Sunday, August 30, 2009

Summon 35, S2Es, and Onward

Accomplished a few things since last post.

1) Finished the second of four batches of S2Es for my next nexus purchase. Halfway there.


2) Headed to Arius after that to mix my bear stones...

You advanced to level 35 of summoning!


Summoning Level 35


3) Hit the bears this morning to finish off my 500 goal. Very close to a magic level, expecting 2 magic levels when I do my next round of 500 bears.


4) Started work on the next level of tailoring. Going the blue dye route again, since it helps with the engineering levels too with all the ashes and saltpeter. Only starting on this, it'll take a while.




Current plans now:
1) Do the tailoring level.
2) The 3rd of 4 S2E batches for next nexus
3) Another 500 bears mana drained w/500 rad shields in the process for 2 magic levels
4) Try another crafting level
5) Finish off my next potion level
6) Final S2E batch to get Artificial 5 nexus


[b]No Alchemy Goal?[/b] I used to include alchemy in my goal-thinking process, aiming for more levels in it... but I really don't need to. Things I do:

Tailoring - FEs/WEs for (non-orange) dyes
S2Es - Sweet bar experience
MD-ing bears - AEs, plus MagEs, MatEs, EnEs for the radiation shields
kicking feros - HEs
Crafting - silver bars for the moon meds
summon stones - LEs, and lots of them
engineering - FEs for ashes for saltpeter (okay, not that big a deal, but still...)

These are the main things I do, and each contributes to the alchemy levels. I had alchemy in my "order" list but realised I was hitting my alch goals without even trying and faster than planned simply from all the alchemy done in order to work on other skills.

So, I'm simply not planning it anymore.

Okay, I might again at some point if it slows down somehow, but for now it's just not necessary.



And um... yeah, that's far enough into the future. I do need to hit the feros again at some point, haven't hit any since my last OA, and trying to get an OA on mixing alone at my level is just... obscene?

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Mostly Harving...

Last few days have been quiet. When in EL I've been doing mostly harving, as well as mixing some essies to prep for doing "real" stuff.

Got enough essies to finish another round of MD-ing bears and doing radiation shields. Finished the LEs needed to make another summon level's worth of bear stones and then some. Harved and mixed the FEs needed for another batch of 125 S2Es, as well harved the coal and now over halfway done with the iron for those.

Also got halfway to another potion level the past few days. Those seem to be getting harder to come by, heh.


Once I get the iron done (about 8.5k to go), plans:
- do the MD-ing bears/radiation shields (should get me close to another magic level)
- get my next summon level
- mix the bars for S2Es and the S2Es themselves (will be halfway to another nexus then)
- attempt another tailoring level (complete lack of supplies atm for that though, grrrr)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Alchemy 110! Contest Done, Back to Work.

The contest went faster than I expected. All 5 bags found and won within an hour or so. I thought at least 1 or 2 bags would hang around longer, but... hmmmm... guess we got some explorers in the game. :P


Oh, of course, guess I should show this since it was the reason I did the bag find event...

You advanced to level 110 of alchemy!


Alchemy Level 110


Sweet. :P



Back to work for me though. Since I gave everything away, gotta remake essies to mana drain bears, essies to do radiation shields, essies to make bear stones, restock my HEs... well, more alchemy, heh.

Contest soon!

Watch the Official Forum Thread as that's where the contest will be held!

Some Levels, and a Pause In My Normal Play

Between stomach virus (which seems to finally be going away) and my internet connection being seriously hosed of late, haven't really done much recently.

Doesn't mean I've been completely idle... managed to get a bit done here and there.

You advanced to level 41 of engineering!


Engineering Level 41


and kicked the bears some more...


You advanced to level 60 of magic!


Magic Level 60




At the moment, I've put a halt on all my previously-mentioned plans.

This because I'm doing nothing but getting all the prizes ready for the event in my previous entry.

I figure I'll hit alch 110 just finishing making those, so I expect the event to happen possibly today or tomorrow, depending on how things go with my net connection and assuming this sickness continues wearing off.


Anyway, that's my update for now. Pretty quiet past few days compared to normal.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Burn's Big Bags!

COMING SOON! (Not Yet, I'll announce when!)

To celebrate hitting alchemy 110 (since I didn't think to do this at 100, heh)...

I am doing a hidden bag contest! (Yup, get those skeleton keys ready, hehe.)

WHEN: Very soon. I'm almost there. An announcement will be made. :)

Prizes: 5 bags

Bag 1 - Traveler's Delight: 500 Portal Room Visits (2.5k EnEs, 500 MatEs, 500 SEs, and 500 SRs)
Bag 2 - Fighter's Delight: 4k HEs + 1k SRs
Bag 3 - Mage's Delight: 4k AEs
Bag 4 - Summoner's Delight: 5k LEs + 1k SRs
Bag 5 - Manuer's Delight: 1k Steel Bars


Contest Rules and Information:

1- One winner per bag. There will be 5 winners here!

2- 5 hyperspace bags will be placed in various locations "somewhere on Draia". This means they could be on a main map or insides.

Exceptions: The bags are NOT placed in pk areas, nor anywhere that you would have to cross a pk area to access. They are also NOT located anywhere a creature that ignores MM perk would be able to attack you (excluding Leonard). So with the (possible) exception of Leonard, the bags are in a location you'd be guaranteed to be safe in with MM perk/cloak.

3- The clue to the location of the bag will come in the form of a (very) close-up screenshot of where the bag was placed. Those who actually take the time to look at things and explore will likely have a better chance of finding them. The image will give just enough detail that if you see it, you'll recognize it, and know exactly where the bag is.

The clue will not be attached to a specific bag. That is, if you look at one of the locations given, you won't know which of the 5 bags is there.

If any bags should happen to not be found within 24 hours, more clues will be given.

