[courtesy of Diogenes]
** WARNING: If you are easily confused, consult someone who can follow the jumpiness :) **
The following is a series of excerpted questions, answers, comments,
and notes from conferences held over the past few years. This file
is meant to replace a series of separate files for each conference.
The editor, PORPHYRY.of.cure apologizes for all the germane,
historically relevant, and otherwise erstwhile comments that have not
been included. The aim was to eliminate outdated material, reduce
redundancy, and make the cointents contemporary.
This file contains information that would be helpful to VERY new players
along with those of us who *think* we really have learned about this
island refuge we call IoK.
EDITED HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE JANUARY 1986
ISLAND OF KESMAI CONFERENCE
---------------------------
L'EAGLE: Does the Karma field click when you kill a lawful
"lawfully," i.e. bash the begger in the boxing ring? ga
Kesmai: Karma only "clicks" if a change of alignment would be
involved so boxing ring would *not* count.
Kesmai: Self defense does not count. I think we've got it
straight. Boxing ring and seld-defense will not count.
Garion: One shocked MA here! I shouldn't wear chain, leather or
even scales? Will my ability to move faster make up for
being easier to hit?
Kesmai: For the black belt, at least, the less armor the "faster"
you can move. This has 2 effects: (1) the jumpkick
command has greater range, (2) the blocking odds rise, to
compensate for loss in armor. ie, a black belt will
block many swings that with hands that others would need
armor to block. There are tradeoffs.
Arrakis: Why the ban on nitro sales?
Kesmai: We learned a lesson from the ancient Japanese about the
great equalizer. What's use of being a great samurai if
every peasant has a gun? Same with nitro. it makes
things entirely too easy independent of how big the
character is. Nitro is still found in the dungeon, you
just can't buy bags of it.
Kesmai: Stand by for a short story:
The original UNIX version had this very concept, except
that it was *involuntary*. If you had the curse every
once in a while you'd flip out and waste everything in
sight. If there was someone I didn't like, I'd "tweak"
his berserk odds a bit <grin>. Once I was using the rune
sword Stormbringer, went berserk, wiped 75% of the 4th
level before I cooled off. So we can do it, essentialy
is an auto-charm spell. I like the idea of its being
involuntary. Only fighters and ma's were vulnerable.
Kesmai: Another short story [about the Unix version]:
When a lawful character over 6th level dies, there is a
chance of his being hauled before the demon Midas at the
gates of Hell. He is given a choice to either pass
through the gates <he he>, or serve the demons by leading
their armies. This makes him chaotic and sends him back.
We've never had anyone chose the gates!
Arrakis: The manual mentioned summoning the devil (Satan). Can
this be done (now or in the future)? and what will the
effects in the game be? What happens if you nitro
someone like Neela or the Sheriff?
Kesmai: Yes, you can summon the head demon, though it's not
Satan. I fear to try to program him <grin>.
Arrakis: Whats all this about finding shovels and footballs?
Is this your form of humor<grin> ?
Kesmai: Yeah, we've got a LOT of wierd stuff in there. Wait till
we put CATCH FOOTBALL in!
Pirate...TAG: Clarification on housecleaning: When the computer cleans
up the dungeon does it randomly select items to delete,
or does it only take garbage out and leave the goodies
in? I.e., if I was to start a cache of items in case I
lost my char, would they still be there when I went to
claim them?
Kelton: There are 2 treasure tables, one for the town and one for
the dungeon. Each holds 1000 items. When a table is full,
a whole pile (which no one is looking at at the time)
will vanish, unless its in the dragons hoard. This means
that stuff dropped in the woods will most likely remain
for a long time, whereas stuff in the dungeon has a much
shorter half life.
Cail: Wonder what happens if u die on a garbage pail?
Kelton: All your stuff gets sucked up. Corpse does *not*. Dying
over a garbage bin is a bad idea.
Arrakis: I guess this is a good question to end on: What will
happen when Dragon is slain? reset? ga
Prophet: Hahahahahaha.....how about *IF* he is slain!
This is an edited transcript of the June 3, 1986, Kesmai Conference.
