Anatole, The New Boss

One of the new bosses of BadLands RPG is Anatole. Brother Soul Blade tried to take this guy on alone. After what seemed like forever, neither had hardly a scratch. It was an even match (obviously) as both the boss and the player are Monk/Cleric in build. Anatole has a total of 65 levels while Brother SoulBlade was at his max level of 58 (ECL 2). Both have a similarly high AC and high AB (80+ / 80+).

Eventually, Trisha Trash came to help. It took the two of them a long time to whittle away at this guy. If it wasn't for SoulBlade's Cleric Heal spell, both would have died. Several times Anatole cast Cleric Heal on self to prolong the battle.

Finally, Anatole ran out of Heal spells and when he was near death, succumbed to a Knock Down hit (his first and only). Like the dogs that they are, they kicked him while he was down and finished his life. Without the strength to hold his Kama, it dropped to the ground. Brother SoulBlade grabbed it quickly and ran through the portal that opened to claim the Outpost, "Castlevania" for the guild, "true blades" (formerly "Free Blades").

BadLands RPG 095f - The overdue update...

After a year of no updates to the game, I have finally done it!
BadLands RPG 095 (f) is posted and ready for testing.

About a year ago, Deimonos, Darian and a few others did a lot of marvelous work building new areas, bosses, and such. It was my job to script it in as well as fix some other issues. Just as I finished my part, my computer crashed loosing all of my work as well as some of my hardware. Deimonos sent me a copy of the mod (ver 95a or 95b) and I started over using my laptop. About halfway into it, my laptop crashed. I lost my work again as well as the entire laptop. Well, I wasn't too keen on redoing it, yet a third time. but, I finally picked up my sorry ass and did it.

In truth, I have done little parts of the work over the last year, making it hard to remember just what is there. So, we all get a new adventure and a new set of bugs to work out.

For the most part, this is untested. There will be bugs. So be patient and tell me about the bugs you find. No matter how trivial it may seem to you, please tell me. Even if it's not related to this update, tell me please. Post your comments here or send me an email.
mailto:qwildurn@verizon.net?subject=BadLands_RPG_095_bugs

This includes new subraces. The complete list is posted here http://qwildurn.game-host.org:8080/Subrace_list.txt
There are three TRUE monsters to be play-tested. These are player-monsters only available to beta testers. See the bottom of the subrace list.

New areas: I have lost count of the number of new areas, but there is a group of four named Underground Wastelands.

New Outposts: There are five or six new Outposts to be claimed. Normally I would say, "Go find 'em!". But this time I will give you some clues. (read on). The total Outpost count is 18 now.

New monsters and Bosses. Beware, some are F*&$#@ing tough! About six new bosses, some control outposts. The Boss Count is just over 30 now. This does not include low-level area bosses such as the Green Dragon near the Smoke Shack.

New Boss drops to go with the new bosses. Please note: The Trident is +8 to make up for the broken feat: weapon focus trident (standard). The 1.69 upgrade added all the feats for the Trident, but you will be down 1 AB because of a Bioware thing. Most Boss Drops are +7, so in the end you will be even.

A new weapons shops inside Castlevania. This is a level 24 melee shop with no restrictions. It is the only shop where you can finish your Great Axe as per the standard rules of BadLands RPG. Hmm, did I mention the guard named Betty?

The fixes to old problems are endless. See BadLands RPG: Updates for the partial list.

Doom Mines boss and outpost.
Castle Sheelo boss and outpost.
Castlevania boss and outpost. Yes, to get inside the castle you must first kill Betty, then another boss awaits inside.
Undergrounds Wastelands boss and outpost.

In some cases you will need a good archer or a good rogue...but wait, I'm spoiling the fun now...

To answer an old Question: Is the Lich Quested Subrace ready yet?
Answer: Not yet. If the undead skeleton test goes well, then the Lich will be possible.

For those testing the undead skeleton... The spell scripts have not been altered YET. Only the hard-coded racial type of the player. Most of the scripts will automatically treat the subrace as undead. This mean that a heal spell will hurt the skeleton and a harm spell will heal it. Turn and Bless Weapon as well as Favored Enemy should work and need to be tested. Turn, Bless Weapon and Favored Enemy are hard-coded. Most spells are scripted and can be adjusted, but some are hard-coded. If this test gets around the hard-coding, we are in business!

Qwildurn Bluemoon,
server host of BadLands RPG

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

Hiya Blade here.

I have been inactive as far as Badlands RPG is concerned for some time now. Also this site has had little activity for some time. It has been a little while since I saw the Badlands RPG server up too.

I have been playing Dragon Age Origins (new Bioware game) on a new quad core computer and have just finished my first runthrough. Username "Fizzbangblade" if you want to send me an invite on the Bioware server.

Also I still regularly play NWN1 online, playing on Dalakora PW which is a longterm commitment for me.

Would be fun if it was possible to meet up with the old crowd over Christmas or in the New Year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year,

All the Best .........Blade :)

Problem Solved?

Two weeks ago (July 14), I posted this article Server Crashing / Not Auto-Restarting about the server and the troubles I was having finding the cause of the problem.

The last hing I changed in my blind test, was the removal of the user-made NWNX plug-in that blanks out the Player List Window at log-on. That was about a week ago and the server seems be stable now and able to recover from a crash again.

I have had a few mishaps that are non-related but could seem as if they are the same thing to the players. That is to say that I have had ISP problems causing the server to go offline for hours at a time. In the cases of ISP issues, I and the tech from Verizon were here working on it the whole time. We seem to have resolved those issues as well.

Other than the ISP thing, the server seems to be stable and able to recover from a crash on it's own again. Hopefully, I can end this story with, "And they all lived happily ever after. The End."

