Arcane Awesomeness

Things have been going really well lately over in the Order of Arcanes. I've been happy about the amount of activity going on, new members joining and general atmosphere within the organisation. This was best highlighted by over the weekend where we all three of our leaders leading successful runs with a total of seven different members joining in on the action.

The first run was led by Ashetaka our number one to the Mountain of Lost Souls. The aim was to make some shades of light which are always in demand. It had been a long time since I had done that run myself. Despite a couple of minor hiccups along the way it went well. Using my barbarian I managed to get a couple of killing blows on some of the mobs along the way like this:

Your rending grip injures The bringer of Salvation!
The bringer of Salvation is DEAD!!
With the final blow, Salvation pulls back its mask revealing the face of a demon imp!
The bringer of Salvation says 'You have brought me the Salvation I sought.. '
The bringer of Salvation says 'Here is the Redemption you were looking for... May it bring you closer towards your own deliverance.'
From inside a gaping wound, Salvation pulls out a large object.
The bringer of Salvation gasps his last breath and blood spurts out of his mouth and ears.
The bringer of Salvation has no gold.
The corpse of The bringer of Salvation holds:
     (Glowing) the darkened robe of atonement
     (Humming) a small rune covered symbol named, 'Salvation'
     (Humming) a large rune covered symbol named, 'Redemption'

After this run I led a run to the Barren Wastes to make some leather leggings with a feathered trim. The first part of this involved killing the enormous winged beast. This part was easy enough though I learnt it is a lot easier with either 2 barbarians or 2 thieves instead of one of each. After this we did the giant serpent. Most of the run notes I see for this mob suggest using barbarians but I've found thieves work much better. With three thieves running in, circling and fleeing out when necessary we brought the serpent down with no problems. In the end the wanderer turned up and made the leggings:

You give a roll of feathery beige fabric to The wanderer.
The wanderer ruffles his fingers through the feathers of the roll of fabric, then bend the scaley hide back and forth, testing its pliability.
The wanderer thinks, 'Hmmmm.'
The wanderer says 'Shouldn't be too difficult.'

The wanderer takes a few unidentifiable tools from a small pouch and begins to work on the fabric and hide.

The wanderer tugs at the finished product, testing its durability.
The wanderer says 'Not bad, I'd think.  If you like feathers.'
The wanderer gives you leather leggings with a feathered trim.

Finaly Sarakin led a run to Salburg to kill the trees that pop parts to make the Ancient Breastplate of the Forest Wanderer.

These mobs aren't too hard to kill but they take a long time even with three people. In the end though we killed them without too much difficulty:

Your slash rips an old willow tree!
An old willow tree is DEAD!!
An old willow tree falls, cutting off a few of its whip-like branches.
An old willow tree catches its guts in its hands as they pour through its fatal
wound!
An old willow tree has no gold.
The corpse of An old willow tree holds:
     the curled branches of an old willow tree

I am far from the best run leader though I like to think of myself as competent at most of easy runs and a few of the harder ones. Between these three runs it reminded me of a few of my aims when leading a run:

• Make everyone feel welcome and that they are contributing
• Be extra prepared when leading. Have extra tank potions, ice girths, back up characters, etc.
• Be patient and explain everything - don't assume people have done this run before or remember all the details.
• Don't waste time. Once set get going and go so you don't get caught out with a repop hitting at a bad time.
• Know what to do when things go wrong (which they will at some point)

What I am most excited about though with these three runs is the potential of where we are going as an organisation and as individual players. We are improving our teamwork, learning each others strengths and weaknesses, building up knowledge of different areas and mobs while gaining some nifty new equipment. If we can keep this up we'll be able to run bigger mobs for better equipment in these areas. Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll be able to go after Khiurn'hai in the Mountain of Lost Souls, get the wanderer to make us some facestompers and dense wooden bracers in the Barren Wastes and maybe even take on Zharruk'din  in the City of Salburg.

Arcanes Quest

For the last couple of months I've been toying around in my head with the idea of a quest to run for the Order of Arcanes. I've been wanting to do something that is:

1.  Accessible to everyone regardless of how many avatar characters they had.
2. Would encourage people to go out and kill mobs they haven't killed before or for a long time.
3. Not too difficult, too easy or long.
4. Would promote teamwork with other members.

