Takao

Blank, almost dazed eyes watched the scene unfold before him. His eyebrows slowly pulled downward and green eyes narrowed; it was an honest attempt at focusing on something that he'd felt begin to slip from his attention. Either hand lowered to his side and slipped into the twin Caestus that rested on his belt. He gave his knuckles a habitual crack before assuming an arbitrary stance to activate the unseen charge skill. In doing so, he enabled himself to close the gap between his starting point and Asterios in a conveniently short amount of time, and slam a straight into the monster's jaw. The pointed studs of the Caestus dug into its digital flesh, and endowed its health gauge with the envenom property bestowed to his weapon.

The soles of his boots hit the ground and he backed off, if only slightly, while still remaining within the beast's range for attack. It was a bit foolish to attack before the closest damage sponge had attracted the monster's aggression, which was a fault of Takao's lack of attention, yet worry hadn't plagued his mind. He could take a hit or two.

ID: 84305
BD: 9 (9(base) + 3(ACC))
Sword Art: All Might
Damage: 3(base) + 5(weapon skill) + 6(familiar damage) + 6(damage potion) + 1(athletics) + 1(ferocity) + 5(charge) + 1(BD9 critical) = 28 * 15 = 420 - 150(mit) = -270HP (Additional -24HP per turn for 4 turns from Envenom.)

The hollow drones of combat that Takao had become all too familiar erupted mere moments after the doors creaked open. Green eyes rested upon the form of a large moth, named after what seemed to be another one of a hundred outdated pop-culture references. He swallowed the urge to roll his eyes and focused on the task at hand; they had a boss to kill.

He watched and bode his time as Calrex, Baldur, Ariel, and finally Zandra struck first. Attacks missed and landed here and there, but upon Zandra's axe connecting, he had noted an opening. He gave either shoulder a good pop as he brought his fists together, the metal studs on the Caestus covering his fists emitting a faint spark. All Might was activated and, in collaboration with his charge skill, allowed for Takao to quickly close the gap between his starting point and the boss's freshly immobilized figure. He pulled his arm back far, much farther than would be necessary for a normal punch, and slammed the full force of his weapon into Mothra. After the fury of his strike had taken effect, he launched from the monster and out of its reach.

ID: 84087
BD: 3 + 5(ACC) = 8
Sword Art: All Might
Damage: 3(base) + 1(ferocity) + 1(athletics) + 2(banner) + 5(weapon skill) + 6(familiar) + 6(alcoholic) + 6(damage potion) + 5(charge) + 8(holy) = 42 * 15 = 645 - 100(mit) = -545HP

otoko throw booze at baldur head. hurr hurr many funny

Trading x1 Rum to @Baldur

(Rum - 3 Alcoholic)

placeholder

Trading x1 Meat Haunch to @Shield

(Meat Haunch - +3 LD)

A loud, hollow pop crackled in Takao's neck as he stretched it to one side, green eyes set upon the warmly lit forest that laid ahead. They had chosen a morning raid for the floor boss battle and despite Takao's fervent dislike of mornings, he had managed to drag himself out of bed and into the twentieth floor's wilderness. A few had shown up before him, though that was of no surprise considering his foot-dragging speed, yet he was still surprisingly early. He expected to be one of the last to arrive; folks seemed to be gung-ho to clear this floor and attain the next set of numbers-bolstering unlockables.

As he passed by Hikoru, he offered him a lazy wave and greeting. "ey Hikoru."

He approached the first familiar face he saw, and regarded Baldur with a friendly wave whilst his other hand covered a yawn. "ey Baldur." Takao said, his words only slightly obscured by the yawn as it died down into a simple exhale. "Been a while since I seen ya', eh?" He continued, staking a claim that was moreso due to his own lack of social activity than not.

"S'bout time we got this one over with." he said, though more under his breath and to himself than for the sake of conversation. His gaze slid to his shoulder, where Otoko was perched, and he spoke softly to the rat-like dragon. "Chill in the background when the fightin' starts, a'right? Make sure y'ain't in the line of fire or anythin'."

