vmxa was interested in the possibility of another OSG starting. I don't have any ideas at this time, but we might be able to pull enough people together to start one. Who would be interested in sponsoring an OSG?

This is the signup thread for 7 Samurai. I would like to reserve this thread for participants to discuss play details; see the Life After Slackers thread for rules discussion, which is open to all. If you plan to play, please post here describing your planned character build. With so many paladins in the group aura choices will of course be important so we don't overlap too much. We will probably be aiming for Sat nights at 8:30 EST.

CH is easy, since he's not a paladin. A spearazon would most likely take inner sight @10 and 2 spear skills @10 -- knowing CH I'd guess jab and fend. Assuming everyone else is a paladin, this gives us at least 6 primary auras plus potentially other secondary auras.

We could potentially split the builds up by having a couple pallys focusing on defense and the rest focusing on offense, for example:
Offense
- Fanaticism (poss. w/ Sacrifice & Redemption, zeal @ 1+ as backup)
- Conviction (poss. w/ Vengeance & a synergy, or 2 Vengeance synergies)
- Might (poss. w/ Charge, Vigor, zeal @ 1+ as backup)
- Concentration / Blessed Aim (probably zealot, utility infielder. )

Defense
- Angel (Salvation, Vengeance, poss. w/ Prayer using insight staff/pole for a small Medic component? )
- Holy Freeze (mainly for slow, responsible for backup resist auras to stack with salv, probably a zealot. Sacrifice synergy instead of resist cold?)

Thoughts? None of these are set in stone, so feel free to alter to taste, or make something completely different up. I'd be ok with any, depending on what others like.

Hello everyone This seems to be a nice community. I hope that I will fit in.

I just came back to Civ after moving on to other things, and am happy I did [Come back, that is.] I also bought the Civ 3 Complete edition. Was that a good thing? I already had Civ 3, Conquests and PTW. I hoped that everything would be all together in the new edition. It turns out that Complete is version 1.22, and I know that the upgrade version 1.29 is out [I have it d'loaded but not installed]. Should I install it to the Complete edition? Will it make a difference? Should I uninstall and go back to Civ3 and Conquests? [Is Superman faster than the Flash?]

I have looked on several boards, and have seen mixed comments on 1.29. Several people commented that it really messed up their computers, and that they now can't play Civ at all, which I want very much to avoid. So, any help on this will be much appreciated.

Also, I have a problem with creating a world. It seems that I can't. When I click on the editor, i get a list of dialogue boxes telling me of all the things the editor cannot find--something like 20 or 25 boxes, listing all the terrains, and then units, I think. [Each of the several times I have tried to edit a world, I have finally used the cntrl-alt-del route and have to shut down to make all those dialogue boxes quit popping up.] Again, any help on this will be much appreciated.

So, thank you in adavance for reading all this, and I hope everyone is having a great day--or night, as that's what it is here

Journey.

Here's a thread for discussing what's next. Some thoughts:

- BNx characters
- 7 Samurai, simplified & streamlined (& probably short a Samurai or 2)
- Come up with your own proposal!

It's the end of the world as we know it, but we feel fine....

The slackers team variant has concluded. Tonight we made our way past the Ancients, through the WSK, and ultimately defeated Baal and his minions. Though there was the occasional death, overall the effort went rather smoothly, especially as the game handed us relatively few piercing attacks to deal with and no gloams. Then, to top things off, we went back and vanquished Nilly in his lair, without much in the way of difficulty. Between various delays due to vacations and whatnot, it took quite a while (Shadow estimated a year and a half) but in the end we emerged victorious!

Here's where we can post the final stats for our characters. I'll start another thread for what's next.

