Wow...

Well, this has been a while.

-looks around-

What am I doing here, you ask? Well, a friend of mine said she was visiting EO to see how it changed, so I did the same - not much fun alone. And after seeing the state of global and the community in general, plus the number of people that 'missed me', I came to a decision...

I'm back on EO.

Now to clean this blog up.

Well...

I noticed 26-5 is out, but while browsing the test website I found this.

http://test.endless-online.com/shoutbox.html

First time I've shown any speck of interest in EO for a while and it's immediately put out by the shoutbox idiocy.

Looking around the blogs, I notice a lot of people have left or are taking breaks. Blog owners and regular commenters alike have found other games to be much more worthwhile. Well... I'm one of them.

So until v26 hits the Main server, there will be no more updates. When that happens I'll pop in, look around, and most likely get bored fast and leave EO again. So don't expect much from the blog. EO simply isn't big enough, or eventful enough, for any blog to be kept updated. With the exception of Nezlo of course. :]

Oh, btw Nez - if you need more money to put to the levelling, I can give you 100k when I can get back on main. It'll be going to a better cause than just sitting in my account.

Thanks for all the comments and PMs ingame, it's been great fun keeping this blog running. Take care all of you. I'll visit sometimes. :]

26-4

Latest test client is v26-4. Classes have been added, are choosable, and more quests are in. No sign of the new areas AFAIK.

All info will be on Wikky's blog. I won't be on test for a while because new versions are coming down everyday and it's not really worth downloading a whole new version everyday.

For the moment, I'm alternating between Diablo and RO. Diablo is fun, but a little too much effort for a lazy ass like me. So I get tired of it quite fast.

And on RO I'm just trying a few different things out of interest. Most players on there go for the same two or three builds, and have completely forgotten about the status effects in the game. So I've been trying a bow with curse/blind cards and using mute arrows, then switching to the usual hydra/SW/immaterial arrow combo to finish them off while they're cursed, silenced and blinded. Working surprisingly well so far.

EO still doesn't have the gameplay depth of other MMOs to keep me interested. Even though I maxed out pretty much everything on RO a while ago, there's still so many weapons, combos, status effects, elements, etc to explore for PVPing. There's probably a reason why so many people stick with the usual builds, but it's fun to experiment. I wonder if Endless will ever end up like this?

v26.

Wicked's v26 prediction was right. It hit the test server today. Vult's also set up a mini-site for the test server at http://test.endless-online.com/ where you can download the first version of it.

I'm sitting on test now watching global for the new features. Currently nobody has found the promised clases feature/NPC, two very easy quests with cheap rewards have been implemented, and the graphics have had an overhaul (slightly altered menus, interface, etc), plus a comical new sheep sprite. Apart from that, nothing much to report at the moment. Vult should be adding a lot more to it in the new few days though, so keep your eyes peeled.

If any v26 testers find new features, report them to Wickedfrost who will be putting together his traditional new version guide.

Ta!

The most addictive drug of all. EXP.

Just clicking on the random blog links and seeing where I ended up, when I came across Vanityx's blog.

http://eoxp.blogspot.com/

I probably shouldn't be surprised, but the obsession that some people have with experience points is unbelievable. This is a game where you can access everywhere either through buying scrolls or from reaching level 8. There's no ultimate level. There's no ultimate stat. There's no uber final dungeon. There's no level requirement for equipment. Yet people like Anarky continue to play for hours and hours, racking up over 100,000 exp PER DAY.

So I looked at the list for a second. And asked myself: why would they be so obsesssed with this? The monsters aren't hard to beat at level 40. The battle system isn't exactly addictive. And as for the socialising aspect, which used to be EO's strong point? Not in places like the factory. It's either running for your life or listening to the top players brag.

The only reason that I can see for them doing it, is to become famous from the top 100 page. To have newbies browse the site after playing for a week or so and having just reached level 3, stumble across the top 100 and say "WOW, she's level 43! She must be really uber!"

Here's an idea. Get rid of the top 100 page. With that gone, people will soon realise that there's no point at all in spending 18 hours a day getting exp when nobody's looking or making blog posts about them.

Another thing I noticed is that out of the 100 names on there, there's at most 10 people who are known, interesting, nice, or generally worth talking to. The rest I know nothing about apart from that their EXP addiction is way out of hand.

But there is hope! Use Espii as an example. She realised that it's not worth the stress and went to try other games, and is having a lot more fun there than she ever did on Endless. So try it. If that TNL is too high, or someone's bugging and KSing you, just ask yourself if it's worthwhile to spend so much time on something which ultimately is irrelevant. Most of EO's famous players aren't on the top 100 at all, because there's more than one way to get 'known' here.

Don't stress about it. Games are supposed to be fun. If a game is getting you down, log off. The real world is a great cure for that EXP addiction. :]

Just no.

