The West (a western themed browser based RPG) - Page 79

hoopsguy · 08-26-2009, 11:48 AM

Where in the heck is Ganjatown?

Danny · 08-26-2009, 11:49 AM

Two quadrants to the left of us

hoopsguy · 08-26-2009, 11:52 AM

Well, I would expect that he won't bother us nearly as often then - that looks like a haul to come knocking on our door.

I'm still planning on hitting him at least once when I get to a high enough level. Kansasholic, or whatever his name is, will be getting a visit tonight from me just because I wasn't around to properly introduce myself back when he was being a nuisance.

JonInMiddleGA · 08-26-2009, 06:34 PM

Just dropped a post horn into the fort stocks after finally getting one from some pony-express jobbing.

CU Tiger · 08-26-2009, 11:32 PM

24 hours of pony expressing and still no horns...sigh

Grammaticus · 08-29-2009, 01:03 AM

Who do I send a message too in order to get a shopping invite to "La Vie Anarchiste"?

hoopsguy · 08-30-2009, 03:11 AM

I think CherryPie is the head person in that town, if I'm remembering my La Vie history correctly.

Question for the guys who are getting into a good number of gunfights - do the knockouts seem to increase at higher levels? I'm finding a fair number of people that I would like to target that are "unavailable for 48 hours", which makes me think that the higher level duelers basically devour each other at a certain point.

I'm hoping to crack the Top 500 duelers before heading off for a Labor Day break next Friday. 91 spots to go ...

Danny · 08-30-2009, 04:02 AM

Depends, I am tough to knock out because I have over 1500hp. A dueler, non strength soldier, and adventurer can be all one shotted for a knockout. And easily out with two duels.

Grammaticus · 08-30-2009, 08:52 AM

I think that is one of the reasons you see more mele duelers. Their normal build progression lends to more HP. I only have 620, so I can get knocked out in my typical range of opponents if I get beat pretty badly. I'll have to start investing some points in toughness or whatever attribute it is that drives HP.

Grammaticus · 08-30-2009, 02:07 PM

When you do a shopping trip, do you have to leave your current town before you accept the invite or will it automatically move you to the new town?

CU Tiger · 08-30-2009, 06:15 PM

you have to leave and be w/o a town for a period of time (it increases each time you leave a town) I think it starts around 6 hours...mine is over a day now

Grammaticus · 08-30-2009, 08:32 PM

Okay, I'm going to drop from El Dolado while I wait for an invite from La Vie A.

I. J. Reilly · 08-30-2009, 08:57 PM

Okay, what the hell am I doing wrong here?

I just beat Jacob in the Black Mountains quest, and then accepted the quest to duel Mugridge. Supposedly he's in the South East, but I can't find shit down there. Anyone run into this?

Grammaticus · 08-30-2009, 11:27 PM

Can I "Milkman Gramm" get an invite back to El Dolado? I just finished a shopping trip the La Vie A.

I.J. Reilly, I have not completed that quest yet, but I think it will be a white dot on your map. Make sure you refresh your browser for it to appear.

JonInMiddleGA · 08-30-2009, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

Can I "Milkman Gramm" get an invite back to El Dolado? I just finished a shopping trip the La Vie A.

Sent

Grammaticus · 08-31-2009, 06:37 AM

Got it, thanks

I. J. Reilly · 08-31-2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

I.J. Reilly, I have not completed that quest yet, but I think it will be a white dot on your map. Make sure you refresh your browser for it to appear.

There he is, the little bastard.

He’s in the very bottom of the southeast quadrant, the white circle blends in with the map border.

BrianD · 08-31-2009, 09:57 AM

Can I get a Dolado invite too please? I'm finally just about done with getting all of the set items that Troutville has to offer.

