

[Godhand]

I regret nothing about my last post except for the fact that whoops, I forgot to make a joke. Oh well. Even marvelous me makes mistakes. As for me being banned, don't worry about it. The day anybody, not even necessarily me, gets banned for not couching legitimate criticism in soothing anus-aloe for the benefit of the mods is the same day I pack my shit and leave forever without ever looking back because that's when I know this place is really fucking beyond hope.

I'll tell you what REALLY sets me off though, and please believe me when I say that I'm struggling not to break out my do-it-yourself home insult kit as I write this (-box and its derivatives now allowed!), and that's the fact that you...Gentlemen seem oblivious to the fact that as you discuss (read: wank) with each other about how perfectly reasonable it is for him to settle for lesser metals, this guy keeps offering up idea after idea and compromise after compromise and getting more and more discouraged as he keeps getting shot down again and again. One of the few active newbies we've gained during this fucking doomsday drought and you were THIS close to scaring him off, and for what? To preserve the prestige of fucking mythril, a metal that MetalDrago had a goddamn masterwork katana made of at level two. Meanwhile Letho's campaigning to get an unstoppable superweapon that lets him punch through anything including supposedly invulnerable adamantine armor with a thought, that's unbreakable, and that's preternaturally heavy to boot, and I've got a sheath that makes sure any sort of spellcaster won't win, place or even finish if he fights me no matter what he fucking does.

Do you understand? WE'RE the fucking assholes you should be looking to smack down and regulate. The big showy shitheads who dedicate every moment they're not bullying level zeroes OOCly to breaking the fucking game ICly, not some newbie who just wants to feel the rush of character progression when he gets his character some decent gear.

[Tainted Bushido]

I actually blame that more on dick measuring than you. I mean, when a certain profile hit play, it became painfully obvious that game changed immediately after wards, because a certain someone, (Read: you Godhand) decided that they didn't want to be shown up by a "mary sue".

As evidenced by the Cell thread where you went to pains to troll one of the cell members, and basically made pains to include ooc notes about how people shouldn't be able to beat your power gaming ass.

Of course, blame us for getting anal retentive about stuff when you break the game...

Perhaps you should lay off the blame on us, and look in the mirror when you want to complain about why the site went to shit. You contributed as much if not more than the others, and ACTIVELY RECRUITED OTHERS to break it more. You specifically sought loopholes and cited precedents to get us to this point Godhand.

So don't you dare yell at us for eating cookies, when you're the one with your hand in the god damned pot.

[SirArtemis]

soooo i was just asking about mythril... i didn't really want this to turn into a massive fight. so, i vote we stop fighting, since my question about metal has already been answers! :D

[Caden Law]

Actually, I'd argue Godhand and Letho are both pretty heavy duty gamebreakers. No real sense singling either of 'em out. Letho does come off as more of an elitist, but Godhand comes off as more of a troll. Tit for tat. Whatever.

Thread's derailed so who's up for some e-karaoke? I'm thinkin' Queen...

[Godhand]

I can see the Numbers Guy shit (oh no I named named what a world what a woooorld), but you might want to append [citation needed] to the rest of that shit because I think you fucking hallucinated a lot of it. Actively recruited others? Do you mean the NWO? That was a power group, you fucking psychopath, not a seditious cult. Sought loopholes? Cited precedents? What the fuck are you on about? I admit I contributed to the incredible shittification of this site by getting caught up in the stupid Letho/007/Cyrus arms race, but I certainly didn't start the fucking fire. I've been on a permanent game of catch up with you freaks since like level six.

But I like the fact that you admit the site is fucked. That is progress. You're choosing to blame it all on me and made me out to be some sort of shark/lawyer/revolutionary, I think you're really just making me out to be an amalgam of like...Me, Visla and Rayse but whatever.

But you admit the site is fucked. That is good. I fucking agree with you. What do you suggest we do? Do you suggest we power down all the level tens and above? Tone it down? I'm down with that. I'll make a level update where you can do nothing but nerf existing and approved abilities and items. I don't give a shit. Rein it in. Pull it together. Let's get this shit DONE.

[Tainted Bushido]

I can see the Numbers Guy shit (oh no I named named what a world what a woooorld), but you might want to append [citation needed] to the rest of that shit because I think you fucking hallucinated a lot of it. Actively recruited others? Do you mean the NWO? That was a power group, you fucking psychopath, not a seditious cult. Sought loopholes? Cited precedents?

