After that topic gets nice and full, I will copy it to HERE for permanent archiving.

Super Frequently Asked Questions

Network Troubleshooter

The 'official rules' are:

1.) new text causes window to scroll

2.) until you use the scroll bar to read some old text, then the autoscroll turns off

3.) if you drag the scroll bar all the way t the bottom, the autoscroll turns back on.

4.) If you do nothing (no scrolling) for awhile (a pretty long time), then the next incoming chat will autoscroll again.

====

But if you leave the game running a long time (long enough to accumulate a lot of chat), I have seen it screw up. I think it has to do with clipping the old chat (I only keep the last 64K or so of chat around, so you don't run out of memory when you play a long time). However it happens (and if you can make it happen on demand, please let me know), once you get in this state (which seems to fix itself eventually) the autoscroll either works not at all, or "is goofy"

NOTE: WINDOWS BUG

If your chat *never* scrolls automatically, you might be using one of the broken DLLs Microsoft shipped about the time they released Windows 2000. This DLL is further re-installed when you install some other software packages released around that time.

At present, the Internet Explorer 5.5 service pack is one known way of getting a working DLL back.

I'm afraid I can't provide the DLL name or version to watch out for, but I suspect it is COMCTRL32.DLL which has most of the windows common controls in it.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 02-28-2001).]

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Rather than explain that here, I will instead say:

1.) play the game
2.) RIGHT-click in the CHAT WINDOW
3.) A little menu appears
4.) Select HELP from the bottom.

That will open the help file to the section on chatting. There you will find longer descriptions of gossip mode than I could hope to stick here.

But think of gossiping as chatting on the radio at a particular frequency. Everyone listening to the same freq will hear you.

----
DragonLord Adds:

Kornatrix were you actualy asking that? well even if you weren't this might catch the eye of some lost newbie.
By typing /tune #### (where # is a number) you can then chat to everyone tuned to that channel, and only those in the channel will see it.

example

Me, and two friends type /tune 4198 then when I type
'hello (yes with the ' that is the command to let you know your gossiping) then only those tuned to channel 4198 will see it. it is like mass whisper if you will.

(sorry if that is somneone's channel, I just randomly typed it)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

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A pet (or monster) gets the ability to cast spells based upon their current WISDOM rating. A zero value means no magic.

They will normally be limited to casting spells within their own element, but as the wisdom increases they can branch out to 'adjacent' elements. By max wisdom (255) they can cast all the way around the wheel (however, their spell casting will be weaker in the more distant elements)

In theory, they will attempt to use the best available spell on the target at hand. But you know how AI goes.

And no, they still can't cast life spells (even if the life element is 'adjacent')

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 06-11-2000).]

I have a level 26 sworduser but when I look at the spells in the earth element i have the level 1-6 and 8-9 but not the level 7 stun... is this as it should be or is it a bug?

I know of at least one Powerleveler that is a sworduser and he have it I'm only wondering what it takes to learn it.

---

Stun (and someday other spells) are not learned in the usual way. You don't just buy them with PP but must satisfy a particular quest which gives you the spell as a reward.

In this case, Professor J is the key.

/Lappen

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 06-12-2000).]

Is it possible to change your PK mode after setting it? and if so how?

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No, you must live with your decision for the life of your character.

HOwever, as of A41, world designers can now tag individual maps with "map flags" which enable such things as PK fights whether you are PK or not, and total safety from PKing, whether you are PK or not. One can only hope this power will be used responsibly.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-09-2000).]

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If you NEVER get skins, check the setting of the option "Ask for new skins" in your FILE menu.

If you look in your WoS\SKINS folder, sort it by date you will see what skins you have gotten. If they all end with ".tmp" it means something went wrong before you completely received the skin (they left, you left, there was excessive UDP packet loss)

Here is how skin transfers work (as of A43):

1.) You enter a server
2.) You see a skin you don't have, if you have the "ASK" option turned on, you ask for it. (By you, I mean your copy of the game). Usually I put an asterisk after one of these skin names in the map list.
3.) If the other guy has the "SEND" option turned on, he starts sending it (unless the server is too busy - currently that means 28 people). Only when he starts sending it do you see that "receiving skin" message.
4.) It is accumulated in the file WoS\skins\skinName.bmp.tmp which gets longer with every packet
5.) If something interrupts the transfer like you leave, he leaves, or you drop some packets somewhere over the internet, the transfer stops and you are left with a partial ".bmp.tmp" file
5.) The next time you encounter the guy, the process repeats, only this time it picks up where it left off (unless he has edited the skin in the mean time).

Over time and repeated encounters, you should eventually get the skin. (and only then do you get the "got skin" message).

If there is a particular skin you really want right away, you can transfer it by any means you like. However it gets into the WoS\skins folder is ok, as far as the game is concerned.

---

OTHER REASONS FOR NO SKINS RECEIVED:

* huge skins won't get transferred by the game. A reasonable skin size is 20K bytes or so.

* The folder "WoS\Skins" (or the filename in question) has been marked "read-only" This is most commonly reported by people who use CD-R to move skins back and forth between computers.

* You are behind a firewall which is blocking UDP traffic. As of version A52 you can specify a specific range of port numbers to be used in UDP transfers. Your firewall administrator may be able to work with you on this.

