Bored

[Icarus]

Crowlogs and trogs and giant ants, some snowtrolls and a dragon. All the good stuff that I know you guys miss the most.

[Brian]

Crowlogs and trogs and giant ants, some snowtrolls and a dragon. All the good stuff that I know you guys miss the most.

...

[radioactivejesus]

I'll echo that. This game needs more trogs. After hearing some of the backstory behind the latest plot, it sounds like it adheres too well to canon, and creates an interesting experience that doesn't clash with the LOTR universe.
having a LOTR RPI where the enemies are things that would exist in LOTR is pretty lame. We need to just add Trogs to balance things out. And gremlins. Maybe we can add a sub-race of trolls that look like this guy?

[Mavinero]

Good god, trogs again? Those damned things tore through steel plate with their claws alone. Human side at least would be all dead in less than a week.

[cfelch]

Could always let loose some of those shrews I once released in Craban Gador.

[Songweaver]

<rant>

Crowlogs and trogs and giant ants, some snowtrolls and a dragon. All the good stuff that I know you guys miss the most.

Don't potshot me, Icarus! Most of those things were awesome, and at least partially linked towards canon. :p Of course you forgot vampires, and Rusalkas, and numerous other creatures of the night that I brought into Northlands.

Crowlogs: Actually, they were called Gorcrows, and they were awesome. Some of the first neat AI that I ever scripted. I was responsible for these.

Trogs: I don't know who started creating and using trogs in old SOI, but I was definitely the one that created an explanation of what they were in an effort to make sense of them, back with the poisonous gas/Deep Mines plotline in Moria. They were pretty nasty, but not connected to cannon at all.

Snow Trolls: Remember when they swarmed Angost? Epic.

Giant Ants: I never saw one, but boo on whomever did this. :p Spiders > Ants, guys.

Dragon: Well, technically, Moonansarig (The Moon's Sorrow) was a worm, and not a dragon, if only because it had no wings. There was also another worm in the Druadan Forest, hidden away.

I guess shame on me for not wanting only three or four kinds of enemy mobs? :p Or shame on the folks who didn't like the worm, or the snow trolls, or the Gorcrows, or the various other creatures I brought into Northlands, for their lack of imagination in filling in the holes of Tolkien's world. :p

</side rant>

Glad to hear that things are happening in Orctown, though!

[bjg2k1us]

I think the crowlogs were something else, that popped up around Amdir, and they were these weird shadowy birdman things that would pulse dark energy at everyone in the room, and you rolled aura or power or something to resist and if not you got shadowburned like a *****. And they spawned infinitely until Magic PC X completed Plot Action Y in Super Scary Location Z and then yaaaay, everyone else could roleplay in Ithilien again.

Trogs popped up again in Ithilien with superpowers and were probably the single greatest decimator of the Gondorian army for a year.

Kite did the ants. Weird, and not very Tolkieny, but we rolled with it. I would have gladly traded either of the first two for another ant invasion.

[Songweaver]

Aha! Interesting.

I did do a strange sort of pre-Atonement GT concept in Moria, too. These parasitic creatures from the Deep Mines that would burrow their way into corpses, and after a time, basically mutate those corpses into super/uglier versions of whatever they were previously. Not very Tolkieny either probably, but it did make for a nice, evil twist for when the orcs put down a "Watcher of the Deep" like creature, only for it to mutate and decimate them the next day with its newfound might. That was part of the 9-day-long Moria RPT that Anomaly and I ran; if I remember right, so many vNPC Gothakra orcs died in the struggle (and the other plots that all helixed together during the course of the RPT) that it made it possible for the Moria revolt that led to Gothakra's final stand, and Oouezo taking over Moria in the Battle of the Bridge in the final days of the RPT. That was a great nine days.

[tehkory]

Crowlogs: Actually, they were called Gorcrows, and they were awesome. Some of the first neat AI that I ever scripted. I was responsible for these.

They were crowlogs, 'cause that's what PCs called them. I don't mind mobs filling out Tolkien's world, particularly if they remain nameless horrors.

