Old Rock 2 Emails

Subj: Rock: Crashed Plane - JUNK Mail Vol 1; Edition 1; 3/01/99 Date: 3/1/1999 7:47:29 PM Eastern Standard Time From: rocksupport@zilla.net (Rock Support) To: rocksupport@zilla.net ROCK's Journal of Underground News for Knights; Vol 1; Edition 1; 3/01/99

-==============================- Threats from the Editor (Plat: rocksupport@zilla.net) -==============================-

I'm moderately excited to deliver the first issue of Rock's Journal of Underground News for Knights (JUNK). Those of you who've subscribed to the previous (and probably long-forgotton) Rock-List may recognize a similar format; whereas those of you who haven't, probably have NO clue what I'm rambling about. Therefore, I will waste not another word, but instead introduce this issue's selections. "Courses, of Course", by yours truly, gives you a slightly more enlightened overview of the course situation, including a handy reference list of all the courses available to players in the game (but by all means not the ONLY ones to ever exist). Kick your arena brain into high gear with Krafter's insight on "How to Win Arena Matches." Who says it can't be in the real world? ..But when it comes to _real-world_ PvP, Procyon's "Tips from the Pro" segment is where to turn. His article provides some insight regarding the current PvP situation, and what the dealy-o is with all that half-finished soldier/general stuff. Newbies and veterans alike are given the key to Saprin's ever-expanding source of knowledge. This issue's "Ask Saprin" shows Saprin in action, as he helps players cope with the tragedies of death and Rock's ever-expanding array of items - one user at a time. Drynes aren't the only one who will find "The Dryne History - Part 1" amazing. Learn the code of the Dryne and much more about their culture in Kler's documentary. ..And finally, get the inside scoop on the current bandwidth situation, from "The Z.Net Front." Enjoy!

- Tyler Goen (Plat) JUNK Mail Moderator, Head Coder, and Microwave Chef for Rock: Crashed Plane. rocksupport@zilla.net http://www.zilla.net/

-==============================- Courses, of Course (Plat: rocksupport@zilla.net) -==============================-

Is your Vrean web spin not enough to catch your daily supply of food? Do you scare yourself with pity when you try to roar? Are you a reject for your own race? And of course, are you rich? Then courses may be just what you need. By incorporating courses into the game, you are given a chance to actually *choose* which skills you'd like to excel in, and which you dont waste your time on. It also gives you a certain level of uniqueness - some players may NEED you to help them, just because you can do something that they haven't learned.

Okay, so how do you sign up for courses? Simple. Visit the registration office in En'whel. To get to En'whel from the Managath (the room with the planar archway), walk southeast and "enter portal". Once you're in the registration office, you can use commands like ABOUT, ENROLL, and ENROLL LIST (though "LIST" will also work, in that room). Once you've enrolled in a course, you can visit the appropriate classroom(s) in En'whel and CHECKIN each day until completion. For more information about these commands, type "help " while in the game.

Many courses have prerequisites - and some are race-only. For example, the Vreans have an array of web-spinning tweaks they can apply to their technique, and Taers are given the opportunity to accelerate their salp development exponentially. Because of this, it would be a good idea to check the list of available courses after you've completed one. You might find that more have been left in their place. Here's some quick facts about classes, which you can use to your benefit:

o The more overall knowledge you have, the shorter your class periods will last.

o The more overall knowledge you have, the more learning points you'll receive per class period.

o The more classes you are simultaneously enrolled in, the less learning points you will receive per class period.

Those of you who requested a list of [current] courses available are in luck. Here's the definitive list of courses (release 1, subject to change):

-==================================- NAME | COST | TP -==================================-

advanced web weaving 9000 30 barkish integument 9000 35 biomancy 1 14000 80 blinding 21000 120 blossom of allurement 23000 55 close wounds 10000 48 enforcing webs 18000 45 flesh melding 10000 40 grapegrow 9000 40 gravity repulsion 9000 35 harden flesh 15000 48 item appraisal 11000 55 item management 101 3500 18 item management 102 9800 35 item management 142 14000 35 item management 202 28000 50 knit flesh 7000 35 mind visiting 30000 70 racial trackscan 10000 50 salp catalyst 23000 80 social trackscan 15000 50 speed healing 10000 50 sprinting 28000 70 tactical web placement 28000 65 [about the author: Plat is the head-coder and coordinator of all things Rock. He gets to shuffle all the numbers and turn ideas into machine code. He also handles code-related support, via the email address mentioned above.]