ID: 83657
LD: 30 (20(roll) + 5(S&D) + 2(Reveal) + 3(Detect))

Character Stats

While enjoying the usual bloodshed of his typical systematic grinding runs, Takao's menu was alerted to the arrival of a private message. In the downtime between spawns, he opened it and read it, and the contents raised his eyebrow. It was somewhere between a call to arms and cry for help for an event on the third floor. Luckily, for his own convenience, he lived and hunted on the third floor regularly, which was where he found himself at present.

"Otoko," Takao called out to his familiar, who lounged lazily beneath his favourite tree. Its head raised and tilted as it saw Takao approaching, and scurried up his arm to sit on his shoulders with a simple gesture from the green-haired teen. "Change of plans, buddy. I think some folks are havin' some trouble up this way, so we're gonna help 'em out." He explained, earning a huff of breath and pathetic plume of black smoke from the rat-like reptile's flared nostrils. "Don't look so annoyed. You don't even do nothin'." Takao said, exchanging a look with the familiar as he started off in the direction of the fight.

Character Statistics

A low chuckle rumbled in his throat and he responded with a nod. "You wouldn't be wrong," He responded, multitasking between speaking and navigating through menus. The transparent, floating windows branched out to his inventory as he amassed a small fortune of materials that collected into a bag for convenient ease-of-transfer. The sack continued to expand until the last material was nestled safely within its burlap walls, to which he hefted it up onto the counter and into Piera's possession. "I'm actually pretty liberal with givin' 'em out though. I just tend to ... eh ... Let 'em collect a bit too long, I guess. They're still good though, haven't expired 'er anythin'." He said, offering a bit of reassurance amidst his rambling. Green eyes set upon the figure of his curious familiar, edging ever close to Piera's. The dragon's ears folded back against its head which lowered toward the stairs, watching the fellow beast with caution.

"Don't worry 'bout payin' me back or anythin'. I can't do anythin' with these anyway, so I'm cuttin' no loss." Takao replied, slowly taking his attention from the pair of familiars and setting it back onto Piera. "I haven't actually used it yet, I don't think. I've got a habit of just collectin' the interesting ones. I've still got it though ... somewhere." He gave his cheek a quick, habitual scratch before he set his eyes upon a vial. There wasn't anything particularly special about it that he could see, and perhaps it was as simple as his familiarity with the colour, but the green vial had captured his interest. He moved closer, picked it up, and gave it a quick examination before arriving at a conclusion.

"Tell y'what. How 'bout I trade you all those for this? Decent trade, 'innit?" He said.

Transferring 125 Tier 1 Materials to @Piera

The trip from his live-in Café to Piera's quaint, outskirts laying cottage was both a short trip as well as a much needed break. With the usual influx of players during lunch hours having finally died to a crawl, he found just enough time to slip out with Oto' in tow for a quick drop off at the nearby Alchemists'. The little red dragon scurried ahead eagerly, with Takao sauntering at a lax pace behind him.

"No rush 'ere, bud." Takao said, his hands slipping into the pockets of his trousers. He'd forgone the usual jacket that adorned his torso on account of the warm springtime weather, which left him in the thin form-hugging shirt he wore underneath. "We got time t'kill, 'n it's a nice day." Despite Takao's words, and of little surprise to him, the dragon's energetic dashing hadn't lessened in the slightest. The pair made their way up the paved stone path and to the entrance of the cottage. As Takao opened the door, Otoko sprinted through the small opening and immediately set about darting around the shop, seeming to be happy to simply burn off excess energy. The dragon came to a skidding stop at the base of the staircase, large reptile-slitted yellow eyes beaming up at the preening familiar.

