[Previous entry: "Didn't leave"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Then and Now..."]

10/14/2004 Archived Entry: "Thoughts for Today"

Cripes, it's been a while since I posted! Here're the updates....

- This weekend I'll be working on the secret project for my dad.
- Karma and I have been working on a collab image, it'll be posted on DevArt and my personal gallery soon.
- I'll be working on my Gaia Online cyberpet idea some more! Yay!
- I'm working in finally finishing (and submitting) my Ragnarok Online fanart piece.
- Huly and I are working on.... whoops, said too much! ;D

In Ragnarok Online news...
Yes! More dribble from my online game addiction! MWA HA HA HA!

Some nights after leveling my characters, I like to go and have fun at the Sakray designated "spam" map - South Prontera field. Skill spamming, in general, is not a good thing. It lags people on slower connections and it gets annoying. But we all need a place where we can goof off and test our skills working as a random group or against monsters. We all need a place to let off some steam, too! So by the evening hours, American time, there are a bunch of people out on south Prontera field chilling out or branching monsters.

A Dead Branch is a special item in iRO that summons a random monster that is turned to aggressive! Even the weakest monster can be summoned and it's looking for a fight! But since last night there wasn't a merchant to be found selling dead branches I thought to do the next best thing - Power Cord party! Since I've got a Dancer, I've got an ensemble skill (that's a skill that requires a Bard and a Dancer with the same skill in a party or, I think, a guild) called Power Cord. PC allows for people in the party whose casts sometimes require gemstones to no longer need them. For example, a priest can open warp portals, resurrect, and cast Sanctuary without the use of a blue gem if they are standing on the PC cast area.

But in this case... a sage casting Hocus Pocus! Hocus Pocus is a skill that will cast any random skill in the game, including the opportunity to summon a monster or turn a monster into a poring (weakest in-game monster is a little pink jelly monster called a Poring)! Hocus Pocus typically requires a gemstone to cast, but if the Sage is partied during PC he can do it until either his SP runs out or the ground cast expires.

And THEN came the M-V-P's!! Holy shit, were there some good monsters out there last night! In my PC party, we summoned Maya, Orc Hero, Lord of Death, and.... damn, I forgot the last one. I'll have to think on it, but we summoned -four- MVP bosses and it was a blast! This is the only time you get to see ALL people from ALL the guilds stop fighting against each other and just -wail- on this huge monster! Res-ing for free, buffing everyone you can in sight, casting healing spells to keep them all alive, casting supporting elemental attacks, ground spells, experimenting on what works and what doesn't. I saw a Mage go up a base level just taking a tiny chunk out of an MVP! People you've never met before or know anything about just working alongside you to kill this monster! People resurrecting you and you have no idea who was kind enough to heal you because you just have to run back into the melee!

You know, sometimes iRO plays some dirty, rotten tricks on the old players but... when people find work-arounds and have a spot where we can just let loose, it makes it all work out. By dirty, rotten tricks I mean when they started making monsters that we were all typically able to kill successfully suddenly do cast-time-free (that means no time to cast the spell is used where it takes most Mage Classes several seconds to cast) moves and some moves that make it impossible to miss a deathblow attack from a monster. It kind of makes sense in the long run, as they are trying to balance the game where no class is so strong that they don't need other people to play. That makes sense on the issue of bots.

I think it's part of Sakray culture, too. From what I've heard from players on Chaos and Loki, the Sakray server is less tolerant of beggers, we're generally nicer to newbies, and I think we're the only ones with a map designated to cut loose on. There's so much fewer of us compared to the other two servers that we have a better sense of comradery, I think. Yeah, we fight, but most of the fights I've seen are just two people -not- shouting and talking things out civilly. Yeah, War of Emperium leads to some bitter rivalry but that's what happens when you play PvP (player versus player).

And the sweetest thing I experienced last night just totally made my heart melt. Yeah, it's just a game but... a Novice was walking down into south Prontera and as my Priestess I was buffing -all- the novices that came onto the field to help them get away from the danger zone and to go level. One of them was a little girl Novice and she'd go and level and then come back to rest where I'd buff and heal her all over again. She was saying that is was so nice of me to do that for her and then she said "I want to be a Priest." That was a very sweet thing to say, even if she doesn't become a Priest, it's nice to know that people want to also be kind to others when they are able to.