Zedf-Systah's Vitals:
--------------------
CLVL 82

STR 10/31
DEX 25/37
VIT 10/10
ENE 35/45
LIFE 317
MANA 217
RES 15/9/63/-20
Unallocated Stats: 420

With Enchant:
AR 858
DMG 1751-2229
DR 192

Skills: (Should have maxed Warmth instead of Fmastery, but there you go)
-----
FBolt, Warmth, FBall, Hydra 1+5 (not counting leaf)
Enchant, FMastery 20+5 ( with leaf, 31/28 )
Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, CM 1+0
Static, TK, Teleport, LM 1+0
Unallocated Skills: 42

Final Gear:
----------
Wpn 1: Raven Claw
Wpn 2: Leaf (+3 Enchant Staff)
Hat: Rare; +2 Fire skills, 20% fast cast, 17-45 Fre dmg, 5% life steal, socketed with +3%/-3% minor fire facet
Armour: Smoke Breastplate
Gloves: Blue; Russet of Alacrity (16 FireRes, 20 IAS)
Belt: Blue; +100 life (3 rows)
Boots: Blue; +30 lit res, +30 w/r
Ammy: Blue; +3 fire skills
Ring 1: Rare; +5% life steal, +9 Dex, +22 lit res, other minor mods
Ring 2: Rare; +50 poison/3 sec, cold res 13, lit res 24, other minor mods
Charms: +17 STR, some resists, life, extra elemental damage

In short, largely crap.

Mercenary: A2 HF merc, equipped with Sigon hat, Sigon armour, upped (exceptional) Woestave. Not a great killer but good support for the rest of the merc team.

Systah never really contributed all that much damage to the team personally -- but the net effect of spreading enchant over several mercs and various disposable minions added up. Sometimes it seemed like the mercs were doing most of the killing and everyone else was just riding on their coattails. Of course that wasn't all enchant damage... but every little bit counts, right? Right?

Only had 2 minutes to login the game. It is on, and I spent the whole 2 minutes watch people DANCE! cool moves too

Can someone grab some screens of the dragon emblem for me in case (probably) I don't have the itme this weekend?

KoP

I've finally met a goal I've been pursuing for some time. I've beaten all twenty formations in my Mahjong Tiles puzzle game. (Not in a row, mind you! But beaten each arrangement at least once apiece).

The Sheet was the last to fall.









The Sheet was not as stubborn as the Box, but it took longer to make each try, and both were quite stubborn. Nevertheless, my test of perseverance has paid off. Chalk up another gaming goal set and met.


- Sirian

Several months ago, I had a short burst of interest in D1, played for a few weeks, did a 3@30, tried a few IM games, and posted these ideas in another forum. It occurs to me that I should post them here, because perhaps others still have the occasional D1 urgings. I wrote this as a standalone ruleset, but clearly it is just a variation on canonical Ironman with extremely restrictive groundrules.

The "Lock In": Strict Ironman Interpretation

1) 3 brand new characters, one of each class, meet in town of fresh game. They may buy and sell items as long as nobody has entered the dungeon.

2) When one characters enters a dungeon level, the others must follow promptly.

3) Upon entering a level, the characters are locked in. They may not exit the level by going upwards. They may only go downwards once the level is cleared of all enemies and barrels.

4) A character may not go to town via a town portal, exit the game, or "Restart in Town". If a character dies, they must be resurrected by the party.

5) If a player is forced out of the game by disconnection, computer problems, etc., that player must return directly to the party (either by walking or taking a TP) without any interaction in town or previously cleared dungeon levels. If the player's character was dead when the computer problem occurred, one of the other party members must cast ressurection before the character can return to the active level.

6) If the party reaches dungeon level 16, Diablo may not be killed until all other enemies are dead.

7) When a party has access to down stairs (the active level is clear and all members are alive), they may opt to suspend the game and continue later. In this case, the characters must leave the game directly. No mules are allowed, and nothing may be taken from town or previous levels. When the team meets on a later date, they go directly to the next level they would have played. If that level does not have a town entrance, a non-party character must enter the game, find the stairs to that level, and set a portal for the party.

8) The game ends when A) the entire party is dead, B) the party cannot progress down because members are dead and no form of resurrection exists on the active level, or C) Diablo is dead. If level 16 is cleared of all monsters and barrels, the game is won (even if some or all party members are dead).

Following is a summary of the initial interview questions.