You stated your profile was perfectly legit if Numbers guy (oh no I NAMED NAMES) got away with his profile. That is citing a precedent by definition. In other words you played the game of "If he can do it, I must be allowed to as well..."


What the fuck are you on about? I admit I contributed to the incredible shittification of this site by getting caught up in the stupid Letho/007/Cyrus arms race, but I certainly didn't start the fucking fire. I've been on a permanent game of catch up with you freaks since like level six.

Catchup with me? You'd beat Seth Dahlios to a mushy paste. In fact you pointed this out to me and when I was leveling up, and ENCOURAGED me to increase my abilities to play catch up to YOU.

The definition of recruiting others to join in on wrecking the site.


But I like the fact that you admit the site is fucked. That is progress. You're choosing to blame it all on me and made me out to be some sort of shark/lawyer/revolutionary, I think you're really just making me out to be an amalgam of like...Me, Visla and Rayse but whatever.

I'm stating that you were one of the players in that cluster fuck when it began. It started with you deciding Letho, who rarely does tournaments and whatnot, was part of an arms race, I'm sure he never considered when he made profiles. Cyrus I'll agree was on a powertrip, trying to abuse the RoG for all it was worth. You only ENCOURAGED this by your mentality of "If I can beat this guy, I win no matter my level" and this is behavior that was prevalent long before THIS particular arms race...

...or should I bring up the fact you went out of your way to become immune to Valentina Snow's DEFINING feature? This isn't your first rodeo and probably won't be your last. I'm actually PROUD to admit that other than the fact you have to kill Seth TWICE, he's an underpowered bastard compared to you guys.

Let me give you a hint, I was about to put up a profile to REMOVE the hex ghoul stuff, since the idea fell apart and my partner for that story arc disappeared. She shows up occasionally, but I don't think we'd talk much anymore, anyways.


But you admit the site is fucked. That is good. I fucking agree with you. What do you suggest we do? Do you suggest we power down all the level tens and above? Tone it down? I'm down with that. I'll make a level update where you can do nothing but nerf existing and approved abilities and items. I don't give a shit. Rein it in. Pull it together. Let's get this shit DONE.

At least you're finally willing to toss it away. Unfortunately, that's not MY call to make. RoG isn't my realm anymore. But I'll certainly be taking that up with the guy who DOES.

[Caden Law]

...and as the only one here who goes out of his way to nerf his character each update, I have to say y'all're all acting like little girls.

Just lock the bloody thread and move on :p

[Tainted Bushido]

What's funny Caden, is for all that blustering, you really missed the mark. Especially considering we're for the most part in agreement, its just the secondary points being hashed out right now...

[Caden Law]

Well, when everyone's throwing around accusations of meta- and powergaming and Mary Sue this and arms race that, it's kinda easy to miss an agreement. Especially one that seems a bit vitriolic.

That and the thread's been totally derailed and the whole thing looks like one big drama fest.

Either way, everyone just needs to chill a bit.

[Atzar]

Can somebody split this thread off now? It's worth discussion, and I think we can manage it without any fatalities, but we've moved beyond the "Question Regarding Metals" now.

For my own opinion... what can you do? If you fight boss X at level 5 in Game Y, you might be evenly matched. But if you do a little grinding beforehand, get up to level 10, you kill him and rape his corpse. It's part of this style of game. I do think that many of the high-level characters are too strong - I as a level 3, soon-to-be 4 can't conceive of how Atzar'd ever get that powerful, for example.

The thing that I really dislike about some of the higher-level characters is their MC Hammer-ness - "Can't Touch This" - no matter what I do. Especially as a magic-based character, several characters can use items or abilities to completely shut me out. I have no hope. And while that might be realistic, should I ever try to battle them it wouldn't be fun. Sure, you can assure me that "If you write bettr then you can winz!!!!1!"... but I can only RP my character getting buttfucked so many times before it starts to get old. Aside from the 'lolyousuck' abilities, though, I have no real issue with the power present in some high-level characters.

tl;dr: I'd like to feel like I have even a 1-in-100 chance IC, even if I'm a lower level than you.

[Caden Law]

Can somebody split this thread off now? It's worth discussion, and I think we can manage it without any fatalities, but we've moved beyond the "Question Regarding Metals" now.

For my own opinion... what can you do? If you fight boss X at level 5 in Game Y, you might be evenly matched. But if you do a little grinding beforehand, get up to level 10, you kill him and rape his corpse. It's part of this style of game. I do think that many of the high-level characters are too strong - I as a level 3, soon-to-be 4 can't conceive of how Atzar'd ever get that powerful, for example.

