2008-03-27 - The way of the shortblade

This being a record of the adventures of myself, Chela Cee Bias, upon Calypso.

Firstly I should introduce myself, quite unashamedly I am just going to copy and paste that which I wrote in the welcome thread of this illustrious forum, slightly updated and edited to remove errors and the irrelevant. It will serve.

Begin Quote
"Greetings one and all.

First let me thank you for welcoming me into your community, that has not happened for a very long time :-).


A bit about me:-

I have been on Calypso since about June or July 2006, I have to admit my first days were full of confusion and bewilderment. Although I am still confused and bewildered I can at least now remember which keys to press.

Since arriving I have managed to get out of the orange, not by running around in my underpants and bare feet, explore pretty much all of Eudoria (bound to be a few places I have missed) and quite a bit of Amerethera (can almost never spell that).

I decided early that I would follow the short blade path to serendipity, I have not got there yet but am well on the way, think I have lvl 22 shortblades hit but that's from my dubious memory. Should in your wanderings you see a bald chap dressed in foul skin stabbing frantically at some mob or mobs, it's probably me.

The way of the blade has so enraptured me that I now carry no firearm except when on an event which requires one, needless to say I am a lousy shot. I do use a nerve blast chip though not often.

Speaking of events, I am a member of "The Guardian Tigers", we are a small but friendly soc. and have a lot of fun together. If any of us has an idea for an event we run it for the others, some of them have been quite unusual, almost costless and a lot of fun.

Crafting is something I haven't really tried, had a go now and again but find it a bit dull, would be nice to be able to make the knives I use though, currently Loughlin scratcher 2 (L) and Kesmek Slo (L) are the preferred blades simply because they seem to cause me less of a ped loss, both are slow so it takes longer to kill things but that means the hunt entertains me for longer.

Used to mine quite a bit but that is a rare event now, sometime I see somewhere and think it would be a good place to plant a bomb but when I try it I am normally proved wrong.

Guess that makes me a hunter then! I have managed about 8 globals (more like 14 or 15 now) I think solo and 3 or 4 in a group, I don't actually count them, just the cost of the hunt and the experience gain. No HoFs for me though, I guess one day it will happen but it's not important. What matters is being out there stabbing stuff.

I have tried PVP but don't seem to be very good at it, I think a lot of that is my machine and connection speed, the machine is a bit old and the broadband not that broad. I have done much better when playing on a friends almost new PC with an 8 Meg link, I have thought about it and can only come to the conclusion that a slow machine and comms set up does not send as many data packets to MA in the same time as a faster set up so to MA it looks like I am standing still and am thus an easier target, only a theory mind.

Hmm, looks like I have rambled on a bit, only meant to say hello :-).
"
End Quote


I have been considering starting such a record as this for quite some considerable time, firstly

I had to consider why, secondly where and thirdly when.

So firstly, why:-
I would like to keep some record of my activities for my own use, when I am old and bald (at least halfway there) I can sit around boring noobs about the old day, chances are my memory will not be very good by then so a written account would help.

Secondly, where:-
Having stumbled accross eu-chronicle it just seemed the obvious place, not to big, very friendly and helpful.

Thirdly, when:-
Now that was a tricky one, just start in the middle of a hunt, why not? But some how it seemed not quite right. So why now? Well, last night I took on my first Disciple, meet him upon this very forum as it happens. As I have not been a Mentor before it seemd a good idea to keep a record of it, for my own use, for my Disciples use and of course it may give others some ideas about what works and what doesn't. I have not had a Mentor myself so the whole thing is completely new to me and the two of us will be figuring it out as we go along. I have suggested to Zack (my Disciple) that he also keep a blog here, that way we should have a fair record kept by both sides of the coin.

So the introduction aside I will commence with my next entry to record the events of last night.

 

The way of the shortblade log 1

Log entry for 26-03-08.

Having arrange where and when to meet through this forum. I first encountered Zack outside the spledidly appointed Pawn Shop in Port Atlantis.

He seemed eager to learn and we spent some time chatting about how we would deal with the Mentor/Disciple relationship.

I suggested that I give Zack one task a week for him to complete and that there would be a preagreed reward for the timely completion of this task, he seemed to find this quite exciting which is a good thing. We discussed when tasks should start and end and decided that Monday evenings would be the best time to do this.

Not wanting to wait until Monday evening to commence this week's task I set the simple task of providing me with 1000 sweat by Monday evening for which he would be rewarded with payment of 10 ped, not a huge amount but almost twice it's current market value. I remember how difficult it was when I started not having any ped at all, mind you back then the going rate was 1.2 so I could get over twice the amount of ped in the same time.