-==============================- How to Win Arena Matches (Krafter: krafter@zilla.net) -==============================-

Many people ask me from time to time how they can become an awesome Rock Arena player. It all has to do with tactics, planning and skill. It reminds me of this time I was at the Minnesota science fiction society convention. We would drive up to Minneapolis every year from our little burg of Sheboygan (a 4+ hr drive) to attend this convention. This was until they decided to eliminate the attendees that were there primarily to enjoy themselves. They raised the price to attend from the $20 range to $100, and came down on people trying to have fun, after that we never attended again. This particular year that I remember we met up with some folks that had radio headsets. At the time this was somewhat of a novelty so we were pretty impressed. More impressive was that the headsets were set on two distinct frequencies so you could divide the sets into two distinct teams. The folks that had the headsets used them for this very purpose. The name of the game was to be capture the flag. We marked out the 10th to 20th floors of the hotel as fair game and broke into our two teams (I will call them team A and team B). If I remember correctly our team (team A) was on the 20th floor and team B was on the 10th. We separated our team into three groups. One group was to stay behind and cover the flag, the other group was to go down the access stairs and try to get to team B's flag, the third group (which I was in) was to try another way to get to team B's flag. We didn't bother with the elevators because you would be dead instantly because there was only one way out and it opened right on the other teams flag. Our group in the stairs radioed that they were pinned down the floor above team B by a group of players from team B that was coming up the stairs. We headed down to the other end of our floor to see what other options we might have. I was hoping to find a second set of stairs. All we found was another set of elevators. These elevators were marked for hotel personal use only. This seemed like our best bet so we jumped on and headed for the 10th floor. We were almost to the 10th floor when the elevator stopped and binged. Suddenly we panicked thinking that someone from team B had come up with the same idea. We were sitting ducks because we could easily be pinned down in the elevator. We quickly got ready with all of our weapons (an assortment of various plastic sound making ray guns and laser tag stuff). When the doors opened up we started shooting like mad men hoping for the best. Standing in front of the elevator was two of the hotel's cleaning folks with a shocked look on their faces, stunned into silence. The guy near the floor buttons quickly pressed the 10th floor and someone said "Sorry, wrong floor" as the door closed. We finished our journey to the 10th floor without further incident and soon found ourselves at the other end of the floor without anyone seeing us. We could hear the yelling and shooting going on at the other end of the hallway. Our group coming down the stairs was still pinned down so it was up to us. At this point we really didn't know what to do to get to the other side of the hallway so we just made a mad run for it and started blazing away with lasers in the hope of accomplishing something. We coordinated this with our group from the stairs so that we all attacked team B's flag at the same time. In the end the ruling, from eyewitness account and laser tag readout, was that basically everyone died. Funny how things worked out that way, but we retired to the con suite (which was setup as a bar) and had some great stories and new friends.

[editor's note: Wow - and nobody even received free items!]

[about the author: Krafter, aka Chris Kraft, is the mastermind behind zilla.net and all things Delta.]

-==============================- Tips from the Pro (Procyon: procyon307@aol.com) -==============================-

I have noticed that only one race has decided to take the full use of the military option and I would like to talk some of the other races into mobilizing their forces. I know exactly what you are thinking... .oO ( The drynes are to strong for me..... they will kill me all the time.) Well think about the real military. Do you send one soldier into a battle? No, of course not; he would get slaughtered. You send lots of troops into a battle. Most people view it as a one-on-one fight with some huge level 400 player, when they should be thinking about it consisting of one level 400 and the 4 level 150s in combat. Use some strategy! Wait till that level 400 comes out of a room and needs a breather from all the NPCs he was just fighting. Hit him while he is down. Always take advantage of an enemy's weakness, because the best defense is offense. If you just do a little planning, throw in a bit of patience and finally some courage, you'll find that you can win some of the battles and possibly the war that is coming up over the horizon. There are a few perks to joining the military as of right now, such as:

o More turns! (Depending on your general).

o Ability to help the smaller of your race.

o No pkill restrictions (otherwise 3 per day).

o Personally I find it fun trying to think out plans to ambush the other races.

o The element of surprise. o Respect from your fellow players.

o Ability to be supported as general.

Some future perks to look forward to are:

o Generals will be able to ally their races.

o Organize multi-raced attacks upon other races.

o Soldier-only equipment and rations.

Just think of those poor people in your race who are enlisted. I mean it would really suck to be the only person in your army. I'm not saying "Enlist; I promise you won't die," because you most likely will. Heck, I die all the time... just quiet about it. As more people enlist into the army, battles will become more interesting because they will take the combined forces of high and low levels to win a battle. Even if you are only level 100, your strength would greatly help a fellow member of your race. I know most of you won't listen to this, but I am hoping that I get through to some of you. Without more soldiers Plat and Co might decide not to continue with its code. If we get a lot of interest in it, they will consider it a good thing to work on, meaning we get more military goodies sooner. I get sooooo bored just sitting there and leveling, and I like the idea that I have to watch my back - one of these days I might come out of a room wounded, only to find one of you standing there, waiting to end my life.

