Five Quick Notes
Thursday December 28, 2000
  1. SUN has decided to merge with us after leaving Blood. They're surprised that their move has had so much attention since there's only like 7 of them, but I don't think they realize how visible/respected they are. JoV is happy to have them come aboard to say the least.

  2. Shollos posted a link to Jesse's How Healing Works post. I personally had no idea that current stamina determined the maximum you could heal. Anything that gives me new information probably give syou new information. =P

  3. I'd like to appoint one or two people to be in charge of recruiting. I have a couple of people in mind, but I don't know if they're interested in such responsibility. Recruiting would involved keeping the guildtree accurate when new people enter and placing new people as evenly as possible given their level. If you're interested, let me know.

  4. If you find coordinates to where the blue plants spawn, please let Trai al-Sinzh know.

  5. And finally, I wanted to request that if you are planning on attending the 2001 Superbowl party I'm throwing here in Atlanta, I need RSVPs as soon as possible so we know how many people to plan on coming.

- Nighthawk


What to do if you're hacked
Monday December 26, 2000
I was speaking to Yeti today about what people should do if they're hacked and figured I would share the information that he had. Unfortunately, Yeti has had first-hand need for this information. While I hope none of you ever need this info, it is hard as hell to come by and I wanted people to know where to turn when the worst happens.

Send an email to zbilling@microsoft.com (Zone billing) with zone name, old password, original email address, credit card number, expiry date, and cd key. You can also give Zone Billing a call at 425-705-2003. I don't know if that is a published number, but it should be since they should take such hackings very seriously as it affects their customers in a most unpleasant way.

I hope that information helps anyone unfortunate enough to have to go through that ordeal.

A guild sidenote, although we normally attack neutral guilds, we have come to a peace with the Delight monarchy. They are not a threat to us nor does peacing them give us any benefits, but I am rl friends with several of the core of that monarchy. They are a neutral guild, so I highly doubt we'll have any incidents with them attacking us. I've added them to our previously-empty Peace/Allied section.

- Nighthawk


Guild Voting and Misc Stuff
Friday December 22, 2000
The guild makes important decisions by vote and this is not a monarchy by the standard definition. It's a guild. Everyone gets a say in the goings on of the guild. I like to think that my opinion is valued by the guildmembers, but I am definitely not the final decision maker - the guild as a whole is. With our recent opening of recruiting, we have decided to limited voting to members who have been in for at least 1 month. The IRC room will reflect this by having people still in their first month not op'd yet. As I would hope that most incoming players would like to get to that level, please advise me of your starting date via email and I'll personally make sure that everyone moves up when they should.

I would also like to make a couple of requests that are not in the Guild Guidelines yet which would make my life easier :

  • Please refrain from using /p or /m tells to get ahold of me. It basically is saying "I'm too lazy to type your name out, but you have to type mine to respond... hahaha". Its rude... please refrain unless I have /tells filtered.

  • You can recruit anyone who is lvl 30+ and has read the Guild Guidelines and agrees to abide by them.

  • We REQUIRE everyone to use IRC. I don't expect people to be paying attention in there 100% of their online time, but I do hope if I see you online you're at least in the channel. All major guild events, votes, raids, quests, etc are announced in the IRC room.

  • If you're new to the guild, make sure that all of your "where should I hunt", "what do I do with a white gem" and other such questions should go to your patron, in the IRC room and THEN to me. I am not trying to distance myself from people, I just don't want /tells about every aspect of the game being directed to me first.

I will be putting up Guild Only and Public Forums probably after the holiday weekend (out of sheer lazyness).

- Nighthawk


And the gates opened...
Tuesday December 19, 2000
Ok, our tight-fisted recruiting techniques have been relaxed. We no longer have to vote on someone to bring them into the guild. I've also lowered the guild minimum level to 30th lvl after getting a general feeling of how low we should go from folx in IRC. I still very much expect our guild to adhere to our Guild Guidelines and we will be removing people who don't follow them. There are few rules, so it shouldn't be too tough. When recruiting, make sure people read this page and acknowledge our primary rules (no portal logging, no scamming, etc).

I have also made the guildpage public so I have removed some of the internal information from the page. I don't mind people having access to our links and seeing our guildupdates, so feel free to give out the URL if someone asks.

Questions? Concerns? Feel free to get ahold of me in IRC.

- Nighthawk


Open the flood gates?
Tuesday December 19, 2000
Well, obviously JoV has had a rough week or so. So, this has been proposed :

We're thinking about opening the gates to the public. Still keeping our general rules like no p-logging, no scamming, etc, but possibly lowering the minimum level and giving everyone the ability to recruit relatively freely. Of course, we would keep a tight rein on things as far as booting people.

