June 21st, 2000, A flock of awks makes a nawk my friend.
For those of you who know UNIX, perhaps you'll recognize the quote from a well known O'Reilly book. I am almost done with an awk script that parses EverQuest logs and displays a statistical summary. Unlike the cludgey and poorly written programs for Win32 platforms, this script:
- Has no memory leaks and does not abort on scripts over 6 MB in size.
- Is over 10 times faster than EQParse.
- Can detect incidences of dual, triple, and quad attack. Actual faults within the log due to poor connections and other technical failures empirically cause up to 5% error.
June 19th, 2000, Those crazy Monks!
I just had the most hillarious read the other night. Apparently the web-master of the Dojo posted his own little rant on Kunark, and I thought it was the most hillarious thing I had ever read. Unreasonable in the extreme. In this little rant, the "Sensei" blasts Kunark and Verant for putting in all manner of useless items and features that give no benefit to the Monks whom so wholesomly deserve them. The catalyst for this is a thread by Gordon responding to allegations of a "nerf" to the Robe of Living Fungus.
I think it was that last line that prompted THE TRUTH to finally hit me tonight; try as I might I just couldn't get that sentence out of my head:
"... That's why we wouldn't intentionally give it to a monk."
So there you have it.
Oh, you wanted to know what THE TRUTH was? An expansion full of monk-only weapons too heavy for monks to wield. One of the few elite monk-only pieces of Expansion armor nerfed into total uselessness. Last year's FD nerf. Last year's Guise nerf. The continued back-seating of our planar armor problems. These ridiculous, utterly-useless disciplines (and the shoddy, piss-poor way they were implemented).
What conclusion do you draw? Exactly.
Well, what I conclude is the following:
- The robe was incredibly imbalancing. Combined with Mend, it would make Monks totally independent of any class for downtime healing. The rate of healing would compete even with meditation for mana gain. It would be akin to giving Warriors the ability to Gate (fake Cobalt breastplate anyone?)
- The Monk-only weapons were too powerful to simply be light enough for anyone to use them regardless of armor choices. Players may complain all they wish about how if the weapon exists, they have a right to wield it with no restrictions, but that simply isn't true.
- The Feign Death nerf was done so because Monks were capable of exploiting the "unintended consequences" of said ability to the extreme. Not only was power-leveling incredibly easy (FD = Mem Blur back then), but it also was a 100% guarenteed ticket to safety. It made Gate and Evac look like child parlour tricks.
- The Guise of the Deceiver was never intended to be used that way. Even if it was, it certainly never hurt Monks nearly as much a large races without Infravision, who needed both abilities (Barbarians?).
- Planar armor not being too great is not a unique problem to Monks alone. Every class as a set of armor in Kunark that is better in AC than their Plane's armor. The best armor for Monks happens to be not in the Planes, what is there to complain about? Monks already had very competitive AC's to begin with, even with their non-Planar armor. Having the armor available out of the planes certainly makes the task of getting it much easier. Why are they obssessed with making the Planes the pinnacle of achievement?
- Disciplines have always been stated from day 1 of develpment to be non-significant, lest Verant upset the class balance they claimed to have achieved before the expansion. To expect anything more is unrealistic.
June 16th, 2000, How to mislead a mob
Gordon Wrinn kindly took the time to post again in response to Warrior complaints. Of course, his response was just as vague and mis-leading as the other posts the Dojo is so fond of whining about. His post in essence displays several characteristics of propaganda. Here's why. Below is the complete test of Gordon's post.
Warriors are Offensivly WEAK
I disagree that they are "Weak". They rank third in overall melee damage, with rogues and monks trading places for the number 1 spot depending on circumstances.
Warriors are Defensivly AVERAGE
I disagree here as well, and would rank them defensively "High". Their ability to have much higher AC and Hitpoints than any other class gives them some serious advantages in the defensive department.
Warriors have higher downtime than ANY class.
Only if they don't have healer support. If they do, which they always should, their downtime is no more than that of the healer/buffer supporting them.
Warriors are the most dependant on healing classes.
I'll buy that. Of course, I've never met a healer who didn't like warriors either.
