AfterWorld::The Phenomenon

There is a very special feeling to the AfterWorld. It's very faint, but it's always there--behind all the forms, lights and colors around you.

It's hard to put a finger on it and not everyone can dig it.
Some people among those who can feel it don't appreciate it much, because...

It's the pure existential sadness.

It's like somewhere deep down there's this painful memory of the Paradise we've lost, mixed with the ancient Byzantine belief that all our attempts to (re)create the Paradise on Earth are ultimately destined to fail.

The only option left is to admit this bitter truth and try to face it with courage and dignity.

AfterWorld::Three Theories On Robot Hacking

the first theory - robot hacking is a hidden and locked taming profession

very high level of pet taming skill unlocks the robot hacking
all the mobs in the game make up one big ladder and you have to go through all of them from the tiny slugroach to the meanest drone to reach the top

the second theory - robot hacking is a hidden and locked crafting profession

it takes high level in something similar to hacking, like: computers, information, terminal interaction, knowledge, experimentation, etc
seems logical - the crafting is an interesting trade, but pretty soon people are through all that there is to craft, what then?
it would make sense to provide something new to them, some unique field of activity that works like maze or a mindgame - something for the guys with the big heads who don't care much for shooting the big guns

the third theory - robot hacking is a hidden and locked profession,
it requires a certain level in 2 skills from 2 different areas to unlock

however, it is a profession, so there should be some overlapping skills with the other professions

if so then it would show at least a tiny progress on behalf of the other skills that we already have - but it stands on the firm zero... seems the robot hacking is simply not implemented yet

now, from the devs point of view - as a developer i can work on this feature later, when someones skills are coming close to the designated treshold values in my master plan.
i think one day we will open our professions sheet and see that the zero behind the robot hacking is gone..

that day we will know that the bots are online.

AfterWorld::A Day in a Life

The story of the noobot AxelRod "Trample" Gunnarson

It all started easy and slow. When French Conquerors asked if i can help in their noobot run none of us could foresee how it all will end...

As i had the highest defense skills I took the job of carrying the noobot through the Labyrinth of Death, the courier's job.
Already in "Bear's Den" we meet the first green dot, somebody's waiting for us with few bears and wolfs
It's Syava from Highlanders. He dies fast, but as revival is close he is soon again on our trail. So he has to go back to start once again.
Everything on our way dies fast and easy, the mood is high. The noobot suddenly speaks up: "u guyz rock :) ...how long u play?" .. 
It's the calm before the st0rm - the word about our location and direction of movement has already got out.

At Main/East crossroad 2 more green dots appear on the radar: Snuffy (Pleasure and Power) and Mirror (NAP). Good for us, Mirror joins up with our team.

We meet St0rm (Shadow Corpse) near the lake, and pretty soon we lose our 1st team member, Windslow. We try to take down St0rm, but he is not easy to kill. No time to waste, the clock is ticking, so we give up and keep going.

In the valley NE from the lake i succeed in making 75 damage hit with my Akinakes Dak. St0rm's not ready for that, so he scores a free trip to the nearest revival - which at that point, unfortunately, is ahead of us.

Mirror follows, to clear the road and keep St0rm busy, but i can't follow - the courier has to go all the way on foot.
A moment of peace, only me and my soc mate Axle (Irken Invaders). I look at the coords, and at the clock.. and then i realize i'm in trouble. We had wasted too many time, it's almost impossible to make it from here to the noobot pad in time.

From that moment on i'm going at full speed, not doing anything but drinking the Red bears, and dragging everything i meet on the road after me. Soon the radar shows i have a long red tail.

The lines pop up in chat:

2010-08-06 20:46:07 [T] Mirror Fair: killed him
2010-08-06 20:46:32 [T] Mirror Fair: where are you?
2010-08-06 20:46:43 [T] Fifth: N from revival
2010-08-06 20:46:50 [T] Mirror Fair: kk
2010-08-06 20:46:57 [T] Fifth: damn, 5 min left

By the time i reach the others near the NE outpost, Shadow Corpse has got enforcements, i can see SFF, and St0rm has revived again too. Mirror keeps them busy and i rush past them like an express train.

