The Scatter

[Archigeek]

It's open, though so far we've only been able to access it by being rifted there, and then rifted back. Not sure if that's going to be it or not.

A lot of chaos so far up there. Tons of critters in all kinds of places they don't belong.

Worst death so far: cutting your way out of the belly of a rift crawler, only to have it dive down roa-ter style and kill you with near certainty.

[droit]

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Mestys manually transported us there, then transported us out. In fact, the messaging for our trip was the exact messaging for a normal GM teleport (You feel yourself pulled away). I'm pretty sure we can't get back there until the storyline progresses.

[Archigeek]

Another note: I have yet to be able to get an AdvG task for the new critters.

[droit]

And the sphere is back to normal.

[Asha]

What do mean, back to normal? You mean it doesn't annihilate spirit as bad as it has been?

[Kembal]

Got killed via digestion by a crawler and expelled to the Scatter. Got swallowed by another crawler and sent to plane 2, where I got rescued. Fun stuff.

Anyway, here's the highlight of what happened while I was dead:

DEAD>
Soundlessly, a glistening cerebralite hovers over you, its eye-stalks twisting as it contorts to gaze down on your lifeless body. As it studies your corpse, trickles of milky fluid drip from its base.

The cerebralite latches its primary tentacles to your temples rather systematically, sending low-intensity pulses of electricity through your head. A deep thrumming can be heard as your skull begins to bulge alarmingly, causing a number of cracks to form. Thin rivulets of blood stream forth, followed by an audible *SPLORTCH* as your brain frees itself of its confines! Half a dozen tentacles sprout from its underside, while former ocular nerves elongate into tubular eye-stalks as the strange entity swells in size.

A glistening wrinkled cerebralite hovers over its shattered former enclosure, covered in a thick mucusy membrane.
DEAD>
[The Rift, Scatter]
Overturned desks lie in disarray on the bloody floor of an old classroom. All along the weathered walls, school books have had their pages stabbed through with daggers, securing them to the wooden panels beneath. The scorching wind rushes in through an open window, howling and moaning like a spirit possessed. You also see a glistening wrinkled cerebralite, a Vvrael destroyer, a Vvrael destroyer, a Vvrael destroyer, a glistening cerebralite, a murky soul siphon and a glistening cerebralite.
Obvious paths: northeast, southeast

[Danical]

2039482308402398402389402384023984 USD Huagkragg comes back as a Lich.

any takers?

[Danical]

Soundlessly, a glistening cerebralite hovers over you, its eye-stalks twisting as it contorts to gaze down on your lifeless body. As it studies your corpse, trickles of milky fluid drip from its base.

The cerebralite latches its primary tentacles to your temples rather systematically, sending low-intensity pulses of electricity through your head. A deep thrumming can be heard as your skull begins to bulge alarmingly, causing a number of cracks to form. Thin rivulets of blood stream forth, followed by an audible *SPLORTCH* as your brain frees itself of its confines! Half a dozen tentacles sprout from its underside, while former ocular nerves elongate into tubular eye-stalks as the strange entity swells in size.

A glistening wrinkled cerebralite hovers over its shattered former enclosure, covered in a thick mucusy membrane.
DEAD>
[The Rift, Scatter]
Overturned desks lie in disarray on the bloody floor of an old classroom. All along the weathered walls, school books have had their pages stabbed through with daggers, securing them to the wooden panels beneath. The scorching wind rushes in through an open window, howling and moaning like a spirit possessed. You also see a glistening wrinkled cerebralite, a Vvrael destroyer, a Vvrael destroyer, a Vvrael destroyer, a glistening cerebralite, a murky soul siphon and a glistening cerebralite.
Obvious paths: northeast, southeast

Copy/Paste of Dogmatists/Farlooks?

I wished they animated you instead; that would be fucking rad. Massive 1030 to your face!

[Fallen]

Nice to see this area finally being released.

[Stretch]

MONKS!?!?!11

[Kembal]

Copy/Paste of Dogmatists/Farlooks?

I wished they animated you instead; that would be fucking rad. Massive 1030 to your face!

That ability might be reserved for the liches. They haven't shown up yet.

