oristo 60: The Snowy Mountain Pass

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

Chapter 60: The Snowy Mountain Pass

The path up the Claw Ridge Mountains through the Claw Ridge Pass went progressively upwards.

It was when we had proceeded up past the treeline that we started running into a little trouble.

Only ten minutes later, we started running into a LOT of trouble.

Knee deep in snow, I had a sudden thought.

Ah, I forgot to turn in my Dismantling Master quest to Barry Guss, but ooooh well~.

In the first place, we have bigger problems going on right now.

“Sss-sso by p-ppproblems with c-cold m-miti-ga-gation, do you mean e-everyone ffffreezes a-and d-dddies?”

“Yeah, seriously. This is pretty bad~.”

Dark is shivering pretty bad, and he can barely talk.

Me, on the other hand, I’m freezing, but it’s not that bad yet.

Even though visually, I totally look like I should be colder thanks to the lack of clothing covering my neck and the tops of my breasts.

Thanks, Chie.

That said, Dark is actually one of the better off, comparatively.

Hisui and Pink-and-Blue are so cold, they look like they’re going to shut down.

Zeke and Jo are mildly better off, and Ane-san looks completely fine – wait, scratch that.

Anee-san doesn’t look like she’s freezing, but she does look mildly uncomfortable, and her movements are much more rigid.

“I knew it was the right decision to try experimenting with temperature control.”

“Dammit Chie – if you had the foresight to prepare winter clothing for yourself, you could have done it for the rest of us too!”

I can’t help griping at Chie, but she just tilts her head and says,

“But it’s not like I have a stat for cold mitigation or anything, so there’s no way I could insure that what I tried out on clothes will work, right? This outfit is just a test. Ah, right, you guys, try these on, and tell me how it goes…”

“Haa… tactical retreat then, Ane-san?”

Jo cut Chie off and appealed to our unofficial leader to leave the mountaintop.

“Yes… that would be a good idea… Somebody’s going to have to help me. I think my joints have frozen over or something.”

Tch.

We’ve been defeated by the weather-!

Although I don’t have too many complaints about that.

The weather thwarting human plans and innovations is actually one of the things I take a morbid sort of delight in.

Watching a blizzard or typhoon that’s shut down the transit system is both delightful – and irritating.

Although… in a game, there are definitely going to be differences.

Once we’ve reached a safer elevation, the analysis of the cold damage started.

“That’s interesting… it’s like a mixture of being slightly colder than you’d like, plus the twinges from bleed damage. I suppose they can’t actually give you a sensation that’s like you’re freezing to death.”

Hisui gave his impression as we huddled over the campfire that Dark made.

“Yeah, but it’s still an unpleasant feeling. There was a speed and damage debuff, too. What about you, Ane-san?”

Dark asked.

“That’s… There was no cold feeling, but I had a speed and movement debuff. Also, it felt like they dialed back all my senses by a lot.”

Since she’s basically a robot, huh~?

“But Naru-san seemed to have been fine?”

“? No, I was cold?”

Zeke seems to think that my faking it was actually legit.

Although, it’s true that it looks like I wasn’t having as much trouble as the others.

Dark sighed.

“…Endurance, huh?”

“It’s got to be, yeah. Other than Chie, who’s cheating, the ones with the highest END are Naru, Ane-san, Zeke, and Jo, respectively.”

“So… what are we going to do? We have to reach Claw Ridge Pass. Is there another way to get there?”

Jo asked.

“Too bad there’s no mine to go under the mountain…”

“That’s a recipe for disaster. We’ll lose our wizards and end up in a forest of elves.”

Huh?

“We could always swing by the pass near Isengard.”

Oh, I get it.

These nerds.

“… More realistically, Chie-chan, how did your test outfit go?”

“Mm… I think I’ll need to try out some more things. Naru~.”

… … …

Even though Ane-san can’t feel cold, why am I the guinea pig?

It only took 20 minutes of trying on various things and going up the mountain by myself, as well as reporting the numbers and Bses, but I guess that was helpful?

Luckily, Chie has a ton of wolf furs now.

About midway through her crafting, Chie suddenly cheered.

“Yay~! [Tailor] just leveled up, and I gained the ability to see environmental mitigation!”

“How convenient… but that means the clothes technically have cold mitigation even if you couldn’t tell?”

“I guess… I’ll have to do more investigating later, but for now, I’ll just make some winter clothes for everyone~.”

“… …”

As Chie enjoys herself, bringing out and setting an entire Tailors’ workstation on the side of this mountain, the rest of use are just watching her in amazement.

“Nah, Naru-san. Is Chie like this in rl? You guys are friends in real, right?”

Even Ane-san, a pretty hardcore crafter in her own right, is surprised with Chie’s single-mindedness.

“She doesn’t usually show her otaku side, so I guess she lets loose in VR.”

