Tavern Talk - What is your characters' all-time greatest fail in an MMORPG? Please give us all the juicy details!
Rolled a new character in Anarchy-Online. Was still in the newbie training area when I decided I wanted to switch sides from Clan to Omni-Tech (AO had two factions). The vendor in the training area sold the faction switching kit, so I bought it and used it. I became KOS to the NPC guard near the Reclaim (respawn) and got caught in a death loop. I wouldspawn, draw aggro from the NPC, then get one-shotted, die, and respawn again. I had just enough time to type /petition stuck in death loop and was promptly moved to an Omni newbie area by a GM.
So, the game was Everquest.
I was a wee bairn of a Halfling, starting in the city of Rivervale. I opted to be a purveyor of skullduggery, obfuscation and larceny. A rogue.
The first several levels of EQ were quite the learning experience. Aside from the various beginner gaffs -- like the justly classic blunder of not reassigning the "A" button as the default attack key and unwittingly attacking the first NPC I tried to talk to -- the early levels were filled with mostly cutting my proverbial teeth in Misty Thicket, the nearby newbie zone. I spent hours killing Bixies, rats, beetles and other various non-threatening lifeforms that were absolutely and frequently capable of killing me. Like a lot. More so than I will ever admit to.
Unlike my diminutive cherubic form, my needs were large... armor, weapons, money, advice... basically anything would help. So I looted everything I could find, sold everything I didn't need, and saved my pennies.
One purchase was at the top of the list, an absolute must have... A backpack! Ka-ching! Now I could now carry twice as much stuff, and therefore wait twice as long before having to sell! Ah, progress. I decided, as such a momentous occasion is oft wont, to name the backpack. I christened her "Vicki". Yes, really. Shut up, it's my backpack, I can do what I want.
So, with Vicki in tow, I decided to strike out and make my fortune. I think I was level 7 or 8.
Where to go? Having a communications degree, I decided to sample peoples' opinions. West Commonlands, I was told, just through Kithicor forest. Ok, I had stuck my head into Kithicor forest a few times, seemed easy enough. Off I went.
If you've played EQ, you probably know where this is headed. I went in at night. I followed the trail into the forest, figuring it would lead me to the zone line. However, this was not the Bixie-laden-Fischer-Price version of Kithicor. It was the undead-infested-Bristlebane-please-god-help-me version of Kithicor. I heard a moan (not the good kind), saw an undead creature that conned red to me, and I panicked. I ran off directly away from it, deeper into the forest, only to find another undead creature, similarly conning red, staring hatefully at me. I turned a third time, sprinting as fast as my wee legs could carry me, looking for any place safe, when I saw the words "Undead Commander" and heard an explosion. Alas, the explosion was my body. Death music played as I saw that I had been "Harm Touched". 343 points of damage, which was about 10 times more than what I had. Harm Touch indeed.
I respawned safe and sound in Rivervale, where I made a few incredulous queries about Kithicor. Amid the laughter, I was told to only go in during the day. Good to know... Now. Thanks guys. So I waited.
As dawn struck, I was also struck with a realization. I had no idea where my body was. I mean, none. I was spinning like a top going through that forest. How can I find it? "Get the loc when you die", I was told. Loc? What?
My weapons! My food! My... VICKI! Nooooooo!
I searched Kithicor Forest for three successive game time days. Without my stuff, it was dangerous even during the day, so I had to move slowly and quietly. I learned that day to always keep an extra set of clothes in the bank.
I never did find my body. Vicki was forever lost to me.
After a longer-than-probably-necessary-period-of-mourning, I went back to Misty Thicket, and started rebuilding. I managed in somewhat short order to replace everything I had lost, including a new backpack, which I named "Brenda". During this recovery period, I stumbled across a place called "Runnyeye". Desiring to wash the bitter taste of Kithicor out of my mouth, I sojourned in.
I shant bore you with the details, but needless to say, it did not go well. I didn't die, but I did wear out the zone line with frequent "tactical retreats" (aka running for my life), which is a very useful lesson to learn quickly in EQ.
Upon one such reentrance, I stumbled across the rotting form of a goblin. On his corpse, was a yellow cape. It had 2 AC. So I said "Hey, free cape" and equipped it, because hey, 2 AC. A few moments later, an iksar monk came padding over from an adjoining tunnel. I though he was so cool looking. Then he asked me if I had "ninja" looted the corpse. I didn't know what that meant, but I was a rogue, which is kinda like a ninja, so I said "Well, I AM a thief".
