Castle Age: MySpace Version

Yes Castle Age is now on MySpace. Actually it has been there for a while now but I've just neglected to say anything about it. While I didn't get in on the first day I did join MySpace purely for Castle Age and have been developing a character there for 55 days now.

I did not go the same route as I did on Facebook. Instead this character is going to be a min-power leveler. As the player base on MS is fairly small any PvP action is going to be difficulty to accomplish when coupled with the fact I'm going to try and gain an army of 501 as soon as possible. As such this build will be a monster hunter, primarily, with PvP purely to get the achievement awards. At least initially.

This build started out pumping points into Energy as much as possible. Quested through each Realm completing all quests to level 4 influence in order until the Land of Mist was reached. From then I simply ran through to unlock the Land of Mist and leveled using the Cefka's Champion subquest that gives 35 experience for 20 energy used. This quest allowed my character to level extremely quickly, several times a day. At this point, level 253, I am almost at the stop where I will stop placing points into Energy and Stamina and switch to Attack instead. No Defense for now, seeing as Attack helps more against a wider variety of monsters.


I plan on putting points into Attack until I have one thousand there. At that point I'll then have to decide whether to increase defense, go back to increasing Energy/Stamina or continue with Attack. That point is fairly far down the road so I'm not going to have to think about that all that much.

I do have to say that this type of build for Castle Age isn't as much fun. Power leveling requires a large army, and abundance of monsters to fight of all types and a lot of free time. The My Space version doesn't have an abundance of monsters and I don't have all that much free time. This is why this build is only partially a power leveler, but not a full blown one. I wouldn't be able to manage the account otherwise, searching for dozens of monsters to fight daily would become more of a chore than I'm willing to take on.

Java: Hotline SM Edition

Current the Hotline application is in use by the CS department. Now I've been asked to modify it so that the Sales group can use it to track their inbound calls and emails.


I used the same layout and basic structure from the original Hotline program. However as this will be a fresh program I was able to remove all of the legacy code so that it was much cleaner and simpler than before. For example the code used to generate the report depending on what month the data is from was removed and replaced with a single statement on how this should be done. As such a lot of the confusion in the code in terms of how the report should be displayed or how the individual records should be generated is gone, leaving the program much simpler and smaller in size.

I'm rather hoping that this program doesn't require as much alteration from month to month as the original Hotline program, as then the code will simply get complex quick, as happened with the previous version. I still plan on altering the programs to allow the managers to update the representative list or call options themselves. Just in case I'm not around and we're still using the program.

Diablo II: Matriarch Jaheira

Jaheira is an Assassin who specializes in the use of traps to deal with her enemies. She's considered a spellcaster and not designed for melee or close combat in any sense of the concept. As such she's quite content to stay behind her desert warrior mercenary and lay traps while he pokes monsters to death.

Jaheira's journey starts off quite slow, as she's forced to engage in melee combat with all of the monsters encountered due to traps at a low level costing too much mana to use consistantly. Still, she doesn't encounter any real danger from the monster encountered, and once she picks up a Rogue mercenary as backup things start to pick up. Jaheira does have access to Shock Web rather quickly and uses it against dangerous monsters, such as uniques, to speed up the process. Other than that all of Act I is done in melee range of monsters. It isn't until Act II that Jaheira obtains access to the more potent traps and has access to a long supply of mana potions to be able to use traps on a normal basis. Even then she finds that half her inventory is full of mana potions and trips back to town to restock are rather frequent.

Most of Normal, once traps such as Lightning Sentry, are available is fairly simple. Cloak of Shadows is used liberally to freeze monsters in place, then traps are spread around to help the mercenary wipe them out. Jaheira finds that she isn't in too much danger personally due to this tactic, however that does change a bit in Act IV and V. Since there are a fair amount of stationary, but destroyable, objects Jaheira can't use CoS without fear of crashing the game. So the mercenary gets a bit hammered in these areas and a constant supply of health potions is required to keep him viable.

Still these areas aren't too difficult and it ends up being the act bosses that are the most difficult to handle. Jaheira ended up allowing the mercenary to be knocked off early and didn't bother resurrecting him. Her tactic to deal with the bosses was to lay traps in the general area and just try to run around in a random pattern to keep the boss from hitting her but also to keep the boss within range of her traps. Then the traps are recast when they expire. CoS is not used in these instances as it truly doesn't give any sort of advantage for the traps.

To be honest Nightmare and Hell difficulties went in about the same manner, with the same tactics used with basically the same results. Cos, BoS and the lightning traps were used liberally throughout and no monster packs or uniques posed much of a problem to Jaheira. She even ran Hell at level 3 difficulty and could probably have gotten it up as far as 5 or 6 without putting her in danger, but as there wasn't much challenge in it I just wanted to finish the character up.

