Wecome to the TownCrier’s Discord Digest! In this space, we at the TownCrier will attempt to provide a daily digest of select converssations at the Official GemStone IV Discord server from 10 pm EST the night previous to 10 pm EST the night of. Not all conversations will be reported and we will endeavor to utilize a neutral tone (although our unique senses of humor may show through).
Links may go to the Official Discord post itself, to the GemStone IV Wiki, or other useful and relevant places. In the case of Discord links, those links will send you to the Discord web interface.
The majority of this digest record was compiled by the player of Qafziel Nalfein/Darcena Wolf-Valslayer; #scripting was compiled by Luxelle. Have an error to report on this digest or some information to pass along? Contact Jen on Discord at ArmyJen#0001. Please reference which digest day to which you are referring.
What You Missed
General Gemstone IV
#general
Maylan the Maybug announced that the Denver players are getting together for happy hour this Friday (8/16) and says, “If you are in the area and I missed you, feel free to DM me for details. Also for more information on upcoming gatherings, join our unofficial simucon server here: https://discord.gg/chAaGax”
#mechanics
Ryjex asked, “I’m hazy on mechanics of armor accessories… if you have an MCP aug chain, and you don’t wear a helmet, you get MCP on head but DF vs skin, correct? What if you have a regular helmet on, what is the DF then?” GM Naijin responded, “DF, CvA, and AvD for is based on what’s on your torso. Adding accessories gives you the crit divisor of the group below.” and added, “So, MBP gives you plate DF, -18 CvA, and MBP AvD but only plate critical divisor on torso. Adding vambraces gives you plate divisor on arms, etc.”
Ryjex then asked, “wait but without a helm on, what’s the DF?” GM Naijin responded, “Your DF will be whatever it is for your augmented chain based on the weapon attacking you, always.” Hoy asked, “wait but you do get the crit divisor of chain if you wear a helm?” Ryjex added, “aug chain + no helm + aim head = still aug chain DF on the head?” GM Naijin responded, “Yes, chain DF on head, scale crit divisor on head.”
Continuing the conversation on armor accessories, Hoy asked, “oh so what i said about all bad and none of the good is true?” and added “armor accessories need some love.” GM Naijin responded, “No? The DF is good.” and “Mixing and matching your flares based on the attack you’re doing is good. Having that super schweet look you always dreamed of is good.”
Ryjex doublechecked, “so literally all you get for wearing a helm is one higher crit divisor on head… for the price of twice the spell hindrance?” GM Naijin responded, “Well, one benefit of augmented chain is that you can remove the helmet to cast a spell and put it back on very quickly but you can’t remove hauberk and put it back on quickly. I’ve done something similar when I have a high mana cost spell I don’t want to fail (except in MBP with a helm)”
GM Naijin summarized, “Augmented Chain + Helm = Chain DF, Chain Critical Divisor (since every part of body is covered), Augmented Chain AvD/CvA”
[Editor’s note: Augmented Chain is ASG15 and therefore covers torso [chest, stomach, back], arms, hands, and legs. It does not cover the head. The discussion is stating that if you are wearing this armor class, your DF, CvA, and AvD for your entire body is based on what’s on your torso, but your crit divisor changes based on what body part is hit. If your head is hit while you are only wearing augmented chain with no accessories, you would have the crit divisor of the armor group below (scale). If you then put on an armor accessory for your head and you were hit on the head, your crit divisor would remain the same as whatever your torso is wearing.]
Tovklar asked, “How to accessories work with robes? Just stays robes with the accessories bonus?” GM Naijin responded, “Robes are considered full coverage of cloth so accessories don’t matter outside of padding/flares. Similar to doubles, brig, hauberk, and full plate.”
GM Naijin then said, “I actually really like partial armor because I like swapping around accessories based on what I’m doing.” Hoy asked if he couldn’t just do that wearing full body armor and GM Naijin replied, “Yes, but if something maneuvers I can remove all accessories and keep the same base armor. And avoid manuevers better with a single set of armor.”
