Welcome to the TownCrier’s Daily Discord Digest.

In this space, we at the TownCrier will attempt to provide a daily digest of select conversations at the Official GemStone IV Discord server covering a 24-hour period from 10 pm EST the night previous to 10 pm EST of the night listed in the title. Not all conversations will be (nor can 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. If you are not signed in, you will need to be signed in to see them.

The digest was created by and is edited by the player of Qafziel Nalfein/Darcena Wolf-Valslayer – Jen. Have an error to report on this digest or some information to pass along? Contact Jen on Discord at ArmyJen#0001 or e-mail her. Please reference which digest day to which you are referring.

What You Missed

The majority of this digest record was compiled by Jen; #scripting was compiled by Luxelle.

General Gemstone IV

#general

Khaell asked, “is there a way that we can have someone rework the webpage a bit so that i can activate/deactivate characters without having to deal with phone calls or emails? its not that i mind Chris, but sometimes i want gratification now, not just during business hours?”

#prime

seanbot asked, “If I have an old item who’s script got broken sometime over the past however many years, will GMs typically fix those?” GM Estild responded, “More than likely, but depends on the actual specifics. Best to BUGITEM it.”

#premium

In regards to the Premium Festival, GM Quilic said, “Hopefully! It’ll be quite a departure from QST, as far as the “vibe” of it. I did the Carnival of Freaks storyline, which was its own “thing”… QST is something different… and this will be yet again something different. I like to try different types of stories when I can.”

Khaell asked, “are you going to put out a schedule for certain things/services by chance?” GM Quilic responded, “That will be up to the individual GMs running each service, largely. I will do my utmost to echo things to this channel, if possible (I really have no idea how busy I personally am going to be… though I expect it’s “very”), and the things I’m personally doing will have a schedule posted (after the grounds open). But I can’t speak for others.”

#mechanics

Rarr asked, “Can we admit yet that breakage is never going to happen and just make forged weapons add more to DF instead of adding to STR/DUR?” Nidal responded, “Forged weapons add to DF and AvD as it is. I didn’t know they had an ST/DU modifier. That’s probably just an artifact at this point as breakage isn’t coming in a day and age where you pay Simu $ for items.”

Ondreian reported an issue with the Simutronics website creating a bug wherein you cannot accept the cookie preferences notice or interact with the character manager.

Ragz asked, “I’m attempting to combine that shield strike mastery build with dervish in the hope that it sees a little more action in that route. Is there a martial stance that would pair better?” Shield responded, “Dervish pairs well with mstrike and TWC mstrike for obvious reasons. Shield strike mastery never gave me the mileage I felt it deserved because the target is rarely standing after being hit 3 – 8 times. I haven’t had shield strike mastery in years, but I mstrike all the time… and between hard hits and knockout flares on my primary weapon (as a paladin): I still wouldnt use the points on it.” He summarized his position with “Thematically, it’s great. I liked it. Mechanically, it doesn’t work.” GM Naijin responded, “I’ve got a change in progress for shield strike mastery. I hope to release it RSN.”

Calista asked, “can you please let us refresh spirit servant (218) at tables when the spell is already on you?”

Shield asked GM Naijin, “Is it too much to hope for (or ask for!) that shield bash have cman roll to connect decoupled with the effect of knockdown / damage?” GM Naijin asked, “What? Why?” Shield responded, “I think it should be darn easy for an agile halfing to make contact with a giantman / titan with a shield. (cman roll to connect) Now, is he likely to be knocked over (the effect?). Probably not.” GM Naijin responded, “I’m not the guy to flat out say no but I can say with confidence that it will likely never happen. Racial choices (and professions) need to be meaningful.” The conversation continued and GM Naijin said, “Small folks (excluding dwarves) have maneuverability and dexterity but lack the size to make most of the physical maneuvers powerful.”

Shield asked, “Would another shield maneuver be more likely to happen? similar to hamstring, where it does… something but different?” GM Naijin responded, “I think we have quite a bit of overlap on maneuvers already.” Shield asked whether GM Naijin was referring to shields or cman maneuvers and GM Naijin responded that he thinks CMANs are “a bit worse off than shield mans.” Shield responded, “For shields, I sort of agree… not sure if it’s overlap, but most shield maneuvers relay on shield bash. If you can’t bash effectively: that rules out most of the others that are dependent on it. In general, cmans don’t have that dependency. (Maybe a prereq of a weapon specialization or something), but not a chain of ‘It all depends on X'”

Shield continued, “As I think off the top of my head (and resist cheating by checking the wiki): are there any offensive maneuvers that do not have shield bash at the base? bash, charge, strike, trample all do. Maybe shield push and shield pin. Those are offensive, but less common” GM Naijin responded, “trample doesn’t rely on shield bash ranks to be effective it just requires 2 ranks of bash/charge before learning it. i had moderate success as a halfling using trample with a tower shield and 3x shield training. it’s just a more effective shield bash at the expense of more RT. shield strike and shield strike mastery are the only ones i can think of that require bash”

