like I do, I recommend online Sudoku

cheers.

PT Barnum was right.

I bit on this April Fool's Joke. The bait offered was too tempting.

Care to share any successful and witty pranks pulled on you? Short sheeting is not clever, nor witty, when considering thresholds of quality in pranks and practical jokes. Shoes filled with shaving cream isn't either.

Occhi

Yep. The Kurzicks and the Luxons have settled in their respective places in Nebo Terrace and North Kryta Province.

And if you look around Lion's Arch there's even a cliched Romeo & Juliet-style quest to net you a simple 2,500 xp and some faction.

But my biggest gripe is... Why Kryta? Kryta has already had an awful lot of stuff added into it since release (Aside from Sorrow's Furnace), and seems to be the absolute centre of the world for any of the holiday events. There's dozens of lesser and undeveloped outposts and areas in pretty much every part of the game that would be better off if some interest was invested into them.

There's practically nothing in the Maguuma Jungle, aside from possibly the most breathtaking scenery in the game. Maguuma is one of my favourite areas in the world, and I find it an awful shame that most people just skip over it by running from ToA to Sanctum Kay. Plus, Maguuma seems to me the logical place where the Kurzick would settle, instead of being seperated from their sworn enemies by about half a mile.

Are we suppose to have another FoW run again tonite?

A guildie run sure made things Much Smoother

I think we can easily do it with a 5 man team and be effective. Up on the skills-to-bring wish list to make it even more efficient are:

Spiteful Spirit for more aoe damage. will save the nuker much energy.

More interrupt and or energy denial for multi monks mob. Perhaps Backfire and Scourage Healing.

Moons is spec for pure heal, but she can drop her Heal to 12 and Divine to 13 or so, and drop Heal Party from the bar so she can bring another rank8-10 skill into play such as SS or some prot... would rather not bring another elite so she won't have to drop Word she came to love so much.





KoP

This thread is designed to organize the times for RB Multiplayer games in an easy reference place. Currently, we have two regular game times:

Wednesday 9:00pm EST (Thursday 200 GMT)
Saturday 9:00am EST (Saturday 1400 GMT)

Anyone is welcome to attend these games - no experience necessary! If there is a desire for more regular gaming times, I will edit this post to add them. Players should plan to show up in the Multiplayer lobby a few minutes before these times to plan and organize a game. Don't show up a half hour late!

We should work out a common password to use for all Realms Beyond games. I suggest using "RB", but it could just as easily be something else.

Teamspeak

Quote: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.

Because why should Kylearan have all the fun?

Variant rules:

1. The first move of the game must be to disband the initial settler
   
2. Any settlers acquired from huts must be disbanded at once
   
3. No settlers may be trained
   

Anybody play this?? Ive read a few descriptions of it, but i'm still not sure i get it. I understand that it's hosted on a persistant server, and people can log in whenever and take turns, but how does the whole thing work??

w/the difficulty of getting people together for real-time MP, i thought an RB Pitboss game might be a nice thing to try....i'd rather try it w/people i know are committed to 'the game' (and not to childish insults and quitting)

ahh well, if anybody has any info on it or how they've found playing it, i'd be interested to know...

WARNING: This is long post, the author apologizes for being a long winded idiot.

Well, I just got done winning my first game on Hard Difficulty (yeah I am quite a newbie, get over it). I had several observations.

The first is that Klackons are way overpowered in a human player's hands (I am sure you guys already knew this).

The second though was a bit more unexpected. I had the most peaceful start to any game I have ever played on any difficulty. The galaxy was large which accounts for some of this, but this went on well after the first several votes. I only encountered one brush war near the end of my expansion phase, in which the Psilons (nearly runaway Psilons) stole a newly founded colony before I had a chance to stand it up/defend it. This was the only conflict I saw or experienced until very late in the game. In retrospect, the colony was just a bit too far to try and strech, but I wanted to do my best to deny the Psilons as many systems as I could to avoid the Psilon Psteamroller. As it was they well exceeded the 1 Psilon planet to every 2 of yours rule.

