+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The Olympia Times issue g2-100 | | January 12, 1999 | | | | turn 100 359 players http://www.pbm.com/ | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+Questions, comments, to play: info@pbm.com
Olympia PBEM
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Player-contributed press
Be it known that the Realm of Khazhad-dum doth be in search of goodly folk to assist in the growth of mine Realm. Be ye a Mason, Forester, Trader or other peaceful sort, an be near to Harn or Port Aurnos, send thee a missive an we shall endeavor to entice thee to come hither.
-- House of Aekinskald [hj8]
The Brotherhood of the Red God is currently unavailable for major work due to the large number of contracts we are engaged in. The Brotherhood is looking for new Warriors and other nobles who wish to take the Oath of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood accepts individual nobles as well as whole factions into the order. If you are looking for a life of action and adventure then join the Brotherhood and see the world maybe even other worlds. Promotion for brave and resourceful men is quick and the spoils of war are large.
Distance is not an object as we are currently operating in most areas of Provinia and some of the other continents. Transport can be arranged.
Please visit our web site at www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1843/borg.html or contact us at asgardian@bigfoot.com
May the Red God smile upon you.
-- Wodan [d987]
What do you mean you don't know why the Musketeers have got involved? Have you been in a cave? First you kill 2 of your 3 nieghbors, then your lawless leader proclaims his son will rule all Olympia. Come on did you expect us to await the arrival of your armies? Make no mistake we are well aware of your several concealed Nobels in our lands before we announced we were entering the frey. Obviosly your armies were already preparing to invade.
-- Lord Foul [4172]
Rumors
In conjunction with the Traveler's Guide, we have published Maps showing the size and position of the twelve regions of Olympia and the claims made on these regions. They can be viewed on the Encyclopedia Olympia pages at:
http://www.spiretech.com/~jeffh/olympia/
Any who wish to report errors or clarifications to their territory should respond to the address below.
Questing:
Rather than repeat some of excellent work on questing, the web page available from the Hanover Consortium at:
http://members.aol.com/phen376022/quest.htm
provides some excellent information. It provides a guide to the number of soldiers/crossbowmen needed to defeat both average and maximum stacks of opponenets for each questing location.
Bugs:
We feel it is more important to publicize the latest list of known bugs published on the g2-list this weekend. Our apologies to those who are on the g2-list for the duplication. The actual list is at:
http://www.pbm.com/oly/vol1/1965.html
We will provide a brief summary and some discussion of implications below. Note that we have only included the bugs we feel are important, and there is some additional discussion on the actual list.
>The Survive Fatal Wounds skill is effective even if only partial >learned. >(source: various posters to the G2 mailing list)
One of the most discussed bugs. SFW does not cost a noble point to learn, and apparently works with as few as 1 day out of 28 studied.
>Healing potions only cure disease. The rules state that: "The >character may also receive a random increase in their health rating." >It appears that this increase is always zero. >(source: lindahl@pbm.com)
A bug that allowed healing potions to heal all wounds has been fixed, but now healing potion do not heal wounds at all. The cure disease ability is still useful for those nobles who have been wounded.
>A noble that has paid NP(s) to begin study of a skill, but is >killed before fully learning that skill, does not return the NP(s) >for the partially learned skill when the body dissolves or is >Laid to Rest. >(source: bpenright@mindspring.com)
One of the more dangerous bugs. Be sure to complete studies in Beastmastery, Religion, and the various Magic category skills before putting a noble at risk.
>The "Fierce Winds" spell always fails with the message: >Storm XXXX is not a rain storm. >(source: apenney@lpr.com.au)
Very little impact on most factions, and easy to plan around (i.e. don't use the spell).
>EXECUTE does not give the body to the executor as stated in >the rules; the body in fact appears in the province. >(source: anonymous)
Little impact on most factions. Those who want the bodies need to EXPLROE in the province to find the dead bodies of the slain.
>Ship landings and [dis]embarking are visible in Fog. >(source: MrWayne@mindspring.com)
An annoyance to those who wish to be secretive, but little impact on others.
>Various critters identified as "beasts" in the rules cannot >be bred with the "Breed Beasts" skill. For example, the >command "breed 81 81" always fails. >(source: bron-oly2@bronze.corp.sgi.com)
We have not failed breeding any of the beasts listed in the rules under Capture Beasts in Battle or Use Beasts in Battle. We have also had success breeding domestic beasts such as horses and oxen. Although it was possible to breed ratspiders in g1, it does not appear to be an option in g2.