I had been thinking of doing some sort of quest that focused on killing mobs but didn't want to just have a "go kill mob X" sort of thing. My first idea was to give the description of a mob with the name removed and have people figure out what the mob was, kill it and bring back an item from the mob. The problems with this idea were:

1. It got very spammy on the notes.
2. Some mobs didn't have a proper description.
3. Most of the mobs had their descriptions fully covered on Rodpedia.

In the end I decided to place 30 item names into a wordsearch using a website I sometimes use for my remedial classes who struggle with basic literacy (using MUDS to improve basic reading and writing skills... interesting idea)  to make worksheets for. I also needed to find some decent prizes to use as an incentive. After searching around my storage spaces I'm offering up the following as prizes for the first three placegetters: Maniacal Tendencies, the dagger of metaphysical deliverance and the Breastplate of the Ravager and various gold prizes to other participants.

The notes I posted on the Arcanes noteboard for the quest are shown below:

 

Hopefully this quest will be a success and get people working together to kill some stuff plus maybe even get some people interested in joining us.

And finally Happy New Year to anyone reading this. I hope 2015 is a good one.

Calm Your Farm and More...

I've been slow on the updates lately. I haven't done any one major thing in the Realms of Despair of late but several little things so this post will be a bunch of snippets of things that are happening.

Levelling and McFarming
The little drow warrior I posted about levelling earlier is ticking along nicely and got up to level 45 quite quickly. I slowed down a bit as I wanted to use him to explore a couple of lower level areas, one of which is MacMillan Family Farm. This area has puzzles and some nice equipment only accessible to characters under level 45. The first puzzle I came across was with the well. This one has similarities to spaces in the Barren Wastes in particular around the horned beast you need to kill for the facestompers. Here's what I've figured out:

Fork in the Road
The roadway comes to an intersection here, splitting around a simple well that supplies the farm with water. The chalky pebbled path leads off to the northwest, where a pair of large wooden barns can be seen. To the northeast a dirt road continues off towards a small farmhouse, and more orchards. To the north, large canyons can faintly be seen in the distance, making passage into the mountain near impossible from the farm.
Exits: south northeast northwest
An old stone well is here, shaded by a small cedar roof.

> exam well
You take a closer look at an old, stone well on the ground...
Created ages ago, this well is constructed from very large river rocks, plucked from the canyon beds below, held together with mortar. Once clean and polished, it is now all but covered with a thick green moss. The well is capped with a cedar roof, resting a few feet above the opening. The roof is supported by two large spruce posts, attached to the peaks of both sides. This well has supplied the farm with fresh water since its inception. There is a rope tied to one of the spruce posts, it trails off and coils into the grass behind the well.

> drop rope well
You grab the coil of rope and let it down to the darkness of the well below.

> climb down rope
You carefully climb over the well's ledge, and climb the rope down into the darkness below.

Deep Within the Well
Not very much is visible from the few strands of dust-filled light that filter down from the well entrance high up above. The smooth block walls spiral down to meet the shin high water of this underground river well beneath the earth's surface. Small ripples form around the few small slippery rocks that crest the surface of the otherwise calm water. The remains of the well's bucket can be seen strewn about just beneath the water's surface, torn into many pieces by some unknown force.
Exits: none

> exam rocks
Four larger rocks crest the waters surface, creating tiny islands. Many smaller rocks and pebbles blanket the spaces between the main four. Three of the larger rocks look quite secured, but one of them looks as though you could look under it.

> look under rock
As you go to look under the rock, an armored baloth jumps out at you, snapping!

Again leave no stone unturned. The fight against the armored baloth is on the tough side for a character under level 45 but when killed it has a chance of popping a piece of a better item.


Questing for Glory
I was lucky enough to be on when an immortal ran quest was on. This one involved finding snow shovels to help a stuck buffalo free. I found my first one on the Valley of the Elves as follows:

A Trail Less Travelled
Exits: down northeast southeast
A deluxe snow shovel lies here.
An antelope is here, peacefully munching on grass.

An antelope leaves southeast.

>g shovel
You get a deluxe snow shovel.

