JoV in AC and DAoC
Friday Oct 19, 2001
NH Trying DAoC

Well, it's been a month and a half since I've updated the guildpage and a month ago I didn't think I'd be saying this for a long time : I've left AC for another game. Granted, it may turn out to be a temporary departure, but for the moment I'm playing Dark Ages of Camelot. Thankfully several guildmates have come with me to continue the guild there. As usual, we're staying small, not recruiting early on, etc. Unfortunately, this game doesn't even allow you to alt-tab to go to IRC so that I could actively keep in contact with you guys unless I am just sitting here idle at home hoping one of you wants to talk (which isn't often).

However, this hopefully won't spell the end of JoV in Asheron's Call. Dave and Bill (lovingly known as Devestate and Azile) have stepped forward to fill my role in my absence. They will be keeping the chain organized, help with recruiting questions, quests, raiding, etc. PLEASE feel free to still approach me in IRC or via email if you have any problems or concerns that you want to discuss with me directly. I am in no way abandoning JoV in AC, I'm just looking for help from the people who are more actively playing it to help with the general running of the guild.

I'm aware that people are leaving JoV in AC because some of us went to try DAoC. I cannot express how silly that is to me. Frankly, such people have the wrong view of JoV. JoV is a guild - not a monarchy. That means that we don't just stick together because of affiliations in one game. We're a multi-game guild and have been so ever since I came to AC from UO. So, if people leave the guild over me and a few others trying something new - then they didn't understand the guild to begin with.

DAoC Guild Stuff

We are on Palomides in the Hibernia realm. We will be remaining there unless some extenuating circumstances come up (like opening a 10x exp server). Why did we choose that server instead of Merlin/Midgard like oh so many others? Simple, we're not sheep. That server will be filled with exactly the type of people I left Darktide to get away from. Also, anyone who is on midgard will be bored with having all those egos powerleveling to win every fight and anyone NOT on midgard will be bored having to fight such people. The server was picked simply because it was the last non-RP one on the list on day 1.

I have added a DAoC link section to the menu for your convenience. Please note this excellent tradeskill guide. Also if you do consignments in Tir Nan Og you will love the Tir Nan Og NPC Locations spreadsheet which includes a great map and an alphabetical ordered list of all NPCs. You're welcome. =)

We have three people who will be advancing their tradeskills to 1> save the rest of us time in doing it ourselves and 2> to help the guild with armor/weapons. Gwyr (Bob Barker) is our Tailor, Mercutio is our Armorsmith and Zothius (Cthulhu) is our weaponsmith. If you need something, first go to a vendor and see the color something is to you and what AF it is, THEN contact one of these guys. They will give you a fair rate, but I fully expect them to make a profit on their sales even in guild because getting your tradeskill up is FUCKING EXPENSIVE. It took me about 7 gold total to get to about 275 tailoring - all of them have or will have over 300 skill. So, donate to help them.

We have at least 1 JoV member coming back from UO to join back up with us and hopefully another oh the way. The one already in game is my good friend Brules and the other hopefully coming is Zero/Jesus H Christ. If any of you read the JoV page back in it's heyday then you are already familiar with these names. They're good people and I'm thrilled they're back.

Anyhow, Dave and Bill should be giving me some update(s) to post soon for the AC side of the house, but until then, that's enough news to bring you up to date.

- Nighthawk


Recruiting / ACGM
Monday Sept 3, 2001
We've been having some problems with recruiting, so we're gonna make a small change in our Recruiting guidelines. From now on, candidates for entry have to have an internal reference from a full member. That full member will recruit the person via the guidelines and then get ahold of me for where the person should pledge and IRC access. Do NOT tell people to contact me for recruiting. If they don't have a referral to handle their recruiting, then they don't get in. If I get tells saying "X told me to talk to you about recruiting", me and X are gonna have a talk.

Keep in mind another of our rules to to update your ACGM Info. Please note the MotD. At the moment we're only missing 19 people which is down from 70+ before the weekend. Thanks for the help guys.

Finally, chain screenshots are due on Aug 10th. Please use this as your guide for what I need in your screenshot.