Kesmai Corp: the first BIG one is:
karma will now count only kills of lawful "humanoids" ...
a humanoid is what you'd expect. a player, the sheriff, begger...
if you kill such a humanoid, karma works as it does now. ...
if you kill a dog, etc, you'll just turn neutral. ...
self-defense as always applies if you are lawful. ...
a thing about knights ...
they cannot kill a lawful *anything*, except in self-defense. ...
if they do, they turn neutral, and lose their knighthood. ...
knights can, as the sheriff and deputies, always see...
true alignment, thats how the sheriff works.
some items now have alignment themselves ...
if a weapon is aligned, like the returning hammer ...
it can only be used by one of it's alignment. ...
lawful weapons are +1 against evils ...
and vice versa. ...
the hammer is special, it has even more properties ...
it doesn't even like to kill lawfuls. ...
if used to kill a lawful, it is wrecked, bad things happen. ...
Severian: Can knight lose ring and...
can someone else use it?
Kesmai Corp.: they aren't like spell books, one size fits all. ...
only a knight can use it. ...
Xcz...: When object drops in parts of...
forest, or on ruined wall, no $ sign shows. Why?
Kesmai Corp.: items are covered by leaves or...
rubble, they are still there with LOOK. ...
elron: The new karma rules unfairly limit players who want to
play evil characters.
Kesmai Corp.: let me comment on that...
ok...
we agree 100% with that, and had a furious fight over changing...
the philosophy. HOWEVER ...
it was unfortuhnately that...
the lawful players were not capable ....
of handling a truly determined *professional* evil person. ...
what we are trying to do is...
make the game *enjoyable* for everyone ...
while keeping the limits as broad as we can. ...
if we improve on the handling of evils, we can slack off. ...
events in the game demonstrated to us that we had to do more...
than let the players police it.
elron: why have separate classes for magic users or..
separate classes for anything...
you can pay for?
Kesmai Corp.: 2 reasons. in the society as we envision it...
people are rather clannish, and like to separate ...
themselves from others, as better, perhaps. ...
so the various branches of knowledge would tend to...
separate into different "schools" and over time ...
be quite distinct. ...
secondly , specialization is very important, ...
one can't absorb radically different ...
ways of throwing magic. ...
as for alignment, that is a possibility, but we've
always considered, as i said, thieves to be...
pretty much neutral by nature. ...
sorcerers are evil to the core, no question there. ...
i think improved disguise when it comes will help thieves. ...
after all, a master thief ought to appear lawful no matter ...
what he has done, if he wants to.
ga
Kesmai Corp.: skill adds increase the odds of hitting
Kesmai Corp.: as the odds increase you might do a critical hit
Kesmai Corp.: the skill adds help you there (ie the blow to head)
Kesmai Corp.: the damage roll is not influenced by skill
Kesmai Corp.: strength and weapon adds
Kesmai Corp.: this makes weapon adds more valuable. ga
Musashi: (1) What do you think of my samurai/ninja proposals?
Musashi: Are those proposals workable?
Musashi: ga
Kesmai Corp.: I have a copy of your proposal
Kesmai Corp.: we have plans to implement some kind of higher level MA but
Kesmai Corp.: we have not really worked on it. The nija can caues more
Kesmai Corp.: trouble in the lawful killing and other playability areas so we
decidied not to
Kesmai Corp.: deal with it at this time.
Kesmai Corp.: the odds of a critical are determined
Kesmai Corp.: though we do not use a discrete table it
Kesmai Corp.: is easiest to think about it this way. Supppose you
Kesmai Corp.: roll a *to hit* die between 1 and 20. we take
Kesmai Corp.: this number and add in your skill points and weapon adds and
Kesmai Corp.: we subtract off the defenders skill and dex adds. we
Kesmai Corp.: then use that number to index into a table which
Kesmai Corp.: ranges from 1 to say 30. the top ten would
Kesmai Corp.: be the critical hits. each weapon has its own table and
Kesmai Corp.: it is cross indexed by the type of armor that you
Kesmai Corp.: are hitting.
-------------------------------------------------
Edited transcript of the July 26, 1987 MPGAMES CO
hosted by Cail.
-------------------------------------------------
(6,Grim..tag) I think that sounds good-the question to kesmai is: can one or
two thaum spells be tied to SD?
(6,ORC) Ok... If Fuzzy and Lynn's ideas are accepted, why not just
cut the baloney and ban all PC combat. Make this a Game of Cooperation..
(nausea).. and we (and there are many of us) can just go off and play an
exciting game elsewhere...? These fixes are silly and time-consuming..
get to the point!.. ga
The following is an edited transcript of the Island of Kesmai conference held
on October 4, 1987. The subject of the conference was the new kesmai dungeon
that had made a brief appearance earlier in the week, and was due to return
the week of October 4.