When i see the noobot pad over the last valley i know already i will not make it.. the time runs out when i reach the last plateau. Silent "explosion" of the Dark matter, damage 370 points, blood, i'm falling down.. the last thing i see is St0rm running up to me and looking at my corpse.

We had won all the battles, but lost the war..

Well, at least now i know how exactly it explodes!

AfterWorld::Regional Transportation

the general idea is not new - the pets should be usable for riding/transport

all the transport besides cars could copy what is historically present: riding the reindeers in taiga, using the sledge or riding them, horses in the steppes and mountains and camels in the desert.

pets should be region-dependent - reindeer's health starts dropping the faster the warmer is the region, and camel starts feeling bad in the snow. also, all pets should get weary after passing long distances, and will need long time to eat and rest - the heavier was their load the faster they run down and the longer time they need for recovery. pack animals are no match for the mechanical transportation on the long distances and for the heavy loads.

the principle of region-dependency is usable for other things too, not only for the transport. there could be some tools, clothes, weapons and even buildings (if they will be constructable)that require a little different skills in each region.
on top of that, there might be some special mobs with unique damage types in each region - to gain avoidances against this you have to live there, and hunt with the local community.

the result will be - you can't ride into a new region on your brand new shiny car and feel like a king there - the natives will be far better than you in the mountains, you can't even follow with the car where they can go riding their pets, and trying to chase them on foot will be just a waste of time..

the ASP's of the region-specific stuff should be extremely hard to get for the outsiders (rare drops) - you either buy the stuff from the locals, or you buy the ASP's from them, if you can become friends with them - or if you can afford to pay enough.. ;)

the plains and long roads belong to the cars, but cars can't pass upsurges, thick forests, rivers and swamps - these areas belong to the pets... will be much harder to code, but the result will be much more realistic than riding the mountains in the car at the full speed.


if you put it all together, the outlines of the new world will take shape..

you can no longer be an "uber-hunter-jack-of-all-trades" at once - you can only be the best hunter in one region. if you move over to another region, you have to start it all over again(well, not all of it, but still..)

if you choose the career of the ultimate adventurer/mercenary who feels at home everywhere he goes, you have to live in all regions, get to know all the local people, learn their trade, skill their tools and weapons and get to know the local wildlife and landscape.. all these secret paths and fords on the mountain rivers of this huge territory, hundreds of square miles..

imagine the "natives" (read: noobs of the local region) defending their turf against heavily armored and highly skilled societies who run the global transportation and secure the trade routes... on the plains the local tribes will be annihilated very fast, but the heavily armored vechicles of the global corporations can't follow the natives into the mountains, if they try that, the roles will be reversed, and even if the natives will lose the battle, they can always withdraw to the safety of their mountain villages and caves, disappearing on their pet-rides so fast that you can't catch them...  the gangs of the "local bandits" on horses and camels riding the secret mountain paths, setting up ambushes in the remote mountain passes, causing a lot of headache for the caravans passing by... in the end of the day it could be cheaper for the Corporations to pay a small toll to the locals than hire mercenaries to defend against them..


as i see it - the regional transportation is the last missing piece for the developers vision of the future AW.

well, for now it's just an idea, for the future.. long live AfterWorld!


_______________________
* 1st published in the restricted section of the AW Tech Forum

reflections on the early press-release about Afterworld:Survival

it is still hard to make conclusions based on so little info.. but first thoughts/assumptions:


we have approximate size of the area--it's staggering.

if the total number of people ingame remains the same (will not rise hundredfold - and it probably won't), it will be almost impossible to find anyone unless you know exactly where to find him--or if it is a town, revival, one of the quarantine zones or a bridge on the long insurmountable river, swamp or ravine.

chances of simply running into someone on the open field are close to zero. you can pass by someone (or a small village full of people, in the hilly/mountain area) @ 250-300m and not see them.


