Creature Handler Archive

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Getting close now . . . 4/0/3/0 with only 5k or so more to go to finish that 4th. I probably would have been closer but I decided to test a theory, based on Lytefoot's reports, and headed out to her recommended area for fambaas. Unfortunately, there was no spawn of any kind, which is kind of what I expected. I'd always thought that spawn was very divergent in concentration based on the server, and this seemed to prove it. For common creatures with a wide spawn range, I think that the foot-traffic variable comes too much into play for trying to get them to pop, and I hope this is something the devs do fix soon, since they know its an issue. I was on foot, not even riding my spat, and doing the weave looking for fambaas or ANYTHING at that point, and ran most of the way to Keren without seeing a thing. Unfortunately, I mostly blame player city shuttles for this, at least on the buildable planets. We didn't have this kind of trouble to this extent when we had to actually travel everywhere across open ground. It's getting so bad that I'm actually getting a bit concerned about working my CH boxes. Back when I innitially was raising Shabhaii through the levels, I spent the greater part of my time just wandering, killing whatever I came across, and taming random babies. Missions were a waste of time for me, because you spent so much time travelling back and forth where you could be better spending it hunting. Now there's very little out there beyond the mission radius in many areas, and absolutely nothing on some planets. I'm going to miss dying on Rori while I'm in my second levels again.

I came to a harsh decision last night . . . Kleylli is going to have to give up Pike. I intended for him to be a fun character that could just go out and hunt and tame, but after my face got its upteenth soil sample from a kaadu because I didn't hit it a single time, I had to conclude that Pike is still too broken to do this with. Shame, too, because Pike is a gorgeous class to play, and the animations for it are nothing short of astounding. He just doesn't look right as a TKA, so I'm thinking 2-Handed. Right now he's at Polearm IV, and I tried him with a heavy axe at like 400 condition; with no 2-Handed skill, he did exactly the same success-wise as he did with the pike, which means the same number of dirt naps, the same number of kills, against the same animals. Needless to say, I think that I can assume he'll be a LOT more successful at 2-Handed IV than he is at Polearms IV from that.

I also decided that its time for him to find a PA or town to live in. The people on Shadowfire are incredibly nice, so much so that its a bit freaky. People from all levels, factions, and PA's have stopped to offer Kleylli help and conversation, and even the "d00d, ur so f'in short" people are (for the most part) friendly jokers rather than the jerks I'm used to. Even so, the wilds can get lonely when my friends that I talk to a lot *waves to Pem and Arrican* aren't on, and I miss guild chat, and a more extensive friends list. The hard part is going to be finding the right group for him. It's nice to finally be able to say that avoiding the jerks will be easy, since they're much more far between here, and it'll just be a matter of finding the right group of good ones.

It'll be a late night at work tonight, so unfortunately I don't think I'll be getting novice by Sunday night like I hoped, but it will be soon enough. Okay, maybe it WON'T be soon enough. I want my taming ability back NOW!!!!!!

Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server

Sorry about that. I don't think its the biggest factor, but I know that it is a factor in general, both from dev comments and from observation. For example, on Scylla there is absolutely no measurable traffic on Talus or Rori at all, not for missions or anything. Because there's no people, there's no spawns, where by the mission theory that would leave the planet pretty evenly populated with animals and NPCs. But on Dantooine, the most populated planet next to Corellia (if I have my counts right), there's spawn everywhere, throughout the entire planet, not just in the Rings of Death. Dathomir is also spawn heaven outside of the mission radius.

The shame of the mounts, I've noticed, is that avatars scale to the exact same size regardless of race when you're riding; Kleylli is just as tall as my wook, Shabhaii, or so darn close I can'ttell the difference. I hadn't riden a carrion spat with her for several months, so I really have to see him on a cu pa to tell for sure. I wish they would put in some race specific mounts, or at least size specific. For example, of a common animal with three distinct sizes, if they were to make gualamas mountable, make only wookiees and trandos able to ride dappled's, the mid-races ride the normal ones, and Bothans ride bachelors. The scale is a little off on the models, but its a decent enough comparison. Personally, I'd LOVE to put Kleylli on a tybis.

