lets be fair, everyone knows the current system for the orbs is broken as
fuck. I would encourage any admin who doesnt realize this to examine the log
and look at the past 100 orb spawns and who got them. Its not even a
competition or a race. It is whose script greps the fastest. It might even be
built into the batclient these days for all I know. we have grumpy ?urtle who
has made it his mission to collect 1337 orbs. We have chinese gold farmer
?anaya who goes and shelters areas to prevent ?urtle and EVERYONE ELSE from
getting his orbs. The worst aspect of this game feature is beating both of
those players to the orb and then not being able to leave the area cause
?anaya sheltered you in. I guess a good comment is well you got an orb, its
worth wasting 5 minutes of your life waiting for a shelter to drop. Hooray.

The issue with the orbs is the rewards structure is too good. Because the
rewards are too good, the amount of orbs which spawn into the game must be
controlled. Now, the elite players need those orbs to slay the smelly red
dragon and must be taxed in doing so. Players who like reincing can ante 5m-6m
gold to get a reinc potion. I would be extremely curious to see if anything
else in the shop even gets purchased (I would wager no)

Then we have the amulet itself which is essentially best in slot once you
obtain 202 orbs or whatever the fuck it is.

No news post is without a constructive suggestion.

I think the orbs should be considered yet another consumable in the game. The
most recent addition of essences has shown that players will farm and buy and
sell such things. Could the rewards structure be revisited? Say we just nerfed
the shit out of everyones amulet and halved the stats on it but also increased
the amount of orbs required by 10x. If my assumption of the shop purchases is
correct and the only things being bought are origo elixirs and reinc potions,
could we just 10x the cost of those items and then make orbs drop like
compasses? Maybe compasses is too frequent, but something between a compass
and a safe full of mithril would be nice. Have the orb channel going still but
orbs pop more frequently. Since there would be an increased supply of orbs,
its not immediate sms to ?urtle and ?anaya's phone telling them their script
has located another orb.

I am pretty sure the vast majority of players are so turned off by the 'orb
hunt' that they simply elect not to participate.

And as a last caveat. If ?anaya shelters me INSIDE of an area again. I will go
north korea on you.

IMHO random drop, just like compasses solves it.
At least that would finish this stupid RACE.

Just put a 'mobprot' on orbs, 24 hours would be enough. Try to pick up a
fresh one in the mean time and 'your hands just pass through the orb'.

I'm sure shelters would not happen if he wasnt constantly threatened with
pkills/dests and have his kills stolen.
Anyways, the system is broken. But its always easy to ask
for other people's achievemts to be watered down. Try to
come up with a solution that does not involve that. Hard eh?
Kind of like me shouting "remove Lokamirs!"

well if a certain player wasnt essentially 'socially retarded' on a game where
some form of basic communication could have alleviated some spots. have you
ever interacted with the ?anaya in question? not the sharpest knife in the
kitchen.

i am not aiming to 'water down' other players achievements. but what exactly
is the achievement? just having x orbs? or just more orbs than everyone else?

thus, if orb count is the achievement (cause i dont know what else we are
measuring this by) say we increased the amount of orbs that spawned by 5x,
increased the cost of origo elixir by 20x and reinc elixir by 25x

then increased the amount of orbs currently stored in amulets by 10x does that
water down your achievement?

the crux of the problem is that the rewards for the orbs heavily outweight the
amount of orbs in the game and has created an extremely toxic 'race' amongst
<4 players while alienating the rest of the player base.

when you bring up lokamirs. nothing actually stops you from going to origo and
getting a lokamir. the hardest part about origo is dicing first. the second
hardest part is getting elixirs for everyone.

I brought this up a while back. as you mentioned, its nothing new.

As a mental exercise, i tried to come up with a solution where low,mid and
highbies would be able to use the feature without getting screwed over by
the more.. obsessive players. I think I posted it to same forum months ago
and it was promptly forgotten.

Players can probably recall that outworld orbs were popping much more often
until it was realized that Nosun and 1 or two others were getting them
within seconds of appearing. Solution was to nerf outworld orbs until they
appear about 1 per 2 days.. ( or so it seems) So i imagine that if orbs
continue to cause frustrations.. they will become equally rare... because
that is the easiest fix to implement.

On the plus side.. this will bump their value through the roof

And how well did this tune work out? You and those 3 other
people were effectively excluded from orbs. The remaining orbs
became more competitive and easier to bully. And now, when we
have the one remaining newbie giving a hard time to highbies
a lot of whining ensues.

Think about it. Who won and who lost because of this tune? **

hey guys, i had a great idea, and i think i posted about it, but i dont
remember my ground breaking idea but dont worry thats only time you just lost
reading this paragraph.

maybe the orbs should just spawn and say perins. land of anarchy. cybermans
bathroom. you want the explore the mud mechanic? make it an explore the mud
mechanic.

this one time, we got to yaboz area and an orb had appeared. obviously ?anaya
was there first but our party was there to kill kran. we let him saunter
around the area for 10 mins doing his best to find the said orb. after which
kran died and we just said fuck it, taking it. i guess thats a pretty funny
memory. 20 mins later he sends us a tell chirping about how we stole his orb
and we asked him what the fuck its right there on the ground the whole time.
his response was i no key have to get locksmith ghost.