* You are behind a proxy (another computer which has the REAL Internet connection on it, which handles all requests on your behalf). This can lead to your computer not knowing its own address, making it difficult to tell other player's computers where to send stuff (and even if they knew, the proxy will probably reject their attempts to send it on to you).

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

So I ask you fine fellows today, In serch of a answer. I go in to WoS and I go to MIX servers and nothing appers, it just keeps serching for servers!!! someone help me please!!!

-Drayke

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Be sure to notice the message above the empty list to see if:

1.) It is trying to get the master server address.

2.) It is trying to get the list of servers from the master server

3.) It is pinging the various servers.

The most likely sources of failure at each of these points are:

1.) For some reason you can't reach www.synthetic-reality.com (try visiting it with your browser just to check). I don't see any service interruptions there today, so unless your ISP was messed up, this probably wasn't the problem.

2.) You have some sort of UDP firewall in place (since it was working for you before, this is unlikely unless your system or your ISP made a change)... or you got added to the master server banishment list. During today's peak usage I manually banished a couple of IP addresses with 'unusual activity' which might be what happened. If your IP shows up repeatedly with unusual activity, we'll have to figure out why that is.

3.) In this case, you would probably get some, but not all, of the servers to show up. So it is probably not your problem either. There have been 5 servers up for most of the day.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 06-15-2000).]

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Go to the WoS home page and look for 'cheat codes' in the list of links on the left side of the page.

This lists all slash commands, only some of which are actually cheats.

Remember that using an actual cheat command marks your character permanently as a cheater, and prevents it from fully interacting with other players. (and will eventually reduce the max level you can achieve)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 06-16-2000).]

I am playing a Book using character, my level is 20, my Att is 140 my Def 255, str 24, Wis 60 Stam 60 Dex 30 Agi 30..and I keep getting my but kicked my creatures my own level, mainly level 20 Wasp and level 22 Vipers..if I try to fight 3 of the vipers, i'm constantly healing and never getting a chance to cast. Spells level is Fire 6, using scorch as default spell, and Have death at level 6 to. Any suggestions out there (apart from getting air up to take care of the earth types.)

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Lady Griffon Hawkeye Responds:

[As] WOSgy stated, first off don't try to fight more than one creature (of your level or higher) at a time. As he also stated, the /monster command will give you the "range" that a monster roams in, staying towards the edge of the circle will give you 1 monster fights.

Secondly you're try to fight and AIR element monster (wasp) and an EARTH element monster (viper) with a FIRE spell. It won't be very effective, especially since your magic effectiveness is somewhat reduced (70% effective vs. 80% effective for a Spirit-User and 90% effective for a Magic-User) by your class.

You want to use the OPPOSITE element spell against a monster. In this case you would want to use an EARTH spell against an AIR monster and an AIR spell against an EARTH monster

I know you said "(apart from getting air up to take care of the earth types.)" but that is the ONLY way to be more effective as a magic using type class.

LGH

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Samsyn Adds:

In a 'perfect' world, a single monster of the same level as yourself would be difficult to win against. You would get killed roughly half the time, I mean.

Hence fighting three of them at once would be three times as hard (and you would be three times more likely to lose).

However, WoS is not a perfect world (yet?) and so, in fact, you have a reasonably good chance of defeating 2 or maybe 3 monsters at your same level, especially if you heal yourself repeatedly.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

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Your hunt stat (as of A40) can go up to level 28 (or so), but I think it would take a couple BILLION clicks to achieve the highest level.

However, by level 8 you should be cruising, as they say.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-09-2000).]

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No, your hunting is a secret. Of course, the real reason behind the hunt button in the first place was to reduce packet traffic, so I only debated for a moment as to whether to send a packet to let people know you were hunting.

I'm just glad the hunt button also turns out to be a nice game feature. (thanks, f'nok).

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-06-2000).]

In most RPGs that I have played (such as those by Square/Nintendo) there are no options wherein you can progress the story by screwing up. (In some cases you can lose a battle and continue, but you cannot have certain characters end up dying, and so on.)

I wanted to know what your position was on storylines where if the player is not prepared by having item X at event Y, they will take 'bad' path B instead of 'good' path A.

-GJ

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Hopefully world designers will decide what THEY want to do in this regard. My personal feelings (more on that later in this topic) are that it is hard enough to make c nice little quest in the first place, and adding a lot of complicated stuff which is only seen by a small minority of the players (and possibly none) further dilutes your effort.

But I hope the game empowers more industrious quest authors to get as funky as they like. One enhancement I hope to add soon which might aid them in this regard is a scene 'stack' and the ability to call one scene as a subroutine from another (and the END of the second one returns you to where you left off in the first).

Of course, this is slightly more complicated in my world since I have a lot of state to preserve on the stack (background, sounds, actors positions and poses, etc.) so it is not likely to happen soon.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-09-2000).]

[This message has been edited by DragonLord (edited 07-08-2000).]

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Much as I would like to boast that I would make a world class map and set designer with a fully graphical UI... well... I very likely won't. Such a project is easily more complex than the game itself.

with the structure of the quest files (and the include directive) I have tried to make it straightforward for other people to write helper tools of their own which focus on a particular part of the problem.

