Zombie Ramblins of GPQ, MC, and Other Stuff

Alright, so. It’s 3 A.M. on a Thursday morning. I have to finish writing a Spanish composition, I have class in 6 hours, and I’m jacked up on caffeine. What better way to pass the time/procrastinate than to multitask writing said composition and an MMO entry? Masochists and those easily distracted, unite!

First off, I just want to say that there are 63 pages in the General forum. I know. I went through every page looking for a topic and couldn’t find it because I don’t remember what it was called. Jesus you folks play a lot of forum games.

Anywho, Maple’s been more of a sideline “project” over the past half year or so. I mostly only play anymore to do GPQs with the ‘goosers and get myself killed with the higher leveled I/L mages. I guess it’s karma for all the times I mysteriously pushed a monster into them and killed them. I have gained exactly 3 levels on Ris since coming back to school last August. I’m so proud of myself. So, in her stead, I’ve been using my nubby heal-bot and warrior, and even those aren’t “well-used”. Alas, I blame college and life. It’s such a pain sometimes.

Well, as I said, my guild has been doing quite a few GPQs recently. I think they’re usually incredibly fun, and since we’ve finally got a tentative run schedule, we actually do them now. Plus, we finally have a HB giver, so that makes things incredibly easier. Unfortunately, having both an HB-mule and a cleric that can survive Ergoth doesn’t mean that we have INCREDIBLE JUMPING SKILLS. God, the red spear jump quest owns us every time. We all have to flock to that part and jump like lemmings, hoping that one of us will be fortunate enough to reach the top. The pant jump quest is almost as bad, and I always end up doing it. This is pretty sad, considering my jumping skills (or lack thereof) are notorious within the guild. Also, has anyone else in Global noticed that Ergoth is a lot harder to beat now? The last few runs we’ve done have been absolutely horrible. He’s been 1/1ing a crapton more than usual, and MEing has failed several times because he’s done the absolute physical defense in the middle. Add into that the skill lag, and it equals a lot of wasted money and angry Spageese.

On to something happier. Yyou can’t talk about GPQ without talking about the bonus stage. Well, I guess you can, but I’m going to be a jerk and say you can’t. Anyone who’s finished a GPQ has probably seen the bonus map. We’d done a few runs and started to realize that there were a LOT of leftover boxes. Well, my guild, being full of the lovable, but sometimes anal, perfectionists, decided “Hey! Let’s make a map so we can optimize the box breaking and rewards!” Turns out it was actually a really good idea.

After spending a few runs getting pictures of the bonus room and collaborating visual information, we discovered that the room was a heck of a lot bigger than we though. We also found out that one of the columns is mage specific. Big surprise to us indeed. Anyway, our bonus runs are much more organized now. We actually have plans, which is awesome. We’re still ironing out a few of the kinks, but the maps are pretty much correct to my knowledge.

Here’s links for the bonus maps. 800X600 res users, beware of page stretching.

Platform Layout

Box Distribution

Short explanation on the maps, too. The platforms can be classified into 4 different columns. Starting from the left, C1 is the “Jump up” platform and the two above it. C2 is the “Teleport up” platforms to its right. C3 is the platform with the ladder and the one immediately to its right. C4 is the 3 platforms on the far right. It may be possible to reach C2 from the “Right crack spawn” platform with Flash Jump, but I can’t confirm this. The floor boxes are probably not in the correct position. I personally never do the floor boxes, and no one has given me a screenshot of their exact positions. If you have any corrections, I would gladly take them with a screenshot. <3

Time for a change of pace. MC! This is what I’ve been using my incredibly nubby warrior for. I’ll admit, I have more fun playing the lowbies than the archer that I’ve spent so much time on. Anyway, MC. When I first heard about this interesting combination, I was a little perplexed. I’ve never been a fan of PvP, but I do like competitions. So, after getting Vicky her last required level to be MC-worthy, I grabbed a couple of guildies and experimented.

Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun (I feel like I’ve said this quite a few times in my blogs. Heh.). Even though I couldn’t hit things worth crap, it was nice to just be able to hit things and not have to worry about wasting money or losing experience. Plus, it felt good to gain as much experience as fast I did. I don’t believe I’ve ever gained experience as fast as I did during those MC runs. My jaw practically hit the desk when my team actually won an A-ranking and got that 20k+ amount. Level in 4 runs? Of course.

In other news, I finally got around to playing some of the “newer classic” games, such as the N64 SSB and Diablo 2. Don’t laugh. I haven’t exactly had exceptional opportunities to play said games (and I quote: “But you’re a guuuuuuuuuuurl, and girl’s don’t play video games!”. Like hell they don’t). Anyway, they’ve been a lot of fun. Got a couple of friend’s from the guy’s half of the floor that brought an N64 with them to college, and they invited me over to play one day. I’m going to have to say that Yoshi and his butt-stomps are my favorite. Plus, his sound effects are just cute.

Diablo 2-wise, my brother finally let me have his copy of the game, and a couple of other friends were kind enough to show me the ropes. My computer has a little bit of a hard time keeping up with the “zoo” that a couple of them drag along with them, but it’s fun none-the-less. Plus, it’s fun to confuse the minions with the monsters. “Oh crap there’s ano… oh wait, nevermind. >_>;”

And with that, I must draw this to a close. Let’s see… it only took me 4 hours to write this and my composition, along with update the maps based on the last run. I feel so accomplished. Ok, not really. I just want this day to be over so I can go to bed! D:

-Arc
She who has not slept