4- THE PRIZE IS NOT IN THE BAG! Because there's so many items and it (may be) a good distance from a storage, prizes will be traded to you at storage for convenience.

What will be in the bag: a single item of each thing you've won. (i.e. Bag 1 would have 1 EnE, 1 MatE, 1 SE, and 1 SR)

As well, to ensure the award is given to the person who actually found the location/bag first, a random item will be in the bag completely irrelevant to the prize. You will have to tell me what that random item is in order to receive your award, so don't forget it, and don't tell anyone what it was!

BONUS: The random item in each bag is mostly something cheap like a flower or such. However, 1 of the random items will be a nice mini-prize of its own!

5- What to do when you find a bag: PM Me (Burn) in-game, stating the location, coordinates (click the compass), and the name of the random item that was in the bag.

If I'm not online, leave a gossip message, or send me a PM here on the official forums if you have an account.

Prizes should be awarded within 24 hours of finding the bag. Immediately if I'm online (and able to move).

Clues and prizes will be removed from the list as they are found.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Well, I Said They Were Close...

I said last post I was close to getting them... spent some time this morning on feros again and...



You advanced to level 102 of attack!


Attack Level 102


Which was followed exactly 2 feros later by...


You advanced to level 103 of defense!


Defense Level 103



And with that, I ended my feros training. Was starting to get seriously annoying in there anyway. Why the fuck people think they can get away with swords in there when so many people are trying to train is beyond me, but I'm gonna have to start teaching them the Halberd, er, hard way that they're not welcome.


Back to mixing, if I feel like continuing to sit up. Still battling a flu bug or stomach virus or such here so I'm not even close to being my normal self for now.


But assuming I can bother staying up, gonna get essies finished for mana-draining bears and doing radiation shields in the process. Still need 1.5k matter essies and about 500 energy essies for that.

Need about 2k more LEs for my next batch of summon stones. May start trying to buy those when possible. Can still turn out profitable so long as I get other ings on my own including mixing my own SRs (still have the pot goddess, so not giving up making those).

Need way too many essies for all the various things I do, so looking to start buying some where possible so long as I can still stay gc positive doing so. Which means I won't buy stuff like FEs for making bars for S2Es since that's all loss (doing it to buy nexus, no gc at all from it). Buying FEs for silver bars for making moon meds on the other hand would be okay, still would turn a profit.

Even buying select essies I'll still be doing a ton of alching so my alch experience won't suffer for it.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Overall 135...

Haven't done much since I've been battling a stomach virus. Some mixing here and there...

Felt well enough to spend some time on the feros today, though.

Your overall level is now 135!


Overall Level 135

Getting close to leveling attack and defense as well. Probably end up hitting the feros again real soon to do that. Not today though.


Back to mixing more radiation shield essies now, but probably call it a night soon. Not feeling up to sitting up much longer.



Plans once I'm feeling better are to continue as my previous message said... More MD/rad shields with bears, another batch of S2Es, get to half a pot level (got about 500k to go on that). Probably an engineering level as well, as I'm very close already to getting one of those.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Magic, Summon levels - Quick Catch-Up

Been busy so haven't had time to update here.

As well, feeling very under the weather this morning so dunno how much I'll be on today. Probably not much.

But some quick looks at what's been done the past few days...

S2Es - Got the first batch harved and mixed. 3 batches to go for nexus.

Summoning - Finished off my excess snake/wolf skins in Willowvine. The peace day that happened in the previous message occured while I was doing this, so the WVF Summon Arena got a little crowded:

Wolf summoning on Peace Day

Yeah, I can set the summons to not attack and get the same, but this looked kinda funny with the wolves appearing nice and lined up so thought it was worth a screenie.



Later went on to mix more bear stones. Plenty of fails at my low level, but considering I'm gathering bear furs myself (magic training), making my own LEs (alch leveling) and SRs (Pot leveling), I'm not too concerned about that. Though I look forward to higher levels and not failing as much, heh.

But after several trips to the gypsum, I only needed to make 3 stones to get a level so I did those at storage.

You advanced to level 34 of summoning!


Summoning Level 34


That was last night. I'm getting a little ahead of myself level-wise, though. Yesterday during mana draining bears and using the radiation shield:

You advanced to level 59 of magic!


Magic Level 59


More bear MD-ing and rad shields yesterday got me about half-way to Magic 60 as well. This is actually turning out to be quite a nice way to level magic... I get bear furs for summoning, alch experience from all the essies needed for the two spells, and pretty decent magic experience.

Of course, I'll have to switch to white tigers eventually, when my summon level gets high enough to make tiger stones. But that's no big deal of a difference.

Meanwhile, I got almost 2k bear furs in storage now thanks to this, and I'll eventually put them to use.


Started work last night on "half" a potion level. I don't aim for full levels for potion anymore, that takes too long, heh. Splitting that goal into half-levels now.

After that, make more essies to do the bear MD/rad shield thing for another 500 bears.

Then back to another batch of S2Es. I think.

Probably should get a round of feros bashing in somewhere, still 3.4 million away from OA.


Today just taking it easy if I'm on. No plans since I don't know how much I'll be on at this point. Really, really sick. :/

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Another Nexus - What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Spent most of my time of late mixing essies. Radiation Shield and Mana Drain essies mostly for 500 spells each. Plus some LEs and HEs...

Spent a couple hours on the feros yesterday as well, just for a change of pace.

Last night we got a Recycling Day, and I mixed my hydro bars... 59 out of ings for 53, not bad at all :P

Bought my Animal 5 nexus, so now I can make summoning stones.

And I made my first few. The trips to the gypsum... oh my, what have I gotten myself into? Being a high alcher and potter, I know I'll end up making the overwhelming majority of SRs and LEs needed for the stones myself, so that'll take time. Plus the trips to the gypsum, with heavy ings that allow for at most 18 bear stones a trip... gah!

