Syrnia (game)

[JAG]

hxxp://www.syrnia.com

Just thought I would clue people in on a game I've been enjoying for a couple of months.

It's a mostly text-based MMORPG that is more about character planning (and team planning) than furiously clicking all over the screen. It's primarily a combat-based game, but there are a number of skills available to work on that aren't directly related to combat as health and strength are.

The best part of the game for me is it doesn't have to be overly time intensive. For just about all skill-building activities, you can let the game autoperform the task for you and just fill in a bot check of 4 random numbers every 10-20 minutes. However, there are some areas where you will benefit from paying closer attention should you so desire (for example, combat training).

The creator and developer is frequently active in chat and updates the game fairly regularly.

If you're interested in playing and want some help or starting materials, you can post here, message me ingame (JAG), or find me at irc.barafranca.com 6667 in #fofc.

[daedalus]

Hey, Ardent . . .

Got your message in Syrnia. Tried to answer. Game's private message system did not like me. Meh. Don't know if it's because it doesn't like Opera or what. Double-meh.

[Peregrine]

You lost me at the game autoperforming tasks for you.

[Ramzavail]

ill give it a try. my name is Ramzavail.

[Poli]

Originally Posted by JAG

hxxp://www.syrnia.com

Just thought I would clue people in on a game I've been enjoying for a couple of months.

It's a mostly text-based MMORPG that is more about character planning (and team planning) than furiously clicking all over the screen. It's primarily a combat-based game, but there are a number of skills available to work on that aren't directly related to combat as health and strength are.

The best part of the game for me is it doesn't have to be overly time intensive. For just about all skill-building activities, you can let the game autoperform the task for you and just fill in a bot check of 4 random numbers every 10-20 minutes. However, there are some areas where you will benefit from paying closer attention should you so desire (for example, combat training).

The creator and developer is frequently active in chat and updates the game fairly regularly.

If you're interested in playing and want some help or starting materials, you can post here, message me ingame (JAG), or find me at irc.barafranca.com 6667, either in #fofc (password dola) or #syrnia.

You're giving out our password?

[JHandley]

Ardent

We gotta set up our own clan. We're getting screwed by JAG constantly. I gave him 6 jewels, and 3500 units of iron ore and the cheap bastard gave me 5 pickaxes. That's right 1..2..3..4..5 pickaxes and I already had one, so I can't even use them.

We need to unionize, and stick it to the man. Have you ever been to the #syrnia channel? Have you ever been Op'd there? Me neither!!


Seriously tho, this game is a pretty fun little time waster that doesn't require much time commitment and helping out JAG is always a worthwhile exersize.

[JAG]

daedalus & Ramzavail: welcome. Like I said, if there's anything you need I can help out with, message me ingame. Depending on what you want to do, there are some things you don't start with that I can help provide to you.

Peregrine: It's hard to explain with words, but if you give it 5-10 mins, you'll see what I mean.

AE: shhhhhh

JHandley: Unionize? After I provide you with quality pickaxes, this is the thanks I get?

[Ramzavail]

game seems kinda... poorly done.

misspellings all over the place...I don't understand why so many people play this game?

[daedalus]

I don't think the original game-maker is a native English speaker. Given that assumption, I was willing to overlook spelling problems and grammatical errors.

I eventually found a place to buy the rod for fishing. I was looking for that for awhile. I am working on gathering enough wood to construct a house so I have a place to leave stuff and eventually farm. I am also working on getting my smithing skill high enough to eventually make myself some armours. If you have any advice or recommendations, I would appreciate it.

Are there anything I, as a puny newbie, can do for you JAG?

[Peregrine]

Well I signed up, and I admit I have no clue what's going on. My name in-game is of course Peregrine.

