Off Topic, Computer Hardware and the Supporting OS

Troll Snott has asked me to start a thread for non-game, yet game-related stuff. He said there was a nice shouting discussion about dual-core vs quad-core and the OS (Operating System) that supports the hardware. SLI vs Crossfire was mentioned.

Snott didn't relay many details, other than it should be continued or re-started here. I don't see any reason why other things, like bus mastering and NIC data-rates should not be included. Let's not forget about RAM and the Drives. I would love to argue PATA vs SCSI.

Choosing the correct Operating System is crucial. The choice of OS can make or break a well thought-out hardware platform.

So, the floor is open to anything that is related to Computer Hardware and the Supporting OS's.

(please note: this is not PC vs MAC) Although this might be pointed towards PC's, MAC's are included. Why include MAC? Because NWN will run on a MAC.

Bragging Rights, Revisited

The DM was droppin Slaad bombs inside the Tunafish Tavern today. As usual for DM Qwildurn, they started fairly easy and progressively became harder. The players were having fun killing or being killed.

Eventually Black Betty showed up. As expected, nobody in the room had what it takes to kill Black Betty. Most were just to low in levels to take on any boss, especially Betty. So I eventually relogged with Big Bertha Butt. Not that Bertha is anything special, she is the only toon I have.

Betty was obsessed with killing the Guard, the one that is unkillable. This was good for us because she never tried to hit us. No doubt my Bertha wouldn't have lasted long if she had become the dinner special.

Bertha buffed up with all of her 22 Bard levels and went charging in. Bard song can be an amazing spell and Curse Song is just the melody needed to weaken an otherwise untouchable Boss. The mage in the room was useless against Black Betty as was the Monk. I think Raz got in a few pot shots as did a few others. Even Bertha with all her 41 levels only hitting on a 20.

Bertha is a Fighter 8 / Weapon Master 10 / Bard 22. Being a Deep Orc she has a naturally high strength and charisma and uses a Double Axe. Unfortunately she has low constitution. Bertha has what it takes to kill Betty, good crits.

It was an epic battle. Some of had to break for lunch yet others had to go out and rest several times. Bertha was able to re-buff a few times without resting, but was low on spells. Finally Black Betty's big body fell to the floor shaking the entire tavern. The server let out a shout that Big Bertha Butt had slain the mighty Black Betty and we all stood around bragging and patting our own backs.

Not too much longer, the server let out another shout, "Krenshar has exploded Pyro Taranto into smithereens!"
Shortly the server let out another shout, "Lycan has slain the mighty Krenshar!"

Of course I wanted to know if this was the same Pyro the had killed Stride at level 16. Being an off-duty DM, I have access to certain information. As the screen shot shows, Pyro, level 37, while in a party of 2, got killed by a boss much easier than Stride and Royal Assassin.

Bragging Rights!

If our Blog is nothing else, it's a good place to pound our chests and boast about our dirty deeds done dirt cheap. And Pyro has every right to do just that! He sent me a short email with a few screen shots. It's hard to dispute what's in the picture and I checked the servers log just to make sure.

He did it and he did alone.

At level 16, Pyro killed not just the Royal Assassin, but Stride as well. Anybody that has gone up against these two, knows, that is no small feat even at level 40, and while in a group!

email from Pyro:

Dear Q,

You know, I'm not really one to bother you with this kind of nonsense. But I'm actually rather proud of this, check out the shouts on the pics and the stats. I've gotten both the Royal Ass and Stridast at lvl 16. Now unfortunately my printscreen stuff ain't working like it's supposed to, so I had to take some pics with my own camera.

I don't have the pics of beating the royal ass cause my game crashed(again), before I could get the printscreen to work like it should or come up with the bright idea to take a picture with the camera.

Everone has to brag now and then so this is mine, good luck with whatever you're doing.

