[<a href='2181.html'>Next Message in Time</a>] | 
[<a href='2179.html'>Previous Message in Time</a>] | 
[<a href='2199.html'>Next Message in Topic</a>] | 
[<a href='2167.html'>Previous Message in Topic</a>] <br/><br/>
<b>Message ID:</b> 2180 <br/>
<b>Date:</b> Sun Jun 20 19:41:47 BST 1999 <br/>
<b>Author:</b> jhenders@xxxxx.xxx <br/>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Cazic Thule <br/>
<br/><br/>
<div id="ygrps-yiv-1062939781">On Sat, Jun 19/99, Douglas Bierbower &lt;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:Bierbower@...">Bierbower@...</a>&gt; wrote:<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; I spent the day in Cazic Thule.  I loved it and hated it.  Experience<br/>
&gt; galore, but I died five times and gave most of it back.  Loot is okay,<br/>
&gt; but the market for fine steel is drowned and merchants only give me<br/>
&gt; about 6pp and 6gp for Two Handed Swords.<br/>
&gt; <br/>
 </span></blockquote>It still adds up, but I think L23 is kind of pushing it for Cazic.<br/>
Especially now that the leading middle area of Brian Hook&#39;s bell curve<br/>
is entering there. (I&#39;m glad it&#39;s getting a lot of attention, but<br/>
really, is there anyone who didn&#39;t already know that this would happen?<br/>
This is part of the reason I and many of the people I played with<br/>
powergamed our way through the first levels, to try to be able to play<br/>
areas before the huge mass of middle range players arrived. It early<br/>
became obvious that for most levels, only a few places were really<br/>
suitable, and also that they had never been designed or tested to<br/>
accomodate mass numbers of people)<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; Are there any good open areas for a 23 bard to go to?  I am sort of<br/>
&gt; burnt out on indoor areas and confined spaces.  I have never been to<br/>
&gt; Mistmore.  Is that an outdoor zone?  What levels is it good for?<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>Have you played in Unrest? If I recall I was still getting decent<br/>
experience there well into the late 20&#39;s area. Of course, when I played<br/>
there we considered 30+ ppl a crowd and now I hear it tops 100 at busy<br/>
times.<br/>
<br/>
Other than that it&#39;s hard to find a decent place to play at that level.<br/>
I believe Runnyeye is supposed to be good for players in the mid 20&#39;s<br/>
but my experience with almost all goblin dungeons is that they are way<br/>
more trouble than they are worth. Goblins seem to hit faster and harder<br/>
than other mobs, and until you can do the top mobs there, the loot<br/>
basically stinks. I think the front areas of Permafrost may be in the<br/>
mid 20&#39;s level as well but the same general rule seems to apply there.<br/>
I&#39;m not sure what level can successfully do the elite guards and others<br/>
deeper in permafrost. By the time they got around to itemizing the<br/>
dungeon I was already L35 and they still conned blue to me but they were<br/>
the only ones that did. (other than a few specials.)<br/>
<br/>
Another thing that&#39;s been bugging me a lot lately about dungeon design<br/>
is that, dispite putting big races in the game, it never seems to have<br/>
occured to anyone to design the dungeons to accomodate them. My recent<br/>
trips to nagafen&#39;s really show this up, with it&#39;s corridors so narrow<br/>
that one troll can completely block it. Heck, you cant ever squeeze past<br/>
a barbarian warrior in there. And of course the monsters can go through<br/>
PC chars, but PC chars cant go through monsters, so if a kobold goes<br/>
through your fighters to attack your wizard, getting to it to get it off<br/>
them becomes a frustrating experience.<br/>
<br/>
-- <br/>
  Artificial Intelligence stands no chance against Natural Stupidity.<br/>
            GAT d- -p+(--) c++++ l++ u++ t- m--- W--- !v<br/>
                 b+++ e* s-/+ n-(?) h++ f+g+ w+++ y*</div>