Sage's diary

[dbelinfante]

First post in my diary. I plan to post here so I will remember better all the amazing stuff that happens to a virtual person on Calypso.

Sage will be 2 years old soon, so this diary has missed out on some great action. But there's more to come, prolly better too, so nothing's lost.

Last weekend I rented my first item from H&R Circle (an ML-35 Mentor Edition), and an actual miracle happened. I had NEVER looted anything over 500 ped, and that weekend, with that rifle, I had two hofs, totalling over 3k. I also globaled on a Neconu, looting an almost full BL1000, which sold at 160% I think. So instead of seeing my ped card drain towards the end of the monts (as it normally does), it is now ready for crazy shit. I am gonna rent a Mod AS-117, perhaps even Eon, and I'm gonna close! Star, meet me at the Rig!

So this weekend I'm gonna go crazy on Hoggs, with the Starkhov. F*ck armor decay, f*ck eco, Ima gonna roll me some dice! YEAH!

 

[dbelinfante]

Dear diary, laugh

For two days in a row, I and one or two socmates went to the rig to close it. Now we're really only noobs, still having weak health, and non-existant dodge, but we like to PK, we like free oil, and we don't give a shit. Also, we all used to play a lot of FPS before, which gives us an edge over stronger players who have never played the likes of Doom, Quake, UT or HalfLife.
We also have reasonable gear, get the best (L) stuff has to offer, so we figure, who can stop us?

It turns out that it's harder to stop us then we ourselves thought. Strong players from top 10 socs get their asses handed to them, repeatedly. Bringing in loads of big-ass troxes doesn't help. Players with 200k+ skills get murdered like new arrivals in PA. And so in sheer frustration, they call for help. Not from their own socs, no, from socs they'd usually compete with. But hey, everything beats getting beaten up by a bunch of upstart noobs right?

So the big guns show up. And when I say big, I mean big. Arguably THE strongest/most skilled player in-game, other world renowned PK'ers wearing Eon and sporting Foerippers arrive, and two poor nublets get obliterated. And the honcho's stay, to make sure we don't come back and harass the lesser ubers anymore.

I was never more proud of myself then when they had to call the EU equivalent of Mike Tyson to kill me and my socmate. And I'm not kidding myself that there weren't dozens of others who could have done the same, just as easily.

But big rich superskilled players are getting annoyed, irritated, frustrated and upset even by little old upstart me and my compadres.

I love it.

 

[dbelinfante]

Dear diary eek,

Tonight saw the culmination of the fragility of ego that seems to go hand in hand with (perceived) uberness. As I wrote before, there are members of top 10 socs that have very high skills but are not very highly skilled. If that seems like a contradiction dear diary, let me explain.

A person may have 200k skills or more, but that does not automatically mean he is very skilled at certain crafts that require more than high scores in hunting disciplines. And so it may occur that player X from soc Y gets defeated in PvP by player Noob from a soc that is not even in the top 50. And player X gets defeated repeatedly, and soundly.
Mounting frustration leads the defeated ubers to call for help from what is arguably the most renowned PK'er in-game. And the noobs get shown their place... Or so it seems. The uberPK'er cannot leave, if he does the other ubers he is protecting will have their handed to them again, and a game of cat and mouse ensues. UberPK'er leaves, noobs jump in and kill the remaining ubers, uberPK'er returns and the noobs jump out or get killed.

This game continued until I left, and probably still rages as I write this. Ubers join with other ubers just to keep small groups of noobs from gaining the upper hand.

Do the ubers think we've learned anything? We have. It is that - apart from a very small group of uber-ubers - they don't exist. They have higher skills, but they are soft. They attained (most of) their skills in a time when it was all but free. Methods and tricks that are now illegal or impossible were there for all to use. In a word, they didn't really earn their skills the way the new breed does. And it shows in the way they get humiliated by players with 50 hp less, who don't have Imp Faps.

Apart from the real untouchables, it would seem that the respect - if not indeed awe - many people feel towards such players is not in fact based on real achievement or performance.
It is mostly illusion.

 

[dbelinfante]

Dear diary laugh,

Lots have changed since I last made an entry. MA have introduced major changes to the use of armor and clothes, and as a result I have made some major changes in gameplay myself.
Before VU 9.0 I was the proud owner of a Shadow armor set. Like all owners of a n uber armor, I was really pissed off by the need - imposed on me from above - to complete a set that was complete when I bought it.
Now you may not be aware of this, but I did not deposit to buy this set. I had made some lucky investments, and when this set was offered for sale, I sold just about everything I owned, and bought it. For a while, I didn't even have a proper weapon!
So when I found myself being forced to buy Shadow footguards sooner or later, realized I was not going to deposit between 700 and 1200 dollars to 'recomplete' my armor. A radical change was needed.

Now I need to add some details here. I was close to a few major unlocks, like Combat Sense, Wounding, Avoidance, and a few smaller ones like Medicine and Martial Arts.
So I decided to put some theories to the test, and determined to no longer rely on big armor to keep me alive, but instead trust Evader skills, HP and Fapping skills. I sold my Shadow (cried when saying goodbye - well almost, ), and chipped away a large part of the proceeds.

As a result, I am now lvl 53 BLP sniper, I have unlocked not only the hidden skills already mentioned but also Treatment, Power Catalyst and Calypso Ground Assessment, and I am a level 33 Paramedic. I have 158 HP. Avoidance at 2.7K, and I can hunt Hogglo's in Ghost. I can hunt AOA's in Ghost, 2 at a time if need be.

I don't miss my Shadow for hunting, except when a Prowler or Stalker approaches. I miss it a lot for PK, and of course it is still the best looking suit in the game. But hunting has become more challenging as a result, and the feeling of being able to handle what are considered uber mobs in Ghost (now Boar) is priceless.

So I turned a small disaster around. I hated being forced to make this choice, but I made it, and I am very happy with the result. I would still be hunting in Shadow otherwise, but I feel (and effectively AM) stronger now.

To be continued.