As a 54 Warrior I see the ONLY place that warriors are "powerful" is in groups, and while we are better than other classes in that aspect we are NO WHERE near as balanced in the solo/small group aspects that make the "balance" of Versatility playable.
This is as intended. Warriors weren't designed for solo play, so weren't "balanced" in that respect. A warrior is always expected to be in a group of some kind.
-Gordon
First of all, Gordon states that Warriors rank "third" in overall melee damage. What may not be obvious is how far behind do Warriors lag behind? Do they deal out 1 dmg for a Monk/Rogue's every 10, or do they deal out 9? The statement Warriors are in "third" means nothing. If Rogues and Monks deal out 1000 damage a second, but Warriors only deal out 10 a second, with hybrids dealing out 9 a second, Gordon's statement would still be true. Look, Warriors are in third place, with hybrids behind in 4th. This theoritical situation is obviously unbalanced, but Gordon's vaccuous statement is still true.
Secondly, Gordon states that Warriors have the highest AC than any other class. If anyone has ever seen a screenshot of a Monk at level 50 before Kunark, you might have noticed their AC is above 1000, where as before, Warriors could not even touch 1000. As for hit points, a Monk typically has 66% of the hit points a Warrior does. Add in Mend and at any given 6 minute interval, a Monk can have up to 83% of a Warrior's hit points. In other words, Monks have higher AC, 83% of the hit points, and do more damage than a Warrior. Sounds balanced to me!
Thirdly, Gordon states that "Only if they don't have healer support. If they do, which they always should ...". Does Gordon blindly expect every player of EverQuest to not only know this of the Warrior class the moment they begin play, but that even those who accept this can only live a life with a dedicated partner? Gordon has effectively stated that Warriors have no existence without a healer.
Gordon has always said that versatility must be balanced with group usefulness. Offensive power, defensive power, solo'ing ability, all must be considered. Consider this, Monks have higher AC's than Warriors for the great majority of the game (at least until level 50), effectively have 83% of the hit points of a Warrior, do well over 125% of the damage of an equal appropriately equipped Warrior, and have numerous group useful abilities (i.e. Feign pull, self heal, etc.). Sound balanced?
June 15th, 2000, Results from the Test of Steel!
As predicted weeks ago, my close friend Talorien Treantfist has won the Test of Steel on Veeshan. Weeks and weeks of predictable statements, and all were true. Why you may ask? The answer is quite simple, Talorien is a Monk.
For a year, the great debate has been discussed about the true roles of the Warrior and Monk in relation to each other, as well as what changes should be made if at all. At first, both sides had their share of agitators for change, as well as a verbal portion who advocated the status quo. With time, came the "Warrior's" patch, which granted additional hit points, innate magic resistance, and critical hits. Eventually the "Feign Death" patch came in, further reducing the convenience of Feign Death. The stances changed, but the positions are the same, some advocate change, some advocate the new status quo.
But what was it that allowed Talorien to win? Was it the rules of the contest? No armor allowed, and only a fine steel weapon in your hands? Obviously these rules are extremely biased towards Monks. They have the highest Defense skill caps of any class, in addition to have an innate AC bonus for being a Monk. Naked, a Monk has a greater proportion of his armored AC than any other class, and their AC's are among the highest in Norrath, ranking even with Warriors (full suits of Cobalt have yet to be compared). Additionally, their 1H blunt skills have the highest cap in Norrath, ending at a respectable 240 before level 50. The last thing that clinched it was Talorien was level 48, the highest level allowed in his level 40-48 bracket. Clearly victory was his alone as the sole level 48 Monk participating.
But was it the rules that allowed him victory? Or does the spectre class imbalance raise itself again? A few days before the Test of Steel (even before the Robe of the Lost Circle was upgraded), Talorien tested the waters by dueling various level 50+ Warriors while on a Plane of Hate run. The results are suprising. Against a level 53 Warrior named "Blanky", dressed in a suit of Cobalt, Indicolite, and some Crafted (I have not been able to contact him and ask how much), wielding a Jasarth Trident and a Springwood Club, Talorien won three out of three times, two of which with 3 bars of life remaining. At level 47. Obviously, something is quite wrong, for Blanky can hardly be considered poorly equipped.
