I started playing on the realms...

[kandrathe]

Sorry to hear about your ping. :( Plate tectonics being what they are, NZ will really need to get more fiber.

I transitioned into the Realms to get away from the hacked items in Open games. Se la vie. But, more persons in the game does make them far more exciting. I couldn't believe the difference in how monsters spawned in an 8 player game as opposed to the ones I was used to playing as a single player (even with Players 8). I find there are far more boss packs, and far more monsters as well as increased HP. I have played only SC, as I'm sure an undead stygian doll critical hit HC death would cause me to snap my keyboard in two. But, it can be fun to create a public game "Plz no kill I" and try to avoid the PKers. :)

I've no interest in competing on the ladder, but it looks as if v1.10 and the existence of a "ladder realm" will require me to transition to it to try to achieve the kind of game environment I'm looking for. It would be nice to have an economy that is not polluted with counterfeits, even for a little while.

[WarBlade]

Sorry to hear about your ping. :(  Plate tectonics being what they are, NZ will really need to get more fiber.

Plate tectonics are a non-issue and for the time being NZ has more than enough fibre to tap into. The real problem is the local networks and their inability to cope, partly a 'population outgrowing the infrastructure' problem and partly a bunch of monkeys too concerned with profits keep the network up to date.

In the case of Internet service NZ actually has run into a problem where there are not enough IPs to go around. My mother, who's on one of the major ISPs can try dialing in 10 times during peak hours and then give up because so many people are on after work in the early evening that her machine is just one of the "One too many". <_< In my case online gaming can become a mass of unplayable lag spikes during the kid's school holidays and not worth the effort.

The local owner of the lines, Telecom NZ, gets a variety of interesting lables . . . Telecon, Telescum etc. And with good reason. Not only are they slow to work on getting broadband happening outside of major centers, but also slow in getting up-to-date phone line service nationwide. Just last week I read an article in my local paper that told me the exchange just north of the one I'm on is at full subscriber capacity. That means people moving into to new housing just ten minutes up the road from me can't even have a land line. :blink: The hardware is all there. They can even plug a phone in the wall and have a number assigned, but can't use it until someone else gives up a line elsewhere! :blink: Can you imagine the only way you can make a 111 emergency call is with a cell phone in the house??? :angry: Never mind Internet and Fax service!

Telescum's response to this:
- We have no plan to upgrade your exchange at this time.
- Telecom does not guarantee automatic service to all potential subscribers.

:angry:

Oh and in case you're wondering I have three phones, 1 fax/phone and 2 computers hooked up to a single line that can do about a 40K connection. I may as well have a 36.6K modem installed and get the same performance as these 56K modems can give me. <_<

[Brother Laz]

When you see dupes on the ground, ith weapons, 1.08 valors, etc. there is only one thing to do: