Johnson wouldn't have too much to worry about; the toughest enemies in the immediate area of the Pluto base started at level 5, and most of them didn't get the chance to level up.
Exiting the city dome put a debuff on Johnson: 'hostile atmosphere', which was just a minor reduction in all stats. It was meant to be countered with special equipment from the Final Frontier, (namely spacesuits) but the developers had never made it too bad of a debuff so that people with fantasy-themed characters and such wouldn't be totally crippled by going there.
Out there was practically no ally or neutral NPCs, but there were plenty of players doing random quests and low level farming; and of course there was hostile mobs here and there. The 'Pluto bugs' were four-legged things with a nasty set of vertical pincer-jaws, a pair of arms ending in spikes to stab with, and a tiger stripe pattern. They came in three flavors: the level 1 green ones, the level 3 blue ones, and the level 5 red ones.
If Johnson ventured out far enough he'd see higher level ones, as well as other Pluto bugs that were more than just reskins; but as long as he stayed near the dome, he shouldn't be seeing those.
There were four pieces to the armor set: the main body, the helmet, the gauntlets, and the greaves. It was essentially chain mail with bits of steel plate, plus a blue undershirt. Each gave Alysia a reduction to incoming physical damage and a buff to her endurance... That was based on her strength, which unfortunately having only one level in Noble and a low base strength, Alysia didn't have a lot to draw on. They also each gave a small debuff to magic, which together brought her current magic down to almost zero; this armor would not suit her current long term goal.
The spear had a medium base damage, which would be added to by her strength, and of course its chances to hit were based on her speed, since it was a melee weapon. However, the spear came with a couple of special passive abilities: The first was that it would not trigger melee-based counterattack skills, and the second was that it could block melee attacks that were aimed at other party members; unfortunately the latter did rely on her strength stat, and it served no purpose anyway as long as Alysia was alone.
The guard seemed a little taken aback by Alysia's departure. "Milady, you're leaving?" the guard asked, standing in place as he watched her go out the gate. He glanced back to the castle with a worried expression, before finally drawing his spear and moving back towards the main body of the castle.
The little dirt road leading to the nearest town was quiet, the roaming farmlands off to Alysia's right looking serene as the wind swayed the crops; the forest to her left too seemed calm with the flowers and herbs blooming in the shades of the trees. Up ahead was the town, a small, humble affair with a single guard tower posted at the far side. Alysia could see the farmers and other peasant folk about their business; it didn't look like any players were there.
"Then we've all had our time wasted. Just f&%king wonderful" the sergeant said sarcastically, turning back towards the battle line as Spears left.
The other ally NPCs in the trench weren't any help to Spears either, with the most significant answer he got being a story a sniper told him; a simple tale of a player in an Old Frontier cowboy getup, hat and all, who one day showed up and announced to all the soldiers, 'I got this' before going out into the combat zone and proceeding to eliminate a few hundred nazi zombies, alone, before eventually leaving.
Other than that, it seemed that Spears had reached the limit of what he could learn from the ally NPCs in the Zed Trench.
edited 17th Feb '15 12:23:59 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Johnson predictably chose to stay close to the dome's entrance for the duration of his farming session; if he could find a lone blue bug he would engage it, but he would actively avoid blues with potential adds (especially other blues) or reds, since he wasn't confident in his ability to fight them as an unarmed level 5 NPC.
Upon finding a likely target, he crept up to it, jabbing at it with his broken bottle when it came into reach.
DOOD!!!Final Frontier — Pluto
Epsilon appeared on the icy surface of the dwarf planet. As a robot, it did not feel cold, and being Mechanical-class, it did not suffer from the "hostile atmosphere" debuff.Note to GM
It scanned the base's environment with its optics: players and hostile insects all around. It searched for the portal that it had heard from the player characters, wondering if the portal would take it to somewhere with magic. As it was captured in its search, it did not notice one of the Pluto bugs approaching it dangerously.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Alysia rode into the town, keeping an eye out for merchants and similar. Despite this being the town closest to the castle, she'd hardly been here because her routine only brought her here in very special circumstances. She wanted to gear up for magic combat, alternatively get a price check if her money was enough.
However...the guard's last comment had left a needle of guilt in her mind. Alysia did not worry overly much about the ones left at the castle; they had never been able to keep her safe when she was kidnapped, after all, and they'd just respawn if things went bad. But still...it didn't hurt to learn a bit more about what had happened. Therefore, she sought out the local inn and tavern, to gather information.
edited 17th Feb '15 1:11:29 AM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Out here in the open part of Pluto that Epsilon had landed at, there was no base. It could see the domed city in the distance, which might be the place for it to look.