But probably the biggest asset in this context is my own inability to deal with anything which is excessively frustrating. So if a certain addition makes it easier for ME to quest (for example, the graphical monster placement) then it is more likely to get implemented.

Also, contrast the needs of the people who want graphical versus people who want it all to be keyboard oriented (lurch is now officially both, it would appear contrasting the requests for more hotkeys and such with requests for drag and drop scene editors :-) (don't get mad lurch, I love ya' man)

Anyway, I have other things I would rather do before this. SO... please let me know specific EASY things I could do to make your life easier as opposed to generic grandiose things.

In my own case that seems to be memory-related stuff. Like needing to know the name of the file with 'that skin' in it, and the offset to 'that skin' Hence the /villagers command (that most people have never heard of). Once I have a way for finding something, I don't mind having to type the name and number (which is the only part the drag and drop would replace)

Or needing to know which scene background to use, for which I usually break down and use windows explorer.

I finally added the button which lets you change the map link's image without having to screw with the object editor any more. So now you really only need to use the object editor to create objects in the first place. The link editor by itself can place them and change them as much as you like.

I think I might do an 'actor blocking helper' though. I added a thing to the little bkgnd viewer which makes it easy to find out proper x,y coords, but it would be nice to be able to drag actors around on the window directly. It's hard to directly embed that info in the scene script though, so it wouldn't be as cool as what Lurch asked for.

Anyway, getting back to your actual questions: Yes, expect more map flags, though I won't commit to what, and yes expect more world author helpful things, in one form or another.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-09-2000).]

Q: WHEN THE BLEEP WILL THE EVERGREEN QUESTS BE DONE AND LET ME FIGHT THE BLEEPING BLACK WRATH? (or words to that effect)

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In general, I should take people's impatience as a compliment, though I rarely do. Synthetic Reality is all about my getting to do what I feel like doing. To the degree that I feel like making free games which more or less grow along a path the players suggest, this is good.

But for you (the impatient player who likes to swear a lot, I mean) it can be frustrating since attempts to boss me around or make me commit to specific dates are a waste of your time.

Hopefully none of my actions cause physical pain, loss of money, or deprivation to the individual players.

Having said that, I next ask that you separate Well of Souls the game engine, from Evergreen the world.

Because I hope to leverage the creativity of the players themselves to widen the world base, I feel it is incumbent upon me to give first priority to getting the engine to a state where it empowers them to create excellent content. They will all agree I have not yet attained this lofty goal.

While I enjoy working on Evergreen the world, it is more of a closed object which, when 'done' will be cast aside in the relentless pursuit of novelty. My hours of hard work reduced to one player's spoiler page. (boo hoo, pity me )

My dream is that the engine itself would enable any world to have infinite replay value, even though the scripted elements will always be most interesting the first time through.

As was pointed out by LGH, much of evergreen is intended to be an example of how to achieve certain effects, to later be done more elegantly in another world.

And, of course, it helps other world designers if Evergreen doesn't compete too brilliantly against their creations (that is, of course, just a rationalization, put here for your amusement )

In fact, as any world designer will tell you, it is not trivial to make a good world. Without naming names, I think we've all seen examples of poorly thought out worlds, showing a minimum investment of time and energy. Such worlds depend heavily on the game engine bringing replayability to the party.

It's much easier to brag about how great your world will be, than to actually deliver. Which is why we really need to give the good designers their due (I can't name them here without pointing out the others, and I can't afford to alienate ANY designers :-)

A designer easily spends an hour developing something which entertains you for less than a minute. So hopefully there are more than sixty of you for every one of him/her, or the universe will experience premature heat death.

I don't always have a lot of energy when I get to the part of the day where I 'should' be working on quests and that's the real explanation for why there are not always 3 new quests in every release (which I wish there were). When the muse is there, I generate scenes. When it isn't, I go where the muse is calling and work on something else.

And that's what Synthetic Reality Co. is all about.. doing what I feel like doing at the time I feel like doing it - and encouraging others to do the same.

Follow your bliss, as trivial as that advice may sound.

(Also get some exercise, watch your weight and don't over invest in shaky stock picks )

Basically, you 'train' in the use of magical elements and physical 'hand' attacks (16 training categories total).

Training occurs whenever you use the skill in question, but can also be achieved by 'spending' PP (participation points) on one of the training screens.

As you train, you increase your level in that skill. This is done in a non-linear fashion which gives you a diminishing return. For example, it is harder to train from level 2 to level 3, than it was to train from level 1 to level 2.

And, it would require an infinite amount of PP to train from level 9 to level 10 (hence you can NEVER REACH level 10) For all practical purposes you can't really train any higher than 9.99 or so.

Now, what good is training anyway? First off, many spells and weapons require a minimum training level to be used. So, for example, to cast a level 3 water spell, you must have trained to at least level 3 in the water element skill.

The other advantage of training comes from "excess training" That is to say, training in excess of the minimum required for a particular weapon or spell.

This excess training makes your attack somewhat stronger. Although the actual amount may vary from one version release to the next, in A43 the effect is about 19 percent for each full excess level.