Verant has always said that PvP prowess was no indication of class balance, in addition, there is group usefulness, and solo'ing ability. But the point remains, is this really fair? Warriors may claim to be the "tanks par excellance", but the claim is far from proven with comparable hybrid AC and hit points, in addition to superior Monk AC. Monks may claim partial titles in all three applications, being indespensible within certain zones or runs, in addition to being extremely able to solo. The verdict lies in Verant's court now that the results are out.
For a transcript of Talorien's interview, you may find the log here.
June 14th, 2000, Why are all the idiots on my server?
Well, to be honest, they aren't. There are bound to be variations in the number of idiots, morons, deviants, and degenerates on every server, but there is a 67% chance that any one server will fall within one standard sigma (deviation) of the mean.
Of course, this brings up another point, just what is it that makes an idiot? Let us consider a single case of idiocy, usage of the argument "I'm high level than you, so I must know: A) All there is to know about EverQuest, and B) I must be right". Now, what is it that makes these people idiots? The answers are remarkably simple (except to them).
On point A, the answer is pretty much self evident. Regardless of how much you play, you can never know it all. You cannot memorize the vertex map of every zone, you can't memorize the spawn list of every zone, and you can't remember every nuance of every class. Why? Because you do not have access to the raw data files, you only have access to whatever random elements chosen from those sets are presented to you within the game.
On point B, the answer is a bit more complex. If someone is 1 level higher, does hit automatically translate into the fact he/she has experience the lower level brethren cannot access? Obviously not, unless it happens to be levels 2 and 1 respectively. Of course, there is a world of difference between say, level 15 and level 45, but the whole point is that this requires human evaluation. Of course, the differences between a level 40 and a level 60 are tiny at best, except for certain classes whose whole existence shifts beyond 50, such as the melee based ones.
Sadly enough, there really is no answer to the question, "Why are all the idiots on my server?". I guess you'll just have to adjust. Until there is a way to screen offspring for desired traits (such as common sense, rudimentary intelligence, etc.), we'll all just have to cope.
June 13th, 2000, Sad but Funny
I forgot to mention this earlier, but I did find something very funny from the Gameplay forum via EQVault earlier. It turns out that a player is complaining that Verant changed his name from Temujin to Enic.
Well, I had my first experience with the naming commandos recently. It appears a Guide on my server just happened to be a history major, as he told me my name, Temujin, was spelled so closely to Ghengis Khan's birth name (Temojin, or some such) as to violate policy.
The fact that I had been unaware when choosing Temujin that the birthname of a 700 year dead conqueror is translated from Ancient Mongolian into modern English with a spelling close enough to my own as to impinge upon the roleplaying experience of people named Jabronie and Jigglypuff is just inexcusable.
However, would I to be so crass as to think perhaps I was not in the wrong here, I might say something like this:
A matter as significant as a forced name change after many levels of play should not be as arbitrary as all that. My reputation, in this case a good one, is now shot. Every friendslist I was on is now unable to contact me.
There's a word for rules that don't apply uniformly to all players - unfair.
Well, there are other words for that as well, but I will stick with unfair.
Enic (nee' Temujin)
Xegony Server
Gordon Wrinn replies in the following post:
Like any situation that requires human judgement, there will be cases where mistakes are made and where the goals of the underlying policy are not met. That's what happened here.
The spirit of the name policy, particularly the section about names of historical significance and from popular media, is to judge names based upon knowledge that an average and reasonable person would have. This covers the ever-so-popular names like Gandalf and Merlin.
In your case, the change was definitely unjust, and I've coordinated with the Head GM to restore your chosen name. We sincerely apologize for the incident.
-Gordon
The basic complaints outlined in the thread are as follows:
- Verant's GM's have better things to do, such as servicing other more "legitimate" complaints, and providing more dynamic quests.
- The name was "obscure" enough that this incident should not have taken place, inconveniencing the player.
But consider this, Temujin (that is the correct spelling) was the start of an empire that lasted not only far longer than the Roman empire, but also held over 56 different ethnic groups together, as well as claimed over 3 times the land mass and population of Roman Empire at the Empire's own peak. In fact, his empire still stands today, as the People's Republic of China. In all regards, Temujin and his descendants outdid the greatest Roman achievements, being the first to develop the crossbow, mechanized war machines (i.e. catapults, etc.), gun powder, sanitatory engineering, etc. Yet history books give him nothing more than a foot note to the glory of the Roman Empire. Using his name in EQ is even more of an offense than using the name "Caesar".