<a href="ttp://www.findmidis.com/listen.go/152>Soundtrack for today's post</a>

I knew that this was going to be a good day the instant Iawoke and it sounded like the Death Star itself was falling around me. Everywhere I looked was a forest of treetrunk legs . . . an enormous herd of fambaas filling the valley where I had camped the night before. There were eight of them, filling this little Bothan's entire line of view. Their milk was just as sweet and fresh as it had been for the past few days (it must be something in their diet) and I collected an enormous amount of it in short order. I'm still trying to figure out how exactly a Bothan milks a fambaa, especially when you have to stand under its chin, but hey, it works!

Their nesting area was nearby, and it sounded like there could possibly be more guarding the nest. So after entering the coordinates into my datapad, I snuck up and tapped it with my pike and took off top speed. The thunder of the animals chasing me was enormous! I could hardly see where I was going, they were shaking the ground so hard . . . and ran smack into a plains hunter. I think the fambaas saw it at the same time I did, because they gave up chase at that moment and just stood there. I was trapped between a herd of heaving, torked off fambaas and one very confused giant cat. I froze, trying despirately to catch my breath, watching every twitch of the hunter's muscles and listening to the huge herbivores milling behind me, wondering which was going to make a move for me first. It was the hunter, and finally it lept . . .

. . . right over me, and onto the neck of one of the fambaas!

I almost collapsed with relief, and started to trot off before I could be seen again, but it hit me: wait a minute, I need that milk! I turned to watch the fight, and the hunter and the fambaa were both talking it about equally badly. It was a toss up as to who was going to win, and I had to make the outcome more predictable. With a gulp a readied my pike, and took a huge swing at the cat. Then another. Myself and the three fambaas in the fight now made short work of it as a team, although I received quite a few injuries.

As the fight drew to a close and the huge cat slumped to the ground with a final roar to the heavens, I leaned on the polearm panting, looking at the immense body that could have eaten me in one bite, oblivious to the monsters still towering over me. A blast of air on my back snapped me out of my stupor, and I whipped around to see one of the fambaa staring at me intently. This was it, I thought, they remember that I bothered their nest. In the distance, one of the other females rumbled its lowing call, urging the guardians to return to the plain with the rest of the herd, and with a final sniff of my scent, the three who had fought the plains hunter walked off. I was safe.

I skinned the cat, learning some pretty amazing things about their physiology in doing so; normally I just skin the beasts to sell the hides to tailors for the family business, and had never really paid much attention before.

I'd been hired the other night to eradicate some small animal lairs by a clerk at the palace, so I trotted off toward their locations. As I ran I thought about the fight against the cat, with the fambaas beside me. Would it be possible to actually train an animal to fight as a partner by choice?

I had a chance to work beside creatures again in a fight a short time later. I'd realized that if I was going to try to tame one, I'd have to know a lot more than I did about how they thought and moved, what they ate, and their temperments. I came across a herd of bolle bol, wallowing in the rivermouth on the beaches north of Theed.Their milk is almost as copious as the fambaas, so I milked them all in quick succession as well, but I couldn't find the nest. No matter. I sat on the bank and watched them for some time, studying how they interacted to each other and the things around them.

Suddenly, out of the ground behind one of them came boiling a swarm of spineflaps. The poor bolle must have stepped on the entrance to their hive or something, because the insects went straight for the massive animal. As much as I needed the milk, I needed to know more about the bolle bol even more, and also wanted to see how a predator would react to me fighting beside it. So this time I went for the herbivore. The spineflaps didn't really mind, but the rest of the herdmates did, and knocked me out cold before moving onto killing the first wave of insects. The bugs were dead by the time I came to, my head spinning; the bolle bol we had been fighting though, was very bad off. It stumbled farther and farther away from its fellows, and with shaking legs stepped on the hive again. It's dying screams made my hackles raise, and I had to do something out of simple compassion. Weaving on my own shaky legs, I raised my pike over my head and smashed it down on its skull, killing it. Its herdmates came tearing over, finishing off the insects while I collapsed against the dead bolle's body to rest.

After catching my breath I skinned that animal in short order as well, and it hit me like a thunderbolt: this really could work. I really COULD work with an animal in my hunting, if I got one young enough. I stillhave more to learn before I attempt it though, but I think after a few more hunts I can give it my first shot.