Danny · 08-31-2009, 10:01 AM

Whats your name in game again?

hoopsguy · 08-31-2009, 10:39 AM

BrianD, any chance we can get you to put the finishing touches on the Gunshop update on El Dolado? I'm hoping to see some kind of firearm that I would use between now and Level 50 come out of that work.

hoopsguy · 08-31-2009, 05:10 PM

So last month I completed the Farmer's Set and it was really useful for me when I was Level 20-30 or so. The cumulative bonuses, along with the boosts for work tasks, was pretty neat compared to what I could afford at that time.

But as I'm moving into my mid-30's the Farmer's Set is not quite as useful as it once was. I've sunk my cash into better dueling gear and think that I'm in a pretty good spot with that for the time being. We don't need money to help build El Dolado (right???) so I'm starting to wonder what I should do with my money in terms of purchases.

I've got three different directions I can go right now:
1.) New item set - start collecting now even if I'm not necessarily level eligible for all components.
2.) Best available dueler gear - continue investing thousands for better items providing marginal differences relative to what I have equipped right now.
3.) Gear to help boost non-build stats - stuff like Construction, Stamina, Vigor are often limiting my ability to do work that would be profitable.

Does anyone have particular strong feelings - either way - with an item set that they purchased? If so I would love to hear it because right now I'm probably leaning towards #3 unless I hear someone who loves their item set and thinks I (as a dueler) would also benefit greatly from it.

JonInMiddleGA · 08-31-2009, 05:24 PM

Have you played around with the what-if features on the job calculator?
I pretty much use it before every purchase & with every level up to see how I can get the most mileage from any upgrade.

It'll compute the set bonuses if you hypothetically add multiple items (or if you add another to an already working set) and seems to be accurate as far as I've ever been able to tell.

Grammaticus · 08-31-2009, 06:19 PM

I went with best dueling gear first, then stuff to help with my off stats on jobs. I didn't bother with the sets as they don't seem to be that great at levels past 30.

DeToxRox · 08-31-2009, 06:49 PM

I prefer the Charlatan set myself.

I. J. Reilly · 08-31-2009, 07:53 PM

Can John Grady get an invite back to Troutville? I completed the Black Mountain quest and didn't want to ride across half the map with $10K in my pocket.

Thanks

hoopsguy · 08-31-2009, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Have you played around with the what-if features on the job calculator?
I pretty much use it before every purchase & with every level up to see how I can get the most mileage from any upgrade.

It'll compute the set bonuses if you hypothetically add multiple items (or if you add another to an already working set) and seems to be accurate as far as I've ever been able to tell.

Does it do a good job with set bonuses for partial sets? I have used that calculator in the past when looking for a given item, but not for pairing things like partial item sets.

JonInMiddleGA · 08-31-2009, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Does it do a good job with set bonuses for partial sets? I have used that calculator in the past when looking for a given item, but not for pairing things like partial item sets.

Yeah it works fine for that far as I can tell.

I don't have a complete set of anything on my character in either world (but have partials of 2-3 different sets for both) but any time I've wondered whether it was figuring something wrong I've found that it was actually right & it was me doing the math wrong.

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yeah it works fine for that far as I can tell.

I don't have a complete set of anything on my character in either world (but have partials of 2-3 different sets for both) but any time I've wondered whether it was figuring something wrong I've found that it was actually right & it was me doing the math wrong.

OK, I had been using the weststats.com one before but after looking at the one-click job calculator that you mentioned here I've decided I like it a ton better. Easier to use, doesn't require IE8 for the damn script to run, and hopefully not as temperamental about the import process.

Out of the items that are currently in my price range, it highly recommends the "Fancy Bow Tie" which is part of the Charlatan set that DeTox mentioned earlier. It also addresses Construction, which is one of the skills that I would have targeted if looking for items. Finally, we have it in stock at El Dolado, which is nice.

Thanks to both of you guys for the feedback. Looks like I'll start putting some effort into the Charlatan set and hopefully be working on 3-4 new jobs while clearing out some old quests when I'm not shooting people.

