BerserkedFrenzy

Adding to the topic further:

The following is a list of towers that exist throughout the world:
- Tower of Pandilex (Nightmist City)
- Tower of Crafting (Grassy Meadow)
- Necromancer Tower (Barrier Forest)
- Goblin Tower (Plains of Faravar)
- Watchtower (Forest of Silence)
- Tower (Forest of Silence)
- Inquisitor's Tower (Blackthorn)

Should the reader determine that I have missed a tower or more, feel free to post on here & point it out so to bring more content to this thread. The purpose of this post is to illustrate the potential of room scaling in modifying the "dimension" of the area or, rather, the space which is intended for those more localized space. Buildings or edifices would possess such "dimension" that is unlikely to be independent from any other areas of the world of Nightmist. It is with this interest that I bring to view the "dimension" possessing three components just as spatial dimensions possess three components which are north/south, west/east & up/down or in different terms front/back, left/right & above/below respectively. The components of the "dimension" of size can be said to be of the three following items:
- Map
- Room scaling
- Description

First & foremost, the most important aspect of all, is the map. Without a map, an area holds no form & any area needs to possess at least one square otherwise it is merely an abstraction of something which no character can be present in. Therefore, with a given number of squares, a map is said to have some size in width, length & height or spatially in terms of squares. Maps are like a skeleton, a framework, a blueprint to be laid down & give form to the area in an attempt to imitate, by way of imagination & craftiness, what the area may look like if it were real. These towers are given the shape of either or both being closely circular & height moving upward from the "ground" whatever is said to be the ground for which the tower is imagined standing on. The squares that make up the map of the tower give it form, it is possible that the map of the tower is either tightly fitting or much loosely fitting with the map of the area connecting to it to give the impression of something such as how thick its walls are or of an inaccessible courtyard except the unresisting path of the entryway of the tower. It is also possible that the tower may be, however the story allows, magical in nature just so that within it is a vast, immense size impossible to even be within the walls of the tower as seen from the outside. Whatever the case, the map gives form to the area.

Room scaling is one of the components of the dimension of size, not necessarily the second or the first nor the third. In what order is not important but it helps to be methodical in understanding the size of an area, therefore it suits to take the next step & give further definition to the squares of the map by way of room scaling or character maximum limits. Room scaling has been discussed in the originating post of this thread already, with brief coverage of the Necromancer Tower & Tower of Crafting.

Finally, the third & final in methodical step of the dimension of size is the description of the room. I should assert that it is not strictly a third step as it is possible that the creator see fit to first describe the room before establishing the scaling of it, but it is likely that the descriptions come after the formation of the map & chosen scaling of the rooms. What more helpful to fortify the visualization of the space than using descriptive words to betray of its secrets? It may be claimed to be as large as five by five paces or a thousand by thousand paces. Perhaps it is also unequal in width & length & said to be of, for example, seven by fifteen paces such as may be said of a shop, sleeping quarter, or else.

The description of rooms are the soft component of the dimension of size where the other two are the hard components as these two set boundary & limit by way of spatial movement & amount of characters in the square. That is, maps decide for each square which direction is available, room scaling define the approximate size of the square in relation to others around them & descriptions paint the picture.

After understanding the dimension of size, we can look at these towers mentioned above in this post & consider that it becomes possible to give them the desired size more definitively than simply using the number of squares with descriptions attempting to claim that the square is only as big as five by five paces when there are a hundred characters present. If we can refer to the spiralling staircase of Castle Darksparrow - that can hardly be called a tower though it may be fancied one - we have the impression that there is enough room for only three characters *AND* proper combat with the guardian. Because, if a hundred characters could go up the spiralling staircase & fight the guardian, what impression do we get but a staircase of mammoth width with which a single guardian obviously could not effectively block off yet hundred blades might reach the guardian. The same can be said for tight spaces which are not uncommon in any tower namely the ones that exist in the world already. It is by this means that the player or players become more immersed & involved in strategy to overcome a challenges. In the case of the spiralling staircase, two strategies are used: sending in three characters for them to fight the guardian until it is defeated or one player sending & recalling characters one at a time leaving some space open for another player or two to participate in the sending & returning action. It could be that there are different strategies involved, potentially making it a puzzle to be solved with varying levels of complexity. Suppose that a passage is tight enough for only as many as two or three character but in an eventual point they manage to open the way for the whole expedition into a more open passage or chamber or progression through the dungeon.

