Shirien

Shirien was flipping through the big book in his hand while relaxing on the lower floors, reading various tips and tricks by other players who wanted to give the lower leveled players a bit of an advantage in surviving. As it had been quite some time since the game's release there was several mentions of a shapeshifting enemy that got stronger the stronger the player was. Shirien hummed in thought as he figured from the description that he should probably take care of the problem early and get it over with rather than leave it hanging around as a loose end. With a decision reached in his mind he returned the book to his inventory and stood himself up. He drew his new dagger and gave it a toss with a smile as he finally found it some prey to be tested on. Taking a deep breath he heads towards the sixth floor for the first time.

Shirien smiled to the smith with a nod, removing his old dagger with the plans to destroy it later, it being not only basic quality but locked from appraisals atop that. With his new dagger equipped he drew it and gave it a toss up to properly test the weight before catching and re-sheathing it. "Thank you, I will! I look forward to testing it out. Have a good day!" He said happily before waving and heading back out of the shop to see how much easier it would be to cut things with several times more strength! It would certainly last him the next twenty-some levels he figured for starters!

Shirien was an outsider to the player politics but it didn't take long for him to figure out three very definite facts. The man with red hair whose name he didn't know was at least a somewhat respected leader and strategist. He would have to make sure not to piss him off in the future or else risk being given the most risky jobs if he ever caught up. The second thing was that nearly everyone's eyes were on the lady with silver hair and violet eyes. He didn't know what she had done, to who, or why, or if it was merely her physical appearance drawing so many eyes. In either scenario he tapped his finger against his arm faster while trying to overhear their names. Having no idea who people with such presences were didn't make him too comfy. The third was that the man whose name he overheard as 'Takao' being the person who had discovered the latest boss. He was a fast work in Shirien's eyes due to the swiftness of the discovery. To Shirien it indicated that Takao was either very strong or very fast, or perhaps very impatient and willing to risk his life.

While waiting for more information to meet his ears he did hear a few names and was able to associate their faces to those words with a little focus. Those few had less impact on him but he wasn't going to overlook earned knowledge, quickly making mental notes of their armor and equipment for future reference. Those who were wearing any that is. With that solidified in his mind he looked down at himself, making sure his armor wasn't on and just his clothing, and his weapon was unequipped too. It was a safe zone so he didn't fear death, but he also didn't want to be seen as a threat or stand out without need. That, and having no combat items made it hard to gauge his level, but he did make it clear he wouldn't be participating this time. With nothing better to do and feeling a slight sense of nervousness he takes a piece of boar jerky from his inventory and starts to chew at it, keeping his eyes low but his ears open.

Shiirien watched closely and curiously to see how exactly Macradon intended to climb up, watching the player's sword with a hint of curiosity while making sure to back up so they had room. When Macradon charged and successfully reached the top he chuckled and gave the heavily armored player some claps. "Stats really are everything..." He says with a shrug before continuing "Next we actually start working our way there." After that he breaks off into a sprint towards the edge of the building, kicking off from the edge of the roof and landing on the roof of another nearby building, slowing to a stop to give the other player a gesture to follow before running off to the next building which stood a bit higher. "Pretty impressive you can move around so easy in that armor, and I bet it does keep the beasties out, but do not underestimate gravity! All the mitigation in the world won't save you from a twenty story drop!" Thinking on it that was what teleport crystals were for, or maybe landing atop of mob would work. He quickly shook the thoughts from his mind though and kept his eyes to makes sure Macradon was keeping up as he jumped from roof to roof. He wondered if the heavy armor would start to drain his stamina faster or somesuch, not that experienced in such things.

Shirien heard the 16th floor's boss had already been found, absolutely astounded as the boss of the 15th floor had only just been defeated. A sense of curiosity filled him as he traveled to a fairly high floor with his hood up and hiding his eyes as he idly strolled into the room and gave a slight wave. He was sure very few people would know him so he simply said  "Don't mind me, I'm too weak to take part, just here to listen and learn. Feel free to pretend I'm not here." He says while smiling to anyone who looked at him, putting his back to a wall and crossing his arms, idly tapping a finger against the other arm to a beat only existent in his mind.