[Rue]

Things that make you go HMMMMMMM

Ok, we all know I'm a little slow so help me out here. What the hell happen to the rift? They updated it? Its a story line? IS there any information to read on it?

The bowels were going old so we decided to hit the rift up, two days ago it was the usual there. Went to tend to some business and came back and its a little changed up.

Crawlers are everywhere and over running the place not to mention a few more people now then before.... Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Archigeek]

New critters. Basic info on each of the new critters is available on the officials, and amongst them are: Fallen Crusaders, Fetish Masters, Vvrael Destroyers, Rift Crawlers, Cereberis (sp) and some others. Actually I'm sure someone posted the official list on these boards somewhere. And to toot my own horn just a little, several of the critters, including the Vvrael Destroyer and the always entertaining Rift Crawler were ideas I posted on the officials a couple of years back, including the crawlers ability to swallow you, and to travel from plane to plane. Fun stuff.

The new critters will be mostly in an area known as "The Scatter" and so far many have also been found on plane four, but there are also a lot of critters that are moving from one plane to another, with generally more critter variety on every plane. This certainly has upped the danger quotient on every plane.

[WRoss]

Pretty sure you can fog, symbol of return, sign of darkness, sigil of escape, and sing your way into the scatter. As for getting out, I don't know.

[Archigeek]

The rift has long had a randomized effect when it comes to symbol of return. I used to use it at times to get off of five when I was carrying way too many boxes and couldn't make the climb. Generally, from plane five the case was that about 4/5ths of the time it would return you to a random location on five, with the remaining 1/5th going to a different plane, and that last fifth seemed weighted slightly towards plane 4, but I can't confirm that. So that could still be the case, with the addition of the scatter just increasing the range of locations you might end up. As a result, you might be able to get there via random placement by symbol of return.

[TheLastShamurai]

Well, I've confirmed that at the very least, 130 will get ya there.

And the Scatter is currently set to dispell pwn mode.

[Silique]

Ok but how does one get there without spells?

[TheLastShamurai]

Ok but how does one get there without spells?

I don't know.

But on a lighter note...thanks to Droit, Rimalon, myself and a lot of work from Triss, we have the current Scatter implementation mapped! And I'll be putting it up on GSGuide with the rest of my maps shortly.

[Rimalon]

Also here! Yay Miko!

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/af25/chigg411/Scattersized.jpg

[Belnia]

It'll always be Plane 6 to me!

[Archigeek]

New post on the officials: Scatter temporarily set to "standard rift spell stripping mode" until they figure out what's going on with the system they had set up. Personally, I hope they leave it that way.

Solo'd plane 4 very early this morning when no one else was around and with the slight tweaks to crawlers it was quite do-able, though that was with a hurling weapon. I don't envy squares trying to take on cerebralites without any form of ranged weaponry. It seems odd to me that you can hit something with a ranged weapon that you can't hit up close and personal with a maul. Makes no sense if the issue isn't that it's flying. Sure, I can see not being able to puncture it or slash it... but if it's as small as a bug, how come you can't crush it like a bug? Fallen Crusaders remain the most difficult to take down, but as a bonus they are vulnerable to voln-fu.

[The Ponzzz]

Are the cerebralites' 712 effect still hitting with thrown?

[Archigeek]

Yes, the cerebralites' 712 effect still attacks you when you're using a thrown weapons, and on pretty much every single attack. It's quite deadly, as it's "pain" and easily sucks down half your HP's if it surpasses your TD, which it will for most squares on plane 4, and even more commonly if they change The Scatter to be more restrictive on spell wearing. I'd suggest doing everything you can to improve your TD, as they cast it with a CS in excess of 400.

[The Ponzzz]

Oh, I knew it was pain. Was hoping thrown weapons prevented the retribution. We tried it in Platinum. We're not bothering with the area again.

[Izzy]

Yes, the cerebralites' 712 effect still attacks you when you're using a thrown weapons, and on pretty much every single attack. It's quite deadly, as it's "pain" and easily sucks down half your HP's if it surpasses your TD, which it will for most squares on plane 4, and even more commonly if they change The Scatter to be more restrictive on spell wearing. I'd suggest doing everything you can to improve your TD, as they cast it with a CS in excess of 400.