Ah well, definitely some different mixing than I'm used to, heh.


Was gonna MD some bears this morning, but Peace Day came along. Ah well, it's worth the day just to hear the PKers crying in channel 6. :P And I always have other things to do anyway. Made more LEs, HEs...


And now while waiting on the day to end, getting started on my next batch of S2Es for my next nexus. Still more than a few to buy even if Animal 5 was my primary goal. Next goal is Artificial 5. And 6. So I can mix my own tit sets and great swords, put my manu level to some real use.

After those, max out the Magic nexus to most needed, 5, from my current 2. Then all that's left is Animal 6 and Artifical 7, neither of which I have a real need for at the moment, but maybe someday, so I'll get them anyway.

I wanna have the ultimate AllRounder character, which means I wanna be able to do everything. Having all needed nexus is vital to that. ;)



Currently working on:
1- Next magic level via rad shields and mana-draining 500 bears (when peace day ends)
2- Batch of S2Es (1st of 4 batches for nexus)
3- Summon 34 (once my fail astro is at its best, it's heading to rock bottom worst atm)

After that:
half a potion level
Another 500 MDings of bears with rad shield
engineering level
more S2Es


And of course, get some occasional feros bashing in there as the mood strikes.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Some Current Stats, Volume 2

Back in February, I posted some of my "top 10" and bottom 10 stats, just for the heck of it, and something I could look back at and see how things have changed.

Here it is, almost 6 months later. Curious, so here I go again, hehe.

<<>> means position hasn't changed
(####) Numbers in parentheses are how many I've done according to stats


Top 10 Kills
1- Male Ogre (8852) <<>>
2- Cyclops (4122) <<>>
3- Feros (3404) (wasn't in top 10 before, was training on clops then)
4- Fluffy Rabbit (2281) (wasn't in top 10 before, was training on clops then)
5- Troll (2153) (down 2 spots)
6- Gargoyle (1979) (down 2 spots)
7- Feran (1888) <<>>
8- Wolf (1770) (up 2 spots)
9- Snake (1564) (down 4 spots)
10- Male Goblin (1415) (down 4 spots)

Feros/Fluffies joined the list since I've trained on them since last check. Feran kills nearly doubled, got to have those horns for potting! Wolves have gone up since I've been kicking them while MD-ing bears, harving in VotD, etc., as I've needed furs for summoning. Nothing much else is a big change.

Grizzly Bears are up to 1.1k killed, and I plan to do a LOT more with my magic training and collecting their furs for summon stones. I bet in another 6 months they'll be one of my top 5 kills. Otherwise unless I get on desert chim training soon, I don't expect too much difference.


Bottom 10 kills
(Excluding Instance-only creatures)
10- Gentoo Penguin (26)
9- Yeti (24)
8- Shy Rat (22)
7- Leonard (alpha) (22)
6- Leprechaun (20)
5- Sslessar (16)
4- Invisible Rat (10)
3- Giant (10)
2- Mountain Chimeran (3)
1- Cockatrice (1)

No big surprises there. Cockatrice and Giants were ranging kills. The rest by fighting.

Top 10 Harvests

I have almost 5.6 million items harvested in total now.

1- Sunflower (616,131) <<>>
2- Iron Ore (365,451) (up 4 spots)
3- Coal (361,340) (up 4 spots)
4- Red Rose (330,178) <<>>
5- Red Snapdragons (330,709)
6- Lilacs (289,411) (down 4 spots)
7- Sulfur (286,597) (up 2 spots)
8- Silver Ore (285,536) (wasn't in previous top 10)
9- Blue Star Flower (228,169) (up 1 spot)
10- Impatiens (208,305) (down 7 spots)

Sunflowers have doubled in total number harvested in the past 6 months. Unsurprising considering the number of BR potions I make, as you'll see below, heh.

The biggest changes come pretty much directly from buying Nexus. Making all those S2Es myself, including harving the ings has brought iron, coal, and FE ings up greatly.

Meanwhile, ings for Magic essies have dropped greatly, as I rely less on them for leveling since doing the S2E projects. I still make them on occasion, even need some for magic training now so those may rise again.


Not gonna bother with bottom 10 harvests. They're pretty much the same, with hydrogenium ore rising thanks to my nexus buying project. It'll soon be out of my bottom ten.


Top 10 Alchemy
1- Fire Essence (332,234) <<>>
2- Magic Essence (186,691) <<>>
3- Health Essence (175,335) <<>>
4- Energy Essence (75,630) (up 1 spot)
5- Life Essence (57,102) (down 1 spot)
6- Water Essence (49,787) (up 1 spot)
7- Steel Bar (36,161) (wasn't in previous top 10)
8- Earth Essence (36,028) (down 2 spots)
9- Air Essence (24,027) <<>>
10- Matter Essence (20,287) <<>>

No surprises. S2Es have gotten steel bars into the list. Silver bars may join them if I continue my crafting. I expect Earth essies to drop out of the top 10 soon considering that, and my newly found need for air essies. (And matter, energy, magic essies as well since I'm doing a lot of radiation shields as well.)

I doubt anything will ever get FEs out of the #1 spot though. *sigh* I hate making those things these days...


Top 10 Potions
1- Body Restoration (324,587) <<>>
2- Spirit Restoration (34,288) <<>>
3- Creature Food (12,840) (up 1 spot)
4- Feasting Potion (9,106) (down 1 spot)
5- True Sight (4,321) <<>>
6- Mana (2,577) <<>>
7- Minor Healing (2,020) <<>>
8- Chan-Ogre-Tree extract (1,479) <<>>
9- Currant-Bberry-Rue extract (1,124) (wasn't in top 10 before)
10- Nightshade-Mullein-Dandelion extract (1,121) <<>>

Number of BRs made has doubled. Nice gc and nice experience = nice to make, hehe.

