Wednesday 1 September 2010

A Minor Patch

Four weeks ago, the Patch Notes announcement told us "New content is in development. Expect to see some changes in the near future!" Three weeks ago the new, but badly constructed and glitchy, map of Juno arrived. Two weeks ago Xuse2005 told us "New content expected within the next two weeks". Last week, well, they were conserving their energy, but this week - nothing, really, after whipping our hopes up of something big. "Improvements to Dratan Castle Siege are being discussed", he tells us. For Mondshine people, "Raid disconnects are less frequent and a 100% fix is still in development."

For the rest of us, "One of the newly added beginner quests received minor updates", Xuse2005 reports, and apparently they have managed to include a fix for the "Update completed. Update is completed. Please, restart game" pop-up problem in this week's patch. The biggest thing to report though is that the problem that led to the bars showing the Condition of the Tomb of Theos not appearing has been fixed, so that we can find out before paying our admission fee and starting fighting just what mood the monsters are in.

The patch downloaded swiftly enough for me on my one functioning computer. I did get the "Update completed. Update is completed. Please, restart game" window popping up when I tried to launch the game, which was a bit disconcerting, but it only came up once - the next time, the game loaded in the normal way, so that RedRackham was able to log in, and take his level 39 drake down to the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-4 for some pet-levelling, while I had breakfast, did some shopping, and generally got the day, and the month, started.

The run-up to one of my busy weekends is starting now, slightly complicated by Monday having been a public holiday, which means that five days have to be fitted into four, so my playing hours are set to decline from now on, until hopefully we emerge on the far side on Monday. I did however manage to log on in good time for the eleven to noon "dungeon time" hour.

The Condition bars on the Auzura Tomb of Theos were at 60%, when I teleported MistressDomina to the entrance, which seemed to me a little less than perfect, so I switched across to Keerella on Cariae-4...only to find that the situation was slightly worse there, with the bars on 50%! Still, as Kee has good armour, and only wanted to farm the screaming zombies at the start of the Tomb for a few skill points, that didn't put me off, so in I went. Things ran smoothly, without any need to use health potions, and without many other people, so by the end of the hour, Keerella had added 0.96%, 7 skill points, and 1039 pet points. It would take another ten such sessions to get her into level 99, though it won't, after that, take many combat party team-ups with Barbarienne to get Barb eleven levels ahead again.

Since 50% had seemed so reasonable, Auzura's 60% was now a bit less off-putting, so MistressDomina headed out on Auzura-4 in good time for the two to three o'clock hour. Nobody in Twisted seemed available to provide a solo party...but the good news was that the Tomb of Theos there was fully reset to 100% easy. MD ran down to the anubis spear man room, and found just an archer called Puepchen there, so settled in with the two spear men on the far side.

I don't think Puepchen spoke English; I don't think she was very high-level either, as I'm sure she died a time or two, and when I did click on her to offer a combat party I just got the message that she was out of range. She wasn't around when the "dungeon time" hour began, so the level 95 rogue bolster took over that side, and we formed a combat party. A level 98 rogue called xXbingbangXx joined the combat party too, but soon moved a little further along the corridor.

When the hour began, MistressDomina started her berserker, platinum adrenaline, and crit pots, plus the platinum blessed iris, and got down seriously to business. Unfortunately Puepchen returned, and did compete for the anubis spear men at some points, which slowed me down very slightly for a while, but things got better when bolster had to leave - especially as xXbingbangXx had moved back into the room, and thus continued my combat party boost by standing in the corner.

MistressDomina used 44 experience boosters during the hour, and got 43.26% from them, which got her nicely into level 95. Adding a few kills before and after, the total for the session was 44.37%, plus 4 skill points and 1569 pet points. The rogue nowomannocry, level 60 now, did drop by to "borrow" a HP stealer and a MP stealer, apparently for whoever is going to do her next power-level. I do wish them good luck, but it would help if she got a better weapon, and better skills.

There seemed plenty of time to do an hour's sp-farming with MistressSabina before the food break, so Sabina went to floor three of Maargadum Jail on Auzura-4 again, only to find the same person as yesterday busy there. So, I tried Auzura-5 instead, and found it free. There wasn't a solo party I could join there though, until about halfway through; a knight, the level 47 Almagavar, arrived and fought at one end for a while, which slowed me down and meant I had to kill the beast archers as well as the beast flyers. He had a disconnection, but a bit later a rogue called MistetryGirl, level 46, arrived, and competed for the kills too. I think I'll have to go for Auzura-4 or nothing, Auzura-5 has too much passing traffic.

The slower kill rate meant that MistressSabina only got 121 skill points from her session, along with 4.15% and 984 pet points - but that's not a huge amount less than normal, I guess, so the session was worth it.

The evening, from six o'clock UK time, was promising a "Happy Hour" of double experience and skill exp, so it seemed like a good time to let MistressBlaze go out to the elite sphinx speer man and its buddies, at least for a while - as usual on Wednesday I would have to make an early exit. I didn't really kill the sphinx types all that quickly, but thanks to the bonus, MistressBlaze added 26.92%, 32 skill points, and 661 pet points before I had to log out.

So that's it; a new month and a new, if minor, patch. As usual the patch did seem to give some people problems with starting the game, though of course it's the people with a problem who visit the shoutbox, hopefully almost everyone got to play as much as they wanted to, and didn't have to do any reinstalling. MistressDomina's "widowmaker" western "C2" costume is way past its 30 days now, due to a glitch, but it's still working - and unlike some overstays, such as platinum refining stones or regular melded covers, it isn't a problem, as one can easily change the armour underneath it, as the armour and the "C2" cover remain separate. I had wondered if the week's patch would sort out that costume glitch, but for once the slowness of the developers to react to problems has worked in our favour.

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