Sincerely, Pyro

You've Displeased the Gods!

alternate title: Whiners, Cry-Babies & Cowards

My dog barks at the mailman. It starts when he opens the sliding door of his truck and doesn't stop for some time. I can tell who's house he's at by the sound of the other barking dogs in the neighborhood. Our regular carrier is pretty cool it about though. But, when he takes a day off....

The alternates get all weird. One won't get close enough to the house to give us our mail. Another punishes us by giving us extra junk-mail. "Sleet nor rain (except barking dogs) will stop the U.S. Mail".

Just deliver the dam mail and ignore the dumb dog already!

I'm amazed at how many players log on to BadLands RPG and mention that they are old pals with Leaf Stone. Which is fine and all that, except, then they (about 90%) start asking for favours. Free levels, free boss items......

Some get pissed because we've made changes.

"The balance is all wrong."
• (Meaning their one build can't dominate the field.)
• It seems to me that the balance is actually pretty damn good finally.
"OMG! An Orc fighter with Blindsight. How will I ever HIPS (Hide In Plain Sight) from him?!?"
• "How do you HIPS a from a cleric with TS (True Seeing)?", I ask?
"Leaf promised me something that no other player could have and now I want it!"
• Guess what! I'm not Leaf and everything in BadLands RPG is equally available to all. Go earn it, find it or steal it.
"What? No more PVP? Why can't I PK?"
• There is plenty of PVP. PK (pronounced PIKE), is Player Killer. As far as I'm concerned, PK'rs are baby-killers and only want to hunt easy, defenceless lowbies. You can PK, but there are consequences. Player driven consequences.
What happened to the original BadLands?
• The "original" BadLands went down about 4 years ago.
• At which point in time, BadLands 1095 was made public and all the current BadLands servers (including BadLands RPG) sprang up using that module.
• Each has been modified in their own way.

There are others, that simply cheat.

I caught one guy killing Duergar Dwarfs once. He was alone, naked and weaponless. A monk perhaps? At level 10, you can't kill Duergar's with one punch and not get a scratch. He had 100 strength, 100 dex..... Then he called me an asshole when I confronted him.
There was that guy with bunches of extra feats. Had a build the equivalent of 6 classes. Fighter, Barbarian, SD, RDD, Bard, Ranger. And yet, he still complained that others had better toons.

The list could be endless, if I was keeping a list of whiners, cheaters and cowards.

This brings us to the current and the present. Specifically, Dano and Dark-Clan.

The Dark-Clan leader, Midnight80 (he claimed to be their leader) wanted to have a guild at level 5. You all know the rule is level 50. He wouldn't take "NO" for an answer and kept asking every DM, getting the same "NO". After hounding me with countless emails, I finally said, "FUCK NO!" Which he turned into, "Fuck-off, you're not welcome here". I had even shown him some of the really cool Outposts his Clan could fight for. But, while players like Dano and Dark1432 where out earning there 50 levels, Dark&Dumb (I didn't coin it) kept making noobs and never got over level 10. And why wasn't his Clan helping to earn a niche for themselves?

Slade (Dark_1423), on the other hand, has earned 50 levels and started the first new Guild since the Wipe to end all Wipes. "Phoenix's" is a lawful-good guild. Good job Dark_1423.

I'm not sure if Shady Cranky Bull (dano1122) thought he was role-playing his new-found alignment or if this was just his way of getting ahead, but... Dano likes to tell me all the little things he thinks other players are doing wrong. Anybody that is a better builder than him is accused of cheating. Anybody that can loot more gold faster is a cheater.

I got tired of all this "tattle-tailing" and reaped the wrath of an angry God on him the other day. No, I did not ban him, not even for a second. Dano is not a bad guy.... I took all his quest items, boss drops, port stones (including the Mystic Mirror and Snow Pipe) as well as his weapons. Then ported him to Dozo. At which point I said something like, "Mind your own damn business and play the fucking game."