As my interest is in shortblades I furnished Zack with an en-blade A from the TT for him to try, I explained how to view the weapons statistics and a little about what they mean. I then explained how to map the weapon to a keyboard key and how to make a button from it, this was followed by mapping to the keyboard various actions from the action library we started with equip the blade, use whatever item is equiped and unequip the item. I am very pleased to say Zack picked this all up very quickly and his English is excellent which will help a lot.

Next we went into the wilds and found a Combibo for him to kill, sadly his first loot was nothing but he despatched the beast with speed and elan.

The above took about an hour and neither Zack nor myself had much time left on-line afterward so He ran off to Sweat Camp to get more sweat and try the knife, I had to log.

I have received some encouraging PMs from Zack today and am looking forward to catching up with him this evening.

 

Log entry for 27-03-08.

I Meet Zack in PA by the TP it was almost as though he was waiting for me. Remembering how hard it was to trade my small amounts of loot in the beginning I traded him for his loot at current market value plus a small amount. He had already sold the ammo he has looted, including that I think he managed to come out of his first knifing session with a small profit. I'm rather pleased about that :)

We proceeded to Sweat camp where I gave Zack a quick lesson in melee combat technique, basically with the type of mob that runs away after sustaining some injury it is worth pressing Q while your weapon recharges that way when they turn you are already on them.

Next it was Zack's first TP run, I created a team set on random and set off. We first went to Nuls then onto to OP to the north, on the way we stabbed a few mobs for good measure and I introduced Zack to a Molisk, they are a bit tough for a noob and I was not quick enough with the healing to let him finish it off.

On to Billie's, I gave Zack the direction and set myself on follow (I run faster than him) with the instruction to avoid mobs on the way, good practice for those solo runs that will follow. We did stop on the way to take out a faucervix.

We got to Billie's with no problems and took a look around, entered the PvP ring and stabbed each other a bit, explained this was a bit of a waste of the knives but was fun.

After we headed to Camp Phoenix, again Zack led the way and this time we stopped off to take out a few snable snots. At Phoenix Zack meet a fellow Guardian Tiger one Mr. Karl Pilkington and we hunted for a short while before it was time for Zack to log.

Zack has figured out the use of the repair terminal by himself and obviously the trade terminal as well.

After one day I am very pleased with his progress, I hope he continues in the vein.

 

The way of the shortblade

Log entry for 28-03-08.

Was unable to meet with Zack tonight, got stuck at work. by the time I logged in he had logged.

On the up side My soc. leader (Tiger Master Lee) was on for the first time in quite a while and I spent some time teasing him with my new longu Paris jacket, he really wants one (and I had originally got it so he could buy it from me). So in time I agreed to sell it to him as long as he attempted to sweat an atrox in his underwear. Off he went and died fairly quickly but it was funny to watch so he got the jacket. Also sold him my longu boots that I have had since before the VU that made them rare so I am fairly well off at the moment.

Decided to put that right and went to Twin and had a go at the agronauts, no globals today for me, managed to lose only 14 ped in 90 minutes so that was value for money entertainment wise :)

Gave up in the end due to lots of comms lag, I was sharing my line with my daughter who was downloading :)

 

The way of the shortblade

Log entry for 29-03-08

Had a go at hunting and did rather badly, loot seems to have been rather bad at least for me since the beginning of Easter, however the hard core of the Guardian Tigers were on line, a soc. of which I am a member and I had am event planned so I did some preparation and meet Master Tiger Lee, The Playboy Girl and Karl Pilkington at Corinth. What was required of them was explained to them, it went something like this:-

"My girlfriend has run off with some other guy, all I know at the moment is that she is within one minor tp jump of a TP on Eudoria. It is up to you to find her. Should I receive any further information I will let you know.

You may look for her yourself, ask anyone on your FL to assist or just look out for her or you can hire people to look for you."

The idea was to get a few new Tigers but no one went for the hire option :(

There was some general discussion amongst the Tigers and several questions were asked, very vague answers were supplied

Off they went and I stood waiting for some results, I got many questions and again supplied vague answers.

What they were looking for was a couple of pets (see the 1st picture) I had left at the stable at Jason Centre, one was called "Chela's Girlfriend", the other "Some other guy".

It was at this point it all went a bit wrong. I got the message that my pets had been abandoned, previously that had only happened to me when I had logged out but today it happened during the event. the Tigers were looking for something that was not there, I quite liked this but it was not very fair so I had to go and get them.