Grammaticus · 09-01-2009, 06:23 AM

Yes, the bow tie helped me hit a lot of the construction requirement jobs.

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 07:21 AM

So I had my first town seeking vengeance for me taking liberties against them. And it is kind of an interesting/funny story.

I went out to the quadrant west of us, in the far NE corner to attack the fine citizens of The Loco City. There were fourteen people there that I could potentially duel, and I picked four: two Adventurers (53 and 48) and two Soliders (52 and 48). I won all three duels and headed home. There were two guys that were levels out of my league - a L65 Worker (Level 54, so he seems to duel quite a bit) and a L63 soldier.

So guess who they sent after me, looking for blood for attacking their Adventurers? Yep, the worker. Now this town is a 3 hour ride for me on a Mustang and the Worker (sl113) only has a pony. So I'm guessing he is taking an 8 hour round-trip ride to get maybe 35 xp and minimal gold just to prove a point that I should not attack his Adventurers or his town - whichever one it is, I'm not really sure. He arrives to find me sleeping.

I sent him a PM telling him that he had come a long way to come up empty and asking him why he was wasting his time with a lower level guy like me when he could be getting 10x the experience/gold with his time. He did not respond to the telegraph but he did attack me. When I had less than my optimal dueling gear (trying out the new bow tie) and I sent him packing with his tail between his legs.

Thanks for coming out all this way to give me another 190 experience points, champ. Next time you should just send the soldier.

So, initially I had decided that it was a pretty long trek to get out there and I wasn't sure if I was going to do it again. But now I want to make repeated runs against that town and hit the damn builder every time. I feel like he has lost any right to complain about being attacked by duelers when he came looking for me. And I hold that attitude towards him going forward as well - that he is fair game for me from now until I'm tired of hitting him.

Anyone think that I'm out of line with that approach? I'm especially interested in the thoughts of workers and adventurers on this point.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-01-2009, 07:33 AM

As an adventurer I take pretty much all attacks very personally, to the point of them coming close to causing me to quit the game entirely on several occasions. Up to level 30-35, adventurers are treated as little more than walking targets & that seems to be the overwhelming cultural attitude toward them in the game (as opposed to the protected class status of workers), only once you stop focusing on financing town building & start adding items to improve your combat load does that improve to anything tolerable. Having PvP combat eliminated from the game entirely would do nothing but enhance my enjoyment & desire to play. Obviously mileage will vary greatly but you asked for takes & that's mine.

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 09:31 AM

OK, so let's talk about this a little bit. The dueler, and to a lesser extent the soldier biuld, have one primary way to optimize their experience points and that is through dueling. Now obviously the dueler can forego putting points into skills like Dodge, Aim, Shooting, and the like but what is the point of being a dueler if you are going to play him like another class?

These skills do not translate into jobs, which does not make all that much of a difference in early levels when it doesn't take a great deal to advance between levels but the pinch starts to be felt in the 20's and 30's (for me, anyway. I assume it continues beyond this point). I had to purchase an item last night to do Telegraph Poles, which is something that I'm guessing a worker would be able to do around Level 10-15, just to give one example.

So the dueler advances by finding opponents who offer a high level of experience in duels. Getting cash is nice as well, but certainly cannot be counted on with any level of consistency. You get the experience by taking on higher (dueling) level opponents.

But 25% of the classes are already widely considered off limits in World 8, since the worker enjoys a protected state. If the goal of the game is solely to increase experience, then the most logical short-term play would be to shoot up as many adventurers as possible to accumulate experience.

There are a couple of problems with that approach. The first is that the adventurers do not have as wide a disparity between actual level and dueling level. So if I'm at 35/53 (I'm something like that) and I'm taking on a 50/53 Adventurer then he has access to items that I would not as well as 15 levels where he can distribute points in a manner that may be hazardous to my health. For example, the worker who came after me this morning had a pretty serious blade and headgear that I'm not eligible to use. Both were substantially better dueling gear than I presently own.

