My leap attack barbarian's solo quest though hell was completed last night. Let's just say the last week of playing this guy were intense. He managed to make it though Acts 4 and 5 with a single death--lagging badly after opening an evil urn that popped a snake boss, and I almost survived even that bad luck. No save and exit for body recovery...I made hid do it the hard way :P.

While this guy certainly was not the most challenged of builds, he is only my 3rd 3-dot, and my first guy to solo hell pretty much all the way. I refused any use of an aura merc, sticking with Bors (go on, Bors chop his head off ), my A5 normal Barb companion thoughout the game.

Memorable moments included the Plains of Despair, which was mostly AKs and Burning souls, including a conviction AK boss pack nested within at least 3 or four packs of souls ; gloams in the frozen river (no surprise there), and a throne draw of oblivions/dumb knights, souls, and vampires (tough, but could have been worse). He full cleared hell up through the latter part of A5 (except for all the false tombs and the swampy pit), where I skipped the cellar (went back to it after Baal), the pit off the Frozen Tundra, and parts of the WSK (I moved on after satisfying myself that I could handle all the combinations of the draw). Entered hell at 70 and finished at 83. Total hell deaths while questing after A2 were 3, once in A2 to overlapping boss packs with might/curse, a manaburn/cursed/fanat thresher pack in upper kurast, and the lag-induced death in A5 to a manaburn (other mods not remembered) snake pack on the glacial trail. Had another death running in A2 with KoP and his son...I lept into a boss pack and was dead in 3 seconds...I still don't know what mods that pack had.

He wore Sigon's set through nightmare, which was then switched for the IK set (sans armor). Weapons of note were bonesnap (though nm diablo), bloodtree stump (dropped by nm diablo), windhammer ogre maul (through clvl 76), and IK maul. He wore a durial's shell throughout hell, upgrading it to elite in early A4. Other equipment included a manald's heal ring and ravenfrost, both of which dropped in nm. Ammy was a +1 barb skills with teens to most resists. With charms, skills and socketing, I managed to max fire and lightning res by A4 hell.

Tactics evolved over time. There was lots of potion horking--this guy loved to drink. With no shield, and a slow attack, he would usually drink a pot after every battle, if not during. For some packs, I would leap, leap, leap to separate the masses (especially PI packs of ghosts), then leap attack/zerk to pick off individuals. Other, less dangerous pack would get lots of short-hop leap attacks. When LA would give knockback to the attacked monster (depended on the terrain), that monster would be separated and soon dead. Otherwise, most packs were alt-LA (allows for LA when in melee range), which would generally mean less controll over which monster in the pack was targeted. That make for slower progress. Taunt/howl were used to control crowds, since being swarmed was the biggest problem for a slow attacker (other than manaburners). Big time dangerous areas (read gloams/souls) were handled by chockpoints and lots of taunting.

Some other snippets--

Maggot lair--I was able to leap in a grab the staff, but could not taunt enough to keep the mothers from filling the room, and I could not kill the crowd fast enough. Shishak popped in with his summoner to help me clear out the room--thanks again.

Durance--dolls, dolls, dolls on Dur 2. That, coupled with urdars and vampires made for a fun ride. KoP and his son popped in that game, so at least half of Dur 2 was soloing in a 3 person game. Definately made for a fun, intense session. Bremm was not fanat, not conviction, Dur3 was a walk in the park. Before I started A5, I helped a friend though A3--and that time Bremm spawned conviction...drank like a fish

I had bought a wand with lifetap charges to use in areas with non-leechables (A2 temples and arcane came to mind). I never had to use it, though there were many town trips when there were not many corpses to hork (plains especially--souls and AKs did not support pot finding).

The leap attack bug was mostly manageable--it usually happened once a night. Quit save and exit, then return to the game. I do not recall any deaths due to that bug. Desynch was a REAL pain. There were times where more than half of my leap attacks were whiffs, even with a decent attack rating and landing right on the monsters' heads. Of course, celebrating a significant victory by hopping all over the screen, spamming war cries also can not be overrated.

The fun factor with this guy was enormous. Leaping across half a screen to deliver a smack on the head is great for the soul! I'd like to try this hardcore some time, but the amount of desych I experienced on the realms makes me think that I would need some good luck to make it to guardian solo. Maybe someday.

Now for a couple of shots from the end.



Note the bare-legged fashion.

Now it's time to show off the reward for a solo Hell victory. I am not sure Tyreal approves...



I hope you enjoy the pictures/report as much as I enjoyed playing this guy.

This Saturday, the Lounge is moving to its new host at ServInt. Saturday morning (Eastern time), I will shut down this forum and commence transfer of data to the new host. Also, I'll be transferring the domain name to the new host, which takes time to propagate around the 'Net.

