My intent with these texts is to offer the brand-spanking-new player a bit of assistance in understanding the game and, hopefully, encourage their playing and interest in the game and its related communities.
If you find this page as a new player, a 'fledgling pire', I hope it serves its purpose as an easy and useful introduction to the game. Also, I hope you'll understand that the views and tips I express here are strictly based on my opinion and experience. The information itself I do my best to ensure as accurate and up to date, but take no offense to being corrected for issues of technical detail or being offered suggestions regarding game playing perspectives.
Also, I must give thanks and credit to the FTA for it's help in making this and many other texts possible. Special thanks go to FTA Owner Mod Lady Ravven, as well as my fellow Mods Retro Johnny, Boo Wolfe and Sasquatch. Each of them has been absolutely essential in making these files as inclusive and thorough as they are. A thanking nod to Ursula who emailed me with information regarding some technical issues and formatting problems these texts initially had, and for providing some feedback when I felt like none would come. Cheers to all of you.
Regardless of whether you find these documents useful or not, I hope you enjoy the game as much as I have and that I can do something to assist you in enjoying it further. Happy hunting and may your fangs sink deep.
Yours, ~ Brent "Andronicus" Elskän (jmoc714).
Proud FTA Member and Moderator.
Madeye Note:To the best of my knowledge Brent Elskan is no longer an FTA member or moderator
The Point?
Many players get to their first city view, click around a bit and say to themselves 'what the hell is the point of this?' Usually, they proceed then to check the How To Play, then the FAQ, maybe the News. Still, at first the game seems kind of pointless. So I click around, getting blood and... what? So I'm a vampire? So what does that do?
Really, the intended 'point' isn't much more than that. Drink blood, be a pseudo-vampire and there you go. Of course, more than your BP becomes the point, if you want, when you decide to get powers or contact other players or whatever. In fact, massive numbers of people belong to dozens of groups out there dedicated solely to this game and it's details. You'd be shocked if you knew the amount of time some of us devote to clans or message boards that do no more than focus on this game.
Lots of people enjoy it for the RP they create around it. Many just enjoy trying to attain a certain 'Rank' (There are many ranks associated to the number of BPs you have). Others like to work on building a vampire with a full set of powers. Probably, though, the RP aspect is where many players find the most enjoyment.
There are too many 'clans' and groups for me to recount them all here, and that would only be a list of the ones which I happen to know of. I'm sure there are many more groups I'm completely unaware of that exist all over the web and world.
You can either join up with some sort of group or play independently. You could get some friends to come to your biter link and join you in exploring the game, maybe start a little role play of your own, a little clan all to yourself. You could try to find your vampire's sire in the city and see if they have a clan or group of their own or that they recommend.
But I'll get to clans and groups in other places. Let's just move on.
Your Vampire
So you have this vampire. Let's log in and go check it out. Get to the game page and log in, then click the link in the upper right of your screen that says My Vampire and take a look.
In the little white-bordered box you'll see a fairly empty looking screen, most likely. Your number of BP, your list of Powers, your Money, your listing of Possessions: all of which probably have a small or null amount in them. That's ok, we'll be doing our best to change that soon enough.
Then there's your lineage info: your childer, your sire, your bloodline. While this stuff isn't really important, per se, and doesn't effect what you are able to do within the game, it's something of a pride point for some players to have a long and strong blood lineage.
Other than becoming a sire to more childer, you can do little to change this information. Many players seem to want to be a 'master vampire' for some reason. I can assure you that this does little to effect anything for your vampire and in no way makes anything easier or harder in relation to your game play. In fact, my main pire is a master vampire with about 12 continuing childer, and it's done nothing to help me in any way, although I have helped out childer with game coin gifts to help them gain powers or purchase items.
I must admit that I feel a certain sense of obligation to my childer, as many vampires do, and am willing to help them more easily and more extensively than just a random pire looking for a hand-out. Sort of how some people feel about family members versus strangers in relation to what you'll do to help a person. You may wish to seek out your sire and see if they like to keep track of their childer.
Now, aside from this screen and clicking around drinking blood, you can do a number of other things using the More Commands option at the bottom of the City view which you move around in. Depending on what sort of place you're in, what items you might have and if there are other vampires in a location with you, the More Commands screen has many different options which can show up. Here's a sort of tweaked example I made which illustrates the More Commands link well enough.
Ok, now you can look at the view above and see what I'm talking about. Note that I made the More Commands link bright yellow and huge. Find it. Never ask me where the More Commands link is.
... Ever.
Anyhow, if you're just in any old street with no other pires in the square with you and you click More Commands, if you have no items, the only thing that will show up is the option to say something. If you happen to be in the square with another vampire, they will read what you say the next time they log in, or if they are logged in and hit refresh.
If you're carrying coins and in a square with another vampire, you will see another option in the More Commands view: give of your ### coins to .
The options change also if you have items, but we can cover that in a later section. For now, just know that the More Commands view makes it possible to use items, speak and give coins. No, you can't give items away. They are yours for good once you buy them, unless you take the Pawn Shop pay outs. But we will be getting to all that later.
When you interact with another vampire, certain things are considered an 'attack' by the script. Speaking isn't, but just about anything else you can do to a vampire is. Biting, robbing and spraying them with Holy Water are all thought of as attacks by the script and you can only attack a given pire once while they remain still. Meaning they have to move again for you to be able to attack them again. Other vamps can still come along and attack them somehow, but they are under the same restriction you are.
