Wednesday 17 June 2009

The Best-Laid Plans

Well, I had hoped to be riding around on a friendly red dragon today, but following a link on the Last Chaos announcement page got me to the news that last night's maintenance had been delayed by a day - and after it, everyone who had their experience gain 100% frozen would find they had now been reset to 50%. This possibly may not be a bad idea in the long run, but as the plans to compensate people by adding to the skill exp available at higher levels remain vague, far-future wishes at the moment rather than anything tangible, it seemed that as a matter of some urgency I ought to get MistressDomina at least some more skill points, before she starts to outgrow Prokion Temple.

So, MD headed for Prokion Temple on Auzura-3 straight after breakfast - only to discover that it was rather full already of other people, who had presumably also read the news! Finding even my favourite back room in use, I logged out, and logged back in on the other non-PvP subserver, Auzura-4, which was as usual nothing like as busy. SirDarth had to move over too, to continue to provide the solo party while levelling his drake.

I still had one of the 15% skill pills (or "training spells") left, so for MistressDomina's first hour I used that, on top of a platinum super skill pill, for a 215% boost, meaning that Orc Axemen gave 17325 skill exp and Orc Sergeants 15592 - though the hour was interrupted by a mass disconnection, suspiciously close to exactly nine o'clock, UK time. Still, 595 skill points got earned. I went on to a second hour, but it was a bit of a gamble, and I did get a rather lengthy phone call during it, so despite using a pssp and a 50% platinum skill pill (so that the Orc Axemen gave 19250 skill exp, and the Orc Sergeants 17325), I only managed 497 skill points. Luckily a third hour was a bit better, that earned me exactly 600. That just about concluded the morning session, with a total of 1694 sp and 2366 pet points, which got MD's pet drake safely into level 28.

The afternoon session, again started as quickly as possible after lunch, was three pssp + psp hours, bringing in 616, 646, and 696 skill points; I only once had anyone come into my room, and they left as soon as they saw the situation. By the time I logged out for the usual food break, MD had gained 1983 skill points, thanks to staying on for the traditional few minutes after the last set of boosts ended - this got MistressDomina's reserve of skill points up to exactly 13,600. The pet points from this session added up to 2888.

The drops from the six hours (the few extra minutes at the end would just about compensate for the disconnection and the phone call) included 74 more Wendy Bear pieces, 23 moonstone boxes, 1 hand of protection (with large defence potion), 6 hands of bravery (with large attack potion), 3 hands of the guard (with item drop booster and skill point booster), 3 heaven stones (as individual drops, rather than in hands of the warrior), 3 drake eggs, and various tool aids, pan flutes, level 36 shirts, level 32 boots, level 29 weapons, cracked axes, and other minor stuff.

SirDarth had been busy levelling his drake, which reached level 31; as SirPerivale had finished levelling his soon-to-be-dragon, I traded Darth's drake across to him, so that he would have a pet buff himself for a trip to Prokion Temple. He already had quite a number of skill points, from killing Butchers, and I wanted to get this up to at least 86, so that he could learn the fifth level of Divine Shield, the armour-increasing buff a knight can give people, increasing its extra defence from 40 to 50. As a pet leveller like Peri has to stay at level 22, this was something that needed to be done today, while he wouldn't gain ordinary experience from fighting. The drake took a few hits from Ghouls, Mummies, and Orc Soldiers, but the loss of health will be cured next time he levels up.

Peri had been operating successfully against the Berserkers with 995 defence; with his new school uniform armour covers melded to his normal armour, and using the +5 shield rather than the +13 one he has loaned Peri, without a pet buff Darth currently has a 990 armour rating - so it seemed worth seeing how he would get on with a brand-new pony, so he made the trip to Jajan, and got one. His health did fluctuate very slightly, but generally everything seemed safe.

Or, safe until a wandering level 50 Pandora's Beast attacked... luckily I saw what was going on pretty quickly, so that the pony just lost 9 health, and Darth himself was unscathed... a run in the direction of town shook off our pursuer, and Darth was able to continue levelling the pony at the bottom of the hill, while MrChuckNorris put in a brief appearance to Smite and kill the ghostly renegade, which dropped 89,600 gold.

After SirPerivale's adventure, there was just time for two more hours with MistressDomina, just using pssps this time, for 16500 skill exp from an Orc Axeman, and 14850 from a Sergeant - three times what one gets without any booster at work. The first hour added 629 skill points, and the second hour added exactly 600, so we did pretty well, with no interruptions. Among the drops were another heaven stone, 2 hands of bravery, a hand of protection, 3 more drake eggs, 11 moonstone boxes, 30 Wendy Bear pieces, and a few more bits of armour and magical earrings...

So, MistressDomina certainly put in some work today, over eight hours of it; the evening session added 1243 skill points and 2102 more pet points, meaning that in all today MD added 4920 skill points. So, while in some ways I would have liked her to have slightly more of them, it does seem about time she started to move up through the levels in Prokion Temple, gaining experience as well as a few more skill points. a 50% "freeze" does, in fact, sound about right for her now.

The best of the loot was transferred across to MistressDomino, my fearless merchant, and, with her horse close by, she set up shop in the same spot on Auzura-1 as last night, attempting to sell 111 Wendy Bear pieces, and also 65 large attack potions, which sold before long at 375,000 each. Meanwhile, SirDarth, now back in Auzura-3, was still working on his new pony - at level 5 he got the first four levels of Armour Increase, which at that stage gave 47 more physical defence as the pet's Sympathy figure had still not quite reached 100%. The pony did safely reach level 6 before log-out time; I'm not sure what his long-term future will be, but no doubt one of my characters, or my friends' characters, will give him a good home.

Well, that is the last full day of Last Chaos I will be able to manage for a while; tomorrow is liable to be just an evening session for me, with perhaps at least a partial afternoon session as well on Friday and Saturday. At least some pet-levelling will be possible, but, while constructive, that isn't really very adventurous. Ah well, after all that Orc-fighting in Prokion Temple today, a slight cut-back is probably a rather good idea, I'm exhausted...

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