Thus, it is likely that this forum will be unaccessible for much of Saturday. You'll know when everything's groovy when you go here and it's up and running. I have no idea how long it'll be down - could be anywhere from 4 to 24+ hours.

Your user accounts, private messages, settings, and all posts will transfer over. Nothing will be lost. Emails sent to @lurkerlounge.com addresses will likely be lost if sent late Friday until Sunday. Forum registrations should work fine pre- and post-transfer.

-Bolty

P.S. Man, I hope this goes smoothly.

The Rogue Revival Team is ready to launch. We have seven committed players and everyone has proffered their information. Surprisingly, everybody rated Mondays as "Good", so that will be our anchor night. Wednesdays are out if we want AlanSHB to join us, leaving Tuesday or Thursday, which are each a mixed bag for some players. Although nobody listed either night as out, I have some rather compelling reasons for avoiding Tuesday, and Thursdays are best for me, so Thursdays will be the second night, even though a few players will arrive late.


SCHEDULE

Mondays 8-11 PM Eastern
Thursdays 8-11 PM Eastern

Team play will open on Monday, October 4, 2004, 8 PM Eastern time.


LOCATION

Realm: USWest
Ladder: No. (The season will end before we finish, so we'd end up being booted off it anyway).
Channel: Sirian
Game/PW: TBA



ROSTER

Sirian
ME0003
Jaffa Tamarin
Cyrene
Hawkmoon
Sulla
AlanSHB
Dathon

Souledge - doubtful, not available after 9PM Eastern (not enough time overlap with rest of the team)
Occhi - doubtful, out initially and uncertain for later
Zed-F - out, not available on weeknights
T-hawk - out Mondays, alternate for Thursdays

All slots are filled, but I still welcome interested players to post. With eight players, the odds that real life and commitment to the event will hold up for everybody all the way to four dots... There may be opportunities later for alternates to step in.



CHARACTER BUILDS

Sirian - Red, Icebolt, Frozen Orb
ME0003 - Red, Icebolt, Chain Lightning
Jaffa - Blue, Fireball, Hydra
Cyrene - Blue, and too busy taking The Twins to Taladega to give us this info.
Hawkmoon - Red, Charged Bolt, Chain Lightning (or maybe Nova?)
Sulla - Red, Frost Nova, Glacial Spike
AlanSHB - Blue, Fireball, Hydra.
Dathon - Red, Inferno, Meteor. (Possible alternate: Blue, Ice Blast, Blizzard)



TEAMSPEAK PLAYERS

Everybody! Though one or two may be listening-only.


CONFIRMATION

Players please post confirmation of your acceptance of these terms. Those of you with build info to be decided should make up your minds before play begins. Let us know your decisions if possible. Also, let us know whether or not you are going to give Teamspeak a try. TS is not mandatory but could be helpful.



- Sirian

Imperium Seven

Yes, we know how to count, but Imperium Six is still in the works. We hope you will enjoy this one. It will run just a tad short of three weeks, so get started! :rockon:

Here's a recent picture of me, visiting my mother's house in April of 2004.

That's her dog, Amber. My glasses are on the table.




Now some pics of my little tiger. His name is Max.



Although I got Max from someone I know, the poor little guy was in bad shape. He was the lightest in color of a litter of four and his mother is a wisp of a little thing. I got him at five weeks, not yet weaned, and had to feed him with a dropper for the first few days, and teach him how to eat. More like how to suck on the food, but eventually he figured it out and now actually eats instead of nursing from a bowl.

Poor guy had a warble in his neck, a parasite, bigger around than an adult person's thumbnail. Oof. They get into the digestive tract as larvae and eat their way out from the inside. Nasty life form. Two of Max's litter mates did not survive, and I have no doubt he would have been a goner, too, without my intervention. Too bad I could only adopt/help/save one, but one is more than none. I took him down to the vet, and for one U. S. Grant got the warble removed, antibiotics treated into the gaping wound, and a week's worth of additional medicine to give him twice a day, orally, with a dropper.

So now I've got a rug rat here. An ankle biter. He gives new meaning to the words apron strings, as he follows me from room to room, up and down the stairs no matter how brief the trip. Good natured little guy. He has maximum energy/spunk/spirit, though, so that's how he got his name. He sure does love to play. Cats always love to play, but even among cats, this one is a real gamer.

Max has fully recovered from the parasite. He's all healed up now. Only sign of it is that the new fur that grew in over the wound area is out of synch (in terms of color/striping) with the rest of his pattern. Scar fur.

Max was a terribly messy eater at first.