But before it could settle on that, there was a clicking and growl from behind; a red colored Pluto bug had identified Epsilon as a foreign element and lunged, snapping its jaws onto his midsection and plunging Epsilon into a battle.
A pair of green bugs were joined into it as well. With the first turn, and being other NPCs, it wasn't long before the bugs acted. The red one used a skill, intimidating screech, for which it crouched down and let out a high pitched roar at Epsilon; which did nothing. Both the greens used their basic attacks, just running up to Epsilon and biting at his legs; both of them hit Epsilon, but the damage was minimal.
Meanwhile, Johnson was having no luck finding any lone Pluto bugs. They seemed to always move in groups. His best bet so far was to find a group that was just greens or... Was that a robot fighting with some of the bugs?
The peasants mostly ignored Alysia; they could tell she was a fellow NPC, but with her getup she currently looked like a guard. A few stared for a moment longer after seeing her, as if realizing something was up; but they didn't say anything and shortly went back to their business, so they probably hadn't recognized her. Entering the tavern, Alysia finally spotted some players; two of them, hanging out at a table. One appeared to be a Male dark knight of some description, while the other was a Female ranger.
"That's some fourth wall breaking bulls#!t right there" the dark knight said as Alysia entered, apparently in the middle of a conversation with the ranger. "So is he still in the castle?" he asked the ranger.
"Said he's still gonna complete the quest, so I think so" the ranger answered, then went into the animation of flipping pages on an invisible book; the idle animation of a player who was either looking at in-game menus or had the game minimized. The dark knight then looked over at Alysia, but did not yet say or do anything.
There were a total of three other NPCs there too: The bartender, a peasant sitting at one of the tables, and a bard plucking away at a lute. All were ignoring Alysia and the players.
You are reading this.Johnson blinked in surprise when he saw Epsilon (though he didn't know that was its name). "Those aren't supposed to come here..." he muttered to himself. "Pretty sure I've never seen any of those outside of that one space station dungeon..."
He was certain it would be able to handle itself against mere single-digit-level opponents, but decided to help it anyway in hopes of questioning it about its purpose in leaving the station while they were tagged as teammates.
Thus, he marched up and stabbed the red bug Epsilon was fighting in the back, adding himself to the battle (and, incidentally, indicating his side). Once that was accomplished, he asked the robot, "What brings you out here? Kinda far from your usual spot, aren't ya?"
For his first turn, he reversed his grip on his intact bottle, then reared back to throw it at the red bug; moments after release, a new bottle appeared in the newly-vacated hand.
DOOD!!!Epsilon led its turn with a burst fire on the higher-leveled Pluto bug, a loud "bang" emanating from the end of its cannon arm. It then cocked its gun and turned its head towards the other individual that joined the battle, its optics scanning the man as he asked the question. "Response: I am searching for the power designated as 'magic'. My search has led me to this location and I am directing myself towards the vicinity of what the strange humans have termed the 'Fantasy Lands'," it explained.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.After both Johnson and Epsilon submit their actions, the animations played out them both attacking the higher level with ranged attacks; the bug with its high speed against Johnson's low concentration managed to dodge out of the way of his thrown bottle, but was not so lucky against Epsilon's burst fire, which brought it below half health.
The turn back to them, though with extremely limited options, the bugs went for their basic attacks. The red bug went for Epsilon, striking it easily and dealing more damage than the two greens had the previous round combined; all in all though, Epsilon still had the majority of its health.
The two greens went for Johnson, hitting their marks as usual with their high speed; against Johnson, their attacks took off a larger chunk of his health than Epsilon owing to Johnson having a smaller health pool, but even so the attacks of these level one bugs were not going to be a serous threat any time soon.
You are reading this."Ouch..." Johnson muttered, wincing; he couldn't really afford to take any damage, no matter how minor, around something that was a legitimate threat to him, let alone something which was, in all likelihood, stronger than him. In response to the robot's statement he said, "Fantasy Lands, huh? I could take you there if you'll help me level up a bit when we get there." Since the red bug would likely dodge him again, Johnson chose to leave it to his erstwhile teammate, switching targets to stab at one of the green ones.
Wait a second... A Final Frontier mob interested in magic? That sounded rather anomalous... Seemed he may have found a kindred program, but just to be sure... "This is gonna sound strange since this is probably the first time we've actually talked instead of trying to kill each other, but how long did your last respawn take?"