Hence a level 3 water spell would be about 19 percent more effective if you were trained to level 4 in the water skill (1 excess level).

With 2 excess levels, a spell would be improved by about 42% (you don't add the percentages, you multiply them.. so three excess levels would be 1.19 * 1.19 * 1.19 which would give about 68 percent, etc.)

The actual math is done with a base raised to a power, so it works with any excess training amount.

Note that it is impossible to get more than about one level of excess training for a level 9 spell. Hence low level weapons and spells are more easily improved with excess training. This keeps the low level spells interesting even after you have raised your character to the highest levels, without allowing the high level spells to become overly powerful, thus destabilizing the game.

Careful examination of the HP and MP meters in the lower left will show a simple qhite bar beneath each.

This is the charge bar for physical attacks (HP) and magical attacks (MP). It discharges whenever you attack, and then slowly recharges back to maximum.

In general, if you wait for it to recharge before attacking again, your attack will be stronger as a result.

The actual means by which this is achieved ties in somewhat with the 'excess training' discussion above.

But the important thing to remember is that this effect is more impressive when you have LOW training to begin with. For example, if you are only trained to level 1 in water, and cast a level 1 water spell, it will be considerably improved by waiting for a recharge.

However, once you achieve level 9 or more training, you will be hard pressed to see the charge meter making much of a difference.

What, exactly, do each of the stats do?

LGH:
Strength: How hard you hit (how much damage you do). The higher the harder.
Stamina: How much damage you take. The higher the less damage.
Agility: How well they hit you. The higher the more likely they are to miss.
Dexterity: How well you hit them. The higher the less likely you are to miss.
Wisdom: How many Participation Points (PP) you get per attempted attack AND how strong your spells are. The higher the more PP per attempted attack and the stronger your spells.

When creating spells, it only says that the pp required is automated, but it seems like the damage/power and mp are also automated. Is there another way that i have to change this or are they really automated?

LGH:
PP cost to learn the spell, MP cost to cast the spell, and spell strength are all hardwired into the game engine based on the level of the spell and whether or not it is a Single or an All spell.

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SAMSYN:

The exception to this rule is for healing spells, where you DO get to indicate the amount of healing which takes place, and DISEASE spells where the damage is actually a special negative number which indicates the disease to be bound to the spell.

It is conceivable that I *might* remove some more of the algorithmic mandates if the 'versioned worlds' code works out. If we have a good way of following the player's "pedigree" then I don't mind removing limitations on world designers.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-17-2000).]

My question is: Does dexterity have any affect on how well your spell hits an apponent?

Thanks!

Nehjen

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Whether it actually makes sense or not, your dexterity and your target's agility work together to determin whether or not your attack will MISS, be it a physical attack or a magical one.

In this case you will see MISS appear above the target's head.

In addition to missing, however, spells can also fail (or fizzle). This is controlled by your character's "magic-ratio" (set by your characters class). If you have a 100% magic-ratio, your spells will never fizzle (though they might still miss). If you have a 0 % magic-ratio, your spells will fizzle about half the time. With proportional fizzling for the in-between magic-ratio values.

Of course, if you have a maic ratio of ZERO, your spells aren't going to hurt much anyway, so why bother :-)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

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Aliases are the same as 'keyboard macros' and a host of other terms for the same concept.

Basically, it lets you predefine a goofy phrase that you like to say a lot, with a command like this:

"/laugh = I laugh at your silly joke!"

Then you can type:

"/laugh"

and everyone will see:

"I laugh at your silly joke!"

You can embed % tags and other things in your macro, as in:

"/laugh = /a laughs at @, who he thinks is a %3!"

And then when you type:

"/laugh John"

Everyone sees:

"Samsyn laughs at John, who he thinks is a diddle squash bucket!"

Press F1 in the game (or select HELP from the right-click popup menu in the CHAT window) to read more about it, and a list of all the percent commands.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-22-2000).]

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This is a situation where you have to have a file with the correct name, and don't get to name it yourself. Here are the relevant bits of documentation from the ITEMS table comments:

0 POTION "items.bmp" // affect hp and mp
stars, arrows, etc.
10 EQUIP_HELMET "helmets.bmp" // my helmet ID (0 for none)
11 EQUIP_ARMOR "armor.bmp" // my armor ID
12 EQUIP_RIGHT_1 "swords.bmp" // right-hand weapons 1 (evergreen swords)
13 EQUIP_RIGHT_2 "staffs.bmp" // right-hand weapons 2 (evergreen staffs)
14 EQUIP_RIGHT_3 "bows.bmp" // right-hand weapons 3 (evergreen bows)
15 EQUIP_RIGHT_4 "music.bmp" // right-hand weapons 4 (evergreen music)
16 EQUIP_RIGHT_5 "right5.bmp" // right-hand weapons 5 (evergreen fist)
17 EQUIP_RIGHT_6 "right6.bmp" // right-hand weapons 6 (evergreen dart)
18 EQUIP_RIGHT_7 "right7.bmp" // right-hand weapons 7 (evergreen Book)
19 EQUIP_RIGHT_8 "right8.bmp" // right-hand weapons 8 (evergreen Spirit)
20 EQUIP_BOOTS "boots.bmp" // my boots
21 EQUIP_SHIELD "shields.bmp" // my shield
22 EQUIP_RING "rings.bmp" // my ring
23 EQUIP_AMULET "amulets.bmp" // my amulet

So, the expectation is that you will provide a file called "swords.bmp" (for example) into which you will have pasted all the sword images you want to use in your world. You then place this file in the ART folder of your own world and it overrides the default swords.bmp file in the WoS\ART folder.

