Unwelcomed Teleports

Greetings Spiralites, and welcome to another exciting installment of Through the Eyes of a Sorcerer. Today's feature presentation includes yet another fanfic meant to educate youngsters (and some older players, too...) about some important issues in the spiral.

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I wake abruptly from my slumber in Lifeglen Manor to the vibrant colors of a teleport mere minutes after drifting off from a lengthy day of library research.


 "What the heckhound is going on??" I ask to the person who dropped in unannounced.  They reply with a weak "sorry" and immediately jump into a long winded tale about how Malistaire is actually alive and remarried to Morganthe.  Please! 

Finally, rather grumpily (as I am NOT a person to deal with immediately after I get out of bed...), I ask the person "What do you think you are doing? Dropping into my home at hours that no normal wizard keeps, and starting in on a tirade about Malistaire and Morganthe secretly raising Dworgyn after rescuing him from a clocktower in France.  Goodness, haven't you heard of "knocking" first?  There's this marvelous feature called a Whisper that lets you reach me before porting...and everyone wonders why I never leave my teleportation locator turned on!"  My friend and I then had a LONG talk about teleporting after receiving approval.
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I, for one, prefer to be asked before dropped in on unless I happen to be in a publicly accessible area that is not combat based.  For instance, if someone drops in on me at the Bazaar, in the Shopping District, Celestia Base Camp, the Commons (though WHY would anyone EVER go there unless it was to sprint through at top speeds?!?), Pet Pavillion, etc, I'm fine with it.  When someone lands on top of me in the Science Center as I'm offing some Aquabots with a 1-shot Ra when I have my short-stack on (short-stack is how I refer to my quick and easy short decks...in case you were wondering) then we have problems.  Also, housing is a touchy subject.  Some people only log in for long enough to tend a garden or drop a furniture item off, and some others really don't want their houses to be viewed before complete. 

Different people have different levels of privacy. The rule of thumb is to always ask before you port unless you are certain the party you are porting to is alright with it.

Moral is: Ask before you port (especially in private locations and combat areas). Establish "safe port areas" with your friends about where you can port to each other without asking.  That will make life easier on everyone!

I'll post this in the "fanfic" tab as well, check that out sometime if you haven't already!  If anyone has any ideas on future "Tips via fanfic", please let me know!

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

Excellent News!

I just got in from work to find an e-mail from Gabrielle Iceweaver, who many of you might know from Heather's memorial service.  I've been working with Gabrielle to reopen Heather's blog which can be found *HERE* (clicky!). Please be aware that commenting has been disabled on Heather's blog. As it stands it is a lasting record, not something that will continue to be updated by Gabrielle.

This news brief brought to you by John Lifeglen.

PS. If you encounter any problems accessing it, please comment on this post and I'll contact Gabrielle immediately!

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

The Leaning Tower of Honey Sickles (Goes POOF!)

John Lifeglen here again (wow that makes for 2 days in a row...sounds like someone is finally caught up on homework to the point that he can write something!).  As the title implies, this post is about gardening towers.  Yep, they're going away!  KingsIsle has acted very swiftly in removing this exploit from the game.  The super-gardens will soon be leaving the Spiral and all those that so painstakingly created them have created them for nothing.

It was coming.

Exploits that give some players with knowledge of them advantage over those that do not have the knowledge of how they work is downright wrong, and bravo KingsIsle to fixing it (JUST this exploit, keep that in mind).  I'm hoping this doesn't come back to bite everyone, though.  Since this exploit was so far-reaching and it involved the rug bug, I'm seriously hoping KingsIsle doesn't remove a powerful tool in housing decoration.  Yeah, I know it's a bug in the system, but they've let it exist for such a length of time now without ending it that it would crush certain people to lose it.  Before people understood the mechanics of what it did and how it was triggered would have been a better time to chop it.  Only time will tell, I suppose.  This is just one wonderful thing KingsIsle has done in crushing exploits. 

I'm not exactly pleased with a couple other "fixes" they've applied in the recent past.  Primarily, this would be the Wayfinder Scheme.  It would have been great to be able to buy Wayfinder gear for my alts when they "come of age" so to speak, but now I get to grind the WareHouse for Bartleby only knows how long.  Thanks to the exploitation of different colors being worth different amounts of gold when sold on the bazaar.  I can proudly say that I didn't take part in getting gear turned from Auction to No Auction.  At least we can still trade it between our wizards, because John has finally perfected a deck for use on the boss floors in there.

I was watching Ravenwood Radio from the sidelines last week and one Fallon Firefountain pointed out something interesting.  I hadn't thought about it until she presented the argument, and it made some sense.  Her argument is that PvP kills the normal use of spells.  Her first mention was the stun block introduction into the game.  Stun Block wouldn't even exist were it not for PvP, thanks to your friendly neighborhood chain-stunners.  Before Stun Block when I was running my little ice character through Wizard City, he found Freeze to be an invaluable asset.  Now what?  What are the schools that have any type of stun doing with them now? 

