CHAINMAIL running for a while (trial basis only)

[Greylock]

I have had trouble getting consistent responses from the soldiers as well. On one occassion, a soldier left me alone at the entrance of the crypt. Wouldn't come in. And I've had them leave at area trasitions. They have also disappeared when I've logged off, and logged back on, in a dangerous area, just as Felonious notes.

And this "Random Loot". I have heard frrom others the wonders of this stuff. I haven't come across anything better than a healing kit and aventurine. ;p I have almost made level three, though, so I consider my char especially blessed. Now if that only gave him an edge against the undead, he'd be go-to-go.

 

[Felonious Ntent]

I came across an Ion stone. Bagged me 7500 gp.

So now I have a composite long bow, ring of scholars, cloak of elvenkind, wand of missles, chain shirt and some silver arrows.

BTW the light gem socket exploit in POA is alive and well in chainmail.
The merchants that carry them are the general under the craft materials screen.
I ran a test bought a heavy mace and socketed white light. This didn't raise level of weapon but allowed for greater resale. So this may be something
Morrus may want to pass on to designer.

 

[Chaz]

Well after trying it out for some time I have to say that I like it. There are some problems, but in general I think its fine as is. i hope to many tweeks arent attempted that end up messing it up.

I can see not having POA specific items allowed... you can just give people a little time to sell them. the high level chars will need to keep some gear/gold as the encounters I ran into were pretty strong. In fact I ran into more than one monster that I couldnt even lay a glove on with a 30+ lev char.

If you allow only gold to come over(selling off items in PAO for instance) then there had better be a way of outfitting high lev chars right away or else they will run into trouble fairly quick I think. So far I havent found a place to buy good magic gear.
If you allow only chars without gold or gear, then the trouble I mention above will be even worse. So I dont think this will work.

That said, I dont think allowing exsisting high lev chars to come over with most of their gear/gold will hurt anything. I can see leaving POA specific adventure items behind/sell them... But the world is HUGE and the encounters seem to work very well based on level. I think it will work out just fine.

Peace

============================

UPDATE: this is a blast. Lets just leave it up. Lets just say that people have to sell POA specific items. The detail and endless amounts of stuff to see is amazing. Epic critters to fight, cool stuff like being told you hear something - sense something coming -etc.. caves that go deep with drow/mind flayer citys at the bottom. Demons/dragons/ etc. etc..

Yeah lets just leave it up and running.

Peace II

 

[Neo]

And this "Random Loot". I have heard frrom others the wonders of this stuff. I haven't come across anything better than a healing kit and aventurine. ;p I have almost made level three, though, so I consider my char especially blessed. Now if that only gave him an edge against the undead, he'd be go-to-go.

nevertheless soul gems both empty and full... are random loot and turn up from time to time when you kill things.. I found one empty and one full tonight my companion another two full.. so they're not verly rare.

filling an empty one can be done by killing a good NPc (something I did to test it).. Soul Stopnes cannot be used until at least 8th level however but magical forges to use them at are as rare as dodo droppings..havent come across one yet (except when exploring the purchasable stronghold for 20+ level characters, which all come with a magical forge)..so that likely needs addressing at some point...as you really begin to hurt past level 6 without "some" magical gear...and you also begin spawning monsters like Rakasha that need certain magical weapons to hurt them.

The rest of the random treasure is I admit fairly poor..non magic weapons, armour, occasional scroll or potion but mostly just gems..and general faffage.

I managed to earn level 7 tonight and not without dying a fair few times the encounter system is fairly erratic one minute your fighting goblins..the next an abyss demon or devil turns up that cant be hit and drops you with a single blow... you just have to know when to run and when not to.. and monsters on Chainmail are persistent bu**ers they will chase you across transition points and over hill and mountain...even sometimes when you think you've lost them and its safe to rest..ta da over the crest of the hill they come. We even had an incident with one of the epic players meeting an adamantine golem fleeing to town and it following him through the portal and begin laying waste to most of the guards and shopkeepers in shoreline ... lol (though i suspect that was probably a transition glitch as they shouldnt be able to use portals).

 

[Neo]

I can see not having POA specific items allowed... you can just give people a little time to sell them. the high level chars will need to keep some gear/gold as the encounters I ran into were pretty strong. In fact I ran into more than one monster that I couldnt even lay a glove on with a 30+ lev char.

If you allow only gold to come over(selling off items in PAO for instance) then there had better be a way of outfitting high lev chars right away or else they will run into trouble fairly quick I think. So far I havent found a place to buy good magic gear.
If you allow only chars without gold or gear, then the trouble I mention above will be even worse. So I dont think this will work.

apart from the lag/stability problems (it really strains with more than 4 people atm..and even without tends to go down once every hour or so)..I agree it is an excellent mod needing only a few tweaks here and there.. magical forges being included, bit of a tweak to the treasure tables, save pen and scrying crystal sorting and so forth... (bear in mind this is only the module BETA..the full version will supposedly have story elements but those werent included with the beta as the design team just wanted to deal with bugs first).