I thought pain (711) was limited to 33%? Or is that not the case (fairly likely) for the creature version? Still, it's a pretty wicked blow, not to mention the RT it stacks. h8 pain.

[Archigeek]

I guess I can't say I know how much HP it takes, I'm sure someone who plays a sorcerer has the answer to that one. The thing of it is though, that you're probably going to have to swing multiple times to kill them, so unless you've got a lot of TD, it's fairly likely you're going to get hit with it multiple times, hit by other critters in the meantime, etc. So maybe it just felt like half? Most of the time they can't get past my TD, but it's a difficulty for a lot of others. A couple of shots with that and if you aren't paying attention you'll be in big trouble.

[droit]

At least they're crittable.

Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!

[Fallen]

It can take up at 33% of your health depending on the endroll and lore training, which I suppose is moot for creatures. What sucks is creatures get benefits from CoS that sorcerers don't get.

[Makkah]

Yea, I've been solo'ing 4 for the past 3 days or so. Haven't died yet. Cerebralites are really soft, and crusaders can be a pain in the ass without Tonis going.

[Methais]

How's the loot?

[Widgets]

How's the loot?

phat lewt

[Danical]

How's the loot?

I've pulled down probably 30 or 40 boxes and not a single enhancive. :(

[Archigeek]

The loot is decent, but getting it out of the rift is a problem. It's still swarming with the crowds, and as such you just can't take the risk of carrying a lot of weight off of plane 4. Remember, to get out of plane 4, you have to first climb the thread to plane 5, where you risk the implosions of the vaespilons, and then again make the climb from 5 to 1, and then find the door or mirror. All of those climbs are skill checks, with failure meaning you're on your back in RT for 3-10 seconds, and even in the case of success going from four to five you end up flat on your back, possibly staring up at a vaespilon. You're also going to spend some time wandering to find the thread on 4 most likely, and aren't going to want to be encumbered so that a worm burrow is certain death.

Also, the "skins" from the new critters aren't worth as much as caedera skins or aivren gizzards; they're worth about half as much for the cerebralites and about a quarter as much for the rift crawlers.

The bottom line is I can go to plane five and make a lot more loot than I can on four. Mostly because I can leave five with 10 boxes, but I don't dare walk off of four with more than 4 boxes.

[Asha]

Plane 5 is the man when it comes to good loot. Being a sorc helps a lot.
Btw I never checked do black crystals work in there?

[Danical]

The loot is decent, but getting it out of the rift is a problem. It's still swarming with the crowds, and as such you just can't take the risk of carrying a lot of weight off of plane 4. Remember, to get out of plane 4, you have to first climb the thread to plane 5, where you risk the implosions of the vaespilons, and then again make the climb from 5 to 1, and then find the door or mirror. All of those climbs are skill checks, with failure meaning you're on your back in RT for 3-10 seconds, and even in the case of success going from four to five you end up flat on your back, possibly staring up at a vaespilon. You're also going to spend some time wandering to find the thread on 4 most likely, and aren't going to want to be encumbered so that a worm burrow is certain death.

Also, the "skins" from the new critters aren't worth as much as caedera skins or aivren gizzards; they're worth about half as much for the cerebralites and about a quarter as much for the rift crawlers.

The bottom line is I can go to plane five and make a lot more loot than I can on four. Mostly because I can leave five with 10 boxes, but I don't dare walk off of four with more than 4 boxes.



I can climb the thread with 111 Climbing Ranks (sigil of resolve) when I'm at the very highest level of encumbrance. So, roughly 2 boxes.

I think if you go up to 101 climbing you should be able to climb the thread without much difficulty no matter your encumbrance.

[The Ponzzz]

lol@2 boxes.

[Widgets]

lol@2 boxes.

Gnomes!

[Danical]

roflz.

Crusaders haste themselves too. Talk about crazy fucking HP regen.

[Makkah]

Just got rifted/pulled to The Scatter. Ran like a bitch.

But I thought this was neat (even if just a stolen earth elemental thing).