[JAG]

Ram: What daedalus said. That and he's doing almost all of the coding, so he's been focusing more on game balance and bug fixing than ensuring all of the language is 100% accurate.

daedalus: Wish I had known you were looking for a fishing rod. I have a few extras I don't need that I could've given you. Sometimes they break, so let me know if yours does and I can replace it for you. Building a house is a good first project to work on. So you know, you'll need a little gold (70gp or so) to get to lvl 5 construction so you can build it, and I recommend Eully as a house location. I'd also recommend against working on smithing early on, as it's a difficult skill to raise, especially if you're doing all the mining for yourself. Three good choices of skills to focus on initially (and forever if you want) are mining, woodcutting, and fishing. If you choose mining, let me know as I'm in need of tons of iron ore (as you may have gathered from some of the above comments). Last bit of advice: be sure to switch to an iron pickaxe / hatchet when you reach lvl 10 mining / woodcutting as they will help gather materials faster than bronze ones (you should be able to find them in any number of player shops, or I could give you a few). If you need anything else, let me know.

Peregrine: Glad you joined up. Hope our exchange of messages in game helped.

[daedalus]

I'm 11 in Woodcutting and 10 in Mining right now. Also working on 8 in fishing. Like you said, it's been tough going raising smithing up as I am, indeed, gathering my own ores so I'm only up to 6 there.

I'm probably going to be working on getting myself an iron pickaxe and hatchet combination soon. Thank you for the offer of fishing rod. I'm sure I'll be hitting you up for one sooner or later. Yeah, I did notice about needing to save up gold for the schooling for construction. I figure whatever wares I make from smithing will go toward that.

I had somebody else mailed me about wanting to buy iron ores as well. What do you guys need them for?

[JAG]

The reason iron ore is in such demand is because they are the best ore for smiths who are above lvl 10 and below lvl 25 (steel smithing), and even from lvl 25-40, iron ore is one of the components needed to smelt steel bars along with coal. Considering there is only one smith above lvl 40 (and even he's looking for iron), basically all smiths in the game need it.

I'd really recommend you buy an iron pickaxe / hatchet now. They're basically dirt-cheap (5-10gp each) for the benefit you get using them over a bronze pick / hatchet.

[Poli]

Bump. Just wondering if you need a deposit. Now is as good a time as any for me. Danielle is knocked up on percocet or something.

[daedalus]

Some questions . . .

What would be good to plant/farm? What would be the benefit of doing so? What is the point of the quartz/crystal you sometimes get when mining? Are burnt fish/shrimp
worth anything? Or is it just throwaway stuff?

[JHandley]

Having never farmed, I can't help you with what is good to plant or farm. However, I believe your level determines what you are able to farm.

The benefit to farming is to make food that can be used to replenish HP's during combat. The Quartz or jewels you find during mining can be used to train magic. Burnt fish and shrimp are useless.

[daedalus]

Ahhhh. I haven't tried the quest to do magic yet. That'd be why I'm ignorant on that front. Danke.

So, having those plants and cooking them is no different than cooking up the fish. Just another source of HP heals. Spiffy!

Cool deal. I shall rid m'self of them burnt thingies, then.

[daedalus]

As an aside, is there anything you want, JHandley? I'm usually mining ores, fishing and cutting wood for the heck of it when I'm browsing or mudding so I can try to fetch those for you higher-level guys.

[JHandley]

Yeah, the burnt stuff just toss

Thanks for the offer, but Jag is the one actively playing. I'm one of his legion of Ore Whores. He's got me, Capologist and AE out there mining for him and screwing us constantly on trades

You're right tho, it is a cool little game to play while you're doing something else. I do while ranking in Omerta. I'm thinking when I get tired of that I might give Syrnia a go full time.

[JAG]

Hey daedalus,

For farming, you just need the seeds that you get from woodcutting and they produce food that heals hp like cooked fish. For the first type of seed (radish), it takes about 18-24 real hrs for them to grow once planted. Also, crops sell well at Eully market if you want to exchange them for gold instead of using them to heal hps.

Also, if you have gems you want to sell, there are certain ones I'm looking for that I can give you a good price on (many of them are worth around 1k gold or so). You can message me ingame with what you have if you want.