.
Additional questions are welcome; they can be added as posts to the thread. If you think that the question you have might be a sensitive one, then ask it by private message to Zed, and he can decide for himself whether to answer it in public.


ShadowHM: Please give us some general information about yourself. For starters, where were you born? Where were you raised to adulthood? Where do you live now?


Zed-F: I was born in Edmonton, AB, Canada, and lived there all my life through university. My first bachelors degree was in Genetics, but I found pursuing a career in that field didn't seem appealing, so I got another bachelors in Computing Science. Along the way, I met and married my wife. Once I graduated, I found work in the R&D section of a large telecom manufacturing company, and we moved to Ottawa. I have continued to work at that company despite the burst of the internet bubble and still live in Ottawa with my wife and 4-year old.



ShadowHM: Who influenced you the most in making you interested in games? How? Were there any other gaming influences?



Zed-F: I had a few friends growing up who liked games, both the role-playing kind and the computer sort. Most of my gaming influences came from associating with other people who liked to game as well.

When D&D Basic first came out, I got a copy for a birthday gift when I was around 9 or so. My brother and I and my father opened it, and tried to figure it out, but we couldn't make heads or tails of it! We eventually took it back and got a more traditional puzzle game instead. A couple years later I made a friend who was very much into that sort of game and showed my brother and I the ropes, however, and that made all the difference. I have enjoyed a good roleplaying game ever since and currently spend some of my gaming time on an online play-by-post roleplaying site known as HeroCentral. I actually met my wife by virtue of our mutual interest in roleplaying games; we were both members of the role-playing club at university.

As far as computer games go, when I was young it was again more a matter of having a couple friends who were into computer gaming. It wasn't until I was nearly a teenager that my father brought home an IBM PC (at a whopping 4MHz) for work purposes, and a couple games we could play at home. I would play the occasional arcade game as well, and there were a couple I got good enough to beat on a single quarter, but I never really played that many of them, and I never got into the head-to-head type. Still, the home computer allowed us to play the early text-based adventure games from Infocom and a variety of other games, and from then on it was a matter of keeping up with the PC gaming scene. We never did own a console.

I have a dabbler's interest in other types of games as well, such as war gaming (both board and miniatures-based) but those have always been sidelines that I would play when I could get together with someone else who was interested. For a while in university I had a friend I would regularily play WH40K Epic-scale miniatures battles against, but he has remained in Edmonton while I moved to Ottawa, and I was never able to find someone to take his place out here. He still keeps me up-to-date on goings-on in the WH40K universe when I visit, however. I also enjoy a good card game. I wouldn't say I'm an expert card player, but I like to think I'm at least competent. My wife and I have come to play bridge online on a fairly regular basis, even if we always play in the social and not the competitive rooms.



ShadowHM: What games have you played in the past? What games do you play now?



Zed-F: For the sake of brevity, I'll restrict my answer to computer games.

When I was younger, I played too many games to easily list. These days I tend to be far more selective with my purchasing dollar. However, my brother still buys many games each year and I will occasionally borrow some from him that he's finished with.

At RB I have played Diablo 2, Moo, Civ 3, GalCiv, MOO 3, and Guild Wars. Other games I have played in the last few years include Starfleet Command, the Homeworld series, Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Dawn of War, Starcraft, and I'm sure a few more I've forgotten. I have a big stack of games I borrowed from my brother that I have yet to play, so I don't feel the need to purchase many new computer games unless they are must-haves for whatever reason. Generally I go in cycles where I'm playing one game consistently for a long time, then I switch to something else or another game and do that for a while. I don't tend to jump around a lot between different games within a short time interval.



ShadowHM: What non-computer games did you play as a child? Who introduced them to you and which types did you enjoy most? What non-computer games do you still play and why?