"'ey Piera," said Takao in greeting, his right hand raised to wave. "I got a bunch of Alch materials I can't do nun' with, figured you could do sum'n with 'em. You want 'em?" He continued, coming to rest on his elbow against the counter as he turned slightly to keep an eye on his familiar's antics.

roll

A long, drawn out groan escaped Takao's lungs as his eyes opened and refocused on the night sky. It looked just a tad further now, although only a small portion was visible compared to before. He sat up and set his eyes upon the vast, expansive darkness that shrouded the hallway ahead of him. He made a muffled, frustrated noise as he sat up and pushed himself back up to his feet. He could feel the uncomfortable granules of sand that now called the inside of his boots home with each step into the darkness. He passed a torch and, as was typical of sub-dungeons hidden within Aincrad, it erupted into flame and illuminated his path forward. Several more lit ahead of him, but stopped abruptly when four large insect-like creatures with countless legs appeared.

Takao reached up for the sword upon his back, but was interrupted by another message from Aria. He fired off a quick explanation followed by a halfhearted promise to be home soon before closing the menu tree once more. He drew Ragnarok from his shoulder and gripped it tightly in both hands, taking careful steps forward until the four beasts caught his scent and began scuttling forward.

COMBAT RESULTS

ID: 81477
BD: 6 (2 + 3(ACC) + 1(Concentration, 5/5))
MD: 3 (6 - 3(EVA))

Takao
HP: 1435/1435
Energy: 118/142 (+1/-13)
Sword Art: «Calamity Disaster»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 5(Charge) = 26 * 12 = 312

Dune Crawler 1-4: 398/710 (-312HP)

Fortaleza disappeared into the background as Takao walked further into the desert, until only the vast rolling dunes of sand and silhouettes of massive mountains were all he could see. As the light of civilization all but disappeared, the true beauty of the desert showed itself. Stars began to appear en masse, forming expansive and colourful galaxies. It was almost like a surrealist painting; a sight he could never quite get used to seeing, and not for a lack of trying. For how much he claimed to hate the fifth floor, nighttime strolls through the sandy expanses had become something of a comfort to him.

His solace was interrupted by a shrill blip, which diverted his attention away from the heavens and back down into reality. Green orbs were immediately drawn to a flashing exclamation point, and then to the number beside it. Thirty two messages, all from the same person, no doubt. As he opened the list and scrolled through its contents, his suspicions proved true. Aria's name dominated the list, having sent message after message once she'd returned the safety of a guarded zone. 

"Ah, ѕhit ... Should'a just messaged her right 'way. Prolly worried her half t'death." He muttered to himself in his typical fashion, turning with his head buried in menus. Whilst working on his reply, his boots hit a peculiarly loose spot of sand. Something gave way beneath his footing and his boot sank a few inches into the sand. Had he not felt so absent-minded he might've reacted right away, but instead he slowly shifted his eyes' focus from the menus to the ground, just in time for it to collapse. He hit a few menu buttons on the way down and managed to send a half garbled message to Aria just before his back hit solid, sand-covered tiles.

Roll Results

ID: 81477
LD: 24 (14 + 5(S&D) + 3(Detect) + 2(Reveal))

Advanced Dungeon found.

You'd have to do the stats first, compress all of those layers into one layer, and then duplicate the stats overlay and merge them with each frame of the animation. If you had video editing software that could work gifs, like Sony Vegas, it'd be easier, but with photoshop you have to do it each frame by frame, duplicating and merging the stats overlay.

Sure thing. What'd you need help with?

Thread Locked.

Reward Tally:

@JD - 2 SP/45 Col

@Lawrence - 2SP/44 Col

@Blank - 2SP/44 Col

@Hydra - 2SP/44 Col

@Atzo - 2SP/44 Col

@Solomon - 2SP/44 Col

@Dominion - 2SP/44 Col

@Hei - 2SP/44 Col

@Mist - 2SP/44 Col

His ascension up the warp gate platform was smooth, and words were already being spoke by the time he turned. He glanced over the wintry wonderland one last time and let his face contort into an expression of disdain just in time for a frigid gust of air to slam into him.