You probably also noticed that you can ask humans directions. This is a complete waste of AP. Use the maps and bite that little bastard. It wastes five AP just to ask those dumb mortals anything and they don't always have a clue.If you do decide to waste your AP and time talking to a human, you can still drink them when you're done. I think... I can't be sure, since I've never wasted my time trying to talk to those sacks of flesh. Who cares, just don't bother asking them shit. Use a map and game related message boards to get the info you want.
Let's go on now.
Action Points
Many people seem to be a bit confused early on about how the Action Points function based on various criteria. Because of that, I think it needs enough clarification to warrant a page of its own.
Action Points, which I and other players/groups simply call AP, are pretty basic things. You move, it uses an AP. You bite, it uses an AP. As this is addressed pretty well in the How To Play that RavenBlack wrote for the game, I'll reprint that here:
You have a maximum of 50 Action Points (fewer if you have less than 100 blood, plus one at 200 blood and at every doubling thereafter). They recharge at the rate of one every half hour. Actions can currently be used to move to adjacent city squares (with the 'Move Here' links), to drink the blood of victims in the same square as you, to speak, use powers, use location-based features, or use objects. If you are out of action points, you cannot act until you have rested (wait half an hour).
To elaborate, there is also a bit in the News of the game which gives better detail about your restrictions as a low-BP vampire. Again, reprinting:
...Vampires with less than 10 blood have their maximum action points reduced by 15. Vampires with less than 50 have their maximum AP reduced by 10. Vampires with less than 100 have their maximum AP reduced by 5.
Now, for further details. You start off in the game with a base AP of 50. But, as explained in the News selection above, vampires with less than 100 are a bit crippled in that area. Hopefully, you are not too far off in your getting to 100 BP and this isn't as big an issue as it could be. Also, the rate of getting one AP every thirty minutes and total Maximum AP is alterable by getting certain powers, which we will get to later on.
AP can be used by the following methods: Moving in the City, biting a human or vampire, robbing a vampire, using an item, using any location based actions, speaking, using certain powers` abilities and refreshing too often. This last one is done to discourage a certain kind of behaviour which was eating up RavenBlack's bandwidth
allotment pretty bad and you can pretty much assume that refreshing more than once a minute or so is going to start docking you AP.
If you don't use your AP for four days, you become what is called 'Lost in Shadows'. This means that you cannot be seen on the City view and cannot be harmed by HW, biting or robbing. You are still vulnerable to SoTurns, as they effect an area, not a specific vampire. Once you use an AP, you come out of shadows and can be seen again. If you stay in shadows too long, you cannot come back. That is, if you do not log in and use an AP in three weeks, the code of the game script will delete your vampire from lack of activity.
Those items I mention we will get to later and the effects of being in Shadows as well as how to change the time it takes to drop into them will be elaborated further on. Let's keep going.
The City
Well, hopefully you've read the How To Play that is on the game server and you already have some idea of how the city is laid out. I'll reprint the text here for you so we have a base to start with and then elaborate on that to give you a more thorough understanding of the details.
The city has 100 streets crossed by 100 streets; the streets in one direction are numbered, those in the other are named in near-alphabetical order; the first fifty are alphabetical trees and animals, the second half are alphabetical minerals and malaise. Navigation is, therefore, mostly quite easy. NOTE! They are not in alphabetical order, they are in two sets from A-Z, one in the west half, one in the east. As a vampire, you stalk the humans on the streets. If there are many vampires gathered within a single square, no more can move there until it's cleared out. Streets are indicated by grey squares, with signs at the intersections. Black squares between streets indicate blocks of buildings, which you can pass through in the alleyways. Blue squares indicate impassable regions - either they are overcrowded, on the edge of the city, or some other reason.
I also address this in the FAQ, so I'll explain it using the same info I do in that document.
Ok, let's start with the first bit about the number of streets and their names. First, you should get a map. There ought to be one available right here.
Obviously they run in numeric order from top to bottom, so it's 1st street and in order to 100th street. Then there is the tricky bit. The named ones.
The 100 named streets run in alphabetical order of sorts. First divide the city in half. Then figure two streets for each letter of the alphabet, except the letter "X". The first half of the city is animals and trees. The second half is stones and moods.
So in the first half, the west side, it starts "Aardvark" (a type of animal) "Alder" (a tree) "Buzzard" (animal) "Beech" (tree) and so on through "Zebra" and "Zelkova". So in order of animal, tree, animal, tree, all through the first alphabet side, skipping "X".
The second half of the city, the east side, is stones and a variety of negative emotional states. Like the west side, they always follow the pattern of stone, mood, stone, mood. So after "Zelkova" from the west side is "Amethyst" (stone), "Anguish" (mood), "Beryl" (stone), "Bleak" (mood) and so forth until "Zinc" and "Zestless", skipping "X".
Now, if you look at your vampire on the map view when you log in you will note that each street is actually two squares. The 'street' square in gray and the 'alleyway' square in black. This applies to both the numbered streets running top to bottom (or North to South), and the named streets running left to right (or West to East). There's an important point on addressing here, so pay attention...
When you are given an address in the city, with only a couple exceptions for powers quests, it is always in the black square bottom right of the actual streets intersection, or the South East square of the streets.
You'll note how if someone tells you a bank address of Yew and 4th, when you get there, you go into the black square with the little blue sign declaring it a bank, putting the actual streets of Yew to your left and 4th up above. That black building/alleyway is where all buildings or shops or guilds will be located when you get an address, usually with a sign.