that would mean a pretty lonely life, the soc chat is your only contact with the other people most of the time. creating a team may become a huge task, although it could be a little easier if we can use cars.
car is useful if you know exactly where to go, but if you have to search for someone, it won't help much.

in this situation splitting the soc in two could create additional problems, not solve them.

another effect--the number of conflicts will drastically decrease. conflicts will be possible only if both sides search for each other (plus a few successful ambushes now and then).
deliberately hunting the members of another soc or harassing noobs will be almost impossible.

tactics will change... suppose you found a member of another soc. info on their base could be the most valuable "loot" to get--and defend. he will probably ctrl+d right away. if you on the car and alone you've lost him for good..

there will be a whole new profession: scout/messenger, the guy with a good armor and all PANE's on stamina.

transporting valuable ores or other stuff will be a huge military operation that can last days, maybe even weeks.

PvP areas is a big unknown factor. for people to come there it has to contain something, a reward or bait. rare resources? ways to make awd?

if so, it will change the game--to be the most powerful can become a profitable business.


this will bring along another new profession: a mercenary/headhunter

competition in PvP--on skills and team sizes--will get fierce and ruthless.
there can be only one winner, and many losers.

for example:
most likely there won't be a storage at the lootable PvP area revival. if the miner succeeds in ctrl+d-ing (before he was looted) he and his bodyguard(s team) will be held hostage there. now both sides will be waiting for reinforcements.. for hours, or days.
as soon as defenders decide they might have a chance they will try to break out and make a run for the closest storage or town. number of skilled members and their location/mobility will decide the outcome. there will always be a shortage of skilled people.

in some cases it can end with a huge battle, involving many societies/alliances.
also, it could easily spread all over the map--whoever is able to control strategical bridge or mountain pass will probably do it, to keep reinforcements of the other side away. a small team with the armored car can destroy arriving groups one by one there, before they can unite.

then again, a secret pass found by the wandering scout or miner may be worth a small army..


in a word--a new layer will be added to the economy, construction and warfare-- strategical planning.
we might need to create alliances ourselves--some to get additional manpower, some to get information/scouts.

Cayden::Noone Will Ever Really Fuck with America

Fifth: I have met a man who had powers. He fixed my eyesight, for 30 mins.. so I know he had.
He did it just by looking at me, btw.
Cayden: Too bad they were only temporary powers. :)
Should have paid the full subscription fee after the trial 30 minutes.
Fifth: Well, I think the effect was not intended, was just a collateral..

Anyway, he had about 5 of his students, as he called them, with him on that forest clearing
He was a shaman, so they were chanting there something holding hands, in a circle.
Suddenly he stops and asks "Wanna see UFO?"
Everybody fell silent.
Then he says, "OK, look up..." and after a few sec, there is an UFO.
Every last one of em saw it, and the descriptions matched.
That's it. ;)

Cayden: Heh. I once saw a UFO... and I became a conspiracy theorist...
I saw it over Fort Bliss in El Paso.
It moved around mach 17-20.... impossible speeds.
At least, that's how fast it looked, because of the distance it seemed to be at.
It seemed to be about the size of a football field... but very far off.

Years later, I joined the military and got a security clearance and I found out what it was.
Haven't believed a single UFO story since, lol.
Fifth: ok.. and what was it?
Cayden: The sort of thing you need a security clearance to read specs on.
But nothing extraordinary.
Turns out it was slightly larger than a stealth bomber, not anywhere near as far as it seemed (that was apparently intentional) and only moving about mach 7-8.
Fifth: holy shit!
Cayden: Lol, well, yeah, that's still a wow.
But still, SR71 broke what, 4,5 back in the 70s?
Fifth: umm yeah
Cayden: Long story short, noone will ever REALLY fuck with America. They will end before they really start, lol.

Cayden::The Story of the Flying Capuchin Fireball Monkey

Hi Tinstaafl, just in time for the strangest story you will ever hear.
Which is entirely true btw.