"Floor 5, Fortaleza." said Takao, forcing his words out as quickly as he could. The relief that came with being whisked from one platform to the other was short-lived, as the chilling air of one was replaced with the chilling air of another. The fifth floor, normally a scorching desert that rivaled the fourth floor on his list of least favourite locations, was cold enough at night for players to see their own breath. He tugged the collar of his coat closer and trotted down the staircase, the soles of his boots grinding granules of sand against stone tiles as he started off in the direction of the gates.

Both floors were quiet, especially at night. But they were different flavours of silence. The fourth floor's silence was muffled, the heavy snowfall proving to be something of an insulator against sound. The desert was the opposite. It was open, sound traveled as far as it could unhindered, yet nighttime brought silence. The scenery of the desert nightscape was considerably more prepossessing, once one managed to break away from the settlements and civilization and could witness the sky in its full unadulterated splendor.

The original plan was to make the timeskip live after 3.0 was released, so I'm more than willing to put the topic back up for re-evaluation once all the information can be made public. I'll admit that its a bit unfair of me to expect a completely educated decision when I can't give out every single detail, but I've done what I can to describe the problem and how the timeskip would contribute to solving it. Not an outstanding job by any means.

I have a lot of respect for players that look to preserve the story of their characters against the rather overwhelming numbers culture that eats away at the site. I know it seems like Staff might favour the numbers over stories, but that's mostly because we want to try and protect people from malicious misuse of them. The Zelrius, Ssendom, Manta, and Ebony PKs are prime examples of the consequences of poorly balanced mechanics. Four characters, close to a decade's worth of development and buildup, all ended in a single post they had no chance against. Also, to clarify, I'm not calling these instances malicious misuse of mechanics.

Anyway, I'd be more than happy to put this back up for discussion after 3.0 is released. While I've done the math in spreadsheets, SAO-RPG has a way of being unpredictable. I think that Staff could benefit just as much, if not more from seeing how things play out before coming to an ultimate decision. Also, just as an added note, the popularity vote weighing in favour of the timeskip does not instantly mean it'll happen. Player opinion is the principal concern, which is why it was left to a vote.

Me not responding to the majority of your post is not synonymous with me missing your point. I found it funny that somebody spent the majority of their post talking about how they favour story over mechanics, which I can respect, and then ended it with "But I'll totally take those free levels tho".

I don't think that a timeskip is necessarily lazy, nor do I think it's throwing story out for the sake of mechanics. I'll be and have been the first to admit that it certainly isn't ideal, but I and the current staff have inherited a mess that we're doing our best to fix, and it involves a lot of uncomfortable changes that I wish I didn't have to make. Right now, there is a very obvious divide of player levels that doesn't fit the narrative. Sword Art Online is intended to be a difficult game, and the presence of these players dilutes that danger. That, in my opinion, is wounding the site's narrative. We can't make bosses stronger to compensate or the little guys start to suffer. We can't balance them more to the average level, because then it becomes too easy for the higher end of the player spectrum to progress.

The current floor number is deadzone, and it would help considerably- both for storytelling and for mechanics balancing- for us to pass it. The medium we use is inherently slower, and in-character progress is skewed because of it. Whether you think there should be overleveled characters or not, you have to admit it's a little bit ridiculous that our highest level character is sixteen levels away from Kirito's level during the Floor 75 boss raid. You also have to admit its rather difficult to introduce major plot villains of respectable strength, such as individuals like Death Adder or groups like Laughing Coffin, without it seeming ridiculous.

Additionally, there is no way it "should" go. If a timeskip was absolutely necessary to fix something that was broken, it would've been done without a poll. That's what the new leveling system is for. Think of it like this: You have a room with a water pipe. The water pipe bursts and fills the room with water. If you only patch the pipe, you're left with a flooded room. If you only drain the room, the broken pipe will just fill it again. Patching both the pipe and draining the room is the ideal situation. The timeskip is, however, meant to help provide an opportunity for new players to close the gap that they often complain about. Is it necessary? No. It doesn't effect me either way, so I have no personal investment in it. I do enjoy the idea of helping lower leveled players, who would benefit the most from the bump mechanically, because the process of clearing floors is a frontline activity that inherently benefits those on the higher end of the level spectrum the most. I'm also tired of hearing people complain about overleveled characters, which they will undoubtedly be doing at some point again when they start hitting the same wall that blocks high-level characters from progressing further.

