Showing posts with label IRC. Show all posts

I haven't posted much in the last few days because to be honest there hasn't been much to write about. I also haven't played much except to get a hybrid character to a point where he can farm CoF passes.

The game itself is running, sort of. Maps on some servers just seem to die for no reason and it can leave players trapped sometimes for hours at a time. It would be nice if the GM/Admin types were watching the forum more closely because people do report the situations, but nothing quick seems to happen.

On the positive side [GM]Nevermore now has ownership of the IRC channel and he's been showing up regularly, like, when he's at work. That helps to get things fixed, so if you've got a problem you can always stop by. He's most often there during the European evening and late night hours.

In other news, one of our readers re-posted an item from this blog to the G1 forum. The post has been taken down already. I answered in the thread too, asking people to not re-post entire items to another forum or even another blog. People get creative here and often times our posts are not accepted under the Rules of Conduct in other locations. G1 has some pretty strict rules actually and I would guess over 75% of our stuff would be deleted if it were posted there too.

It's their forum, their rules, let's respect that. They do not complain at all about our material here, so long as it stays here. That's fair. If you find something funny here and you would like to share it please take a sample of the post, and include a link back to this blog.

There's not much else to say really. It's been a month since The Great Acclaim Scam Event. We still don't have our characters back and G1 is being awfully coy about that topic. The promised manual rebuilds are nowhere on the priority list either. Right now, mountains are in no danger of being moved.

So, if I haven't seen you game, what have you been up to?

- SpearDriver2

For some reason a rather large number of people still haven't gotten it through their thick skulls that the GamersFirst headquarters is located in Irvine, California and that's the timezone they work in too. They have a small number of employees who are available at all times to help with in-game issues, but Hyperion isn't one of those people. For me, and for most of you Bardo players that means that his daily updates will be posted on the forums some time late over night, and we'll be able to read them the next day.

Today is Tuesday. The Monday Daily Update is now posted.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because yesterday we had a rather large number of people who I know live in the European time zones show up in the IRC channel wanting to know if there was an update yet, at a time of day when most of the USA, including Hyperion, would still be warm in bed. One of those people was even a former high level VGM in the game. How in hell can these people suddenly forget the facts about time zones?

And that's just my first rant for the day!

As a normal part of the discussion in the IRC channel, I gave my opinion as to what our daily update would likely contain, along the lines of "yet another version of soon, but we did manage to fix the input form so that you can claim all your characters". Strangely enough, that's exactly what Hyperion's post today says.

I can't imagine that that's all they got done yesterday, but I can imagine that that's all they're going to tell us, daily. Quite frankly they are treating us like mushrooms, in the same way that Acclaim usually did. Yes, mushrooms. You keep them in the dark, feed them bullshit and harvest them when you're ready.

The very real issue of getting the database back isn't being addressed. The very real issue of name-squatters isn't being addressed, and there is still no solid date for the very simplest start of a server, any server, so that people can at least play the game while we wait for our own characters. In a couple of days it will be Friday and the start of our 4th weekend without the game.

Hyperion, the longer we have to wait for answers to real issues, and a restart, the fewer players you'll have from the old community. That can't be a part of the plan for a profitable game. Can it?

- SpearDriver

We've just had one of our founding members leave the game, and it's a sad thing for me. There were only a couple of us left. I understand why RedCross is leaving. There is very little left for him to do in the game. He has played a long time and even finished training all skills on both a healer and a hybrid, yes the reflection skill too. And of course he did an incredible job with the Vagabond Sword, to become the highest leveled vagabond ever. He did almost all of the graphic design on this blog (I'm only the writer), and he was even a VGM for a while.

The thing is, he's not the only one leaving the game. I estimate that as many as 30% of Bardo players have left the game in the last 2 months. I can measure that several ways actually.

My own band was full before I went on vacation in the middle of April. Here we are now in June and I only have 28 players. I regularly remove low level players who aren't active for a month, but in this case it hasn't just been low level players. My best disciple ever is gone too, after easily making GB8. I had some real hopes for that guy. But, 12 out of 40 players are gone and that's 30%.

Many of you probably know about the load-o-meter website. I check it regularly to see what the server loads are. It was only a couple of months ago that Bardo server loads during event times were over 90%. That caused it's own problems too, like the constant crashing of the LiaoDong map. These days we might get to 60% server load. That's a lot of players gone from the game.

The last one that I can tell you about is the numbers of readers of this blog. We used to regularly attract 1100 individual readers per month. We get big spikes on days when the game gets Acclaim'ed Up and almost all come here directly, so they have the site bookmarked. These days we get about 800 readers each month and again that's almost 30% of our readers gone.