I used to do my schoolwork on a Windows 3.1.
At any rate, this 3.1 was SO high tech, it had a 3,5 inch floppy drive...
And a 5 inch FLOPPY drive. Lol.
It seriously took like 10 minutes to save a document.
I could hit save, walk away and eat, come back, and still have to wait. So, I normally just didn't bother to save.
And I had this English paper...
About 3 hours had gone by, I was REALLY on a roll, just typing my fucking ass off...
Oh no, was a psych paper, excuse me.
Was a  300 class, undergrad, so no need to do any real research. Just bullshit for like 10k words, or however many it was.
So here I am, fingers blazing, and suddenly, the computer crashes and the electricity goes out.

Everything.
Complete power down, including street lights outside, for like three blocks down.
And this FIREBALL, I shit you not, a FIRE BALL, goes careening across my yard, flies like 30 metres, from a good 20 metres in the air... bounces a couple times, lands in a patch of mud... and it just burns.
I see this shit out the window and I turn to my chick, and I'm like "!!!!"
And she's like "!!!!"
So we run outside and get to this FIREBALL.
Which is, seriously, a ball of fire.
We're looking at this... and there is a CAPUCHIN MONKEY - like the one from Aladdin? - laying there, on his back, charred all to shit, SHAKING.

I have a really great emote I do when i tell this story in reality.
It is one of life's great travesties that you will never see it.

So, he's laying there with this complete "oh shit" look on his face.
And we're looking at each other with a complete "oh shit" look on our faces.
Just to reiterate - this is El Paso, Texas.
Just north of the Mexican border.
I had enver seen a monkey in my life. Ever.
And here's this fucking monkey, who's laying there KFC-style in a ball of fire.
We stood there, not knowing what we should do, and the guy's emitting these little monkey-coughs of smoke.
*Cough* [tiny puff of smoke]

Then a car pulls up.
Some bigass Towncar or something, early eighties, a complete BOAT of a car - huge.
This, at the time, was a REALLY expensive car.
And it pulls up with this four foot eight EIGHTY YEAR OLD MAN in a white pimp-suit.
He gets out, and he's screaming: "WHO SHOT MAH MONKEY!!!"
"WHO SHOT MAH MONKEY!!!"
and I'm saying... "Umm... Nobody shot your monkey, sir...
But he was on fire...
I mean, what do you really say, right?
"Well, there I was working on a paper that will define my Abnormal Psychology 347 class, and suddenly a monkey exploded out of thin air and flew amidst a fireball across thirty metres of yard to land on the ground."
No. Just doesn't work, right?
So I was like "ummm... he was on fire?"
Which was pretty obvious.
He grabs this monkey, still smoldering, cradles him against what must have been a 10k usd suit, gets back in his car and drives off.
That's it.

Half an hour later the electric company truck shows up.
One of the ones with a big basket on it, that lifts to a higher storey.
We go out to find out what the fuck is going on and this guy is up there working on the transformer.
He says "what THE FUCK is THIS?!" and he tosses it down to me.
And I said "Ummmm... I think.... that that's a monkey paw."
And so it was.
There was a fried Capuchin Monkey paw in my transformer.
Which actually explains the whole Capuchin Monkey Fireball.

So, the next day I go to class, and I tell my professor I don't have the paper.
HE is shocked, as I'm a 4,0 student and demands to know why.
I tell him there is a very good reason, but I wil never be able to tell him, because he would believe I was lying, and that would follow me for the rest of my time in University.
Well, he got me to tell him anyway...
When I finished the story, he says "That is the most incredulous thing I have ever heard in my life.
"There is no way on God's Green Earth that you seriously expect me to believe that.
"That is SUCH a FUCKING REDICULOUS story...
"That you have either got to be telling the truth or you are the ballsiest liar I have ever met in my life.
"You have until Monday."

So... that is the story of the Flying Capuchin Fireball Monkey in El Paso Texas.