Crowlogs, though? Nuh-uh. I've liked a lot of your mobs/tactics/fighting against them, but these(and to a lesser degree, combustable terrors on Atonement, though they made sense/were more easily counterable) essentially boiled down to 'only the cool powerful guys stay in the room while everyone else leaves.' The fact that it was resistable for those with higher power was even worse, but still, anything that encourages dragging people off just to avoid something like that always irked me as taking away from the scene/roleplay more than it added to the game.

[Songweaver]

To note is that I didn't do Crowlogs (dunno who did). I'm not really sure what they did, because I was never really involved in Amdir.

I did Gorcrows, which were a flock mob that split into smaller flock mobs when they took significant damage. They were sort of like D&D Giant Oozes, but were basically evil crows instead.

Also, the exploding GTs ... c'mon. You know you loved them as much as you loved facehuggers. :p

[tehkory]

To note is that I didn't do Crowlogs (dunno who did). I'm not really sure what they did, because I was never really involved in Amdir.

Ahhhh. Yeah, I don't know what crowlogs were, but man was that prog annoying. It essentially went "Eothelm and Traveller stay here, everyone else go away until the big boys clean up."

I did Gorcrows, which were a flock mob that split into smaller flock mobs when they took significant damage. They were sort of like D&D Giant Oozes, but were basically evil crows instead.

Thooooose. Yeah. Those were pretty great.

Also, the exploding GTs ... c'mon. You know you loved them as much as you loved facehuggers. :p

Maaaan, facehuggers were the best. Followed by begrudging respect for exploders, and terrified defiance at the existence of Wizards.

...except Mars beat all of them.

[Songweaver]

...except Mars beat all of them.

Yeah, man. It really did.

[Oblivion]

There is currently 1 soul braving the world all alone.
There are currently 5 guests lingering in the Halls of Mandos.

This... Taken right now...

This is why I can't force myself to log in for more time than it takes to type 'Time, Who, Notify (sphere)' and give a few minutes for anyone not afk to actually respond.

I already have issues with sparring just to spar/twink skills up, let alone going out and killing random-wolf #1850268 or pig #91586800682340 ... I've tried idling in game, but then I get distracted doing other things/playing other games and when I remember to look back I see someone's come and gone, or is there but when I start emoting it's clear that they are idle/afk same as I was.

I'm currently playing an experimental character and there was a lot of momentum when it first started and I was being engaged and being kept interested, but over the past month or so it feels like the wheels have fallen off. It may be partly my fault, because I didn't continue logging in for twelve to sixteen hours a day I don't know for sure.

But logging in to see something like this is really detrimental to people like myself wanting to stick around waiting for someone, almost anyone, to interact with.

*edit*
Just noticed that there's commentary going on about crashes, suppose that's likely what's causing more people to be lingering in the Lounge than in game, but my point still stands. *fist shake*

[Gobbo]

I think the next thing to bring the players back will be whatever mini fort system is being cooked up. But it will only last for about a month unless it has more depth than old soi mini forts did.

[MrT2G]

I think the next thing to bring the players back will be whatever mini fort system is being cooked up. But it will only last for about a month unless it has more depth than old soi mini forts did.

Or more aggression by the players and less of an advantage towards defense.

[Icarus]

There is currently 1 soul braving the world all alone.
There are currently 5 guests lingering in the Halls of Mandos.

This... Taken right now...

This is why I can't force myself to log in for more time than it takes to type 'Time, Who, Notify (sphere)' and give a few minutes for anyone not afk to actually respond.

I already have issues with sparring just to spar/twink skills up, let alone going out and killing random-wolf #1850268 or pig #91586800682340 ... I've tried idling in game, but then I get distracted doing other things/playing other games and when I remember to look back I see someone's come and gone, or is there but when I start emoting it's clear that they are idle/afk same as I was.

I'm currently playing an experimental character and there was a lot of momentum when it first started and I was being engaged and being kept interested, but over the past month or so it feels like the wheels have fallen off. It may be partly my fault, because I didn't continue logging in for twelve to sixteen hours a day I don't know for sure.

But logging in to see something like this is really detrimental to people like myself wanting to stick around waiting for someone, almost anyone, to interact with.