I reply.

Of course, she’s not an anime or game otaku.

She’s a cosplay otaku. Fashion otaku. Something like that.

Actually… Chie enjoys shopping and arranging clothing, but here in OriSto, with the almost complete freedom to make whatever she wants, it almost feels like she found a new hobby or something.

Anyway, I’m sure it’s like when I’m working on my bike.

You just kind of lose track of time.

Well, it’s not like we can proceed without some new clothes, and it’s Chie’s quest anyway.

Also, getting player-made, semi-personalized equipment for free just because we’re helping her do this quest is pretty… well, no one’s going to be complaining about things any time soon, that’s for sure.

—

Extra

[Version-Update Update Meeting]

Location: Nusphere Corp

—

“Are we sure about cutting the revival debuff from 1 hour to 30 minutes? I thought we were trying to make the Death Penalty more difficult?”

“Haa… weren’t you listening at any of the other meetings? We decided that the Death Penalty alone isn’t enough to convey the experience we want to give players through dying.”

“Besides, we made dying have effects nastier overall~. Even if the duration is shorter, it’s also a lot more annoying. It’s difficult to balance the penalty so that it’s just extremely aggravating and not something that will make the player log off, after all~.”

“So, what’s the Death Penalty going to be? Because OriSto is a ‘free ability’ type of game, there aren’t any levels for them to lose.”

“The Death Penalty itself is an ExP based penalty. 5% of your total experience in all Talents, to be exact.”

“So any ExP earned in any Talent will count towards that 5% while under the influence of the Death Penalty?”

“Yes, and until that Death Penalty is paid off, the player will not earn any actual ExP.”

“So it’s no longer a duration based thing anyway! So what’s the debuff, then?”

“We’re separating the debuff from the Death Penalty. It’s a new debuff called Revival Sickness.”

“Pft. The players were already calling it that…”

“Naming it after a common nickname makes things easier for them to understand, right?”

“Instead of just a few Stats and Substats, we’re reducing all Stats by 10%. It makes the calculations a little easier, without having to pick out specific Substats and all that.”

“After all, reducing the main Stats will inevitably reduce the Substats and everything else the player has.”

“In addition to the 10% all-Stat reduction, Revival Sickness will also cause all weapons and tools to wear down 10% quicker, as well as making all items have a -15% effect.”

“Even poisons? That would just heal them, right? Or at least, work less on them.”

“… … … Although we did properly separate it so the debuff will only work on beneficial items, there’s an interesting idea in there for an undead race or something. I’ll mark that down for now and we can discuss this later. Anyway, the potions like HP and MP potions will replenish 15% less, durations will last 15% less… that kind of thing. Food items will even replenish 15% less Hydration and Satiety.”

“There is a third component to dying, regarding player items. Upon death, all equipped items will lose 30% condition. There’s also a 10% chance that a non-equipped item will drop.”

“Ah, speaking of items, a Broken item will no longer be able to be repaired to full condition. Upon a successful repair, an RNG will roll that permanently reduces condition between 5%-50%.”

“To encourage players to maintain their weapons and tools, huh?”

“We’re getting off topic… Anyway, so basically, our current Death Penalty will be broken up into three parts. A loss of condition and possibly items at the instance of death, a Death Penalty that only expires once it’s paid off, and a duration based Revival Sickness.”

“Ah, also, the Death Penalty stacks. If a player dies before paying off the Death Penalty, the new ExP Penalty will just add to the existing ExP Penalty. And the Revival Sickness will increment. If a player dies under the effects of Revival Sickness, they’ll resurrect with Revival Sickness(ii). Dying under Revival Sickness(ii) gives Revival Sickness(iii), etc, until the fifth level, which is Revival Sickness(severe).”

“… What is Revival Sickness(severe) going to do?”

“It will last 1.5 hours, -50% to all Stats, +25% item wear, -50% item effects, and a 75% chance of 1-3 items dropped upon next death, including equipped items.”

“Wow… so actually, that 30 minute duration is due to this, huh?”

“Yup. Dying once, okay, that’s an inconvenience. Dying in quick succession? At that point, if you died to PvE then you’re just asking for it by putting yourself in the exact same situation for over 3 times. Dying to PvP… will people leave you alone for that 1.5 hours, especially after knowing they can get your equipment to drop?”

“Speaking of PvP, I actually haven’t heard much about that retooling. We’re removing the Red Name effects?”

“Yes. Partly due to the retooling of the Death Penalty and Revival Sickness. Just with the increment of Revival Sickness, players are going to be aware that it’s a bad idea to get into situations where you’re likely to get killed multiple times within 30 minutes.”

“But that won’t deter PK where the PK player preys on weaker players.”

“… I’ve said this before, but PK is also a legitimate way to play the game. But, well, you’re right that we don’t want complete anarchy. So we’ve grouped PvP into three types: Duels, Battles, and PK.”

