Thank God.
However, in my youth I was a roleplayer. Occasionally now while playing EverQuest I’ll mess around a bit, speaking in character, but as with Roger Rabbit “only when it is funny”. Years ago, I would sit at a table covered in books and dice, and 5 or 6 of us would play Dungeons & Dragons, or Top Secret, or Star Frontiers, or any of a plethora of games that we owned.
This is too funny not to link.
Was I ever like this?
Probably. And know, that as I write this, my head hangs in shame.
Enjoy!
Sony has expressed an interest in more people using shields. Warriors have shown a proven deficiency in being able to control an encounter: their taunt and damage output is just not enough, and the result is that the rest of the players must manage themselves or actively shed agro in order for the warrior to tank, where the knights, paladins and shadow knights, have spells that are more effective at maintaining agro.
To that end I began thinking about shields being used by a warrior as a weapon, not simply as a shield. Don’t think sword and shield, slash and block, that knights do in movies and fairy tales. Instead, think Gladiator, smashing his opponent with his shield, slashing him with it, crushing him with it, distracting his opponent from his more deadly bladed weapon in the other hand, breaking his concentration. Offense, not defence.
Add a new weapon skill called “Shield” or “Offhand Bashing”. Then go through and add a weapon delay to shields for warriors only. The damage for the shield would be based off the armor class of it as the Bash skill currently does. And for each swing of a shield have it apply a hate increase value, how large or small would need to be tested and tweeked. You don’t want to make a warrior with a shield have absolute agro so that the rest of a raid can nuke and attack without care, nor do you want to make it so small that a warrior would choose weapons with procs on them over a shield all the time.
The key and the goal here is that by tying the new hate increase to a weapon type means that the warrior can selectively choose when to apply this. If he or she is the main tank for a raid, or even a single group, they would probably choose to wield a shield for the agro, but if they are one of eight or ten warriors on a raid they could use other weapon combinations to avoid the added agro of the shield and focus on damage. And of course, every warrior would keep a shield in their bags so that in the event of an emergency, main tank death, multiple adds, etc., they could pull it out to help gain agro faster.
There is an exercise in logic. Its a maze, and in the maze are you and a minortaur. You can move one square at a time, the minotaur moves two at a time. The goal is to reach the exit before he gets you. The trick to this is that the minotaur always takes the most direct path to you, even if that path is to face a wall and not move. So the key is to use the maze to force the minotaur to require more than twice the number of moves to get to you than it is for you to get to the exit. In most presentations of this exercise, around level 3, it is actually impossible to win if you move on the first round. Every moment you take causes the minotaur to round a corner and gives him the ability to get you before you get the door. So the trick is to pass your first round and make the minotaur move first, and when he moves he gets stuck in a dead end that gives you free reign of the maze. You win by choosing to sit still. You win by doing nothing.
In some people’s lives there may come a time where they believe that they have run out of choices, that there are no more opportunities. Some people, when presented this option don’t know what to do, like people who continually lose the maze and the minotaur exercise. They simply cannot comprehend that the best course of action is to let go and do nothing. The world will move around them, and things will change, and likely the answer they are looking for will present itself, or at least new doors will open. But they can’t do this, so they keep moving, and they keep losing.
Faced with the situation that all of ones actions result in losing but unwilling to not act, some people make the only choice they feel they have left. They choose to finally, absolutely and brutally remove all choice and opportunity from their lives by ending their lives.
Sometimes, it may seem like there is no end to misery in sight, that life is bleak and black and horrible, that everything you do only makes the pain worse. If this happens, remember that sometimes there is nothing you can do to win, but sometimes by doing nothing you win.
Its good. Its bad. Its life.
Live it.
- for Carl, the friend I’ll never know
I decided that I had some good ideas for the game I play called EverQuest. To that end, I’ve added a new category (and new section) for the site for it that will revolve around ideas that I have about EverQuest, both innovations and reworkings.
To start with, when I finish getting it cleaned up, are some ideas that I have for helping relieve the imbalance between pure melee classes and the rest of them.
See ya soon.
… the more they stay the same.
I say I’m going to update more, and I don’t. Its the cycle I’ve been in for 5 years with this web junk, and I don’t foresee myself changing anytime soon.
In the end, its the usual excuses. Too much work. Other stuff going on. I’m moving. Nothing to report. Creative juices not flowing. Etc, etc.
Well, back to our regularly scheduled…
The Disney theme park ride is good…
The new movie starring Jonny Depp and Orlando Bloom is awesome.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw an action/adventure film in the theater and left feeling so utterly satisfied.
Go see it.
In EverQuest, when it was released, the highest level you could attain was 50. Later, with the Kunark expansion, that bar was raised to 60. With the Planes of Power, now that rung sits at 65.
I’ve never been at the top in EQ. When Kunark was released, I was level 29 or 30, I forget which. With Planes of Power, well, I could have been 60 before then, but I had 3 or 4 characters I was actively playing by then and I had let the levelling rush on my primary character lapse.
Its been a long time, but I finally managed to bring Ishiro to level 60. Its not the end of the road anymore, but still a good milestone I think.
Only 5 more levels and about 300+ Alternate Experience points to go…
… someday.
That’s right, I went this weekend and saw “Hulk” at the theater.
Oh my…
The level of detail on the CGI of the Hulk himself was astounding. Given my recent dissapointment during the viewing of the Matrix Reloaded, and some of the unpolished shots of the Hulk trailers, I wasn’t quite prepared to see the green goliath of my youth brought to such vivid life. He lived and breathed on the screen. He smiled, frowned, furrowed his brow, and even sighed in relief.
I won’t ruin the movie for anyone, but let me just say this… If you want to go to Hulk looking for two hours of a green monster crushing things, you’ll be unhappy. If you go instead looking to see a well blended mix of Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein, I’d wager you’ll come out as happy as I am.
From the first time I heard them I was a Metallica fan.
When I heard Fade to Black, I found that music could have a message without being a folk song. Hard and heavy (with meaning), the song stirred me… and the world. Newspapers actually covered the song, and its effect on its listeners.
They continued to make music, and I continued to be a fan.
Then one day, I heard a song being played that had a familiar ring, but seemed odd… different… good.
I sought out this music and stumbled onto something I had once joked about ("Heavy Metal Elevator Music… the songs of Danzig… on pan flute!") but had never thought would be anything I would consider amazing.
Apocalyptica. Their first album was a collection of Metallica songs played on four cellos. Simply unbelievable.
Since they have done more covers, as well as some original music. All of it stunning for the simplicity and complexity of playing music with cellos while retaining depth.
If you haven’t, check them out. I highly recommend them.
… is that I write most of them as songs. Some of them seems silly on paper, but when I read them in my head the band plays with them.
Only, I’m not a song writer. The music doesn’t flow nearly as well as the words. Sure, it sounds great in my head, but I can’t put the notes on paper or play the instuments. I can’t even describe them enough for someone else to play it.
But such is life.
By the way… this means there is more poetry in the Poetry section.
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