Cayden::The Tranny Brothel Story

So, my bootcamp was in Chicago, Illinois.
After it, my paperwork wound up backed up, so I went on hold, waiting, for a few months.
During that time, I was pretty much put in charge of accountability for about a quarter of the people there...
So, I set it up so that my group of friends would alternate back and forth who'd be staying there to actually WORK, and the rest of us would go into town for a week.
Since we kept the rosters ourselves, we simply checked off that we were there...
And the only high ranking enlisted who were on hold there were the ones getting kicked out, so they never even showed up.
At some point, one of the guys accidentally discovered a bar-type thing in Chicago, it had an upstairs, and he found out the hard way that the women there weren't women.
But they REALLY looked like women. It was pretty convincing.
We'd take new guys there, to indoctrinate them into the group. We'd haze all the new guys we were letting into our administrative group, by taking them to this place, and hooking them up with a girl. "Girl" mind you.

The girls knew what we were doing, but they liked it, and didn't blow it for us, cus it was funny, and only one of them got hurt once. We paid for that one.
And who wants to fuck over a fun time for a bunch of good looking sailors, right? lol.
We had a bunch of different reactions.

One guy went upstairs with one, came down a half an hour later, swearing he had fucked her.
HER.
So... We knew he hadn't.
Which was ODD, because she was a whore.
s/he.
We asked her afterwards. She said he was "Just about the cutest man I've ever met... such a dork... he just wanted to talk the whole time."
A guy in a room with someone he thinks is a chick for 30 minutes, and he doesn't try to get his rocks off.
We had one dude walk in, say "that's the purdiest man I ever saw" and then laughed at us, he caught on instantly.
So we were like "waht the FUCK?" because NONE of these men looked like men. Not even like ugly women.
And he said he Mom had actually become a tranny when he was 16 o.O
So... We had one guy go up and fuck him.
Comes down, we KNEW he had done it, and we were like "WHAT THE FUCK?!!?"
Turns out he was gay, haha.
Joke's on us.

We had this one Puerto Rican guy, real suave guy.
He comes in here, and he walks in, and he doesn't even sit down. Walks right over to the "hottest" one and starts hitting on "her" and he's actually doing a REALLY good job of it, right?
Like, if it was a chick on the street, he'd be getting laid.
We don't interfere and I think a couple of the guys there were probably taking mental notes, he had really good lines.
At one point, he goes upstairs with 'her' and we, like with EVERY guy, sat there and had a betting pool.
NORMALLY what happens is that the guy comes down after about three minutes, pissed as FUCK.
Start swinging on us, etc...
We had learned where to sit, and how to arrange the money on the table so it didn't get mixed up.
Here we are with this betting pool going. 10 minutes into it, we've got probably fifty bucks on the table.
About when he's going to come down, what he's going to say, etc...
Twenty minutes in, we have well over a hundred bucks.
After FORTY FIVE MINUTES we have like 500 bucks on the table.
Half of us are saying he's gay.
I knew this guy, i knew the chicks he fucked--he wasn't gay.
I actually put down a bet that he had seriously fucked her up when he realized 'she' was a guy, and he was about to call one of us to come up there and bag the body.
We have like 500 bucks on the table... and he comes down the stairs.
He's COVERED in sweat.
His shirt is unbuttoned.
And he sits down at the empty chair...
And we're just looking at him (I think a couple guys moved their chairs a little away from him) and we were VERY silent for a few minutes.
And someone says "Man, you know that was a dude, right?"
And he says "Yeah... I didn't know she had already started blowing me... But by then I was so turned on, I just hit it anyway."
DEAD SILENCE.
And we started taking our money back. Not even splitting it up. Just silently picking up our cash... and left.
He went with us, but noone spoke a single word...
All the way back. Three hour ride back.
Noone said a thing..

He didn't wind up in the group.

DarkFall::Orolt Lifebringer

Small Scale PvP [1]
Small Scale PvP [2]
Small Scale PvP [3]

Agon::Mirendil::King's Holdfast

DarkFall::The Map of Agon

AfterWorld::"The Quarantine Zone"

translation of the short story by biker

Hail, heavy work,
Plow, shovel and pick!