Stats:
Level 83
Strength - 79(122)
Dexterity - 79(121)
Vitality - 227(227)
Energy - 125(125)

Life - 895(938)
Mana - 323(339)

Lightning Resistance - 74
Fire Resistance - 74
Cold Resistance - 34
Poison Resistance - 63

Skills:
Fire Blast - 20(34)
Charged Bolt Sentry - 20(34)
Lightning Sentry - 20(34)
Death Sentry - 20(34)
Shock Web - 8(22)
Burst of Speed - 1(9)
Weapon Block - 1(9)
Cloak of Shadows - 1(9)

Equipment:
Weapon: Bartuc's Cut-Throat
Weapon: Bartuc's Cut-Throat
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi (Ral)
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Helm: Coronet - FR 18%, LR 47%, CR 18%, PR 18%, 8% LL, +2 Assassin skills
Boots: Heavy Boots - LR 22%, CR 40%, PR 33%, +2 Dex, 14% MF
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Amulet: 9 life, +3 Traps
Ring 1: All resist 15%
Ring 2: 99 AR, LR 29%, PR 30%, PLR 25%

Mercenary (Holy Freeze Desert Mercenary)
Helm: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Armor: Shaftstop
Weapon: Hone Sundan (AmnShaelShael)

Hellforge:
NM: Pul
Hell: Hel

Java: En Guard Retired

The En Guard program has outrun it's usefulness in the tech support department. It has been replaced with a more robust Access database application that better tracks and retains information about customer contacts. It was fun creating the program and updating it with new features as the need arose. It it possible it will make a comeback in the future in a different form or for a different department, but for now it is simply collecting dust in my coding folder.

Diablo II: Trapsin Skill Layout

A Trapsin is an Assassin that uses the Traps abilities as her main skills. This particular variant uses Lightning Sentry (LS), Death Sentry (DS) as stationary weapons and Fireblast as her backup skill. This build can deal with most monsters encountered, and those she can't the mercenary should be able to handle with Cloak of Shadows (CoS) support to keep packs of monsters at bay. The skill setup is as follows:

Claw Mastery - 1
Fireblast - 1
Psychic Hammer - 1
Shock Web - 1
Burst of Speed - 1

At level 6 quite a few skills become available to the Trapsin. At this point the character isn't really using the skills all that much and just using her claws to melee monsters to death. For very dangerous foes she can however use either Shock Web or Fireblast to deal with them from a distance. Burst of Speed is used from here onward, active all of the time. Not only does it increase the movement speed of the character, but the trap laying speed is also increased.

Cloak of Shadows - 1
Charged Bolt Sentry - 1

At level twelve one of the characters most utilized skills becomes available, Cloak of Shadows. CoS will be used constantly for the rest of the game. When cast normal monsters will not realize the character is nearby and stand idly by while they are eliminated by the traps. The only exception to this is if the monsters have "seen" the character already and are trying to engage. They will continue to follow the character around until they either reach her or are distracted by something else. Still, a quick CoS cast followed by lots of long range attacks keeps the character very safe, as well as the mercenary. One thing to note is that CoS can crash the game if used in the vicinity of stationary objects like the towers in the beginning of Act V, the chained mummies in Act IV or the Arreat Summit.

Charged Bolt Sentry - 13
Lightning Sentry - 1

Up until level twenty-four the synergy for Lightning Sentry, CB Sentry, is increased. CB Sentry is somewhat useful for massed monsters, but against single targets is very lacking. As such once Lightning Sentry becomes available, CB Sentry will no longer be used. That and LS is far more powerful per stat points assigned to it. From here onward the character shouldn't have many problems for the rest of Normal difficulty with the combination of LS and CoS.

Lightning Sentry - 7
Death Sentry - 1

At level thirty Death Sentry becomes available. It's main use is for exploding corpses, both to keep summoning monsters from resurrecting them and for dealing physical/fire damage to other monsters. However at lower levels it really isn't necessary to use as LS clears out the packs quite nicely. One thing to note is that it is not possible to choose when DS explodes corpses and when it shoots lightning, which can be quite annoying when faced with Lightning Immune monsters.

Lightning Sentry - 20
Charged Bolt Sentry - 20
Weapon Block - 1

At level forty-six both Lightning Sentry and it's main synergy are maxed and monsters drop like flies. In fact progress should be so quick at this point that casting CoS is only necessary against really nasty boss packs. Otherwise monsters don't last long enough to threaten the mercenary with harm. Weapon Block is also added to the characters arsenal as by this point duel wielding claws is preferable to gain the most +skill mods possible for her traps. Weapon Block allows the character to still avoid damage as much as possible, with the added bonus of perhaps blocking magical attacks as well.

Death Sentry - 10
Fireblast - 20

At level seventy Lightning Sentry is further synergizes with extra points to Death Sentry, allowing it to continue wreaking havoc even against the higher Hit Point monsters in Acts IV and V of Nightmare. However the main focus is on developing a backup attack for LI monsters, Fireblast. As long as the monster remains stationary, which is the mercenary's job along with CoS, Fireblast is very effective against LIs. However due to the lobbing motion of the attack if the monster is moving then it is tough to target until the monster is almost right next to the character. This can be negated somewhat by targeting the ground where the monster should be when the Fireblast arrives, but this isn't the easiest thing to time properly.