As for the claim that they're liars for caring more about story over mechanics, I disagree. The site isn't as cut and dry as "If you use stats in any capacity, you're part of the numbers culture". You can enjoy both sides while leaning toward one. I don't have anything against people that prefer story, and I don't have anything against people that prefer mechanics. My job isn't to tell people how to enjoy the site, it's to make the site enjoyable for either side. Unfortunately the mechanics side takes precedence more often than the story side, because stats and parameters are omnipresent and the consequences of unbalance with them are something that need to be taken into consideration. Your character can be permanently killed by mechanics, and I find that to be a good reason to focus heavily on that matter. Does that mean mechanics are more important than story? Not necessarily. In some areas they hold a higher priority, and in some areas story holds a higher priority.

So, like I said. We inherited a mess, and we're trying our best to get it back on track in a way for everybody to enjoy. Whether you prefer to pay attention to the story aspects or the mechanics, everybody will eventually have to come to realize that sacrifices will need to be made on either side. A one-time skip of up to ten floors and one or two months forward isn't going to hurt any more than trying to reason why your character is still level 1 on floor 1 after x amount of months/years/cleared floors.

You do realize that the people benefitting most from faster floor clearing are the higher leveled players, right? Players on the low-level range don't typically participate in either floor clearing or floor scouting. This means that all the SP from those threads goes right to the higher leveled players, which only increases the gap.

Also, as a side note: "You want to give me free levels? Do that, but don't push my timetable forward as a mandatory event." You go from talking about character development and then immediately switch to saying "I'm completely okay with free levels, but don't expect me to put any work into receiving them."

Why are you assuming that we would skip 20-30 floors? The first post even says less than 10 floors.

Also, when I/other scouts were finding boss rooms within 2 hours of the raid being cleared, it still took us months to clear floors. I believe that, during that time, we maybe cleared a total of six or seven bosses? There's nothing wrong with the current system. The issue here is that everybody is still trying to scout by themselves. Get a thread of five people going, four posts each minimum, and kill the monsters. Congratulations, you have all the map fragments. I admit there could be more incentive to scouting, maybe additional SP rewards or something, but the system itself is fine.

Edit: Because I'm bored, I decided to go back and prove how easy it is to scout for anybody that thinks the current system is too cumbersome.

Here we have eight separate labyrinth scouting threads:

sao-rpg.com/topic/14435-pp-f20-ventures/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14438-sp-f20-ascendance/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14369-scouting-the-20-floor-labyrinth/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14473-scouting-the-20-floor-labyrinth/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14226-f20-sp-the-labyrinth-of-swamps/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14453-f20-sp-the-re-attempt/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14236-f20sp-%E3%80%8Ascouting-the-20th-floors-labyrinth%E3%80%8B/
sao-rpg.com/topic/14256-sp-f20-the-ending-of-days/

Between them is a total of 84 posts. If this was one single thread, not only would all of those participants receive 4 SP from simply closing the thread, but they would also receive 1 additional SP for finding the fragments on top of having located all the map fragments already. There's nothing wrong with the system when the players are choosing the path of most resistance.

The snow that had accumulated on the soles of his boots melted away as they hit the warm wooden floorboards of the Long Barrow. It was, as expected, empty of player activity. The tavern sat on the edge of town and hadn't the same comforts of many of the others that littered the town. It seemed as though its construction was entirely for the purpose of holding a quest NPC, which certainly didn't strike him as odd. Sword Art Online was such an impossibly intricate game, so the need to fill up white space was ever-present. This seemed as constructive a method as any.

He pulled the Night King's crown from his belt and set it in front of Joramun, the NPC that had originally given him the quest. The pre-programmed AI went through its scripts and codes and thanked Takao profusely for avenging his wife or somesuch flavour text that he hardly paid any mind to. Takao was already making his way for the door when the rewards menu appeared, and was promptly closed. Although the chill of the fourth floor had started to cool him off, the embers of his frustration were still warm.