And JHandley (boy that's odd to say) is correct...burnt fish are worthless.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So like if somebody was gonna start a character but wasn't planning to make a lifetime work of the game, basically you just start mining ASAP & sell the ore to JAG? Does he pay in real stuff or in some kind of odd company scrip or something? I don't want to end up owing my soul to the company store or anything.

Also, re: autoplay, bot check, etc. -- best I understand this, you can basically play as much or as little as you want in a day, set your little guy to a task & then respond to bot checks periodically to keep him working steadily? Or is there only X amount of activity you can do in a 24 hours period (ala Urbandead, which I'm kinda enjoying as a low demand game).

[JHandley]

I can't speak for what kind of deals Jag usually does because I'm just plain giving it away ore to him. My plan right now is to just mine like mad right now. I'm the 6th highest miner and I'm closing in on number 5 pretty quickly. I'm giving it to Jag for free with the idea that if I ever want to play the game and make an actual character there, he'll be in a great position to help me out with anything I need.

As far as gameplay goes how it works for mining, for example, is you click on a link that says Mine Iron at that point it will mine for about 20 minutes all on it's own. Every minute or so, the timer goes down as you rank higher, it mines one ore. However, at the 20 minute mark, it will ask you to input in a 4 digit code to verify that you aren't a bot. So, it doesn't take a lot of time commitment, you can set it on mining and then go do something else for a while. It's just that every 20 minutes, you have to confirm you're still there.

Edit - You weren't close on the gameplay, you were spot on.

[Poli]

It sure ain't Omerta.

[JHandley]

I've found it to be a nice diversion from the stress of Omerta.

It should be noted that if you ever want to train combat you should A) make sure you've given all your ore to someone and B) stay away from the bats. If you have any questions about the bats, go ahead and send an ingame to Tooleman (AKA Capologist). He can give you some good pointers.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So like if somebody was gonna start a character but wasn't planning to make a lifetime work of the game, basically you just start mining ASAP & sell the ore to JAG? Does he pay in real stuff or in some kind of odd company scrip or something? I don't want to end up owing my soul to the company store or anything.

Also, re: autoplay, bot check, etc. -- best I understand this, you can basically play as much or as little as you want in a day, set your little guy to a task & then respond to bot checks periodically to keep him working steadily? Or is there only X amount of activity you can do in a 24 hours period (ala Urbandead, which I'm kinda enjoying as a low demand game).

You pretty much nailed it with the second paragraph. For the first, I asked if some of the former Omerta crew would help me with my smithing endeavor since it takes a lot of ore to gain levels in smithing. HC basically explained everything well. Alternatively, I just pay a fair rate for ore in gold or smithed goods (that's what I'm doing with daedalus currently). Basically if they decide they want to start doing other skills such as combat, thanks to what they've given me, I can give them the resources they need to succeed in that (armor, weapons, cooked fish to replenish lost hps).

It's very non-time intensive if you want it to be, which is great for me currently. I'm often doing chores or busy at work and can't really interact with the game, but it's easy enough to type in a few numbers every 20 mins.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Well, I've registered but so far haven't received my activation email.
Probably show up later this evening, sometimes things are slooooow to appear in the email account I used. If & when I get it, I'll be "DiamondCutter".

[TazFTW]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

(ala Urbandead, which I'm kinda enjoying as a low demand game).

Are you playing as a zombie or a human?

I have two characters; one is a level 1 medic, who has been holed up in a hospital but just used up 35 APs to run away from the horde (there are zombies everywhere ). My other character is a level 17 human. Well, human turned zombie who died several times, revived back to human but is now playing dead because there are currently 55 zombies on my block.

[JonInMiddleGA]

re: Urbandead -- a pair of humans, one L6 civilian who has basically turned into a Tech who likes extractors and syringes & a L10 military who just runs around shooting Zeds.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Well, I've registered but so far haven't received my activation email.
Probably show up later this evening, sometimes things are slooooow to appear in the email account I used. If & when I get it, I'll be "DiamondCutter".

FYI, Cap had the same problem the first time he tried to apply, but solved it by registering a second time. If you still haven't received it yet, you might try registering again.