I think that letting people in full bore won't limit us in keeping the reins tight on the rules. We just skim off who we don't want, keep the good pvpers and rebuild hardcore for the longterm goals.

So, hit me with your thoughts. Discuss it in the irc channel with all of us or bring specific concerns to my attention in game or in PM.

- Nighthawk


What a week
Thursday December 14, 2000
Well, we've had ourselves an interesting week as I'm sure a lot of you are aware. Quick summary:

  • Broke our allegiance with Blood
  • I released everyone due to the many internal conflicts
  • I was talked into coming back and reforming the guild
  • We lost the HoC guys (aside from Cthulhu-the-loyal) because they're reforming their own guild
  • Guildmates have held animosity towards Azile to the point of attacking him
  • Katz has gone neutral and lives in AB
  • We're very small thanks to the above 3 things plus the fact that the inactive people (Downy, Preacher, Kados, etc) won't be re-added

I'd like to apologize to the guild for my rash reaction and disbanding the guild on Sunday. I just saw the guild fracturing and figured if we didn't all want to be together then we should all just split. Granted, I still think the guild at that point should have been dissolved, but perhaps I could have handled it better and made it very clear what my intentions were. My goal was not to surprise anyone and I'm sorry to those who logged in without a clue as to what was going on. I can't say things are moving very smoothly now, but I will definitely try to work through it as hard as you all are. If in the future the guild does come to an end, I will do my best to make sure that everyone is on the same page before acting.

Go figure, just as I get a pretty hierarchy java script up all nice and pretty...

Off-topic, but I did want to point out that Thug has posted his Dual Logging/Windowed Mode AC instructions. If you have multiple accounts, I would think that this is damn good news to ya. I'll add this link in the Important Links area on the menu.

Also, the Gnomes have 16 white plants I collected for the guild. Bring them a robe and they will dye it white for you. I'm not saying I want us to run around looking like the KKK, but dressing up and hitting a bunch of g'dim towns would be funny in a sick sorta way. Muaha....

- Nighthawk


Guildpage and Blood
Thursday December 7, 2000
Ok, apparently some antis have discovered our old guildpage address, so if you're reading this you know that it's been moved. This guildpage is just for us as it has inside information about guild discussions, who our mule chain is, etc. This page is NOT to be given out to anyone outside of JoV... EVER.

We're also going to be voting officially on whether we keep our allegiance with Blood. I know some of you have concerns about BH BSD and the island, but there have more than enough issues coming up recently that has led to us needing to vote on this. I highly reccommend that you all discuss this in the IRC room and take your guildmates needs into consideration when voting. Since this will be impacting people who need the two above places to level, it will take more than 50% "break allegiance" votes for us to break. I think 75% is a fair number since it would take a solid majority for us to make a decision that affects us all this much. PM me your votes in IRC before midnight EST Sunday Dec 10th. - Nighthawk


Battlecom and Raiding
Thursday November 16, 2000
Tierra and I used Battlecom a little bit last night while he and I were running around checking the circuit. Its similar to Roger Wilco but seems to be a lot less laggy and sounds better in general. So, my suggestion is to go to Battlecom.com and grab it for when we raid. Only the group leader should really be talking unless someone is in dire need of getting information to the group. Too many people talking at once just leads to confusion and makes using it pointless. Group leader is responsible for calling out targets that need to be focused on, where the group is moving to (LS area, town, checking MH) and other such necessary things to keep the whole group informed.

Speaking of group leaders, I don't have to be the group leader everytime. I mean, I like to raid as much as the next guy, but I'd like to see people organizing raids even when I'm not involved. Feel free to step forward, put a quick change in the topic with a time and meeting place, and take a crew somewhere. Make a gate mule to Stonehold, Bandit Castle, Baishi, or even better - some anti leveling spots (since I know it pisses you guys off when they do it to us). Setup a battlecom channel and go beat some ass.

I'd also like to take a moment to welcome some of our new Guildmembers. Aerious, Cthulhu, Lunar Escplise, Das Omen, Kuhal Earthshaker/Mercallv and Mark the Noble - welcome to the guild. I know most of you and the couple that I don't I hope the "runs the guild with an iron fist" thing didn't really concern ya too much. I think Rob was just trying to express that we're picky about people trying to get in. Please take a moment to read back through some of our news bits as well as taking note of the Allies / War / KOS, Guild Guidelines and IRC sections. We don't use the Forum, so I've removed the link to it. Generally all topics are discussed in IRC, so make sure you use it.

BTW, PMS Rage and his followers have joined The Feared. They run around using "Quadi Blood" fellowships trying to fool people into not attacking them so they can jump you unexpectedly. Just a heads up.