The second issue is that there is a goal of learning from the duels, which means putting yourself at great risk at least part of the time so you can see areas where you are weak and need to address. This obviously suggests taking on the biggest/baddest kids on the block - guys who have a real chance of knocking you out and putting you out of dueling commission for 48 hours.

As players advance in levels, there are correspondingly fewer targets who actually offer a reasonable amount of experience in the duel. Duelers have to travel further and further to find targets that are worth the ride out there.

With that in mind, I find it tough to forego 50% of the eligible player pool in the game. The sacrifice of 25% already feels like a meaningful sacrifice in the interest of goodwill with other towns and in protecting the safety of my own town members.

I'm certainly up for hearing the counter-points on this and if I'm convinced I'll modify my own conduct.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-01-2009, 10:31 AM

I might address some of the other points later when I've got a little more time but one thing jumped out at me immediately.

Quote:

But 25% of the classes are already widely considered off limits in World 8, since the worker enjoys a protected state.

That's 25% of the classes but seemingly quite a bit from 25% of the players.

Look at our own ranks, just 7/50 players who declared a class have been workers and that seems in line with a lot of other towns I've looked at. So the impact on available targets is only roughly half of what the class numbers would predict at first blush. Without the workers being freely targeted, there's still over 80% of the game that's open season.

It really eventually comes down to what aspect(s) of the game you enjoy playing, and that's something where adventurers & duelers/soldiers seem to have considerable difference about, hard for them to find a lot of common ground when one is the victim of the other (check the forum threads, it's a pretty major rift best I can tell).

ozias · 09-01-2009, 04:10 PM

OK, I finished the Black Mountain quest as well.

Glad I left town as while I was gone someone tried to attack me, but since I don't belong to a town, they didn't get a duel.

I'm working my way back to El Dolado, so I'll need an invite when ever you get around to it.

Not sure what to do with all my money now, except buy a much better gun for dueling, and respec my character some.

I'm Crazy Boy Joe, just in case you forgot.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-01-2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozias

I'm working my way back to El Dolado, so I'll need an invite when ever you get around to it ... I'm Crazy Boy Joe, just in case you forgot.

Invite sent ... and actually you're Crazyboy Joe (no space between crazy & boy)

ozias · 09-01-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Invite sent ... and actually you're Crazyboy Joe (no space between crazy & boy)

I'm Crazy someone.

Extremely glad I left town before completing this quest as well, since I was gone all of Monday, and most of today. Who knows how much would of been taken from me if I hadn't left. I bet I would of been attacked by more than 1 person.

They seem to watch that corner, and pounce when they see new people over there.

Grammaticus · 09-01-2009, 09:05 PM

hoops,

Worker (sl113) from Loco City hit me yesterday evening. I wondered why he was way out here and attacking me, a dueller. The down side is that I was coming back from two tough duels from up north and low on health points. I was on my way to kicking his ass, when I ran out of health points and passed out.

Basically I don't go after workers, but I will go after Adventurers that have a wide range in level and dueling level. I read where the Adventurer class can be a very good build to duel with. If they have a wide level disparity, they are dueling and fair game in my eyes.

I now have a revenge gambit to play out against the worker in Loco City. I will be happy to hit him and others in his town. I have a quarter horse, it is a 2 hour trip for me. I am willing to take that trip, no problem.

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 09:17 PM

Gramm, I'm sorry to hear that he attacked others in the city and even more so to hear that he dropped a KO on someone. You'll find that there are quite a few targets in Loco City around your level so you should be able to get some volume out of the trip as well as fulfilling the vendetta.

I guess I'm glad to hear that he didn't go after our workers, if he was going to pick on people besides me.

Grammaticus · 09-01-2009, 09:21 PM

No problems, I'll roll out that way when my 48 hours are up. Looks like I will pick up a level in that time and have a few more points to spread. Ah, finally something interesting to do

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 10:28 PM

That dueler is a tough mo-fo. Peter Goesintight just gave me my first knockout. Game is on with that town now.