Off to Jason Centre where I retrieved them from the stable and sent the pets off in a direction away from the TP, I followed and commenced retraining them while fielding questions from the contestants. At one point I spotted another purple dot on the radar but they didn't come in my direction, I have no idea why, I would have :)

I gave them a further clue:-

"I have learnt that my girlfriend is not to the East of the TP she is near."

The event took about 90 minutes before Mr. Pilkington came running toward me. I had decided to stay with the pets to make sure they didn't become abandoned again so I was a big clue.

Once Mr. Pilkington had identified the location the contest was declared over and the other two Tigers joined us for a group shoot (2nd image below).

Then it was off to the Lair for the prize giving where Mr Pilkington won "Chela's Girlfriend" (he has since renamed her) and is the first Tiger to hold the green berets. There are two green berets one male the other female and these are passed from the winner of the last event to the winner of the current event this marks the the Tiger wearing the beret as the latest winner and he or she receives the respect they deserve from the other Tigers. See the 3rd image, where Mr. Pilkington can be seen sporting the green beret.

After this we dispersed to do our own thing. All in all it was not a bad event, was a bit unusual and it gave us all a good laugh at the end.


Next I meet Zack who has been doing very well and has already got to 7% of his discipleship. He was trying to get a suit of armour together as he has had several good loots, currently he is doing a lot better than me :) he was looking for pixie and I had the body and arms for this set in storage so I passed them on.

Had another failed hunt in the early evening and then it was time to log.

All things considered a good day :)

My thanks to Roger Stratos Fa's guide on this site :-

http://www.eu-chronicle.com/cmps_index.php?page=taming

I found the guide very useful in my preparation for this event, I had purchased the pet's at level one and starving so had fed them, brushed them and trained them to level three, in fact I over trained them as I needed to have a high enough level to have two pets out at once. I have got quite into the whole pet thing and have purchased a whip and am taming and training when I can. I have recently heard from several people that there will be something new with pets after the next VU, personally I am dubious as I have been hearing this for one and a half years but if this time it is correct I may be in a good position to start a small business to subsidise my life on Calypso. Just need to get a hat now so I can impersonate Indian Jones.

 

The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 30-03-08

Quite a dull day after yesterday. Touched base with Zack a few times to make sure he was OK, he still seems to be doing better than me :)

Tried hunting in the morning, again a very poor return so I needed to find something that didn't cost too much for the rest of the day.

Now I can train mobs openly instead of having to do it in secret I decided to have a go at taming as well so I purchased myself a partly charged whip and headed to Jason Centre where I proceeded to accidentally kill a couple of daiks both of whom had had many attempts to tame them fail.

I eventually managed to tame one daik young and one snable male, fed them and got them back to the stable where I brushed some trust into them and tamed them to level 3. Discovered that the more trust a pet has the quicker it is to tame and the less food is required to tame it, somewhere there will be the most cost effective way to do this so I will in future experiment to find that.

Have to say I rather enjoy cracking that whip and I look a little like Indian Jones now, will have to keep my eye open for a reasonably priced hat :)

I am going to continue the taming and training, as well as being quite a cheap pass time I seem to be getting quite a few skills from it including Perception and Alertness, both useful all round skills. Should anyone be looking for a pet or want one tamed let me know and I will see what I can do.

 

Log Entry for 31-03-08

Met Zack at Camp Phoenix, it is the end of his first task week, he had completed the task of collecting 1000 sweat and as we had previously agreed I purchased this from him for 10 ped. In addition I gave him a further 3 ped to repair all his clothes (can't have a disciple of mine looking all scruffy). He went to the repair terminal and repaired them although when he came back they looked the same to me, sometimes those things take a long time to refresh.

I set Zack his task for this week. He is to get five TPs these being Orthos West Mound and the four at Hadeshime, we are to meet next Monday under the Hadeshime sphere (assuming it is not overrun with argonauts) where we will go to each of the 5 TPs in turn, Zack is to receive a reward of 2 ped for each of these TPs.

At this point I scanned Zack and brought the disciple information on to the screen so I could get a shot of his current stats, see image. I am pleased to see that Zack has completed 18% of his discipleship, I think that is good progress for a little less than a week, Well done Zack.

