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| Author | A long journey to CL3 |
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It is really a long way for me to get to CL3. I am blocked twice, and I am unblocked twice. I am unfortunate enough to be targeted by certain admin(s), but I am also fortunate enough to find some mods and admins to help me unblocked. Knowing that I am not welcomed by some admins in this game, I decided to write down something, in this forum, before I am permanently blocked for another random reason.
People wonder how I came up with such weird playing style. Well, it all began with the painful experience with my first created char. In August 2008, I felt I had enough fun with the elf faction and decided to try nec. However, I later realized that it's very difficult to play the new faction: I don't have enough faction skill to recruit skeletal bowmen for a good fight. I already reached my limit in most of AI battle without wearing any gear[1], and defeating those monsters with 41 skeletal bowmen is simply impossible. This happened to me just in 2 months of playing. I started to think, "wouldn't it be even harder to play a new faction when I am of higher level? How can I smoothly change the faction at high level?"
The answer is quite straightforward: just leave some easy monsters for another faction(s) to gain faction levels. The FSP criteria grows exponentially each level, while the effects of the faction levels are basically linear. If I can gain some faction levels in the early stage, it should be easier to switch faction when I am of higher combat level. But there are so many factions, and the difficulty of the AI battle grows rapidly, it doesn't seem possible to keep the AI monsters in an easy level for the other factions if I play in the ordinary way. As a result, we need something else: a maximum, or actually infinite, ratio of FSP to exp[2].
I tried this idea with the nec, but it doesn't work well. My nec was still too weak to deliver reasonable damages, and low damages results in low FSP rewards. Also, it takes quite some time to finish one CL6 hunts. Roughly speaking, I spent 10-15 minutes for a combat and gained less than 0.1 FSP. This just doesn't work. Eventually I decided to give up my 2-month old character and started a new one. Starting a new character has many benefits. First of all, all the hunts are easy. As long as I managed the damage well, I can gain 0.5 FSP by losing a hunt in 5-minute. Also, the period of hunting at low level is 3x shorter, and I can gain a lot of FSP by doing those quick hunts. During those days, I lost 30-40 hunts and earned 15+ FSP everyday, and my averaged FSP/hunt is around 0.47.
When I confirmed the feasibility of my plan and realized its potential, I began to think of building a power character. I have a lot of patience, and I don't mind working toward the powerful char slowly. So I decided to do several other things: first, win those very easy 1/3 hunts[3] to build the HG level with minimum exp earned (e.g., defeating 13 skeletons and earn 1 HG point + 13 exp). Secondly, play cards to get the luck drink. Third, work a lot to gain the LG level. Although these side objectives take a lot of time, it is nothing compare to my main plan of char building.
Given the special ability of each faction at that time, I considered the wiz the faction that benefits most from the faction level at low CL: higher magic damage against natural creatures, superior mini-arts. I believed that even when fighting against a player with diamond, I still stood a good chance to win at CL3 if my wiz reaches faction Lv7 and had full mini-arts armed. And if I win the first tournament at CL3 and received a couple of diamonds, I may use the diamonds to upgrade either skeleton or the garg to secure my position in the other tournaments in CL3 and CL4 to win more diamonds. My character will remain powerful till at least CL5. So wiz lv7 became my main target, and, considering the gap between faction Lv5 and Lv6, I decided to make lv5 as the target of the rest factions.
It all went nice an | nice going :D
it's good to see your first post here | It all went nice and smoothly, until some day the existence of Ethereality was revealed to the public. I guess that's because I attended some hunt assistance or because I won some hunt that normal players would not encounter. People started debating on my playing style. Some people liked my idea and copied it, but most of them failed due to the lack of patience; some people were against my playing style and proactively attacked people of my kind on the forum by calling us (or just me) "losers." Besides the attacks on the forum, some also started suggesting random ideas to stop the FSP farming. It's interesting to see people trying to spread the ideas to "improve the game" while those ideas were simply in favor of the proposers and utterly flawed as well. During some time I was actually hoping the admins to implement those suggested ideas. I could build a new char with those flawed suggestions and see how those proposers are going to criticize their own brilliant improvements. Unfortunately it did not happen.