That got a couple of choice class 4 pejoratives from the Iksar. I realized I had done wrong, even though it was out of ignorance, and I profusely apologized, as well as attempted to trade the cape back to him. Thankfully, he was able to realize that I was indeed clueless and told me to keep it, as well as give me a brief primer on things like ninja looting (no-no) and inspecting (a no-no without permission).
As I would later realize, back slot items were somewhat under-itemized in EQ. As in I wore this same backslot item until level 44. I used to joke that I felt like a little kid running around with a bath towel around his neck. But I never forgot who I got it from, nor the things he taught me.
Fast forward ahead. I'm about level 20, and I need to work on my trap detection and disarm skills. A helpful soul tells me to check out the entrance of Sol A, as there are a couple of traps there. I check it out, and practice up. While I'm there, another player comes running by, with several goblins in tow. I know enough now to recognize a train to zone -- having created a few in my time -- so I look for a nook and hit "hide", hoping they will bypass me. The train returns, and my luck holds as they walk right by. However, that apparently took all my luck as a goblin "pat" (short for patrol) comes right after them, knocks me out of stealth, and starts fighting me. I guess we were making a lot of noise, because his goblin friends double back and now I'm fighting 1 on 4. I try to run, get hit in the back of the head, spin around a bit. Fall somewhere. I elude the goblins, but find a nice toasty welcoming pit of lava. Death, with whom I have become quite familiar with, stops by for a visit.
So, after gathering up equipment I keep in the bank (see, I told you I learned), I head back to Sol A, looking for my body. I can't find it. I mean, it's gone. A necromancer in the zone offers to help me, and we group up. "Locate corpse" also fails. Huh? I died in this zone. How can it not be here? Brenda! Nooooo!
So, it turns out, you can actually fall INTO a lower level from Sol A. That level, astonishing enough, is called "Sol B". I know, we gamers are clever. Sol B is a higher level zone that Sol A, so I stand zero chance of surviving there. I ask two friends, a paladin and a druid, to help me out. And we go looking for my body.
We finally found it. Getting me to it to loot it, and then to escape alive so as not to leave another body... well, that took some doing.
Like 3 hours of doing. Multiple deaths for everyone, all to save Brenda and a 2 AC bath towel.
Ah, good times.
~Hiwin
The Night of A Million Failed Flops
So...I'm in Old Sebilis, doing monk pulls for my group killing golems in the tunnels leading to Trakanon. Druid calls out that Tolapumj is on track. Necro begins to drool and spaz out.
"Pleeez pull Jumpy!" she cries (she wants the Tolapumj's robe...badly).
"No problem /flex", I say, making my way to the spawn point. I had the kills staggered so I had a good timing for repops.
I get within pull range of froggy, toss a javelin, turn tail and haul scale back to camp...not realizing that behind me A WILD TRAKANON HAS APPEARED!
I give my "feign death" hotkey a tickle (skill maxed btw)...fail! Stand and run again.
Dotted > Blinded > Banished!
When I get my vision back, I'm surrounded by a group hanging out at the banish spot, killing Mycanoids. While I furiously bind wound, the cleric kindly lays a heal on me.
While notifying my group of the failed attempt (and enduring the barrage of laughter) we are interruped by a shout "HOLY CRAP! TRAKs IN THE HALL!!"
Feign death....FAIL
Feign death....FAIL
Feign death....FAIL
Soon I was eye to eye with the Poison Dragon again...and the death was no longer feigned (>_<)
Spent the next couple hours arranging corpse recoveries for everyone....