Zed-F: All sorts of games. Most of the highlights I already went over in my previous response, in the answer to the questions about gaming influences. The ones that stand out most in my mind were roleplaying games such as D&D (in various incarantions), Champions, Call of Cthulhu, and many more, and strategy boardgames or wargames, such as Axis & Allies, Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and a variety of others. I also played my fair share of card and dice games, especially hearts and bridge, as well as many others. Since in Unversity I was a member of long standing in the roleplaying game club (more accurately, the gaming club, since various members of the club were engaged in a variety of kinds of gaming beyond roleplaying games) I had exposure to a wide variety of games. I enjoyed that diversity and was often willing to try my hand at new games that seemed interesting, regardless of the format.

I still play roleplaying games online at HeroCentral in a play-by-post format, though I haven't made a serious effort at finding a local group to roleplay with in a face-to-face environment due to transportation issues and other difficulties. My wife and I play bridge at Yahoo Games on a regular but unscheduled basis as a social activity for ourselves. Unfortunately I haven't had opportunity to continue to pursue my wargaming passtimes since University other than the occasional computer game.



ShadowHM: How did you choose the username Zed-F?



Zed-F: I'll let you all guess where the name Zed comes from. It's an obscure reference to an old but well-known science fiction television character.

The -F appendix is not properly part of the name, but it's something I often add to distinguish it from all the other Zeds floating around out there. There is no particular reason why I chose -F other than habit.



ShadowHM: How did you come to the Realms Beyond?



Zed-F: I used to play Diablo in a now-defunct legit gaming organization by the name of Honor-Might. During the interval between Diablo I and Diablo II, the lull proved to be too much for many such organizations, and such was the case for Honor-Might. However, I happened to know Shadow from those days, and one day when I happened across her (I forget where) she mentioned RB. So I stopped by, liked what I saw, and decided to stick around.

Since then a couple former members of Honor-Might have become peripherally associated with RB, such as FlashNPan. Most, however, continue to play other games, such as UO and EQ.



ShadowHM: Please tell us about your playstyle.



Zed-F: I am a strong proponent of the RB variant philosophy for keeping things interesting. In part, this comes from indecision; when I'm starting a new character, I often am not certain exactly what I want to do with the character, so I will save resources/points/whatever until I have occasion to decide what I want to do. Even once I've made my decision as to a path to take, however, it's often an additional challenge to continue to make do without those resources. While this slows down the pace of the game, I find I'm not a big fan of rush-style games in the first place; a more moderate pace is helpful for safety, situational awareness, and ultimately enjoyment, at least in my case. I can be a pretty patient sort... though there are of course limits.

As such I've tried to participate in and promote variant games across RB, and particularly the type of variant where the variant rules are easy to understand but significantly limiting. I was a member of the FoS hardcore challenge for much of the course of that series of games, and also the proponent for the Slackers <http://realmsbeyond.net/diablo/vlodslackers.html> games that are still ongoing (when everyone can get together.) I also have an even more strenuously hampered Slacker variant character, AssIsGrass, who is making slow progress through Hell difficulty, and am participating in the BN challenge KoP came up with. Most of my characters are restricted in one way or another to varying degrees, though I do run the occasional unrestricted character.



ShadowHM: In terms of the playstyle you favour:
Is this a continuation of your approach to your work? Or is it an anodyne for the work you do? Or is it a choice because it is a counter-point for other aspects of your work or lifestyle?



Zed-F: I don't think my playstyle really has anything to do with the nature of the work I do. I think it has more to do with setting challenges for one's self, and then overcoming those challenges. Without new challenges to overcome, any endeavor becomes stale.



ShadowHM: Could you please give more details about that FoS hardcore challenge series, for those who are not familiar with it? Who was involved? What restrictions did you have? What were the most diffictult challenges? What does FoS stand for anyway?



Zed-F: FoS is short for Friends of Sisyphus, which was an attempt in v1.08-1.09 to get a closed team (no-twink outside of what the team found) of HC characters through the game, completing all quests, with as low a clvl as possible. The initial participants were Occhi, Hawkmoon, CelticHound, and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment. The team had some trouble coordinating their play times, however, and took a long time to complete normal difficulty. This was compounded by the fact that every time a player died, a new instance of that character would have to be created from scratch and levelled to catch up with the rest of the group -- hence, Friends of Sisyphus.