Also in this game was a near runaway Meklar, yes I said Meklar. They actually ended up holding roughly 1/5 of the planets on the map (including a Rich and an Ultra Rich). Both the Meklar and the Psilons held just about all the northern hemisphere together, and the Psilons held a few planets just south of the equator in the far west. So I was up against a Ruthless Expansionist Meklar, an Honorable Diplomat Psilon (thank goodness for a good draw there), an Erratic Expansionist Silicoid, an Agressive Expansionist Mrrshan, and Xenophobic Ecologist Alkari stuck with 2 planets.

After the brush war, I consolidated my empire, secured a few choice systems to colonize after getting the appropriate tech, and wait for the inevitable war to break out to allow me to exploit pointy stick diplomacy for an election victory. And so I waited, votes came and went, and yet no wars broke out, anywhere. Even the Mrrshans and Alkari refused to start a war despite being cornered having 3 and 2 planets respectively. I held non-agression pacts with all races, and all upheld them even the Erratic Expansionist Silicoids which were locked in a corner for an obscenely long time.

I started looking for ways to diplomacy a war, however I started noticing several disturbing facts. The first was there was some major alliance action going on. The Meklars held alliances with most other races throughout the game. They were nearly always in a persistant alliance with the other major AI power, the Psilons. At one point the Psilons had an alliance with every other AI race. Since the Psilons and the Meklars together held a little under 1/2 the map, and both had a tech lead, I could not afford to get in a war with both of them at once. As such, I could not afford to start a war with anyone, as that would likely put me into war with all of the AI's. And so I waited and invested heavily in tech.

Eventually, and by this I mean somewhere around 2430, the Mrrshans finally decided it was time to break out of their 3 planet corner, and decided the best way was through me. On the Exact same turn, the Alkari decide it is time to do the same through the Meklars. This was the break I was looking for, I use some diplomacy to get the Psilons at war with the Mrrshans (the Meklar were not in contact). This in turn triggered the alliance with the Meklars to declare war on the Mrrshans (whom they still did not have contact), and coincidentally the Silicoids are drawn into the war against both through their alliances (See why I didn't want to fight). I used this opportunity to sieze all the good worlds from the Mrrshan, and knab the Artifacts world from the Alkari. This war took all of 10 turns to complete. Altair potatoed for a while after this, but though I hoped it would start a war, the AI refused to let a few million colonists start another war. Fortunately, this did allow my Alliance to the Meklar (which I started to avoid the Meklar joining with the Psilons in a war against me, that and the Psilons were my most frequent opponent for the vote). It also drove a small rift between the Meklar and the Psilons, causing their alliance to break and never reform.

To cut a very long story down to ... well a not quite as long story, Erratic hit on the Silicoids finally and drew up a war with the Psilons and Silicoids against the Meklar and Klackons. I had achieved tech, production, and population dominance, and so was able to win easily from that point.

Ok, so that was long, and ended up being more like a battle report, but I was wondering if any of you had similar experiences with such a long stretch without anyone being at war. I suspect all the alliances were what kept the cornered AI's quiet as it allowed them opportunities to expand to colonies otherwise out of reach. I also could have tried ot get an extra world or two during expansion, but was already streched pretty thin. At one point I was expanding almost beyond my ability to feed new colonies with population to get them up and running. Perhaps my not pressing the AI too hard for land also helped to keep the peace longer.

Just curious,
StuporMan

Okay, so we've had a look and made a number of comments either in game, in the complaint thread, or specifically Ritualist related in the Ritualist thread, but those have given me little opportunity to say a few things I wanted to say.

Firstly, I'm a bit sorry I only had a limited opportunity to participate. Saturday nights are damn near impossible for me to get away from work and I had the Sunday night shift as well. In the end I had to make do with a couple of all-too-brief morning sessions and most of Monday (NZ time) to have a look around.

Where to begin?

Professions?

Monk

I like some of the new skill selection. There are a few like Heaven's Delight that I'll sit back and wrinkle my nose at, but overall I found a number of new toys to play with.

Healing Light is an interesting one. It seems that Factions is loaded with several Orison-like 5-point heals, but this little oddball elite with it's energy recharging side effect falls into "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" territory and is practically only worthy of a shrug until you start thinking about bonders. When I had a look at this one with a monk I made, the energy recharge from it was 4. So cost 5, change 4. Not too shabby when you consider the possibility of running 4 bonding enchantments and getting presented with an alternative to Signet of Devotion for active healing and gaining a passive bonus from Divine in the process.