It was best he learned how the whole process went early on if he was ever to catch up. It would be better than fumbling around and looking like a fool at a higher level, at least now he had inexperience to blame. For now he kept his eyes on everyone and listened for names or keywords, anything he thought might be useful to himself in the future or just seemed like a good thing to know just in case. He doubted he'd have much to contribute or say himself as this was as high in floors as he has ever gone, and it wasn't about to change until he did some major leveling.

Shirien walked into the shop with his black clothing and hood hiding his eyes. His rusted knife wasn't going to keep him safe forever, and early on he figured his stats wouldn't carry him, he needed to rely on equipment for a little while. "Hey there, I'm here looking for a weapon, let me just browse for a bit!" He said aloud while looking through the items already in stock. He didn't feel like waiting for an order and thankfully for him there was even a dagger perfect for what he had planned! With a grin on his lips he gestured to the weapon named Carnwennan and said "Ooh, perfect. This will carry me for a while!" He says happily and checks the pricing on it. It felt a bit steep to him since he was new, but he figured it wasn't so bad since he could afford it. "Six materials... Alright." He says while taking six from his inventory and setting them down to be taken.

-6 Materials for Carnwennan

It is worth mentioning however that a good item has 'potential' worth as opposed to bad items which can ONLY be vanity. If you took your good quality items to a merchant, they could attempt to appraise the item to unlock a random enhancement, including some you cannot obtain without a merchant. For 1 material.

That said, trying to sell a merchant a Good item you made for 100 Col won't work out, since they could just buy good quality items from their own shop for the same price in unlimited supply. You'd have to either lower the price or just keep the item and get it appraised for a fee if they are charging.

From observation alone I'd wager it's because they are the most active business-wise. Every raid they'll need potions, and several people will want some just for emergencies. Not all of a smith's creations will actually be what someone wants, potions tend to serve singular purposes that pretty much everyone wants.

So basically it's to limit how much business they get or to have an almost unlimited supply of particular potions without having to worry about spending crafts to fill orders of unreasonable size, depriving them of their own personal items. I could be wrong though, just my assumption.

Shirien listened to Ariel's guess and nodded "Yup, struck the nail on the head. Only recently became one, actually. Still figuring it all out, no luck on appraisals... yet." He says with a shrug of his shoulders while letting her work despite the idle conversation. When she completed both items so quickly he smiled and happily stood himself up, taking them and examining the work. After placing them both into his inventory he equipped the clothing immediately and looked himself over, moving about to make sure it all fit right and with a grin he nodded and with the hood down said "It's great, thanks a lot! All the stats are here and the clothes feel pretty comfy!" He was certainly pleased with the work, chuckling happily as he said "Well, I'll try to level up fast for you. Then I can buy tier two armors from you." He said to try and give her the impression she had earned herself a repeat customer for the future. "Thanks again, I guess I should head off and try this out once I get some more materials. I'll see you around, feel free to message me anytime." He offers while pulling the hood up over his head and tucking his hands into the pockets. "I'd offer you a discount at my shop or some free appraisals but I think your fiance has you covered." He says with a wink before heading to the door, ready to leave any time.

+Polishing Rag of Legends & Black Marketeer

I feel as if there is little reason to actually invest in Sneak & Hide from a practical standpoint. The mod is sweet, but it's Grandmaster-only and is the only thing with a true effect. So far as I can tell until you have it grandmastered all it does is let you have the first attack. Useful, sure, but not worth the price and useless in a duel. It's great for RP fluff, but for actual combat it's a little underwhelming. I have several ideas how to improve it, however! Let me just state that I am spitballing values, none are concrete.

Armor and Stealth

Now, first and foremost, for balancing reasons, I think heavy armor users need to have their stealth rating (defaulted as 10) debuffed. It's called heavy armor for a reason. Their footsteps are going to be deep and loud, and the armor itself is going to make noise.  That's just common sense to me. I am not suggesting light armor be buffed though, that should just be the natural state. If you wanted to invent a 'soundless' enhancement to negate the debuff (or just negate it indirectly by having it be +1 or +2 to stealth rating, which would make it applicable to light armor too) but that's up to you.