- Nighthawk


Recent Fights
Sunday Sept 2, 2001
Basically, anyone who isn't level 100 is a fucking pussy on this server. 100% of the fights that I didn't decimate the target instantly recalled from me in ALL of my fights in the past two days. 1on1s to 6on1s - if I stayed to fight regardless of the odds, they all recall. Darktide is full of people who are scared to lose death items. I sure as fuck hope that you guys at least try to put up a fucking fight, because if we become ANYTHING close to the "norm" on this downward spiraling server, then I can see me coming up with a "no pussies" rule.

I'm sick of people I fight having the mentality that we're not all on this server to PVP. I even had someone on the sanct islands today tell me "wtf are you doing! Sanct isn't for pvp!" as I attacked him. I couldn't believe it. Don't you guys turn out like that. Just do me that favor.

- Nighthawk


Trading/Selling Characters
Monday Aug 13, 2001
I can't believe I actually have to type this out since we are not an open guild but here goes. If you sell or trade your character away, BREAK HIM FROM THE GUILD before you lose control of the character. This includes all mules, moving their lifestone, etc. This should be a given, but too many people have been really fucking this very remedial thing up so I guess I have to spell it out.

- Nighthawk


Quick Rant on Drains/Gems
Wednesday Aug 8, 2001
I posted this on CoD and figured it expressed how I feel on gems/drains well enough to save here on the guildpage :

Subject: Its not about gems or drains...

Its about how they're used.

If you drain-drain-drain-drain (etc) when you already outnumber or outlevel your target, that's not exactly what I'd call skill. Granted, its effective to keep your opponent running to heal, but most of us want to fight, not make someone run.

Gems are relatively weak regardless of when they're used unless it's against a grief inepter. If I toss more than a vuln and a war inept on someone (maybe weakness to slow them down), that's unusual. If I ever toss life, creature, war, baffle, feeble, weakness, leaden, healing, mana con, etc inepts on someone - them popping a gem is surely waranted because all I'm doing is reducing them to not being able to fight back.

As I've said, we're all on Darktide to fight (although far too many people don't act like it). Its those of us who allow their opponent the opportunity to fight too who have some sense of how things should work. I don't have to reduce you to a level 10 to beat you. Some people do, but that's their problem. Try it on me, and you'll be whining about me gemming or dispelling... guaranteed.

- Nighthawk


JoV Gathering
Saturday July 21, 2001
Well, I made a private announcement in the IRC channel about this months ago, but I wanted to give a public reminder of the event. We are having a rl JoV gathering in Atlanta where I live (technically Marietta) on the weekend of August 3-5. Gonna have a pool party on the 4th and goofing off and such the rest of the time. We're expecting people from the eastern half of the US (TX, MD, MA, FL, OH, etc), Canada and 1 distant traveler from Australia. So, hit me with RSVPs in email so I know exactly how fucking packed my poor little condo is gonna be.

BTW, if you're coming by car and can bring a computer, I'm sure we will be doing the LAN-raiding thing a bit. So, we need four extra computers to fill up my hub ports.

Cya in Atlanta.

- Nighthawk


Chain Update
Friday July 6, 2001
Ok, this will hopefully be my last post on this chain for a while. Sorry for all the attention this has been getting, but most likely you have no idea how much work I've put into getting this to work. Anyhow, you are clear to start moving to your new patron under the plan : www.wtfman.com/cgi-bin/acgm/server.cgi (log in with ACGM). When you've moved, please update the www.krapf.net ACGM. Please do not make any changes to the Wtfman.com chain as that is just my plan.

For those of you who are concerned about us "whoring", allow me to put your concerns to rest. We all produce exp, and like myself I think that everyone in the guild doesn't like leveling. So, when I level, I sure as hell want as many people to benefit from it as possible so that I minimize the work that we all have to do. That is the reason for the chain. We're not adding any people so we can whore them out, we're just doing this by ourselves, for ourselves.

Hope that makes sense.

