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

GM Naijin announced, “Hey all, a new CMAN, Acrobat’s Leap, has been released. Training in Acrobat’s Leap allows you to jump to increase your reach while ambushing or using maneuvers that take the height system into account. http://forums.play.net/forums/19/327/3363/view/316

CodyBye said, “I’m really enjoying the monk so far. punch punch punch” GM Naijin reminded the new player, “Don’t forget about PUNCH’s friends – JAB, GRAPPLE, and KICK.” CodyBye asked in response, “Should I always lead with jab?” GM Naijin responded, “It has the highest chance to tier-up.”

Elysia reported a bug when ambushing with TWC with one weapon, “Just with one. It was most troublesome in Heist on a TWC character, and it’s been a year – someone was talking about this in Discord sometime in the last few days, too, though. So you have one weapon connect, the other fails to find a strike, and where you might normally have a 7 second RT for your weapon combo, you end up with 12 or 13 seconds. Which is enough time for the dogs to overwhelm you with overrlapping knockdown roundtimes and plink you to death over several minutes. :joy:

New CMAN: Acrobat’s Leap (1st discussion)

Midgar said, “Am I the only one that is a little perturbed about the new cman? I personally already felt the smaller races were overpowered (At least as monks/rogues). This now got rid of one of their largest downsides. Their only real negative now is encumbrance, which has many toys to deal with.”

GM Naijin replied, “The human sized races are able to hit things like trolls with small weapons that they couldn’t before.” and “Elves also have the same maneuver bonus as halflings with the 2nd best AGIDEX.” and “Elves and halflings have identical SMR bonuses. They have 5 less AGIDEX.” and “Elves don’t have the large [CMAN] penalty, strength issue, and don’t have to spend CMP or stamina to be able to hit what a halfling can.

BobN replied, “This is crazy! Gnomes and halflings will have to spend CM points AND extra stamina. It’s not free! And it’s a really great boost to elves.” and “And they all still have the same size bonuses and penalties on maneuvers” and “Huge bonuses to tackle, shield bash, charge shield charge”

Midgar replied, “Rogues/monks don’t use those.”

GM Naijin responded, “The penalty isn’t just for offensive use it’s defensive as well.” and “Tackle, charge, bull rush, cut throat, shield bash, shield charge, etc. etc. are all significantly more effective against small races.”

The conversation continued with Midgar asking if the stamina cost was AP (Attack Penalty) based.

GM Estild responded (further down the discussion), “It means if you are wearing plate armor, it costs +2 more stamina. If you are in chain, +1 more.”

GM Naijin summarized his position on the grass-is-greender debate by saying, “Yeah, and I’m the opposite having recently swapped out my 12m main halfling for a new race. […] … and I knew this CMAN was coming. :smile: […] I wanted the height without the cost, the health, the encumbrance, the AS boost, and more importantly – access to a ton of maneuvers I never got to use. My new character doesn’t train in toughness and doesn’t need leap which opens up a lot of CMP for me.”

The conversation continued with discussion about racial bonuses and deficits.

GM Estild said, about rogue-issues, “Stamina is an issue for them, which is why you can’t just dismiss the stamina cost for Acrobat’s Leap. It’s not insignificant.”

Midgar summed his view, “Funny enough, I can probably be quoted a few times, saying that smaller races are the most OP for rogues. Before this cman. Surely that is my opinion, and based on my viewpoints. But the negatives of small races have been established for decades. I already thought they didn’t outweigh the benefits, as it was. Race balance has always been a touchy subject for me. And I feel this change was made more just to make life easier for small races, than as a race balance consideration. And that is the problem. But hey, I’ll tell you what…remove the pre-requisites from Deflection Mastery, and I will reluctantly call it good :stuck_out_tongue: It truly is way too absurdly expensive to master”

#platinum

LostRanger requested, “I need someone to run a script to update the Platinum MapDB for me. If you’re willing, speak up first (since I only need ONE person to do it) and then do the following:” See the link for instructions on how to do it.

#shattered

LostRanger requested, “I need someone to run a script to update the Shattered MapDB for me. If you’re willing, speak up first (since I only need ONE person to do it) and then do the following:”

#mechanics

Mnute (muted) asked for information on other UAC scripts than combo as combo is punching when it should be jabbing. Many hours later, Mnute (muted) reported he’d tried smartmonk, but it had even more issues with properly leveling up tiers.

GM Estild announced,

I just rolled in an update to RECALL to cap the difficulty to unlock loresongs. It will still take a very skilled bard to unlock high end items, but no item is impossible to unlock (unless it’s scripted to do so, but none of those exist yet). At level 100, with 100 bard spellsong ranks, 100 ranks of Magical Item Use, Elemental Mana Control, Mental Mana Control, 25 ranks of Mental Lore – Telepathy, and an Aura and Influence bonus of 25 each, a bard will have a 10% chance to successfully unlock any item.

I’m still interested in looking at specific items that may be too difficult and adjusting the overall formula as needed, so if you have any items like that, please let me know and BUGITEM it with some details so I can take a look.”