The encounter tables are very unsual..not only because of the mixed CR of encounters (any level character can spawn almost any level creature)..which can be tricky and you get some odd things in some odd places too.. but that can be quite amusing.
The subrace system also doesnt seem to be functioning according tot he module read me when you enter the mod as a race with subraces available it is supposed to ask you once and once only to choose one or not.. which it doesnt.
Additionally the Log out and back in to heal/rez yourself abuse needs to be prevented as it was on PoA so if you die and log out when you log back in your still dead as you should be.

With regards to PoA characters as Ive mentioned before for me selling all their PoA items (which wouldnt work anyway unless the items blueprints were all exported from PoA and imported into CHAINMAIL anyway) and just having the characters and thier gold available in chainmail would be my preference.. but PoA would need to be up at some point for folks to do that, especially with the (and something else I support) item level limit being on CHAINMAIL.. many PoA characters couldnt log in atm as they are no doubt equipped with items beyond thier character level allowance.

 

[Neo]

I came across an Ion stone. Bagged me 7500 gp.

So now I have a composite long bow, ring of scholars, cloak of elvenkind, wand of missles, chain shirt and some silver arrows.

BTW the light gem socket exploit in POA is alive and well in chainmail.
The merchants that carry them are the general under the craft materials screen.
I ran a test bought a heavy mace and socketed white light. This didn't raise level of weapon but allowed for greater resale. So this may be something
Morrus may want to pass on to designer.

Its not really an exploit as there isnt a whole heap to spend it on and what there is is limited because of item level restriction.. so get as much gold as you like but it has limited benefit to you at present. If anything its kinda helpful as healing potions are an absolute must in this module for most levels and even then using one in combat provokes an AoO from everyone attacking you which can put you down even quicker lol.. Being able to resupply some potions and kits from cash made light gemming is a help more than exploit.. especially with the shops and merchants being largely the bare essentials only and with random treasure being so poor.

Ring of Insight/Scholars are fairly useless btw as you find no magic items to identify with them except the odd Ious stone from a crystal deposit or soul gem from a corpse...which also means the Lore skill is fairly redundant also.

although I have ti on good authority high level characters find magical items.

 

[Greylock]

Saw Elendiel on tonight, running a PoA char. Finding it very tempting to run my PoA char now, too. This mod is quite deadly to low-level pcs.

The loot and XP gains are frustratingly random. I've had encounters that were danged hard for a 3rd level char net no XP and no loot. Unless he's lucky, in which case 1gp is average. Still having a hard time getting soldiers and assorted party members to join in fights, even using the command line tips above. The most consistent responses have come from the Wyrmling I picked up in the Embattled settlement.

Again, tempted to ruun my PoA char, but Rus' opinion means a lot to me. And the other fellow I talked to said his PoA char was illegal. Haven't tried it yet. May soon.

Aelrahd sends...

 

[Neo]

Saw Elendiel on tonight, running a PoA char. Finding it very tempting to run my PoA char now, too. This mod is quite deadly to low-level pcs.

The loot and XP gains are frustratingly random. I've had encounters that were danged hard for a 3rd level char net no XP and no loot. Unless he's lucky, in which case 1gp is average. Still having a hard time getting soldiers and assorted party members to join in fights, even using the command line tips above. The most consistent responses have come from the Wyrmling I picked up in the Embattled settlement.

Again, tempted to ruun my PoA char, but Rus' opinion means a lot to me. And the other fellow I talked to said his PoA char was illegal. Haven't tried it yet. May soon.

Aelrahd sends...

Xp is a little odd .. I have fought exceedingly tough skeletons that fire lightning arrows at me and get 25xp for killing them.. and then fought a Green HAg (both encountered at level 3) and recieved 600xp however I have found this can be something of a positive as well as a negative.

I had soldiers functioning fine for me yesterday when i was in the south shore crypts.. but the more lag present causes them regardless of orders to either do nothing or move forward as if to attack and then just waver, rocking on thier feet...but the command lines do work on occasion I promise you

With regards to PoA characters I imagine most of the non 20+ level characters are illegal atm..because there was no item level restriction on PoA unlike CHAINMAIL and almost anyone with an item from the Tavern is looking at a mimum level of 18+ for most of those items.. and a minimum level of 8-10+ for the emporium items. It can be a little frustrating as rather than simply unequip the items to you pack on log in (and with the ILR active effectively prevent you from reequipping them) it simply says your character is illegal and will not let you login to the module with that character at all. This of course means that unless PoA is put up for a time so folks can unequip (and/or sell said items) those characters will remai unaccessible.

 

[Nifft]

I almost lived for ten minutes tonight! In a row!

Ooo, so much fun dying over and over! Well, more not.

Can we have PoA back please?

Thanks, -- N

 

[Greylock]

Saw that firsthand, Neo. Tried to log in with my PoA char and he was illegal.

When you run an old char in the DL mods, there is an NPC char who chides you until you are under the char total gp threshold. And lets you sell off stuff. That would be handy for old PoA chars in CM.

As much as I like this mod, it is wayyy too easy to lose everything in it, as buggy as it is.

Any chance we can get a working Save Pen and PC Scry device?