K'vynn sent the following report to TMN:
Ghrre'tsei, Para.
Falinea's Blade is back, and we decided on Soldi, day 26 of Fall, 620 -- on the day of the New Moon -- to go exploring Lugubrion's Castle, as one of our members had a theory regarding fish . . . (yum) and Lugu's Keep. It has been years since I've explored the keep. I really dislike the damp, but libraries . . . I could spend hours in the library there!
We explored,and we tossed fish here and there (restrain me) . . . and we inadvertently startled one of Lugubrion's Sarirs! She fled from us initially; she was scared and frightened. Lugubrion detected she was attempting to . . . escape and attempted to track her. We decided to assist her and hide her while we endeavored to establish a way to take her to safety, out of the material plane to the ethereal plane.
The town began eventually holding back the flood of water guardians that approached through the marsh, east field, north field and into town. The walls were not quite enough to keep back the water; however, the town exiles kept them at bay. The flood of guardians kept tracking Sarir and I where I had taken her for temporary safety, so I whisked her back into the keep, to hide her right under his nose, in his own keep, as we worked to put together the parts I needed to create a kyuem.
Between the fish, the exploding kyuems, and the flood of guardians, we eventually were able -- with the Sarir's guidance -- to place and activate a kyuem within the keep and thus she was able to escape. Although, we may have disturbed things even further between EP and the lands.
Lugubrion was not happy at all. We, of course, meddle in what we do not fully understand -- which he made blatantly clear.
The folks who were in this main endeavor were: Connie Crete, Dandelion, Ebony, Jo Ma'ril, K'vynn, Luna, Mehan, Mirabel, Mork, Warplet, and Wayfarer.
Hopefully the world is still intact . . .
-K'vynn
Chaos Storm #1171 has swept the Lok'Groton island chain. Please post any changes you have observed and wish to share with others in the comments.
Delta Tao's "What's New" for v1171:
5/6/2020 v1171
The greatest compassion is the prevention of human suffering through patience, alertness, courage and kindness. — Amit Ray (b. 1960)
* We hope that everyone continues to remain safe and healthy during the new normal.
* It’s so very good to see old faces again. And by “faces” we mean “pixels”. Welcome back to Puddleby, returning players!
* Fixed bug where monsters that spawned “friends” on spawn would spawn additional “friends” when they were befriended and the befriend ended. ’Nuff said-ed?
* Extended the amount of ranks the “newbie” experience booster will boost to. It previously boosted up to 2000 ranks; it now boosts to 3000. This also tweaks the amount of boost at different ranks (for example, it used to switch from a 9x bonus to a 8x bonus at 200 ranks; it now does this at 400 ranks). Any suggestions for further improvements to the booster, or newbie experience in general, are very welcome.
* Fix a bug affecting certain capped skills after untraining. For some trainers, it would not let you get back up to the cap after untraining due to fractional rank gain (for example, if you had 9.3, and the cap was 10, it wouldn’t let you train even once, because that would go to 10.3). Now in this case it will let you train just up to the cap (so from 9.3 to 10, for example).
* Reduce spirit cost of some mystic abilities.
* Champion earth mineral bug fix:
- Previous behavior: When equipping a pauldron and a left-hand earth mineral, it would apply the full bonus for each item, instead of just the pauldron. So for example, with an atkite pauldron and left-hand atkite equipped, it would give 2x atkite instead of 1x. Or one atkite pauldron and one balthite would give 1x atkite and 1x balthite.
- Why this is a problem: 2x balthite bonus gives significantly more ranks than 1x balthus. (And same for dethite). This makes channel master better, by a very large percentage, than those base trainers. (And similar but lesser bonus for a mix of balthite/dethite and atkite/darkite)
- New behavior: Changed behavior when both ‘ites are equipped to give 1/2 full bonus of each ’ite. So for example, with an atkite pauldron and left-hand atkite equipped, it would give 1x atkite. Or one atkite pauldron and one balthite left-hand item would give .5 atkite and .5 balthite. When boosting, it will apply the pauldron full boost, and continue to apply the left hand ‘ite unboosted effect, so the last example, while boosted, will apply 1.5x atkite and .5 balthite.
- Additionally: Since this bug has been around for a very long time (since pauldrons were introduced), and since people have likely trained to optimize for it, we’ve also tweaked the amount of attack, balance, etc. that ’ites give to be more generous. In particular:
• Atkite: Used to give a bit more than half of what a “pure accuracy” (Atkus without balance components) trainer would give. It now gives exactly as much as a pure accuracy trainer would give.
• Balthite: Used to give a little bit less balance than what Balthus gave. Now gives exactly what Balthus gives.
• Dethite: Used to give a little bit less defense than what Dethus gave. Now gives exactly what Dethus gives.
• Darkite: Used to give a bit more than half of what a “pure damage” (Darkus without balance components) trainer would give. Now gives exactly what a “pure damage” Darkus would give.
- The result: This is a significant nerf for those using double pauldron and ‘ites with balthite and dethite. It’s closer to neutral (but still a nerf) for those using it for double atktite/darkite. For those not using double ‘ites, this is a buff all around (a significant one for accuracy/damage, minor for balance/defense). This makes channel master still a very good trainer, better in most cases than training straight balance/defense/accuracy/damage, but not to the degree it was before the change. The hope is that even if people have adjusted their training to channel master vs. base trainers, that investment is still a very good investment (if not, please let us know what you’d have rather trained; the intent is not to “punish” anyone, given this bug has been around for so long).
* Development continues behind the scenes on new areas.
* One more secret change; we can’t spoil everything.