Zack has also got several TPs himself this week his current list (in no particular order) is:-

PA
PA Mall
Phoenix
Billy's
Atlas
Chimera
Ares
Medusa
Limnadian
Aegis
New Oxford

It was important to know as we were going on a TP run and hunt and needed to consider where to go and where from. I decided on a run from Medusa to Jason, had been a while since I was in the area so could not quite remember what mobs to expect. We TP'd to Medusa and I had to check if Zack was wearing armour as my PC still said he was in the unrepaired noob suit :) I asked Zack to lead and told him to head South East. We soon encountered some Combibo and Cornundacauda, these were dealt with very easily, next came some Faucervix again no issue, then Zack spotted Atrax which we attacked and dealt with quite speedily although by this time I was no longer using the TT knife :)

I had noticed that Zack had been using a rifle as opposed to the blade from last week, I do hope he does not give up on the blade but if he prefers rifle it is his choice, I realise the way of the shortblade is not one that many wish to follow :)

We continued South East taking mobs as we found them, Zack became low on ammo, as I do not use a gun I only had about 150 cells from the loot so far this I dropped for Zack to keep him going a bit longer.

Zack was a little hot headed and tended to rush at things before considering what else was around, a trait that proved to be our undoing. I did explain that Atrax can see us and will charge from a long distance so it is best to make sure what is where, pick a suitably positioned mob and move toward it slowly, this way it is possible to draw one or two at a time. However, I think there may have been a spot of blood lust for almost immediately Zack charged at an Atrax, I followed, two more Atrax came into the fray as well as a couple of Corns and four Foul at least two of which were scouts. Unfortunatley Zack did not last very long against all of these, I had no time to heal and in spite of attacking each one to draw there attacks and Zack frantically trying to heal himself he went down. I continued the fight although more mobs were arriving. I seemed to be doing quite well, I was now concentrating on the Atrax and managed to get two of them before I fell to two criticals in a row and a blow from a Foul.

Fortunately we revived at the OP just North of Jason, it was at this point that I could see Zack was wearing armour for the first time. We healed ourselves and continued to Jason with Zack taking a few Snables on the way. I do hope Zack has learnt from his experiences on this run, no doubt time will tell :)

Next Zack wanted to mine some en-matter, I sorted my ore kit and we headed South and slightly East of Jason, I wanted to show Zack the old Umbranoid encampment as there is reasonable sweating and skills to be gained against the Kerberos that now inhabit the area. We got there dropping several probes and bombs along the way, Zack certainly got my strikes than I :)

Next it was time for Zack to log, I explained that if he were to T from here he would get East Scylla Mountains and he said he would do that tomorrow.

I proceded to calculate the losses from the hunt and the mining, the hunt returned about 10% which is exceptionally poor, I didn't calculate my mining I could see from the figures it was worse than the hunt and didn't want to depress myself too much.

-------------

I had some had RW stuff to deal with so logged for a couple of hours. When I came back I had a crack at the Argos at Twin, a Soc. mate had told me that he had done rather well there while I was off line so I figured it was worth a shot, I could not find any scratcher 2s for sale except one vastly overpriced at auction so I went at it with my en-blade 5 mentors, I use two of these in about 30 minutes and managed a return of 34% which was disapointing but pretty much expected.

Before I logged for good I tamed a Snable Male Young, and stabled it, it only took about 5 miutes and I managed to win it over with my charming personality on the first taming attempt. I plan to commence training him tomorrow and to start collecting data to calculate the optimum brush/feed ratio.

Summing it up, all in all, an expensive but rewarding day on Eudoria :) is there any other kind? :)

 

The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 02-04-08

Was a little late today, usual for a Wednesday, unfortunately I had missed Zack.


As it was quiet I decided to start the animal training experiment:-

Subject (Victim) Snablesnot male young.

Starting from just tamed.

Brushing to full trust cost 7.35 ped.

Training to lvl. 2 cost 0.60 ped.

Training to lvl. 3 cost 0.75 ped.

Total cost 8.70 ped. Total duration 18 minutes. At the end subjects trust had gone down by 0.2


While doing this I had spotted quite a few argo globals so decided I could do with some of that action. I searched for and found a couple of scratcher 2s then proceeded to Twin where I began a hunt that was to last nearly 90 minutes. In spite of a whole series of argo globals going through I got next to nothing and returned a mere 32%, looks like my loots are back to normal after my pre-Easter spree, I guess MA noticed :)

Had to log for a while and on my return had only 15 minutes so just time to tame another Snablesnot male young ready for tomorrow's experiment, assuming I get the chance.


So summing up, not much happened today, at least on the outside, on the inside there has been much thought. I am putting together another event for the Soc. these always take a little planning, some more than others.