-Pro- [about the author: Procyon is one of the more observant players in the game, and has agreed to do this column with us. If you have questions for him, you can find him in Rock as the player Procyon. Just remember, he is not an admin, and cannot help you with administrative tasks.]

[editor's note: Notice that generals will be representing and perhaps determine the fate of your race. Make sure that you are "vote"ing or "support"ing your preferred general for your race. Type "help support" in the game for more info. You may only elect soldiers. Remember, as of this mailing, some of the highest votes for a player only add up to 6, so your vote DEFINITELY counts.]

-==============================- Ask Saprin (Translated by Ries: ries@tcbi.com) -==============================-

Dear Saprin: I seem to die all the time. I go through equipment like nobody's business. I have no money and my levels are slowly dropping, what should I do? - Troubled Traveler

Dear Troubled Traveler: Ya know, I've seen many heads through my work here in the bounty office. Heck, I've still got some cadavers rotting in the back, from brave adventurers and the occasional town fool. It can get really 'dead' around this place sometimes. However, I've found that it helps pass the time when you name your cadavers, animate them with your hands, and play house. I'm usually the dad. I have a dryne for the mother, shi-kuls are the kids, and a dead taer for the dog. Sure, they don't move very well, and the taer's head is starting to fall off, but it's good clean fun. I hope this helps you, Troubled Traveler. - Saprin

P.S. - Someone dropped off one of your wrists a while back. Please come and pick them up - it's starting to smell like a dead droidio.

-=- Dear Saprin: I have about thirty different weapons, and they all seem to do the same thing. Do you have any idea which weapon is the best one I could be using? I have a few axes, swords and a pistol or two. - Dumb Dryne Dear

Dumb Dryne: Hmm.. which weapon is the best one to use -- Well, let me tell you a little story that will help clear things up. About thirty years ago, when I was just a little bounty hunter slicing up rabbits and buzzards, I stumbled across a gleaming pool of water off in the desert. It was the clearest water that my eyes have ever set upon, reflecting the beautiful rays of the boiling sun into my face. Upon nearing the pool to take a drink, I tripped on a cactus and fell into the water. I hit my head on a large rock and was unconscious for days. Finally, after waking up, I managed to find my way back home. Ever since then, I haven't been able to turn my head to the right, and my knees seemed to bend the wrong way. People also say I don't have the great memory like I used to, but anyways, I hope this story will help you find your lost camel. - Saprin

[about the translator: Ries is a Rock builder and admin. He has helped many a user with their various online traumas, and entertained the masses during their play as well.]

-==============================- Dryne History (Part 1) (As told by Kler: rakur@sen.com) -==============================-

In a time long before the birth of Ker'el, the mighty Dryne were capable of flight. Wings of leather, not unlike that of bats, sprouted from their backs in full glory. Despite their massive reptilian bulk, these splendid wings were powerful enough to carry the Dryne amongst the clouds, like scaled birds of prey. In these ancient times, Dryne were often found nesting in mountain cities, carved into the very face of some of the most treacherous of peaks. They were noble, haughty, and unconcerned with the affairs of the lesser species. Their pride made mating rare, but the race as a whole slowly grew and prospered. The color of a Dryne's scales was often used to determine their ranking amidst the ruling hierarchy. Even though ritual challenges were held to resolve political and military differences, the hue of an individual's scales always bore some weight. The metallic colorings denoted pure bloodlines, stretching back to the first rulers of Dryne civilization. Platinum, gold, silver, and then copper marked the most noble of the Dryne. The lesser lines bore the more common of colors. Reds, blacks, whites, blues, and greens. Even these held positions of influence when compared to the lowly browns and grays, drab hues that were more akin to mud then the hide of a true Dryne. Born far before many of the other major races of present day, the Dryne had the upper hand when it came to scientific developments. They were among the first to discover the abandoned planar gates, and after decades of research they even managed to activate them. The prospect of dimensional travel led to many sudden developments within the Dryne culture. War with newly discovered races was unavoidable, and due to their immense physical and mental advantages the massive dragonkin easily overcame any opposition. Whole civilizations were enslaved during these time of Dryne expansion and countless more wiped out in the name of Kaos, the elder god of destruction. Centuries of bloody warfare stretched on. The Dryne military grew in reputation and soon all the civilized races quacked in fear at the slighest possible of an attack. The Shi-kul were the first to speak out publicly against the oppressive lizard beasts. They demanded alliances of the other races, requesting a united effort to end the plague of destruction that had gone on for so long. Darkwing, the greatest of Dryne warlords of that era, lashed out against the slanderous tongues of the Shi-kul. He waged war against them, destroying several of their lesser border cities before they could even react. These ruthless attacks were justified as retribution for the affront against Dryne honor, and as the winged Shi-kul grew even more desperate in their pleas for a planar alliance, the attacks grew in ferocity.