- Nighthawk


Misc Topics
Tuesday July 3, 2001
I just wanted to take a moment to tell all you guys that were involved in the raiding last night that you did a great job. The teamwork, the individual fighting, the ability for a comparatively low-level guild to hold the AB ls for an hour.... pretty good guys. Well done. =)

Achillies has set us up Guild Forum for us. So, if you want to register and go post something... do so.

Finally, the JoV ExpChain pledging is going to start on Sunday. The below list of people are involved. If you don't see your name there and you are over lvl 55 with leadership and have been in JoV at least a month, please let me know. Some of the people on the list do not have leadership but have been in the guild for such a long period of time that we will allow them in the chain with 11 padders pledged to them to make sure they don't damage the flow of exp too much. ;) Needless to say, after this, we will have many more characters in JoV from the padding, but it's just to help the long term members.

Patryn
Dread Azile
Chomu Sclavus
The Squirrel Master
Zimone
Shollos
Reveille
Disintegrator
Liquid X
Rory B Bellows
Keys DLS
Tank-the-Feared
Tong-Po
Reggie Jackson
Brooke Duhr
Triple J
BZ's Minion
Yawgmoth
Cthulhu
Dread Nighthawk
Aztek
Gnomish Mage (HUB)

This is the tenative chain I have in mind. Please don't move yet as it is subject to change before Sunday, but do be ready to find the person above and below you on the list then. Everyone NOT in the chain goes below the hub - no exceptions unless they are too high to pledge to the hub, then they go down as far as they can.

- Nighthawk


ACGM, ExpChains and More
Sunday July 1, 2001
ACGM & Exp Chains

Well, we've sucessfully avoided updating ACGM as I requested be done by this weekend. Here is the list of people over lvl 55 that have not entered their loyalty and leader (if applicable) stats in ACGM. If you don't have leader and I know that, I intentionally left you off the list :

Chomu Scalvus
Harm
Rory B Bellows
Keys Dls
Tong-Po
Dark Hound
Triple J
BZ's Minion
Heavy Metal Hose
Shogoman
Clawfinger
Aztek

Please update your information in ACGM if your name is above.

I also want to quickly address a point that someone made. Something along the lines of us making a chain is turning us into an exp whore monarchy. First, I can't imagine how we could ever be confused with an exp whore monarchy. We're small as hell, we don't focus on leveling and we don't openly recruit. However, it's exactly this reason that we should have a well made chain. Exp is being produced by us either on our rerolls or by people who just want to get stronger and there is no reason to waste it. If I produce 100k exp, I want it to benefit as much of the guild as possible - not just myself. Thats the point of a chain... not to whore, but to have our own exp benefit the most people. I know I surely don't level just for myself. Hell, this week I've been leveling on my new character I couldn't wait for the people above me to log in to see how much exp I'd produced.

BTW, the linked expchain thing in the previous news item is just preliminary. I'm going to re-work that to address further concerns brought up.

Focus Stone

Yet again, our resident Focus Stone master, Rory, led a successful group through that quest. If you need help from the man, get a skull from the three towers quest and one of us (rory or myself) will happily help out.

Euth and Trai

Unfortunately, Euth and Trai are no longer JoV. Since they say one thing and I say another, here's my side of it. Euth mentioned to several people on Tuesday night (June 26) that he was considering leaving. After speaking to him about that and several other topics, I was left with the uneasy feeling that not only was he going to leave the guild, but he was going to keep the tie-anywhere tie we had provided for him long ago under the condition that he would drop that tie if he left the guild. This naturally put me in guild-defensive mode and made me less than happy. I asked that Euth give me a definite answer the next day simply because if someone isn't happy with being in JoV, they should go - not screw around deciding. JoV quite simply is so small and tight knit that if you're not giving your all to it, it doesn't work.

On Thursday, I went on what Euth and I had discussed since he didn't get ahold of me in the day and a half between our conversations. Not wanting him to be acting as a JoV when he's not, I removed him. Unfortunately, because he had twinked Trai to level 40 she had promised to stay pledged to him regardless of where he went. Granted, Euth didn't keep his promise to us to drop his tie, but she was going to uphold her promise. Go figure... :/

Anyhow, that's that.