Whatever the complexity, each tower would be well-defined with room scaling as to give them impressions of size in general, but never strict, respect to the overworld map or at least the area containing them. That is, by reviewing each tower & where they connect to the overworr they all vary in ways which help us invent the image in our minds in relation to the map of the area they are in. For instance, the two towers in the Forest of Silence are of different sizes as can be inferred from the map of the so-called forest. The watchtower is apparently the larger of the two, situated in the middle of the western side of the so-called forestsurrounded, except on its west side which can be said to be its front-facing side, by empty space. The other tower has the same facing but is surrounded on all sides by squares that do not connect to it except the west one. Those squares which surround the tower might suggest ground, also the empty space that surrounds the watchtower might suggest inaccessible courtyard or perhaps a massively thick wall. Does that mean, now, that the watchtower is immense in proportion to the other tower? Not necessarily. It *can* be but with the help of description we can be given a better idea of why the map has been formed in that way. The smaller of the two tower is, thusly, the one more likely to hold more characters than the watchtower. Is it because of a certain monster? That is not necessarily true. It could be that the smaller tower allows up to fifteen characters on its top while the watchtower may hold as many as five, seven, ten characters per square in its apparently tight passage. It would help to tell the player that there are indeed reasons why the empty space surrounding the watchtower is inaccessible: wall thickness, landscape, rock formation, dangerous implements, moat, etc.

What about the Tower of Crafting in comparison with the two towers in the Forest of Silence? How about comparing the rest of the existing towers? It becomes clear that now the size of the map is not necessarily a standard of the size of the area but two components of the dimension of size work together in tandem to define the size of a dungeon in the overworld: map size & room scaling. Because, without room scaling, every dungeon seems to be either too small or too large if not just the right size.

Now, let us take a stroll down the Viper Street of Nightmist. We would find ourselves passing lots, enclosures, streets or buildings strolling down the Viper Street that snakes a long way from the south to the north. As we do, we do not find ourselves examining every single instance of these things but instead we do make entrance into the important, interesting places like pubs, shops or guilds. How big are they, essentially? They do not need to fill the entire square connecting them to the Viper Street nor the entire length of the segment of the Viper street which connect them. It is possible that only a fraction of the length of the one square of Viper Street is the property of the establishment & that there are other property like lots or houses of commoners which are left inaccessible because they are not used but mentioned in the descriptions of the street. For this reason, it can be said that any shop, any guild, any building, any dungeon, any *room* can be given scaling to allow for only as many character as their capacity would allow. It is not impossible that a pub may become very busy & full of patrons yet it does not follow that patrons would willingly pile together within a building wihch may be seen to be overstuffed to the point that limbs stick out of the windows or seams, its walls curved dangerously to the point of simply bursting apart. It is sensible for a pub to be so filled up with customers that service become limited as well as queued in lines by patrons until each have their needs satisfied.

Crowds in a street might become so dense that it is impossible for people to pass through, just as a building may arrive at their capacity, just as a mountain path may not hold enough stable walking space, just as a river & valley may only allow for a few boats to sail through without damage lest they should sink due to impact or capsizing. This would be how the dimension of size might work together with the three spatial dimensions outlined by maps because if a building was overfilled of its capaacity not only would the humorous description of limbs through windows & dangerously curved walls become a possibility it would also mean that normal movement around that particular space, that particular square, is virtually impossible. By this way, no boat could ever hold as many as 100 characters but perhaps as many as seven or eight each so it would follow that characters might have to go in groups of eight to get aboard the boat, launch off the mooring & as they move away from docking the river gives room for several boats to be present but still only limited to as many as perhaps five or ten boats. Moving through the river into a valley or waterway it becomes necessary to exercise caution as it is possible that the boat may strike on rock & sink or two boats may collide & capsize in a narrow passageway. Similarly, in a chamber where a monster may be located, the chamber may only be as large as a given number of characters not simply because characters might be able to pack themselves tightly in a room & crowd around the monster in a tight fit but in regard to combat. How can a sword be swung in a room where limbs may stick out a window & walls may curve dangerously to the point of bursting? No weapon can be swung nor bows drawn nor daggers struck effectively & magic casting may be very hindered when the conjurer cannot move their muth nor their throat nor lungs to speak.

In addition, there are similar structures throughout the world such as pyramids & ziggurat, mansions, lairs, castles, underground dwellings & so much more. How do they compare to one another in their similaritude? Just as was discussed of the towers, should these structures now be smaller than the other of their type or larger? All that needs done is the definition of which is the scaling of the room.