Dola - Level 37/62. And that tells me that I need to upgrade my weapon.
Attack pattern (facing me) - Left Hand, Left Shoulder, Left Hand, ??? (miss)

JonInMiddleGA · 09-01-2009, 10:52 PM

And a 671-23 loss to Peter Goesintight for me. Round 8 was a right shoulder hit btw, the rest of the targets were the same as what hoopsguy was hit with.

I scored in R2 on his left hand/arm (aka his non-gun hand)

hoopsguy · 09-01-2009, 10:59 PM

Just to avoid any confusion, Peter is not from the same town as sl113. I realized that it probably read like that after I posted. Peter is out of Hicktown, not The Loco City.

Ajaxab · 09-02-2009, 03:12 PM

Can I get Doc Pepper an invite to Troutville? Thanks in advance.

DeToxRox · 09-02-2009, 03:45 PM

Goesintight got me once when I wasn't ready to deal. Then I went after him but forgot to change my duel tactics and got me easily. He came back for round three and beat me by 9 points.

I am about to sleep in the hotel and come out both guns blazing.

Ajaxab · 09-03-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

Can I get Doc Pepper an invite to Troutville? Thanks in advance.

Just bumping this if anyone happens to be around.

I. J. Reilly · 09-03-2009, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

Just bumping this if anyone happens to be around.

I don't think the Troutville powers that be check this thread to often. I had to send them a telegram in game and got an invite quickly.

hoopsguy · 09-03-2009, 11:06 PM

Can I get an invite for both of our towns? I'm considering dropping my town membership while away over Labor Day weekend just to eliminate any risk of being knocked out when I get back. Losing two days of dueling has been very dull ... stupid Peter Goesintight.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-03-2009, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Can I get an invite for both of our towns?

El Dolado invite sent

hoopsguy · 09-04-2009, 12:41 AM

Only three guys that I can legitimately go after in Hicktown right now without battling workers. I can't beat damn Peter until upgrading my gun and he is not standing still (up two dueling levels since getting me on Tuesday night). But I shot up one of the others tonight and I'll be looking at the other three as regulars in my shooting rotation starting next week.

BrianD · 09-04-2009, 09:54 PM

El Dolado is complete.

08-26-2009, 06:34 PM	#3904
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Just dropped a post horn into the fort stocks after finally getting one from some pony-express jobbing. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

08-31-2009, 05:24 PM	#3922
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Have you played around with the what-if features on the job calculator? I pretty much use it before every purchase & with every level up to see how I can get the most mileage from any upgrade. It'll compute the set bonuses if you hypothetically add multiple items (or if you add another to an already working set) and seems to be accurate as far as I've ever been able to tell. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-01-2009, 07:33 AM	#3931
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	As an adventurer I take pretty much all attacks very personally, to the point of them coming close to causing me to quit the game entirely on several occasions. Up to level 30-35, adventurers are treated as little more than walking targets & that seems to be the overwhelming cultural attitude toward them in the game (as opposed to the protected class status of workers), only once you stop focusing on financing town building & start adding items to improve your combat load does that improve to anything tolerable. Having PvP combat eliminated from the game entirely would do nothing but enhance my enjoyment & desire to play. Obviously mileage will vary greatly but you asked for takes & that's mine. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-01-2009, 09:05 PM	#3937
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	hoops, Worker (sl113) from Loco City hit me yesterday evening. I wondered why he was way out here and attacking me, a dueller. The down side is that I was coming back from two tough duels from up north and low on health points. I was on my way to kicking his ass, when I ran out of health points and passed out. Basically I don't go after workers, but I will go after Adventurers that have a wide range in level and dueling level. I read where the Adventurer class can be a very good build to duel with. If they have a wide level disparity, they are dueling and fair game in my eyes. I now have a revenge gambit to play out against the worker in Loco City. I will be happy to hit him and others in his town. I have a quarter horse, it is a 2 hour trip for me. I am willing to take that trip, no problem. Last edited by Grammaticus : 09-01-2009 at 09:05 PM.