As for the part about 'blue' or 'overcrowded' squares, this is the result of many vampires, I believe seven, occupying that square and it becomes impassable to you without a special power. You can actually use a SoTurn to 'clear' the blocked square and then get into it, but those cost coins and the power 'Surprise' makes this much easier. We get to items and powers later.
Also, note that humans do not add to the square's possibility of 'bluing out'. There could be five humans in one square and four pires, but it would still be passable. Of course, if you luck upon five humans in one square I'll be impressed. That's pretty rare. At this point I ought to mention that vampires 'Lost in Shadows' do add to the possibility of a blue square.
Oh yes. A last remark. Many people call this fair city RavenBlack City, but it's worth noting that it has no official name. Raven Black has not and refuses to name the city, so you may call it whatever you wish. I usually just name it the City. But lets get on to the buildings I keep talking about.
The Banks
Banks are addressed briefly in the FAQ, which is recommended reading later, so you will see this info repeated, but it's here none the less.
The banks are your best friends. They hold your money safely away from the prying hands of thieves, they work all over the place in cooperation, and they don't lose your money like RL banks. You save your money here to buy powers. There are 200 banks sprinkled generously throughout the city.
Yes, if you deposit money in one location, your money will be accessible from another location. It's just like a real bank in that aspect. The good thing is, it is in no other way like a real bank. It won't lose your deposits, charge you fees, or any number of bad things.
Sadly, you also get no debit card (so yes, you have to have the money on you to buy things), you can't bite the teller, you can't rob the bank and you can't throttle the manager into approving a loan. Otherwise, they're great.
Omnibank member since Feb 2003.
The Transits
There are nine transit stations spaced equally throughout the city. On Mongoose where it crosses 25th, 50th and 75th, where Zelkova crosses 25th, 50th and 75th, and where Malachite crosses 25th, 50th and 75th. As a quick reference I have an ASCII (plain-text) map on the main A~C pages which makes the locations of the stations easier to recognize and correlate. Here's that text.
Note that each station is placed alphabetically from left to right, then top to bottom, so reading down the list will take you from the station in the upper left hand corner with "Ca", to the bottom right with "Ur". This can help a pire remember in a pinch where they need to go without a map to check.
Additionally, you'll want to know that it costs 5 coins and 3 AP to ride the transits. If you only have 1 AP when you click the button to ride the transit, you will show as having -2 AP when you arrive at your destination. Then you'll have to wait really long before you can move out. This sucks because the transits are busy with the passing to and fro of vampires and you'll get robbed and bitten a lot. A lot.
One thing you also may like to know is that each station should have a vampire in it going by (station name) Guard. So there should be one at Thalia station named Thalia Guard. These are vamps owned by players which are trying to do a service to the other players. They call themselves the Night Watch, and I like to contribute to their coin purses when I happen to go through a station.
The Watch members always try to carry coins on them so that players who don't have enough coins to ride can just thieve the guard and get the needed coins. If you don't have Thievery yet, then just say something in the square asking the Guard for the coins to ride and when the controller refreshes, they will hand you the needed coins. It can sometimes be a long wait, though. If you pass through a transit with plenty of coins, it would be appreciated if you would assist them and the other players by putting a few coins in their hands
as you go through. Good karma, you know.
The Pubs
Ah, the key to the guilds, the barmen. Pubs are where you can buy drinks and gather information about the moving buildings like Magic and Pawn shops, and more importantly, the Guilds, where you buy your powers. A fellow player, Sasquatch, penned a useful bit about the barmen/pubs which I will use to help describe what you find at the bars.
Bartenders are a chatty lot. But instead of offering to light your cigarette or standing around cleaning filthy beer mugs, the bartenders of RavenBlack city collect all sorts of information. Unfortunately, it costs to get this information.
Drinks available (and their costs) at the RavenBlack City bars are:
Beer: 1
House Ale: 2
House Wine: 5
Brandy: 10
Scotch: 15
Vintage Wine: 40
Blood Wine: 50
Blood: 100
The more you spend on an individual drink, the higher the chance of getting useful (i.e. non "null" information) out of the barkeep. However, there is nothing at all to stop him from giving you "null" info 15 times in a row even if you buy Blood for each drink. Such are the chances we take with our (necrotic) livers.
If you can afford it (e.g. if you have already achieved one or more levels of Thievery), always buy the Blood. It costs more than anything else but it has the added bonus of adding two BP to your score. So even if you get no new information, at least it wasn't money completely wasted.
Both Blood and Blood Wine are valid drinks for the Celerity quest (see the Powers_Texts section for more details on that).
This following is a collection of "What the bartender says" and what it really means to you, the drunkard vampire. Remember that most of what you'll ever get from the bars is gibberish no matter how much your bar tab ends up being.
Pssst. (Some Cool) Guild (#) is right next to (Alphabet Street) and (Number Street) today. I don't know how much longer it will be there, though.
This is the only way to find the guilds, short of stumbling (drunk?) across them in your random travels. The guilds move frequently but sporadically. Please note that the barkeeps will usually only tell you about guilds that are personally useful to you, so this data will change from vampire to vampire. It also means that if you have all of your powers, you'll rarely see this one again.
The closest shop to here is (Shop Name), right by (Alphabet Street) and (Number Street). I do wish those damn magic shops would stay still for a while.