>BREED takes one day less when you are a journeyman or better, >while the supposedly equivalent "USE 654" takes one day less >when you are an adept or better. >(source: bron-oly2@bronze.corp.sgi.com)
An annoyance, but easily avoiding by always using "BREED" until you reach adept status.
>Resurrections do not cost the priest a NP. Instead, an attempt >is made to charge the priest 1000 gold per noble point that is >invested in the body. However, if the priest is *not* holding >enough gold, the resurrection proceeds anyway at no charge, while >if the priest *is* holding enough gold, then the resurrection is >aborted. >(source: jdgbobr@piglet.cc.utexas.edu, lindahl@pbm.com, et. al.)
While we think that the NP charge was a bit excessive, we agree that resurrection should not be as cheap as it is. Until this bug is fixed, use poor priests for resurrections
>Farcasting is not applicable to all spells. It is known for example, >that Aura Blast and Dissipate Storm may be Farcast. And that Curse >Noncreator Loyalty may not be Farcast. No complete list exists; >additional information is welcomed. (I know that in *G1*, it was >possible to Farcast "Heal" and "Summon Wind/Rain/Fog", but I cannot >confirm this for G2.) >(source: anonymous)
It makes sense to us that some spells (such as Curse Noncreator Loyalty) would not work with Farcast. In our opinion, this might be an intended feature of the game rather than a bug.
>Control Artifacts: >If you receive an artifact that controls a Savage/Undead/Skeleton/Orc >from another player, then 1 NP is transferred (just as if the >controlled unit was e.g. a bribed contract noble). It does NOT cost >a NP to initially find the artifact via a QUEST. If the controlled >unit dies, you do NOT get a NP back, even if it cost you one to obtain >via a transfer as above. > >Controlled units inherently know both Fight to the Death and Use >Beasts in Battle.
Think hard before accepting a control artifact from another faction.
Again, check the link above to the actual bug list for more information.
-- Encyclopedia Olympia
Next: Hades
Submissions or suggestions may be sent to encoly@hotmail.com. Do not expect a reply, as the editors wish to remain anonymous.
The Vulture has spotted a lot of soon-to-be carnage on Camaris. Thousands of bodies will soon lie in the streets of Cormyr. I've heard that the Eaglets will betray the Lords and aid their neighbors, Plato, in this glorious (and bloody) battle. Meanwhile, the Couchketeers appear to have abandoned their Atalan holdings. They finally got what they deserved up there. Good thing they're taking the Lords to task on Provinia. They've conquered one castle and will soon have two more. With their disappointing losses elsewhere, a split was inevitable (between the suicidal and sane factions) if those losses continued.
The REAL Vulture
>Ugh, I hate it when somebody wins.
It's not over yet, comrade. The path to victory (forced upon us, I would claim) has a lot of bumps and bodies left.
Know this, invaders:
If you land on our turf, we'll hunt you down and dismember you and steal your dog. We're much larger than we seem and we haven't been making baskets for the past 50 months. There's a 2000 troop stack reserved for your castle, dingleberry.
The cat is out of the bag, or was that a dog? The Murderous Maddog has been identified. DQ5-The Dogs. Hi Don oops I mean Maddog. -MIA-
So many horsee's. What I want to know is who is going to clean up after them.
Hmmm was is this about super powers? An interesting merger is LOTCD.
Lords of the Crimson Dragons.
This could spell the end to PLATO (Pathetic Lossers And Totally Obselete.)
Thank God for Sir Codric and the LotC! Finally we have a true Dark Lord to oppose, So would all the Hobbits of Olympia please stop having tea-parties and find the crack of doom!
I'd like to take issue with the concept of this game as having been "won". Certainly there is presently a clear military dominance, but many of the changes made to this world of Olympia were meant to prevent the holder of military dominance from completely foreclosing other avenues of play. If your goal was to rule all of Olympia by military force, then you've lost, but that goal was never, in my opinion (and the opinion of others, including former members of the AOO, I am told), actually achievable. Olympia is too large for anything but local dominance.
Prehaps your viewpoint is warped by your own failures. I have gained far more territory than I ever intended, and than I can hope to ultilize or control effectively. (I do have a series of plans for ultilizing and controlling it nonetheless, but you'll forgive me for not explaining the fatal flaws in those plans.) Based on that, I assure you, world dominance is essentially a joke. Fortunately, I never wanted to rule the world. Your game may be over, but mine has barely begun.
-You know who I am