Entering Stealth Mid-Combat

The second thing I would suggest is a method to return to stealth after exiting or after being jumped. In many games you would throw down a flashbang or smokebomb to enter stealth. If inventing a new item is too large a task due to the possibility of having LOTS of that item, which I'd balance by only having a limited number allowed at ready, I'd like to suggest that a stun or paralysis grant the player the chance to enter stealth again. The way I imagine it is this. (Player uses Stun/Lands a paralysis poisoned weapon effect)->(Other player is stunned)->(Player doesn't follow up but instead enters stealth.) Now, I think entering stealth from combat SHOULD have consequences. For example, the mod and charge can't be used to boost damage since the stalked player or enemy is now aware you are around. Perhaps it would also debuff the user's stealth rating for the same reason, allowing an alerted player to detect someone easier. Naturally one can attempt to find the player once their stun wears off, as they will have a free turn to do so. Maybe even try to turtle up! The stealth user can't stun them for three turns after a stun as is the rule. But what does that do for a stealth user though as opposed to just attacking when they are stunned?
Edit: I think I should mention that I am mentally imagining that searching for a player via roll in this situation should be treated as a free action, but if you make the roll and your BD doesn't size up to attacking, you can't parry or such. Turtling up should be a separate action for balancing. Even if you don't land a hit you are still negating all of their stealth benefits if you detect them.

Increased Odds of Poison/Bleed

The third thing, increased chance of DoT(Damage over Time) effects. Poison and assassination has gone hand in hand since the dawn of time. As would wounds that don't close easily and risk the victim bleeding out. Let me just state I don't think this should apply to paralysis due to spam, unless the debuff to re-entering stealth is considerable.  I do however think it should apply to enhancements like Bleed, Envenom, Blight, and possibly Burning. If not the latter two, then at least the former! I feel that as a stealth character sneaking up to someone should provide a slight bonus to triggering a status effect. Like for example if my natural roll was 7 and I needed 8 to trigger a poison effect, from stealth it would trigger that effect but not boost the accuracy of the attack or the poison's damage. This would make weapons with bleed a little more useful to a stealth/light armor character as opposed to simply just getting that Damage enhancement for a guaranteed damage boost all the time.

If not the above suggestions, then how about...

More mods? The above status boost idea could easily be worked into a mod for stealth. So could a mod that would allow someone to enter stealth with diminished effect or diminishing returns each time it is used. Maybe some tiny side-perks that are packaged with stealth ranks that only trigger from stealth if you don't want them as mods?

In closing!

As it stands I feel like stealth could use improvements to make it more viable, as well as more conditions to make it less attractive to that guy with the claymore and full platemail. Claws, whips, daggers, even katanas and maybe longswords should probably not be debuffed in stealth situations though.
Also please try not to brush me off as an upstart just because I am new  <3

He nodded in understanding, supposing he'd give the game's developers some slack in either scenario. If healing was keeping people alive he could only pray it was never taken away. He took back his hand with no hard feelings and listened as she explained she was permanently in a party. He didn't hold it against her but it did make him feel slightly suspicious. "The mission is to head to the... Forest of Wavering Mists? Think that's what it was called. Anyways we go there, beat a dark elf, and it should drop some 'supplies' which we take back here." It seemed decently clear to him at the least what needed to be done. It was barely a step up from a fetch quest after all. "In any case, the help is appreciated. Just, uh... Fair warning." He flicks the dagger on his hip "Basic weapon and armor, no enhancements. And I don't even have an armor skill yet." He wanted to be upfront with what Mayuri should expect of his battle prowess.

With everything cleared up he gave Mayuri a smile and started towards the shop's exit and into the streets. He takes a small leather bound book and starts flipping through it as he walked, soon putting his finger on an entry "Ah, here we are. Forest should be..." He glances up at the sky to get his sense of direction straight. "This way." He says nonchalantly while leading the way. He figured that since he was being assisted and it was his quest that he should take the initiative. He glances back and starts saying so they could get to know each other a bit better "So, I recently became a merchant, so if you'd like I could give you a discount or a free appraisal after this?" He offers in reward for her kindness. "Do you have a profession?"