The thing that I really dislike about some of the higher-level characters is their MC Hammer-ness - "Can't Touch This" - no matter what I do. Especially as a magic-based character, several characters can use items or abilities to completely shut me out. I have no hope. And while that might be realistic, should I ever try to battle them it wouldn't be fun. Aside from the 'lolyousuck' abilities, though, I have no real issue with the power present in some high-level characters. Sure, you can assure me that "If you write bettr then you can winz!!!!1!"... but I can only RP my character getting buttfucked so many times before it starts to get old.

tl;dr: I'd like to feel like I have even a 1-in-100 chance IC, even if I'm a lower level than you.Subtlety and scale, my friend.

For all the anti-magic, a lot of the upper level characters don't really have any true defenses if you know where and how to hit them. And it's easy to just throw in some research time since many are very well known in their own character bios.

[Godhand]

You stated your profile was perfectly legit if Numbers guy (oh no I NAMED NAMES) got away with his profile. That is citing a precedent by definition. In other words you played the game of "If he can do it, I must be allowed to as well..."

I'd hate to go into any sort court of law that defines a statement like "If these dipshits approve a guy that can't be mortally wounded by anything other than adamantine, they better not give me any shit about upping my lifting limit by a thousand pounds" as citing precedent.



Catchup with me? You'd beat Seth Dahlios to a mushy paste. In fact you pointed this out to me and when I was leveling up, and ENCOURAGED me to increase my abilities to play catch up to YOU. The definition of recruiting others to join in on wrecking the site.

I'll cop to this. It lacks context and saying I was encouraging you to wreck the site paints me as some sort of weird Svengali mastermind and these power games as what destroyed the site, when really I'm mostly just a paranoid asshole and these power games were the equivalent of messing up the drapes in a house that's burning down but whatever, let's move on.


I'm stating that you were one of the players in that cluster fuck when it began. It started with you deciding Letho, who rarely does tournaments and whatnot, was part of an arms race, I'm sure he never considered when he made profiles. Cyrus I'll agree was on a powertrip, trying to abuse the RoG for all it was worth. You only ENCOURAGED this by your mentality of "If I can beat this guy, I win no matter my level" and this is behavior that was prevalent long before THIS particular arms race...

Slow the fuck up. Don't be a douche and paint Letho as this holy saint; that's revisionist bullshit and it makes me want to puke stomach acid in your face. Letho gamed the system in one singular, glaring way, and that's that he gave himself naturally enhanced strength, and then gave himself an ability that boosted his naturally enhanced strength. But reading it, you got the idea- God this is so complicated and stupid. Basically it broke down like this, dear readers. Letho made his guy and said Letho has 3 times normal human strength. Then he says he can boost his strength times 16. A naive person, notice I didn't say a reasonable person, I said a naive person, would think he means oh so he boosts it to 19 times normal strength. NOPE! He boosts it to 48 times normal human strength. See, it's not TECHNICALLY wrong, and it could be argued that YOU'RE the asshole for misinterpreting it, but if that's not a weasel move then move the hell over because I've just been crowned king shit of fuck mountain.

Now, as bad as that was, I could still respect it because it was clever. I mean it wasn't just blatant abuse and favoritism and mod favor bullshit. It was crafty. To this day I don't know WHAT the FUCK was going through the mod's mind when they continually approved Cyrus's bullshit, because that shit wasn't crafty. It wasn't clever. It was just blatant...He didn't even care. No changes. It got approved. I felt like I was going crazy; could nobody else see this? It was like I was going fucking nuts. If it turns out that yes, I'm the asshole, I caused all this, then let me just say that the moment I became an asshole, and this probably isn't the current staff's fault, is when Cyrus' level 8 profile got approved and he had the fucking gall to ask other people to tone down magic negation in the same breath he puffed up his own magic spells. What a miserable incestuous shitpile extravaganza. Makes me want to spit. But please believe me when I say I never went out looking to make sure I could smash each and every character I fought, forever and ever. Godhand gets damaged, badly, in almost every thread he's in. Teric was five levels below him and he still killed Godhand. I didn't set out so I wouldn't lose to anybody; I set out so that I wouldn't lose to THESE fucking pricks, because they disgust me, and I'll have that carved on my fucking tombstone because it's the goddamn truth. I will lose to a level zero if I think the character is cool enough and the story makes the most sense that way.


...or should I bring up the fact you went out of your way to become immune to Valentina Snow's DEFINING feature? This isn't your first rodeo and probably won't be your last.

