Get algae, freaks, and spiders in the observatory basement - it's right next door to Hallifax. Also consider the nearby i'Xiia asylum for parasites, though you may or may not need a buddy to help (they seem to have a strong poison attack that really stings on certain guilds), rocs and manticores in the mountains, maybe orcs in Shallach if you are looping around and want something easy, cats and mammoths in Snow Valley, or the Moors.

DISCLAIMER: I attribute the following confusion to me not having spent nearly enough time around Hallifax.

What is the difference, if any, in the ideal of the Collective and the ideal of the Engine. Both seem rather socialist at heart, emphasizing the need for cooperation and working for something greater than the individual while still having rigid caste systems. I see the difference in the 'modern' day, but I can't find them at their roots.

Magnagora's Engine ideal is more a ruse, given the significance of greed and self-interest to the city as a whole. Though you might be able to argue the same about Hallifax, but it isn't presented in such a blatant manner if it is.

EDIT: Bah, ruse isn't really the appropriate word here. To put it another way, Magnagora reminds me more of "Free Market Communism".

Collective is a much scarier place than the Engine. The Engine I take it says that each person has a job to play. If you are too weak to play it, then you will be demoted and another person would take your place. The collective is that each person has a job to play, but you will be policed as a whole. That there is no room for the demotion and that you would be stretched out and forced to do your job. If you fail in doing your job, you are still a part of the collective, yet you are automatically given another job that you must complete. So basically you are used and re-used to the benefit of whatever ideals are in place, and the only way you can step out is to leave. And that big brother is watching you.

Better way to describe the Collective:

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biolygical and technolygical distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adept to service us. Resistance is futile.


Edit: I think you need to compare some other aspects of Magnagora. For example: racial inferiority and superiority. the back-stabbing and treachery aspects, and and the more destruction and change oriented.

Hallifax is more Borg-ish as above. Your races will be made to serve. Your strengths will be made to serve. You will do as your caste demands. You will do anything for science or the arts.

Magnagora's not socialist, that's just propaganda that the entrenched upper class (in the form of the Great Houses) use to placate the masses. Magnagora is a Neutral Evil society at heart, predicated on social Darwinism. It's less a case of "do your job well, and you'll be promoted!" and more a case of "do your job well, stab your supervisor in the back, and you'll be in line for his job!" - whereas Hallifax is a socialist meritocracy through and through.

I actually find Glomdoring to be closer to Hallifax than Magnagora in terms of collectivism. Glomdoring has the 'Nothing matters but Glomdoring' stance, where the individual doesn't matter, only Glomdoring matters.

"The Engine" is that everyone in Magnagora is a "cog" within the Engine. The whole thing is a bit of noble BS cooked up to keep the serfs happy. "The littlest cog that could", even if you suck and can barely keep your head above water Magnagora has a place for you. You may not like the place, it might be dark and scary, but we have a place for you where you can help the city.

It is also a good example of the Magnagoran world-view. Everything is a resource. You bring Othero a Merian. Does he kick it away and go "eww, fish!"? Not at all. He grabs it, enslaves it, works it to the bone, cuts it up, skins it, and makes himself a suit. Every cog has a place within the Engine. And we stress that there are bigger and smaller cogs. A place doesn't mean every cog has power. A big cog decides how the Engine runs.

Hallifax is a bit more pure in its idea, it honestly believes in the Collective. Hallifax isn't a city, it isn't a piece of floating land, it is an entity. Everyone within the Collective works -for- the collective. The state over the individual, recognizing yourself as part of a higher power and being a part of it. Hallifaxians are the microbes in your mouth, everyone is doing their part for the bigger organism and in turn they're protected and helped by that collective.

As for Glomdoring, Nothing Matters but Glomdoring is similar but different. I've seen it as, Glomdoritos believe in Glomdoring over anything else. You are not your family, your friends, your allies, or whatever. You are Glomdoring and you will destroy all of those if it helps Glomdoring. It is a call of isolationism.

I find this to be true as well, which is what my character blames on us not always getting along. This major difference I see, is that Hallifax says, "These are our allies, what's good for them is good for us, but we're still more important," whereas Glomdoring seems more, "These are our allies, let's use them for as long as we can, because we're more important."

Please note that I'm not complaining about Glomdoring by any means. It makes perfect sense with their RP, and I'm totally fine with it.

What mobs in UV aside from Phycomid and Centipedes can pick up items? (Not counting braineater parasites which many can "hold"). The Tutophet writ is MIA and no critter in UV has it (unless I missed it having sweeped every room/every critter in UV about 20 times with help/dog which I highly doubt)

I checked for you, there's 5 writs in your backpack and one in the undervault, IE it's not anywhere it shouldn't be.

I had 6 on me at one point (akh, mumh, khem, sethe, imho, nameless generic for other quest keph cycle iirc)

And 7th was Tuto MIA (I remember seeing Tuto long ago somewhere, though I recall having to wait for resets on them!)

Pah, thanks for the check Elo

There's only six writs in existence that I can see, if there should be seven that would be something to submit through a bug. (I can't judge on this as I am not familliar with this particular quest)

I think the appearance of the nameless generic one can sometimes mess it all up. I'm not sure how, but the last time people tried to poison all the hives, they ran into the same issue.

Maneuvers description says:

"...Thus if you use a maneuver that consists only of a critical level wound, you lose the ability to do the lower level wounds, but in exchange you increase the likelihood of successfully making that critical wound happen."

It's at odds with what I've been told elsewhere, and how maneuvers are explained in places on these forums.

So, if I have a behead only maneuver, does adding slitthroat decrease the likelihood of a succesful behead (given wounds on the target are high enough for behead)?

The AB is accurate. The RNG still hates us, though.

What? No it's not.

Prove it?

I'm not the warrior here.