#scripting
Doug advised that you never quit or exit your GemStone game by clicking on the window close button, it will create zombie ruby processes. Always QUIT out of the game, and kill any left-over Ruby processes you find hanging around.
Athias announced he has been working on a script for the Heist, Silent Investors.
Ryjex had a question about waitfor in ;foreach, Luxelle reminded him a bug with waitfor (hanging up) in foreach was fixed just a couple days ago. Everyone remember to update your copy! ;repository downoad foreach
Ashraam wanted to know which command makes ammo with Sammu2. No answer yet.
World of Elanthia
#festivals-and-events
Naamit announced, “Caeruil Atelier’s next event will be Art After Dark, sometime in October. 
”
Seeeoooh announced, “
Take a break from ruining all that dusk — The 24th Annual Bardfest starts this week on 8/14 at 10pm!! Eastern! ”
SimuCoin Events and Quests
#duskruin
On Monday evening, PM Wyrom stated, “47 tokens have gone out today.” and “Monday is usually our slowest day.”
PM Wyrom announced, “The bloodrune holders are taking a bit because I decided to remove the puzzle aspects from getting one. Been struggling with making this decision, but I feel it’s a must. I just need to change a few things around and then I’ll get them out there.” Around 2 am Tuesday morning, PM Wyrom announced, “It got late while I was fixing things, didn’t have time to bring out the bloodrune holders. I’ll bring them out after my afternoon meeting. Hate to put them out before I go to bed and they pull a shade-skink.”
Travakal asked, “Are the bloodrune holders character bound?” PM Wyrom responded, “Yes. You’re limited to 1 holder total. You lose it, replacement is unlikely.”
Glimmin asked, “Any chance of changing the Spellbound x per day items to reset at midnight like per day spells or MANA SPELLUPs, please? I hate having to strategically time my log ins within the day to not waste charges.”
In response to questions by Ashraam about creating 4x varieties of NerveStaves with unlockable tiers, PM Wyrom stated, “NerveStaff was retired for now, might come back one day. But it had been here since first run.”
Shield asked, “Do kroderine shields have the dispel flare when used offensively? (shield bash, shield strike, etc?)” Ososis answered yes. Shield asked “Anything happen reactively with spikes, by chance?” GM Naijin responded, “Spikes will flare reactively with shield spike mastery.” He added, “Some maneuvers such as head butt will target certain locations.A spike flare on a head butt is guaranteed to shut down a caster. Sucker punch will hit back and I’m sure there’s one or two more I can’t recall.” In a slight departure from the original topic, Shield said, “I have a disruption flaring buckler and have not seen it flare (disruption) from a reactive shield spike yet” GM Naijin responded, “If used offensively disruption and spikes can happen. Reactively will only be the spikes.”
Ososis asked, “Also, don’t spikes halve your padding?” GM Naijin responded, “And no, spikes don’t mess with padding. Again, from player experience, but I’m pretty confident in that statement.” He added, “The only thing spikes do is affect your rolls if you don’t have spike focus.”
Ososis asked, “Well, if you stumble upon it I would LOVE some clarification on what specifically will halve padding, can things be halved more than once, and does the system know if its the same padding across accessories”
Lochiven suggested, “with the advent of wps I think it is time to get rid of halved padding.”
Regarding scrip draining, PM Wyrom stated, “So the scrip drains come in two schools of thought. What I’d pay scrip for and what would be a big seller. Most times, “what I’d pay” doesn’t usually mean a drain, it just means another thing we sell. So for the charge enhancives for scrip idea, no one would pay a lot there. It would have to be priced cheaper than the silver counterpart, which wouldn’t be a whole lot.”
HebrewToYou asked, “can there be some insight into the pricing of the shield capes? I’d love to buy one, but the full unlock costs are crazy-high and it penalizes most all combat forms” PM Wyrom answered, “I had nothing to do with shield capes on their tiering or pricing.” GM Estild stated, “The price is high on nightshroud cloaks and shield capes because they are items that don’t normally provide a direct combat benefit, but these items do.” HebrewToYou responded, ” but 500K for 2.5% block attempts? That seems … excessive” and added “and the nightshroud cloaks, while cool, still require someone to be skilled at Stalking & Hiding.” GM Estild replied, “That’s why the shield capes are even more expensive than the nightshroud cloaks.”