I have had an idea for a rather long winded event that I could run from here but taking place on Calypso, needs quite a lot of refining but I think it's doable. Think I should stay a bit quiet on this one so as not to spoil any surprise :)

In addition I have checked with Mr. Pilkington about running the Tigerlypics for the forum. the Tigerlympics was an event Karl and myself put together last year, it involves a series of 10 events, some of them stupid some quite challenging, cost is minimal, we ran it over three evenings and with three competitors and it worked quite well but I think we could probably do it with five competitors, as many of the events are heat based having too many competitors would mean lots of standing around, when we are ready I will let you know and see if there is any interest.

 

The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 03-04-08

Managed an early start today, was surprised that Zack was not on, was intending to catch up, Tuesdays and Wednesdays it is not always possible to be in game at the same times he is.

It was very quiet, seemed an ideal time to perform training experiment number 2

Subject (Victim) Snablesnot male young.

Starting from just tamed.

No brushing, so no cost.

Training to lvl. 2 cost 0.86 ped.

Training to lvl. 3 cost 3.41 ped.

Total cost 4.27 ped. Total duration 94 minutes. At the end subjects trust had gone down by 1

Compared with yesterday's results this cost near enough half however it did take over 5 times as long, there is an upside to the duration, I got considerably more skill messages (should have noted the skill increase as well) I am sure I got more overall skills but at the expense of using more time.

At least one more experiment still to do to determine if the cost difference when plotted gives a straight line or a curve.

Had to log for a while, upon my return had a go at some Fefs and then went to Twin to continue my vendetta with the argos, didn't do too bad which is a pleasant change, managed a return of just over 90% and even got just one item from them, bet you can guess what :)

 

The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 04-04-08

A very early start today, about 1130 MA time, nice to have the opportunity. I decided I had been neglecting the argos at Segna so armed with a couple of scratcher 2s I was off. The hunt went on for quite a considerable time but not one good loot, picked up a few skills and managed a return of about 30%, not too good but I have know worse.

I spent sometime in various terminal buildings and auction houses scanning people, not something I had done before so I picked up a lot of scanning skills, never know they may help at some point.

When Zack came on I discovered he was broke, he had also had a run of bad loots, so he was busy sweating at Swamp Camp, I offered to let him try to sell a pet or two, I know standing in PA hawking wares is a fairly thankless task but it's still a valuable learning experience and you never know he may have got lucky, so I got myself over to Swamp Camp to meet him and we were just chatting when someone started offering worm hole trips to the Rig, in spite of being warned he would probably be shot and killed immediately Zack decided to go, oh to have the adventurous spirit of the young!

Needles to say he was promptly despatched on arrival and materialised at the OP to the south of the zone. I advised him to run west along the coast and I would meet him but it seems there was someone there prepared to lead a pack of victims out so Zack said this was unnecessary. I decided to go anyway and got myself over to Twin where I began the tp journey. Well, I am well know for my ability to tp into the middle of a herd and today proved to be no exception, every jaunt ended in a fight with a mass of mobs, I managed to string several of these time consuming episodes together before being defeated and sent back to Twin, this happened three times, at one point I was attacked by a couple of atrax and more tantilion than I could count, they were swarming over each other to attack me, was quite interesting to see how quickly I could die at just one hit point a time :).

I learnt Zack was heading toward the OP to the east of Twin so I headed there, again being mobbed, I did eventually get there but by then Zack had said he was approaching a TP, I can only guess we must have passed each other like ships on a foggy night. Shortly after he logged and I decided to return to Twin, this time in no hurry I wandered from mob to mob taking them as I went, it had been quite some time since I had hunted in the area and I quite enjoyed it. Then I spotted a daikiba prowler (I think it was a prowler, certainly one tough daik), I decided I would try to tame it, knowing full well I had no chance of surviving a few attacks by it but I though what the hell :) I was very pleased to find I managed to increase it's respect for me by a very small amount before it increased my respect for it dramatically :),

This impromptu hunt now needed to be calculated, I knew I had had a few larger loots and it turned out to return 60% or there a bouts, things were definitely on the up :)

Slight touch of the real world here, I was hungry and really fancied some beans on toast, so leaving myself logged in I headed for the kitchen, I managed to both make and eat the beans on toast before I got logged out, only just but I made it, didn't use a microwave either :)

Decided to take it easy for a while and wandered about scanning things, by now I had been on for over nine straight hours and decided to rest my eyes so I logged out for about an hour.

Upon my return I purchased another scratcher 2 and headed for the old stomping ground (Twin) where I spent a happy hour stomping argos, I even got a couple of decent loots and an almost global so when I got back to the mall I was pleased to find a return of nearly 120%, could this be the start of something big? Not probable but you never know :)

 

The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 05-04-08

An even earlier start today! A very strange day, despite being on-line almost all day and much of the night I can't actually recall doing much! It's all a biz hazy, was I drinking yesterday?