He was fond of putting both paws into the bowl, into the food, then sucking on the food like it was a teat. I had to baby him along something incredible, heating his food and water and milk in the microwave to get it to body temperature. Then he'd blindly nose around looking for mama to latch on to, and more food would end up on the floor (or rather, on that sheet of newspaper) than inside him. So gather it up and put it back in the bowl and try again. The little fellow needed plenty of help. Of course, I couldn't get it all back into the bowl. He tracked it all over the paper with his paws.

Here he is with one paw in the bowl, tipping it toward him so he can reach that last bite of food.



Did I mention that he's a gamer? Here he is playing around in the box where I put the crushed aluminum cans.



And here he is attacking a shoestring.



He's about 2.5x that size now, so I need to get some more recent pics out of the camera and into the computer. He can jump from the floor to a chair seat now, jump across the gap from the couch to the recliner without blinking, and scale vertical cloth surfaces with no trouble, like the back of my office chair. He's very quick. Have to watch every step, as he's still not wary enough of people's feet to avoid getting himself stepped on, although he is learning. I figure it's a matter of days, weeks at most, before he finds a way onto the countertop or the top of the fridge and the scolding must begin.


Sirian:

Max:

Onlookers:


- Sirian

ME0003, a real life friend of mine, has generously offered to host a Teamspeak server for gaming use. I'm planning to make use of it for the Rogue Revival team variant. I've known ME0003, or "me three", for over fifteen years now. He's the one who introduced me to Civ (Civ1, that is), and my first game of Civ was played in his bedroom. I bought Diablo in January 1997 while staying at his home, so my first game of Diablo was played in his living room (on my computer). Oh, and I got the Descent demo from him, so my first game of Descent was played at his place, too. Wow, where would I be without him?


What is Teamspeak? This is a voice communication program, which is capable of running parallel with games to provide voice chat during play. There are other uses, too, but gaming is our chief concern here.

I first learned of this program through friends who are still playing Descent. FPS players of all stripes -- Quake, Unreal, Descent, etc -- make frequent use of programs like Teamspeak during gaming. Many RTS players do the same. Team games see the most use, but free for all gaming can be fun too, to talk with one another while playing, to hoot and holler like you would at a LAN.

One of the reasons I like Teamspeak is voice clarity. The quality is really good, sound is about on par with telephone. Another is the Press to Talk feature, which is compatible with almost anything. I set up one key to key my mic, and then sound is sent out only when I want it to be. Less disruption, less distraction, and no dropped remarks if someone's voice quiets. Another important reason I like Teamspeak is that it is completely free for noncommercial use. Finally, I like Teamspeak for reliability. The program is stable, battle tested for demanding types like FPS players, and with minimal setup and acclimation, it's ready to use.

Voice chat properly demands broadband. This is the chief reason you haven't heard about this before -- when I was on dialup, I needed every ounce of bandwidth just to enjoy a game. No room left for voice. Now that I have cable, I'm happy to finally start making use of voice capability.


Here is the Teamspeak Website where you can learn more, download the software, etc.


Diablo is the only active RB Favorite where TS would be particularly useful, so that's why I've posted this notice in here. ME0003 is going to join the Rogue Revival team. He's not a total Diablo newbie, but he's a bit green compared to the average RBD player. He and I are definitely going to run TS while we play, and we invite the rest of the team to join us if they like.

Since the server is up and he has it running on his network and media server at home, where he has commercial DSL, it will be available for other use. The current user limit is set to 16. I'm also a server admin, so if you have any requests, forward them to me or post them in this thread. (For example, World of Warcraft players... or any other games where RB folks are playing multiplayer. If you would like to try TS for a team event, let me know.)


WHAT YOU NEED TO RUN TEAMSPEAK:

* Windows or Linux
* Microphone
* Headphones
* Broadband Internet

The mic is obvious.

The headphones are for reduction of noise pollution. Folks are going to be hearing the game they're playing, so there will be game sounds, possibly music, so any spoken communication needs to be clear to heard over the game sound, and we don't want voice echoes from somebody's speakers, nor do we need to hear THEIR sound and music broadcast to us.

The broadband restriction is not one of permission but of practicality. Dialup users are welcome to TRY to use TS if they wish. Perhaps tweaking the performance to minimal latency at the expense of sound quality will help, but I wouldn't count on that. Use at your own discretion.


HOW TO USE TEAMSPEAK:

* Install the client software.

* Set up your Connection. Go to Connection, Connect, and add a server to your local address book.

Server Label = Realms Beyond
IP: 66.15.72.204
Nickname: (Input your nick)
Login: Anonymously, until we've registered you on the server. Once registered, then login registered.
Server Password: The RBD password. If you don't know it, email me, or Gris, or KoP.
Default Channel: Realms Beyond

* Connect.

* Set up Push to Talk. Go to Settings, Sound Input, and activate Push to Talk. Then choose a hotkey and set it. I've chosen C, which is the nearest key to my normal Diablo hotkeys. (I moved Character Screen viewing to the V key and use C as an extra hotkey, but it's the least-used of my normal hotkeys. ME0003 and I played some D2 tonight on a test run and C worked out very well for me.)