PM Wyrom stated (although he might have been kidding), “We can add bandit bane on the list for next time.”
Celby asked, “what kind of cooldown is there on using that energy blast thingy from the runestaff?” Calista responded, “60 min. but i don’t know how the reactive armor cd interacts with it” GM Retser responded, “They’re separate timers”
Celby asked, “sprite/parasite/energy weapons —- their affinity scale flares, are they relatively similar in damage potential?” GM Retser replied, “Yes. Except the energy weapons can surge higher than the other two.”
Tysong stated, “The downside to tentacle/sprite arrows is that you now have added yet another inventory management issue to use the item on top of the arrows required to fire. Whereas melee/pures can just use the same scripted weapons without this extra item management requirement. It sounds great in theory, but having to deal with managing alchemy crystals plus arrows…… no thanks.”
Regarding when the Treasure Trove would raffle, PM Wyrom stated, “Noon to midnight eastern. We’ll be turning it on either tonight or tomorrow for the full day. Raffle every 2 hours.” He also said “It’s fully automated.” and “But we also need to watch it.” and “That’s why the time is noon to midnight.”
Regarding how some events seem last minute, PM Wyrom stated, “Our lead times were dramatically shortened on events when things changed with Simutronics. But we try to make it work as best as we can.”
Sins commented, “BTW, speaking of certs for adding to existing, I DO think the voln and ithzir adds are great, and priced right compared to the existing standard. Please keep bringing them back even if no one buys em. It just takes time to have gear ready for those, or to save for some of us, and I am glad they are an option.”
Elysia asked, “Since the dig is gone is there any chance someone would put the gems in a shop in the village? They were very pretty.” PM Wyrom responded, “Just the Duskruin Dig is gone. Would people be interested in a random gem from the old dig for some bloodscrip?” Several players said yes. PM Wyrom reminded them that they don’t work in gem jars and asked, “So a random gem for maybe like 10 bloodscrip?” before saying he’d work on it.
Sabotage asked, “and can you make the ores breakable or something? or just make them pawnable again” PM Wyrom responded, “They were never intended to be pawnable. That was an oversight. The breaks of refreshing and adding new content is unintended things get caught in the revamps.”
Melivn suggested, “Make a machine where I can put in enhansives and it destroys them, and gives you magic essence that you can use to craft other enhansives that are crumbly and non rechargeable , make the service cost bloodscript”
In a discussion on token drop rates, PM Wyrom asked, “Would you guys rather there were hundreds of people not able to even enter a raffle? They are intended to be a bit rare since only 50 people can enter a raffle at a time. We’re already to the point where if we didn’t drop anymore tokens this week, we’d still see 50 entrants per raffle (which isn’t likely since everyone’s interests are different).” Several players responded. Avawren said, “There’s already lots of people who won’t be able to enter the raffle, since we don’t have tokens” and “It’s a good idea, I think. And if I had a token I’d be super excited and watching the trays and trying to pick what I wanted to enter etc. But without one it’s just disheartening, especially after spending several hundred actual dollars – even if the trove is on top of everything else.” Elysia replied, “It all feels backwards to me, tbh. You can get whatever powerful thing you want if you’re willing to pay for the currency; but non-powerful fluff roleplay items are RNG wrapped in RNG and much harder to come by.”
Flockmaster Nehor stated, “The other issue here is that…if there is an increased drop rate there’d probably need to be an increase in items. And that takes resources. How I’d do it for EG: Have a Silver Token and a Gold Token. The Silver gets you in on Fluffy stuff, and lower mechanical power stuff. The GOLD gets you the high end. The tokens are one use, but if you don’t win you get a Bronze Token. At the end of EG, have an auction for a few cool things for Bronze Tokens 
”
Leafiara added, “For me it’s not so much about the trove specifically but the general trend with fluff. Like, I’m 100% confident I can get X mechanical thing in time, no matter how high end, through sheer determination and time spent grinding, but incredibly uncertain whether I’ll ever get some of the fluff things I’m after.”