I remember turning up for the scheduled forum hunt as I got a reminder from the calender, the meet was put out by two hours, by a strange coincidence only two people showed, I was one of them, Anna the other, we teamed and then waited for 20 minutes but no one else came. Bit of a shame that, I had enjoyed the last hunt, no matter!

When Anna disbanded the team her life bar still showed on my screen as if she were in the area, a bug in the electronics? One I had seen before but this time I had time to take advantage of it, so I set myself to follow.

We had meet at New Oxford and I was heading NE, several possible locations on the way, when I got to TI City, I decided to jump ahead to TI Northern Shores, I continued to follow, I was still heading NE, swimming now although there was land ahead. Either Anna was in Eudoria and I had the chance to swim there or she was in a very remote location on Amethera.

Out of the water, ran up the beach and into a new land, I had not been here before, then I discovered why, some rotten spoilsport had put a dirty great invisible fence in the way, I could not get past, I tried heading South East for a while, kept glancing off the invisible fence but I was making progress, maybe I could swim past when I got to the water but I couldn't, I was forced to abandon my hoped for swim.

T'd and then went to Fort Troy, got a bearing on Anna, North and slightly East, checked the map, probably Twin Peaks so I went there, sure enough there she was. She was surprised to see me, we said "hi" to each other and then she logged off. Might have been a bit freaked to see me again so soon :) I know I would have been. Anna if you are reading this, please don't be worried, it was just an experiment performed by a bald guy :)

Talking of experiments I remember performing taming experiment 3. Here are the results:-

Subject (Victim) Snablesnot male young.

Starting from just tamed.

Brushed to 249/500 trust, cost 1.35 ped

Training to lvl. 2 cost 0.61 ped.

Training to lvl. 3 cost 1.55 ped.

Total cost 3.51 ped. Total duration 30 minutes. At the end subjects trust had not changed

These results where not expected and have done something weird to the graph, possibly there is a lot more luck involved than originally considered, possibly I have got better at what I am doing, possibly the snables are different, I will check what I can but I am expecting to have to try at least two more experiments.

I now have a surfeit of snablesnot male young, I cannot bring myself to release them back into the wild, when that happens they just vanish which is not right, if they wandered off it would be OK but just to cease to exist, that's not very fair.

I tried hawking at PA:-

"Cheap rescue pets for sale, buy them before I have to put them down."

Not a thing, after a while I added:-

"Right, I'm gonna have to kill one now."

Still nothing. Heartless b*******.

I think I am going to be forced to free them from their servitude, that's no way for a young snable go :(

Later I meet some of the Tigers and we just chatted for a while.

I really do not understand how I spent a day doing this :)

 

The way of the shortblade

Log entry for 06-04-08

Decided I had let the side down by not bashing any argos yesterday so purchased a couple of scratcher 2s and headed for Twin. I only used one of the knives and it lasted very well today, strange that! Was out for about 60 minutes and returned with a 30% profit, a distinct improvement :)

Decided I should go and take a look around Thorkell's (think that's the spelling) Tomb, scouting for an event as it happens. I spent quite a long time there working things out, it looks like a good place, pity it is not PVP and that it is rather laggy but I think it will work, only time will tell.

While there I treated myself to a further five scratcher 2s at the asking price I would have been a fool not to but it has dented the reserves a bit, still a saving of over ten ped is a saving of over ten ped :)

After I found my way out :) (really not that difficult due to the signs, shame that) I stored the five scratcher 2s and returned to Twin with the one left from earlier. This hunt lasted about 70 minutes, I was further from the mall when the scratcher ran dry and fought my way back with a mentor 5, put the cost up a bit and the loot was not that good so this time I returned with a 10% loss, still not bad, I suspect the mark up on iron will cover that.

I tried to release a couple of pets but just could not bring myself to do it, no doubt I will have to at some point as I don't seem to be able to sell them. Maybe I should just try to keep them until the next VU, on the very remote off chance they become a valuable commodity.

All things considered, a good day, the combined results of the hunts resulted in a 9% profit so I even made a few ped or at least I will once I have built up sufficient quantities to sell.

I find I am a bit worried about Zack, I have not seen him all weekend. I find myself wondering if he has completed last weeks task, hopefully I will find out this evening as it's task night. Better spend some time today considering what task to give him for the coming week.