Then in arg3 of the ITEM table for each sword item, you put the index number of the image you want to appear for that item. Where 0 would be the far left image in the file (which should be the 'empty hand' image for a sword class)

Because many world designers don't want to come up with their own graphics, and didn't like to modify a copy of the original swords.bmp file (for one thing, it puts you at the mercy of later augmentations to that file in the subsequent releases), a wondrous hack was included when version A33 was released: the EXTENSION file.

Here is the documentation from the ITEMS file comments:

; // arg 3
; Image # (offset from left in appropriate class's image BMP file)
; Class Image files consist of a 'film strip' of images with #0 being the
; far left image.
; <<NEW FEATURE WITH A33 -- EXTENSION CLASS BITMAPS>>
; You can now have an additional 'extension' bitmap for each item class. For example
; you might wish to re-use all the stock sword images in your world, but then add some more as well.
; You would then make a filmstrip file of the normal name, but add "_1" to it. (as in "items_1.bmp,
; helmets_1.bmp, etc.). Then in arg3, instead of simply putting an offset, put a plus sign in
; front, hence "3" would mean image 3 in the stock bitmap, while "+2" would mean image 2 in the
; extension bitmap. I suppose that's horribly confusing. Your extension bitmaps should be
; placed in your world's ART folder. (and you can still override all the stock images by placing
; your modified stock bitmap ("items.bmp" for example) in your world's ART folder.

So, in this case, you would make a separate file containing sword images unique to your world and name it "swords_1.bmp" and place it in your world's ART folder, leaving the original "swords.bmp" file alone and NOT making your own copy of it.

Then in the ITEMS table, for each sword item, you would set arg3 to "n" if the image was a stock image, or "+n" if it was to come from your extension file (swords_1.bmp) where "n" is a number, of course.

Each item class has its own extension file (swords_1.bmp, helmets_1.bmp, etc.)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-30-2000).]

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While the Professor J quest is one of the simplest, none of the quests are really designed to be done 'first'. Of course, I speak only of Evergreen since quests are world-specific.

In evergreen, most of the quests have simple openings and chaotically difficult middle sections. One might only hope that the final stages of a quest are more difficult than earlier stages, but I won't guarantee even that

Over the next two releases, I will weed out the distracting non-quests (for example, the dolphins are now (in A44) a real quest)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 08-13-2000).]

This is probably an anti-cheat measure but I wanted to make sure I was doing it right...

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Yes, this is a feature. We had a spurt of people making "invisible" skins, so I had to implement some constraints which I hope you will forgive me for not detailing here. Suffice to say, any 'reasonable' skin will be displayed. (and a few unreasonable ones, as well of course )

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 08-13-2000).]

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LGH Responds:

A monster that has 0 wisdom (or through lack of playtime the wisdom FALLS to 0) will never have any wisdom.
LGH

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-06-2000).]

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Recent update around A55. A stupid monster can now regain its wisdom, so long as it had wisdom to begin with (even if you let that wisdom fall to zero).

Does WoS have a hat that they sell? If so I would like to purchase one ok Dan?I'll send ya a money order if ya want? Please, pretty please...wit a cherry on top?hehe

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Samsyn Responds:

I encourage everyone to visit www.synthetic-reality.com/donate.htm and send me as much money as they possibly can (do I sound desperate).

unfortunately, although there are now many different styles of shirts, mugs, and mousepads, there are still no hats.

I too, would like a hat, but that appears to be beyond the manufacturer's capabilities

And I *know* Sue McIlroy would buy a hat! Good old Sue! THANK YOU, Sue!

-s]

As of March 2001, the manufacturer has implied that hats will (eventually) be available.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

As of June 2001, they say it will happen this quarter.. check out the STORE for details.

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So, the question is then: why do you need to sponge a million GP off of someone? Why to buy seeds to level your character effortlessly, of course.

And why play the game at all if that's all you want to do?

I insist you stop playing immediately and go find something even easier to do with your time, like watching paint dry.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-09-2000).]

How come when I first incarnate into a world, I can't get into any camps that have been started before I incarnated? (I hope that made sense)

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[not a stupid question at all. There is information about the camp which is only sent out at the time the camp is created (when you weren't there). Sending you this information for all existing camps at the time you arrive would cause a spurt of bandwidth which would lag you and everyone else.

Originally this was simply a bug/design oversight, but now it is a bandwidth-saving feature :-)

There is, of course, no excuse. And if I worked a little harder, I could fix it (i.e. when you tried to enter such a camp, I could have you query just the camp in question and get synched to it - which wouldn't be all THAT huge a burden, packet-wise).

BUt the chances of that happening are semi-small

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-15-2000).]

How high does the PK rating go?

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Samsyn Replies:

In theory, it goes to infinity. In practice, something less. It gets harder to gain rating if you don't have people more powerful than yourself to fight.