Tsalin aka Jeff stated, “i think tokens should be quite rare…but if you spend a decent amount of $$ you should get at least 1 token for sure – maybe luck protection on the first token drop”
Tsalin aka Jeff stated, “personally I am only willing to spend $100 or $200 on an event like this…and if I spend $200 and get no tokens, it feels pretty bad – and even if I spend $300 and get a token, I still have to hope my token wins me a raffle – so while I totally love the idea of RNG earning me something I wouldn’t otherwise be willing to pay for, the fact that the first phase of RNG (getting a token) is so unlikely is what makes it seem a bit discouraging I think I’d like to see luck protection on the 1st token drop so anyone spending a decent amount gets 1 token for sure, with the same or higher rarity on subsequent drops As always I appreciate that Wyrom always listens to our feedback”
Gillien asked, “Wyrom, I was really disappointed to not see the +1 bonus enhancives for 25k bloodscrip (for bonuses under +10 to begin with). Do you think those will be coming back? That was a price increase” PM Wyrom answered, “The lower scaled enhancive boosts weren’t really selling much, maybe one time.”
Avawren added, “maybe the solution is similar to what was done in previous pay event raffles with different tiers of tokens to enter the raffle? One pure RNG and one with a small buy in. (maybe not for DR, since it’s not the focus. But for EG and the finished Trove)”
PM Wyrom stated, “And due to a few complaints on pricing, we’re likely going to need to hit HESS up next time the event runs. Ideally, we’d like that once we redo HESS to keep it that way for another run or two, but I feel like this disruption to change this time around was a bit too much.” Leafiara asked about Wyrom’s original post which listed what was returning and what wasn’t. He responded, “We’re likely going to be going over all of HESS, so nothing is safe to come back as is.”
Raelee suggested, “I wish there were a way to communicate, “I’m interested in (insert item not selling here), but I’m a guppy and still saving up.”” PM Wyrom replied, “I like the idea of a layaway system. That sort of stuff is just not easy to do.”
PM Wyrom said, “Okay, so… For me this is frustrating because I really felt like the Trove was properly presented. Managing expectations is the hardest part of this gig, and I feel like somehow that’s what happened here.”
PM Wyrom asked, “Okay, hypothetically, and knowing there are only about 50 items, would you rather there be tens of thousands of tokens and having to compete with essentially everyone at Duskruin over it being more of a rare invite?”
Raelee responded, “I think less rare with more competition might be easier to stomach only because we’re all used to losing raffles rather than being barred from raffles.”
People talked more about the T2 easel certs and how difficult they are to acquire and PM Wyrom said the creator wants them to be rare and special.
PM Wyrom then said, “Custom stuff just takes a lot of time. If we were more strict on custom stuff and timelines, maybe we could. But look at the private properties from Summit…”
After it was brought up that some private properties still haven’t been designed, players requested that the SimuCoins be refunded to the people who haven’t finished their designs by the deadline. PM Wyrom responded, “Refunds aren’t something I’m authorized to do.”
PM Wyrom summarized, “So I think some of the take away is, people want easels and alter wands widely available and people would spend a lot on them, but probably not too much. And the Trove has some of these items.”
PM Wyrom said, “Yes, the GM working enchanting is fixing it still. It got released a touch early.”
GM Estild said, “That’s actually already coded (potion to make loresong unlocks easier), Leafiara. I’ve been planning to add it, but didn’t get it included this run. Probably next run.”
GM Estild said, “We were probably too reactive on pulling the +enchanting potions. Not like the people who were complaining about that situation were even the ones buying them.”
PM Wyrom asked, “If tokens were SINGLE use, but dropped 3x as much, would people like that?”
Ragz suggested, “Could a single-use token grant some kind of [non-stacking] rpa-style reward when rubbed? Player decides between one more chance at a raffle win or that sweet sweet rpa goodness. All tokens still poof, or whatever, at the end of the event”
Erek said, “I think someone said something important about 500 messages ago… if you made it such that a single individual could do specific things over time and get exactly what they were hoping to get (without random factor against x00 other people) then you’d have a consistently better revenue stream. Some people hate RNG enough to not participate thus their wallets stay closed.”