Despite the lack of understanding or knowledge on this subject (showing most EQ players didn't even graduate with even moderately accurate basic information in world history) let us examine another philosophical point. Because a greater offense is not punished, does this mean we should ignore the lesser offenses? Suppose a great murder is committed and goes unpunished (i.e. O.J. Simpson). Does this mean we should ignore all the lesser crimes (muggings, pick pocketing, tax evasion, sexual harassment, etc.) simply to focus all available resources on solving only those greater crimes? The obvious answer in this analogy is no. And likewise, even though names such as "Han Solo" and "Darth Maul" are wrong, we should not ignore the offense in the names "Temujin" or "Caesar".
The right response is to change his name (which Verant sadly changed back, a clear example of caucasian-centric thinking) and then begin to take care of all the "Iamagumby" and "Jedi Knight"s in the world.
June 7th, 2000, Quality over Quantity
Recently, I've begun to read a variety of message boards for the various classes in Norrath, and I've begun to notice one thing in common, that ALL classes have in common. They are full of idiots. Without variation, half the posts are complete garbage. For your amusement, here is an entire rant present on behalf of the EverQuest "community". I invite you all to read, be offended, and actually think for yourselves. Enjoy!
Kesrin showed me a site that he goes to by the name of The Dojo. If you want an excellent example of yellow journalism (not to mention the background is a nice shade of brown), then vist them, you might be (not so) pleasantly surprised. The "Sensei", as he likes to style himself, fails to grasp a few subtle points about the game (such as the fact the game is not made to have Monks as the "uber"-class).
There are two funny occurances that I notice. First of all, the Gameplay forum, or rather, Whineplay as coined by The Dojo, has a great deal of class complaints. The Dojo makes great sport of how all the other classes (except Monks of course!) do nothing but whine. The Sensei even sponsors a little contest, called the Smak-Down. Funny how all the "whines" are from "other classes", when all that's posted on the site are Monks complaining bout Shiverback, cured silk, Warriors having good armor, and the weight of their weapons.
The second funny occurance I notice is in any message board with Monks. Can you believe how often I see the phrase "Monks do more damage than Warriors, as they rightly should", or "Monks do more damage than Warriors, as it should be". That's about it. Makes me want to reach for that broadsword and smack the bright boy on the head. Well duh! They should! No s--t! Mind telling me ... WHY?. But, at least Monks aren't alone in stupidity. Ever other class in Norrath suffers from it.
On the side, if a Monk happens to give some justification for this magical "law" of Fantasy games (that Monks should do more damage than Warriors), they happen to pull out NOT some reasonable game balance issue, no! They pull out REALISM of all things! And this is where it gets even funnier. Can you believe they're trying to tell you that a man who weighs over 140 lbs. can somehow move his entire mass faster and with more accuracy than it takes someone else to move a 3 lb. sword? And of course, you get the standard load of bull about how Medieval or Renaissance swords weighed between "5 to 12 lbs". Sure, if you happen to have a blade with the thickness of a brick. All the standard "Martial Arts" arguments are pure bulls--t. All the usual "I studied Martial Arts for 10 years, with a world famous master", or "Ever heard of Dim Mak? It's a real phoenomenon [sp] in China!". First of all, Dim Mak is not Mandarin. That only really exposes the tip of their ignorance iceberg. What these brilliant fellows don't seem to realize is that "Martial Arts (TM)" never worked. The Japanese were a bit smarter and began to use the Katana a lot more in their Medieval period. The Han tried their "kung-fu" against foreign invasions, and it sure didn't work against the rampaging cavalry of the Mongols, it didn't work against the banded mail and swords of the Manchu in 100 AD, and it sure didn't stop the French, German, British, and American muskets in the 1800's (the two Opium Wars, and the war of 8 powers). Over 14 dynasties spanning 4000 years were ruled by the SWORD, not the FIST. It has never historically worked.