DOOD!!!Nothing useful. Suppression was surprised that they felt a bit defeated, it had been the likely outcome. Taking a moment they thought about how to actually find the info they wanted. At the current rate it would probably be quicker to just walk every zone and hope to just stumble onto the answer.
Suppression left the Zed Trench and surveyed the near by area, looking for anything to distract them from their thoughts.
Alysia took notice of the two players. Were they mayhaps discussing the player that had entered the castle? So his allies were this close...but what they said at least confirmed that there was a quest now centred on the Phoenixwind castle. And that was worrisome.
Alysia approached the bar and bought a local alcoholic beverage to be able to access the barman's rumours.
"Good sir, could you please inform me what quests at current involve the Phoenixwind castle nearby?"
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!For whatever reason, likely lost in thought or perhaps a momentary input glitch, Epsilon passed its turn. After a long thirty seconds, Johnson finally got to do his attack, moving forward and stabbing one of the green bugs; this not only almost killed it, but applied the bleed effect from his bottle as well, which would damage the bug even further at the end of its turn.
The bugs, as usual, wasted very little time getting their actions settled once their turn was up. An exact repeat of their previous turn, the red one once again attacking Epsilon and doing a bit of damage, while the two green ones struck Johnson and did a bit less. But this time, as the turn ended the bleeding green bug screeched and keeled over into a pool of yellow-green blood, dead.
The area immediately outside the Zed Trench was still at least somewhat themed so that the Zed Trench in the middle seemed to fit; a torn up and desolate landscape, marred with burnt out buildings and blast craters. Here and there was the occasional Nazi zombie or few, but they were not present in the numbers they were at the trenches.
Spears had likely never been far from the Zed Trench, but he still knew of the surrounding areas at least somewhat; mostly with the intent so that he could point players in the right direction if they asked about somewhere nearby.
To the West was towards friendly territory; (This was likely the direction Spears had gone, as he couldn't very well have just waltzed through the enemy lines.) this was where their supplies 'supposedly' came from, and Spears might possibly recall that whenever the enemy forces managed to push that way, the quest system usually made a big deal out of getting their 'supply lines' re-secured.
East was then, obviously, towards enemy territory; this was the one Spears would know the least about, as obviously he wasn't supposed to.
North was into a colder area of the zone, which contained less of the full on wartime fighting but had more of the content that wasn't directly related to the war, such as archeological dig sites.
South was towards the front line area of the zone, where the more 'conventional' warfare was taking place; down there the Axis forces were proper enemy soldiers instead of zombies as they were up here, making for a much more authentic WWII experience, minus the occasional steampunk machine. (Not that Spears would have much reference for what was an 'authentic' WWII experience.)
"Uhm, quests?" the bartender said, seeming just a little nervous about answering for some reason. "Nothing that a simple bartender like myself would know about... Sir?" he paused before the last word, tilting his head a bit and lowering his eyebrows as he started to realize something.
"Wait a minute, are you really a guard?" the bartender suddenly asked her. It was at this point that Alysia would probably remember: There were no Female guards in the Fantasy Lands, at least, not ones dressed like she was. (Some of the Elven settlements had Female guards, but they obviously had an Elven armor instead of the Human guard armor.)
"Of course she's not" the dark knight suddenly cut in, sitting up from his seat, still facing Alsyia. "There's a quest over there to steal the lord's jewel stash, but a friend of ours has already nearly got it, so I wouldn't waste your time" he told her. Apparently he thought she was another player. Also, her dad didn't have a jewel stash... At least, he didn't before.
"Speaking of which, how's he doing? He going to need help?" the dark knight asked his companion, turning back to her as she came out of the idle animation.
"Maybe. He said that things were getting a little rough after he had to fight some of the guards, but he thinks he's okay now" the ranger told him.
"Should've taken my offer to make a distraction" the dark knight muttered, shaking his head before going into the idle animation himself.
You are reading this.Well, that was convenient, aside from his teammate apparently lagging for some reason. Johnson's bleed effect wasn't entirely commonly applied, but when it worked it at least saved the trouble of finishing off low-level opponents manually.
Still, though, it was unlikely that he'd get a repeat of that success in effectively one-shotting a bug anytime soon, but he figured he'd start stabbing the other green one anyway, and if it didn't bleed too he'd just use his next turn to finish it off; hopefully, the robot would wake up and get back to work on the red one (and maybe even reply to what he'd said earlier).