Congrats! Just keep in mind that this information changes rapidly as the Discount shops move every 24 hours and the non-Discount shops move every 12.
I read this great book the other day. (complete with hyperlink)
Did anyone ever tell you that RavenBlack wasn't trying to make a buck off of this game? Well, he is. And he's also trying to make a buck off of the book that he wrote. Follow the (safe) link to find out more about the book and even buy a copy. But be aware that the shopping cart doesn't accept RB City coins.
These three "null" responses generate the most questions from newbie drunks (I mean vampires!). They have absolutely no (proven) in-game uses, but here they are.
Don't tell anyone you found a secret door - otherwise it isn't secret any more.
Rumor has it that there is a "secret" way into overcrowded squares that appears from time to time. It's purported to be a few squares away and only appears randomly (i.e. it's never been proven). If you actually find one, get a screen shot and show us. If not, accept this one as urban myth.
Hey, do you know what PBIANPF stands for? Someone spray-painted it on my door.
PBIANPF is worthless as far as in-game knowledge goes. It's there because one of our beloved players had a politically incorrect thought (out loud) in range of our demented creator, RavenBlack. It means "Pat Buchannan Is A Nazi Pig F***er" (yeah, it really does).
I've heard some guy named (Vampire Name) is one of the richest guys in town.
At that precise moment, this vampire has more money than anyone else. Be aware that this doesn't mean he'll still have his bucks when you try to rob from him. Oh yeah, and since it counts what's in his bank account, it might not be worth trying it anyhow.
<SNIP>
--
Sas the drunkard
with lots of help from the lushes of FTA
and especially to SV Countess "My liver's deader than your liver"
Boo
As a note on the side, the PBIANPF really does mean Pat Buchannan Is A Nazi Pig-Fucker. I'm absolutely certain because I'm the one who got RavenBlack to put it in the game for me. That's really a great description of what the Pubs do and are for and all that. Good places to rob, too. Let's get on with it then.
The Shops
Shops come in two types now: Magic shops, which sell the items you will learn about shortly, and Pawn shops, which will buy back items at a loss. First, I'll explain about something peculiar to both kinds. They move.
See, in the game concept, we run around a city which is something like the cities we all live in now in that no one believes vampires exist and no one thinks magic exists. For that reason, the shops and guilds must keep on the move to avoid the prying eyes and interference of the human population. It's like the whole Harry Potter witches idea, if that helps. There, but pretty secret to most the 'muggles', to borrow from the series terminology.
Here's an excerpt from a text in the FTA files section which tells you a little about the types of shops and what items they sell. I'll describe the items in more detail in the next section, but for now you just need to know there are just three items at the moment and their costs. The abbreviations meanings are:
SoTurn = Scroll Of Turning;
SoTele = Scroll of Teleportation;
HW = Holy Water.
Here is the info.
Shops move every 12 hours.
Standard prices:
SoTurn: 500 coins
SoTel: 5,000 coins
HW: 2,000 coins
Discount prices (-30%):
SoTurn: 350 coins
SoTel: 3,500 coins
HW: 1,400 coins
Pawn shops buy:
SoTurn: @ 250 coins
SoTele: @ 2500 coins
HW: @ 1000 coins
Scroll shops (both kinds)
Discount Scrolls
Herman's Scrolls
Paper and Scrolls
Scrollmania
Scrolls 'n' Stuff
Scrolls R Us
Scrollworks
Ye Olde Scrolles
Potion Shops (HW only)
Discount Potions
McPotions
Potable Potions
Potion Distillery
Potionworks
Silver Apothecary
The Potion Shoppe
Magic Shops (sell all 3 items)
Discount Magic
Dark Desires
Interesting Times
Sparks
The Magic Box
White Light
Pawn Shops:
Spinners Pawn
Ace Pawn
Checkers Pawn
Reversi Pawn
Now, to find those shops you go to a pub and buy the more expensive drinks, as described in the previous text on Pubs. As it mentioned wisely in that one, if you can afford it, buying Blood every time is the best purchase as it will have the highest ratio of shop or guild information to purchases, and has the added benefit of giving you two pints of blood each time.
Obviously the most sought after shops are Discount shops, and if you get that info, hurry and get there. They are worth the journey as they sell the items at a 30% discount.
As for Pawn Shops, there's a good explanation of them in the News on the game server, which I hope you've read by now, but here it is to be completely inclusive:
December 11 2003 - Pawn Shops
There are now four pawn shops in the city. They behave the same as other shops in that they move around the city at various intervals, but they don't sell things. Instead you can sell them your old objects that you no longer want - at a loss, of course.
Why would you want to sell items? Suppose you had just become Neutral and had 50 HWs you couldn't use. What else would you do with them? Remember, you can't give items away. Well, then the Pawn shops become useful. Anyhow, you won't recall most of this stuff, but all you really need to remember about the shops is how to find their locations, their moving habits and what kinds they are. This is more of a reference page for later if you need it, so let's get on to understanding the items.
The Items
WARNING: I'm going to be extremely careful in explaining the items as new players seem to have many many seemingly obvious and simple questions about them and how they work. If this page seems painfully simplified it is only because I have been painfully pestered with little, time-consuming questions about what seemed to be the most obvious of facts regarding items. The only thing which seems to garner more confusion and questions than the items are the guilds. That's understandable, but still: I get an alarming number of questions about items, so I'm going to elaborate on them in extremely simple terms and examples.
