A New Server

The new patch has, it seems, stopped Christmas items disappearing from one's inventory when one logs out, and also added night shadow Santa hats to the things the Christmas Gift Boxes can drop, but the hats themselves still cannot be traded, stored, or even dropped on the ground. I suppose the problem is that they are 30-day timed items, which was a dubious change to make from last year's ordinary hats. The new Tairen server has opened for business, too.

I knew that my morning session would be subject to interruptions, so, while ColonelScarlet continued his pet-levelling efforts out in Merac, it was RedRyder who went sp-farming, in Prokion Temple on Katar-1. In a solo party, Red gets just 576 experience per mummy, since she is six levels higher than them, but 4400 skill exp (with the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff active); it was interesting that when another solo party member, the level 20 knight NAZAKINA, was briefly within compass-map range the skill exp fell slightly to 3662, though it would vary a little from one kill to the next, while the experience ramped up to a comparatively massive 3186, more than five times as much.

Things were a bit quieter in the room I favour, with mummies and a single orc soldier, though HunterSky was around again, and did occasionally trespass; another rogue, NightBlak, was a slight nuisance too. Still, in around 75 minutes Red did manage to add 187 skill points, while just going up 8.16% in experience. RedRyder has just reached the 60% point in level 26, and the target of getting over 2,000 unused skill points before level 27 is reached looks pretty certain.

After lunch there was time for Memree and Kaerella to go to Prokion Temple's back room on Katar-4. The skill point gain for Kae's pssp hour was back to a more normal level today; while Memree added 33.80% and 122 skill points, plus 1088 pet points and 381 guild points, Kae added 364 skill points, and 66 guild points, while going up by 7.11%.

Since the new Tairen server had started, it seemed like a good idea to go over there and reserve my usual main names - so Kaerella, MistressDomino, CaptainScarlet, SirDarth, RedRyder, and Memree are all suitably installed. Just before four o'clock, UK time, back on Katar ColonelScarlet got his reindeer-type horse up to level 35, too.

For the evening session, it didn't seem a bad idea to do a bit of work on the new server, so SirGalahad joined the line-up - I did notice a Gawain and an ArthurPendragon in Randol, both knights as well, so the spirit of Camelot lives on. The idea was to get SirGalahad up to a pet-levelling status, and, as a pet-leveller doesn't need a whole range of skills, hopefully set up the Discipline guild over there.

Unlike the move to Katar, there are no assets waiting for me on Tairen; an old "tiered spender" offer delivered its rewards to all the servers then operating, so I tend to have a few goodies in the other servers, just waiting, and my early times in Katar were greatly aided by selling a couple of lucky smelting stones and an item mall potion or two. So cash was tight, and will remain so.

As it is a new server, cash is tight all round, there hasn't yet been a lot of gold dropped by monsters, or loot sold to the NPCs in exchange for gold. It looks as if an item drop booster or a skill point booster would cost forty or fifty thousand, instead of around a million; some people just don't get it, though, and are trying to sell heaven stones for a million or more - and where would that money have come from, on day one?

SirGalahad operated on Tairen-1, for the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff, and had a fairly standard upbringing, though without my tendency to target slightly lower-level monsters to increase the ratio of skill exp to regular experience. Foxes and deer, and then wolves, were fought to fulfil the quests from Healer Yabo, and then I quickly moved on to elder wolves, dire wolves, and berserk wolves. Then at level 8, the quest to supply Merchant Geres with jaguar fangs for his necklace business kicked in - every 500 gold reward was very useful. I managed to buy a level 13 sword eventually, though I had to rely on what I picked up, armour-wise, so even at the end of the session Gal was still wearing his original level 1 gloves and boots. Still, I used the skill points I got to get the passive skill Canid Fence rolling - four levels added 80 to his defence stat, which meant that the berserk wolves just stopped doing any damage, and the more expensive fifth level added a further 20. Even attacks by a pair of jaguars were no problem, so that was 65 skill points well spent. Another 97 went on Uncanny Movement, since being able to run around more quickly is pretty useful; other than some first levels Gal has to have before he can get the level 30 skill, that was all that were used.

At level 10 it was time for Velpist Temple, once I'd exchanged the pan flute I'd finally picked up for a pet pony; and it was also time to find a guardian, so that SirGalahad will get that useful "event weapon" sword if he reaches level 20 quickly enough. Looking at the list of prospective guardians, I chose Slymitor, since he was the leader of the solo party I was in. He went up from level 19 to 26 over the course of the evening, so he was doing well.

Velpist Temple was of course busier than I've ever seen it on other servers, epic events excepted, and it was hard to find enough wandering zombies, but I got up to level 13 there eventually, with some useful +3 or +4 drops - nothing actually for a knight, but if I do decide to develop a rogue, say, for event-going there, I'll be able to supply her with a nice level 13 crossbow at least.

It seemed a good idea to add Prokion Temple to Gal's memory scroll before the end of his first session, so I made the run out through the desert without any problems; Kamira was outside the Temple, but I doubt if there is anyone on the new server yet who can deal with her, just as there can't be any people with mounts yet - or even horses of level 16 or more, able to use the reindeer transformation books.

With SirGalahad's low-level armour (helm 12, shirt and pants 6, gloves and boots level 1), despite the Canid Fence the level 17 ghouls in the Temple were a bit tricky - I found that I could kill one, but I'd be left with rather low health. Still, I did manage to kill a few, enough for Gal to reach level 14.

Back in Juno, I killed a few Sasquatch near town, mainly to get a few more pet points. The pony had managed to level up in Velpist Temple, the zombies were so hungry that the poor thing was down to below 20% health by the time it reached level 2. By log-out time SirGalahad was 21.62% into level 14, with 73 unused skill points; there are plenty of skills a full-combat knight could spend sp on, but Gal has other priorities.

The Discipline guild does now officially exist on Tairen, anyway. It is only level one, which cost SirGalahad 10 skill points and 10,000 gold; level two requires Gal to be level 15 himself, and costs 30 sp and 50,000 gold, which will be a problem. On another server that would be easy, sell a few moonstone boxes or a heaven stone and you'd be rich, but Tairen isn't built that way, yet, and there 50,000 gold is a lot of money.

Over on Katar, ColonelScarlet kept busy through the evening. I'd been so busy on Tairen that I'd forgotten about the scheduled "Storm the Castle" event scheduled for ten on Katar (and also, indeed, on Cariae) - but luckily it had been postponed until 30 minutes later, so that it ran at the same time as the Hatzring and Sarissa versions, and, while I missed the start, Memree was able to join in for the main part, against sphinx commanders and the Tomb's spear men, plus dark harpies and hell-otuu. Merac Castle was cleaned out in time, and we got our rewards spawned - I seemed to do lots of picking up, but of course a lot of it is the minor health and mana recovery potions; 8 item drop boosters, 5 skill point boosters, 9 large attack potions, and 11 large defence potions ought to make a little cash to buy a pssp or two I hope. Attendance seemed pretty low again, probably not helped by the delay in starting.

By the time he logs out, ColonelScarlet will have got his horse well past the halfway mark in level 35. He ought to be on for most of tomorrow, too; I will be busy with other things for most of Christmas Eve, but will hope to have an evening session, at least.