>c id shovel
Object 'a deluxe snow shovel found by Jessyl' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 51 treasure, weight 1.
Special properties:  none
This treasure has a gold value of 0.

>exam shovel
You take a closer look at a deluxe snow shovel found by Jessyl in inventory...
You see nothing special.

>Darkhaven Square
You are standing within the expanse of the famous Darkhaven Square. An immense stone statue of Duke Luther sits in the center of the square, surrounded by fountains of shimmering crystal water.  Gardens and shrubbery enhance the air of serenity and peace here in the center of the great city. A plaque set into the base of the fountain attracts your eye.  Cobblestone roads lead away in the four cardinal directions, while to the northeast
and northwest are forested paths.  The cathedral spires of Notre Dame de Sioux rise with majesty above the treetops to the northwest.
Exits: north east south west up northeast northwest
A large sundial lies here, useless during the night hours.
Torrents of flame flow a river of fire through the night sky above the square.
Stone fountains containing crystal clear water surround the Duke's statue.
(Fade) An enormous pile of snow seems to be slowly moving.
A snow covered buffalo is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.
(Hide) (Translucent) Rentuke StarSword-Belforte is hovering here.
(Hide) Lareawan Dawnbreaker is the voice inside your head [NC-ON] is hovering here.
Only a deluxe snow shovel will help dig out the snow.

>give shovel buffalo
You give a deluxe snow shovel found by Jessyl to a snow covered buffalo.
A snow covered buffalo thanks you heartily.

I went on to then find two more shovels in The Mire, one in Ocean Keep and another in the Desert of Despair. With 2 glory per shovel the prize 'm now only 7 glory short of an extra damage roll.


Barbarian Adventures
A couple of fellow members of Arcanes have recently finished levelling barbarians and needed to get the dressed up so I've helped people kill a couple of mobs with barbarian items. The first was the yeti - this mob is frustrating with it's low pop rates and the timing needed to kill it so you have a chance of getting a claw.

After this we've also been killing the enormous manticore. This mob has been strange in that it does not appear every reboot and I'm not even sure what area it is officially in as when you use the where command in his room it gives you a message about not knowing where you are. In the end we had few problems killing the manticore. Of all the barbarian equipment mobs this is the easiest where the good old choke, flee, quit, relog, repeat... method works well. End result being:

You choke the life out of an enormous manticore as he struggles to break your grasp!
You injure an enormous manticore!
An enormous manticore is DEAD!!
You lose your death-grip on your victim's neck.
An enormous manticore lets out a horrendous cry that rises high into the air before disappating. A portion of an enormous manticore's head is ripped off as it falls to the ground. An enormous manticore catches his guts in his hands as they pour through his fatal wound!
You get 1054000 gold coins from the corpse of an enormous manticore.
The corpse of an enormous manticore holds:
     the horned helm of the plains wanderer

Underworld Grinding
All this week I've been setting myself up in The Underworld grinding away at making some Maniacal Tendencies. The strategy for this is simple - kill Eylops with a warrior using non-magic weapons and an immobilizing mage immobilizing away. Once down grab the keys, switch the warrior to wielding a Nasr and then have the warrior/mage team kill Rage and Fury and fingers crossed pop an essence off each. Repeating this for a week I managed to pop 8 of each. Connecting these and then sacrificing them using an augurer with 22 luck resulted in the following 7 times:

>g rage birch; g fury birch; connect rage fury; drop unfettered;sac unf
You get the essence of rage from a small birch chest.

You get the essence of fury from a small birch chest.

You cobble the pieces together...
 ...suddenly they snap into place, creating Unfettered Delirium!

You drop Unfettered Delirium.

A'enari gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of Unfettered Delirium.

On the 6th attempt out of 8 however...

>g rage birch; g fury birch; connect rage fury; drop unfettered;sac unf
You get the essence of rage from a small birch chest.

You get the essence of fury from a small birch chest.

You cobble the pieces together...
 ...suddenly they snap into place, creating Unfettered Delirium!

You drop Unfettered Delirium.

A'enari gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of Unfettered Delirium.
Strange sounds rise up from the ground echoing in a chorus of insane laughter. A twirling mist forms about the ground, bringing an immediate chill to the air. As you look down you spy a strange looking helmet which has appeared by arcane means.
You get Maniacal Tendencies.