By the time the team reached nightmare, the fourth original player had dropped and Doc and I came on board. Doc dropped out again partway though nightmare, but I stuck with the team, and eventually, with much tribulation, we managed to defeat hell Baal. The experiment was definitely a mixed success, however, in that the Ancients quest pushed our clvls up higher than what we had intended. I remember taking my backup sorceress through the game and skipping the Ancients to see how far the concept could be pushed without that artificial level inflation interfering. I eventually managed to solo her as far as nightmare ancients while holding her clvl down to about clvl33. Since she was supposed to be a hydra/orb sorceress, and there were no synergies back then, she made it the majority of that way relying pretty much entirely on a +3 Glacial Spike/+3 Fireball leaf staff and her Iron Wolf Ice merc. Needless to say, it was very slow and careful going.

These days it might actually be possible to start again and be true to the FoS spirit since the ancients always give only one level. However, if I were to try again, I would do it in softcore to avoid the frustration of starting completely from scratch every time. Ironically, though I lost several backup characters, I never lost my main character until after we had completed our quest.



ShadowHM: What about Slackers

<http://realmsbeyond.net/diablo/vlodslackers.html>?



Zed-F: As far as slackers go, there should still be links around somewhere to the concept there. The original version was a very straightforward no-twink team variant that simply restricted the total skill and stat points available to the team members to about half of what would normally be available. Some team members chose to voluntarily take additional restrictions on top of that. Currently the slackers team is in A5 Hell, and consists of:

TyrFune - windy druid played by Shadow
VandyGraff - Lightning sorcy played by Hawkmoon
BringOutYerDead - CelticHound's no-stats Lord of Mages necro
SmOcchiTheBare - semi-naked trapassin originally started by Occhi but currently run by Shishak
Systah - Zed's no-stats Enchantress -- the only weapon-oriented character in the group, still using Ravenclaw 'cause we haven't found anything better!

I have since come up with a significantly more complex and more restricted version of the slacker variant and have off-and-on been running an assassin to those rules. AssIsGrass is currently in A1 Hell and looks like she will ultimately be capable of completing the game, if at quite a slow pace. Her story so far is posted on the board <http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86> and inside the RBD tales section here <http://realmsbeyond.net/diablo/taleassisgrass.html>.



ShadowHM: Since this interview is about 'The Making of a Gamer", what steps, if any, have you taken to ensure that your four-year-old will be a gamer too? i.e. what games do you play as a family and/or what games have you purchased for your child?



Zed-F: None in particular. I think she will likely become interested in gaming by osmosis, but it's not something I want to particularily encourage or discourage. In particular, I am trying to avoid encouraging much interest in computers at this time -- I'd rather she spend her time learning in other ways until she's a bit older. Once she's school-age will be soon enough.

We do have a few educational board games and the like that we do occasionally play together. Simple jigsaws, alphabet games, matching games, and story games are about her speed.

The first in what is hoped to be a series of interviews on "The Making of a Gamer" will be posted in the General Forum soon. I had the honour of being the first interviewer and Zed-F was gracious enough to let himself be the guinea pig ... er ... inaugural interview subject.

The first post will consist of a series of Q&A. Additional questions are welcome; they can be added as posts to the thread. If you think that the question you have might be a sensitive one, then ask it by private message to Zed, and he can decide for himself whether to answer it in public.

The interviews have several objectives. First, there is that question: What makes a Gamer and what brought us all to the Realms Beyond?

The second purpose of these interviews is to let us get a chance to know one another better. While we all love to game, we do come from many different backgrounds. These interviews will let us get a chance to know the 'subjects' better, and the subjects get a chance to talk a bit about themselves. Some of us have been gaming together, in one format or another, for almost 10 years; that is a big chunk of our lives, whether we consider it to be 'real life' or not.

A further purpose of the interviews is to give those of us who participate in only one of the covered games here at Realms Beyond a chance to know people from the other forums. I know I am looking forward to reading about some of you who play Civ or MOO, who I have yet to get a chance to meet in a game.

Best wishes to all of you. I hope you enjoy the read.