Shirien was getting ready to deny the quest for the time being when he heard a voice unfamiliar to him getting his attention. Glancing to the source he listened while she explained and asked to come with him! He was expecting that if anything he would need to track someone else down. It was not unpleasant, in fact he preferred it like this! He smiled to the player but did ask curiously "Healer?" He tilted his head curiously while looking the woman over as if expecting to see a white mage's staff. "I thought this game had no magic?" He wondered what she actually meant but quickly shook the thought from his head in favor of not squandering the generosity.

Power was in numbers in a lot of situations, and he had just been offered the chance to go two versus one on this Dark Elf. He wasn't about to turn her down. In fact he said to the blacksmith "I'll take the quest, thanks!" After accepting any confirmation pop-ups he turns his attention back to the lady who called herself Mayuri with a smile. "I'd be happy to have some help, thank you!" He says before turning his eyes to the side while swiping his finger about. Mayuri then got a party request from the lower leveled player. "You can call me Shirien, it's a pleasure to meet you." He holds out his hand to her courteously while pulling back his hood so she could see him better.

10 minutes ago, Erroneous said:

I used to "tag" each shop with the category they belong to; that way you just had to click "Tailor" and it would list only the tailor shops. However that took too much of my time and I don't believe the players continued where I started.

There are ways to tag my shop as "Merchant" aside from just having text in the title? If so, I'd use it if I knew how, or that it was an option.

Or is that an admin/gm/whatever only option?

Shirien was slowly working his way up and exploring the capitals of the higher floors. He figured he would need to start familiarizing himself with them before trying to set out into the wilderness. It was entirely possible he could get some easy fetch quests or the like that would naturally lead him towards exploration. That was his hope at the very least. Blind exploration of an area was good fun when someone is secure in their safety, he however was not in the slightest. He wore some leather gauntlets on his arms but for the moment they were no better than decoration for him. He didn't have quite enough SP to invest in an armor skill unfortunately. With that thought in mind, he figured that perhaps some armor from a store would have special stats! He glances to his right and notices a shop with a breastplate on its sign. Almost two decades of RPG experience catching up to him and making him turn on his heel to enter the shop.

While browsing the wares of the shop he must have accidentally tripped into an event flag as he heard a gruff voice say "Oi, you, adventurer. Need some armor?" Shirien blinked and looks over to the NPC smith with the long bushy beard, nodding his head and responding "Oh, uh... Yes, I do. That's why I-" He was cut off by the NPC's presumed no-nonsense temperament and not automated messaging. "And from the looks of ye you have barely a Col to yer name. Tell ye what, some Dark Elf scum stole some supplies I had coming in and is hidin' out in the Forest of Wavering Mists. Get it and bring it back here after making the knife-ear pay and either me or m'wife will craft you something to wear. Deal?" The smith concludes his speech leaving Shirien processing with all his knowledge to make a checklist. Forest, Dark Elf, Dropped Item, Smith, Reward of armor. That said he hadn't touched this floor before so he crossed his arms in thought while considering his options in the hopes the event wasn't about to expire if he thought if it was a good idea or not. He was pretty undergeared.

I will be taking this quest alongside Mayuri!

While twiddling his thumbs Shirien came to the conclusion he might not be getting a lot of business today. As such, he decided to swindle some goods for himself to see if he could get any luck flowing. For starts he purchased some leather gauntlets from his own shop. It wasn't special but it was definitely an upgraded in appearance as he had no other armor to speak of.

-100 Col for Leather Gauntlets (+1 EXP)

With the armor good and purchased he took out a material so he could attempt to appraise it. He was curious to see how it would work out for him.

[ID# 57839][CD: 1] <Locked> (+1 EXP)
-1 Material

Shirien let out a sigh for his bad luck but shrugged it off while putting the gauntlets on. They'd at least be better than walking around without once he had some skill to back it up. He wasn't entirely satisfied however and took out a dagger next to try and replace the rusted hunk of junk he owned.