Severian: morph, why no belting of scales and fur...and does it apply to
feathers and armor?...how about on your back? ga
Morpheus: Scales, feathers, armor, fur are all bulky items. They were not
supposed to go on your belt in the first place. While we were expanding
the number of allowable items, Kelton found that bug and excised it.
Perhaps some items could go on your back but somehow the idea of a person
being able to strap a full suit of plate or chainmail to their back and
fight is sort of boggling. GA
Morpheus: Mugwort is an herb that will reduce your poison damage per round
If you eat it when you are suffering say 20 points of poison damage per
round, it will reduce your damage by amount x, so the next round you'd only
take 20 - x - 1 points of poison damage. It will be available in both
Kesmai and Leng with the new version. GA
Morpheus: Mugwort lasts until you are no longer being damaged by poison.
If you were to eat mugwort on each succesive round,your poison count would
look like this: 20, 19-x, 18-2x, 17-3x, 16-4x, and you'd be all better
probably. Sacks are undergoing discussion. GA
Morpheus: BTW You cannot eat mugwort as a preventative, ie before you are
poisoned. GA
Morpheus: You're welcome, my main goal is to see that you all have fun, to
know mystery and darkness again, as in the days of old.
Morpheus: See if I make a promise then I'd have to imply that I could
predict all contingincies, and I cannot, what if I explode tomorrow? Or CIS
disappears in a sea of blood? etc. GA
Morpheus: The bone is good for entertaining guests for that festive holiday
meal when you want to impress all your relatives. Bone is important
ingredient in a good soup; so you have something to give someone who really
screws up
The following is an edited transcript of the Island Of Kesmai Sunday
conference that was help November 1, 1987. The topic was The 7 level dungeon
(version 2V), and Morpheus of Kesmai Corp. was in attendance.
Morpheus: LOCATE has an effective range of around 5000 feet.
Morpheus: No, your manual is out of date.
Morpheus: I'd like to say something about the AG. It is not what you may be
thinking, something incredibly difficult and ferocious. There will be no
Asmodeus guarding the gateway between the BG and the AG. There will be
no hordes of critters to attack you when you go through. It is a smooth
integration. The AG is really just a place where players will have
encouragement to grow bigger because they don't impact new players and
beginners there. A 3rd level character could easily go to the AG.
Morpheus: A saving throw is a chance that the player or creature is resistant
to your magic due to an inherent quality, a magic item, or clean living.
The following is an edited transcript of the IOK Sunday conference of
November 15, 1987. Topics discussed include the soon-to-be parallel game
with the new database, the solution to the Excalibur puzzle, and the AG.
Fuzzy: this is some info via morph; he says that the price of a magical
item has nothing to do with its magic ie: if you go appraise some of your old
+6 str rings, you will find that they are not all worth the same and not the
same as new +6.
Morpheus: I'm not sure how long the parallel game will be up. Current
thought is that if it works, then we'll upgrade the current database and then
make the parallel game a tournament game with no karma and a variable scenario.
Morpheus: The parallel game will not become the real game. Rather, we will
upgrade the real game database. Anything you do in the parallel game is
temporary and not permanent. It will in no way damage your real characters.
Thus, you can take all sorts of godawful chances and risks there with no bad
consequences. We'll have to see, play it by ear, with regard to warning when
the parallel game is going down.
This is an edited transcript of the Island of Kesmai CO held on Sunday,
January 10, 1988.
Sir James: Ok...
Just one thing, for the benefit of anyone trying to...
play at 300 baud...
keep conversation to a minimum and let the leader do...
the talking...
the less the screen has to print out, the faster...
everyone can react...
Sev/IoK SL: ok... yes, one other idea ...
if you are out in front and you die, immediately tell...
the others which way to run, then yell exactly...
what happened to you... they can come back for you...
when they know what they're up against...
Rad/IoK SL: I don't want to sound pompous, so you all, please ...
don't take offense about what I might say here. ...
Still, it has been my experience while running ...
around in groups of people in the dungeons ...
that many *still* don't know what is considered ...
"mannerly" when operating in a group. ...
Remember to always divide up all gold evenly, and ...
to decide fairly what gems and other goodies ...
should go to the others. This even concerns ...
such niceties as dps, yps, and the such. ...