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No, I don't. I think its really just a communication problem between my browser and Lithium . . . for eight months I didn't have the "report abuse to moderator" option at all, and even now whenever I update anything in my profile (like recently I changed my "PA" field) gaps appear in the HTML code for my sig and I have to redo it repeatedly to get it to stick. *shrugs* I figured it was worth trying again, but its obviously still not working for me.

I haven't updated this in a while . . . I'd been planning on writing a good, long RP story about the night I became a CH, but with the Mind Trick discussions and such I just haven't had the time for that kind of work. I'll write it another time, but for now I'll just update to where I am currently.

Kleylli did in fact become a Creature Handler at long last, on July 5th. His first tame was (in grand BT tradition) a wrix; actually twin wrixes! I was very lucky and able to find them within a half hour of hunting for a lair. Along the way I had to kick and scream for a little while, because I came upon a baby war gronda, an animal that Shabhaii had been looking futilly for ever since she could tame one. Fiyshek, the female wrix, was tamed on the first try. Fatan, her brother, was a bit more difficult because he was underwater in the river, and I don't think he could hear me very well.

It was late, so I went to log out at the nearest city, and just outside the city perimeter I saw something I'd never seen before: a herd of forest murras. Sure enough, even at Novice I was able to take the baby. I've asked around here and between other CH friends of mine, and the forest murra ranks up there with the highly uncommon animals. Thus, Kleylli got his first "rare" on his first night of being a handler.

I'm an extremely solo player. I think I can count on my fingers the number of times I've grouped in this game, including Beta, and if I add my toes in there I can still count the number of times I've grouped to hunt in my 5+ years of MMO playing. As such, I come up with systems that work quickly and safely for being out on one's own. Handling is no exception . . . I can, when I want to, get an average of a box every two nights without any interaction from any other players (ie, no leeching at the geo caves or anything ridiculous like that). On my first tier, its a box a night easy, usually with some left over, when averaging two actual hunting hours out of a four hour play session. The rest is taken in tells, resting, cantina time, running back for more missions, etc.

My next night (July 6th) went very well, and I got Empathy I. What a pain it was for that first box though! Fatan, Fiyshek, and the murra had to be swapped out repeatedly, because their mind damage would keep adding up and they'd have to rest in the datapad. Thankfully they were all only Level 2, so they recuped pretty fast. Fiyshek stored once, but I wasn't in combat so it wasn't that big a deal. What was a pretty big deal though was that they wouldn't follow on their own about one out of four times. As these are all non-mount animals, I was a bit concerned, and as I couldn't group them, and they were small, they were hard to find when I needed to. It was annoying, but not crippling.

The other shoe fell the next day (July 7th). I knew things had been going too well on Shadowfire, and it was just a matter of time before the bugs hit me hard. Sure enough, I was training my new male kaadu to accept his name, Striker, when it happened. I turned on his radial, hit "store", and said "Striker store".

"Chat channel unavailable!"

i tried it again.

"Chat channel unavailable!"

I was talking to a PA leader whose group I was planning on meeting that evening, so I sent her a tell to see if she was having chat problems.

"Chat channel unavailable!"

**edit**? I thought maybe the server region had gone down for communication, so I stored the kaadu and started moving. A tell comes through from the PA Leader and not thinking, I hit reply and said "One minute". It worked. Okay, so it was a momentary hiccup. I pull out the kaadu again, and start to retrain it.

"Chat channel unavailable!"

I try another tell.

"Chat channel unavailable!"

I store the kaadu.

"testing." The tell goes through.

So essentially what was happening was whenever I used the radial on my animal it locked up ALL of my chat until I stored the animal. Sometimes it would actually hold over for a while, even after storing, and I had a few points where for ten minutes I couldn't talk at all, never mind command my pets. I logged out, frustrated.

That night I log back in, preparing to go on a group hunt with the PA I'm thinking of joining. The bug is still going strong, and now its getting worse. If I have a pet out, I can't see ANY spatial chat in my chat box, nor my own emote commands; I can, however, command my pets to an extent, I just can't hear myself give the command (rather like /tellpet). I warn the leader that I'm having trouble and say it might not be the best night, but she really wants to go.