At least that's the theory. In practice I expect it to stay under 10 thousand. If not, I may tweak the math.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-21-2000).]

Or is it a case of "I didn't bother... to screen them out?"

Or is it a dark, sinister purpose that isn't obvious?

It's late. Time for bed.

-GJ

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Non-PKers can take part in tournament ladders on 'dangerous' maps (and can PK in general on those maps). In those contexts they also get rated.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-26-2000).]

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Ah, OK.

SUPPORT THE SKILLS SYSTEM! READ THE DEVNOTES!

[This message has been edited by GJ (edited 12-27-2000).]

what is the requiments for creating a guild?

i know you need to be lv 60, but the hours are kinda confusing. do the single player hours count on your time? what about afk?
thanks
Berzerker

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www.synthetic-reality.com/wosGuildInfo.htm

at present, afk hours DO get credited to both your character and your soul ID. (and you need BOTH in order to create a guild)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 12-28-2000).]

Why are my characters marked as modders?

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First we must distinguish between a 'mod' (a different version of the quest file for a given world than the one you are using) and a 'modder' (a character which has played in an 'unofficial' mod).

World designers periodically release updates to their worlds. They have the opportunity of marking these worlds as "official" (giving them formal version numbers). If you play your character only in an "official" world, it is not considered to be a "modder" even though it might in the long run play in 20 different mods of that world.

When you look in the MAPS list in the game (and scroll over to the "version" column), you can see which version of the game *and world* each player is using. If you see the word "mod" in this column, it just means they are using a different mod than you are. (could be they are just running the previous official version - or you are).

When you join a scene with someone else in the game, only the quest script of the 'host' of that scene is used. Hence two players with different mods will use the mod of the 'host' in such a case. Normally you want to avoid playing "mixed mods" like this, since it might not make sense for your character (the definition of a world token or item might have changed between mods, for example). The FILE menu gives you an option to "avoid modified quest files"

This simply prevents you from accidentally entering into a modified scene.

If you disable this protection, your character will be marked a "modder" the next time it shares a scene with someone running a different mod from your own.

Being marked a "modder" is no great sin, but it is similar to being marked a "cheater" in that your interactions with other players are limited. (you can't give them things, nor can you initiate fights with them). This is mainly to avoid the situation where a player modifies their world to provide powerful items at low cost and then use those items against players who are using the official mod (which is harder, for example).

Most recently, the use of the "modder" tag was extended to any incarnated soul which was moved from one computer to another. This was an unfortunate situation brought about by a rash of hacked hero and pet files being shared amongst the lazier players.

The downside for you, the honest player, is that you can no longer move a character between several PCs so as to level the same character every time you play. Since levelling is not intrinsically difficult, you might actually find it more fun to maintain separate characters on each computer anyway.

What you *won't* enjoy is having all your characters be perceived as modders just because you bought a new PC, or you had to reformat the disk on your old PC.

As of version A50, simply reinstalling windows should not cause a problem, so long as you keep your installation of WoS throughout the upgrade.

Likewise, if you backup your WoS installation and move it to a new PC, you should be fine. Where you will get into trouble is if you download and install a fresh copy of WoS on the new PC *before* copying your backup from the old PC. In that case, the new PC will have a new soul ID and your characters will be perceived to have moved. (and hence will be marked as modders)

I'll bet that's more than you ever wanted to know about modders.

Oh, please note that as a world developer, you have no choice but to use modder characters to get any work done, since by definition you are modding your world all day long.

So don't be mean to modders. They're probably good people, just like you!

Hey, what about those MIX SERVER RULES I keep hearing about? How do I run my own MIX SERVER and control it the way I like?

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Samsyn says:

Check out this URL for more information!
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/mixRules.htm

And have a nice day!

1)The little circle thingy around your character which sometimes appear in combat, WTF is it?

2)When you use books that cast the Book NI spell, like the compendium of curses, does it use your Wisdom or your Agility to determine if you hit?

3)And is the Book NI spell supposed to be able to BOTH fizzle and miss?

I might just be a newbie who has missed the few lines in the manual explaining this but plz tell me anyway.

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Cactrot Says:

1) That is the "no miss" circle. When you have a monster(or player) inside that circle, your attack will always hit them. Different weapon classes have different size circles.

2)Whether or not you hit with an attack depends on your Dexterity, Agility decreases the chance of you bing hit, Wisdom increases the power of magic(and the amount of PP you earn per attack).

3)Magic spells cast by weapons that aren't of the elements will not fizzle as of A51, but spells that are part of the 8 elements can(except for Life spells).

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 03-21-2001).]

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Samsyn Replies:

I am a team of one!
(paraphrase of Army slogan, of course )

For an idea to be implemented, it has to be:

1.) So amazingly trivial that I can do it in a minute.

or

2.) So amazingly brilliant that I look forward to taking credit for it!

or

3.) So tedious to continually explain why I *didn't* do it that I finally break down and do it anyway.

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Sadly, many excellent suggestions just "don't fit" even though they are excellent.

And, I was kidding above. I think I have a *pretty* good habit of crediting people for their ideas - though often people suggest things without realizing that others have suggested the same thing before. Which puts me in a delicate situation since sometimes these people are also more into confrontation than I am.