Since it's precisely relevant to this page I am reprinting the info from the Shops page which shows the item prices. There are just three items at the moment. The commonly used abbreviations are:
SoTurn = Scroll of Turning;
SoTele = Scroll of Teleportation;
HW = Holy Water.
Madeye Note There are more items available now.
And, here again are the cost and resell value of the items from and to the appropriate shops:
Now, as for using them and what they do, I'll tell you that all items are used from the More Commands option at the bottom right of your city view, and we can address what each one does in turn. Much of what follows is a rewite of the text info available in the FTA files section called 'ScrollsAndStuff'. It was written by 'Jezebel Moon`s Ho', 'Countess Boo Wolfe' and the geeky Holy Water formula was contributed by 'Sasquatch', though I must say that it's not absolutely correct. RavenBlack says it's a pretty close approximation to the actual wave and can be used as a good enough guide to estimate.
If you have an item, you can go to your My Vampire screen and you will see it listed in your Possessions with a little help icon next to it. You can hover over the icon to get an information tip in the form of a text box which appears at the top left corner of your screen. For each item I'll reprint that Tip Text as well.
Also, before I go on, I must mention that each item is a single-use item. If you use it, it's gone. Personally, I like to imagine the scrolls igniting into balls of purple flame as I read the incantation. Ok, so I'm weird. Anyhow, all items are unusable until you have at least 50 BP. Specifics follow.
Scrolls of Turning
Tip Text
"This scroll should be read in a specific direction. Any undead
within a short distance in that direction will become confused and distracted,
briefly wandering aimlessly. Affected vampires may also find themselves somewhat
drained of power."
Ok, what that means is, you use the item by clicking More Commands and you will see an option to read a Scroll of Turning to the [DROP-DOWN-LIST], where the list is a list of each direction of an eight point compass: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West and Northwest. I would click More Commands, select a direction from the SoTurn drop-down menu and then click the button next to it which says Turn. When I did so, all vampires in the given square would be processed by the game script as being hit with the scroll's effect, and if they didn't resist the effect by having the Stamina power (which is never going to resist 100% of the time), they would be bounced out of the square to a random one next to it and lose 10 BP.
To illustrate, let me once again show you a standard map view, this time with the 'More Commands' options showing, and make some notation for you to have a better idea. Refer back to this example when I describe the options of each item and how you use the More Commands to activate them.
Ok, looking at that example, if I were to open the More Commands options, I would have the choice of directions which would let me read the scroll of turning towards the Northwest to 'Turn' the vamps with the names preceded by NW_ in the example. Not much point in that unless I feel like pissing off a couple vamps for no reason.
If I accidently chose to read it to the North, no vamps would be effected by the scroll, as there are none in that square. By this you can probably reason out that I'm also saying vampires in the same square as I'm in (names with the word 'Same' in their names in this example) will not be effected by the scroll.
Suppose, though, I wanted to clear out that bank which is all blued out and impassable, so I can get in there and deposit or withdraw some coins and drink up that tasty human. I'd go through the process I described above, selecting South for the direction, and watch as all or most of the 9 vampires in that square moved. The human isn't effected by items so it stays put.
SoTurns are considered area effects by the script, not an attack, so you can use them over and over on the same vampire, if you want to. There is the afore mentioned Stamina power which can resist these, however, and Neutral vampires, whose vampire names appear in pink text, are movable but cannot lose BP to the scrolls. We'll get to all that in the Powers section.
Lastly, this item requires that you have at least 50 BP to be used. Just an incentive to play. And that should pretty much cover the SoTurns.
Scrolls of Teleportation
Tip Text
"While reading this scroll, the reader should concentrate
on a location. They will be safely transported to that location."
This one's pretty straightforward. You click More Commands (you better remember where the link is) and an option appears which says 'Use Scroll of Teleportation to go to...' with two little drop down lists for all the streets in order and a button to activate it. Next thing you know, you're in the middle of the intersection for the streets you selected. Again, you must have at least 50 BP to use this item. The end.
Vials of Holy Water
Tip Text
"If the owner of this item should find themselves
in proximity to a vampire, it might well be a lifesaver - a vampire splashed
with Holy Water will bleed profusely, which should give the lucky owner time to
escape."
This is the one and only true 'weapon' in the game so far. It is also the one item which requires you to have a minimum of 200 BP to use. This is to prevent a pire who hovers at some tiny BP from hounding a stronger player by repeatedly finding and attacking them with no regard for their own BP. It's a long story.
To use HW you must be in the same square as the vampire you wish to 'spray' with it, click the (you guessed it) More Commands link, select the target pire's name from the appropriate drop-down list and click the Spray button. Some players, myself included, call it giving a pire a bath or bathing them.
When you spray a pire with HW, it severely reduces their BPs. How much it actually takes off is somewhat random, but basically the higher the vampire's BP, the more it takes off. Sort of. It's kind of a wave or curve which Raven Black generated that will give you greater resistance to HW if you get into really high BPs like the 5000 to 10000+ range, and reduces the damage to lower BP vamps as well. Anyhow, it's really shitty to get Holy Watered and you can take the act as an outright 'fuck you' from whoever sprays you with it.
Oh, and I should point out that spraying one vampire can sometimes effect other vamps in the same square, though not nearly as bad. Imagine it like spilling a couple drops of acid on someone while throwing a bucket of it on someone else. Ouch.