[about the author: Kler is the head designer for Rock, and spends his time writing specs for new spells, areas, and various other in-game concepts.]

-==============================- The Z.Net Front (Krafter: krafter@zilla.net) -==============================-

I know one question that has been on people's minds for a while now is lag. What causes the lag is that we have a bunch of people playing Rock and we don't have a very big connection to the Internet. Although our server is right on the Internet we run special software that allows us to restrict the amount of bandwidth we use. Currently we restrict ourselves to 64k which Is the equivalent of a single channel ISDN line. Some people have suggested that we just stop limiting ourselves, this of course will not work because then our ISP would probably completely disconnect us. To resolve this problem Chris Frantz and myself took it upon ourselves to find more bandwidth.

The solution we came up with is to secure a SDSL line from my ISP here in Milwaukee. Currently the Zilla.Net server is located in Sheboygan. I forked out the $850.00 to cover the deposit and install fees and waited. They said within three weeks the first phase of installation should be completed. Last Friday they called to say that would not happen. With SDSL you cannot be more than 12,000 feet from a phone company central office. This I did not consider a problem because I am about 10,000-11,000 feet from the nearest central office. They told me, last week Friday, that they consider this to be borderline and that they were going to wait because they had some new fancy equipment on the way that would increase the range to 20,000 feet. This new equipment is supposed to show up on, or around, April 20th. I don't have much option but to wait and see what happens. If everything goes well we could have as much as 768k of bandwidth, essentially 1/2 a T-1 line, coming into ZillaHQ. This should go far to ease if not eliminate our bandwidth problems and through that eliminate lag in Rock. Making things more complicated is that I will soon be fully recovered from my back surgery and be back to work (the day job that pays all the bills and allows us to run this site). At some point in the coming months there is a good chance I will be going over to work in our offices overseas. This means that if they delay the install of the SDSL line, which I fully expect, I may be overseas when they finally get it working. Once the line is installed there will be some down time as we move the equipment from Sheboygan to ZillaHQ here in Milwaukee. When that time comes we will be sure to give everyone plenty of notice.

Along with the added bandwidth comes a considerable expense. We hope in the coming weeks/months to introduce our plan to try and recoup some of those expenses. We do not plan to start charging for access to the game. It has always been our position to keep the service free.

What we do plan is to give incentives to those who make donations. Chris Frantz and I have our own plans for what we would like to do with the Zilla.Net site and that is why we are investing the money to get more bandwidth. If you would like more bandwidth to go to Rock then it is highly suggested you get those checkbooks out and pens warmed up because that is our only way of knowing how much you really care about the game. We plan on doing donations much like PBS does their fund drives. We will offer various gifts to donations that are made at different levels. The details of this will be on the news site as soon as I can get them worked out.

That's it for bandwidth and lag; I had a few other things I wanted to write about but this is already to long. In future issues I will talk about some of the other things we are working on for the Zilla.Net site, which directly or indirectly will have a positive impact on Rock.

Chris Kraft (krafter@zilla.net)

[about the author: Krafter, aka Chris Kraft, is the mastermind behind zilla.net and all things Delta.]

-==============================- Feedback -==============================-

So, what did you think of our first issue? Terrible? Enlightening? Boring? Let us know! Just reply to this mail (or send email to rocksupport@zilla.net) with your comments. We'll be mighty glad to hear them. Do you have information you'd like to disperse to the masses? Would you like to see something in a future issue? Write us at rocksupport@zilla.net. Be sure to include the word "Junk" in your subject!

-==============================- Subscriptions/Unsubscriptions -==============================-

We don't currently have a very sophisticated way to manage list subscriptions. If you still play Rock and want out of the mailing list, type "mailing list" while you are in the game. If you no longer play Rock and (you guessed it) still want out, reply to this email with "unsubscribe " in the SUBJECT of your message. Thanks for playing Rock.

- The Rock Staff.

--- Headers Return-Path: Received: from rly-yd04.mx.aol.com (rly-yd04.mail.aol.com [172.18.150.4]) by air-yd03.mx.aol.com (v56.26) with SMTP; Mon, 01 Mar 1999 19:47:29 -0500 Received: from mail.tcbi.com (mail.tcbi.com [156.46.162.30]) by rly-yd04.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with SMTP id TAA12210; Mon, 1 Mar 1999 19:47:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from [206.190.17.82] [206.190.17.82] by mail.tcbi.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-4.07) id A4BF340274; Mon, 01 Mar 1999 18:45:51 -0600 X-Sender: rocksupport@156.46.156.32 Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 18:45:57 -0600 To: rocksupport@zilla.net From: Rock Support Subject: Rock: Crashed Plane - JUNK Mail Vol 1; Edition 1; 3/01/99