09-01-2009, 09:21 PM	#3939
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	No problems, I'll roll out that way when my 48 hours are up. Looks like I will pick up a level in that time and have a few more points to spread. Ah, finally something interesting to do Last edited by Grammaticus : 09-01-2009 at 09:22 PM.

08-26-2009, 11:48 AM	#3901
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	Where in the heck is Ganjatown?

08-26-2009, 11:49 AM	#3902
Danny Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Two quadrants to the left of us

08-26-2009, 11:52 AM	#3903
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	Well, I would expect that he won't bother us nearly as often then - that looks like a haul to come knocking on our door. I'm still planning on hitting him at least once when I get to a high enough level. Kansasholic, or whatever his name is, will be getting a visit tonight from me just because I wasn't around to properly introduce myself back when he was being a nuisance.

08-26-2009, 11:32 PM	#3905
CU Tiger Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Backwoods, SC	24 hours of pony expressing and still no horns...sigh

08-29-2009, 01:03 AM	#3906
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	Who do I send a message too in order to get a shopping invite to "La Vie Anarchiste"?

08-30-2009, 03:11 AM	#3907
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	I think CherryPie is the head person in that town, if I'm remembering my La Vie history correctly. Question for the guys who are getting into a good number of gunfights - do the knockouts seem to increase at higher levels? I'm finding a fair number of people that I would like to target that are "unavailable for 48 hours", which makes me think that the higher level duelers basically devour each other at a certain point. I'm hoping to crack the Top 500 duelers before heading off for a Labor Day break next Friday. 91 spots to go ...

08-30-2009, 04:02 AM	#3908
Danny Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Depends, I am tough to knock out because I have over 1500hp. A dueler, non strength soldier, and adventurer can be all one shotted for a knockout. And easily out with two duels.

08-30-2009, 08:52 AM	#3909
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	I think that is one of the reasons you see more mele duelers. Their normal build progression lends to more HP. I only have 620, so I can get knocked out in my typical range of opponents if I get beat pretty badly. I'll have to start investing some points in toughness or whatever attribute it is that drives HP.

08-30-2009, 02:07 PM	#3910
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	When you do a shopping trip, do you have to leave your current town before you accept the invite or will it automatically move you to the new town?

08-30-2009, 06:15 PM	#3911
CU Tiger Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Backwoods, SC	you have to leave and be w/o a town for a period of time (it increases each time you leave a town) I think it starts around 6 hours...mine is over a day now

08-30-2009, 08:32 PM	#3912
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	Okay, I'm going to drop from El Dolado while I wait for an invite from La Vie A.

08-30-2009, 08:57 PM	#3913
I. J. Reilly College Prospect Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: An Oregonian deep in the heart of Texas.	Okay, what the hell am I doing wrong here? I just beat Jacob in the Black Mountains quest, and then accepted the quest to duel Mugridge. Supposedly he's in the South East, but I can't find shit down there. Anyone run into this?

08-30-2009, 11:27 PM	#3914
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	Can I "Milkman Gramm" get an invite back to El Dolado? I just finished a shopping trip the La Vie A. I.J. Reilly, I have not completed that quest yet, but I think it will be a white dot on your map. Make sure you refresh your browser for it to appear.

08-31-2009, 06:37 AM	#3916
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	Got it, thanks

08-31-2009, 09:57 AM	#3918
BrianD Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Appleton, WI	Can I get a Dolado invite too please? I'm finally just about done with getting all of the set items that Troutville has to offer.

08-31-2009, 10:01 AM	#3919
Danny Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Whats your name in game again?

08-31-2009, 10:39 AM	#3920
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	BrianD, any chance we can get you to put the finishing touches on the Gunshop update on El Dolado? I'm hoping to see some kind of firearm that I would use between now and Level 50 come out of that work.