Now, Sasquatch, a fellow FTA moderator and geek, has presented the following formula to us which he believes to be an accurate calculator for the HW effect. As I stated above, this formula isn't really 100% correct, so take it as best guess from a really bright guy (meaning Sas). Raven vouches that it's close enough to the actual wave that it gives you a relatively good idea of what amounts of BP loss to expect on a given vampire. Here's his formula from the text.
=========== BEGIN MATH GEEK HW FORMULA INFO ============
+
When hit by a HW, the formula is:
NBP = OBP - (OBP^0.1 * OBP^0.5)
OBP = "original blood points"
NBP = "new blood points"
HWL = "holy water loss"
Examples:
> OBP - HWL = NBP
================
100 - 16 = 84
250 - 27 = 223
500 - 42 = 458
1000 - 63 = 937
2500 - 109 = 2391
5000 - 166 = 4834
[Note: actual amounts may vary slightly]
+
============ END MATH GEEK HW FORMULA INFO =============
[andronicus@jmocbox714 ~]$
And that ought to wrap up items. Now... The Guilds!
The Guilds
The guilds are where you get powers or are given instructions for a quest to attain them. The powers are discussed next in better detail, but for now, here is a list of which guilds carry what powers and for how much. We'll address the quirks of guild use after this. Note that little is known about Telepathy yet, but here we go.
Empaths Guild:
Thieves Guild:
Surprise costs 20,000 coins
Locate(1) 1500 coins +quest -40 BP
Locate(2) 4000 coins +quest -60 BP
Locate(3) 15000 coins +quest -100 BP
Suction 7500 coins +quest:
bite 20 pires w/ more BP than you
Stamina(1) 1000 coins +quest -500 BP
Stamina(2) 2500 coins +quest -1000 BP
Stamins(3) 5000 coins +quest -1500 BP
Celerity(1) 4000 coins +quest for 3 items
Celerity(2) 8000 coins +quest for 6 items
Celerity(3) 17500 coins +quest for 12 items
Telepathy(1) 2500 coins & 10 AP
Telepathy(2) 5000 coins & 10 AP
Telepathy(3) 10000 coins & 10 AP
While not technically a guild, the Peacekeeper Missions are the ones you must go to in order to attain the power of Neutrality. Just for the sake of being inclusive, here is their information as well.
Mission located at Emerald and 67th.
Mission located at Unicorn and 33rd.
Mission located at Emerald and 33rd.
Now, the guilds are secretive, roving groups who offer powers for vampires within our great city of... City. Yeah, anyway, they are sort of on the shadey side of law-enforcement, according to RB, so they have no signs which reveal their locations like Omnibanks, Pubs and Shops. To see the guild options you must be in the exact right square.
Now, if you remember from the City page, I mentioned that all the addresses given in the City are for the black square down and right of the intersection named. If you forgot this bit, go to the City page and re-read it. That link will open in a new window, BTW.
I wanted to make sure that addressing is made absolutely clear because I can't count the number of times a new player has posted to a message board crying wolf that "the guild moved!" when, in fact, they simply hadn't gone into the right square. I actually address this in the FAQ, it happens so bloody much.
Not only do you need to be in the right square, but the options show up below the map view, so you may need to scroll down to see them, like in the Pubs and Banks and Shops and Transits. So the guild locations, while on the move, bear no signs showing them to the 'on the street' viewer. You must go 'down the alleyway' (that black square Southeast of the intersection) to get to the guild master.
Oh yes, moving. I almost neglected the other important factor about the guilds. At about every 4 days, the guilds move locations to escape detection by the ubiquitous yet unseen authorities. No, there is no readily discernible pattern to where they move and it isn't always exactly four days.
The guilds do move in concert, for the most part. Meaning that if one Empaths guild moves, all three of them have moved. But that won't certainly mean that Thieves guilds have moved. It seems, lately, that Thieves guilds move every four or five days independently of the other guilds and that the other guilds all seem to move on the same day. Odd, but that's what seems to happen, usually.
This is why so much of the message board info you will see will relate to guild movements. The FTA mods and long-time contributers regularly post the most recent known locations of the guilds. The format for the GUILD INFO posts was mine and seems to have spread to many different boards as the typical way of noting guild locations. The posts besides that will often be in a sort of short hand in discussing guilds. The abbreviations for each guild are as follows:
Empaths Guild:
EG# (i.e. EG1, EG2, EG3)
Immolators Guild:
IG#
Thieves Guild:
TG# or ThG#
Travellers Guild:
TrG#
Another common uncertainty to the new player is as to which guild you go to. Many seem to think you can get Thievery level 3 right away by simply going to Thieves Guild 3 and paying for it. I'm sorry, no. You need to attain them as levels, the levels must be done in order and the guild number indicates the one and only level of the power available there. So Empaths Guild 1 carries only level one of Locate and is the guild you must go to if you wish to begin learning the power Locate. Same thing for EG2 carrying only level 2 and so on. This is true of every guild and power.
Of course, certain powers have no levels. Those powers are available at any of the three level guilds. So while you may not be able to learn Stamina 3, yet, if you go to Immolators Guild 3 you can still buy Suction, as it has no levels.
Another quirk about guilds is the addressing used by them. See, I told you in the City page that all the addresses you receive for a building in The City will be the intersection address and the actual building the Southeast black square to it. That's still true. But when you get an address for a quest from the guild master, it's a little different. There's a logic here, so please bear with me.