SRs will be made in much higher numbers in the near future as I make my own to make summoning stones. Market is saturated with them so they're not as easy to sell as they may have used to be, so most get made for my own use, with a few sales here and there. Sum Stones will demand a lot more be made, naturally.

Feasting Potions... I haven't made a single one since last time. Buy them instead. I'd say it would drop out of the top 10 but nothing below it gets made heavily enough to do that.

Nothing else has really changed. The extracts will move around a bit but essentially stay together as I make them all equally, give or take a few.

The only big exception is the shroom extracts... I've actually mixed a lot more than shown, just that they are now done these days in the Potion school, and those don't get added to the stats.




I stopped there last time, since my other charts weren't developed very well. But.. I think I'll throw in a few more this time that have fleshed out a bit more, hehe. Just FTR.


Top 10 Breakages
1- Mortar & Pestle (1,211)
2- Pickaxe (921)
3- Bones (290)
4- Aug Leather Pants (170)
5- Leather Gloves (164)
6- Needle (105)
7- Leather Boots (92)
8- Aug Leather Armor (59)
9- Training Arrows (52)
10- Iron Helm (23)

Of the above, aug sets, leather boots, and iron helms are essentially never used by me these days so I expect them to drop. Leather Gloves and the top 3 are pretty much the only things that I use that break regularly now.

The M&P count is no surprise considering I'm at Potion 101 now. I expect that to rise drastically over the coming 6 months.



Top 10 Crafting

1- Polished Sapphire (5,103)
2- Thread (4,724)
3- Silver Medallion (4,179)
4- Moon Medallion (3,616)
5- Polished Emerald (2,377)
6- Empty Vial (1,227)
7- Silver Ring (808)
8- Polished Ruby (793)
9- Polished Diamond (639)
10- Gold Ring (403)

Can't imagine it being much different than other crafters. Pol Saps and Moon Meds for leveling. Thread for beginner leveling.

I don't make thread or vials anymore, so I expect those will drop. Eventually.


Top 10 Manufacturing
1- Leather Helms (30,038) (plus a motherload of them in the manu school that aren't counted)
2- S2E swords (1,823)
3- Leather Gloves (504)
4- Iron Sword (261)
5- Leather Pants (258)
6- Aug Leather Pants (186)
7- Ring Mold (178)
8- Medallion Mold (141)
9- Steel Chain Mail (116)
10- Aug Leather Armor (114)

With only a minor exception here and there, my manu-ing is limited to helms and S2Es these days. I expect these charts to look pretty much the same in another 6 months.


Top 10 Spells
1- Restore (13,649)
2- Portal Room (4,852)
3- Heal (1,820)
4- Radiation Shield (1,322)
5- Mana Drain (976)
6- Shield (866)
7- Remote Heal (407)
8- Tele 2 Range (302)
9- Magic Immunity (226)
10- Harm (149)

Only used 6 other spells, though I have the sigils for all of them.

Restore will always be #1 obviously.

Portal Room, Mana Drain, and Rad Shield will continue to rise. As I'm using the latter 2 for power magic leveling, it's possible they may outdo portal room visits.

The rest are... rare use. Remote Heals on occasion in VotD while harving for newbie harvers, and Harm is a favorite for Lenny. Tele 2 Range has almost no use, but does happen on occasion.

Other than that, pretty much no use of any other spells.


Top 10 Summons
1- Boar (2,298)
2- Snake (1,465)
3- Wolf (1,069)
4- Rat (643)
5- Fox (602)
6- Rabbit (361)
7- Deer (177)
8- Beaver (145)
9- Racoon (100)
10- Skunk (86)

Only 4 more others on the list. I expect these won't change much, wolf may go up to second place.

The big change will be summoning stones. I expect the top 2 will be bear and spider stones in 6 more months time.


Top 10 Engineering
1- Ashes (16,134)
2- Saltpeter (7,693)
3- Rope (4,545)
4- A/D Indicator (2,287)
5- Harvest/Degrade Indicator (952)
6- Make Rare/Fail Indicator (85)
7- Poisoned Caltrop (30)
8- Blackpowder (16)
9- Nail (6)
10- Accuracy/Magic Indicator (4)
11- Criticals Indicator (3)

Went ahead and added the 11th because, well, there were only 11 in the entire list.

Ashes/Saltpeter will continue to rise as I continue doing tailoring.

Harv/Deg indicators are my primary leveling source these days, so they'll go up dramatically.

Ropes will continue to be made until I tire of them, for the indicators.



Top 10 Tailoring

Ummm...
1- Blue Dye (4,838)
2- Red Dye (1,599)
3- Yellow Dye (688)
4- White Fabric (216)
5- Orange Dye (37)

6-10 don't exist. 30 levels and only made 5 things. Gotta... love it?




Anyway, that's it for this time. Check back in 6 months? If I remember, heh.

All Skills 30 Plus!

After my hydro runs yesterday, I realised I needed wine. Muled up to get 20k or so of it.

And got this sudden urge to finish off my manu level since it was getting close. So I muled a couple batches of leather and thread, and started making runs to Trik to make leather helms.


You advanced to level 65 of manufacturing!


Manufacturing Level 65


Wow, haven't seen a level in that in quite a long time.


Moved back on to what was planned, potioning and tailoring. Needed to harv more ings during the process, but...



You advanced to level 101 of potion!


Potion Level 101


Started working on tailoring after that, but it was getting late. So I finished that off this morning.



You advanced to level 30 of tailoring!


Tailoring Level 30



And with that, all skills are now 30 plus! Yippee! (The All-Rounder inside of me is doing the dance of joy, hehe.)



What to do now... Running low on some essies so I'm going to need to make some for restock. HEs, EnEs, MatEs are all low, and regularly needed.

Probably mix essies as well to mana drain another 500 bears or so, plus do a radiation shield for each. That's more than a magic level, and, well, more bear furs, heh.