*edit*
Just noticed that there's commentary going on about crashes, suppose that's likely what's causing more people to be lingering in the Lounge than in game, but my point still stands. *fist shake*

Yeah... fabric got buggered and is crashing the game. So... yeah. Numbers are /usually/ about in the low teens at the moment, which certainly isn't ideal, but it's not dead as a doornail thank goodness.

I'm not sure what folks expected with the wargs. We implemented them overnight for folks that wanted to try them, and then we got crap for not swarming all over them with love and attention and crafts and all this stuff when... frankly there aren't a lot of imms to swarm over folks for. We implemented something you guys wanted to swing. If you don't want to play an experimental alpha race, then roll back in as a goblin. If you're going to roll an experimental alpha race, get bored /because/ they are experimental and very alpha, and sit in your clanhall all day doing nothing, then frankly roll back a goblin. It's not about having a souped up mobile you are animating, frankly, it's about RPing something cool and neat. Sorry it wasn't as cool and neat as you expected, not having opposable thumbs kind of sucks.

[radioactivejesus]

ooh, forget about trogs. I want wargs with opposable thumbs and human arms as SOI's pet non-canon race .

[Oblivion]

That was... actually... more aimed towards the other people playing wargs and ... players in general... Had nothing targeted at admins in my statement. So... yea... That happened.

Fairly sure everyone knows my stance on Admin / Player interaction and interference. I'd rather rely on the players working with what they have available than moan and whine at admins for things they're likely working on already and even if they weren't it would take months to implement and wouldn't be relative whenever it was finished anyway.

[mongwen]

Crowlogs and trogs and giant ants, some snowtrolls and a dragon. All the good stuff that I know you guys miss the most.

No thanks. I'm one of those that prefers to keep it Tolkieny, so the funky river monsters (was that ever resolved? I haven't heard about it for months), mutant creatures and plants and especially other vaguely horror-film and magic stuff don't really do it for me. I still remember, without fondness, the way Caolafon was per force closed. Angost was at least done in a vaguely Tolkieny way, though I wasn't happy about that per force move either. Now? Zombie elves? Neh, though I can halfway at least see that. Sauron had to be called the necromancer for a reason in the hobbit, but exactly what he did was never entirely explained even in LOTR. Necromancy brings images of bringing the dead back to life, or a facsimile thereof, and we never really saw that. What we saw with the Nazgul were people who had never died because they couldn't even though they long ago should have, kept together by the power a maya invested in their rings and the dominant ring over them and nothing more.
We've already got the dragon, though as was said earlier in the thread, he'll be almost legendary at first since he apparently got lazy and quit flying around after a while. I don't figure Smaug would take too kindly to another worm horning in on his territory or even next door to it. If a dragon tried that, Smaug would be less legendary because the fathers of those children around in 2941 would definitely remember that battle royale. It's been a while since I did a full read-through of the hobbit, but I seem to remember they knew he was there, but he had not been seen in years. Anyway I begin to ramble. Sorry.

[Justanothacivy]

Did the human sphere ever get those repeating crossbows that were flagged as SMG's? Man those were hawt... wish we had them back.

[radioactivejesus]

repeating crossbows are something I could see dwarves having, but not your typical human. And I wouldn't want them coming ingame until the ranged combat code actually gets fixed. Things would massacre everyone

[Dirgs]

Snow Trolls: Remember when they swarmed Angost? Epic.

Those guys! They had the person-tossing special attack, right? One of my very few human PCs died to being thrown off the bloody town walls. That was possibly the most awesome PVE death I've ever had

[Songweaver]

Snow Trolls: Remember when they swarmed Angost? Epic.

Those guys! They had the person-tossing special attack, right? One of my very few human PCs died to being thrown off the bloody town walls. That was possibly the most awesome PVE death I've ever had

That's right. They could even pick up a PC in one room, and throw them at a PC in another room. Lots of fun.

[Jarlhen]

The Snow Trolls were dumb! Dumb I tell ya! The only monsters that should be in this game are A, the talking Raven, B, the big ol' bear Redmanu or whatever we called him, C, black foxes. I spent more time hunting black fox than I spent RPing. They better still be in the game!