-- Valery Briusov

This zone has no tip or edge. Once I reached out to its borders, and then far away in the haze, i caught a glimple of huge lifeless walls, reaching up to the sky. But most of the time I wander on the endless hills in a senseless pursuit of the next kilograms of incandescent copper or corrosive nitrate, rubbing my feet to the blood in my cheap jackboots. And all that time there was only one thought that kept me going - just one thought that gave me strength to carry on.

Now, in the center of the quarantine, the dazzling relentless sun once again is striping off my scorched skin. As I squeeze a cheap pickaxe into my right hand it's inconvenient handle painfully burns my blood blisters. But if I don't bring in half a ton of resources before the evening this smegging Warrant Officer deprives me again my shabby piece of bread and a pitiful handful of dollars. Worst of all, then I have to sleep under the open sky - and nobody knows whether in the night-time the unstable blocking energy shields don't fail again, freeing the repulsive monsters on the other side - evil mother wolf, ghoulish molesaurs or even a giant walking R-57..

Elite fighters, armed with "Kashtans" and Anela-type heavy swords, of course, will laugh at us, simple noobs whose only weapons are heavy and uncomfortable pickaxes. Their squad's firepower can turn any creature into heap of rubble from hundreds of meters away. But they prefer to watch from a distance as powerful bolotoids rush onto us, leaving behind them a repellent trail of human organs and intestines, or as high-speed lasers of bigfoots maim us, cutting off our arms and legs. One day I will become as powerful as they are - no, even better! - And I will take my revenge! My revenge for their indifference, ruthlessness and contempt for ordinary slaves. But to make this happen...

I look around cautiously. No-one to be seen, just lifeless boring slopes of parched dunes, and the sound of occassional distand blows of the pickaxe of another noob like me from half a kilometre away. But who knows what implants the masters of this harsh world have planted into our brains? Maybe their computers are capable of scanning even our most secret thoughts? Oh, whatever, i can't care less. What is the difference if I will be eaten up by a mad bear or given a life sentence to the forced labor camp by the local security services?

In order to take my revenge, I must run away from here!

Silence. No reaction, nothing changed in the world around me. Under the feet crackles fine sand and the dry barbed grass that sways lightly in the sultry wind, shivering my legs. Seems the Masters don't suspect anything. Excellent!

My plan is simple, but extremely risky. However, it seems, now is the time. Have to sneak closer to the energy shields, try to stay unnoticed and not attract the attention of police or elite fighters who love to spend their time near the "zoo" - holding area for the monsters behind the transparent protective wall. Sometimes the energy wall fails, and then these creatures rush out into Quarantine zone. For the elites it is an entertainment but for us ordinary plodders - painful injuries or death. The next time when the wall crashes I should try to escape from this hell zone. One friend - who was translukated last week for his failure to gather prescribed amount of mineral ores by two kilograms - told me a secret about a relatively safe route to Saransk. There, according to him, is underground Resistance, the opposition to governing regime. He even told to me whom i must contact to get a forged passport of a citizen. Yes, this is my only chance.

Escape from the quarantine!

Oh, that was what I have dreamed about in these endless quarantine nights, wheezing and coughing on my crude wooden bunk. All these years only the idea about escape gave me energy to survive. And now... Recently, the frequency of failures in screens has definitely increased, and i should use the opportunity before it's too late. If the cyborg-repairmen arrive this way out Quarantine will be closed down forever.

Tonight, when everything has fallen silent I will crawl closer to the power tower, and then I will tirelessly wait for my chance.

But meanwhile I have to complete this goddamn norm in order to get slice of bread and pottage, otherwise I don't have the strenght to hike up to the tower! I cast a look on the hot cheerless landscape and rise my heavy pickaxe up over my head. Only two thousand three hundred ninety-six strikes to go...


Wind is sweeping the surface layer of the soil, and the poisonous dust painfully chokes my heat-swollen eyes. But I try not to blink in order to not to miss a moment, when the dim red light on the tower flashes a couple of times, signaling about a decrease of the tension in the cable grid. The dark clouds in an almost black sky are rushing directly at me, like a severe security guards, who have spotted the scampering noob.