08-31-2009, 05:10 PM	#3921
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	So last month I completed the Farmer's Set and it was really useful for me when I was Level 20-30 or so. The cumulative bonuses, along with the boosts for work tasks, was pretty neat compared to what I could afford at that time. But as I'm moving into my mid-30's the Farmer's Set is not quite as useful as it once was. I've sunk my cash into better dueling gear and think that I'm in a pretty good spot with that for the time being. We don't need money to help build El Dolado (right???) so I'm starting to wonder what I should do with my money in terms of purchases. I've got three different directions I can go right now: 1.) New item set - start collecting now even if I'm not necessarily level eligible for all components. 2.) Best available dueler gear - continue investing thousands for better items providing marginal differences relative to what I have equipped right now. 3.) Gear to help boost non-build stats - stuff like Construction, Stamina, Vigor are often limiting my ability to do work that would be profitable. Does anyone have particular strong feelings - either way - with an item set that they purchased? If so I would love to hear it because right now I'm probably leaning towards #3 unless I hear someone who loves their item set and thinks I (as a dueler) would also benefit greatly from it.

08-31-2009, 06:19 PM	#3923
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	I went with best dueling gear first, then stuff to help with my off stats on jobs. I didn't bother with the sets as they don't seem to be that great at levels past 30.

08-31-2009, 06:49 PM	#3924
DeToxRox Head Coach Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Michigan	I prefer the Charlatan set myself.

08-31-2009, 07:53 PM	#3925
I. J. Reilly College Prospect Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: An Oregonian deep in the heart of Texas.	Can John Grady get an invite back to Troutville? I completed the Black Mountain quest and didn't want to ride across half the map with $10K in my pocket. Thanks

09-01-2009, 06:23 AM	#3929
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	Yes, the bow tie helped me hit a lot of the construction requirement jobs.

09-01-2009, 07:21 AM	#3930
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	So I had my first town seeking vengeance for me taking liberties against them. And it is kind of an interesting/funny story. I went out to the quadrant west of us, in the far NE corner to attack the fine citizens of The Loco City. There were fourteen people there that I could potentially duel, and I picked four: two Adventurers (53 and 48) and two Soliders (52 and 48). I won all three duels and headed home. There were two guys that were levels out of my league - a L65 Worker (Level 54, so he seems to duel quite a bit) and a L63 soldier. So guess who they sent after me, looking for blood for attacking their Adventurers? Yep, the worker. Now this town is a 3 hour ride for me on a Mustang and the Worker (sl113) only has a pony. So I'm guessing he is taking an 8 hour round-trip ride to get maybe 35 xp and minimal gold just to prove a point that I should not attack his Adventurers or his town - whichever one it is, I'm not really sure. He arrives to find me sleeping. I sent him a PM telling him that he had come a long way to come up empty and asking him why he was wasting his time with a lower level guy like me when he could be getting 10x the experience/gold with his time. He did not respond to the telegraph but he did attack me. When I had less than my optimal dueling gear (trying out the new bow tie) and I sent him packing with his tail between his legs. Thanks for coming out all this way to give me another 190 experience points, champ. Next time you should just send the soldier. So, initially I had decided that it was a pretty long trek to get out there and I wasn't sure if I was going to do it again. But now I want to make repeated runs against that town and hit the damn builder every time. I feel like he has lost any right to complain about being attacked by duelers when he came looking for me. And I hold that attitude towards him going forward as well - that he is fair game for me from now until I'm tired of hitting him. Anyone think that I'm out of line with that approach? I'm especially interested in the thoughts of workers and adventurers on this point.