Acclaim and that retarded Korean game developer can share the blame for all of this. Indy21 doesn't seem to be able to produce new material on a timely basis and let's not even dream of a bug-free game. Acclaim gets their share though too. The GM support team is almost non-existent these days. One VGM told me in chat last night that only one of the GM's has even logged in, in several days. Playdom took over the servers and I hope they take over the support work too.

Let's face it, if something isn't done to keep our interest and players keep leaving at this rate, this game is going to be not much fun to play.

We now have a direct link from this blog to the IRC channel for 9Dragons on the GameSurge Network. Up there in the links below the 9Dragons logo is a fast IRC client connection by way of Mibbit. Click that, select a name and you'll be chatting with us in seconds.

TheHistorian might like to claim that it is an "unofficial channel" but the simple fact is this is the fastest way to speak to people who know what is going on with the game, and if you're patient and polite you'll even be able to speak directly to GM's and Volunteers. The coverage is not 24/7, but it's pretty good for the Bardo server.

I hope to see you there.

- SpearDriver

Even with BluFlash gone, the rumors keep coming in and we've never been wrong yet, so here comes the next one. There is a new patch coming. It's being tested now but there is no delivery date on it yet.

One comment was, "higher level players will be happy". So maybe they are getting some new material, or perhaps a new dungeon. The other comment was, no "there isn't a new map with this one." So we'll just have to wait and see. One of these days I might even be one of those high-level players.

- SpearDriver

"Lord Mara’s Revenge Event"

Like the previous 5x event VGMs will come around bleeding you to death, but this time we have 6x instead of 5x So prep up for the event either with Cards or manuels

The 7hour event will begin on saturday, at 2pm GMT, this part of the event will be 7hours of 2x exp "WOW" Prepare for some long grind or buff lvlin'
During that event there will be a 6x exp event for 90min, like i stated above the VGMs will be "posessed" and will come around the maps poisoning you.
30min of 6x at 3pm GMT,
1hour of 6x at 6pm GMT
There is no way of fighting the poison or attacking the VGMs, so bring some pancreas or check in to the inn closest to you.

Along side this event there is a 30% discount on ALL item mall items lasting 25-27th.
Good luck all!!
If there are any updates to this event i will post it asap.
,,\/, =(^_^)= Peace Out

I keep my laptop open on the #9dragons channel for a reason. Every so often we get some great tips and information from the Acclaim management team. It's not hard, just be polite with them. You can be critical, and even sarcastic too. They will accept that, but at all times be polite.

This is what I learned tonight;

There is a new patch coming, probably this week, but there will be no new PvP material.

There are some new quests coming, from the Black Market of all places.

The Coin Mall will start to offer permanent deco's, but I didn't get any further details on that topic. I would love to have permanent 2 slot deco. I mentioned that it would be nice if these were tradeable. If they are cheap enough I'll do quite a bit of testing too.

Bluflash also mentioned the words "golden box spawns", and gave no details, and also mentioned CoC guild passes...

Bluflash also said that no changes were planned to refinement rates, and there were no changes planned to the Ice Map mobs, which means that warriors can continue to wait until something else freezes over before they can grind again.

There are some plans for a master/student game relationship, where a higher level mentor accepts a lower level student. In exchange for advice and in-game help, the master gains as well. No more details were given on this idea, but I like it. We do this sort of thing in league all the time.

There were a couple more items, but nothing that was confirmed. Quite frankly, if half of what was talked about actually comes to us this week, I'll be too busy explaining stuff to people, so please continue to read the blog.

- SpearDriver

As you know, a few us meet in the #9dragons IRC channel regularly, where we get to chat with the VGM's and sometimes a GM or two will stop by. Even BluFlash makes it a habit to check in and see what's going on. He's actually a fairly nice guy if you just stay polite with him. If you do that, you might hear a whole bunch of stuff from the staff.

The latest rumors are that we are getting an Independence Day Event. That's this Saturday, the 4th of July. It's not confirmed but a couple of the staff have said that a good discount at the coin mall is highly likely, and that we're probably going to get a nice XP event as well. A whole day event with 2x for experience and 4x for skills is possible too. That would be really nice considering what we've been getting from Lucky Cricket lately, and we have a lot of manuals available if you need a few.

Other rumors include news on the Jade Separator from the coin mall. It's not released yet, but should be released "soon". "Really Soon", said one of the VGM's. This item will not add a slot to a blank weapon. It will "double the number of slots to a maximum of 4". So if you've got a one-slot weapon, you'll get a two-slot weapon. If you have a two-slot weapon, you'll get a four-slot weapon. A Hermit three-slot weapon can only be improved to a four-slot weapon, because that is the maximum.