I'm hoping to continue grinding away for another week or two in the hopes of making three Maniacal   Tendencies - one for my drow warrior, one to use a prize for an Arcanes quest and one to sell/trade for other items.

More Reading
I've also been reading a couple of blogs by other players. Firstly Graham's blog at http://gsbarcanes.blogspot.com. Its still kind of new but it shows a different point of view of happenings around the Realms.

Secondly Syldir's Corner of Despair at http://realmsofdespair.info/blogs/Syldir/. A very different blog to mine and well worth checking out.

Leadership

Recently one of my characters – Jessyl the lizardman ranger was appointed as the number 2 of The Order of Arcanes. Having never been a leader of any organisations it has had me thinking about leadership and what one should be aiming to do. Around the same time I found this article about leadership in MMORPG’s on Massively in their Guild Counsel that got me thinking as well. It breaks down the different qualities the author believes are needed for successful leadership into being visionary, motivating, coordinating, arbitrating, fairness, listening and prepared to make mistakes. My thoughts on each point are as follows:

Vision
I agree that having a vision in mind of what you want your organisation to be is needed to make it better. Having goals, plans on how to achieve them and celebrating when accomplished will help any group. For Arcanes my vision includes having the best knowledge in the game, allowing new and experienced players to develop their own skills, a sense of belonging and community for members, the ability to take on the biggest mobs in the game and having a reputation for these things through out the Realms of Despair.

Already Arcanes has many of these aspects of my vision but there is always room for improvement. our forums have a lot of information on them and many of our members including myself are trying hard to add to them. We are welcoming to new players and help each other out with equipment, gold and other items. Lately there have been more activity killer some of the newer and multi-avatar mobs in the game. There is an opportunity for us in the latest incarnation of the Cry of Despair to help promote ourselves and our ideals in.

As for the sense of community and belonging it is definitely there.

Motivating
Motivating myself let alone others can be a challenge. There are different type of motivation – intrinsic/extrinsic and positive/negative motivators which can be represented on a two dimensional continuum as shown below:

Intrinsic and positive motivators are the most succesfful – things like wanting to figure out some puzzle or kill some new mob so that you feel good about yourself. An extrinsic/negative motivator would be being told to lead X runs or log in every day or you will be removed from the order.  In short doing things that make you feel good and give you a reward work best – threatening with punishments is least successful.

One of the most common responses I get from people who read this blog is promotes interest in parts of the game they may not have seen before. The motto of the game is “Endless medieval adventure” – just sometimes people need a point in the direction of an adventure they haven’t yet seen.

Coordinating
Coordinating a group of players is another challenge. Between in game note boards, ordertalk, tells and mudmails plus out of game forum boards and emails this is doable but does require constant monitoring. One of the big complaints with some organisations at times are when leaders don't log often enough to monitor all communications. Arcanes has got leaders who are on regularly.

Arbitrating
Being able to settle disputes is at times necessary for a leader though this issue doesn't concern me much. Last week in real life I had to deal with two 15 year old girls who wanted to beat each other up because the first one's boyfriend had like and posted a flirty comment on the second girls facebook page. I'm not saying that Realms of Despair players are like angry, catty hormonal teenage girls but, well, maybe sometimes. Still I'd rather them than any real life issues as in a game you can use the ignore command.

Listening
A good leader does need to be prepared to listen to other members. There's few things worse than when the people running an organisation will not listen to the members and think they have all the answers, or worse will not listen as they feel it is personal if people don't like their direction.

Fairness
People are always most unhappy if they think that a situation is not fair to them. In an organisation like Arcanes people will complain about fairness of equipment loot and access to running bigger mobs. We have systems in place to make this as fair as possible and sometimes as a leader you do need to put members and the organisation ahead of your own particular wants.

Making mistakes
Finally it states that a leader needs to be prepared to make mistakes, learn from them and move on. Risks do need to be taken and things will go wrong. For the members I believe it can mean a lot for people in power to admit to mistakes and fix them when they do occur.

Those are my thoughts on leadership. Feel free to send me a tell or post a comment, and if you are interested in joining the Order of Arcanes.