Don't get cute with me, asshole. Valentina's skill was so gamebreaking that she ended up having to have the rules re-written so people couldn't ape her style and steal ten million new moves without gaining them legitimately through hard work. The fact that you'd even pretend otherwise just to try and joust with me is so fucking intellectually dishonest that it makes me want to slap your shit on general principle. What is the matter with you?


I'm actually PROUD to admit that other than the fact you have to kill Seth TWICE, he's an underpowered bastard compared to you guys.

I want to say you shouldn't be, since you got sucked in too (albeit by me) and tried to make your guy a juggernaut and just got shot down by Witchblade hardcore but I haven't been keeping up with your guy so maybe you legit scaled him back recently. If so, more power to you for not wading hip deep in this bullshit. Damon Kaosi didn't do it either; I respected the shit out of him because he was top dog and refused to make himself god, too.


Let me give you a hint, I was about to put up a profile to REMOVE the hex ghoul stuff, since the idea fell apart and my partner for that story arc disappeared. She shows up occasionally, but I don't think we'd talk much anymore, anyways.

Okay?


At least you're finally willing to toss it away. Unfortunately, that's not MY call to make. RoG isn't my realm anymore. But I'll certainly be taking that up with the guy who DOES.

Shit, I'm cool. Well, no. I'm pretty fucking vicious. Obviously I'm taking as many of the high level douchemills as I can with me. I'm just dumb, I guess. I've invested so much in this stupid e-peen arm race, everyone racing to outdo each other, it's all so goddamn stupid...But playing angel's advocate, me going down alone isn't going to fix it, and you're fooling yourself if you honestly think so. I need to go down, yeah, but so do all the other gamebreaking pricks. All of us. Not a single fucking one can be spared. Otherwise the others will just struggle to catch up to him and the game will start all over again. We can't help ourselves. We're idiots.

[Tainted Bushido]

FOr the record, I wasn't saying you were doing it with the express purpose of destroying the site. It was just a side effect of you encouraging and pushing people to do so.

THAT is the behavior I was against.

As for the Valentina BS, I don't see where in the rules she was forbid it, unless you're talking about amending RoG to being able to deny spoil requests for the sake of balancing...

As for the Letho thing, perhaps his abilities were completely overpowered, but it's impossible to tell when he's off in quest land, rather than fighting in the citadel and tournaments. In other words, his shit didn't stink enough, because he was smart enough not to parade it around in public.

You on the other hand were not only running around laughing about what you were getting away with, you even did it specifically to stir shit up...


[23:11] Jack Raynes: Oh shit!
[23:11] Jack Raynes: I just remembered I get my sheath for that war.
[23:11] Jack Raynes: God, I can't wait to absorb all his fucking magic and then put my ear to the ground for the MASSIVE mod forum freakout.
[23:11] SethDahlios: Hmm?
[23:11] SethDahlios: What Sheath?
[23:12] Jack Raynes: Magic absorbing sheath.
[23:12] Jack Raynes: Check out my Artless Bazaar Thread.
[23:12] Jack Raynes: 20000 gold on the enchantment, 5000 on the sheath.
[23:12] SethDahlios: Ah

Yeah, while Letho wasn't a saint, you were CERTAINLY a devil in THAT exchange.

And I got pulled in only as far as I wanted to. I wanted to contribute to the NWO, and I did, I mainly made those changes because I knew for the most part they would mean nothing. I mean, really super human strength only means so much on the site. At a certain point juggling cars isn't going to mean much mechanics wise. Yeah I overpowered the ghoul, a little bit.

I didn't create a character that at level 4 equates a level 11.

NOR did I make a level 7 that equates to a level 13. (That's right folks, even NOW I'm behind the curve)

Letho's was probably an incidental break, in such that he MIGHT have considered it 19 times at the time. Yet obviously the math shows otherwise. Not that YOUR an asshole for not spotting it, maybe that WE believed in what he did at the time.

Basically what it came down to, was trust was dried up when you guys ran around doing your arms race. Further you tried to drag more people in, for your big hooplah's. I'll admit, I played party to some of it, yet even then that's more me playing CATCHUP, as even now I don't consider Seth even remotely level 13...

(Still gotta post that profile...)

But yes, we should have this broken off into its own thread so we can discuss the far reaches of this. Obviously a lot is going to change on this, whether it be no allowing level updates or ability spoils till you catch up, or whether its rewriting the characters entirely.