The main issue here is that people continue to misinterpret the purpose of the timeskip despite it having been explained. The timeskip is not something to fix a continuous problem, it's not meant to do anything for the process of leveling up. It's fix what has already happened and to better equip players for the new leveling mechanics in 3.0. At the moment, the lower floor count will hinder low level players just as much as it will players on the other end of the spectrum. The point was to unlock a certain amount of floors in preparation for the players that constantly complain about the level gap to be given an opportunity to close it. But given the public opinion, not only will they have to close that gap themselves, but they'll also have to unlock the means to do it themselves, which not only gives higher leveled players time to continue to further the gap again, but it also gives them all the rewards from unlocking the floors which will continue to help them level up.

The process that created the gap is changing, but the timeskip's purpose was to give lower leveled players better footing to level up while higher leveled players were hindered. The current floor count just increases the amount of work for low leveled players, while also giving high leveled players both the time and the means to continue.

Spinning the crown around his glove-clad index finger provided some semblance of entertainment on the otherwise miserable walk back to Snowfrost. While it may have been efficient to make the trek straight to the second quest on the fourth floor that he intended on clearing, he was met with the obstacle of having no clue where such quest was located. He had brushed it aside, much like he often did with the quests that happened to fall on the floors with more undesirable climates. But now, with all his excess energy and a side of frustration, it seemed like the best time and place to cool off.

The spinning stopped and he caught hold of the crown in one smooth motion, opting to secure it to his belt where it would be out of the way. His descent from the mountainous region that held the Night King's domain was quick, and his trek through the wintry forests was of similar haste. The snow-covered evergreen forests slowly began to thin and peel away, leaving small patches of icy fields left to traverse before he reached the town of Snowfrost.

The purpose of the time skip isn't to arbitrarily skip forward for the sake of doing so. With a timeline in the works, the reason for the time skip would be to put the current progression of the game into realistic proportions. One day in real life does not equate to one day IC on the forums.

Generally speaking, the issue progression speed is separate from the issue of where we stand currently. We're not where we should be, which is what the timeskip is for. The progression speed is a separate issue that will be looked into, but ultimately is not the purpose of the time skip.

This is an idea I've been sitting on for a while now regarding 3.0, and after receiving some mixed feedback from those who I pitched the idea to, I figured it'd be best left up to a site vote.

So, INTEREST CHECK!

How many of you would be interested in a Timeskip/Floor Jump? This would be to further the narrative along a bit, which is otherwise quite slow by nature. The jump itself would be a single digit number of floors and probably only a few months time-wise, and may or may not include a small level bump as well. Opinions?

EDIT:
So there's a bit of confusion as to what the purpose of the Timeskip is. Allow me to make it as clear as I possible can, this is not to fix the process of leveling up. That is an entirely different change of mechanics. The way players will level up in 3.0 will largely be based on their current level relative to the floor number. Higher levels on lower floors mean that progress is greatly hindered. Lower levels on higher floors means that progress is expedited. By leaving the next <10 or so floors to be manually unlocked, we would be offering high level players even more rewards(namely from being on the frontlines/boss raids) without really giving anything to the low leveled players that want to catch up, outside of how the system already balances the leveling meta.

So, to summarize, the process of leveling is changing in 3.0, but that process alone isn't enough to fix the level gap. The timeskip would allow low leveled players the means to close the gap without giving the higher leveled players both the time and the means to continue furthering it.

Also, since this apparently needs to be said. Voting multiple times with alts will result in all votes from your accounts being removed.

Edit 2: Vale and Ssendom's votes were removed for double-voting.
Edit 3: Sey changed his vote from No to Yes.
Edit 4: Macradon changed his vote from No to Yes.
Edit 4: Beatbox changed his vote from No to Yes.

So, figured I'd do a follow-up on the loot table changes. How're you guys liking it so far? Any concerns, comments, issues, recommendations, etc?

For context.