I'd also like to thank the people that donated to help use get Lawn-Gnome his set of GSA replaced after that strange bug deleted the GSA coat. Lawn said in IRC, "Finally got the parts to get my GSA back, thanks a ton guys".

- Nighthawk


Updates Galore
Saturday November 11, 2000
A quick couple of notes. First, Tai Lo Quan has a gate mule to the island. In other words, no more lifestoning in the middle of no where, having to pay 10 or 50k, and no diamond golem debuffs just to get to the island. He's selling this gate, but I've agreed to take care of the cost for all JoV, so please take advantage of this unique opportunity to portal tie directly onto the island. Get together with Tai today or tomorrow at latest to arrange a gating so we're not asking for 15 gates from him, just 1 for several people.

No one knows if the portal ties will be cleared if made from bugged gates, but the gate mules are definitely being fixed on patch day (Tuesday). I *highly* reccommend that everyone either tie to the island or to my AB gate while you can. We can always setup mules to gate to leveling spots, vit losing, etc, but these gates won't be around after Monday, so I'd jump on them ASAP.

More and more people are looking to join JoV. I'd like everyone to stay involved in the voting process. Just send me a private message in IRC letting me know if you feel positively, negatively or don't know someone well enough to form an opinion. If you have a negative, please let me know why you've formed that opinion so that I can let other guildmates know what kind of issues have been brought up. I don't mind you telling me if you get a bad vibe from someone, but if you're the only negative comment I'd like to know if it's something you can work through or if it's a genuine issue/concern. I'm not trying to get relaxed on the recruiting, I just want a clear understanding of where people stand. A "NO" vote really doesn't give me much to work with.

Also note that Aerious made the HoC disbanding official with a post on their site. Will be interesting to see if former members apply for JoV, or go to another pk monarchy like Blood or Mage Crimson. Anyhow, Aerious did say that I run the guild with an iron fist... which is kinda cute but thankfully not entirely accurate. But, he was successful in getting across that we take our rules seriously (p-logging, etc).

- Nighthawk


Guild Recruiting and Misc Stuff
Friday November 10, 2000
As most of you know from discussions in IRC, three of the core from HoC are going to be joining JoV. Aerious, Cthulhu, and Lunar Esclipse were all JoV members before and have been long considered to be the only three people in the game that didn't need a vote rejoin JoV. I've met the guys irl and I cannot express enough how happy I am that they're coming back to the guild.

They are asking to bring 5 members with them and we will have to vote on them. I have to speak with each one to make sure they're dedicated to being in JoV, but that pending we'll assume that they are for now. They are : Akuma's Pk Player, Magic Gan Man, Kuhal Earthshaker, Mark the Noble and Das Omen. Das Omen is Bloodcats who is also a rl friend of Aerious, Cthulhu and Lunar and ALSO was in JoV back when they were. We've all fought these guys so we know how they fight and how they present themselves to the enemy. We'll vote in IRC - just send me a PM on your thoughts on each one. We also have another small group asking to join, but I told them that recruiting was closed until the end of the weekend (while we handle the HoC guys).

Other good news is that Blood is taking a good stand on JoV being attacked by their guildmembers. The topic in their IRC room today was shockingly "STOP ATTACKING JoV/Patryn, they ALL are our allies - If any prb, report them here." So, just like I said in the last update, report all problems in the #elite channel.

As a side note, lets keep the attacks on our own guild to a minimum. I'm not talking about dueling or just goofing off, because that's understandable. However, if you're "goofing off" with lvl VI war magic or vulns/inepts - thats where things start to not be funny anymore.

Finally, Lawn-Gnome had his post-patch GSA coat disappear to a strange bug and we're taking a collection to help him get a new set. He had his coat equipped with his acid stone in it and he alt-tabbed - when he came back it was gone. Checked all bags, relogged, etc... gone for good. Anyhow, we have to get enough for a whole new set because you cannot get just a coat - but I'll take the remaining pants and try to trade them for shadow/frag pieces to get as much back for donators as possible. I'm donating a scintilating gem and Rory, Ainvar and Source have already donated. If you want to help out, every little bit helps. Thanks.

- Nighthawk


Plenty to talk about
Sunday November 5, 2000
Yet again, a long break between updates. Anyhow, lots to cover, so lets get to it.

Allies

We have one ally, Blood. There is no tolerance for attacking them unless it's in self defense. And I don't mean they attacked you, you killed them, then you keep on killing them. Conflicts are to be worked out. There are a ton of Bloods and it's understandable that the news trickles down from the top somewhat slowly. As I'm sure you all know, I expect you to be the bigger man in most situations. I've been attacked a handful of times by bloods, but I promise if you just inept the fuck out of them without trying to kill them, the 15 minutes of downtime along with a "oh yeah, we're allies so I guess you shouldn't attack me again" will serve as a simple reminder to check guildtags.