Demoting levels is not a valid punishment in BadLands RPG. An RDD build will always get damaged as well as all toons over level 40. By damaged, I mean the character file will become unusable and we the DM's will be forced into replacing it with a new toon.

Banning is a last resort when all else fails. It is not something we do lightly.

The first jerk I banned kept logging on and spam shouting, "I hate niggers". He didn't give me many choices.
The guy with the level 10 and 100 strength, he got a permanent ban.
As did the guy with 6 classes.

The "Big Wipe", wiped the ban list as well, so, if you want to start clean, you can. Act like a jerk and get treated like a jerk. Follow the rules and reap the rewards. The only player to not get wiped from the ban list was Gart, logon darkdraft. (banned on 4 CD Keys) I won't go into details, but.... Gart must have pissed off the Gods something awful to still be on the ban list after a full melt-down. Jeez, even cockroaches can survive a nuclear meltdown.

For the record, me and my DM's have always earned our levels. I did ask them to loot for gold on their first toon, just like everybody else. Even I am looting for gold. I'm up to level 33 and have finally maxed out all my gear. A good selection of scrolls will require more looting though. This does not include any level 22 gear yet nor any Boss Items. Us DM's of BadLands RPG are first and foremost, PLAYERS.

Qwildurn Bluemoon,
server host of BadLands RPG

The Great Armageddon.

Badlands was filled with corrupted hearts and souls. The people lost faith in their gods, and slowly became cocky, self centered and delusional. The people gained so much personal wealth and power that they no longer needed to worship the Gods. They felt that they themselves were indeed Godly.

The people then challenged the Gods, thinking that they were invincible. The Gods became furious with this insolent behavior, and unleashed a devastating Armageddon upon Badlands, wiping clean all the insolent beings that dwelled upon its soil.

But out of the darkness birthed a new era, Qwildurn Bluemoon the goddess of life, used her magic and brought life back to the desolate landscape. All the people and living creatures had been restored, but to only a fraction of their former glory. Time will tell if this new life on Badlands will be a virtuous one, or will the people slowly deteriorate into that which brought upon their own destruction.

Guilds, and their Leaders

The server got an unexpected wipe caused by my confusion. I wish it had not happened, but it did. I have a temporary server up. When I get the real server fixed, (I need to re-install everything including the OS), I will transfer all your new toons and the new database.

I would like to honor the old guilds and their leaders by allowing them to start new guilds. I have only seen Dano making an effort (and a damn good effort too!) to get to level 50.

Others have asked to be guild leaders. To them I have said, "If the old leaders don't make an effort and you make it to 50....".

We don't have the numbers (of players) to support more than 3 guilds. So I will only allow three guilds,

1. Lawful Good
2. True Neutral
3. Chaotic Evil

Each will be given a Fortress when they meet the usual requirements. Five Outposts owned. After that, it's up to you to keep it from being stolen.

I welcome any and all views to be spoke here in this thread that cover Guilds

BadLands RPG is back on-line

BadLands RPG is up and running. We are using a "band-aid" server for now. You should not notice any differance in performance, this was the server for years before I bought a newer server.

It will take a few weeks for me to get the main server back up. When it's ready, I will transfer all your new info over.

The new BadLands module is the last edit we (Deimonos and I) were working on. It has new subraces, areas, monsters, bosses, territories and more.

It is not finished, it is the only game module I have. I am not sure where we left off or whats unfinished. Please be patiant.

Qwildurn Bluemoon - server host

Why is the Server Down?

Because I screwed up!

I'm so ...... I can't even begin to express myself.

I was trying to add a new Raid Bank (more hard drive storage) and accidentally wiped the entire server. Not just the game files, but everything including all my pictures of my bicycle trip across America some years back.

Not sure when I can get to installing and configuring the Operating System. That is a week long job alone and I don't have a lot of free time right now.

To say, "I'm sorry.", is not enough nor does it even start to say how I feel.

Qwildurn Bluemoon, the mush head.