Thursday 30 September 2010

SirFrancis Levels Up

As I was going to be busy downstairs today, the RedRackham duo logged in after breakfast for some serious pet-levelling, down on the fifth floor of Maargadum Jail. Everything went pretty smoothly, except for one disconnection on the older computer at lunchtime, so Auzura's RedRackham started a triple-experience platinum pet experience potion soon after three o'clock, and SirFrancis, Kaerella's drake, reached level 44 at around four, UK time, a couple of hours earlier than he would otherwise have got there.

Not long after that, though, I came back to the computers to find that they had both had disconnections - and the forum shoutbox showed that a lot of people were suffering bad lag and disconnections, which can be annoying when you have expensive pots running, especially if the monsters you were fighting manage to kill you.

I got Auzura's RedRackham back to Maargadum Jail, and he was able to use the last minute or so remaining of that ppep on a spike canine on the ground floor- but it wasn't long before there was another disconnection, which again tied in with what other people were reporting in the shoutbox.

RedRackham got back to the jail again, just so that I'd be able to report on any further disconnections; the gamesage irene_tas was waiting for a games master to arrive in the office, as it was still early morning in California. Things, however, seemed to settle down, and Red's pet-levelling time without a disconnection started to grow - but I couldn't really risk doing anything particularly adventurous. MistressBlaze did make a solo party with Red briefly, and go to the outdoor sphinx fighters, and the elite sphinx "speer" man, but she only gained 0.73%, 2 skill points, and 113 pet points.

I updated a few other aeria games, and even played a few minutes of Megaten (Shin Megami Tensei) and Grand Fantasia without really knowing what I should be doing, and also did a little work that I had been intending to do tomorrow... those disconnections had unsettled me, I guess. At least RedRackham kept on with his pet-levelling - he did get ks'd once, as he was only by the entrance on the first floor with a spike canine, not out of the way on the fifth floor, but was swiftly back in action. By the end of the evening, SirFrancis was just about a quarter of the way through level 44, in fact...

On the Tairen server, Memree is a level 39 assassin-type rogue, my only rogue in fact to wield the two daggers instead of a ranger's crossbow. She had a rather leisurely session in Maargadum Jail for part of the evening, generally on the second floor, and managed to add 10.47%, 49 skill points, and just 426 pet points. That Death Motion skill an assassin has did come in handy, any time I wanted to browse the web, or concentrate on the shoutbox, Memree would just equip her daggers, if she had been using her crossbow instead, and gracefully fall to the floor, safe from any monster attacks.

The shoutbox itself had rather a "we can't discuss bans" theme, with one player in particular being incensed to find herself banned, without any notice or email, and apparently with no great idea why this fate had befallen her. In the company where she works, customers who have complaints are dealt with promptly and courteously, and there are customer service personnel who can be reached by telephone... at Aeria, they don't consider themselves in the customer service business. Players aren't customers, even if they spend quite a few dollars regularly, they are just naughty children, and if Aeria are connected to the telephone system in California, any phone number they have is a closely-guarded secret.

Late in the evening, I noticed an assassin-rogue called Ciupa trying to get RedRackham and his pet killed, by luring a number of the pet-eating and aggressive dire spike canines in on him, and then using death motion. As I was watching, though, the attempt didn't work; I unequipped SirFrancis right away, managed by moving around to get a couple of the dire spike canines unattached, equipped Red's sword to kill the last one, and then returned to sparring with the spike canine. It shows that going down to the fifth floor is worth the slight extra effort, for sure.

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