09-01-2009, 09:31 AM	#3932
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	OK, so let's talk about this a little bit. The dueler, and to a lesser extent the soldier biuld, have one primary way to optimize their experience points and that is through dueling. Now obviously the dueler can forego putting points into skills like Dodge, Aim, Shooting, and the like but what is the point of being a dueler if you are going to play him like another class? These skills do not translate into jobs, which does not make all that much of a difference in early levels when it doesn't take a great deal to advance between levels but the pinch starts to be felt in the 20's and 30's (for me, anyway. I assume it continues beyond this point). I had to purchase an item last night to do Telegraph Poles, which is something that I'm guessing a worker would be able to do around Level 10-15, just to give one example. So the dueler advances by finding opponents who offer a high level of experience in duels. Getting cash is nice as well, but certainly cannot be counted on with any level of consistency. You get the experience by taking on higher (dueling) level opponents. But 25% of the classes are already widely considered off limits in World 8, since the worker enjoys a protected state. If the goal of the game is solely to increase experience, then the most logical short-term play would be to shoot up as many adventurers as possible to accumulate experience. There are a couple of problems with that approach. The first is that the adventurers do not have as wide a disparity between actual level and dueling level. So if I'm at 35/53 (I'm something like that) and I'm taking on a 50/53 Adventurer then he has access to items that I would not as well as 15 levels where he can distribute points in a manner that may be hazardous to my health. For example, the worker who came after me this morning had a pretty serious blade and headgear that I'm not eligible to use. Both were substantially better dueling gear than I presently own. The second issue is that there is a goal of learning from the duels, which means putting yourself at great risk at least part of the time so you can see areas where you are weak and need to address. This obviously suggests taking on the biggest/baddest kids on the block - guys who have a real chance of knocking you out and putting you out of dueling commission for 48 hours. As players advance in levels, there are correspondingly fewer targets who actually offer a reasonable amount of experience in the duel. Duelers have to travel further and further to find targets that are worth the ride out there. With that in mind, I find it tough to forego 50% of the eligible player pool in the game. The sacrifice of 25% already feels like a meaningful sacrifice in the interest of goodwill with other towns and in protecting the safety of my own town members. I'm certainly up for hearing the counter-points on this and if I'm convinced I'll modify my own conduct.

09-01-2009, 04:10 PM	#3934
ozias High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maine	OK, I finished the Black Mountain quest as well. Glad I left town as while I was gone someone tried to attack me, but since I don't belong to a town, they didn't get a duel. I'm working my way back to El Dolado, so I'll need an invite when ever you get around to it. Not sure what to do with all my money now, except buy a much better gun for dueling, and respec my character some. I'm Crazy Boy Joe, just in case you forgot.

09-01-2009, 09:17 PM	#3938
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	Gramm, I'm sorry to hear that he attacked others in the city and even more so to hear that he dropped a KO on someone. You'll find that there are quite a few targets in Loco City around your level so you should be able to get some volume out of the trip as well as fulfilling the vendetta. I guess I'm glad to hear that he didn't go after our workers, if he was going to pick on people besides me.

09-01-2009, 10:28 PM	#3940
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	That dueler is a tough mo-fo. Peter Goesintight just gave me my first knockout. Game is on with that town now. Dola - Level 37/62. And that tells me that I need to upgrade my weapon. Attack pattern (facing me) - Left Hand, Left Shoulder, Left Hand, ??? (miss) Last edited by hoopsguy : 09-01-2009 at 10:56 PM.

09-01-2009, 10:52 PM	#3941
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	And a 671-23 loss to Peter Goesintight for me. Round 8 was a right shoulder hit btw, the rest of the targets were the same as what hoopsguy was hit with. I scored in R2 on his left hand/arm (aka his non-gun hand) __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-01-2009, 10:59 PM	#3942
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	Just to avoid any confusion, Peter is not from the same town as sl113. I realized that it probably read like that after I posted. Peter is out of Hicktown, not The Loco City.

09-02-2009, 03:12 PM	#3943
Ajaxab College Benchwarmer Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Far from home	Can I get Doc Pepper an invite to Troutville? Thanks in advance.