EDIT: The name Diamondcutter appears in the high score list (not very high of couse ), so the registration may have worked after all.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hmm ... interesting about 'cutter appearing in the high score list since I never received anything to let me activate the name or play. Maybe that's why, there's already was one or something.

At any rate, "MiddleGA" is now slowly learning to navigate the game. Got that registration/activation in just a few seconds (at a different email) & since I never activated the first name (and can't play it) I don't believe I'll run into any problems about being a duplicate or anything. I've done a task or two for those odd brothers, cut some trees & now am slaving away in the tin mines to raise my ability enough to slave away for iron ore.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JHandley

B) stay away from the bats.

I knew to avoid bats in training ... I didn't know they'd jump my ass when I went into the woods on the 2nd island

Ah well, live & learn. (or, in this case, "die"/lose your stuff and learn).

[JAG]

That sucks Jon. Message me when you're online and I can set you up with some gold / items to get you back on your feet.

[daedalus]

I don't have the high level stuff JAG does but if you see me online, feel free to message me and I'll be glad to share whatever I have, Jon.

[bosshogg23]

Im in. So the pwning will begin soon!

BossHoggJR in game as always.

[daedalus]

Welcome, bosshogg.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks JAG & Daed, I'm just mucking along right now, figure I'm learning as I go.
A couple of questions though, kinda speed the learning curve along a bit:
1) For transferring, say, iron ore to JAG, what's a useful amount to get to you? 50 units? 250? 500? What I'm getting at here is that I don't know what size quantities are top flight smiths dealing in? I've smelted & worked enough material to get my skill up to a whopping level 3 but I don't have any real perspective about how much ore a serious smith is going through each day. (Or how much wood for a serious builder, etc).

2) Right now, I'm just having fun developing my self as an "all-rounder", chop a little wood, mine a little ore, travel for speed, fish a little, just knocking about, but I haven't touched any of the combat skills yet.

I gather that you should never engage in any sort of combat without being armored & armed but what's a reasonable amount of combat training activity for somebody who was, for example fully armored (bronze) & best armed (again bronze obviously)? Can you handle the Level 1 rats like that, for example? Or are even they a risky proposition? I'd like to train everything up to Level 2 at least, basically "just because", but not at the risk of getting myself killed again. Also, when in combat, is the Aim & Power rating of the weapon all that matters (higher = better) or is there some common sense adjustment, i.e. big ax against big ass monster but something more agile like a short sword against a rat, bat, etc. the way to go?

edit to add another question:
3) re:theiving -- how is this viewed overall in the game? I mean, is it a real serious no-no, like picking pockets in Omerta, or is it sort of accepted as something characters do at least occasionally just to bump up the skill?

[JAG]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thanks JAG & Daed, I'm just mucking along right now, figure I'm learning as I go.
A couple of questions though, kinda speed the learning curve along a bit:
1) For transferring, say, iron ore to JAG, what's a useful amount to get to you? 50 units? 250? 500?

Heya,

I usually get at least 500 from my usual group of suppliers unless smaller amounts are being thrown in as part of some other trade.

2) Right now, I'm just having fun developing my self as an "all-rounder", chop a little wood, mine a little ore, travel for speed, fish a little, just knocking about, but I haven't touched any of the combat skills yet.

I gather that you should never engage in any sort of combat without being armored & armed but what's a reasonable amount of combat training activity for somebody who was, for example fully armored (bronze) & best armed (again bronze obviously)? Can you handle the Level 1 rats like that, for example? Or are even they a risky proposition? I'd like to train everything up to Level 2 at least, basically "just because", but not at the risk of getting myself killed again. Also, when in combat, is the Aim & Power rating of the weapon all that matters (higher = better) or is there some common sense adjustment, i.e. big ax against big ass monster but something more agile like a short sword against a rat, bat, etc. the way to go?