This was like 22-23 years ago so the specific details of my memory might be slightly off, but my first character in EQ1 was a Dwarven Cleric. I didn't really know anybody else in EQ yet, and it being my first real experience of an MMO besides Ultima Online, I didn't understand that it was a game geared heavily toward group play. I spent a lot of time just grinding orcs and whatnot until I ran out of level appropriate stuff to fight after I hit level 17, and heard that the place to go was the Estate of Unrest, so off I went. First thing I see when I zone is an assortment of dozens of ghouls, scarecrows, beetles, and tentacle beasts running back and forth on top of my corpse, and then i appear naked back at my bind point. Undeterred I make the epic journey back past the certain-death bandit camps of Dragnor's Cauldron, zone in for the second time, and loot my body. I see someone else zone out as I am finishing up looting my body, make it a few steps down the hallway and die again from another super-train. Now I'm level 16. I go back, more cautiously this time. scoot around the edges where I won't be seen by the trains and set up camp. After about a week playing there, and many more deaths, I finally hit level 20. I excitedly push on, but my celebration is short lived because i pull some stuff through a wall of the house and I'm back to level 19 again. Running back through Dragnor's Cauldron I had learned to stick to the shore line to avoid the bandits, but this time a stray aqua goblin sees me and makes quick work of me. Frustrated, I complain in chat about having to go through such a deadly zone to get to a level appropriate zone, and someone suggests that I just bind there. I wasn't familiar with that spell, and was behind on my spells in general so I went back and picked it up, made it back to Unrest feeling triumphant, and bound my soul there. A few more weeks go by of hitting level 20, 21, back to 19, back up to 22. just a nonstop hell of leveling and deleveling, but at least I wasn't wasting time running back every time I died. Eventually I hit 24 and I'm feeling confident pulling all the stuff inside the first floor of the house. I figure out that its a lot easier late at night when nobody else is on because there are no trains to dodge except the ones I make for myself. So I'm grinding away in the house one night at like 2am and the next thing I know I wake up to a cluster of dwarf bodies all over the ground, the chaos of an Estate of Unrest train, and the distinctive, distorted, banshee like screams that anyone who played EQ1 would know only Pumpkin head scarecrows make. I had managed to pass out with my hand still pressing on the keyboard movement keys, die, continue to run in circles, and train myself to my bind point, where the mobs just kept killing me over and over again. I was level 14 again. A month of progress was gone in one untimely nap. I figured out that I should probably bind just outside the zone rather than inside it. And I went back to the same slog, the cycle of gaining levels and losing them again for another 2 months before I finally hit 28, left, and never looked back.
vthorm said:...So, after gathering up equipment I keep in the bank (see, I told you I learned), I head back to Sol A, looking for my body. I can't find it. I mean, it's gone. A necromancer in the zone offers to help me, and we group up. "Locate corpse" also fails. Huh? I died in this zone. How can it not be here? Brenda! Nooooo!
So, it turns out, you can actually fall INTO a lower level from Sol A. That level, astonishing enough, is called "Sol B". I know, we gamers are clever. Sol B is a higher level zone that Sol A, so I stand zero chance of surviving there. I ask two friends, a paladin and a druid, to help me out. And we go looking for my body.
The same happened to me! Fell in the lava while running away and I can't remember if it was the corpse drifted (I think it might have been!) or if I swam while burning to death, but yeah my corpse 'zoned' while 'simming' and ended up in the depths of Sol B in a deep pool of lava. Took a *long* time to retrieve, but was an amazing exciting experience.
Kilsin said:Tavern Talk - What is your characters' all-time greatest fail in an MMORPG? Please give us all the juicy details!
Was working on the Coldain Prayer Shawl quest in EQ1. This quest had you making progressively better shawls but if you failed a combine you went back to the beginning. You needed almost every tradeskill >150 to have a real chance of not failing. I got to the 7th step in the quest...and failed the combine. Weeks of work gone.
EDIT: I had another failure, this being one of underestimating a game mechanic. Wizards had a spell, Eye of Zomm, that would summon an eyeball you could move around and you saw the world from its point of view. Initially, that eye was not something NPCs would aggro, though later on that was changed. So there I was, in Sebilis at the entrance, casting Eye of Zomm while facing into a corner. They eye would appear behind the world geometry and then warp to some random spot in the zone. It wasn't a big deal as the zone was filled with people so there were no mobs around....until the eye popped right at the feet of Trakanon. He aggrod onto the eye, killing it instantly. Thinking nothing of it I just kept casting. A few moments later everyone at the zone-in died as Trakanon warped to the zone in. Later it was fixed that he would not leave his cave.
Vandraad said:..Was working on the Coldain Prayer Shawl quest in EQ1. This quest had you making progressively better shawls but if you failed a combine you went back to the beginning. You needed almost every tradeskill >150 to have a real chance of not failing. I got to the 7th step in the quest...and failed the combine. Weeks of work gone.
Ah yes, the old "possible failure for trivial combines" joy of EQ1. I know it well.