My char building ended at 2008/12/14 when the updates were introduced. Typically the updates in ru server would be introduced to the international server 2 months later or longer or never, but this one came fast in 3 weeks. The updates changed the exp system to what it is today, and gaining FSP without exp is not possible anymore. Interestingly, although this update effectively stopped my FSP farming, people who were against my playing style didn't really like it either. I personally think this update was well designed, at least better than the random suggestions. The root of the problem was the unbalanced growth between the faction levels and the combat levels. Due to the huge difference in the combat ability at different combat levels, the game groups people mainly based on the CL, regardless of the faction skills. In such case, the extraordinary faction skill at a certain CL becomes problematic. The update implemented a solution similar to what I expected: a system that indirectly regulates the possible total FSP at any given CL, making it next to impossible to create huge faction level difference at any given CL. It resolved the major problem in the previous system, but not everyone liked it. I sometimes wonder, maybe those who were against my playing style as well as the new update were just seeking for a game that fits their way best, instead of seeking a true overall improvement.
I officially went inactive after my first block. I traveled to another country and logged in to play (I mean, enroll to work) as usual. On the third day of my trip, I got blocked with the reason "char was sold." Of course, the change of the login IP can be the admins' rationale, but I wonder if they block everyone who travels and plays in the other continent. I tried to write to the secretary as suggested by the rules, but there is no sign of coming response. Eventually I ended up looking for helps from some famous mods, and I was fortunate enough to get my account unblocked. Since then I began to feel insecure about the status of my char, and therefore heavily reduced my activity. I only logged in once or twice per months just to see if there is any interesting update, but I did not play on a daily basis anymore.
Recently I got blocked again, with the reason "the unregistered add.character of Armonicos." Although I stated in the info that I would like to consider Ethereality as my main account and Armonicos the 2nd, and I stopped playing Armonicos with no login to it since I created Ethereailty (one exception: I had to log in Armonicos to write messages to get my main account unblocked), some admins simply ignored the info, and blocked my account. I had to again log in with Armonicos to find helps. Although the secretary was not responsive as usual, some mod/admin was willing to fairly review my situation and unblocked my account. I guess it is some kind of special achievement in this game | I guess it is some kind of special achievement in this game, even if it's not something one should be proud of.
People keep asking about my next plan, but frankly I really don't know what to plan when the account is at high risk of being blocked. I guess my plan is to do my best to prevent the char from being blocked again. Other than that, I guess I would just enroll for 40 golds/hour and maybe buy/sell some goods. I am thinking that the admins may block me next time with the reason that I did not put my real exact char name in the info, while the word Ethereality is forbidden in the info. We will see how things go.
So this is all I would like to share with you for now. Have a nice gaming day.
[1] For new players, it was an old good days that you can fight without any gear.
[2] It's all impossible now, but there were a period of time where you don't gain exp in a lost combat against AI. But the FSP is rewarded without any penalty
[3] In the old days there was a chance to encounter a hunt monster of 1/2 or 1/3 of the normal size. | Wow, You Are Really A Guy With A Hell Of A Patience !!!
Gratz Dude !!!
Enjoy The Game !!! | Don't worry man!i will support you forever :)
You are awesome in this server | | Yea We Will Support you !!! YOU Are AWESOME ! :D | I think if you start playing normally now your char is less likely to be blocked.
You want to create a char which is powerful, and now you already have it in your hand, so what is the reason to give up? There is no excuse to block you just because something you did long time ago before the update, which is legal and does not violate any rule. | | I agree with Liuker. Also as per your original plans you never wanted to play this way forever. Your target was wizard faction 7 and faction 5 for everything else. You are already quite close to your target. If you play normally now, you would probably reach your first target while still remaining relatively low level. | https://www.lordswm.com/warlog.php?lt=-1&warid=5864900
I'm so proud to have played with you :D | | are you a trained military secret agent or a sniper or something???? i have never seen someone with so much patience ...anyways good luck!! :) | #11
More than that..A fishing master! | @11
Maybe he has done YOGA to have this much of patience :) | Dear Ethereality,
thanks for your story, I read it with my breath held :D As you already know, you are one of the most famous characters of this game and until now, one of the most mysterious ones :) I am happy to read about your motives and I wonder how can anybody be so patient.
I wish you luck in your next progress in LoWM. |
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