One can argue that the building or the dungeon is of magical nature & allow for far more room. It is possible that the Tower of Pandilex is such an example. Yet, not everything is magical. Besides, if it were all magical, such adjective means less that - magical. Something that is magical is not commonplace or ordinary but extraordinary & supernatural. Such are then reserved for special cases such as a magical creature like the Crystal Giant to name an example.

I hope that you, the reader, have enjoyed reading & find yourself chuckling in amusement of the proportions the game currently holds. I do find it funny, but I would certainly like to see a more defined size of everything in the game. I think that is what has been missing among some other things - the one component of the dimension of size that is room scaling. It would only deepen the appreciation & immersion of the areas which the developers so painstakingly worked hard on. It would give size to the monsters rather than having a hundred characters in the same room with an apparently incredibly lethal monster giving the monster the appearance of being no larger than a common domesticated cat.

Gaddy, you wrote:
"Similarly, a ship to go from Harabec or another town to Silversail would be an improvement over the drudgery of running through forest, trail, cave, desert, and maze to get to a town. I think a high-cost Vortex Gate or a cheap shipping route would both be very nice update options."

I am curious to know, what do you consider as actually playing the game? That which you have described as "drudgery" is what is called "playing the game" but it seems that you have different ideas so I am curious to know.

While the airship from Harabec to Silversail & back for 5,000 gold on the 1-alt server works quite nicely, I do not think it would work well on the Multi-alt server. First, the things that would give the airship its place do not exist on the Multi-alt server including the long stone bridge which crosses the Great River. Last I remember, there are Harabec guards that "block" access to the bridge beyond the eastern gate of Harabec, if such bridge actually exists on the Multi-alt server. Secondly, even if the things were there to give the airship its place, the cost would have to be adjusted to 50,000 gold or even 100,000 gold because the caravan taking players from Tirantek to Harabec costs 5,000 gold on the 1-alt server but costs 50,000 gold on the Multi-alt server & has a 20-alt limit. For that reason, I would rather just run straight to Silversail instead. Thirdly & finally, it really does not take more than 2 or 3 minutes to run from Arilin to Silversail. Sure, we might take the wrong turn & get a bit lost but that is the whole point, "playing the game".

Staff have already said no multiple times to the portals suggested in this thread. I have entertained such ideas but know that they are pipe dreams & recall conversations with staff about it which end up with a cessatory, final "No." No means no.

Whatever gets put into the game should be the doing of the creators & not the players. Players play the game, creators create & add content. Sure, players give input & creators consider them. But in this case, this thread is basically disregarding their "No." This is a "dead idea". The idiom, "Beating on a dead horse".

I am sorry to burst your bubbles. That is the truth. The same thing will continue to be told by someone for as long as those who choose to disregard that "No.".

Yeah, my brotha, have not been on for a time now. I have no interest in playing anymore. It was really fun when we did play & I have fond memories of us doing that. Lol you remember the time when you chased me out of Tirantek? I ran through the Entangled Overgrowth to get to HArabec. But, you was waiting bored-like & got me real good at archer LOL. Too funny. Then we started wrecking everything as we changed clans. LPDM then the Destroyers. Yeah, I can understand what you mean by all that stuff a lot of work to get we were young once right? We hit stuff real hard lol, friends came & went.

So by all means sell what you want to sell. No reason to stress over anything you gotta enjoy yourself when you play the game okay?

So, I noticed that you mentioned playing 1-alt & since I am no longer playing I think it is only fitting to let you have my 1-alt account. I am posting that here so people know that I, Undin, hereby give you my 1-alt account. Do whatever you want with it, I am going to memo you the account name & password on Inferno. So, enjoy.

Be well, be happy & be free.

Way to go on defeating Mahakali and Crystal Dragon!! Although I never got to go to Crystal Dragon, it brings me memories of when we all went with me & Rappy doal-clericing. Thanks for that walk down the memory lane. Congratulations.

The only reason I would agree about this is because I think it would be amusing to see how fast things drop. That always makes me laugh, logging on all 20 driving somewhere only to remember how so well my party rips through absolutely everything. Bandit Leader? 2 rounds. Captain Wylsen? 3 maybe 4 rounds. Like bullets through tissue paper. Everything is dead so quickly, there is still a character somewhere in the party with full stamina or regenned & ready to go so just keep going wrecking things.