My New Character

I want to announce that I have a new character. Tired of being gimped with the horrible template on Patryn, I purchased a character - Tank-the-feared. Patryn is being played by Dave/Cthulhu, so if you're trying to get ahold of me and /t Patryn, you're just giving poor Dave another person to explain that he's not me. Poor Dave. =P

- Nighthawk


JoV Exp Chain?
Wednesday June 27, 2001
Well, apparently we're actually starting to give a shit about levels. ;) We're obviously damn small, and being so horribly outleveled by 70% of the server doesn't help us much. So, with the master of exp chains (Disintegrator) coming onboard, we get to pick his brain to try to maximize the benefit for what little we produce. So, here it comes.

We're reorganizing the guild and making an experience chain. It is possible to get VERY FEW people in above the hub that don't have leadership, but for the most part this is for leadership people only. This will require people to break up their own personal chains if they want to be involved. You're welcome to keep your chains intact if you want, but they won't have our exp going through them. Here is a general overview of how we're going to run the JoV ExpChain.

What we need from you guys to get started is everyone to fill out their BASE loy/leader statistics in ACGM. Dis and I will work to figure out what the chain will be, who the hub is, etc. If you don't want to be involved because you have your own chain you want to level or whatever reason, then you will go under the hub or the nearest point to it depending on your level. You can get a plugin for Decal called Link that will auto-update your skills and their base levels in ACGM with 1 click. Unfortunately, it doesn't update everything like your vassals and such, but it's still handy. Also, because you're putting your skill levels in ACGM, make sure you have Hide Info on Web checked!

Anyhow, please update your leader/loyalty in ACGM by this weekend. If you have troubles running the ACGM client, please use that plugin for at least your skill level updates.

I also added links to plugins I personally use with Decal to the menu. ACGM Link, Mage Minder, and Sixth Sense have all been updated for the newest verson of Decal and I recommend them all.

- Nighthawk


Patch Day
Thursday June 14, 2001
God help us... a patch that actually looks like it fucking owns. Just from reading the patch notes, I'm almost sorry that I'm going out of town and won't be able to experience the patch until Sunday. Here are the highlights from the big stuff down to the small changes which I still like a lot :

  1. THE BIG ONE - "Servers will now detect the use of speed-altering programs, and can be set to automatically boot and ban upon detection of their use." Gear goes BYE BYE!!!
  2. In game component buyer.
  3. "Level 7 Creature Magic is in. ph34r." Holy shit... about time.
  4. "All vendor buy/sell rates altered to prevent 'money running.' It's no longer possible to make three million weightless pyreals in an hour by schlepping items to and fro." They're getting more humorous in these build notes.
  5. "@r and @rp now map to @reply, while @rt now maps to @retell." Small, but handy.
  6. "Changed default state of status bars to on instead of off. No more clicking on those @#$%&*^ bars every time you login!" Another minor thing that is a welcome change.

I'm extremely happy about all of the above. The one that has me raising my eyebrows the most is "Underwear is now ivory/off-white. Let's never speak of this again." *shrugs*

Point is that without even having played this patch, it looks like a two-thumbs-up.

- Nighthawk


Buy/Sell Rates To Be Fucked
Wednesday June 13, 2001
As you can see from Amid's post, there are some MASSIVE buy/sell rate changes coming in tomorrow's patch. Here's a breakdown is what to expect :

Towns will now be segregated into four distinct classes
  1. Poor - newbie towns: buy at 90% and sell at 135%
  2. Average - non-newbie portal ring towns: buy at 90% and sell at 155%
  3. Well-off Towns - (Non-portal ring towns) will buy at 80% and sell at 170%
  4. Rich towns - (Direland towns) will buy at 70% and sell at 190%.

Basically this means a couple of things. First, AB and Kara will not be the most desireable towns in game (especially Kara). Second, anyone who's been using pyreal peas or plat scarabs as stackable trade notes, I would highly suggest turning them in tonight at a high-return vendor TONIGHT. Third and most importantly, mages are fucked. Having to buy components at a best case price of 135% is out of control.

All that money that people have been macroing is going to go away pretty quickly....