After that... my next batch of S2Es I'd imagine. I'll soon be getting that Animal 5 nexus, but I still want/need 7 more nexus after that to have every nexus needed to do everything (but wear arti cape).

And at least two of those 7 are very much wanted as soon as possible.

Will probably end up mixing my hydro bars from yesterday's hydro runs soon, as I really wanna get that Ani 5 nexus and get to work on more summoning levels. I'll hold off a bit longer in hopes of Reconstruction day, but I'm not holding my breath for it, and I get too impatient to hold off too long, heh.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Hydro Runs and Harving

Yesterday was primarily harving, stocking stuff for both my next potion and tailoring levels.

Got some pot mixing done, and mixed low-level necessities for tailoring (FEs, ashes, WEs).


This morning, I did my hydro runs, getting over 530 hydro ores.

And during it...

You advanced to level 94 of harvesting!


Harvesting Level 94




Okay, now that that's done... do I mix the bars, or hold off hoping for recycling day? Hold off for now, but doubt I'll wait too long. Here's hoping...

Meanwhile, time to check my astro, should be up by now. If so, work on tailoring level. If not, work on potion level.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Introducing My Bot, IWannaRock

My Bot, IWannaRock

Botified today, IWannaRock is my new bot. Unblessed for the time being so he's dealing mostly in items bought in small amounts.

Location: Morcraven Marsh [260, 13] - South end of MM, between Naralik exit and the gold cave.

For starters, all the perk and attribute removal stones I've had cluttering my storage, some potions, and various other odds and ends.

/IWannaRock inv <-- for the full list

Not buying anything for now, though he will... as soon as I can figure out what I need, heh.

Visit his page! http://dogpound.embril.net/home.php?botid=111

Bears Are Magical, Doubly So

Finished making essies for radiation shields yesterday. Went and mana drained some bears afterwards, doing a radiation shield after each bear.

You advanced to level 57 of magic!


Magic Level 57


Continued for a while, then went to bed. This morning, I went back to them. Ran out of essies with just one shield away from a level, so I did one at storage:

You advanced to level 58 of magic!


Magic Level 58


Sweet. Never really worked on magic like this before, so seeing two levels in under 24 hours is nice considering I normally don't even get one a week.

I'll continue the magic training later, doing it in batches of about 500 bears per session. Got a little over 500 bears done. Of course I'll switch to white tigers once my summoning level is enough that their furs will be more useful than bear furs.



But that's it for now... back to potioning. Need to get my SR stock up, it's never as low as it is now. So harving for ings now to make those. Probably hit BRs after that and checking my pot shop stock to see if anything needs to be made there.

Going to work on finishing off that next potion level, and as well get my next tailoring level done. After that, most likely more bears for another magic level.

Friday, August 7, 2009

S2Es Done, time for Bears and Shields

Got the bars done and mixed the S2Es this morning. I now have 534 S2Es total... about 19-20 hydro runs and I'll be ready to buy my Animal 5 nexus. When to do the hydro runs is of course always a random day in the future and certainly not advertised here. :P

...

So for now, it's time to work on magic levels and collecting bear furs. Now that I've gotten used to MDing bears and figured out the best way to do it, I'm expanding it a bit and including a Radiation Shield with every drained bear.

That combination fits well... drain 30 mana from the bear, use 30 mana for a radiation shield.

With 250 xp for mana drain, and 332 xp for radiation shield, that's 582 magic experience per bear. Less than 400 bears to get a level at my current level. (That's the experience I currently get with magic god at least, heh.)

In addition, it gives me an actual reason to make magic essies, since I need 4 per shield spell. That'll help with the alch leveling, which is incredibly slow these days. Until now I'd just been making them to help level and sell them to the magic shops.


At the moment, I'm working on some essies. Wasn't planning to start doing the shields today, just last-minute decision to increase the speed of my magic leveling. So I don't really have many essies stocked to do it.

Easily rectified. ;)


I'm MD-ing bears in batches of 500 at a time. Did 120 this morning, so 380 more to go. That'll get me a magic level and close to a second one. Hell, I just may keep doing it for that second level if it's close enough.


...


After that? Hmmm... a tailoring level, so I'll have all skills 30+, hehe. Also need to stock SRs, maybe make more gc from BRs... get another pot level in the process since I'm halfway there already.

Need to get my HE stock up as well, in case I get in the mood for some feros bashing. Not planning to do that in the coming days, but sometimes it just happens. ;)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Alch and Craft Up, and the S2E Countdown

Work of late has been mostly towards getting my next crafting level. I could have taken the polished saps route, but moon meds would bring me more gc, and I was in need of that. So two birds, one stone.

However, as I finished making the silver bars for the medallions, I was incredibly close to an alchemy level. Being a power-leveler, that was too much torture, hehe, so I went ahead and finished that off first.

You advanced to level 109 of alchemy!


Alchemy Level 109


That moved me up into the top 25 alchers. :)


But I went right back to work on my crafting level (and making some badly-needed gc):


You advanced to level 47 of crafting!


Crafting Level 47

---------------------------------

In my "Skills" box on the right of the blog, I rearranged them today to be in order of rank rather than skill level. As a "high" level for a skill can be different for each skill, I thought player rank better represented where my strengths were.

No surprise, in that order my fighter skills were dead last, hehe. The odd-looking one is tailoring... My lowest-level skill is my 4th-highest rank mainly because so few do it.

It does show why my concern for my crafting level has been so much despite it being higher leveled than other skills. Shown this way, which is how I was looking at it, it's my lowest mixing skill.

Magic is getting a lot more attention than I used to give it so it'll probably move up in the coming months. At the least higher than attack and defense. (Again. speaking rank-wise not level.)

Att and Def... well, something has to be at the bottom, and that'll probably stay it, heh.