On the Warrior's front, I recently found what claims to be the most "open-minded and largest community" of Warriors in EverQuest. This claim is almost ludicrous, as there are "Goodbye" posts left and right from posters saying they're tired of having the same 6 veteran posters do nothing but agree with each other and continue to insist their subjective opinions represent the whole breadth of the EverQuest experience. If you want an amusing conversation, I invite any of you to tell one of them they are wrong, and see if you get a reply that even pertains to your original point (besides the oh so uninspired and undetailed "You're wrong" reply).
For those of you who are into a real challenge, try getting one of the many "sheep" (you know who you are) to actually think for themselves, and not just blindly agree with posts from "seasoned veterans" (Another wonderful invention of the message board community. Let's give credance to opinions based upon HOW OFTEN SOMEONE POSTS RATHER THAN THEIR ACTUAL POST!!!! HOW OBVIOUS!). It's painfully obvious that these "sheep" don't even read the posts, because if they did, they'd point out that the "seasoned veterans" really give replies that have NOTHING to do with the original post. You won't believe how many threads end up like this. It's like the entire "Warrior community" failed Reading Comprehension 101. My friend Talorien theorizes that message board readers simply role-play without reading it. I have to agree.
May 17th, 2000, Branin the Carpenter
Just finished moving all my belongings from Halas to Freeport, my new adopted home. The weather is much nicer, although the air and water do not seem quite as fresh or ... clean. In addition, it is much easier to find buyers for all the equipment and goods I pick up on my travels. For all its dirt, Freeport is certainly the perfect merchant's bazaar. Just the other night, while roaming the Plains of Karana on some ridiculous errand, I finally finished the last piece of furniture for my study, a wonderful oakwood desk. I'm very proud of it! Ye can find a painting of it here. I'll be updating the library more often, although I must disappear for another week on a trip to an undiscovered continent.
Ye can find all the old news under the archive section, and the captions for paintings have been filled in!
May 8th, 2000, Kunark screenshots, back from sabbatical
Obviously I have been very delinquent in maintaing my library, and I must apolgize. I have been spending some time in Kunark, and have posted 12 screenshots, some of which include that wonderful land. In addition, I'll be able to update this site more often in the coming times.
April 21st, 2000, Fixed the numbers counter
Finally fixed the problem with the hits counter being horizontally squished. Seems the new caps for Ruins of Kunark still appear to place Warriors even closer to what Monks will cap at. Previously, the caps had gaps of anywhere between 20 to 40 points. Now, they appear to differ by at most 12 points, with one lone exception, the Dodge skill (gap of 60 points to a mere 55!).
Ruins of Kunark looks to be a comprehensive solution to the sort of end-game enui we all suffer from, where leveling and fighting becomes quite boring for all classes simply due to a lack of variety. We'll see if Verant fixed some of the Warrior complaints that their class really has nothing to do except hit the taunt key.
April 16th, 2000, Quick update
I am very well aware of the fact I have not updated this site in a long long time. It has a small following of friends Kesrin and I have met but that doesn't make it any less important. Truth of the matter was we're both busy. If ye want to take a look at what we're doing, try looking here. And, this is the best part, we're getting actual academic credit for this.
March 10th, 2000, "The" Monk Board closes doors, more Warrior
theories
I've been keeping tabs on the various Monk boards along with Kesrin, and we have some very extraordinary news. Apparently the moderator for the oldest and most respected Monk board shut down his site in his anger over A) Not being recognized as the true creator of the Monk community, and B) Not one of his board users willing to give him various high level equipment to help his character out (i.e. Flowing Black Silk Sash, etc.) Check out the board or you can read the actual message Korzon put up here. Unfortunately, before Kesrin's eyes, Korzon locked, and then deleted the thread where he claimed to have created the Monk community.
As a side note, there is an interesting experience chart generator pretty much sums up my opinion of why the classes are relatively imbalanced. Although the data needed to generate these curves is unethically obtained, it is important. Frankly, I've seen first hand that this data is very accurate, and the formulas correct. Notice how the Ogre or Troll Warrior requires at most 90% of what a Human Monk requires to reach level 50. This could explain why some Warriors feel limited, they deliberately are. I'm guessing Verant's philosophy is that every class should have at least one role they excel at the best, but depending on how much experience you need to 50, you may excel at more than one role. Warriors being at the bottom of the pile get only one role: doorstop.