- Nighthawk


Removed Hosted Walkthroughs
Monday June 11, 2001
I have removed the walkthroughs I wrote up for the component buyer for decal and the windowed mode/dual logging hack. This week's patch brings about in game component buying love, so the decal macro is no longer needed.

Likewise, I have found a program that will do all the bullshit we had to do manually for dual logging and windowed mode. It can be found on James's AC Tools page (this link added to Important Links as Client Auto Patch). It'll patch for windowed mode, dual logging and automatically move your new client, portal.dat and cell.dat into your 2nd AC directory. I've not used this yet so tomorrow's patch will be my first time, but I'm guessing it's going to work well sicne I've heard nothing but good stuff.

I'd like to thank the originators of these client patches. Much thanks go out to Wembly for Windowed Mode and Todd for Dual Logging (don't know if Todd's page is still there or not). You guys both made the game much more playable and your work is appreciated.

- Nighthawk


No Whining
Monday June 4, 2001
Put simply, that's enough. I don't wanna see anyone from JoV whining on CoD or anywhere else about how unfair life is with us being a small/non-uber level guild while someone else is. We started by intelligently voicing disappointment at the relatively even HoS war coming to such a quick end, but that's the way things go. We're not moving, we're going to deal with uber levels camping our lifestone, we're going to deal with it being harder to shop for comps, and if you don't like it then you're in the wrong fuckin guild.

JoV isn't about having it easy. Its about being a target and although we're small, dealing with it and pushing on. That's exactly what we're going to do. I'm tired of having people whine that life is difficult now. In a perfect world, we would have had zaikhal all to ourselves to have our little war with HoS and everyone would have been happy. Tough shit... reality sucks. Suck it up, give back as good as you get, and deal with it.

Once you state your disappointment, if you keep going you're whining. We've heard nothing but whining from antis for our entire time in game and I'll be damned if I'm going to have someone from our guild sound like that.

- Nighthawk


SUN Reforms, Danes Leave JoV =(
Friday June 1, 2001
Elvis, Breze, Cloud and some others are leaving JoV to go to a newly formed guild. Here's what Elvis wrote me, it pretty well sums it up :

"Okay first of all, all this breaking and alliance shit all happened in a 24 hours period where my ISP had me disconnected, so when i was to break i had to go to my GFs house and do it from there, meaning i didnt have the time to say properly goodbye and all, so i wrote this:

Oh man, now was the time to break from JoV and move on. Not to blood as some of you may think, not to go whore xp in GEN, no, I've done some thinking the past weeks and found out that I either raid with bloods, or not at all, mostly because there are more europeans in blood, or maybe just more members, meaning there are some online in my odd hours, being Danish and all.. Since I didn't feel like joining blood, thoughts went in the direction of making a danish guild. I got hold of the people I started playing DT with (a few original SUNs) and some new friends and we started making plans. The plans formed a guild, some didnt feel like joining, others came in, anyway a small concentrated force was ready to bear the SUN name further on in DT history (our tag is going to be: Wind of Terror II).

Please ignore all the morons who say we left because of the blood alliance was dissolved, our new guild has no allies and we don't live in ab, actually most of the guild guidelines are from JoV, thats the only way to run a guild :) Besides the plans of making the danish guild goes back further than the JoV/Blood alliance voting thing, we just never knew when the time would be right to do it, and now it accidentally happened at the same time, well for that I'm sorry, i hope you guys will be alright (after all it was only Breze and I who were active players in JoV, since both dasz and cloud are rerolling).

To sum this up, I really want to say a big thanks to NH, and all the guys (and girls) in JoV, you're all great, and I love the chats and BC sessions we had, im just very sad it couldn't continue ingame (i really wish i could just adjust my sleeping hours so I could play in US hours, but im too old for that shit :/). Anyway I really hope I get to talk to you guys still, you're all welcome on the #sun channel anytime, if you make a public jov channel I would also love to hang out there or mess with you guys on bc or whatever. Stay tight, now go kick some Sag'asses :)"

- Elvis[SUN] / Tubby Gold

So, now you know what's up and why.

- Nighthawk