So I get to Endor, and I can't see a thing that anyone is saying as soon as I pull out Fiyshek off and on, except in chat bubbles. This fades in and out, and is extremely annoying since I'm supposed to be getting to know these people. Finally that fades from "pretty constant" to "sporadic", although I can still see much more of their emotes than their speach. We get hunting.

Bug two sets in. Fiyshek decides that she's not a ferocity 4, she's a ferocity 4000000. She's attacking everything in sight, both aggro and non-aggro. On top of that, she's warping everywhere so I don't even know what the heck she's attacking next, because I can't see her run off. By this point I'm pissed, because I alternately can and can't talk to the group I'm with, they think I'm being a moron with my animal, and I can't even explain to them what's going on. When I finally do, they start giving me n00b advice ("you should call your pet back after one hit!") and crap, when I haven't been able to accurately control her at all, never mind keep her close enough to command her WHEN I can talk. I give up and tell them I'm leaving.

Changing planets again seemed to help a lot. The bug had started on Naboo, got worse on Endor, and then was pretty well fixed when I went back to Naboo. I settle back down into my comfortable soloing, chatting with a friend who needs some AP points. I decide to back off on my Pike training to do TK for a while, so she can train me for that,and talking to another friend decide to go hunting with him sometimes. That will work well, since he can train me in CH and I'm going seriously broke from paying for training. I get Training 1. Not that I need to really teach my pets to stay, because they still aren't following me well, but I needed the extra datapad space. My souvenir from Endor was a rabid squall . . . when I'd seen two death's head babies. *sigh* I miss not having Master.

Vert, noticed you were on and thought you might be interested in the bug I had the other day.

Don't feel too bad. When I logged off last night I was stuck on Corellia. I had just finished rancor hunting with my squad and was on the way to tatooine. I got to correllia and went through 8 tickets in the star port plus a disconnect and exit. Nothing worked the tickets were consumed but I never left the station. Tried the ticket robot, /board trans, and selecting the ticket and using its radial. I hope when I log in tonight I can finally leave.

Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server

Arg, I hate it when I have to work nights . . . I either get to play or write this, and despite what my post count indicates, I prefer playing.

I'm now a 1/1/1/1 CH, and can finally relax a little bit. I wanted to rush those first four boxes so I could at least have enough CLs to get some animals that would grow big enough that I could take them up against some stronger creatures. I'm still getting used to having a combat class . . . even though Pike only barely counts. I'm still only up against nothing stronger than a kaadu because of my miss rate. *sighs*

While hunting the other night, Fiyshek got hit with (yet) another bug. What was funny was this one was actually REALLY cool, even as it was annoying as hell. She was hit by the slowdown, and as I would generally do to attempt a fix, I had her attack something. So I send her after a nuna, and she drops into attack posture. She takes a step, and freezes, and takes another step, and freezes . . . while it was still the slowdown bug, it made her look like she was stalking her prey! Unfortunately it took her four minutes RT to move the 50m to the nuna, or this would have been something that I actually wouldn't mind seeing for RP purposes. Even better would be a command called "Break", where your pet would stalk the animal on the outer edge of a lair, and then herd it back toward you or your group with a good chance of not drawing the aggro of the other creatures. You'd need a chance to fail, of course, but it would be great for groups after the combat reballance fighting in the wild.

Only got to play for about an hour and a half, but in that hour and a half I did what had taken Shabhaii over a year to do . . . Kleylli got his wasteland cu pa. I was running on foot from the Krayyt Gaveyard to a town called Mjolnir, looking for wild dunes and malignants for a friend, and just as I walked into Mjolnir's outer rim I saw the first adult; one out of FIVE of them. I pulled out Striker the kaadu and had to kill eight of the adults (and incapp 7 out of 8 times; thank the gods I didn't die) through new spawns to finally get the baby to pop. Like the one that Shabhaii had, this one is named Thakk. I also picked up a desert eopie named Bando, as well as a lesser dewback so that Kleylli can have soemthing to ride that will scale correctly, but I'm maxed out on datapad space and had to release Chihiro the dappled gualama and an unnamed rock beetle to get my new animals. Unfortunately this is meaning that Striker will likely be released on Naboo sometime soon, and I've been waiting to see a wookiee named Who to give him back the ostard I was lent when I first started this character, but he hasn't been on.

Congratulations

I am still really enjoying reading your Diary, can't wait to read the next installment.