[The Rift, Scatter]
A plain of snow and ice stretches out as far as the eye can see. In the twilight sky, shimmering golds, pinks, and blues dance across the heavens. The colorful lights reflect off of the tiny flakes of snow that fall all around. You also see a darkly inked fetish master.
Obvious exits: southwest, down
>inc 1005
You change your tune slightly, adding the element for Lullabye to your song...
Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a darkly inked fetish master.
The fetish master seems mesmerized by the tune.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>
A darkly inked fetish master snatches a skull rattle from its belt, shaking it up and down rhythmically as it emits a discordant chant that echoes abormally across the environs. It abruptly completes its ritual and stares directly at you!

A rotting post suddenly bursts from the floor, splintering into a twisted wooden doll!

A rotting post suddenly bursts from the floor, splintering into a rattling wooden doll!

A rotting post suddenly bursts from the floor, splintering into a battered wooden doll!

A rotting post suddenly bursts from the floor, splintering into a rickety wooden doll!

[Archigeek]

Yeah and those little bastards will all attack you at once too. Woe be unto you if you aren't stanced down nice and tight. When I got hit with them there were more than four of them too, probably seven I'm guessing, and each of them hit me for a minor and about 12-15 points of damage.

[Danical]

They also have a CS trigger on an attack too.

I'm not sure what, exactly, I can't remember.

[Danical]

A rotting wooden doll flails wildly at Rimalon with a sharpened limb!
AS: +415 vs DS: +400 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +90 = +140
... and hits for 12 points of damage!
Minor puncture to the chest.
CS: +434 - TD: +359 + CvA: +12 + d100: +41 - -5 == +133
Warding failed!
As the splintery limb connects, you notice a thin, translucent ribbon of energy form between P1 chest and the doll's center of mass.
A rickety wooden doll flails wildly at Rimalon with a sharpened limb!

[Danical]

Just a guess, but I think Crusaders have 300 health.

[Belnia]

Wonder if there's any way to stop their regeneration like fires does to trolls. That would be amazingly useful.

[BigWorm]

Wonder if there's any way to stop their regeneration like fires does to trolls. That would be amazingly useful.

Phase?

[Baelog]

Non-Corp undead...hmm...holy water might work

[WRoss]

Not sure if this has been posted. I keep finding scraps and pages up in the rift. Kinda seem like they'd be somewhat important. I hadn't seen this one yet.

In the Common language, it reads:
bones bones bones and bones
keep your skins and herbs and stones
give up all the bones you got
need those bones and need a lot
one bone makes a good one
two bones make it better
three bones make it best of all
so i wrote myself this letter
sing a song sing along
so you know your mind is strong
if you dont i dont care
cause i just kissed a pink necare
i chanted a spell for a trinket
brilliant aura with three bones to link it
or if you have two
chant confidence to
make sure you dont have to drink it
make sure you dont go and stink it
make sure you can wink it
make sure ----
think
blink
help i just threw up

Some clues stick out at me, but maybe you all can make more sense of it.

[Rimalon]

Awesome. The recipe is starting to take shape. Too bad it's a fucking shame that only Clerics and Empaths can make it.

[Morrff]

i chanted a spell for a trinket
brilliant aura with three bones to link it

That to me makes me think it's a hint to a new trinket recipe, and with the brilliant aura part makes me think it might have something to do with enchanting. Obviously pointing at the bones for some use it seems like?


Awesome. The recipe is starting to take shape. Too bad it's a fucking shame that only Clerics and Empaths can make it.

Curious what is the recipe for and how have you found it's cleric/empath only?

[Rimalon]

Heroism Version:

add pearlescent trinket oil
add 3 bones
chant 215
simmer
?
profit

Bravery Version:

add pearlescent trinket oil
add 2 bones
chant 211
simmer
?
profit

---

Heroism gives a brilliant aura when you cast it. Bravery gives you confidence. Prayer of Holding is probably the weakest version, and that's Cleric-only.

For alchemy, you can only CHANT a spell if you know it, so that makes it Cleric-and-Empath exclusive.

Actually, if I borrowed someone's 211 item, I could probably make it...

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

EDIT: And obviously the trinket helps prevent sheer fear.

[WRoss]

Voodoo '215' to 'INCANT 215'.
You trace a sign while petitioning the spirits to bestow their aid with the Heroism spell...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture.
Heroism (215) refreshes to 1h. (+42m 14s)
A brilliant aura surrounds you and sinks into your skin. You feel charged with extra vitality.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

[WRoss]

I also forgot the last line in that scrap.... "help i just threw up"

brilliant aura with three bones to link it -- Thats 215
or if you have two
chant confidence to -- Thats 211

[Nilandia]

Not sure that empaths will be able to make it, but Haukragg, whose pages these are, was a cleric.