Leafiara reported “Need some reading material while you grind the arena? Well, here we are: Post-Cap Discussions, an 11-page report covering the past ten years of forum discussions regarding post-cap dev!

Milax asked, “Wait you can have greater elemental flares AND normal flares?” GM Naijin responded, “Greater elemental flares comes with normal flares.”

New CMAN: Acrobat’s Leap (2nd discussion)

GM Naijin announced,

A new CMAN, Acrobat’s Leap, has been released. Training in Acrobat’s Leap allows you to jump to increase your reach while ambushing or using maneuvers that take the height system into account.

Skill Name: Acrobat’s Leap
Mnemonic: leap
Hostile: No
Stamina Cost: 1 per foot of reach needed. Increases by 1 in chain armor and 2 in plate armor.
Other Requirements: None.
Available to: Rogues, Monks.
Prerequisites: None
CMP Cost:
Rank 1: (Squares) 3
Rank 2: (Squares) 6
Rank 3: (Squares) 9
Description: This is a passive maneuver. You are able to leap to increase your reach by 1 foot per rank while ambushing or using maneuvers that take the height system into account. Every 30% of encumbrance reduces your reach by 1 foot.

Flockmaster Nehor asked, “So whats the height difference between say, a giant and an elf?” GM Naijin responded, “A giantman is one foot taller than an elf.

BobN asked GM Naijin, “Can warriors be considered for this? I was psyched that my elf could train to head butt a troll!” GM Naijin responded, “It was discussed but for now it’ll be limited to rogues and monks.”

Ragz asked, “What’s an example of a 3 foot difference scenario. Looks like a cool maneuver tho! Seemed to be a pretty common complaint about being forced to ambush the legs first. Also, is this the first passive cman with an ongoing stamina cost?” GM Naijin responded, “Halflings are now able to hit the head of the largest group of enemies in the game. Medium sized. In scale or lower that’ll cost 2 stamina. @Ragz ? that would be 5 stamina. The penalty is not per foot.”

Ardkor asked, “Does it affect size vs’ size penalties or just make unhittable areas hittable?” GM Naijin responded, “Just hitting what you wanna hit.”

Neovik asked, “so if a giant trains in acrobatic leap, can they hit those tall critters in SoS that they can’t hit already (think it’s the monstrosities from what I recall)? Also when can giants get an ability to train away failed to find one handed strike? Since it comes up ALOT more frequently for giants.”

Elysia asked, “I still have a perfume bottle that won’t take a label and it’s causing me extreme anxiety every time I try.” GM Naos asked if it was a special perfume bottle. Elysia replied, “It’s an old one from an event years ago – “a pallid niveous crystal flask”. I permified it at EG. I wanted to label it as such but can’t” GM Naos replied, “It looks like those labels have very specific things they work with. Labeling perfume sounds handy, though.” Elysia replied, “I feel like I’ve labeled other perfumes, but I could be misremembering! Mostly I wanted to make sure I had a label on the permified ones. I’ll put something in the suggestions forum.” GM Naos responded, “There are only two label scripts I could find; an old one I wrote for potions (no memory of this) and a new one for “gear” based on my old one. I assume the common labels are the latter script and there are checks in there to only allow the labels to be applied to weapons, armors, shield, magic items, and some other things.” They continued to speak about this.

#help

Avalera asked for insight on figuring out why her weapon costs so much at the Duskruin smithy.

over-engineered asked, “Are bandit jaw traps disarmable?”

#scripting

Lost Ranger uploaded ;xnarostbeta … a temporary branch of xnarost that uses new meta: tags to build the categories and such. More info at Discord. He explained the difference between xnarost and narost, as well as why the new beta version is in the works.

Avalera said there are people working on a new map for Ta’Vaalor, and map-questions get answered.

SimuCoin Events and Quests

#duskruin

fortybox asked, “wyrom – did you reduce rpa orb drop rates” PM Wyrom responded, “Heh no. Nothing is reduced. We literally spend all our time working up ways for people to go to these events, last thing I’m doing is making things even more difficult.”

PM Wyrom said, “In case it was missed, the bloodrune holders are out.” Avawren added the Bloodrune Holders to the wiki page with a guide on how to obtain them and how they work. https://gswiki.play.net/Bloodrune_Holder PM Wyrom later said, “I’ll add inspect. And I’ll let the stones work for the enhancive portion, but the illusion part, it will need to be a bloodrune.” Then even later, “Stones being usable for the holders should be live in just a sec.”

PM Wyrom responded, “Outside people’s thoughts on HESS, tokens, and orbs, I think the biggest change is that the barriers for entry have been lowered significantly. I’m seeing a lot of lower level people doing things other than the sewers which isn’t common.”

Giantphang said, “the arena is perfect. Its the right amount of exp, challenge (for everyone but sorcs) loot, chance for good, even great loot, time it takes to do…” He added, “its a really incredible mechanic…I think if you can figure out how to make rumor woods jousting similar [in balance], you’ll have a winner”

Teclys asked if more glowing sigil certificates (T4 to T5 Sigil Staff unlock) could go out. GM Estild replied, “There won’t be any more this run, Teclys, but I’m not going to put them in the shop for future runs. I’ll set a time and raffle them off so there’s more opportunity instead of the fastest scripter.” Sins added, “same with all the limited certs in shops pls” Melivn also added, “Do the certs for those sigil staffs have a you must use by date on them like the HESS certs?” and “because if they don’t they should.”