I have to disagree. As a newbie, learning the game well enough
to go against the Finnish bully mafia and beating them with
game knowledge is hardly blunt. If anything is not sharp, it
is people resorting to threats and violence when they run out
of intellectual resources to handle a situation.
My point exactly, nothing does stop me. And nothing stopped
newbies like ?anaya learning the game well enough to get orbs.
Most people just give up on orbs the same way I have with Origo.
But how silly would I look if I asked Origo to be 5x easier?

As an exploiter I'm biased but how about this:
An orbprot. Once you pick up an orb, you are excluded from
alerts and do not see new orbs in the list for at least 48h.
If you or your party picks up an orb while orbprotted, the orb
dests. This would a) not devalue/overvalue existing orbs, b)
be easy to implement and c) result in more people seeing orbs.
Until the next abuse is found...

so you do agree that your achievement you hold in such a high regard was
indeed achieved by exploiting then?

just want to verify that for the public

and i harbor no ill will to you since you have put a fuck ton of work into
providing the player base with a lot of tools that actually improve gameplay.
i just find it amusing that one on hand you want recognition for an
achievement but then go on to say well, technically the rest of you guys are
ice skating uphill in this against me

and you know what, maybe i should just go 95% broetchen and elect to not
participate in this extremely flawed mechanic. i have enough orbs to kill
smelly dragon and maybe i personally should be ok with that. maybe i'll just
launch a nuclear attack on said annoying newbie because im suffering from
nicotine withdrawal and im just not allowed to be cruel to animals anymore irl
but slapping someone online with a thousand penises to their face still feels
good at the end of the day

up vote for nuclear option and mud drama. down vote for peace in the world.

A thick oaken door with an iron pull ring opens.
Conquer arrives from south.
Nepnep arrives from south.
Stylus arrives from south.
Malcom prances in from south.
Conquer closes a thick oaken door with an iron pull ring.
Anvil is not in a good shape (45%).
You are using 'ghost slash'.
Anvil snarls metallically.
There are no light sources here, but you can still see.
Monastery Dorms - A Bedroom.
Several small and rather uncomfortable looking cots line the east and west
walls in this spartan bedroom. A small writing desk sits under the high
window on the north wall, and a few candles lay in small metal votive holders
around the room. A bookshelf and an armoire adorn the south wall next to the
door.
A thick oaken door with an iron pull ring (closed) leads south.
There are no obvious exits.
a strange shadow is silently hovering above the ground
Malcom Reynolds the powerful Vampire in the twiddle < Cruel Intentions >
Stylus the Barsoomian < Cruel Intentions > (horny) [STONED]
Nepnep 'BIGTHUMB' Hellspawn the Noble Draconian of Destruction < Cruel
Intentions > (horny)
Conquer Ilkimys the Royal Draconian Sardaukar Fanatic < Cruel Intentions >
[STONED] +sentinel+
a poor giraffe spirit [Leader: You]
A blue-glowing soul companion [Nevermore]
Anvil stands motionless on the bed
Conquer attacks Anvil!
There is a fierce combat going on here, beware!
Stylus starts concentrating on a new offensive skill.
Conquer starts concentrating on a new skill.

Conquer arrives from east.
Nepnep arrives from east.
Stylus arrives from east.
Malcom prances in from east.
Nevermore rings a tiny bell just beside your ear! Ding!
You bell Nevermore.
Conquer attacks Giraffe spirit!

Theramon emerges from the shadows.
Koraf arrives.
Xortoth arrives.
Neclord arrives.
Xlink simply appears.
Demoncore arrives.
Voronoi arrives.
As Koraf points his Kerbholz at Orc boss, a weak white magic mist
forms around the targets' neck.
Archgriffin spits acid at Orc boss!
Lanaya {report}: Archgriffin Acid Attack !!!
Theramon starts concentrating on a new offensive spell.
There are no light sources here, but you can still see.
In a tent.
You are in a red tent. The tent is not too large, but big enough to house a
large orc easily. A tent is obviously the right of higher ranking orcs, the
common grunts get to sleep outside in the rain and cold. Not that this tent
would offer that much more cover - the tent has seen many battles, and is now
quite covered in gashes and holes of all kinds.
Outside, above you is a slowly moving, cloudy night sky.
Obvious exit is: out.
a hideous red suit
an iron target shield
Voronoi the Barsoomian (horny)
Demoncore the vile Kobold Fails at Math < BINARY >
Xlink Monster the Duck water cannon! < BINARY >
Neclord Lolo the Leprechaun < BINARY >
Xortoth 'Sister of Mercy' Sanguis the Barsoomian (horny)
Koraf McGoatface the ferocious Vampire - Dr. Naughty < BINARY > +sentinel+
Theramon the terrible Spawn God Killer (undead)
massive griffin with red wings [Leader: You]
massive griffin with red wings [Leader: You]
massive griffin with red wings [Leader: You]
massive griffin with red wings [Leader: You]
A blue-glowing soul companion [Lanaya]
Dracul, the fiendish drake [Rider: You] <protected>
an orc boss, resting before next assault
You are using 'ghost slash'.
Theramon gurgles 'DAI.'