Death Sentry - 20

At level seventy-eight Death Sentry, the second major synergy for Lightning Sentry is complete and LS packs quite the punch. Along with this DS can now be used in conjunction with LS in perhaps a 2:3 or 1:4 DS:LS ratio for added carnage and an increase in progress speed. From here on out all extra points can either go into Shadow Warrior for an added tank or Shock Web for added synergy damage for LS and Fireblast. Personally I recommend Shock Web as the combination of CoS and a melee mercenary doesn't require additional assistance in keeping the character from being mobbed.

Final Skill Distribution:

Charged Bolt Sentry - 20
Lightning Sentry - 20
Death Sentry - 20
Fireblast - 20
Burst of Speed - 1

Castle Age: Update

Where do I begin? It's been a while since I posted about the Facebook application Castle Age. Originally I didn't think I would be posting more than once, but the game has evolved so much it is much more like a standalone application than a FB app. So a few highlights:

Addition of monsters (dragons, bosses) to fight using Stamina
Addition of battle ranks for PvP fighting
Addition of subquests as well as additional realms for more questing

Monsters made the game completely different than what it was before. Previously PvP and questing was all one could do, now there are many more options. One unfortunately byproduct of monsters is that players can level up much faster than normal and putting all points into Attack/Defense is no longer the only option. As such those players that have been here since the beginning are being passed by (level-wise at least) by the "power levelers". For example at this moment I am level 176, which is respectable. However the top player, who has been playing a lot less time than I am is level 800+. I have absolutely no chance of protecting myself from such players on the PvP field. This is why I keep hoping the developers will implement a tiered battle system so that people that high in rank can only fight others that high in rank.

Due to all of the changes I've gone ahead and done what I thought I'd never do, add points into Stamina. This does weaken by build a bit for a period of time, but will allow me to level up faster and partake in the monster hunting aspect of the game, to a degree. Having a variety of ways to play the game will will keep it fresh and enjoyable, so I don't see myself quiting anytime soon. Granted this additional Stamina does mean I spend a little bit more in the game than before, but not too much more. Reason being I have no plans to increase my Stamina to several hundred points like the true monster hunters. My build is a Paladin variant first, PvP second and monster hunter third. I may fall behind the monster hunters, but I will be very competitive with anyone within 100 levels of me.

One additional thing that has changed is that the forums for CA have moved off of the FB site. There is now an independent forum dedicated to Castle Age, of which I am one of the moderators. Moderating is a bit of a time sink, but so far not too terrible of one. The vast majority of my time is spend deleting posts from the monster help section where someone put the wrong link in one of the help threads. That and giving out infractions for repeated such behavior.

The strategy I have chosen means I have tons of content to discover and enjoy, and it will take me a long time to explore it all.

Diablo II: Certain Death Tournament

The Certain Death Tournament by Wakiki is an mutation of a previous tournament I had played, the No Vitality tournament. The basic concept is that no stat points may be placed into Vitality at all. The way this tournament is different from the No Vitality one is that an extra restriction is placed on equipment where no more than 30 health allowed per item and only a single health charm per charm type (small, large, grand) is allowed. This means no shopping for those +100 health armors and such, so all of the characters really are walking paper targets. As one can imagine there were quite a few deaths in this tournament, and my character was no exception.

Jaheira, of Baldur's Gate fame, was planned as a Trapsin (an assassin using traps). I had never created one before so thought this tournament would be a good place to start, considering her skills allows her to remain far away from monsters 90% of the time. She started off using melee combat to deal with monsters, due to how simple the first act of the game is. While progress was slow Jaheira didn't encounter any real problems until her untimely death. Once traps and Cloak of Shadows became available to her progress became both quick and safe. When a pack of monsters was encountered she would first cast Cloak of Shadows to blind them all to the presence of both the mercenary and herself. Then several traps were laid out and Jaheira would watch the carnage that resulted.

Outside things were very simple, with lots of room to roam and no choke points Jaheira could move freely. It was the indoors or underground areas that gave her the most problems, specifically those with doorways such as the Countess Tower in Act I NM. Since Jaheira couldn't see what was awaiting her, she took to casting a trap on the other side of the doorway to see if any monsters were nearby. If they were, then more traps joined the first one until they stopped firing. Otherwise the way was safe and Jaheira could walk through the doorway. As such progress was slow inside, as either this tactic or just casting a single trap at all intersections and turns in the underground caves was used at all times from Nightmare difficulty onward.

Unfortunately Jaheira still was unable to protect herself fully, as evident by the fact she was taken down in a drive-by from a crow type monster in the Spider Forest of Act III in Hell. A unique boss with unknown stats flew into the screen and eliminated Jaheira before any reaction could be taken, then flew away just as fast. Quite odd to have a deeds screen with no monsters present, but that's what I got.

My conclusions about this are that trapsins are way to overpowered, but I still wanted to build one for my collection. So next step is to recreate Jaheira in Softcore mode, and twinkled.