The Stamina quest is a good example. Suppose you went to The Gunny's Shack, at Obsidian and 54th (that's a pub), and bought a couple drinks of Blood. The barman tells you that "Immolators Guild 1 is on the corner of Diamond and 51st today." He doesn't know how much longer it'll be there, though, regardless of how lovely your cape is. You trek off to the guild and get into the correct square, pay the 1000 coins to begin your quest.
When you do this, the guild master says: "To gain a level of STAMINA, you must go to the corner of Lion and 60th and say 'Jay-Mock'. It will cost you 500 blood. You have ten days."
Now, this is a quest goal and not a building, so this address is meant to be the actual intersection of the streets Lion and 60th, where you see the little green address box. When you quest, you are enacting an area effect, of sorts, not going into a building. Like a ritual done outdoors as opposed to a service being rendered in an establishment. I know, it's odd to most people, but it does make sense if you think of it as I've described in terms of buildings and rituals.
Ok, it's time we get on to the best part... The powers.
The Powers
Well here's the coolest shit. Getting the powers. And here's the best way to get all the powers as fast as possible: Donate $200 to RavenBlack and you will have them the next day. In fact, you'll be eligible to get a building of your own in the city. Your own lair.
Oh, you expected a little more detail than that, right? And maybe a little bit about how they work, what they do, etc. Yeah, ok, I can do that I suppose. I presume you've read this in the HTP, but here's the official listing of the powers and their effects from that:
Celerity (3 Levels Available): the Vampire's action points normally recharge once every 30 minutes. Each level of Celerity reduces this by 5 minutes.
Suction: the Vampire extracts an extra pint of blood from each victim, at no extra cost.
Surprise: the Vampire can enter a square that would usually be considered overcrowded.
Stamina (3 Levels Available): the Vampire usually has a 50 Action Point maximum. Each level of Stamina increases this by 10. Stamina also affords extra resistance against some attacks.
Shadows (3 Levels Available): Vampires usually disappear from sight if they don't move for 4 days. For each level of Shadows, a Vampire disappears one day sooner.
Locate (3 Levels Available): Using Locate, you can find out where a Vampire is. At level one you can only tell distance; at level two you can tell distance and direction; at level three you can tell exact location. Uses one action point per target. Used from the "More Commands" screen.
Thievery (3 Levels Available): At level one, up to 25% of the target's money can be stolen; 50% at level two, 75% at level three. Higher levels also have their chance of failure decreased. A 'rob' option appears next to the usual 'drink' option if you have this power.
Neutrality (3 Levels Available): If you have the Neutrality power at all, you can't use Holy Water. Scrolls of Turning used by a Neutral vampire cause no damage. You are rendered immune to the damaging effects of Scrolls of Turning (though you can still be moved). You take reduced damage from Holy Water; the amount of reduction increases the more blood you have. At level 3, you take only one damage from holy water - less than being drunk from by a vampire with Suction. Unlike the other powers, Neutrality can be removed, for a price. Neutral vampires are highlighted in pink. Neutral vampires can't give money to non-Neutral vampires, since that would be a breach of Neutrality. Also, each time you steal as a Neutral vampire, half your take goes to the Peacekeepers; the same applies to normal vampires stealing from Neutral.
Telepathy (3 Levels Available): The vampire is able to send telepathic messages to other vampires, no matter where they are. At level one it costs ten action points to send a telepathic message. At level two it costs six. At level three it costs two. Sending a message to your sire or one of your childer costs half the action points of communicating with other vampires, ie. it costs only one action point to communicate with one of your childer using level three telepathy.
Second-sight (available only to donating Vampires (at least $5), as it increases server load): the Vampire can examine the statistics of other Vampires. Uses half an action point per target. Used by clicking on the name of the target vampire.
I really won't bother elaborating on the powers any further than that in this document, as you should now go read the Powers Texts in full, and the additional text, Powers Help. Each power besides second sight is fully detailed in the Powers Texts, complete with sample quest texts. The Powers Help document was one I wrote as an addendum to the 'P-Texts', due to a large number of pires contacting me and asking what was the best way to go about getting the powers and which ones were most important.
You can find the Powers Texts prominently linked on the main Sanctum Andronici page, along with the Powers Help file. To go directly to the P-Text's first page, you can click here. To go directly to the Powers Help addendum, click here.
Of course, if you've already read those or would just like to finish off the current series of documents, there is more information you haven't learned yet in the final section, The Other Stuff.
The Other Stuff
Holy shit, it's the final page of this series! Congratulations! I know it's been a long, sometimes overly simple, sometimes too complicated but certainly informative journey, and you've been a real trooper. Now comes the last bit of 'odds and ends' information covering some things I haven't yet put in other sections. Sometimes I've left things out on purpose, some of it just doesn't fit in anywhere else. Whatever the reason, lets get to some of this stuff now.
Necromancers
One thing I haven't figured out where to put is the Necromancers information. I thought it sort of belonged in the Shops page, as that's where you find them, but that page was pretty long as is, and 'Necros' are sort of a special feature of the Shops, not really an everyday part of them. Anyhow, the FTA files section had a good text on them and I essentially ripped it off to place it here, so here's that text:
1. What are necromancers?
Necromancers let you buy one pint of blood for 25 coins.
2. Where can I find a necromancer?
Shops in the city which sell potions (IE: Holy Water) will have a Necromancer. [note: some players have said that only potion/apothecary shops (i.e. those that sell HW only, not all-in-one shops) have resident necromancers. See #8.]