“What are the differences?”

“Duels are a 0-sum game. Players mutually agree to engage each other in combat, and they will now only be able to deploy the Duel Arena effect in designated arenas or in a space large enough without any other players within the space, to avoid abuse of the system. Players can bet money or items on victory, or they can chose not to. There’s no Death Penalty, Revival Sickness, or item loss on death, other than what you bet, and there’s no effects due to killing the other player, either. In fact, dying in a Duel Arena doesn’t even send you back to a Revival Spot. You essentially don’t die; all Stats, buffs/debuffs, HP/MP … it’s all reset to what you had before you entered the Duel Arena. Also, players can only fight up to 6v6, no more, in a Duel.”

“So Duels are purely based on fighting each other for fun.”

“Yes. As for battles, they will basically be wargames. There’s a time and location designated. If you don’t want to get involved, don’t be at that location at that time. Dying at the Battle will revive players at their registered side’s special Revival Spot, which will not provide the Death Penalty or Item Loss and only give the player a Revival Sickness(light), which lasts 15 minutes, among other lightened debuffs. Instead, number of deaths and number of kills will affect the rewards the player is given at the end of the Battle. The rewards are also based on victory or defeat, of course.”

“What about players dying that don’t belong to either side of the Battle?”

“They’d be a casualty of war, reviving with the normal penalties and debuffs at the normal, nearest Revival Spot.”

“So basically… get out of the scheduled warzone or you only have yourself to blame?”

“Well, the players who are actively involved in the Battle won’t get anything for killing them, either benefits or demerits, so … well, it’s left up to how each individual would deal with it according to their own moral codes.”

“So Duels and Battles are essentially game-sanctioned combat zones with clearly defined limits. Then… the important part is the retooling of PK penalties, huh?”

“Yes. And, by the way, PK is defined as any player-verse-player combat in the normal environment outside of Battle Zones and Duel Arenas. We’ve replaced the general Red Name effect with a Bounty System.”

“…What’s the reasoning behind this?”

“The most obvious reason is to avoid the kill-happy trigger many players get when they see a Red Name around. The second reason is for realism. If you weren’t there at the site of a PK, there’s no way you should know if someone killed someone else. However, if you are interested in hunting killers, then you’ll actively hunt people with bounties on them.”

“So basically, we’re harkening back to olden days of wanted posters.”

“Well well, we’ll talk about the details of Bounty Hunting later. As for the other reasons for changing to a Bounty System…”

“Because it’s difficult to make a distinction between self-defense and preying on others. Furthermore, being in combat versus being out of it is difficult to register when the player can also be in combat due to PvE. There’s also the problem of a player, like a magic user, taking out most of another player’s HP, leaving the final blow to a comrade to avoid PK penalties.”

“So how will the Bounty System change that?”

“First of all, the visual Red Name still kicks in when in combat. It disappears when the Red Name goes out of combat, however. It’s so that players can keep track of who they’ve hit and who is hitting them.”

“In other words, if you’ve done damage to another player or another player does damage to you, the other player will have a Red Name in that combat instance. Just a little helpful effect for players who are concerned about keeping tabs on that sort of thing.”

“As for the PK penalty, it has nothing to do with the visual Red Name effect. First, the game will keep track of how many people a player kills per week (KPW), on average. When a player dies, how much HP was taken out by other non-party players, multiplied by each of the non-party players’ individual KPW, will directly correspond to how much Bounty the non-party players will earn.”

“Even if it was self-defense?”

“Yup. BUT, if it really was just self-defense, it’s likely that the player won’t have accrued much KPW, so their Bounty should be low. If that’s the case, they will likely only be a Level 1 Bounty, and can easily pay it off to NPC guards to remove their Bounty status.”

“Level 2 Bounties will have a little more trouble and have to clear their Bounty by both paying it off as well as doing a quest for the NPCs. Community service, basically. They will also gain a Wanted status, causing NPCs with decent INT to become very suspicious. If they’re guards, those NPCs might try to arrest the player; if they’re quest givers, those NPCs will either give extremely reduced rewards or else refuse to give quests altogether. Those types of NPC merchants will also give poor prices or refuse service. They are also killable in towns and other similar non-combat zones.”

“… Huh. Even without the Red Name, other players could totally tell just by observing the NPCs.”

“Yup. But, of course, it’s more difficult to tell than just seeing a red name.”

“Level 3 is the highest level, and Level 3 Bounties will have to pay off 2x their Bounty to clear it. Instead of a Wanted status, they’ll gain a Dead or Alive Status. All the problems with the Wanted Status apply, but with the addition that any NPC with high INT will start screaming for help or the guards. Also, all guards will recognize the Level 3 Bounty immediately and go in for the arrest. Also, any player that kills a player with a DoA status will gain no Bounty themselves.”