I apologize to anyone who I have left out, credits-wise, as I am sure it has happened lots. (Just probably less than they think )

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 03-21-2001).]

The books(that bookusers use for weapons), do you read them at enemies, throw them at them, or whack them over the head with them?

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samsyn says:

I like to think of them as 'spells you don't actually know how to cast'

So, you are 'reading the spell' from the book each time you cast it. (and luckily the book doesn't disappear)

This explains why sometimes a 'book' is just a single page torn from some old manuscript.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 03-05-2001).]

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Samsyn Says:

Your soul ID is your key to a world of entertainment and joy. It is also how you are tracked through the universe so that I don't hassle you repeatedly for donations, and people can dress you in the buddy hat of their choice.

To re-experience Evergreen, just start a new character. (or visit the temple of forgetfulness to have an existing character forget individual quests.)

But please leave your soul ID alone, I appreciate it, thanks!

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 03-12-2001).]

i'l get a new PC soon and i'l want to play WoS on it. but i know that if i just send it over to the other PC, i'l be marked as a cheat (or mod, ETC...) and i don't want that. any way of bypassing that?

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If you are running the current version of WoS then all you need to do is be sure to backup the ENTIRE WOS DIRECTORY from the old machine and copy it to the new machine.

If you install and run a new copy of WoS on the new machine, it will get a new soul ID. And your old characters will appear to have been moved, and get marked (though new characters will be fine.)

Of course, if there is any chance you want to keep playing WoS on the old machine, you might want to go ahead and get a new soul number anyway (two machines with the same soul number can't play together)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-02-2001).]

I mean in the circumstance that the magic user has 9.99 in all elements and their handskill too so it would theoretically be even.
The reason I ask this is there has been some debate on this recently. Some people reckon Tempest is the best spell but there are a minority who would go for Quake and Crush. Armageddon is obviously the popular choice which given that it is a "death" class spell would seem to make sense.
Anyone?

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Cactrot Answers:

Players are like death element monsters, no one element it stronger than any other against them. and since in Evergreen all the lvl 9 spells are the same strength, whatever element you have the hightest skill it would be your spell to pick.

Samsyn Adds:

This is still true as of now, though it is possible that world designers will be able to let user's have elemental sensitivites at some future date. Exactly how this would be done is unclear. Either it could be hard-cast per character class (easiest for me) or it could be controlled by your elemental training (hardest for me because of the quantity of large numbers I might have to share with other players.) I prefer hard-cast by character class, plus modified by amulets/rings.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-04-2001).]

Apart from the "Dan or World Developer does the work" thing, another issue would be:
If class related then players would know who they can fight best.
Or:
If element based players would not know who they can fight best until they've fought them.

(I'd just like to add that I think the latter would be most satisfying to the players.)

[This message has been edited by Fred Spade (edited 04-04-2001).]

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Samsyn Says:

A world designer gets to create 8 elements for their world (in evergreen, these are life, death, nature, spirit, water, air, fire, and earth (not in that order)

These 8 elements carry with them a lot of baggage (heal spells must be life element, death element affects all creatures equally, fire works best against water, etc.) all determined by their placement on the 'element wheel'

These 8 elements are the elements which make sense, so to speak, in an RPG.

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However, it became interesting to create spells, objects, and monsters which were not based on those 8 elements (mainly so you could do things like have a special spell which only one monster could cast, for example).

These elements are entered into the various tables by the world designer, using higher-numbers than 0-7. The game doesn't apply any special rules for these elements (they behave like DEATH element, and affect all other elements equally)

Anyway, to finally get around to answering your question, while World Designers get to name the eight basic elements, all the rest of the elements go by a single name (of my choice). And I chose "chaos"

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-17-2001).]

AND WHO THE [heck] TOOK MY NAME?

-HAVOC

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Samsyn replies (in spite of the pre-edited rudeness.. )

Magnificent Attacks are purely random. I believe the natural frequency is 1 in 50 . Which does NOT mean that every 50th hit will be magnificent. But out of, say, a BILLION hits, it should be pretty close to twenty million mags :-)

HOWEVER, if people are cursing you, the probabilty goes down (a little) and if people are blessing you, it goes up (a little).

So count the happy/smiley ghost faces you see (if any) in the player list.

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This feature, by the way, was my original thought for the whole game... "Wouldn't it be cool if spectators could influence certain random events for the players?"

I wasn't aware of any other game ever doing that, so I was pleased. (Feel free to not disabuse me of the notion).

Before you ask, no, the amount of influence on mag probability is pretty low. So even if you managed to get, say, 20 people blessing you all at once, it wouldn't guarantee a mag every time.

---

If you doubt the math, as of version A57 you can type the command "/mag" which will roll the dice ONE MILLION TIMES and tell you how many mag hits you would have gotten.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-15-2001).]

1. How can a creature attack you if you are not in its attack circle (I used /monster)?

2. If you are greased 2 or 3 times and you have the opponent in your white circle thing, are you still going to hit (Both players have maxed stats)?