Let us examine the already observable scenarios such as:

Ercule Swamp: Someone loads up on all 20, sticks a Torch on all of them, goes swamping. They can wipe out the place in matter of minutes. They will start to complain, "There just not enough monsters here, expand the swamp or make them spawn faster, please!"

Genderas: Someone loads up all 20, sticks a Machete on all of them, braves the lush jungle. They will just make a trail of destruction provided they know their way around the jungle seeing as even Manticores do not take that much to kill with the use of Machetes. They would still need to have robust clerics to heal the high damage the monsters do there.

Dragonclaw Scythe: Someone loads up on all 20, zerks with Dragonclaw Scythes, goes to Temple of Sun and Shadow. Not only can they go & solo Stone Dragon with zerks which was supposed to have been difficult to do without Dwarven Pickaxe, they can also proceed to solo the "unsoloable" Shadow Drake which once required teamwork efforts now rendered  non-requisite. These areas were meant to encourage teamwork efforts where players worked together to make things happen. Purple Dragon Queen is more likely to be soloablewith the Dragonclaw Scythe too.

Dwarven Pickaxe: We all know how short of a work that makes CG even with its HPS around 1 million. We all see the insane damage it can do on things stone, statue, & crystal. Using a party of 20, done gone made them into a pile of pebbles faster than Michelangelo could carve a statue.

In the first place, loading up on all 20 already has the potential to wreck anything a player wants to. Go to Banshee on adepts & it can be done. Load up 20 arches, go do Spider King or Lyzanthir no problem. 20 arch thieves for Malok. Full party capped rangers for Gh'ul'arg. 20 arches for Ku'Nal. No problem. Easy.

On the 1-alt server, these bosses require extraordinary efforts especially with how many players actually still play it. Four players can go up & kill Banshee but they *must* have the absolute best damage potential. Eight players fighting Banshee is a far more achievable challenge but it is possible that the party cannot eke out the damage to slay her. I know, I have seen it. I thought eight was enough. Then one dropped & the other started dropping & the party unraveled. Malok? If there are thieves brave enough to work together & kill Malok. Ku'Nal? Not that Ku'Nal herself is the problem, it is the mass of Priestesses & Templars as well as the Drow Archmage that pose a great hazard. Then the Nether Beasts at Ku'Nal can make short work of a robust 1-alt party of 10. There is actually challenge. With a damage mod weapon, it doubles the damage potential of the character wielding it versus specific monsters. People struggle to do Gh'ul'arg too.

So, basically, a player on Multi-lalt server loaded up on all 20 has a damage potential of 20 because there are 20 characters. On the 1-alt server, a player can only load up on one character making it a damage potential of only 1. A damage mod weapon with 2x damage enables that character to have a damage potential of 2. So, if you compare Mult-alt damage potential per player versus 1-alt damage potential per player you get 20 : 1. 20 : 2 if the 1-alt player has a damage mod weapon dealing 2x damage.

Also, I have noticed that you log on 40 characters. You say that the other 20 is your wife playing the game for you. So, that makes it 40 : 1. You can already steamroll the whole server just as well as me & my account partner did.

In case you are not sure what I mean by "damage potential", it is the overall damage that a single character can do with one round. So a full party of 20 on Multi-alt doing a single party round has a damage potential of 20 where on 1-alt server there are no alts to load so only one character so a single damage potential, one round. I hope you see the big difference between the two servers.

If you still cannot comprehend what I have posted here, then I would recommend that you actually play 1-alt. Not just log on to say a few words, go kill a couple of Small Snakes at Southern Gatehouse or maybe a Bobcat or two in the Large Forest. Lead a boss trip. Go lead for Blue Dragon, go lead for Banshee, go lead for the Goblin Elder. You will be shocked. You will see & understand why that having damage mod weapons on 1-alt is amazingly useful. You will understand, that because you are limited to only a single character, you would need all the damage you could deal out along with all the teamwork efforts churned out to the max to make things happen as opposed to on the Multi-alt server where you can just alt + esc click everything & pay little to no attention to the screen watching a movie or something. When we talk about Multi-alt & 1-alt servers, we are talking about 2 different games. On one server, the raw power is in having the 20 characters. On the other, the raw power is in teamwork.

Again, would be nice & very amusing to see things dro quickly. But in terms of balance, it is just going to throw the game out of whack. The Dragonclaw Scythe has already done that.