The application of four Stun Blocks in the arena post-stun is fine, it's a fix for chain stunning (given that Earthquake is still behaving properly...which is another can of worms entirely), but what about PvE?  I know that I relyed heavily on my ability to stun mobs for a couple of turns in a row in order to give a friend the time to get a good attack off without being killed!  Is there no way to change mechanics between PvP and PvE?  Your friendly neighborhood moderators Kevin Battleblood and Cassandra Dragonheart quickly explained the reasoning, and I noticed she dropped the conversation.  I was rather hoping to see where she went next with her argument as it spiked some interest.  Maybe she'll start a blog and let us all know how she feels, I for one would love to follow it.

As per always, comment away.  I'm hoping Kevin and/or Cassandra will see this post and restate what they told Fallon, as I only remembered her initial argument well and wouldn't want to restate their thoughts improperly.

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

KingsIsle, KingsIsle, KingsIsle...Tsk Tsk

As the title of that implies, I'm not thrilled. I'm not even mildy happy. Nor does this mean I'm upset/angry.  Frankly, the primary feeling of this post is disappointment.  KingsIsle, a company many of us have looked to with respect for quite some time now, is slowly irritating a large segment of the player population.  I write this now a few days after the announcement as it has given me time to cool down to some degree, because I have a tendency to fly off the handle and was a bit furious when I first heard about it.

A few weeks ago, Open Chat was revoked for crowns players that had subbed at one point and got to keep the privilege.  Yes, a privilege.  Wizard101Central absolutely exploded when the post came across the newswire from Professor Greyrose and some of it is in the nature that I do not desire to link to.  There were personal attacks eight ways to Sunday.  A few Centralites, including myself, posted calmly in an attempt to a) assuage the crowds and b) search for solutions.  KingsIsle reversed what had been done with a letter from Professor Ambrose indicating that they DO care every bit as much about their pay-as-you-go population as their subscribers. 

Now, the new members benefits are coming through.  This isn't really something that bothers me, I understand that members need something to keep them as members as an incentive to keep paying rather than jumping ship to crowns to save in the long run.  Energy will replenish faster, crafting slots will cool down faster, friends list will expand by 20, and backpack space will increase.  That underlined portion is something that we've been asking for for quite some time.  Now, it's a members only benefit.  Add to that list unlimited Ranked PvP and Derby to that list to see the full set of benefits. 

It almost seems like we [crowns population] are trying to be phased out.  Also, it is my understanding that only credit card subscriptions will get the new perks.  It was previously noted that gift card based subscriptions could get you the same benefits as a credit card subscription.  When issues arose with Open Chat the gift-card-members-as-equals issue sprung up, too.  I know that gift cards are not a valid way to validate age, so Open Chat should not have been available via gift card.  But now alienation from members only perks because they opt to get a pet with their purchase?  What happens to the person that subscribes for a few months on credit, gets a gift card for Christmas, and uses it absentmindedly for a subscription in the middle of his recurring one?  Does s/he lose 20 friend list spaces and backpack slots until the subscription from the card lapses and it's all back on credit?  Somehow that doesn't seem quite right.

I realize they need subscriptions rather than crowns players, generally, because they are a more steady supply of income. Consider this case, though:

Person A is a subscriber on a recurring monthly membership, he does not purchase a year long special.
Person B is a crowns player who buys $80 in crowns (while not on special) to play the game. 
Person A plays for 2 months and then reality gets in the way, he cancels the subscription to not waste money.  Person B plays for the same amount of time, reality gets in the way, and she leaves as well.  Which person did KI benefit from the most?

Just some food for thought, friends.

Your [disappointed] Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

Goodbyes Are Not Forever

Well gang, I've got some incredibly sad news.  A very dear friend has passed away, and she is one that I hope you all remember.  Heather Emeraldflame has passed.  While she hasn't been seen publicly for quite some time, she has been lurking in the Spiral and working on a couple of her alts, as Heather E. and her life on another account Alric D. had already finished Celestia.  Heather hasn't been well for quite some time, and her passing means that she at least will not be in pain any longer.  I am taking comfort that she's able to soar around on her dragon somewhere in the skies above Wizard City and beyond. 

As a tribute to Heather, I will not be removing her from my friend's list, and I ask that you do the same.  Also, please remember her as the inspiring Diviner who, along with Fallon, introduced us all to the wonders of the storm school on Ravenwood Radio.

If you have anything you would like to say to Heather's family, please comment on this post and I'll make sure they get it.  Thank you for always being here.

Goodbye, Heather.  I'm sure we'll meet again someday beyond the veil, just as Harry and Sirius will.

Your [Saddened] Friend Always,
John Lifeglen