* Enter the correct channel. You will only hear the voices of others in the same channel. Which channel to use depends on what you're playing. I've set up some registered channels to start:

Realms Beyond - main lobby, general chat.

RBD1, RBD2, RBD3 - Diablo rooms, available for general Diablo play. Find yourself in a game with fellow RBers? Some or all of you want to give TS a try while you play? Each room is for a different game, so up to three games can be running TS, one game per room.

Active Team Variants can give TS a try. If you find you like it and want to continue, I can add a registered channel for your team. Let me know.


Obviously, Teamspeak is of no use if there's nobody else in the channel. Also, the server is provided "as is" and we cannot be responsible for what folks say and do while connected, except to ban those who behave abusively. Here's hoping that will never be necessary.


SERVER RULES

* No excessive foul language.
* No deliberate harassment of others.
* No deliberate disruption of games, channels, or activities.
* Exercise common sense.
* The server is for RB use only. If there are less than two RB community members involved, that is not RB use.

These rules go without speaking, but I thought I'd spell them out anyway. If you have a complaint about anybody's behavior on the server, please email it to me. Thanks.

Let the chatting begin. :wub:


- Sirian

Sounds like a good time to reinstate VNite :wub:

VNite is to encourage people who don't usually play much, or just don't play much on bnet, to make one day out of a week to catch up with friends to shoot the breeze and maybe catch a few games.
VNite is to encourage people to bring in their variants to coop with other similar characters.
Everyone is welcome (even with non Variant character) to join games and chat, and to play as long as proper courtesy is given to the game setting (Observe what variant(s) are in game).

Reminder: Channel RBD is the place to meet when bnet hiccups and trashes games.

Hope to see you all




Semi/Cripples who can appreciate some good travel campanions:

AlleyBaba - Fallen from grace to a street thug singing for nickles and dimes with only one loyal thief by his side. He still have 2 name sake Ali Babas hoping to find his fortune again. He can only afford tshirts and baseball caps (a first for KoP, I despise caps) and saving up for a cap with Harley logo. He is in early 60s entering Hell.

Alice Co-oper - Lvl 40ish naked Traffic Controller. Skills are: Attract, DV (Hardly ever used), Confuse, Decrep, Prison (for traffic violations) and CE to clear road blocks.

BruiseKnee - naked kick asn at clvl 21. can kick ass in act 1 :wacko:

GoGoGadgets - Lvl 27 looking for Baal. No Skill baba

ACoolMeleeExp (ACME) - Melee version of GGG. Lvl 18 somewhere in act 2-3

GoodBadNUgly - Lvl 60 tri-were druid in hell 2. Rabies in wolf form to infect monsters, changes to human form and then to bear form and give monsters a shock therapy. Slow paced due to time for rabies to work and relatively low poison dmg in Hell. He can be one hack of a tank in bear form, not from items or vit pump but Shockwave is quite effective. Can be highly dangerous character to play - can die easy between transformations

Also: I will be pre-building a bunch of BN(x) characters for BN games. Everyone is encouraged to pre-build, which means starting a new character and lvl it to clvl 9 at which time it can be hostiled. Questing to Cain and OC is usual.


KoP

There's a Diablo clone out there called Sacred. Anybody here tried it? The reviews at Amazon were a mixed bag, and checking out This Fansite seems to indicate that Sacred has borrowed an enormous amount straight out of Diablo II. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, they are flattering the heck out of Blizz North.

The sheer number of copycat items leads me to wonder. Can it really be that much like Diablo II? Or have they borrowed less than it appears? Reminds me of FPS clone games, where they offer only pale imitations of the original instead of something creative that actually fixes the original's weaknesses and builds on its strengths. If the price were twenty bucks, I'd still give it a shot, just out of curiosity, but at forty... Unless someone I trust says it's golden, I'll be biding my time and enjoying the Rogue Revival variant.


- Sirian

I'll spare you the de-nile jokes and just let you know that Epic Forty-four: Denial of the Nile, is now open. Enjoy!

-Griselda

My monitor has been acting strangely lately. When I look at the edge of the screen, I can see a waviness that slowly travels up the edge of the screen. Sometimes, it has little "blips" where it makes a strange sound like it's about to shut itself off. That happens fast enough that I couldn't tell you whether the picture is affected at all.

I'd like to get this monitor to last as long as possible (although it's a couple of years older than my computer, which is hardly new itself). But, I'm not sure if there are good ways to do that. For now, I've set the screen refresh rate to the lowest possible setting that this monitor supports. Will that do anything useful? Are there other tricks that I can use?

-Griselda