“… So basically the Red Name effect, but no Red Name. In that case, all you’d have to do is stay out of sight of NPCs with high INT.”

“But other than us devs, how would you know which NPC has high INT? Sure, you could play that way, but you’d have to stay out of sight of all NPCs.”

“You’d basically be a fugitive that can’t enter the cities.”

“Exactly. You can do it, and it’s a valid way to play, but you can’t do anything else but PK until you clear your Bounty. Or else you’d have to get ‘creative.’ And even if you do, it’s not like other players will happily sit back and let you be a menace to others.”

“So say you are killed while having a Bounty. Then what happens? There’s no way a Level 3 should just be let off because he got ‘caught’.”

“Of course not. Once a Bountyhead is killed, he or she will be teleported to the nearest NPC jail with all the normal penalties for death. No matter what Level Bounty you are, you have to pay to be let out. Non-bribe-able. It’s either your Bounty of a percentage of your money, whichever’s less. 10% for Level 1, 25% for Level 2, and 50% for Level 3.”

“Ooh, don’t forget, having a Wanted status will definitely drop 3-10 items or equipment and 10% gold on death. DoA makes it 10-20 items, with 25% gold.”

“That’s any equipment, equipped or locked?”

“Correct. Any item.”

“Okay, but the Bounty is based on HP done and KPW … so what if someone just kills players with low HP, or spaces out his kills to maintain a low KPW?”

“…Then that person is just a serial killer.”

“Right, in the first place, killing low-HP players most likely means they’re killing new or weak players, and unless the PK is at the same level as their victims, they won’t be able to do enough in the battle to earn much ExP. Plus, there’s such a low chance of mediocre items dropped that there’s no point, really. Sure, people could aim for multi-killing a player until their Revival Sickness includes a chance to drop important items, but what’s the point of that for a low-level guy? Chances are, the target you choose for robbing will have a decently high HP.”

“And besides, even if the game mechanics don’t respond to someone killing in a meticulous way, there’s no way the players will just obediently let it go because the PK didn’t trigger the penalties. They’ll figure something out.”

“Then… what if a top player has to defend himself again and again and again and earns a Level 3 Bounty despite it all being self-defense?”

“First, it’s not that easy to earn a Level 3 Bounty. Second, if a player actually succeeds in doing that all in self-defense, without dying, then he should hide in an Asylum Tower and report the harassment to the devs.”

“Asylum Tower? That’s the first I’ve heard of that.”

“They’re basically zones like the jails. No communication except to devs or incoming calls via phone, no facilities – basically the only thing you can do is not be attacked, report to the devs, and log out. Sure, you could squat there, but what’s the point then? You might as well log out.”

“Anyway, there’s always some risk of unfortunate cases. That’s why the devs are available. We are the only ones with the ability to directly remove or place Bounties. Of course, we can’t take it lightly… but we are here to mitigate any sort of circumstance that lies outside the game mechanic.”

“… Oh yeah, technically, there is a Level 4 Bounty…”

“… What?”

“It’s basically when a player becomes public-enemy-#1. At that point, we devs can make the call to play as NPC guards and go to apprehend the player.”

“…So that’s what those ridiculous-stat guard avatars are for! But wait, if it’s that bad, then shouldn’t we just ban the player?”

“Like. I. Keep. Saying. PK is a valid way to play. Sure, if there’s harassment or bullying or whatnot going on, we COULD just ban the player. But if the player is legitimately role-playing as a bandit or something? Anyway, the Guard Squad is only a last resort. Well, we’ll have to go over the details over when and why we’d use them, but it’s for a special circumstance where we can’t justify banning a player, but we also can’t justify leaving him at large.”

“Anyway, the Guard Squad’s main purpose is to make sure gameplay can continue without impediment, so this is just a bonus. Haa… that monster train in the newbie area was reeeaally bad, after all. Even if we fixed the aggro for the mobs, having the Guard Squad on hand just in case is a little extra insurance.”

—

—

TALENTS

[Axe]Lv40
[Bolstered Endurance]Lv46
[Sharp Senses]Lv35
[Scavenge+]Lv14
[Spirit of the Wild Hunt]Lv35
[Inheritance of the Forest Guardian]Lv37
[Discovery]Lv29
[Bolstered Dexterity]Lv37
[Counter]Lv29
[Mine]Lv32
[Scribe]Lv24
[Bolstered Strength]Lv17

Avg Lv: 28
TP: 46

---

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

---

<A/n: So during this slow travel bit of Chie’s quest, the Extra is more like the main part.
That said, it’s still not absolutely necessary to read to understand what’s going on… just a little bit of extra info for how the game will change in the future.

I’m trying to update 3xs in 2 weeks, but with some webcomic prep in the bg and a some lifestyle changes thanks to shelter-in-place, I kind of flapped. >