--------------------------


Back to the S2Es! This is my final batch for my Animal 5 nexus, then I can start summoning stones and better work on my summoning level.

Not my final nexus, though. I plan to buy every nexus I need to do everything in game (except arti cape... Human is 7 now and will stay there).

Planned order to buy them:
Animal 5 (sum stones start)
Artificial 5
Artificial 6 (start putting my Manu level to some use)
Magic 3
Magic 4
Magic 5
Animal 6
Artificial 7

This was the order I determined was the best to buy them for my needs and their usefulness. After that... well, that's a bit too far in the future to decide.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Getting More Players - Kill the Beta Status?

(The following is a personal opinion on the current state of the game. I could be way off. But, you know, that's how opinions work...)


There's been several threads on the forum of late about how we're not getting many new players. A number of those who are new don't hang around as well.

The latter is to be expected. People try a game, decide if they like it or not, and move on if they don't. But some will stay.

The focus of the threads tends to be changing things/adding things that will keep more staying than going. And while there's some merit to a few of the ideas, I'm beginning to feel that's not the big problem.

The big problem? For me, I think it's the "Beta" status of the game.


First, I think back to when I first tried out EL. It looked interesting, but I'd tried too many alpha/beta programs in my time that never fully fleshed out. The "Beta" status is a bit worrysome to some. Sure, it worked for Google but chances of Google abandoning something like Gmail were slim to none.

But Beta on what is a homegrown project can many times mean it'll never be fully "finished" or stable. Now, of course after playing for over a year I know the game is quite playable and functioning in its beta state. People just starting, however, don't know this.

Honestly, it was boredom that kept me going in the beginning. Because of the beta status, I didn't know if I wanted to invest much time into it. It was only after my boredom kept me around a while that I learned of players who'd been on for several years, that the game didn't seem to be on its way into abandonment, and so on, that I started "really" playing.

If I hadn't been really bored at the time, I may have moved on to trying something else instead. Something that wasn't "beta".


What to do?

Still just my opinion of course, but at this point I think all changes done should only be for making adjustments to the what's in the game now to "complete" it in a way that makes removing the Beta status a viable option.

I don't mean that's the end of new stuff or anything of that nature, but there's several things about the game that feel a bit "wrong" or off or missing or such that have more to do with "tweaking" rather than bringing in completely new stuff.


The things I'm thinking of:

1) Fix the item graphics - Several potions look exactly the same because of new ones brought in using old ones' images. The matter conglomerate is still a cabbage and the vial mold still a carrot. "Little shit" that doesn't really affect actual game play but would make the game "look" better.

2) Missing Gods - I know there's not a big interest dev-side to bring in the 3 missing gods (Harv, Range, Tailor), but for completeness sake, they should be added. It gives a feeling of being "unfinished" without them.

3) Continue the new NPCs - Of all the new stuff and changes made the past year, these are what I think have been the best for "fleshing out" the game, putting stories and life onto various maps. It adds to the maps, making them feel a lot less "abandoned". (In particular on the maps that newbies tend to hang out on. I recall wondering why so many buildings were abandoned as a newbie when I first started exploring.)

4) Clear out any outstanding bugs - I haven't checked to see if there are any (or how many known), just including this because if there are any, they should be priority over new stuff.

5) Map Issues - Little things like the tiger lilies south of Naralik storage being "too far away" when you click on them standing directly beside them, just because they were too close to storage. Just remove them. Changing to "You can't harvest here" is just wrong since "too close to storage" doesn't make sense as an actual reason in game play. Yes, I know things like that would require a client update, but I'm thinking long-term to remove the beta status which would have to include a client update anyway. "You can't harvest here" makes sense inside houses and such, that's theft of private property. ;)

Oh yeah, not that I harv there anymore, but I believe the WS underground had a lot of "you can't harvest here" messages on everything but two items. Now that hazmat storage is moved, maybe those should be cleared up just so it makes more sense.

6) Adjust the harv spots - I'm not talking making them harder, as honestly it takes long enough to harv as it is. I'm not talking making them easier to harv either.

I'm talking dealing with overcrowding... add spots that are at almost the exact same "distance to storage" elsewhere that will help split up the crowd.

Preferably on opposite continents. If something is almost exclusively harvested on C1, an equivalent-distance-to-sto spot on C2 may get more people to use C2. Too far or too close in comparison will only cause people to not use it or everyone migrate to it (eventually) respectively. People look to getting the absolute closest-to-sto spot as possible, and there's really no way to change that train of thought. Adjusting with that in mind could get more maps used and the crowd dispersed a bit. (Don't wanna lose the crowd? Consider this is to get the game out of Beta status to get more people in. More equivalent spots will be needed anyway.)

(And yeah, a single piece of iron leading to a frustrating constant "move please" as people fight over it is not even remotely fun. That needs to be fixed. I used to love EVTR before it became the "choice" iron spot. Can't stand being in that mine anymore though because of that.)

7) Fix what's already in-game, forget new stuff - I suggest a complete drop of any plans for new items and such for now. A "freeze" if you will.

Instead, take a look at the items that are already in the game. What's not being used, and why? Rather than the previous "noone's using it, remove it" mentality, determine why noone's using it, and can anything be done to actually make the item useable.

As a potioner, I see a large amount of potions that just never get bought or used because their effect is useless for the most part, or simply not worth the cost. (+5, +4, +3, +2, +1 per minute in harvesting from the Harvest Potion for example... +5 really doesn't help at all when it comes to harvesting. Could something be done to make that pot of any real use? That's just one example.)

That example goes to weapons/armor/engineering items/etc. as well. Almost every skill has those "abandoned items" that just (almost) never get used. Perhaps figuring out a way to make them useful, even if only to a handful of people, rather than bringing in new things might be easier than the new stuff. And will make some of the skills feel less like they're limited to 1-2 items.