3. I found one, now what?
You can buy up to 100 BP less than your highest BP level. (e.g. if you had 2500 BP and were the target of several dozen HW attacks, you could go to a shop that sells HW and buy back up to 2400).
3a. I went there but I didn't see one... why not?
If you don't "qualify" for using a Necromancer, the option doesn't show up in the shop screen. [note: some players have said that only potion/apothecary shops (i.e. those that sell HW only, not all-in-one shops) have resident necromancers. See #8.]
4. What kind of damage can he repair?
This works on all BP lost, not just what the HW took off, too. If you had only lost 800 to HW, but another 150 in scrolls of turning and say 8 more from bites. You could still buy back up to 2400.
Luckily, this works if you have paid BP for Stamina as well. If you just got Stamina 1, 2, and 3 (which includes a cost of 500+1000+1500 BP). You could go to a necromancer and buy 2900 of that back from him.
5. I had more BP than that... what's the deal?
Once more, he will not ever heal you past 100 LESS than your maximum level.
6. Are there any other ways to get back my BP?
You can still get 2 BP for each pub Blood (100 coins) you buy at a pub, so that is twice the cost of Necros, but is not restricted in any way.
There is also the more traditional way... drinking from more targets!
7. What about Discount shops? Are they cheaper?
Alas, the Discount magic stores may be cheaper on the items, but are still the same cost for Necros. Too bad. Discount BP would kick ass.
8. How accurate is this information?
There is still a bit of information that we do NOT know for certain about the operation of these individuals known as necromancers. If you have been damaged beyond 100 pints and can let us know (via the group) where our information is mistaken, we'll be happy to correct it!
Sas- FTA Member & Mod
(note: most of this text was cribbed shamelessly from Brent's FTA message #2362)
Oh... Well it looks like Sasquatch 'stole' it from me and I just 'stole' it back. OK, well, yeah. That's the way we do things in the FTA. Free trade of information, and all that ^_^, heh heh. Thanks Sas. You kick ass. Anyhow, that covers the Necromancers really well, so I'll just move on.
Special Places
With regard to certain places of the city, there are a couple special locations I haven't really mentioned in this series. The most notable is the Graveyard. You probably got a good idea of what it is by reading the FTA FAQ that is part of the Powers Texts. At least, you better have. If not, go read it now by clicking here.
Like I say in that document, be a decent pire and don't mess with other vamps while you're in the visibility of the Graveyard square. It's just disrespectful.
Another building type I never mentioned is what's called a 'Lair'. Raven Black made a special square for one of the games most well known and respected players recently and named it after her. Her square reads 'Devil Miyu`s Lair' (hey honey ^.^). He did this not just because he and she are friends, but because Ms. Miyu has donated over $100 beyond the costs of her own powers towards RB's server costs.
Since so many players got in a big buzz about it, he decided to make the offer that anyone who donates towards the game at least $100 beyond the cost of a full set of powers can now have their own lair. The lair has no special area effects, so don't bother flocking to it to go see what happens. Nothing special will happen to you in someone else's lair.
Pire Etiquette
Since I've kind of brushed on the topic of pire etiquette, I also want to mention a few habits that many players and myself happen to play by which are sort of a way of being a 'good little biter' in the game.
One such habit is to encourage others to play by not biting other vampires. This may seem odd, but personally I think it's a waste of AP. If I see another vampire, I don't want to waste an AP on biting them when I could be robbing them. Heh heh. In an RP way, it's also a bit rude to bite anyone besides your close friends. Of course, RP-wise, it's also a bit rude to pick people's pockets, so whatever.
That's actually another point of etiquette. It's just a fact of the game that we are able to rob one another. If you are using the banks often enough and not being stupid with your AP, running out before you can deposit a large lump of coins, you really ought to not have the problem of people ripping you off of much. Even if you do, oh well. You rob others and get more. It's not the end of your game. Consider it tuition money. You just got a lesson on the importance of wise AP use and banks. Learn it this time.
Another thing I personally adhere to is not robbing from pires with less than 100 BP, usually. Sometimes I know a particular pire is just a banking drone with intentionally tiny BP to discourage thieves and might rob it. Other times I've just been in a square with 5 or 6 other vampires and accidentally robbed one that I hadn't meant to. But normally I don't rob from pires who are that low in BP as I know it can be tough getting the money together to gain powers and buy items when you're that new.
Now, I've seen people get very upset and talk a lot of shit about it when people rob them. I've seen several go so far as to lecture others on how lame they think it is to 'leech off others' or what have you. To these people I have but one thing to say: It's a game, that's part of it's design, get over it.
Groups
I already touched on the whole groups and clans thing several times, most elaborately in the FTA FAQ, so I won't bother going into that much of the topic here. Suffice it to say that I don't think clans are worth it, most of the time, but that the relationships you build with fellow players is a great way to increase your enjoyment of the game. I wouldn't have this page up if it weren't for the Yahoo groups related to this game, so I certainly appreciate all the friends I've made as a result of those hideous group message boards. I even appreciate some of the enemies I've made.
While I may discourage joining a clan, I know that some of them can be really good friends to have and I certainly recommend the first three groups I mention on the main page in the Obligatory Links area. Other than that, though, I suggest you wait a while before getting into other sorts of groups until you are well versed in the RP by having talked it over with some friends you're bound to make in those places.