My tattered boilersuit noisily flutters in the gust of wind, I wince and nearly miss the cherished moment. Signal tracker on the rig went off! Yes, the force field has finally shut down - for kilometers to the east I can't see a single characteristic electric flash. Stupid monsters, of course, didn't realize what just happened - they may break in the Quarantine only by coincidence, but nevertheless - I must hurry. Most important now is to avoid ending up as a dinner for some hungry creature.

I duck and charge forward, trying to keep myself low, running to the north, towards my freedom. To the right I can hear the viperous barking of the feral hogs and the hissing of elslugs, the bony tails of huge scorpions strike my boots, and far away I can see the giant figures of the huge walking devices. But I rush forward, from time to time mustering all my remaining strenght to sweep my axe towards the threatening shadows. And then a miracle happens - somehow, with the seventh sense, I feel that I have escaped from the quarantine! Before me unfolds an amazing scenery - lush green forests, filled with endless downpours; rocky mountaintops wrapped into frenzied whirlwinds of snow, the abandoned cities, where unusual cybernetic machines are roaming around; the fierce firefights boiling around the deserted plants; caravans of armored oiltanker-trucks, stretching over several kilometers, plundered by gangs of bandits...

Suddenly, my brain stops working. The surrounding world just dies out and freezes. I try to turn my head, and then I realize that I'm completely paralyzed. Time stops, red and white sparks are dancing before my eyes, sharp pain pierces my head, and I feel like a fly, caught into viscous sticky web from which there is no escape... not even the slightest chance...


Chief AW-hitektor slowly sipped black coffee with a thick invigorating scent from the greenish melchior cup with a built-in heater, very pleasant to the touch. Cozy cyber-armchair smoothly rearranged itself according to little bit tired body of it's owner, and AW-hitektor touched the sensor "Light Massage". Once again, he enjoyed a delicious aroma of his favorite drink, and after that just as slowly puffed his Havana cigar, which was only recently carefully twisted up by sweaty young mulates for the owner of this private plantation.

The twelve-dimensional programming system dynamically visualized holographic pattern of information flows of the AfterWorld. Semantic meta-analysators monitored the individual threads and to identify suspicious patterns in the one-exabyte network traffic, heuristic tracer of critical alerts quickly formed a yellow spiral, signaling about the emergence of the suspicious event of a fourth threshold, which was automatically locked.

- Logs - throwed Chief AW-hitektor disgruntledly, and the next moment before his eyes howered uninterrupted flow of whimsical characters into which was coded the behavior of the beings of the subsidiary world. There! AW-hitektor slide his index finger, pulling desired lines out of the colorful ribbons. He carefully eyed on them, pondered and scratched back of his head. Then he sighed and leaned back to the backrest of the obliging intellectual armchair.

Yes, no doubt, it is a bug. Somewhere, apparently, did not initialize a temporary variable, which had to keep pointer to a dynamic object in the global self-organized memory, and as a result, from time to time an idea fix occurred to some noob to try some utterly stupid action - for example, try to escape from the quarantine zone. Bug was simple, and as soon as he can spare a couple of hours, he will fix it in the appropriate server nano-scripts.

But not today - in a hour starts a party in honor of the release of the last mega-patch, where four models are waiting for the AW-hitektor. Models are not virtual - they are very much alive - brunette, two blondes and a red-head of the particularly energetic type.

Meanwhile the malfunctioning noob will be simply respawned back to the quarantine - let him keep working. AW-hitektor quickly gave the corresponding order to the gateway debugger of the AfterWorld kernel and reached for the cup of coffee.


...I rubbed the palms of my hands, and wearily let my pickaxe fall down to stone nugget with glittering veins of nickel. Hot air roasted my lungs. For the miles around me there was not even the slightest scant of shade, and wiping the caustic prespiration off my forehead to the cankerous sand that was glowing in the fierce sun, I droopily continued my unending work.
Another couple thousand hits, and the norm will be filled. But I spit on the norm! I'm not doing it to meet the demands of the local police force. There is only one thought that motivates me, only this one thought fills me with infinite energy.

