Real quick, I wanted to say thanks to all the other moon mages that came to this and made it what was, for me, one of the most fun events in my time playing. I think that the reason we can put on an event like this, and actually have such great participation, is also due to the fact that we have had ridiculously amazing GMs or a long, long, long time, and this guild has a depth that is really hard to equal in the game right now. Second, these conclaves have a tradition that came up through some amazing players -- some still with us, some gone on to other things, or other positions. I was introduced to the depth of this guild by them and they are missed. I expect that the next conclave will have some similar faces, but I know it will have some new faces too. I was glad to meet some of them tonight.

Then, importantly, thank you to Raesh, Kaarina, Abasha, and who knows who else up there. It will make more sense when people get to see the log and talk about it more, but the surprise outcome of the group prediction was really awesome - way above and beyond anything I expected. Kaarina and company dealt with an insane amount of nitpicking from a squad of moon mages pretty intent on having things roll a specific way.

Raesh, the surprise prediction stuff was insane. I don't have words for how much fun that was to watch unfold. I thought I knew what was going to happen. And I was totally and happily completely incorrect. Thank you very much for stepping into this and making some fun exponentially better.

And for attendees, erm, if anyone lost a scroll in the fights, look Traim up IG or IM insolentwraith and I should be able to replace it.

Muwahahahaha.

You've not seen the last of my new friends (Though they will be seeing some tweaks since, you know, ONE of them nearly crashed the game).

I was sorely temped in the last week or so to post some of the "Things that happened while I was testing stuff tonight" from Dev but - alas - it would have spoiled things and half of it wouldn't have made sense to anyone who hasn't had to write in GSL before. Suffice it to say fun times were had and the earlier draft of them was much, much, much nastier. (I was testing vs it with 2000 in all skills, 150 in all stats and all I could do was irritate it slightly in it's first couple of revisions).

I would, again, like to thank everyone involved for hosting it and showing up. A large part of the reason the Moon Mage guild has always been so popular is the dedication of players interested in the lore - expanding on it, speculating about it, remembering it better than any staff member does and so forth.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

Workin on the log. :}

So much boundless thanks to Kaarina, Raesh, Abasha, and anyone else that helped with related projects. This was so much fun!

Thank you to Traim of course, for starting it up... all of the hosts for everything they did, and everyone that showed up and enjoyed themselves!

So crazy and great.

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I like to imagine that the popping sound of PD is kind of like the fire swamp.

These creatures are super cool.

This was one of those "oh #%$%" times:

Your black moonblade strikes the umbral colossus and slowly sinks into its body. The black moonblade swiftly melts into liquid shadows which are greedily drawn into the umbral colossus.
Roundtime: 3 sec.

Welcome to the new shadow creature mechanics! I'm particularly happy with the moonblade support.

I might as well mention it now since the surprise is over, I also slightly tweaked light creatures and nimbuses to align with the new shadow creature stuff. It's nothing you should really notice outside of a few messaging tweaks and bug fixes.

There are also a few things I don't have fully hooked up right now (TKT/TKS with slivers is something I have turned off while we tweak with those spells) and I retconned the lore slightly to clarify that creatures from the Plane of Probability only have special interactions with lunar light/shadow, not light/shadow in general. This is entirely a sanity thing - the old version I wrote for nimbuses for Magic 2.1 that was never released was hooked into EVERYTHING (Clerical spells depending on the devotion type for example) as I scoured through the spellbooks looking for any messaging that sounded even slightly like shadow or light. It was absurd.

The interactions are also, generally, weaker than before because they're intended to be able to be used as 24/7 creatures (Light and shadow creatures, not the colossus specifically... those are special) and need to be at least somewhat balanced around actually using the right skills to harm the creatures, rewarding exp, and not blowing up shadow masters with one max cast dazzle.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

I wish I could be two people and able to actively participate with both.. Such an awesome event the little I was able to attend, clearly a lot of love and diabolical planning went into a lot of what did take place..

Can't wait for a log and maybe a summary, it was such a huge thing. Thank you to all who were apart of creating a superb event.

Those creatures sound scary and ebil.. ca't wait to die trying them out.

>I figured it was because of the 80+ frenzied tenebraelings in just one room.

Yeah. That'd be the part where the Colossus nearly crashed the game.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

>Anyone have 4 or 5 sentences describing what the conclave was, etc.?

Every year or every few years the conclave is to bring moon mages up to speed on current moon mage affairs and an excuse to get moon mages back together if only for the duration of a party. The first conclave was around 1999 I think, organized by Mentors and the last wedding party conclave was 2009. For many years conclaves have been player run events.

This conclave dealt with the increasing menace of Pelag ai Aldam. There was an quick intro to each sect, a game of trivia and a circle of prophets was convened. A group prediction was cast, and intermixed with teleologic sorcery. Sorcerers would say it was a success while anyone outside the circle of prophets was horrified and more than a little disgusted. Global visions ensued. Pelag was pissed and an umbral colossus attacked the conclave. Colossus was killed although the threat remained. Party, gifts, raffle.

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Vote:
http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-DragonRealms.html

>>Skaen

Nice. Danke.

They were awesome. The colossus was not incredibly difficult to hit, but it was super beast on vitality. It was relatively weak offensively, so it made the perfect "tank boss." This is particularly true given the fact that any physical attack broken off a tenebraeling. In a serious tactical fight, we'd have far fewer physical attacks and that means far slower DPS, generally. It felt right on though. If you have a number of people all targeting a vital area, it'd go down quicker, but certainly not without laying out some damage.

The tenebraelings are harder to judge. They killed fast, but they died fast. I think that's a perfect complement to the colossus, particularly since the number of tenebraelings is somewhat dependent on how smart/stupid people are in fighting the colossus. I would be very light on unleashing mobs of frenzied tenebraelings generally though because they seemed to kill really fast, and there aren't many guilds that can answer in kind anymore (and that includes us with TKS in its current state).

I really wanted to go to this, but I had to be at my parent's house and couldn't do much on my Dad's computer. It sounds like it was an awesome event!! So bummed I missed it! Thanks for the invitation, and I hope to be able to be in game for the next one!

Aluriaz