Extreme tactics don't work in EO when it comes to 'helping' Vult 'fix' problems. When Zemeckis and EE blocked in v15, Vult already knew of the problem and was working on a resolution. When Wicked told everyone how to drop steal in v20 and later how to use tsearch in v23, it was the same again - Vult KNEW it was a problem and he's still trying to find a way to stop it. All these 'extreme' measures do is make the problem 10 times worse in the meantime. It won't make him work harder to fix it, he already gives up all his free time to work on this game for the ungrateful shits that make up 99% of the server population.

'But it's the only thing we haven't tried!' As if the thousands of people ALREADY using Tsearch haven't made enough of an impact. All you're doing is trying to justify being able to cheat under the guise of 'helping the game'. You're lowering yourself to their level, basically. If they're scum for doing it, so are you.

So what to do? Well EO isn't moving that fast, and nothing interesting is surfacing. Most of the players who aren't powerlevelling have gone to different games for now. I suggest the following for people looking for alternatives:

Ragnarok Online - A great game. The official version are pay-to-play, but there are a lot of private servers (don't ask me how) which have edited rates and are free. I'm playing the Xile servers (www.xilero.net) which have boosted the rates by 1000. Basically it's like playing RO on fast forward - take a couple of weeks to max your character and learn the game, then engage in some of the best PVP fights in any game I've played. Great for a month or so away from Endless, though you may not want to go back.

Flyff - Same system requirements as RO. A huge 3D game which has the unique (as far as I know) addition of being able to fly. It's great.

Maplestory - Tough levelling, but hey, you're EO players so you should be used to it. Side scrolling 2D MMO.

Diablo II - Heard it's good, but sadly won't be able to play. I attempted to buy it off eBay only to have the seller take the money and run. The game still hasn't arrived and I have little hope of it doing so. EDIT: Nevermind, I called my parents when I got home and they told me a CD had arrived from Canada. So that's Diablo II and I will be trying it this week.

Wikky linked to Puzzle Pirates, which looks pretty good. I'll have to try that sometime. Probably when I get bored of v26. :]

Forum dramas

Until now I've refrained from naming individual players for criticism, because it's unfair of me to do so from here. But this is a special case, and even if I'd not named him, you'd all know I was talking about Aramax. So here we go. The story. And my thoughts on it.

Unless you've been living in a hole for the past few days, you'll have undoubtedly noticed the fuss Aramax has stirred up on the forums. He's been gradually getting more and more abusive, spammy, annoying even, on the forums for several months. To be honest, he fitted right in with the rest of the people who post in the Lounge area.

Until he decided to post, over 100 seperate times, an image of a dead body on the forums. Vult saw this, deleted them all, then posted an "open" letter to the community venting his anger both a) about the images, and b) about people's bitching about the forums. Aramax's response was that his images were a protest against the lack of moderation, to which Vult replied simply with "gtfo". The debate wrangled on for around 20 pages before Vult decided to delete the thread, presumably to stop the fighting (and stop EO from looking worse than it already is to prospective players/sponsors). A couple of hours later, this popped up. Basically the same letter, with additions, in a place where nobody could reply or bitch about it. Aramax found himself banned, and it seems now that any reference to the letter or moderation is deleted.

So, what have we learned from this? At first I was annoyed that Vult had resorted to detectors in the first place, rather than human mods (see entry further down). Then after this incident, the fact that he decided to slap everyone on the wrist and NOT ban Aramax for it was even more worrying. Now that he's finally done it, I hope that this saga, plus the Sausage hacking incident, will finally convince Vult to wake up and do something about it. At the moment it seems he's moderating it all himself, but he can't keep this up forever, while working fulltime, AND on coding v26. Eventually it will start to slip, people will find more ways around the spam filters and we'll be back to the same old forum, with the only detectors catching innocent people out while the real spammers can do what they want, unchecked.

...much like EO itself.

A word to Aramax: I don't honestly think that you had this planned as a protest all along. It seems to me this was an excuse you thought up at the last second, which people believed and backed - the cause I mean, not the way you went about it.

A word to Vult (not that he's reading this): Stop being so soft with the forum bans. Most of the people who cause trouble on the forum rarely play anyway, so it's not as if they'll miss the chance to post anything useful. Instead of warning, deleting, or whatever, just take them out permanently. Saves a lot of time and future deleting. There are a lot of people on the forum who I personally think deserve a perm ban and won't be missed, but I won't name them here.

And to the rest of you: Give it a break. We've said our thoughts, and Vult's said his. Ultimately it's his game, his forum, and if he wants it to turn to crap then that's entirely his choice. We shouted, we complained, we pointed out the flaws, and Vult read them all, thought about it all, and hit the Delete button and kept on with 'His Way'. I'm fast losing interest in EO and its forums, so this may not be updated as often now. I'll be on RO enjoying a game with decent class, levelling, and PK systems until the much-hyped v26 hits. If you need my MSN for any reason, you can dig it up somewhere.