DOOD!!!Epsilon's "lag" was in fact it processing the last respawn that it had. Even though the events surrounding its last respawn were as clear as day, it did not in fact recall how long it had been since its respawn. It was so caught up in thought that it didn't realize that it was skipping its turn. After it was attacked, it responded immediately with a barrage of gunfire at the red bug from its Machine Gun Arm. It then turned back towards Johnson. "Admittance: The exact circumstances of my respawn are not available for recollection in my memory banks. What is the reason for your inquiry?"
edited 20th Feb '15 11:53:36 AM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither."Well, I've found myself thinking about stuff I never considered before lately, and I'm thinking the fact that my latest respawn took 28 hours might be related." While waiting for the commands to process, Johnson glanced at Epsilon to add, "It's fine if you don't know exactly how long it took- I just wanna know if it took much longer than usual this time."
DOOD!!!Johnson and Epsilons' actions went probably as they expected; the red bug got hit by Epsilon's fire, bringing it down to close to death, and the green bug likewise was brought down to near death by Johnson's stab, this time the bleed effect not applying. One more hit of basic attacks should finish them both off.
The Pluto bugs, being programmed to be merciless and fearless, choose not to try running. The red Pluto bug had its intimidating screech available again, so it let loose; one again crouching low and screeching at Epsilon and Johnson. And once again, nothing happened to Epsilon, but Johnson was hit with the 'shaken' debuff, which lowered both his speed and concentration significantly for his next two turns; this brought his speed down pretty low, and made his concentration practically non-existent. In the meantime the green bug attacked Johnson again, taking off another small chip of damage.
Epsilon's burst fire ability was once again available as their turn started.
edited 25th Feb '15 8:45:07 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this."Oh, I see. Thank you."
So there really was a new quest centred around doing a burglary at the castle. How frightening. Alysia hoped this wouldn't be a new recurring questline with their holiday homes in the other settings. She left the tavern (and the alcoholic beverage) and started wandering the village.
Alysia was unsure of what to do. She had a weapon and armour now, and could start grinding on low-level mobs if she wanted, but if she was to go down the path of the mage, she would have to go to a bigger town to get the necessary equipment first. But...she still felt a connection to her father and the castle. Her father had been incompetent in the past when it came to stopping the kidnappers out for her, but that was not his fault. He couldn't make the quest impossible, after all. And he'd always paid her rescuers a lot in rewards.
Then there were the maids and guards...and of course, the castle itself. Strange though it might have sounded, coming from an NPC, it was her home. Even though only a handful had a name, they were still her friends that had been with her since she was first programmed in.
But what was she to do? Alysia was absolutely helpless, even with this equipment. That Player Character had had little trouble fighting the Guards, and they had much better stats than her. Her thoughts sought back to the books she had read so many times before. What would the brave heroines in those stories do?
Alysia's feet had brought her in front of the item store. Yes. Of course. She had to fight.
Alysia entered the item store, dramatically pushing the door open. She activated her Credit-skill and approached the counter.
"Good day to you. I would like all the healing items I can carry."
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Well, Johnson could forget about hitting the red one- even if he could hit it normally, with that debuff active there was no way he was hitting it.
That said, the green one, being lower level, had significantly lower speed, and thus may still be possible to hit even with his currently-pathetic accuracy. Good thing he'd been planning to attack it anyway.
DOOD!!!Epsilon, knowing that it would be wasting its burst fire usage on the near-death red bug, decided simply to use another basic round of bullets with its machine gun arm to attempt to finish it off. It looked at Johnson. If it had any, it would use a Restore Serum on Johnson to remove his debuff, but since it lacked the item, it simply looked at Johnson and then back at the remaining green bug.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.The players seemed to pay Alysia no further mind as she left, leaving her free to wander to the item shop and head inside. Her skill basically made everything besides equipment below a certain price free, though when healing items specifically were requested, that didn't leave a lot.
In a pretty much automatic response, the shop NPC put a few stacks of items into the trade window instantly: 70 flasks of water; (very low set health recovery, removal of minor endurance debuffs, removal of and immunity to thirst debuff for a low set period) 74 loaves of bread; (10% health recovery, removal of and immunity to hunger debuff for a low set period) 74 rations of dried meat; (25% health recovery, 1 turn application of thirst debuff, removal of and immunity to hunger debuff for medium set period.) and 35 small flasks of mountain spring water. (medium set health recovery, removal of medium endurance debuffs, removal of and immunity to thirst debuff for a medium set period.)