Shield suggested more, “Well, back to shield bash…(and not just for short races) Can it get some updates to hit kneeling targets and non corp creatures? I don’t know why we are so chivalrous at not hitting an enemy when they’re down. Sure, there’s an unbalance table or something, but give it some impact damage. Also, my paladin is bored in Reim that he can’t shield bash / strike with his sancted shield. I don’t recall if it works on elementals, but would be nice to use that in my routine again… shield forward would be a boost, too.”

casen suggested, “would be nice if there was a way to see when your six months was up/it was time to buy or use another double dip lumnis schedule in game”

#scripting

Nightwolf is looking for a way to get his Bigshot post-looting routine to GATHER QUIVER. Talonhawke has some suggestions. Do you?

World of Elanthia

#festivals-and-events

calael asked, “Is there any chance that the quintuple orb brooch from RoL could be made non-functional?”

GM Quilic announced, “It’s been asked in a few places, so for the record: Premium Fest (which starts this Friday evening at 9pm EST!) is silvers-only, no alternative currencies.”

#alteration-help

GM Itzel announced, “Currently the mounts and reins cannot be altered, but any other tack is alterable (technically). GMs may decline if, as someone mentioned, they’re not comfortable with terminology or the system. Hope that helps!”

#roleplay-in-elanthia

Questions:

  • Is (or to what extent) the PROFILE verb OOC or IC? [Avaia]
  • Does your character prefer to hang with an established social group or go out and meet new people on the regular? [Gavrien]

Players discussed the various creatures that fit into the werewolf (shan, prae’dra), vampire (bat-elf vesperati, blood beasts that fed on blood), and other similar creatures. Xorus shared a snippet of the 1985 Creatures & Treasures book from Rolemaster.

Bristenn said, “Unfortunately I think a lot of the lore on the VO Trail was never explained or if it was, was lost.” Xorus replied, “Yeah. The reiver area has a lot of Gaelic. The stuff on the trail looks like it should be translatable also, but I’m not confident on parsing it.” Bristenn added, “It’s also too far from the shore to have been kraken’ed. Geographically too far northish as well to look over the Stepfalls Gorge in the ravine area at the top left quadrant. I’ve also never been exactly sure where Wildwood Isle is located on the Cairnfang. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in any room descriptions as well.

Xorus continuedIt’s kind of tricky in that time period. The area release was late 1998. The History of the Turamzzyrian Empire document with the empire map looks like it’s dated 5/25/5100 (May 2000). I’m not sure how much of the timeline document was set in stone already in 1998/1999.” Bristenn replied, “Mmm, so we’re probably not going to find much in any Rolemaster stuff, given that it was probably underway ony post-ICE. The Maleskari reference in Bonespear was probably a jab at that, if anything.”

Xorus replied, “I have a saved post from someone claiming the abandoned village is supposed to be Squire’s Bluff. But they might have just been extrapolating from a map in the Abandoned Inn.” and “I don’t have a log of the map. It might pre-date the Vornavis trail.”

Bristenn responded, “Maybe that’s the actual idea behind it, that it was put there for kicks/and a jab at the de-ICE and other assorted UCS stuff.” Xorus continued, “There was an ICE Age scimitar that had a demon in it that claimed to serve Maleskari. I assume that might have something to do with Bonespear’s plan to trap the demon in a huge misshapen sword. As an implied reference, at least.”

Xorus is still looking for logs of the Bonespear Tower events.

Xorus mentioned, “The monoliths are a no-longer-functioning teleportation system. It’s just a really obscure thing, almost totally forgotten.”

Nick wanted to know why there is a weird dead scar on the trail from Solhaven to the coast. No one was really sure.

SimuCoin Events and Quests

#duskruin

Sunday night at 10:30 pm EST, PM Wyrom announced, “The High End Scrip Shop will be opening in roughly 30 minutes.”

Calista asked PM Wyrom, “are you planning on holding one of your events this DR?” He responded, “I’m making a post now.”

Arianiss asked GM Haliste, “Is the Trove supposed to announce no matter what? It didn’t announce the winner this time” GM Haliste responded, “announce what? Oh, just means the winner isn’t online.” Arianiss replied, “What’s the reasoning behind that?” GM Haliste said, “It’s… a limitation.”

Khaell asked, “any reason why some of the Asps from the heist (specifically the silent investors) get insane DS? at times i barely touch them (even after feint) and just have to spam 1615 like 5 times in a row to kill one” Leafiara suggested using 1614, which PM Wyrom confirmed and additionally suggested disabling the bandits.

