The Clan Lord Sentinel

I'm finding it a major pain to keep the special blade training at the level I want while try to train anything else for more then a few ranks. I really think once you have at least 100 ranks in a special blade you've made the choice. (to be honest, I never did get this one... you don't loose Bracis training and it's as good as useless compared to 50 ranks in a special blade.)



SO... here is the question: Why can't we have a command, like /Use /Lock or Unlock to go along with the /reflect and /practice commands? That way the user has the ability to let the ranks fade away if they want... or to lock them at the level they have trained.



Anyone else like this idea?

Zeitgeist wrote:I'm finding it a major pain to keep the special blade training at the level I want while try to train anything else for more then a few ranks. I really think once you have at least 100 ranks in a special blade you've made the choice. (to be honest, I never did get this one... you don't loose Bracis training and it's as good as useless compared to 50 ranks in a special blade.)



SO... here is the question: Why can't we have a command, like /Use /Lock or Unlock to go along with the /reflect and /practice commands? That way the user has the ability to let the ranks fade away if they want... or to lock them at the level they have trained.



Anyone else like this idea?

Yes.

This has been discussed over and over and over and over. Use the handy search feature, please.

Hidden wrote:This has been discussed over and over and over and over. Use the handy search feature, please.

Um, I kinda thought so too, which is why I was terse rather than (as usual) garrolous, but when I actually go to do a search for "/practice" or "/train" or "practice" or "train" I find one relevent thread: [ Poll ] Warning message before weapon training decays. The last post in that thread was Wedensday, July 16, 2003, from Mongo.



Not to mention that the thread doesn't even address getting rid of rank decay, only a message warning that rank decay's about to happen.



So back off, self-appointed Topic Police Thoom. Or at least post links to the relevent threads or msgs within threads if the discussion you're referring to is the result of topic drift within another topic.

Most of this discussion has taken place on the newsgroup. But there is a thread here that even has a response from Ann.



viewtopic.php?t=352



I found it by searching for "rank decay".

Could we get decay faster? I havent gotten one in months on my gossamer.

Kojiro wrote:Could we get decay faster? I havent gotten one in months on my gossamer.

That's actually potentially interesting...if you're currently a Champion, your Fell blade ranks won't decay. Because Rangers haven't been implemented yet, I wonder if the 'no rank decay' thing is applying to any special weapon. Any other Champions having a similar experience?



\ponder not that you'd admit it, even if you were, I suppose.

Someone remind me please, why do these ranks decay?



I could see some reasoning for some decay, but being able to allow all ranks to decay is like forgetting how to ride a bicycle. It seems that this mechanic goes against a fundemental principal of CL ranks, that we do not un-learn things.



I'm all for being able to lock your ranks at some level. If there is to be some decay, we shouldn't upset that and be able to lock the apex of our training.

Zeitgeist wrote:I'm finding it a major pain to keep the special blade training at the level I want while try to train anything else for more then a few ranks.

I agree it's annoying. What I usually do is train about 10 ranks past my goal, so that while I'm training something else, I don't mind not going back to training the weapon until 10 ranks have slid, which for me usually takes a few weeks.

Hidden wrote:This has been discussed over and over and over and over. Use the handy search feature, please.

Ah, yes... 84 topic matches to Rank Decay... 61 matches to Fell Blade... most of the topics having no relation at all to the search... only a random mention hidden someplace in one of the posts. The comment that a GM responded actually help me find the thread with a search on Blade and a poster of Ann.



But, in spite of going back and searching and reading... I still haven't had this answered. If special blade ranks fade (do to drug abuse and brain damage no doubt) why do we not loose all training? Is Atkus training any different then blade training? is Bracus? is Darkus? If I want to dump Darkus I can untrain it... it doesn't fade away during a challenging hunt!



True, a real world comparison might be my skills on the gun range... I do need to target practice to maintain the edge but my fighters in Clan Lord spend a great deal more time (every moment out of the Lib) using those skills and every moment in the Lib studying them and yet they loose special blade ability a lot quicker then I loose my skills at making tiny holes in pieces of paper on the gun range.



I guess I just don't get the decision of the 'powers that be' to program this group of items... but then there are lots of other things I don't get either but it usually doesn't effect the game play as much or annoy me quite so much.



I've got 3 fighter characters (out of 4) that were born to weild a special blade. I have no intention of them using any other weapon, well... except the BloodBlader has an SOS because I don't always have a healer tagging along when he is out hacking & slashing.



Just looking at the process to get the Fell user to a Champion... I guess I could watch a few hundred blade ranks fade away in the process to get the blade ranks locked. I sure know I seldom seem to have the time to switch back to blade training when I get a memory hole message... I'm usually busy with the moment at hand. I did have a macro but it didn't seem to work at auto switching back to training the moment the decay message came.



Perhaps I can just by-pass all this chit-chat if there is a working macro to keep the ranks from decaying? Is there a cap on all the blade training? I could just start to train them all to max and then use a macro to keep them there... then, at least the over training will be held until there it time to get back to the trainer where I actually wanted the ranks... kind of contrived but it sure would be a work around. I flexable... I guess we don't really need a /lock command.

Zeitgeist wrote:Ah, yes... 84 topic matches to Rank Decay

Try selecting "search for all terms", then it only returns 8 matches.

Zeitgeist wrote:But, in spite of going back and searching and reading... I still haven't had this answered. If special blade ranks fade (do to drug abuse and brain damage no doubt) why do we not loose all training? Is Atkus training any different then blade training? is Bracus?

They wanted people to be able to experiment with the subclasses without committing to them first. So you could try out all 3 blades and choose which fits your style the best.



I would love to be able to get my wasted Bracis ranks back. The problem is, if they decayed, you could lose the ability to wear them right in the middle of a hunt.

Zeitgeist wrote:Is there a cap on all the blade training?

If there is, it is very high, at least 1000 or so, but I doubt it.

Zeitgeist wrote:

Hidden wrote:This has been discussed over and over and over and over. Use the handy search feature, please.

Ah, yes... 84 topic matches to Rank Decay... 61 matches to Fell Blade... most of the topics having no relation at all to the search... only a random mention hidden someplace in one of the posts. The comment that a GM responded actually help me find the thread with a search on Blade and a poster of Ann.

viewtopic.php?t=352&highlight=blade+lock

Interesting... reading the other thread on the decay rate. I'm sure I've lost as many as 3 ranks in a few hours... and then I've also taken days to loose a rank.



Is it purely random?



Does higher Mentus training retain the ranks longer?



I don't really remember which of my fighters seem to loose ranks faster but one had 50 Mentus, another 10 and another 0. (Just an odd thought although I'm sure there is no connection.) Mostly I just hope those 50 Mentus for a fighter has some use... LOL!

Zeitgeist wrote:I'm sure I've lost as many as 3 ranks in a few hours... and then I've also taken days to loose a rank.

The same thing happens to me. I have ranks in 2 weapons.

Zeitgeist wrote:Is it purely random?



Does higher Mentus training retain the ranks longer?

I don't think it's completely random. It seems to happen more often when I'm close to getting another rank.



As for Mentus, I don't see any reason why it should have any effect, and there's virtually no way to test it anyway.

Despite all the threads on this its worth bringing it up again every so often as its a damn good idea that hasn been implemented. If we can deca them faster perhaps we can pay to lose them lke in another game i play?



Pay for first rank then second is more and third is more. The proce decreases again over time.