-100 Col for Dagger (+1 EXP)

With the dagger ready he started to appraise it was well, hopefully getting something better than his rusted kitchen knife.

[ID# 57840][CD: 5] <Retry> (+4 EXP)
-1 Material

He raised a brow when the result wasn't conclusive, making him sigh dramatically as he got ready to try one more time, just to be sure. After that though he promised himself to let it sit for later.

[ID# 57841][CD: 2] <Locked> (+1 EXP)
-1 Material

Sadly the dagger showed no signs of usefulness so he simply threw it aside to let it break, making him shrug his shoulders for now and rest back in his seat.

Summary: -200 Col, -3 Materials, +Leather Gauntlets to Inventory, +8 EXP

Here's something that's not immediately clear or stated anywhere that I can find.

<Poison/Bleeding/Burning/Blighted effects don't stack with the same effect> - If you bleed someone twice in a row, they don't have two instances of bleed. The duration of the effect is simply reset.

Example: Bleed lasts two turns and does 4 damage. If you use bleed and there is one turn left, it returns to being two turns. The damage doesn't increase to eight for one turn and go back to four for one turn, the duration doesn't get added to make it three turns, it is just reset to two.

Shirien smiled happily at the exclamation that she was happy he came by and noted his bravery, a chuckle passing his lips as he was struck with a happy face while letting the lion cub sniff his hands. "Yeah~ I am so brave."  He said with a slight snicker, having hidden in the safezones like a proper coward even if he did go high. If he stepped outside he would probably just explode on contact with a thorn he wagered. He certainly wasn't going this high for some time to come for combat reasons.

Remembering his manners he says "Nice to meet you as well, I don't have any titles but I think you can guess at my profession from the items." He says while giving her a wave as she went to the station to start crafting "Best of luck, thank you!" He moved to find somewhere to sit and wait, willing to see if her word was as good as her skill~! 

Shirien nodded in understanding as Macradon explained the background of his guild, patiently waiting for the explanation to end before he would speak again since it was clear they were fairly passionate. "Ah, I see. It sounds noble, that's for sure. I wish you and your guild the best of luck in the future." He says with a genuine smile to his face. It was decently heartening to hear that there were people as honorable on the higher floors. It was a far finer image than imagining it as chaos and PKers lurking in the shadows at every turn or that every tiptoe outside a safezone was a gamble of your life.

He didn't mind if Macradon didn't have much to say on the tour, it wasn't as if the place had a beautiful symbolic landmark to have a deep conversation about he mused. When asked if they should go to the top he paused and said "Well... If you don't mind standing out." He shrugged his shoulders, not particularly minding today. He was sure the entire village knew of him if not him directly at this point, so Shirien standing out for a few minutes didn't sound awful. "How good are you at climbing?" He quizzes while making a sudden turn and jump, a foot hitting a windowsill and pushing him further up. With practiced ease Shirien draws his dagger and raises it high and slams down, getting it caught in the weather vein so he wouldn't just fall back down, using his dagger to lift himself up to grab the building's top and pull himself up the rest of the way. While pulling his dagger free he says "If you go east the buildings get too short. We'll want to go west and a bit north." He explains while waiting to see how the other player fared, ready to jump down if need be. "Oh, don't worry about fall damage. Safe zone." He says matter-of-factly. On more than one occasion he had taken a ride down a hill from up high for fun.

Shirien stepped into the shop with a jingle while wearing his usual maroon shirt with the hood up. His armor and equipment was either very basic or designed to appear so. In either scenario he didn't look very much like a threat as he moved up to the counter with a smile on his face. He pulled his hood back enough his face wasn't much being hidden. "Hello, I have some custom orders I'd like to get out of the way early." He had only just become a merchant and was willing to get some early-game boosts so to speak. After writing out his requests he set them on the counter along with the payment of 8 materials.