Gretchen

[WRoss]

I should have saved that and made you all pay me! Espcially since we pulled three of these scraps

[droit]

I should have saved that and made you all pay me! Espcially since we pulled three of these scraps

But what kind of douchebag would keep an alchemy recipe to himself for personal profit?

OH WAIT!

:lol:

[Rimalon]

But what kind of douchebag would keep an alchemy recipe to himself for personal profit?

OH WAIT!

:lol:

AND IT ALMOST WORKED, TOO, IF IT WASN'T FOR THOSE MEDDLING KIDS!

[WRoss]

insert capitalism before people bitch

http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthread.php?t=46613

[Archigeek]

Lots of new pages out there, and several copies of each page generally. See officials for latest tally. I do like the way they are working the alchemy link into this opening. If I were an alchemist I'd love this.

I think The Scatter is going to be quite challenging once it's open. I'm particularly looking forward to the Vvrael Destroyer.

The new Plane Four has settled into a fair hunt, but not too dangerous. You can see the tweaks and tell that someone is paying attention. Examples: I am pretty sure Cerebralite CS has gone up a little, and the crawler attacks now seem to be leaning more towards the bite attacks, which are pretty nasty if they hit you, but not deadly for a square. Probably would be for a pure if they didn't have the DS to resist it for some reason, which isn't too likely to happen. Crusaders continue to be the biggest pain, as they heal themselves with amazing speed and are non-corporeal and fade quickly.

[Asha]

so how do you actually get to scatter and out again?

[TheLastShamurai]

so how do you actually get to scatter and out again?

They pretty much have it closed now from what I understand.

We were just using 130 to fog around until we hit it.

[droit]

The scatter is open for business. Find the fissure on plane four and push that sucker until it opens.

[Asha]

how do you get from scatter back to sands, mate?

[Danical]

You have to find the fissure again in The Scatter, and it takes you back to 4. Climb the thread to 5 and then to 1. Go door/mirror.

Rimalon and I were fucking around in the Scatter and we went through the fissure twice and it kept pushing us back into a specific room in the Scatter.

[Fallen]

How are you guys liking it? How long does it take you to get into it from the cavern on average?

[Swami71]

So no outside spells still?

[Archigeek]

Getting in and out isn't too terrible. Harder than getting to any other rift hunting area, but then the others aren't that difficult to get to beyond just getting up to the rift.

The difficulty is that it's swarming terribly, and getting out alive can be a bit of a challenge. I will say though, that with a large, diverse group, (six of us I think), we did really well so long as we were careful when we moved around. That's pretty encouraging if you ask me, as groups were the intent. And if there isn't a group around, you can always hunt like level critters on plane four.

I guess my biggest complaint of the whole place is that of the 10 deaths I've had, 8 have been instant burrow kills by rift crawlers. I like the concept of them, but instant deaths when you don't even see the critter before you're dead is not my idea of a plan that they're done with yet. Hopefully inteligent folks are thinking, "hmm, maybe we need to rethink these things a little bit." As they stand, they're just a very high level roa'ter with a few neat tricks thrown in, very similar to the worms that were attacking Solhaven.

Another problem is getting a body out of the scatter. This is not yet feasible except by fogging to random locations that are heavily weighted to the plane you are already on, major sanctuary, or animation. You can't currently drag a body out of the scatter. There are some other problems too that are related to that. I had a rescue earlier today that took six people 45 minutes to complete, and that just isn't fun for anyone.

Love the critter designs in the scatter though. Very cool. Great concepts and execution looks pretty good too. For example, the Vvrael Destroyer to me is a much better design than the Rift Crawler. It's difficult to kill, packs a huge wallop without resorting to level based hoccus poccus, and is just plain mean. And the fetish master's doll attack is nasty.

[Danical]

I'm sure Grendeg would appreciate you posting your Burrow related deaths on the Officials.

[Asha]

Animate dead makes sorcerers the go to guys for Rift rescues.