As of right now that Jade Separator cannot be used on refined weapons, and again, rumor says that GM Acid is trying to get that changed. This might be why the Jade Separator has not been released yet. Nobody has mentioned what these are likely to cost, but I wouldn't count on them being cheap.

And for our last piece of news, we're going to try to do our own league event on Sunday the 5th of July. I would like to arrange a Karma Event for our members on both sides. Lowby characters often have a hard time to get good or bad karma because it's often hard to find people to trade with. If we all meet at the event stage at 1400 GMT (2 hours before the normal XP event...), we can try to match people up and off you go to BP to trade some karma. I'll be there with masks if people need them, and we'll try to bring the two donor characters as well. Maybe we can give away a few items from there as well.

If anyone has an idea for an event please let us know, and if there is anything in particular you need, like an elixir or two or a better weapon, don't be afraid to ask. We might not have what you need, but it never hurts to ask.

Oops! Change in play!!! Get your XP or Drop Cards cheaper this weekend. [I'll be buying XP cards!]

UPDATE: Sat, July 4th – 50% Off Exp. and Drop Bonus Item Cards
- Level up faster with these experience and drop boosters!
- One day only!

Second Update: For 24 hours on Saturday July 4th, we'll have a 2x experience boost.

- SpearDriver

Hey all, i been offline lately, busy studying for my tests -_-
I went online to try tell others but wheneva i went on no-one "important" was online to tell.
I have a few minutes every now and then wen i log in.
For now i am kinda offline.
When it hits my summer holidays i should be back online!

Pinky_Lu look after my 500 def set lol.
Yoshimitsune Look after the league for us ^^
SpearDriver keep up the good work
Big sis take care

Gratz to all who lvl, play nice.

GG HF GL

=(^,.,^)= Bardonian...

Hey all. This post mainly affects the white DCed HL, but as you may well know half term is coming up so i have one week off. I expected to grind for one week but decided to take some time off instead. If you need any help ask other players in league or try the IRC. Some may know me as Bardonian, PlayerSlayer or Anbu (healer, warrior, nuker) or even [___[_]___]. Either way i hope you all have a good time, good game and good luck on the LC event today.

Bardonian out...

=(^,.,^)=

According to rumors in the IRC channel tonight, there is a new patch coming. Actually, it's overdue. We're supposed to be getting a new premium package, but no one quite knows what we'll get in that new package. There will be a promotional package to go along with that premium idea, and for that reason I might take my laptop with me on my vacation.

Oh yeah, I'm going on vacation for three weeks, starting Monday. I probably wont check into the game, but I will probably check this blog once in a while.

BluFlash has also been working on making mall items tradeable too, and according to rumors the XP cards should soon be tradeable. I wish that Dragon Scales and Dragon Tears were directly tradeable. One of our League Members got scammed for a very nice weapon, by someone who was "selling Dragon Scales". The scammer ran off with a Wan Daye GB Spear, the last HP Return weapon in the game.

There is no need to put a league level KoS on that guy. The GM's will do their best to return the weapon, and the scammer will be banned. My advice to all of you is simple; Don't give a precious item to anyone, unless you know that they have no reason to cheat you.

I once gave my HP Trink to RedCross so that he could use it on his Vagabond Sword character. And why not? RedCross found that trink for me in the first place. At the time I gave that trink to him for his vaga, he simply couldn't find one to buy, even though he had the money to buy one.

I'll be around for two more days, and two more events before my vacation. If you need help with anything, please speak up. After that, I'm leaving this league to the bandmasters and senior adult members. I already know that they all talk with each other when I'm not around, so that they can get things done. That's why we rock.

Disconnected Rocks!

Because we all take our turn, when it comes time to lead the way.

The IRC, or Internet Relay Chat is a great system that gets people together to chat about their common interests. You can find discussion groups for just about anything, and Acclaim has a channel for the 9Dragons game. You can find me there just about any day of the week, and when I'm not actually at my desk playing you can still leave me a message there. A few other regulars in this league are often there, and so are a few higher level players from Bardo.

To use the IRC you first need chat client software. The most common software is mIRC, but it's not free. There is a short evaluation period, and then you are asked to pay. You can still use the software if you don't pay, but it will remind you once in a while that you haven't paid to use it. Once you down load the software you'll need to select which server system you want to connect to, and the Acclaim 9Dragons channel is on the gamesurge network. Once you are connected to that network just type in /join #9dragons, and you're in.

I prefer to use the Chatzilla add-on for the FireFox browser and it's just about as simple to use. Chatzilla is free to use too. Once you've installed Chatzilla and have it running you simply type /attach irc.gamesurge.net, and once you're connected, type /join #9dragons. It's that easy.

There is a more detailed guide to the IRC from Acclaim right here. I hope that helps, and I hope to see you there once in a while.

- SpearDriver