"I heard you were having a sale, so I thought I'd take advantage. Hope you don't mind~" He says with a wink, noticing the small lion he stares curiously before kneeling down and holding his hand out for it to sniff. His experience with cats lead him to believe trying to touch a feline without its permission was a bad move. "Oh, uh, my name is Shirien by the way!"

-8 Materials to Ariel

Having only just opened his shop he doubted he would get any customers real quickly, so he thought he should at least attempt to better himself for the future. With that thought firmly in mind he draws his Rusty Knife and begins to appraise it for any chance of giving himself a better quality weapon, smiling happily as he did so.

Appraisal on Rusted Knife
[ID# 57762][CD: 4] -1 Material. <<Locked>> +1 EXP

Shirien smiled and shrugged his shoulders, not sure what he was expecting given the fact that the weapon was the most basic of the basics he could obtain. Still, it was worth the effort in his opinion as he resheathed the knife.

Rank: Salesman
43/160 EXP
Materials: 20
Col: 5300

In the gloomy and dark floor of undeath and darkness sat a simple shop with little decoration or flair. Inside the candlit shop a hooded player relaxed in a chair behind a large wooden desk with several weapons and potions on display behind him. From the signage and the items laid out atop and behind the desk it was clear that they were a peddler of goods looking to make a living even when not in combat. The sign itself slightly provocative in how similar it was to Black Market, regardless of any actual truth behind the shop. The black hooded player was oddly at ease and possibly asleep at the stall with his hands behind his head and slouching in his seat with his eyes covered.

Equipped Items

Appraisals

"Ooh, lemme take a look at that! If it's not a perfect or a demonic item, we just might be able to wring out some extra power."
 

General Items

"This is the basic stuff, it's better than going without, that's for sure!"

Special Inventory

"Ah, these are the items that I have for sale that aren't just spawned on the spot. If anything seems interesting feel free to ask me about it!"

Junk Sale

"Have something you don't want? Feel free to sell it here. Even if I don't want it I know someone who will. Yes, I will pay you."

Personal & Business Transactions
 

As an outsider who has spent less than a week here and is only level two, I think it makes sense.

I have played many, MANY MMO over the years. Things getting frustratingly hard to level up when you get to the higher levels is only natural to me. I will say though on the other hand there is the small detail that older MMOs ordinarily have lower levels become stronger sooner so that the 10-20 level cap raise isn't just another obstacle for the newcomers.

In short my uneducated opinion is that if a cap gets raised, or perhaps newer floors unlock, the requirements to reach the mid levels, not the high levels, be easier on them. There are small details that are very un-mmo like that I can accept however, like the higher leveled bosses giving a low level player the same EXP (SP) as a guy twenty levels stronger. Normally the higher leveled player would get less exp and the lower player more. A 'risk' bonus if you will. That said I am going to go with my original opinion of 'it makes sense'.

With various ideas flowing through his mind and pleasant emotions hitting him in ways that he hadn't experienced in months. He didn't regret his decision one little bit. All the same though he felt a sense of mental exhaustion from the things he had done today, not usually so outgoing and forthcoming about the things he wanted and wanted to do. He figured he deserved one last nap before he became a truly working man. One that would last the afternoon all the way into the morning... After some food, of course. Starvation wasn't something he really wanted to rear its head. Since the tavern was where he slept he would also get himself some dinner before his day came to its early end. He had a lot to think about and sleep on before tomorrow. Like where he would try to put his shop and what it would be named. He dreaded that final part the most. For now though, food, and a looong sleep.

While Shirien drooled over what the book was telling him he had to shake himself back into reality, putting the book away before he ended up staying on that bench all night. The last thing he needed was to get mugged in the middle of the night. He forced himself onto his legs and back in the direction of his tavern. He figured he had done enough for today. He sold to several customers and got himself a job of sorts. Suddenly his eyes shot wide and a smile crossed his face. It was almost creepy how innocent it was. "I can sleep in the shop!" He says in barely a whisper. The concept of not needing to pay rent every day or so just to stay at an inn or tavern was filling him with joy since he wouldn't need to leave work to sleep or vice versa! He had almost a spring in his step as he made his way back to what would not be an even more temporary bed!