Ososis asked, “Just so I can start cutting down my wants list, there is no way or chance to rehab a degraded T2 orb before the HESS rolls away is there? The defusion is tempting but I can’t bring myself to do it without a rehab. Especilly since if I happen to break the T2 removing to it’s new slot Ill be lose another point off it before I can defusion it. (unlike the T3’s which would break to pristine T2’s and be defusioned with no loss) *At this event” PM Wyrom responded, “It’s not something we’ve done, @Ososis. It’s not something we can automate well. It’s something I can check on though. No promises for it this Duskruin.”

Berost asked, “We on the 2 hr timer in trove today starting at Noon est? :grin:GM Haliste responded, “2 hours.”

GK! asked, “Can the new Fancybooks be altered, as long as they’re in theme with their subject? There’s nothing on the analyze that says, that I can recall, anyway.” GM Haliste responded, “FancyBook descriptions can be altered, yes. Chapters cannot.” Elysia added, “I love them! My only wish is that we could either combine pages from disparate books, or that more book types come and pages can be assigned/attached to multiple book types. For example: I would love a divination book that had the divination related pages from the current holy book room, plus pages on all the types of divination like tea leaf readings and etc. :slight_smile:GM Haliste replied, “I’ll be making some updates. But I’ll let GM Sindin handle the communication on it.”

GM Valyrka announced, “A friendly service announcement ~ When redeeming your certificates, please indicate what you want if there is a choice (ie. flares, resistance etc.). Also please have the item on you. This helps in getting your services done in a timely fashion.” Leafiara responded, “The wording of the flare certificate threw me for a loop a little since IIRC it doesn’t mention specifying which flare you want, but just says to whisper availability details. I included the flares anyway just in case and you got them done super quick because of that, but I do think this is an area that could be more clear.”

Clearing up information on flares on shields, GM Naijin said, “Reactive flares only apply to armor and they apply for any flare when hit. Shields do not flare except when used offensively. Spikes can work on block through shield spike mastery.”

HebrewToYou asked, “do flares on a shield fire off if the reactive spike ability fires off?” Shield replied, “No.”

GM Haliste announced, “Just an FYI — F2P can’t get into the Trove room. That’s been that way for this entire run.”

PM Wyrom said, regarding how much was spent at HESS this run compared to past runs, “A lot. More than last run. That’s all you get to know.” He added, “And the event keeps growing.” and “This is also one of the best smithy runs to date” and “[L]ast Duskruin ran 17 days, this is only 14 days . And we’re not done.” In response to comments of “you always say that,” PM Wyrom responded:

Let’s rewind a moment to a comment about “I always say that.” I’m a very transparent person when it comes to my management. When I started this gig as a GM, I didn’t know certain things, or things were kept from a large majority of staff/players. I’m not like that. I give everyone real answers. I hate being in the dark, so I don’t let others be in the dark.

The game is doing really well right now. Better than when I started as a GM. I have absolutely no reason to say otherwise to you. If things were grim, I’d tell you, and it would be a lot more apparent.

I know some people point back to me saying how much WPS drained once, because the number seemed high. That number was real, but what we didn’t know is a GM was doing some testing with high amounts of weighting which bloated the numbers. Estild actually jumped in and made sure testing numbers didn’t impact the numbers that are tracked with actual silver spent at things like the NPC going forward.

I likely overshare, which probably makes things look odd. But outside NDA areas, I will continue to disclose what I can.

PM Wyrom continued,I joke a lot, I laugh as much as I did in the podcast, that’s the real Mario though. I enjoy this game, and I want to make sure it continues to grow. Yes, the company has introduced new things and the event schedule has drastically changed, but we still keep delivering what we can.”

PM Wyrom summarized, “Anyway. HESS might have had a few poorly priced items, but it wasn’t a bad HESS to everyone. And we’ll continue to improve.”

Melivn asked, “Wyrom when is DR offically closing?” PM Wyrom responded, “Friday, 9pm ET. I might leave shops open for the weekend because I know a lot of people haven’t planned on a weekday closing.”

Regarding random gems for bloodscrip, PM Wyrom said, “So for the random gem thing, the only way to really do it without fear of silver generation is to make the gems non-sellable. And I think for the most part, no one WANTS to sell them, so it’s not a big deal.” Elysia responded she was okay with that so PM Wyrom said he’d work on it some more.

 #ebon-gate

Durakar commented, “50 people entering the Trove raffles in under 1 second for the talon I am hearing… At EG with more people and more tokens out there that is going to be exponentially worse. PLEASE tell us there is something in thoughts/works to help overcome this issue. Maybe just do a Trove Wall, using tokens as a high end alt-alt currency to buy an assortment of items. Have it be instanced to pull 5 options when you enter and you can choose 1 one of them before being kicked out. 2 1 token options, 2 2 token options and 1 3-10 token option. Lockout timer after entering, whether you get something or not”

 

Warm Fuzzies

The good stuff, compiled by Jen.

Elysia said, “Thank you again for adding the silver option. :tada:

Regarding the Treasure Trove, Shield said, “I think the current system is a good middleground, @Haliste . Thank you for the time, effort, and sweat you put into it.”

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.