Bah, I've rambled on enough. Really no point in getting overly specific as the idea was to just give some general meaning of what I meant by things that would get the game out of "beta" status.

Of course, this doesn't mean the game won't continue to evolve. Just that what's already in the game should be tweaked more, with only the new NPCs/Quests added as they help flesh out the game itself overall. This would allow the ability to remove the "beta", which in itself with lots of hype over the "end of the beta, here's the official game" just might be what's needed to help pull in players.

Yes, I've suggested new things to be added before, and while maybe sometime in the future I'd like to see them, I'd gladly give them up to see the stuff already in the game tweaked for useability and the game finally leaving beta status to help attract more players.

I think others need to likewise put a moratorium on begging for new stuff for the sake of the game as well. Just until the point where "Beta" can be killed.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Burn's Alch Guide

Updated: January 5, 2014

(Note: This is a "personal experience" guide, based on my own mixing throughout my time working my way up to level 140 alchemy. Your experiences may vary, and as well things change over time. Nothing here is set in stone, so use it, but use it with thoughts of your own actual play and experience in mind.)

What's useful to make? What not? In what quantities? And why?

In order, from lowest rec level to highest:


Bone Powder - Never do these just to level. At 1xp each regardless of rationality or god status, not worth it.

Mix only if you absolutely need them yourself. There are a few people who need them in large amounts, mixing Point Defense in engineering school on engineering days, but they'll likely have their own. You'll be better off just selling the bones themselves.


Fire Essence - One of the two most popular and needed essences. An absolute necessity in huge quantities, particularly for bar making. These will sell quickly and in huge amounts. As well, you'll likely need huge amounts yourself, at some point if not already there.

You'll need these in the hundreds of thousands if you're planning to get anywhere in the alchemy skill. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can afford to just buy these.


Water Essence - Not as heavily in demand as FEs, as most who need these make them themselves to save cost. But still, they do sell pretty regularly and in large amounts, though you may have to spend longer advertising them than FEs or HEs. As well, get a nice stock up for yourself if you plan to do any crafting or tailoring, as they are heavily needed to level in either skill.

Of late there has been a bit higher demand, as high level crafters have begun mixing Blank Paper in school on school day, each of which takes 5 WEs. 


Earth Essence - Though there's been a slight increase in demand for seridium bars, there's still not enough demand for these to sell. Only very rarely will you find people asking to buy these. Best only to make for yourself, as needed.

The slight need for them on market comes primarily from very high level engineers who can afford to toss out Treasure Finders in school on engineering days.


Air Essence - Huge demand thanks to people who use mana draining to advance their magic level. A pain to make though, mostly due to ings (diamond and silver). For that reason, a lot of people buy them rather than make them themselves. You can get a decent price for them, and they'll sell pretty quick (though not as fast as HEs and FEs). Just expect a lot of work in the process harving the ings. Buy silver when you can find it, but expect to harvest the flowers and diamonds yourself as they're rarely if ever seen on market.


Spirit Essence - Don't make these. At all. If you have some spare mercury, make a few for yourself maybe if absolutely necessary. The reason being that the magic shop NPCs sell these for 9gc each, which is below the ing cost of self-making them. That combined with the very low (in comparison to other essies) need for them makes them pretty useless to make. Best to buy them from the magic shop as needed.


Matter Essence - They'll sell, but the price is limited by the NPC price of 12gc. If you buy all the ings, you'll break even only if you don't critical fail, which is impossible even at my level.

Harving the ings makes it one of the slowest essences to get ings for. Personally I'd recommend only making them for yourself, but if you're willing to put in the harv time, they will sell.


Energy Essence - Once you get to the point that you're using magic for portal room visits, or using point defense to level engineering, you'll be needing a LOT of these for yourself. Having a nice stock for either of those cases is a very good thing.

As for selling, they tend to do so, and at a fairly good price, so there's a pretty decent market for them. Again, they won't sell as fast as FEs or HEs so you may need to advertise longer, but a sale will eventually come. These are worth a try.


Life Essence - Summoners, especially those who are making summoning stones which require a lot of these, will buy huge amounts of these like candy if the price is fair.

As well, they're not hard to make, which makes them good for alch leveling.


Death Essence - Very rare sales, and the cost of mercury makes them pricey. Best only made for yourself as needed. Almost never seen being asked for on market.

If you do manage to sell these, you can make a small profit if you buy the mercury from Harvy in DP, and harvest the other ings yourself. However, sales are very slow on this item.


Health Essence - Always sell well, always needed, and extremely huge amounts aren't uncommon. Heavy making of these is never a bad thing as long as you don't try attempts to overprice them. There's plenty of people who can make them, and if you make attempts to overprice them on market you may find there's people who will end up never buying anything from you on principle.

Also keep in mind when pricing that they can be easily bought from NPC at 9gc each.


Magic Essence - The most-made essence that has the least usage. These almost never sell on market, due to the little demand and huge amount of people who make them for leveling. (I call these the "tree shrooms of alch", done more for experience than actual usage.)

Unlike tree shrooms though, you can sell them to magic shop NPCs and and possibly still profit (if only marginally) even if you buy all the ings. chances of buying the ings are slim to none though, as none of the ings tend to be found on market. Expect to end up harvesting all the ings yourself.

Good for leveling alchemy only, and even then you may be better off even with an essence that gives less experience if you have better access to ings.


I personally also used these in the alch school for power leveling on school days. These days they are the best option for school usage. Yes, you lose the possibility of getting an EME that way, but power leveling is always a tradeoff.


Iron Bar - Commonly made, and will sell, though steel bars will sell much better. Primary audience is people making S2Es for hydrogenium ore runs, and they are more likely looking for steel bars to buy. Despite that, you should be able to get some sales of these.


