Sweet, first time I had a bloodhunt declared against my character for much of anything. Then again, about the only thing Aran can do at the moment is point a staff when in a group and hope he gets the final kill. Oh and power quests for the pool. That's.. about it, and sums it up at this point. Maybe eventually I'll have a good script that will let him be useful, rather than me trying to type commands in a flood of text, but that isn't happening anytime soon.

I can understand the reasoning, objectively of course, for doing so. Yes, Aran did dilute something like 5 people's vials. Daevos, Kaervas, Revan I think just to name a few. He did so because, well, that was all he could do. After many, many battles during villages and such, I've come to realize, as has Aran, that the power of Staff or Blast is nigh useless against these 'Monsters' or 'Bohemoths' whatever the case may be. So, just trying out different things. Amaru charged Aran with only flooding a room, where possible, in Delport. Other than that, Aran was effectively useless, not that Aran could do much in the way due to terrain and sandwiched demesne rooms anyway.

Still, I find it kind of amusing. The little nobody of Celest, Aran. No good at anything. Bloodhunted because he did something to try to tip the favors in the hands of a group that lost that village anyway. And it was the only place and time Aran ever did it, or will, since it seems that's also ineffective, and a waste of power as a result.

And the people he did it to were all the big-baddies Magnagora had to offer, who both Aran, and myself out of character, clearly realize have enough power and money to easily replace the vials. And the village he tried it at was lost to them anyway.

Oh, and Kaervas, just to clear it up, Aran wasn't looking for a fight anyway. He was on Astral wondering if he could survive a lobstrosity (with 1 sip of health left anyway). I had already basically decided to go back to prime and ask for a refill when the bloodhunt was Declared to me and you voided my pentagram, and had already typed the command as a result. Only lag I experienced from when you started teleporting was me going "Hmm.. bold yellow text.. someone's telling me something.. oh.. big nasties after me." Which is why it only took me hitting enter to transverse cosmic when I realized you were right there.

So yeah. Figured for once I'd maybe start a topic, about something at amused me to some degree. Feel free to argue/discuss as you please.

If it'd been attacking, it'd be silly.

But dilute is just that bad. Seriously. It's not a case of "having the gold to replace it", but when you have to empty huge wads of vials and get them refilled I can see why people are annoyed. They may have an easier time replacing it, but let me tell you, it matters a LOT more to them than you.

I never started any bloodhunt on you, I merely decided to attack you because you diluted my vials.

Hmm. That true I suppose.. Really at that point, Aran was more frustrated of being useless to his city and the Light in times of battle. He also didn't give much consideration to that effect either.

Personally, I think it should be taken out of aquamancy. It chews up a lot of power, for a sort-of useful effect, that really just ticks a whole lot of people off. Meanwhile you're getting hacked, slashed, targeted, spelled, demesned, and then later just killed for the hell of it (though that last part tends to happen anyway).

Also, taking time to consider it's effects on anyone that's not a 'big player,' it's probably far more than annoying and an inconvenience. Perhaps alchemists should get a purify skill instead, or dilute shouldn't be allowed to last that long, since it's magically enhanced water as it is.

Kaervas oh I figured it wasn't you bloodhunting me, and I'm surprised that you actually were just killing Aran for a reason. Can't tell you how many times Aran's been killed just for the f- of it. I suppose it was just amazing timing on the part of your attack and the declaration.

Maybe you should look at the skill again. Last I knew it was 3 power, not really alot, and "sort-of useful"?

3 power is a lot when you do the powerquests like mad, and near-refuse to draw power from the nexus. The only way I get most of my power is by powerplex jewel. During a village revolt, I try to keep up to only 15% in reserves.

And it's easy for me to screw up and deplete Aran's reserves. *grumbles something about forgetting to wield a powerstone when enchanting greatrobes*

And yes, sort of useful, at least in the case I used it in. All the guys were tanky or well backed up, and it was to little effect afterwards.

I don't tend to attack people for no reason, dilute is just an annoying skill that can cost a lot of gold considering how many health/mana/bromide vials some people hold at one time.

Dilute is just a nasty skill, and most people don't use it because they know how ridiculous it is.

As for being killed for no reason. I'll say that Veonira has killed her share of people (not on my own, of course, because I suck really bad) and I've also been hunted for lame reasons like, "You attacked my fiance."

Basically, if you're going to get involved with fighting, you can't just expect to be innocent and untouched all over. And isn't that what karma was released for?

That's also something I forgot to consider. Again, Aran's not das-fight-fight, so he only carries something like 8 or 9 vials on him at all times. In fact, he's got a vial of vitae which will last a few hundred months, with 8 sips. The other vitae vial has about 6-8 months with 58 sips or so. So I tend to lose perspective on those that do a lot of serious fighting in that respect.

And as for Kaervas not attacking for no reason (tending at least), that's really admirable. And I completely understand your reasons for wanting to kill me both in and out of character. Aran did something that ticked a lot of people off who probably wouldn't have liked him anyway, to be expected.

I like how I'm still enemied to nil over the tainted fae incident too, even as that backfired against Magnagora, anyone who killed the tainted fae are still enemies.

Again, I'm not going to try (at least intentionally) to protest such issues. And if I do, I do ask to be flamed as a result.

I realize the effects it has now, yes. Which is most of the OOC reason I'm not going to use it.

I also understand about things like Karma, and Avechna. I understand I'm going to die a lot. The idea was what could I do while Aran was still alive and there. What use could he be with me playing him?

This is my first real MUD, joined it with two friends a while back ago, so a lot of things take getting used to. I don't like whining or complaining when I get killed, or when people hate me. I hate when I see it, and I hate when people b---h about it. It doesn't help that my first mud was a PK mud either, as everyone else has at least a little experience with it before I started, so I'm just behind in that respect.

All my faults in this end up falling on me, not understanding skills, and not understanding the full impact of what they could have, and as such I'm not going to contest this bloodhunt to any degree.

As long as you don't use dilute, you should be fine, really.

But that ability is sort of generally recognised as "don't use it except on people who pooka you to empty your vials, or shieldbash, or...that other griefing thing."

Not using something isn't going to get it changed. Only way is to abuse hell of it.

Pfft. Keep most of your healing, mana and bromides vials in your pack.
Get diluted, pour out the few you've got, get the fresh, safe ones out, and kill Aquamncer

Simple, don't use dilaute and you wont get hunted....

let it be changed to wear off after a few mins and then it will be useable

It's a pity such a nice idea for a skill (having your opponent heal less during a fight) is permanent, because if it just lasted the fight then it wouldn't cause so much hate (well, except the normal hate for being killed, that stays).
It's just like that skill about destroying other people shields (armor?), from an IC view they're great because you're hurting the other person more than just making them pray (in the best of cases), but OOC they're very nasty to use.

*nods*
*looks to the sky and prays to the gods to make a skill used by those who follow the Light and the Waters to have less malicious and spiteful skill*

*glances about*
....
*glances*
...

We'll see what happens I guess.

Some advice:

You're wasted in Celest. Unless you plan to shoot for leadership, switch over to Glom so I can have someone balanced to talk to.

Would it be possible to turn dilute back on the user?
You could keep all vials that are duplicates of ones your using in your pack. Then when dilute hits you, give your diluted vials to the Aquamancer and take your fresh ones out of your pack. If your lucky, the diluted vials might take priority over the good ones and the Aquamancer will then sip those (not too sure how the system of deciding which vial to sip when you sip health works, comments appreciated)

Pfft, I'm balanced.

Kinda.

What the Nil, Jack, no you're not.