Even as the shopkeeper placed the items there, he looked at Alysia with puzzlement. "You aren't a guard" he commented simply, seeing that from both her gender and the ability she had used on him; it certainly wasn't an ability guards had.
Both the bugs went down, the red one simply, though the green one went down with an animation of Johnson having to stab at it repeatedly as it kept dodging from side to side before finally getting it; an in-game indication that this was a speed match up that was not in his favor and he got lucky. The Pluto bugs seemed to be classed almost entirely around speed, and that shaken debuff put Johnson on bad ground against them there.
With both the bugs down, a quick victory jingle played, and Epsilon and Johnson both had rewards distributed to them. Even with the penalty Johnson got for joining the battle after it started, (OOC: Decided that's going to be a thing, since it makes sense from a balancing standpoint in the MMO.) he still got a marginal increase in experience; a few more battles like that, especially if he was in from the start this time, would probably level him up. Epsilon got the full experience benefit, but being level 10 as opposed to level 5, the increase for him wasn't as significant. The Pluto bugs didn't drop any money, but they did drop some 'chitin pieces', a low end crafting ingredient; Epsilon got 5 while Johnson got 3.
edited 27th Feb '15 8:36:22 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Johnson nodded in satisfaction at the end of the battle before waving Epsilon to follow him to a less-infested part of the area so they wouldn't be interrupted. "Well, now that that's done with, do ya want me to show you the way to the Fantasy Lands? You don't seem like you've been out of your spawn point's vicinity before, so I figure you might end up getting lost without someone showing you the way." He shrugged, adding, "Who knows? Tagging along with me might even keep players off your back for a bit."
While talking, Johnson started looking through the craft menu, filtering out recipes he lacked the materials for. Maybe he could actually turn this chitin into something useful, like a helmet or something.
DOOD!!!Epsilon looted the Pluto bugs, receiving the chitin pieces as a reward. Being level 10, the experience it gained was minimal. It then turned its optics towards Johnson. "Statement: My search continues," it blared, starting to turn to look through the horizon. Upon seeing nothing but empty Plutonian wasteland, it turned back towards Johnson. "Response: Affirmative. Please direct me towards the location in question," it blared, analyzing Johnson's statement about Epsilon being weak. "Observation: My power level is double that of yours. Your statement does not compute," it simply told him in response, tilting its head in "confusion".
edited 27th Feb '15 6:35:34 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Johnson nodded in acknowledgement of Epsilon's point. "Yeah, I know I'm weaker than you- probably even more than you think, really, since my stats're low for my level. Funny thing, though? The players KNOW I'm on their side, so if I'm not attacking you or trying to run away... that kinda implies you're more or less harmless, right? Or at least that there's something unusual going on, which might get them to wait for an explanation or something before they start trying to blow anyone up."
He paused a bit before admitting, "Of course, I'm not sure they'll care, really, since I'm pretty much freshly-spawned... Anyway, let's see if I can send you an invite- I've never tried that before." Intellectually, Johnson knew that NPC parties were quite common- for example, the bugs they had just finished off- but he had no idea if the system supported inter-faction party invitations, since he had never heard of any previous attempts.
Still looking through the crafting menu, he asked, "By the way, you got some chitin from those guys, right? You plan on doing anything with it?"
DOOD!!!There was a set of armor and some variations of weapons available to be made from the chitin, but with his own items Johnson couldn't make any; with Epsilon's he could make the helmet or boots. While the armors worked with just the chitin, the weapons required other items, varying depending on the exact weapon in question; most required at least one stick or stick-like item to presumably facilitate the handle, along with those like the chitin flail which also needed a chain of some sort, or the two chitin guns (one energy based, one not) that didn't need sticks but each required their own gun components, just to name a few.
Meanwhile, Epsilon would in fact see the party invite; to facilitate the most possible varieties of quests the MMO could randomly make, the MMO did not restrict who could send an invite to who. But in most normal circumstances, a player or player-allied NPC sending an invite to an enemy NPC would be fruitless; they would just ignore it.
While Johnson and Epsilon were going about the crafting menu and party invites, a party of three players that had been grinding Pluto bugs had stopped not far away; two of them were looking at the odd pair of NPCs. They were probably talking amongst each other, but Johnson and Epsilon were out of range to hear what they were saying.
edited 3rd Mar '15 2:53:11 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.

"No sir. Got useless info, but thanks for letting me try."
Suppression Trooper Spears left to look for other non hostile npcs to question.