If you have a problem with a Blood member, let Zeke, Parthor or Chupa know in #elite. If you don't have access, let me know. When asking for their assistance, use the same calm tone that you would want them to use when reporting a problem to you.

As a side note, we have peace with Venger in AB now. We're both going to be raiding it a great deal and pks attacking pks in an anti town is kinda silly when there are so many anti targets to be had. I'm not saying check every person for a Blood/Venger tag because I surely don't, but if you see another group of people fighting and none of them are yours, one of the sides in that fight is bound to be a friend so look for them.

Raiding

Getting back to basics. Yesterday was a great raiding day. With our new AB gater (thanks to Andy for helping me twink him up), we're hitting AB in record amounts - I think we hit it a total of 7 or 8 times on Saturday. Even the Bloods in #elite were like "christ you guys are raiding there a lot"... exactly.

BTW, we also hit Sawato and Stonehold on Friday - both turned out to be quite easy, but SH was the better of the two. Still, there's one guy in Sawato who runs around handing we raiders beer, so it has it's good points too. =)

Guild Recruiting

A lot of our members are going more and more inactive, especially our higher levels. Azile, Downy and Preacher have all been offline for a while now and Katz' is playing mostly on a carebear server (even though he does play DT a bit). So, we are recruiting, but in a very strict sense. Of course, our minimum level is 40, but a bunch of "I don't know him" votes won't get someone in the guild. An internal referral is damn near required as well as the guild as a whole having an idea of who he is. If you have a prospective canidate, bring him on a raid and let us all see how he does. Remember, we're looking for long term members - we're not a fly-by-night xp whoring guild, so we expect a bit more out of our members.

Gate Mules

I'm starting to tie my gates mules to various areas to make getting to pain in the ass places a lot easier. I have the AB gater and a gater to the sclavus temple near the Acid Vault (which if you're a meleer and can't hit tuskers, that's where you should be). Once I get Crum' out of his vitae, we'll have a gate mule to Stonehold. I'm planning on having gaters to Black Hill, The Plateau, The Crater and maybe Baishi or Bandit Castle. I know several of you have gate mules - if you have ones that are constant to a particular place of interest, let me know in email and I'll put up a page here for Gate Mules.

Dispells, Masks, etc

I've gone ahead and learned lvl V and VI dispell Others in both Life and Creature. After a raid, so long as I don't have a Creature Inept VI, I can get any debuff off you. Bear in mind that chorizite isn't super easy to come by, but if you need it - don't hesitate to ask me. If you're learning dispells, if you can do VI (300 skill), please take the time to learn Other at least in Creature because everyone knows that not being able to re-buff puts you out of commission.

I've added a link to the Mask FAQ on Tip It. If you have any questions about where the mask vendors are and what you have to do to get the race masks, hit that Mask FAQ link in the menu.

Please continue to use IRC. You don't have to pay attention to it at all times, but if you get a lul in the action or are waiting out debuffs, take a minute to alt-tab to IRC and see what's been going on. Voting for new members, raids, quests, and most general discussion happens in the IRC room. Yes, it's important enough to mention in every update. =P

Good raiding. Keep up the great work!

- Nighthawk


Quest Walkthroughs Added
Wednesday October 4, 2000
Holy shit, an update! Yeah yeah, I know. My work blocked my access to WTFMan.com, so I've been updating a lot less recently. Certainly a lot has happened since my last guild update, but I wanted to quick point out that I've added a new set of links at the bottom of the menu - Quest Walkthroughs. These actually take you step by step through the quests including maps and/or instructions for specifically where to turn, etc. The Lightning Stone one is very nice and cuts out any chance of getting lost on the lower level since it's 1 turn away if you know the route and endless mazes if you don't.

JoV has also begun work on the Island Quest. Its fucking hard as hell, but it's only been done once on DT to my knowledge. We could use the help of anyone over lvl 45 even though the quest rewards will not be available to everyone. Just the experience both in the form of exp and being one of the only groups to have done it will be motivation enough. If you want to help, join the #island IRC channel.

Anyhow, recently we've added Downy, Preacher, and a couple of lower level people to the guild. Obviously, most of you know this since you get in IRC regularly and so do they. I wanted to officially post that JoV is only considering people who are 40th level or above to join JoV. We still vote on everyone who asks to join and we do so in IRC, so make sure you're using it (do I hint around that enough?).

- Nighthawk