[Godhand]

The thing that I really dislike about some of the higher-level characters is their MC Hammer-ness - "Can't Touch This" - no matter what I do. Especially as a magic-based character, several characters can use items or abilities to completely shut me out. I have no hope. And while that might be realistic, should I ever try to battle them it wouldn't be fun. Sure, you can assure me that "If you write bettr then you can winz!!!!1!"... but I can only RP my character getting buttfucked so many times before it starts to get old. Aside from the 'lolyousuck' abilities, though, I have no real issue with the power present in some high-level characters.

This should piss you off. Would you honestly believe I dropped twenty five k of gold on this super sheath magic negator for the express purpose of fucking over Cyrus-level magic users and above? That was my intent when I got it. But then...I don't know. When I used to read new profiles I used to think about their abilities and then my abilities and how I could creatively use my abilities to avoid theirs. But then with time, it seemed to get easier and easier to just handwave the trickier abilities saying "Oh, I'd just use my sheath" and so on and so on until the sheath became my go-to resource for defense against even basic magic wielders. I really don't know what happened.

[Godhand]

AIM Exchange that doesn't show up in the quote page for some reason



I'm not apologizing for that. I REVEL in that shit. You've got to remember that at the time this was the same mod force that had waved Cyrus and his ridiculous updates by. You're goddamn right I was proud; I'd gotten a gamebreaking sheath the hard way, with gold I EARNED, and I was going to use it to screw over their precious little politicking superwizard and there wasn't a goddamn fucking thing they could do about it.

And then, of course, it escalated. Like Russia and USA, whether it was sloth or fear, neither of us actually launched the missiles. He got an ability to disenchant items with a stare so I made my sheath unenchantable. That sort of shit. Nothing came out of it but by then, shit, I'd gotten a taste for it, and plenty of other fuckwads richly deserving an IC beating had taken his place...What could I do? I'm simple. I see red, I charge. Besides, it gave me an impulse. A reason to write on the site again. Getting to level ten meant I could quit playing the catch up game and just enjoy it.

Hasn't quite worked out that way, though. I thought once these guys got to level ten they'd chill too and we could all just bask in our crapulence but it's like they want to keep going. Shit man, where does it end? I don't have the stamina to keep this up to level thirty. Fuck no. Are you nuts? I barely got to double digits. Letho's got it easy. The mods love him so anything he likes is just handwaved through. And that's not really mod bias, it's just basic human nature. He's nice to them so they're nice to him. But I'm honest and I don't fuck around for anybody. For me it's the hard way; I got to phrase it the right way; shit...I haven't made a level update in years because I know the current staff hates my fucking guts and have wanted a crack at me for a long ass time, and the first thing they're gonna do when I make a level up is nerf a fuckton of my items, especially my sheath, and probably screw with my speed and strength if they think they can get away with it. But you know what? I'm starting to care less and less. The more I talk about it the less I care.

This is going to sound extremely butthurt, but I'm never going to win a tournament scorewise anyway. They don't care if people powergame/otherwise fuck with me me because 1) I've spit in their eye too many times for them to care and 2) They don't like my writing, so even if they did dock someone else for powergaming, if they were well regarded they'd still come out ahead. And knowing I'm not going to win OOCly...Well, I guess if for some reason I ever cross swords with any of these jerkoffs, I can still trounce them ICly by powergaming. They'll dock my score, but who gives a shit?

So, I guess what I'm saying is...

Yeah.

Send me an updated character sheet with what you'd like to see and I'll post that.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Cry for the devil.

[Taskmienster]

On that note...

I agree with the need to scale down profiles of people that are way out there. And am going to be working to do so. I don't care if it was previously approved, if it's out of line it's out of line and will be dealt with. That goes for old characters, people who aren't on the site and might be back in the future, as well as currently updating characters. Cyrus messed up a lot of shit in the RoG, then Witchblade came along to ignore reading profiles and didn't help out much. It bothered me when I was a mod, and couldn't do anything, and it bothers me still as an admin that WILL do something.

I'm actually proud to say this :: Godhand's right.

Also, since this thread has de-railed completely off-topic, I'm going to close it.

If you guy's want to continue arguing the semantics of who was devil and who was angel in past level updates, please take it to PM's or AIM. There's really no point in throwing up massive amounts of text to argue a point from two different sides; one against a few people... one against a broken system in the RoG. IF you have specific concerns or suggestions on what could be done to work on the RoG, by all means feel free to contact me via PM or AIM (TheTaskmienster)