Matter Conglomerate - A ton of essies, for something that has little demand. Selling them may prove futile since those who actually need them tend to make them themselves. Best made only for yourself, and only when you absolutely need them. Market is almost non-existent.


Steel Bar - Very commonly made, sell quite well thanks mostly to S2E makers. Best made in the thousands, which is quite a lot of time spent on harvesting and making FEs.


Mercury - These days is not worth making at all. Ing cost is way too high, and on top of that the regular breaking of expensive alembics.

Harvy in DP sells them for 10gc each. This really is the best option when you need it in any amounts.

There is no cinnabar on market these days, so if you plan to make it you can expect to harvest that yourself. Very slow, and long trips to storage.

This was, once upon a time, something people used in school on school days for power leveling. However, costs have risen since then, and market has changed. (Add to that, there's regular school days now thanks to day stones, and you're better off keeping a stock of magic essence ings for when school days appear instead.)


Silver Bars - Not as common as iron/steel bars. There is a niche market for these, that being Crafters making medallions and rings. How well they sell tends to fluctuate, so if making these to sell, don't expect a quick sale. Though it may happen.

Generally though, you're better off making them for your own use only as needed.  Those who need them also tend to be high enough alchers to mix their own bars.


Gold Bar - Not a big seller. Much lower chance of selling than silver bars, in fact.

Another best only made when you have a personal need for them, that being mainly if you're planning to do a lot of crafting.


Titanium Bar - Extremely low need for these as the items they are needed for are not made in large quantities. Best only made on a self-need basis. Worst case they can be sold to an NPC for 40gc, hardly worth the time involved harvesting the titanium though.

If you have a ton of gc to waste, you can buy these and poof them in alchemy school on school days. (I never did this as my gc was reserved for other skills, but you can technically do this. Much faster than magic essences which I preferred, but a more extreme cost.)


Tin Bar - You will not sell these. At all. Best save them to make bronze bars, which is their only use. Even then, only make on an as-needed basis.


Copper Bar - (I hate to repeat myself, but...) You will not sell these. At all. Best save them to make bronze bars, which is their only use. Even then, only make on an as-needed basis.


Bronze Bar - A combo of tin and copper bars, this is a nightmare to make. Only do so on an as-needed basis. There is almost no market for them, as most who need them can make them themselves.

NPC sales of these (and tin, and copper) also makes them not really worth mixing. 


Hydrogenium Bar - Quite regular need for them, particularly due to the ability to buy a Nexus with 50 of them. Most who are buying nexus though do so by harving and making these bars themselves to save gc. Sale-wise you're much better off selling iron/steel bars. High recommendation to make these yourself for nexus-buying though, to save money. Keep in mind the hydrogenium ore itself is quite an annoyance to harvest, and not something everyone can easily do.

(For those who fear doing the Hydro ore runs, there are people who regularly trade your S2Es for their hydro ore, normally at a rate of 11 S2Es to 10 hydro ore, the extra S2E "paying" for their taking the hydro run risk. Consider this as an alternative if you wish to make these bars.)


Seridium Bar - A rise in usage since the addition of the gatherer medallion, and much more as well when harvester medallion was made more useful.

However, as the NPC sells these for 7kgc, and ing cost to self-harv and mix has drastically risen, the majority of these are directly bought from the NPC now.

So... not a good seller.


Wolfram Bar - Don't make. The cost involved is more than the 15kgc the bar costs from the NPC. Save the rare stone used for something else.


Enriched Essences (made with enrichment stone) - Due to the cost of the enrichment stone, the only enriched essence that might be worth making is the EME. Otherwise if you get an enrichment stone, you're better off selling it and buying other enriched essies on market.


Dvarium Bar - Extremely limited need, and the very few people who can actually put these to use likely make them themselves. Don't bother at all unless you're one of those people. Or you are providing ings for a manuer to make something with this bar.




That about covers it. Your mileage may vary, but the above is based on my own experience. Hopefully this provided some insight on what sells and doesn't, or what is just good to make in general even for non-sales.

Comments and opinions welcome. We all experience different things in the course of the game so others may have different experiences with items than I've had.

Time to Get Crafty

Yesterday was mostly working on half a potion level. Finally there, heh. I'll work on the other half after I finish the final S2E batch to get my Animal 5 nexus. Which won't be long.

Before that though, gonna MD 500 bears or so. That'll get me my next Magic level and more bear fur stock.

Made the 3k AEs needed for that last night. Still had diamonds in stock from when I bag-made AEs last time and carried extra diamonds back each time. And for some reason I actually had 3k silver in stock. That's a rarity! But it didn't take long thanks to that.

Now working on my next crafting level. A choice of polishing 1400 saps or making 500 moon meds (including exp. for polishing the saps and making the silver meds). I believe I'm going the moon meds route since that'll get me more gc as well, which I'm desperately needing. For now I'm making WEs in Portland. I'll get to MD-ing bears as a break from the mixing.


So for now, it's a combo of working on a magic level, collecting bear furs for later summon stone use, and working on a crafting level.

Heh, and I'll either be close to or get an alchemy level as well making the silver bars for the moon meds. If not then, then when I make bars for the S2Es it'll come real quick.


Sweet.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Heh, Potion Don't Come Easy

Finished making the batch of S2Es I'd made bars for... 130 out of ings for 130, not shabby. ;)

One more batch for my Animal 5 nexus. Yippee!

Break from that, working on potion again. Goal for now is to get HALF a level. Aiming for a full level these days feels... ugh.

Stocked my Potion Shop, and am using BRs/SRs to finish off the experience for half a level. Should be done with that today, got all the ings harved that I need. Just need to mix about 4k BRs and I'm good to go.

After that it's back to the diamonds to make about 3k AEs for another round of Mana Draining Bears for magic experience and stocking furs.

Then I'm looking at getting my next Crafting level.


Think unless I get the strong urge there won't be more a/d training for at least a few days.