Tuesday 17 June 2003

Pic of the day: Much better, thanks ... Sisyfos now in plate armor, not thanks to his own labors but those of Itlandsen the overly defensive paladin.

DAoC 50 /level

You know you've been playing enough online games when you are about to wake up from a dream, and you say to you fellow dream characters: "Sorry guys, I gotta resign - have to return to waking life now." (Yes, it has happened to me, but only once...)

It is less than a month ago that I wrote about being level 45 in DAoC; yet already this weekend I am level 50. The best a man can get, as the saying goes. That's remarkable: The last five levels are intentionally made harder to "fill up" than the rest, even above the fact that each level from 2 upward takes twice as long as the previous. (You need 4 times as much experience, but the monsters of each new level only give twice as much xp each. For the last levels, you need even more.)

If I had to solo those levels, it would probably take all summer. But Itlandsen is a very group-friendly character, and that makes a huge difference. By combining our strengths, we defeated monsters that were way above our level. (Players stop at level 50, but monsters continue to at least 65.) We not just defeated purple monsters, we harvested them for profit. Reaching level 50 was almost an anticlimax: Suddenly all the XP from those monsters is worthless. At least they still drop money and stuff.

The way to progress after 50 is keep raids. There you can get realm points, which you use to buy realm skills. This is a slow process. Besides, I have other hobbies, even in the game. One of these is, of course, the /level command.

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Introduced in the latest patch (1.62), the /level command is available only to users who already has a level 50 character. It does not matter which server, as long as it is one of the US servers. (The European servers will have their own level database when they get the same patch.) The /level command is used to raise a newbie character to level 20 (or 30, in some realms that are under-populated). You do not need to go all the way to level 20, although you probably want to. Just stand before your class trainer, write /level and follow the instructions on-screen. Each time you right-click on your trainer, you will gain one level. After you reach level 20, you can get free armor and weapons for that level from a special merchant in your capital city. It is not very good equipment, but it does the trick.

So far I have used the /level command for 3 newbie characters, all on the cooperative server: One necromancer, one enchanter and Sisyfos the Avalonian paladin. I am not likely to play Sisyfos seriously, since I already have a paladin. I just wanted to see if he was playable, and he is. I used the free realm point at 20 to get Lifter 1, which allows him to carry 20% extra weight compared to his strength. This lets him carry loot in addition to wearing full armor. Without that, he would have to stick to monsters that drop gold, in practice Darkness Falls.

My next project is to find an under-populated server and /level a character to 30. That won't help them, really, since I detest player killing. It is for the sake of science, to test character classes ... OK, it is to have fun. Just don't tell anyone.

***

I haven't retired Itlandsen either. My plans for the near future is to play Itlandsen every other day. Keep raids would of course be nice, but at least at first I will stay parked at Cambions, the starting point for both the Diamond Loop, Knights and Princess. Most of the friends I made in the Loop have not turned 50 yet, and it seems reasonable to help them first. Peachess (Tash's paladin) for instance is 45 or 46, a good age to be secondary paladin in a diamond group. Once they are 50, I suppose some of them will move on to keep raids. Would be nice to do keeps with people you know.

And anyway, there's a reason why it's called "diamond" loop. I have like 8 platinum now, or 8000 gold. Could have been more, but I always try to pay crafters more than market price; another good way to be remembered. (Besides, I've been a crafter on two other servers and have an enormous respect for their patience.) I guess if I sold all the seals I carry around I may have around 10 platinum. (Or is that 10 platina?) Anyway, that's enough to outfit 1000 newbies with decent armor for their first 10-15 levels. Perhaps I should do that ... but then again, most newbies these days are probably alts and will use the /level command themselves ...