For combat, the most important thing is not only to be fully armed / armored in whatever the best equipment you can get is, but also to have cooked fish so you can replenish hps lost. Until you get to a much higher combat lvl (say lvl 10 in all stats, or at least att/def), your best bet is to fight rats.

edit to add another question:
3) re:theiving -- how is this viewed overall in the game? I mean, is it a real serious no-no, like picking pockets in Omerta, or is it sort of accepted as something characters do at least occasionally just to bump up the skill?

It's nothing like how it's considered in Omerta. Most people just assume you're trying to raise your skill. Continued thieving of the same person is not looked at in a good light. Generally you'll probably have a few people try to steal from you now and then, but they will either be trying for a quick trip across the island (when you fail, you're sent to Sanfew) or are just not trying to raise their thieving very efficiently.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks for the answers JAG, I was mostly on track then.

That "quick trip to Sanfew" thing is the main reason I was wondering about thieving & I've tried to vary my targets each time. As for combat, I've just been picking up an armor piece here & there, usually as a reward for myself for some particular level-up (FINALLY got to 10 on woodcutting today), I'll eventually end up with a full set & give it a go on the training ground I guess.

[daedalus]

DEFINITELY try to have cooked shrimp or fish on hand when you do that, Jon. The one time I tried it, almost got my butt kicked a few times.

If you need some cooked shrimp or fish to go training with, let me know.

[Cap Ologist]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thanks for the answers JAG, I was mostly on track then.

That "quick trip to Sanfew" thing is the main reason I was wondering about thieving & I've tried to vary my targets each time. As for combat, I've just been picking up an armor piece here & there, usually as a reward for myself for some particular level-up (FINALLY got to 10 on woodcutting today), I'll eventually end up with a full set & give it a go on the training ground I guess.

Don't buy any more armor, I'm going to be on that island tomorrow most likely and can give you probably all the bronze armor you'll need. That goes for any other fofcer as well who is playing, I'm pretty sure I'll have enough to fully equip all of us.

And remember, the most important thing about playing Syrnia is never let the Bacon outrank you in anything.

[bosshogg23]

Originally Posted by Cap Ologist

And remember, the most important thing about playing Syrnia is never let the Bacon outrank you in anything.

Tooleman trading Level One(weak)

BossHoggJR Trading Level Four(weak but soooooo much better than Level One)

Cap fears my growing Syrnia strength!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Question about houses -- as I understand it, they basically exist as a place to store your stuff. If I have a house & have stuff stored there, do I lose it if I die, or is it there waiting for me when I respawn?

[JHandley]

It'll be there waiting for you. The only stuff you lose when you die is what you have on you.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks for clearing that up JH, motivated by my recent bad experience with bats on the 2nd island, I completed my first house & stashed some stuff this afternoon.

Meanwhile though ... is it just me, or is the site down for the past several hours?

[Poli]

Down.

[Poli]

Dola, I need a house.

[JHandley]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thanks for clearing that up JH, motivated by my recent bad experience with bats on the 2nd island, I completed my first house & stashed some stuff this afternoon.

Meanwhile though ... is it just me, or is the site down for the past several hours?

It's up now.

To really clear it up for you. Even the stuff you have on you will be there waiting for you if you can get back in time. When you die, your stuff doesn't vanish, it just gets dropped.

[JAG]

If you're in Valera (the first combat training place) and die, you can pretty much kiss your stuff goodbye, as someone will be there to pick it up. The other combat training places are a bit more sparse, so you have a little better chance of saving your dropped goods. Also, if you die, the best thing you can do is let us know immediately, because one of us could be in the area and get to your stuff before you are able.

The site was down for about 8 hrs late yesterday (2-10am server time), but it's up and running now.

[daedalus]

So, ummm, what is the harvesting time for plants that I grow at the house?

[JAG]

Originally Posted by daedalus

So, ummm, what is the harvesting time for plants that I grow at the house?

Depends on the type of plants. Radishes take 18-24 hrs from the time you plant them until they mature (and then you have about 24 hrs to harvest them before they go bad). The time needed goes up about 3-6 hrs more for each level seed higher (carrot - roughtly 24 hrs, cabbage usually closer to 30 hrs).