Ragz asked, “what’s the official stance on ticket scalping” PM Wyrom responded, “Buying something to sell it higher?” Ragz responded, “buying a limited event ticket to resale for higher”

GM Avaluka announced, “So. I don’t have time to announce this on the forums yet because of IRL work (but i will put somtehing there later), but I got approval to stick a T2 unlock certificate for a Compartmentalized Quiver in the Treasure Trove. So expect that to be a thing in the Trove.”

Xilona asked, “are the energy staves able to be bonded and flare at T1 or does everything happen at T2?” GM Retser said, “It flares at T0” and “A few went out before I fixed the shop. The shop takes the “as is” copy I’m holding to sell. The one I was holding was still bound to my GM character in the development environment. So I have to “fix” it by clearing out my bond.”

HebrewToYou suggested, ” it would be a wonderful QoL improvement if the pawnshop would work like the gemshop when selling expensive items. Instead of requiring an empty hand, just put the note into the hand that held the item being sold.”

PM Wyrom said, “Trove is just waiting for some updates from Haliste. She had a storm that killed her internet.” and “Let me see if I can see what’s wrong with it.” After a few people reportedly used their tokens, PM Wyrom said, “Hang on, looks like it’s still broke” and “Yeah, this is just going to have to wait for Haliste.”

Duskruin Mood is Down?

zeph said, “i feel like the general mood for this DR is a bit on the downer side. especially with bs prices collapsing, things being overpriced, enchants being removed, etc. i don’t think i’ll even finish out the $1k i spent to buy simucoins, will likely just hold on to the rest and spend on EG entry instead”

Avawren said, “… isn’t the general mood for every DR a downer? I can’t remember a DR where people weren’t rabble rousing”

Leafiara responded, “I think why this feels like a downer isn’t necessarily the rabble rousers, because they’re always there (and I’m even joking along with them most of the time), but the absence of people who are super duper excited for things they’ve bought.”

Multiple players stated that they’re really enjoying this Duskruin including Maylan the Maybug, Flockmaster Nehor, Hoy, Gavrien. I add myself to that list.

HESS will change next run

PM Wyrom stated, “I realize a lot hinges on those 41 items in HESS, but we spend a lot of time on the whole thing.”

zeph asked PM Wyrom, “also a bit off the mark – 150k BS for a self knowledge…purify air? i know…really” PM Wyrom responded, “It was requested, it gets put on a list and we see how it goes.” zeph replied, “who the heck requested a $1000 self knowledge purify air?” PM Wyrom responded, “Okay, jokes aside, yes, @zeph your point is heard.”

Avawren asked, “How many people shopping high end items at the HESS are doing so on their own wallet, and not playing the secondary market though?”

Avaia stated, “Still strange to me that the current game designers expressly rely on something that, while it has always happened to one degree or another, was expressly verboten by Simutronics. Want to play with the big boys? Better get in the secondary market! Don’t want to do that? Too bad, so sad.”

PM Wyrom said, “But feedback on HESS is heard loud and clear. We’ll likely have to start from scratch next run, I’ll post that at some point. Just so no one banks on anything returning.”

How HESS Pricing is Chosen

zeph asked PM Wyrom, “maybe you can help explain to us – how is the decision for HESS pricing done. who decides something like SK unpresence is worth 150k? and EPB is 400k? i genuinely don’t get how someone comes to those numbers”

PM Wyrom responded, “Services are typically suggested by me and a few other GMs, Dev goes through it and approves quantity and pricing.”

zeph followed up, “but why say 150k instead of 50k instead of 100k? is there a calculation or just how someone feels that one day?”

PM Wyrom responded, “When things scaled, we watched where items didn’t sell anymore.” and “The problem with scaling is, if we start something at a low price, everyone wants it for that price. But the idea is to see where the break points are. Because in some cases, we don’t know the prices.” and “But scaling cause far too many headaches.”

zeph suggested reverse scaling. PM Wyrom responded, “I do the reverse auction manually. It’s fun. But automated would be tough.”

#ebon-gate

Warclaidh requested, “Can we get customized title cert in trove . I wanna be Commander Warclaidh. Rob has had his time on that monopoly” [Note, he meant for this to be in #duskruin.]

Qafziel Nalfein

Qafziel Nalfein, scholar and political devotee, travels Elanith learning more about the relationships between notable parties. His focus is on the Cooperative Houses of Elanthia and Meeting Hall Organizations and their liaisons, but he’s also known to pop into a town meeting on a whim or congratulate someone on reaching the pinnacle of their studies whether it be in warfare or sorcery or something else entirely. Qaf is always on the lookout for ways to connect individuals and organizations both with each other, with adventurers, and with the TownCrier for the betterment of our society. He maintains a network of informants who assist him in his tasks.