Escape from the Quarantine!

AfterWorld::Revival-killings

have u seen how old avatars are leaving revival? how they seem to materialize few meters away from it, while moving and healing up.. ?
the thing is in fact the revival killing is not possible any more, all revivals in AW are safe zones now. but it wasn't always like that, once upon a time this was possible to kill some one on the revival. i killed Mirror once at lake revival, using Warrior - the biggest gun i was able to use - and Mirror was a very powerful avatar, high avoids, huge HP, good gun. i could pull this off only once, because i was ready but he wasn't. second time he was prepared and all i saw was a slight shimmering in the air and then his moving shape materialized behind the revival pad..

i also remember Iulian shooting 4 or 5 ppl on the lake revival, over and over again. i was standing right next to Iulian, i couldn't do anything to stop him, but i didn't leave either - i stayed and tried to teach those ppl how to escape. they said it is not possible.
then i asked Iulian to shoot me at the moment i will revive on pad, and pressed ctrl+d. i did it 3 times, 2 successful and 1 unsuccessful attempt.

the dead bodies on the revival looked at this, and said it is not possible.
they were lying there nicely side by side like sprats on the frying pan, trying to revive - one a few seconds after another, thus giving Iulian's gun just enough time to reload an shoot the next.. no coordination, no teamplay, not trying to learn what was told and demonstrated to them, nothing..

just bunch of sprats on the frying pan and lot of whining on local chat
so i left, leaving them to their fate..

AfterWorld::Two Short War Stories

One day, shortly after the skills were implemented, our team of 5-6 people was trying to deliver a noobot. Up until the lake turret everything went perfectly. But then a group of E-95 (3 or 4) suddenly appeared from the mist before us. Only then we made out a small human figure in armor running in front of the big blue robots - leading them directly to us. That human figure was Mirror, the leader of the society we, Irkens, were in war at that time.

We were completely taken aback - and of course we lost our only chance to shoot him - while he was running towards us, all the bots still shooting on him. Next moment it was already too late - he ran through our line, so now the bots started to attack us...

Some of us were killed instantly, by the bots, for some Mirror did the last shot. He was expert in that ominous art where the perfect timing decides everything. The PvP global messages that followed, announced our miserable defeat all over the AfterWorld!

Then there was one more message - a noobot delivered by Sergey "Mirror Fair" Ledenev..

That wasn't exactly the best day for Irken Invaders!

---

It was close to the end of Irken-NAP war. I was traveling alone through the Labyrinth of Death, avoiding local chat and hoping not to meet Mirror..

I met him down in the valley between the lake revivals. We both stopped for a moment, then Mirror turned around and ran to the group of bears - provider and 2 matures, took them with him and then ran towards me. At that time only the bear provider was enough to kill me..

The dance that followed was like short, furious whirr - both players jumping around, trying to leave the other one between him and the mobs. And then something happened, maybe Mirror pressed a wrong key, or was just unlucky and got several critical hits at once - but he stopped for a moment, healed up - thus giving me time to jump behind his back and then away leaving all 3 bears on him! And then he made one more mistake (maybe his HK broke?) - because the next moment he was killed by his own bears..

By the time he revived i was already far away..

____________________

remark: both stories took place in the time when mob AI in Afterworld was different. back then every mob attacked the target that hitted it last - and if the mob was not attacked by anyone - the closest (alive) human being.

Entropia Universe::Hyperion

it's an old EU story, about avatar called Hyperion.

Hyperion was my countryman, and even lived in the same city but i never met him - not online nor in rl.
but some old players in my soc still remembered him - from the pre-gold times of trappable Araneatroxes and Opalos with huge amps..
he was a real mad skiller - and used the opportunity to the fullest.

Hyperion never told anyone what he's skills were, but he could just stand in the ring and NOT heal, with a half a dozen people TRYING to hit him.. he was like a being from another world.

he left the game very early, probably because he achieved all that could be achieved.. sold all his skils, and then the avatar.