Healing Whisper I'm not sure about. This one strikes me as another Orison, but with the short range and my experiences getting dragged around the place trying to shoot Ice Spears I can see a whole lot of dislike surrounding it. Still, I can see an application whereby Whisper becomes effective to a close group of casters battling near the healer as long as there's some other support spells with some range to reach party members further afield.

Life Sheath intrigues me. I don't know how well it would stand against other protections in general, but when I think of the number of protection spells and other skills that operate by reducing a percentage of damage and how they might mix with Life Sheath's potentially large flat figure for a combo protection I can see it being a significant missing ingredient.

Signet of Rage. Oh, ow! As if Warriors didn't already have enough troubles with the smiting monks they now face, here's a skill targeted specifically at smiting down warriors. Eek!


Warrior

I really wish I had more time to play around with the Warrior I made in the preview. I did play around a bit with...

Signet of Strength. All it does is add +5 damage to your character's attacks which seems like a minimal advantage, but for a couple of useful points: Firstly, it's completely fire and forget and secondly it costs nothing. The second part means very little. The fire and forget aspect however is the real advantage. Just hop out of town, trigger the signet and next time you smack something it's benefits become realized. Refresh it in combat or between fights as desired. Quite a handy addition to a max-Str Warrior IMO.

Renewing Smash looks interesting. I never actually tried this skill, but at a glance I'm thinking that runners with a hammer stashed away in another weapon slot will have a handy way to get Balanced Stance back into working order when the recharge bites and avoid all that messy downtime that makes Beacon's to Drok's so tricky up the north end of Snake Dance. Oh wait. The devs just made the Drok runs easier? Hmm.


Elementalists and Ritualists I've already mentioned in the complaints thread. I mostly just played a Ritualist in the time that I had and overall I quite like the class. I read all sorts of negative things in-game and can see how people might have been tripped up although in my case at least I found that the mix of differant areas to specialize in, or even generalize in, created a basis for a very versatile character. In that regard they seem more like a Ranger or Mesmer in some ways than the Monk/Necromancer that they appear to be at a glance. I really need more time playing them though. A LOT more time. 8)



Armour Adjustments

Wanderers
AL60, +10 versus Elemental?

I saw this at the Kurzick armour crafter and must confess to a bit of surprise at the time. If this comes in then what happens to all the existing Wanderer's and Saintly armours with their +5 vs. Ele bonuses in the current game?

Knight's Kurzick Helm
AL80, +? versus Physical
Reduces Damage

Oh... Wow...

When I saw that my eyes bugged. Truely. The existing Knight's Helm has +1 Strength instead of "Reduces Damage" and I found myself wondering why they'd bother putting in Reduces Damage seeing as most warriors pick that up from the global effect of another armour piece whilst retaining their helmet attribute bonus or whatever and then it hit me. I can't be certain of course, but I think this is fairly convincing evidence to suggest that "Reduces Damage" on Warrior armour pieces might become the location based affair that it really should have been from the start, even if for nothing better than to provide incentive to complete a Knight's or Ascalon set. My other observation to support this theory is the proposed 100AL Sentinel's armour. Who'd want to let a Setinel's Armoured Warrior with Knight's Boots, a Superior Absorption rune (in the boots) and a damage reducing shield into the game? The combo effect of the gear alone would be bad enough before even considering extras from the skill side like Dolyak Signet!

So yeah. One or two of you pointed out in game (and rightly so I think) that my evidence is not proof, however I still maintain the mod change on that helmet makes a fairly convincing case for a theory that global Reduces Damage (aside from Absorb runes) might well be given the boot.

Well, I got this much at least. Sometimes, it seems people actually listen to me ;p What's next? Cursed items, you think?!

For those who have multiple accounts or planning to expand in the future, there is no need to sign up and use dummy email addresses.

Quote: If your email address is [email="joe@joe.com"]joe@joe.com[/email], then set your multiple account names to:

[email="joe@joe.com"]joe@joe.com[/email]
[email="joe@joe.com"]joe@joe.com[/email]2 << w/o period
[email="joe@joe.com"]joe@joe.com[/email].3 << with period

The emails will get routed to [email="joe@joe.com"]joe@joe.com[/email] for all three accounts.