Hello again!
Let's log back in to the game!


Since we already have a character, he'll appear on the list instead of a question mark, but I didn't really need to cover that, probably. Ahem, moving on. I noticed that I picked something up off the Yubo last time...


It's just peices of the pelvis, but it ought to be worth something as basic as it is. Let's head to a vendor!


One interesting thing is that the game combines the 'selling to vendor' and central 'selling to players' systems together. You try to sell an item (and it gives you a LOT of information on it) and you can also set the price that the vendor will sell to another player. You'll received the rest of the money after it sells. Pretty neat, huh? Anyway, yes, Stanzas. Before we get into that, I need a few more skills to work with. So, it's off to earn a few more skill points.


These are the other weapons I started with, magic amplifiers with parrying enhancements. Now, I realise I haven't covered the battle system, so let's go over it quick.


Everything, incluidng your default attack, is an "Action". The bar underneath your various other bars is how long that action takes, and what your next queued action is. It will automatically queue default attack for you from any attack action, but you can change it whenever you want. Also, double clicking any Action will cause it to auto-queue like default attack. This is different then a lot of MMORPGS which often have auto-attacking and abilities completely sepearate.


Before we learn some skills, we should learn some upgrade abiliites. There are levels in the game, but only for the four categories and NOT for your character. Also, you don't gain very much power at all from merely levelling up, but you do get 10 skill points, and you gain stats by learning upgrades such as these. Now, let's see if my new HP will help me hunt Suckling Yubos quicker...


Oops, looks like I tried to take on one too many.


I do manage to learn a few more skills in both Fight and Magic, so now I can show you how Stanzas work. Every Action is a collection of Stanzas and when you learn a new Action, you also learn the new Stanzas that are used to make it.


You can make a new Action at any time, and then you get to pick the Stanzas from the ones you have. There are three basic kinds of Stanzas: The root stanza defines the Action Type and which sets of Stanzas you can use. Then there are Options and Credits.


Options are what the stanza does, and credits are the balances - stuff like stamina costs or increased casting time. Each Stanza has a score- usually positive for options and negative for Credits. The idea is to make up a collection of options and stanzas so that the two cancel each other out. The more powerful an Action you create, the more Credits you have to put in to be able to use it.


I couldn't create a free version of the Cold attack, but I was able to create a free version of Acid Damage (by decreasing the range and increasing casting time) and make a faster version of Cold Damage (by decreasing the range and putting in a higher Sap cost)


I also created this one: I combined the Options from the Accurate Attack and the Increased Damage abilities, and gave them a higher Stamina cost to make up for it. Since the higher stamina cost is still only 5 I think it's quite a nice ability. In fact, I think I could take on the world!


Or.. maybe not. Oh well. When you're defeated you respawn with an experience penalty- but you do get an experience debt -you don't get knocked back, you just temporarily can't move forward. You're also revived with only 1 hp, sap, focus and stamina and have a temporary reduction to all stats.


And that's it for today. Like my avatar here, it's time to look forward to tommorow's. I'll go into some more detail on the NPCs and do some more adventuring! See you then!