There was no possibility of pet-levelling overnight, with the state the servers were in; I managed to log SirPerivale and CaptainScarlet in before breakfast, though, so the pet-levelling restarted. However, there were some disconnections during the morning, and even after the Auzura server settled down, there was talk in the forum shoutbox of Cariae, at least, being out of commission.
So, I'd chosen a good time to be too busy, generally, to play. SirDarth's abbreviated session last night with Jacqueline in Prokion Temple had, I discovered, given Darth 20.53% experience, and 76 skill points, plus 276 pet points for his drake, when he had it equipped.
Between disconnections, Peri and Cap kept going, so that Samael's pale blue horse reached level 29 safely, and Peri got the new pony into double figures.
Checking on the computers, I noticed the 3:00pm (UK time) announcement of the Friday "happy hour", with an extra 50% skill exp, so decided to send SirDarth back to Prokion Temple, to take advantage of the bonus. The back room was clear, so, in a solo party with SirPerivale, and later, when I decided that levelling Samael's blue horse took priority, with CaptainScarlet, Darth set to work. The bonus ended promptly at 5:00, and by that time Darth had added another 30.44%, 1436 pet points, and 276 skill points.
There had been some GM announcements about the rescheduled "Epic Event" at Maargadum Jail taking place on Auzura-3, but without a suitable character for such an event, I wasn't keen on breaking off from getting my extra 50% skill exp to go there. It was meant to start at five, UK time, but they were trying to get people there earlier. Anyway, it was time for me to get some food.
Still, the equivalent event on Cariae was set for two hours later, so I decided to take my level 100 archer Barbarienne along to that one, and there were certainly a lot of people waiting patiently outside when I arrived outside the Jail. Eventually we were given the go-ahead to all crowd into the Jail, which was hard luck on an archer who was using a pssp while fighting the spiked canines on level one - she was advised to change sub-server, which I hope she did, because before long the first high-level monster spawning took place in that main room. I'd seen GMJediMike outside, if he went in I hope he found some armour to put on, usually his titan character just wears the underpants - I saw Moose too, inside, heading down the stairs a few minutes later.
It does make a change to be a high-level fighter at such an event, I never really felt in danger, and gained some useful experience - well, probably less than 0.01% at level 100, but some kills gave me a million or so experience, which looked impressive at the time. After cleaning out the ground floor, alias level one, we headed down to level two, and got rid of its extra inhabitants - and then on down to level three, at least some of us, where there were some Sphinx Commanders in the central area. I did actually retreat up the stairs when I ended up soloing one, as I wasn't using any of the potions that I'd use for an hour of farming in the Tomb with them, but after self-healing a few times returned and helped finish off the last few.
I really don't know if there were any high-level monsters ever spawned on levels four and five; perhaps some people ran straight past level three and dealt with them, but my feeling is that there wasn't anything added down there. All was quiet when I got there, anyway - but that was delayed by a call for help while we were still on level three - a new wave of baddies had spawned back on the top level, so we had to rush back for them, before returning to the depths. I saw Zenderfly down there, she is now in a guild called SafeHaven.
GM Beatrice said that there would be a "surprise" waiting for us outside, so we rushed back all the way up from level five - and I was just in time to grab some goodies, it's lucky that when the various "Hands" are spawned there is a delay before anyone can grab the items. I think I picked up around eight useful items, like skill point boosters, item drop boosters, and large attack potions. And then a second wave of hands was spawned, people rushed to pick them up, and some GM comedian dropped some Barren Eise monsters on top! Fine for me, I could rely on my armour and evasion and continue to try to pick up stuff, but deadly for some lower level people I'm sure.
I do wish that the GMs would say when events were over, people stayed around in case anything else was going to happen, but after a few minutes Barbarienne logged out from Cariae-3 - and SirDarth logged back in on Auzura-4. As events go, well, it made a change from Mad Monster Spawns, but the cramped conditions did cut down on any group strategy, and meant an awful lot of people were rather close together. It doesn't allow the level 10, or indeed level 31, types to just hang around on the sidelines and watch and maybe help a little, but spawning the goodies outside means that they can still grab loot afterwards.
The back room in Prokion Temple was busy, so SirDarth ended up in what I'd call the statue room, not far from the central staircases. While I was briefly afk Jacqueline logged in, having apparently had an awful job trying to enter the game - I think by the time I'd noticed and replied she had logged out again, probably involuntarily. Just as well as my "things seem to have quieted down" remark was, sadly, tempting fate. Very soon after that, CaptainScarlet stopped doing any damage to his Berserker, and things got laggy for Darth too... and it didn't take very long for the "disconnected" sign to pop up on both screens.
A visit to the shoutbox confirmed that it wasn't just me - despite whatever efforts Aeria had been making, the hacker's "denial of service" attack killed the game again, with the servers crashed. So, that was the end of the evening's entertainment, sigh...
No comments:
Post a Comment