Elysia added, “My feeling on it is this: the company is run for profit, so not releasing things for specialness reasons is a nonstarter. Put it out there, gate it via price. Anything in the Trove should also be available for sale in the HESS or a shop at least in some limited quantity; the Trove, as Wyrom put it, is “extra”, and so winning there gets you that thing more cheaply than buying it off a shelf would have. But it shouldn’t be the only distribution method (nor should raffles in general).”
PM Wyrom asked, “Okay, keep in mind, gathering feedback isn’t changing this run. Don’t try to withhold an opinion in fear socialism takes over and your token is now everyone’s token. Would you rather see everything in the Trove also be offered in Duskruin (even if extremely limited)?”
PM Wyrom said, “I think the idea of being able to eventually buy what you want has a lot of merit, but isn’t something I can see getting approved because otherwise we’d not have limits on anything in HESS.” He added, “But maybe a layaway system one day, I’ll have to figure it out.”
PM Wyrom said, “Attuned stuff changes absolutely nothing on quantity or price from an approval standpoint.” There was a large discussion before and after this between players on why there should or should not be account bound, time bound, or character bound items.
Hoy asked, “why is there a 50 limit entry for trove? doesn’t it make it easier for people to game the system?” PM Wyrom responded, “It’s a data storage issue. I mean, we could do something else, but with how we want to keep this system a bit modular, this be the way.”
Stonmel asked, “so, if it went to single use tokens, could that allow trove to be re-worked to do more entries, now that it doesn’t have to track tokens to owners and charges?” PM Wyrom answered, “If we went single use, we could increase the number by 3x.” It doesn’t, however, affect the data storage issue because the system needs to store the character name and account.
PM Wyrom said, “It’s a little tougher to explain, but the way this thing is storing data is very limited. Plus, we wanted the trove to be limited to give the entrants a better shot. One out of 50 is pretty decent. So even if we can free up how much is needed to store, we’d still want to limit it so people felt good. And that’s assuming max entrants.”
Falvicar asked, “Can the WPS smithy be upgraded to know not to charge mow bloodscrip for a paladin bonded weapon? 1625 makes the weapon holy but in cases where weapon isn’t holy without it, I feel is not right to charge more bloodscrip. Basically it charges more unless you remove the Paladin bond”
zeph provided the following feedback:
i’m a little late to the feedback party but just throwing in my 2 cents:
1) the trove system has been well explained and my expectations were set properly – no complaints there.
2) the droprate on tokens seems a bit crazy. i’m at 800 runs and only received 1 token. that honestly doesn’t feel good at all and i feel there’s way too much RNG. because that 1 token is only 2% chance of winning anyway. i like the idea of 3 tokens with 1 use only. make people feel happy that they have something – a small chance even, rather than zero because they didn’t get any
3) however, the recent news on the trove rate of sell i feel is quite bad, 2 hrs per draw is way fast. people have to work, people are in different time zones, etc, 2 hrs would basically mean 70% of it would be impossible for me to attend. i prefer the old trove timing – i think it was what? 4-8 hours or until someone picks it up? my suggestion: during off peak hours – 4-6 hours each, during peak hours 2 hrs each, during night time 6-8 hours. it’ll give the time zone and night owls something – small but something
4) people were complaining primarily about the enchant difficult pots and the certs because the script difficult pots were seen as a way to force people to now require those to do items they used to be able to do. nobody was complaining about the regular 8-10x potions. there’s no reason those should be pulled if they are ready. the new enchant system has been out for half a year now, there’s kinda a long time to wait
5) there are several things in HESS that feels way overpriced – 500k BS to add T0 ithzir (which some abilities doesn’t work in high end hunting locations anyway), the familiars, the EPB, even the voln unlocks seems high (it used to be 150k for T0-T4 i think, now its 150k just for T3-T4). i felt little draw to buy much from there this time and really hope for a full refresh next DR
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