3. How much PP does it take to got from 9.98 to 9.99 (Please don't say alot!)?

4. Can other users find out my IP?

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LGH Replies:

1. How can a creature attack you if you are not in its attack circle (I used /monster)?
You still get random fights no matter where you are (unless it's on a map with no monsters). It's determined by the monster placed closest to where you triggered the fight.

2. If you are greased 2 or 3 times and you have the opponent in your white circle thing, are you still going to hit (Both players have maxed stats)?

I'm not sure, but I think so. The circle is supposed to guarantee a hit.

3. How much PP does it take to got from 9.98 to 9.99 (Please don't say alot!)?

Here's the chart:
; level 0 PP 0 - 555
; level 1 PP 556 - 1250
; level 2 PP 1251 - 2142
; level 3 PP 2143 - 3333
; level 4 PP 3334 - 5000
; level 5 PP 5001 - 7500
; level 6 PP 7501 - 11666
; level 7 PP 11667 - 20000
; level 8 PP 20001 - 45000
; level 9 PP 45000 - 2000000000 (two billion)(you approach level 9.9999999 asymptotically)

4. Can other users find out my IP?

If you are on their server, definitely. If they are a decent hacker, more than likely.

LGH

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-17-2001).]

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Samsyn Says:

Actually, I believe it is a bit weirder than that. Monsters place 'on the map' (which appear when you use the /monsters command) can really only attack you if you are inside their circle (give or take a couple pixels).

But there are other sources of monsters available to the world designer (for example, bound to a 'link point') and they can come into the picture when you are outside of a range circle.

Then, in the case where the nearest link point is not flagged 'safe' but you are not inside of a range circle, and there is no explicit monster group assigned, I believe I have a 'punt' situation where I will bring in monster ID #1 (Green Slime in evegreen). So if it is green slims you see, that's probably why.

Try not to think about it :-)

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-17-2001).]

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Samsyn says:

It is his spirit HAND skill which actually enables the use of a particular spirit weapon.

The power of that weapon is then influenced by the excess training of the hand but is also affected by a bunch of other weird complicated stuff which it would take a scientist to explain (i.e. it's too weird for me to remember in detail.) -s

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-17-2001).]

~Maniac

Ok. I'm making my world and I've got a title.mid file, but it's not playing when I load the game. Where do I change it so that it will play it?

~Maniac

Ok. I tried something, it's posted in the world dev board. could u check there

~Maniac

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[sorry for the delay, but this requires thought. I still haven't thought. So I recommend that you read the file called "music.ini" in your world's folder. It supersedes the "title.mid" technology.

OK, I will do a teensy bit more thinking...

ok, thinking complete. The file "title.mid" is the ONLY music checked for and played during the "scrolling story" portion of game entrance.

Your title.mid should be in your world's MIDI folder.

You might test your midi file by typing:

/midi title.mid

while playing in your world.

If that doesn't work, check that you haven't disabled music or the sound card from the SOUND menu and/or that music works in general when you play Evergreen. If music plays in evergreen, then try playing your title.mid file with a 3rd party midi player.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-21-2001).]

Basic it comes down to spells bound to weapons do the same damage as that spell would do if you cast it with your MP, except it's free. Meaning that the damage is calculated with the element skill and not the hand skill as you keep saying.

[ok. -s]

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-21-2001).]

just out of curiousity, how many people have bought a golden soul?

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Samsyn says:

[read earlier in the FAQ, please, since there are a million possible reasons.]

But my guess is that you have your MIDI configured to be played through your sound card's WaveOut hardware, instead of through hardware wavetable or FM synth.

To check this, visit the CONTROL PANEL for MULTIMEDIA, select the MIDI tab and try miscellaneous options. The ones that say something like "software synth" will probably not work for you (unless your sound card has multiple waveout channels.. like MINE does. neener neener!)

Anyway, I think we go on and on about this already, earlier in this FAQ.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 04-24-2001).]

If your skin is over 50kb in size, it'll NEVER transfer though WoS. Either make it smaller (try saving it as an RLE bitmap to make it smaller, most people don't do that) of transfer it outside WoS with e-mail/webpage/messanger service, whatever.

Where do i see if im muted?

Im making this question because when i installed the patch53 it began having some kind of problem when im writing to other people they dont sea what i was writing, in other way of speaking when i talk to other people they dont see what i was asking or saying, and then comed to my that i can be muted but i dont know where do i see and if i can see and what i have to do to take the mute off. P,lease be quick answering this question.

Getting gagged is a pretty serious thing in WoS and doesn't happen lightly. Hence, once gagged the game intentionally doesn't make that fact obvious to you, in order to keep you so in the dark that you really stay gagged for awhile.

Gags wear off at a rate inversely proportional to the nature of the crime, as it were.

Creative mis-spellings of the F word generally receive a one week gag (on a noBleep server, I mean. Defeating the bleeper is strongly discouraged).

Minor homophobic remarks generally a day.

Hard core hate crime or racism can get you a month or worse.

But the game is set up to train you not to mis-spell your way through the bleeper, and this is the consequence which induces the training. The bleeper is there so that you can have your freedom while other people have their freedom, too. When you spell your way past it, you are breaking a social contract.

Firewalls have been known to block skin transfers, you'd have to set it to accept UDP traffic