 

Log entry for 07-04-08


Zack is usually on between 1700 and 1900, I could not be on for the whole two hours but checked in several times and probably only missed 30 minutes or so of that time slot. According to my FL Zack was not on, although there have been errors with that lately, see a previous post :)

A very short entry today, Can I hear those sighs of relief? As I could only be on line for a few minutes here and there so nothing I could sink my teeth into :(

 

Log Entry for 09-04-08.

Unfortunately I have not had much time on-line the last few days although I corrected that this evening. I didn't do a lot, just chatted with people. Spent most of my time sitting in the Lair mulling over the disappearance of Zack and the Art of Kanly, I don't think the two things are related but you never can tell!

I Have had a lot of positive feedback about the Art of Kanly, which is very pleasing and have started a draft version of the rules, breaking it down into a logical sequence and numbering each point so as to make discussion and update easier.

By way of a trial and using the initial proposal I have initiated a contract on Kets. Looking forward to getting some results from that and some more feedback. I need to keep the rules simple, by nature I have a tendency to over complicate things so this is going to be quite a challenge for me. Hope I am up to it.

 

Log entry for 10-04-08

After spending too long this week mulling over ideas and getting them down on a flat panel monitor I decided I needed to do something real, something that involved having my fist clenched around a knife, yes a KNIFE, could have gone a different way there but I didn't.

Was PM'd within seconds of login by an old friend who had taken a break, at least I hadn't seen her in a while, Catherine has been on a few time lately and we have chatted but tonight I thought I would pay a visit. Catherine said she was sweating so I guessed Nea's was the place to be, turns out it was a good guess. We stood and chatted for a while, Catherine has an interest in shortblades, a girl after my own heart, you can read that two ways :) I told her of my attempt at a museum of knives at the Lair and she was interested in seeing so having discovered she did not have Sakura and that the nearest she did have was Nea's we set off.

I have never been good at TP runs, I get distracted by conversation far too easily and it was not long before we were being attacked, initially we had managed to get past the ambulimax only to be zapped by some thoros, my knife did not touch them but whatever attack they used took both Catherine and myself out rather quickly. Back at a revival near Nea's we healed and set off again. This time I took us a bit to close to an ambulimax and it attacked. I used to be able to take these quite easily with an en-blade 5 Mentor edn. but they have become quite a lot tougher and I had to resort to the en-blade 8, this cheeky little ambu just healed too fast for the 5. With some healing from Catherine and on occasion myself I took the mob down, drew a bit of crowd too, I guess it's not everyday you see a chap with a little knife going against something of that size. I had just finished it off when another decided it wanted a turn, managed to finish that one off a little quicker as I went straight in with the 8. The loot from the pair was poor but to be expected. We headed Southward, my plan was to take Palm's corner first but every attempt to go east was blocked by Thorios and in time I lost concentration again and we were zapped. Back to Nea's!

Maybe a different tack was called for, Catherine had Wolverine Hope, maybe we could go South and avoid having to cross Thorio territory, possibly skip Palm's Corner and head straight for Nate Valley. It had been a while since I had done this and I do not remember it being as difficult as this. We jaunted to Wolverine and headed South, bang another dirty great Thorio, this plan was not working too well but on the second attempt we managed to avoid them and had a long clear run southward, until we hit the LAs that is. Atrox have never been a favourite of mine and particularly big atrox are just plane nasty. There were red dots all over the screen, it looked like there was a corridor to the south so we took it but that corridor closed up real quick and we were a small snack for something that gave me a crick in my neck just to look at. We revived somewhere in an LA and were surrounded by atrox, great :).

Several attempts to escape were made one got close but we were attacked by an atrox young, no problem I thought, I can do these and in most cases I can but daddy heard his kid a screaming and stomped over and stomped the both of us. We did eventually get out to the North but only because we were helped by a most decent chap by the name of Somn Somnig Los, we are both very grateful :). We continued north and then swung west toward the lake, Catherine got Rippered on the eastern shore but revived in Palms so I T'd to join her. This took us at least 2 hours and when I asked Catherine to look at her map to see just how close to Nea's we were she laughed.

After that I had to go, this TP run returned only 10% of it's cost but it was a good laugh :).

Later I reconnected and had a go at the argos, I got all those Scratchers earlier in the week and had not used any of them so I decided it was time to get the hilt in my hand. It felt good to be out slicing argo again even if it only returned about 27%.

All things considered a good day, lots of fun with a friend and when it comes down to it that is all that matters :)

Wonder if Ket's is feeding the worms yet?

 

Log entry for 11-04-08.

Slightly belated entry, it's been a bit busy!

