Wecome to the TownCrier’s Discord Digest! In this space, we at the TownCrier will attempt to provide a daily digest of select converssations at the Official GemStone IV Discord server from 10 pm EST the night previous to 10 pm EST the night of. Not all conversations will be reported and we will endeavor to utilize a neutral tone (although our unique senses of humor may show through).

Links may go to the Official Discord post itself, to the GemStone IV Wiki, or other useful and relevant places. In the case of Discord links, those links will send you to the Discord web interface.

The majority of this digest record was compiled by the player of Qafziel Nalfein/Darcena Wolf-Valslayer; #scripting was compiled by Luxelle. Have an error to report on this digest or some information to pass along? Contact Jen on Discord at ArmyJen#0001. Please reference which digest day to which you are referring.

What You Missed

General Gemstone IV

#general

There was a lot of discussion on how to select an MHO or CHE, ways to feel integrated into the game other than combat, when to download lich if you’re a new player. That sort of thing.

#premium

GM Quilic announced, “Re: Premium Fest (August 23rd through 30th on FWI): Services (Raffles/special merchants/etc) are going to be largely centered on opening weekend (which is to say, the 23rd, 24th, and 25th). The usual caveats apply relating to the schedule of the individual GMs, but we are going to attempt to have the majority of these things occur during the weekend. This is NOT to say there won’t be merchanting during the week (because there most assuredly will be), just that we’re trying to have opening weekend be service-heavy. During the week, my personal focus will shift to storyline things. (This applies to both Prime and Plat)”

He continued:

Offhand (and I know I’m going to regret this) I can’t think of anything I’ve come across that I wasn’t able to work on, given some time to fiddle with it. (This of course excludes things which are unalterable).

So bring your Girl on Fire gowns, your Metallic gowns, your IACL clothing, your Veolas, and your Sprite weapons. We’ll figure it out.

Also, with the concentration for the weekend: That’s NOT going to be all-encompassing. That’s just when we’re asking GMs to make an effort to offer their services.

Sothog asked, “Why are the Globus staves more difficult? More stuff to edit?” GM Quilic responded, “Globus Staves are awesome, both on your guys’ side and ‘under the hood’. There’s lots of interwoven parts, though, so you have to be careful that everything works right and plays nice with each other.”

#mechanics

More talk about racial inbalance from the new CMAN. See yesterday’s discussion for a review.

HebrewToYou said, “[move applicable CMAN skills to Weapon Specializations and Dodge Specializations].there are tons of skills I would train in for flavor (coup de grace, for one) and fun that I can’t because of the insane opportunity cost. also, make groin kick available to every profession already. it’s not like it takes training to learn how to kick someone in the privates. it’s as natural as the moro reflex. my kids have proven that consistently”

Soon after this the conversation turned into whether TWC or Shield was better.

Naamit said, “Man i really wish certain weapon bases had inherent maneuvers. Like lasso-trip-ensnare for whips, knee-bash for maces, ear-slap/disorient for broadswords, etc.”

#scripting

Kragdruk answered a question from Arianiss about how to account for elapsed time in a Ruby script.

Roboto Mono font gets a thumb’s up from several folks!

Ondreian shared a screenshot of his new GS Front End under development, he’s calling it Ilthorn.

World of Elanthia

#festivals-and-events

GM Quilic announced, “Premium Fest Spoilers! {Redacted} will be availabe! Plus you’ll have a chance at {redacted}, there’ll be {redacted}, and the one I’m most excited for: {redacted}! Plus a new grounds, new NPCs, and an ingrained storyline. T-Minus 8 days!”

SimuCoin Events and Quests

#duskruin

Celby asked PM Wyrom, “possible to add these to Duskruin verb? # of entries (each event) in last 30 days, # of bloodscrip earned lifetime (guess this is trackable from this event forward), # of bloodscrip earned last 30 days” PM Wyrom responded, “Sadly, no. But wish I thought of it from the get go.”

Shield asked, “Can the Duskruin proliferation of items continue with Bag of Holding upgrades to Heist and Arena? It seems a good fit with tokens everywhere and smithy invites added to Heist.” PM Wyrom responded, “Maybe next time. I really don’t want to change anything like that mid run.”

Gavrien said, “Unsolicited critique on the phrasing of the illusion for the common runes: ‘giving off’ a(n) X ‘semblance’ is an awkward way to say someone projects an X quality.” PM Wyrom responded, “Something I can look at, @Gavrien”

Sabotage asked, “Trove coming today?” PM Wyrom responded, “Likely looking at the weekend at this point. Haliste has not been available this week. She made some fixes last night, but it needs someone familiar with the system to watch it.”

Enchants Nixed on Coraesine

Guarrin said, “I just posted about this in the Premium channel too. But between the silent unnerf/nerf and increased premium points I’m really disappointed with the customer service. Consistency for items within the same event seems like min-ship quality.”

GM Estild replied, “Any material that has a modifier of -999 should not be enchantable or ensorcellable. There was a bug where the enchant portion wasn’t appropriately being blocked. Naos is currently gathering logs to locate those items so they can be corrected.”

Leafiara requested getting her essence returned. GM Estild replied, “Essence will be refunded.”

Guarrian stated, “Going to throw this out there, but maybe it’s ok to err on the paying players side in cases like this. I understand the complexity but also, paying customers at an additional pay event paying a non-insignificant sum for a product.”

Hoy replied, “it really isn’t even the cost but some people made decision purchasing one item over another limited item”

GM Estild replied, “I’m just going to note here that a number of players explicitly knew they shouldn’t have been able to do that, and enchanted said items anyway. We’re not going to punish those players, but they knew the risk.” and “We have validated logs to confirm it.”

This conversation continued and included discussion on what players called a silent PP nerf.

Players were also very concerned about the idea that GMs would be removing enchants from items they stated they did not realize were not enchantable under the new system.

Ragz stated, “I have given up trying to decipher what is and is not a bug. There isn’t a clear delineation of what should and should not work, or how to confirm that something is working as intended (sometimes due to complete lack of transparency, which is fine, but terribly unfair to blame players). If you’re told not to do something, then stop. That’s the only way to even know. Even when some issues are brought to light, there’s no guarantee of a response – or even a read receipt”

Qafziel Nalfein

Qafziel Nalfein, scholar and political devotee, travels Elanith learning more about the relationships between notable parties. His focus is on the Cooperative Houses of Elanthia and Meeting Hall Organizations and their liaisons, but he’s also known to pop into a town meeting on a whim or congratulate someone on reaching the pinnacle of their studies whether it be in warfare or sorcery or something else entirely. Qaf is always on the lookout for ways to connect individuals and organizations both with each other, with adventurers, and with the TownCrier for the betterment of our society. He maintains a network of informants who assist him in his tasks.