It also helps to give warnings about approaching ...
danger and to let everyone know what you'd like ...
to do in advance, so that nobody strays off ...
unintentionally, and/or it allows the rest ...
of the group a chance to object, if that is ...
not what they want to do. Remember, also, ...
to try *not* to be too greedy concerning ...
experience, too. If you are a lot "bigger" ...
in experience than some of the others in the ...
group, try to allow them to have the kills ...
- although, it *is* nice <Grin> if you help ...
them out. Keep looking at the victim ...
to see when it is "near death," and ...
then stop fighting it - thus allowing them ...
to get the experience. That is not to say ...
that you shouldn't get a kill or two in the ...
process. I think that that will help to keep ...
everyone happy in the long run, and it helps ...
to keep friends in the process. ...
I guess that is all I really had in mind. ...
Comments are certainly welcome. Back to you, ...
Sev. Thanks for allowing me to speak my peace. ga
Sev/IoK SL: thanks, rad!..
ok... one other note...
groups of over 5 people begin to get pretty impossible..
to keep organized and effective.. Kesmai just isn't designed...
for communication that close and quick, so...
large groups tend to spread out...
ok, anyone else have comments?... i know...
grim has a couple, ga Grim
Grim..tag: ok....
one last thought on our trip in partic, and group outings...
in general is that primary rule for getting ahead on kesmai
stay alive!..
you don't do your group any service by...
dieing while trying to recover corpses or whatever
best to look after your own safety first...
then see what you can do to help others...
but dont get the order of those 2 confused
thanks sev-ga
This is an edited transcript of the Sunday IoK CO held on January 17, 1988.
The following people attended the CO at various times throughout it all:
jimbo: ok...
what in general is the best way to proceed...
with a character that is brand new....
so I can get experienced. ga
Sev/IoK SL: ok...
opinions vary, but my favorite is...
to run a fighter or an MA and just start bashing away...
now, there are things you can do to...
speed this up, first.. get a good weapon...
for MAs, staves are good and effectively thrown...
also, don't jump ahead of yourself, but...
try to get to level 2 as soon as you feel comfortable...
since experience per critter picks up..
anyone else want to comment, go right ahead, ga
keep going, jimbo, you still have the floor
Misron: ok...
first, I have heard a little bit
about the AG... is it true that...
(1) it is a one-way deallie...
(2) u can buy DPS...
(3) and there are giants roaming around...
that take up a full space of play? ga
Sev/IoK SL: ok...
yes, it is definitely one-way, so prepare as best you can...
take your best weapon and all the gold you can carry...
2. you can buy hit points, that i know... i don't know...
if dps are on sale...
and 3, that's the rumor, we'll see if...
giants are truly that big <grin>...
ga
oh, yes, there is a town in the AG
Balrog...bh: ok...and we can NEVER go back?
Sev/IoK SL: you can go back after you die your final death...
new characters will be born on the same dock, ga
Sev/IoK SL: aha! good question.. THE most effective weapon in the game...
is the greatsword Excalibur, found in the depths...
of level 7, nobody has yet discoverd...
the secret to extracting it from it's stone...
when you try to get close to it, a hand pushes you back...
and a voice says "You are not yet pure enough"...
and nobody has figured how to get that pure yet <grin> ga
Kuurus....khan: what is the maximum amount of gold...
that a player can carry?ga
Sev/IoK SL: it depends on your strength...
and what else you're carrying... you can pick up...
well over 100k if all your fingers...
have +6 strength rings, and you aren't carrying...
3 greatswords <grin>, ga
BOBBY DEE: whats a glower?
Sev/IoK SL: bobby, a glower is...
a small gold ring with a glowing red gem which ...
contains the spell of strength, with the power +6..
it allows you to carry a lot and hit harder, ga
The following is an edited transcript of the Island of Kesmai Sunday CO held
on January 24, 1988. The following people attended the CO:
Sev/IoK SL: right.. new description of dp....
dp is no longer "potion of health" or whatever, but is...
perm constitution potion, but it still works the same, ga
Nemo.Wulf: featherfall boots protect your arches and other parts
of the body.
from fall damage (though not totally).
Lucienne..bh: Q, the amulet that looks like lightning bolt- are you SURE
that it protects from lightning? if so how much?
Shai.Hulud: half damage luci
3 forths of the time