Internet Bandwidth (speed)

As some of you may have noticed, the server has been down for hours at a time during this last week. I have been getting my Internet from Verizon FiOS for about nine months now. Last week I had them turn on the TV service which included better Internet service. This has been nothing short of problems. In my warped little mind, it should have been as simple as "hook up a box and go home". But, after three different service technicians, countless hours of their time at my house, countless hours of my time on the phone with tech support, and them changing every piece of equipment three times, it seems to be done.

I am paying for 25 Mb/s download and 25 Mb/s upload. (25 Mega bits per second). When I had cable from Time-Warner I was paying for 5 Mb/s down and 500 Kb/s up.

That's 25/25 compared to 5/0.5. Both charge the same price per month. Time-Warner is "cable" while Verizon FiOS is "fiber optic".

My complaint to Verizon was that I thought I was not getting what I was paying for. For nine months I was paying for 15/15 and getting 15/15. With the "upgrade" to 25/25 and using the same testing tools, my results were less than the 15/15 I had been getting. Verizon has their own "tool" and it won't work with Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 8. My server uses Windows 2000 and gives me a terrible report (it showed 15/15 when I was paying for 15/15).

Basically, Fiber Optic to the consumer is so new that everybody is still learning the new stuff. I feel like a Beta Tester. Beta Testers usually get free stuff. Where is my free stuff?

There are only two tools that show my bandwidth near what I pay for.
http://www.speedtest.net/index.php
http://myspeed.visualware.com/

Now that I'm done bitching, I thought it might be interesting to see what bandwidth others are getting. Use whatever means you want and post a blurb here with your best results. Are you getting what you're paying for? Most ISP's don't want to tell you what you're paying for, so you may have a rough time finding the truth.

To explain bandwidth some:
Dial-up: is rated at 56k. In the USA, the FCC has capped it at 52k. This "56k" is shared between both download and upload. That means that if you're downloading at 40k, you have 16k available for upload.

DSL and Cable (broadband): No upper cap, goes as fast as the hardware can go. Direction is not shared. The ISP uses a throttle to limit your speed. In the fine-print of your contract is the "speed" they are selling you. A typical DSL number will be 1.5 Mb/s down and 256 Kb/s up.

T1 and T3 type connections: These are normally reserved for commercial accounts and are hundreds of dollars per month. Bandwidth is shared, down and up. If you pay for 10 Mb and are uploading 8 Mb to clients, you have 2 Mb left for download.

Verizon FiOS: This is FIBER OPTIC to the consumer. It is treated like DSL or Cable with guaranteed down/up speeds. Like Cable, maxing your download speed does not compromise your upload speed. The ISP can and will throttle back your connection unless you pay more money. Toss enough money their way and they will let you run wide-open.

Contrary to popular belief (spread by the ISP's), UPLOAD SPEED MATTERS. If you're on the WEB, it is constantly a two-way communication with one server or another. You click a link asking for a download or a new page, your request can't go "UP" any faster than your upload speed. While downloading a big file, you probably get bored and start "surfing" to find that things are slow, sluggish, LAGGY. You might blame your own computer for being old and slow. Most likely it is your upload speed that has been compromised.

While that big file is coming in, it comes in what is called "packets". Your computer is talking to the server, "I am ready for the next packet", "The last packet was damaged, please resend".

And you are asking for a new web page. This sets up a new set of packets and communication. Granted, you are using more download traffic than up, but, it is the "up" that is congested.
TRAFFIC JAM - RUSH HOUR
Most any old computer can keep up with the Internet.

The other thing that I have found is that not all hardware is the same. They all make the same claims, but they don't all perform as claimed. I own as much of my own hardware as I can. When I had cable from Time-Warner, I could double what they claimed they were selling.

Let's not overlook the countless unknown variables in the Internet. You don't know what the server is capable of, or how busy it is. You don't know how many connections between you and "The Server". I found a tool the could count Internet "hops" and counted 13 connections to a server that was 50 miles away. You don't know how many others are on the web in your area, or one of the "hops" your going through.

I know most computer users don't need to be as involved as I am. I kind have to cause I run a server (and I kind of like it). But don't you want to know if your getting what your paying for?

Server Crashing / Not Auto-Restarting

As some of you may have noticed recently, the server (game module to be specific) has been crashing and not restarting. Normally there is a third-party monitoring program (NWNX) that detects a crashed game and restarts it. For reasons unknown to me yet, this "auto-restart" has been failing.

The last thing I did was add a plug-in to blank out the player list window. I don't actually know if this is or is not the cause, but I have removed it anyway.

I prefer seeing the player list in this window. My reason is that with it blank, the server appears empty. I do agree that some of it's information is not needed and might even be considered private information that could fall into the "cheat" category.

But, since I don't know how to write for this DLL file to make it work different, it's an "all or nothing" deal. If the server starts to function correctly (recovering from a crash), this is ultimately more important.

If any of you know a bit about programing, I can get you the source code. I think it was written in C, but that just a guess.

Bitch Blade Jade

Okay, so I was really interested in trying Q's new invisible helm system and some other crafting things available on BadLands RPG. The above screen capture is my test character "Bitch Blade Jade" sporting the new invisible helmet and a custom head model that you can download and install from Q's website (see sidebar). All in all it seems to be working great and makes character customization fun.


Another thing you can do to customize your toon is talk to the Tattoo Girl in the Tattoo parlor, she allows you to change different heads and also the colors of your hair, skin, tattoos ect. Pretty cool stuff. One problem I noticed is lack of selection for choosing a new character portrait, or an option to "Keep original" (assuming thats even possible). I ended up getting stuck with some weird lizard thing as my portrait. LOL. Anyways, everything else is fun as hell and you should give it a try! (Minus the portrait changer)