After yesterday's ridiculously poor TP run Catherine and myself decided we should try to continue to Sakura. We met at Palms Corner and set off for Nate Valley, heading due south and then east to avoid the LAs, had to avoid a few atrox on the way but they were sparsely spaced and easy to run around. We arrived at Nate Valley, which seems to be on a slight hill as opposed to in a valley, odd that!

From there it was south and then east again to Sakura, once again avoiding the LAs. A slightly more challenging run as the corridor between two LAs is quite narrow and at times we needed to weave from side to side but the whole journey was without incident .

Arriving at Sakura I showed Catherine where the Lair is situated and added her to the guest list. She seemed quite impressed with the shortblade museum although I still have a long way to go with it, some of those knives are very expensive, I am intending to add to it when I can but pretty much for the big knives I will need two or more ATHs so I doubt I will ever complete it, in truth completion is a futile quest I know full well I will never get my grubby little hands on the Ram.

I do not remember what I did after Catherine logged.

 

Log entry for 12-04-08.

Today was a strange day. I had planned to get straight on with the Rules of Canley but on opening the file found I could not get my head around any of it. Decided I should log on and just chill for a while until I came to. This I did, Catherine PM'd me immediately and we spent some time chatting before she logged for a two week break.

Next I set off to take some screen shots for the Rules of Canley, might as well do something toward it. I found my dusty Opalo and TT pistol and went to auction to get some cheap sights. I am intending to bring weapons into the rules so went and tried a few mock assassinations with both of those, sometimes with sights, sometimes without and with a shortblade. On reviewing the images I found the only one that currently makes sense is the shortblade so I deleted the other images. I will have another try at that once I have figured a different approach.

Next it was time to get my hands dirty so I set off for Twin Peaks and set to against some argos, it was good fun but only returned about 30%. I definitely feel that I am in some kind of loot trough at the moment. In fact at one time I checked my skills and thought I spotted one with a ridiculously high sore, way up there in the one hundred thousands, unfortunately the name of the skill was Loot Evader, must have still been tired and imagining it, at least I hope that's the case.

Feeling more awake now I logged and started on the Rules of Canley, much that I had already written needed alteration, I added a few ideas posted on the forum and formatted and numbered it, spent about four hours on it all in all. I am quite pleased with the results but will review it in a day or two when I can approach it with a fresh mind.

Later I returned to Twin Peaks for more argoing, this was a real riot, I lost count of how many no loots I got in a row, with every one I was laughing like a drain, guess the tiredness had caught up with me again. When I did finally get a loot of a few pec I was disappointed, I would have preferred another no loot :). Things did improve though just not by much, during that hunt I took out four or five guardians, all but one of them had no loot and why do they call gatherers, gatherers? They are rubbish at gathering, they almost always have nothing on them :). This hunt much to my surprise yielded a 29% return, with all the no loots and the complete lack of items I was expecting much worse.

 

Log entry for 14-04-08.

Not had much time the last couple of days but I did eventually manage to connect at the end of the day. No one else seemed to be about, I didn't have a lot of time and I was watching the end of a film so decided on a little crafting. Basic Filters, brilliant little item particularly if you like coffee. Anyway committed 500 oil and 500 lyst, managed to get nearly 1000 filters (that's quite a lot of coffee) and nearly 3000 combined residues, making me a small profit, not a lot but any profit is welcome :).

 

Log entry for 16-04-08

Had quite a lot of time on-line during the day today for a change. There where very few on-line so decided to continue with the production of Basic Filters. I committed about 1100 lyst and oil to this and started clicking, it was very dull but toward the end my patience was rewarded, rather than post twice see this thread:-

http://www.eu-chronicle.com/showthread.php?t=5632

Feel rather happy about that, Basic Filters globals are just plain funny in my eyes :).

 

Log entry for 19-04-08

Been a bit too busy with Canley and family the last few days to do much upon Calypso, at the times I have logged there have been few in my FL on line so really have been doing very little.

Today I did purchase a couple of scratchers for use this weekend but I did not get the chance to use them. I also completed my set of kobold armour, hopefully this will slightly extend the the range of mobs I can hunt without spending too much time healing myself. Just need to repair it now then it's look out Feffs here I come.

I have put 100 PED aside as the reward money for the second test of the Rules of Canley, this kicks off at midnight today. People seem quite enthusiastic about it, I do hope things work well and they are not disappointed, last thing I need is a bunch of disgruntled assassins on my tail. No doubt it would make good press for Mr. Kets column though :).

I had intended to be on line for the start of Canley but dozed off while waiting, it had been a very long day though.