Yupa's CR Tips Version 1.0, July 30, 2002 Contents A. Introduction B. Doing your own CRs C. Calling in Back Up D. Spelling yourself Up E. Post Characters F. CR Characters G. Donating H. Too much Weight? I. Containers, Sucky Limited J. CR vs. Flame/Frost/Bolt/Acid Mobs K. CR vs. Aggro Mobs - Speed is the Essence! L. Scavengers, Blk_Take, and Saccers M. Crashes, Reboots, and your Rights to a Reimbursement A. Introduction - OK, you just died. That totally sucks. But death is merely transitory on NC, and now you've got the opportunity to go get your corpse (and therefore all your gear) back. That's what these tips are for. I hope this will make things a little easier for you, maybe give you some alternatives and options to try. B. Doing your own CRs - Before pleading for help, consider getting your own stuff back first. You probably know better than anyone where you were at the time, and what killed you. Give it a go first before calling in someone else. - But don't rush in foolishly. Most mobs have a good memory, and will attack you as soon as you walk back into the room. Ideally, it would've been nice to have blinded the mob before you attacked it. That'll keep the pressure off for awhile, but not long; remember, blindness does wear off after several tics (minutes). - So how do you do your own CR if the mob is only going to kill you again? Well, have you tried using another character? If the mob's not aggro, he won't bug you if you send in your alternate character. C. Calling in Back Up - OK, so you tried to do it yourself, but to no avail. Now it's time to gossip for some help. Ask for help, when someone responds, give them as much details as you can....the zone you died in, what directions to get there/to the specific spot, what killed you, etc. Be as precise as you possibly can, it'll make things alot easier for those trying to help. - Try not to get those involved killed either though. Warn them if the mob is aggro, or wanders, or does bad things like acid, flames, scavenges, sacs, etc. Most people will be still willing to help, but they can take necessary precautions with the info yo give. D. Spelling yourself Up - Before rushing out, remember that you've just died, have no eq, and therefore have no status or spell affects on you. Well, except Chill Touch, which is seriously sapping your strength. Spell up before going anywhere, w/ as many of the following as possible: Detect Invisible: Esp. if you have invisible gear. I've seen too many people leave things on the ground, in their corpses, etc. because they didn't check for invisible items. Rune of Protection: You walked past that aggro w/out rune mob before cause you had gear w/ rune on before. Now you don't. Rune up before going into any trouble. Fly: Don't want to hit a flying DT (even if you have no eq), or be stuck cause you forgot it. Sanctuary: If you have to fight to get your stuff back, otherwise you'll die twice as fast. Strength: To counteract chill touch, and to boost your strength as much as possible since you've probably been lugging around way more junk than you should. E. Post Characters - If your zoning, or in a particularly dangerous area, it's even better to bring a Post Character along. This is just basically a spare unequipped character, preferrably one that can cast summon. Leave this character in a safe spot in the zone, as close to where you are as possible. Definitely make sure it's a room that can be used to summon to. - When you die, you can just use your post to summon yourself back to the zone. It's faster than walking, you can probably avoid any mobs previously that you skipped, and the post doubles to ensure the zone doesn't pop on you. - Just put your post to sleep in a safe room til you need it. And make sure to keep the post there; use a different character to do the CRs, cause you'll probably have to do it multiple times to get everything, so you'll want that post there the whole time. F. CR Characters - You should make a dual character for CRs. Why? For one, this would be an expendable character. If he dies alot, you don't have to worry that you'll be rerolling a character you spent months or years developing. It's an easy, throw-away character that's only purpose in life is to grab your gear when you screw up. Another reason, sometimes mobs won't automatically attack a level 1 char. This isn't always the case, but it does apply in many situations. - Your level 1 CR character....you can make it whatever race or class you want, but I recommend possible a Giant/Cleric. Giant's can carry a fair amount, so that'll help lug your heavy corpse around. And Cleric will let him carry a ball of light, which you should make w/ your other character (or get from Dax or some bot), for the CR guy to hold. - Spells: Don't forget to cast spells on your CR guy! Remember, since it's a level 1 character, it ain't got much. Strength is definitely a must to have. Make sure the character can Detect Invisible as well. - Try to get your CR character clubbed too. For reasons seen in the next section. G. Donating - There are alot of circumstances in CRs when it's not feasible to stand in a room taking eq from your corpse and re-equipping. For example, if there are still mobs in the room, or wandering mobs in adjacent areas that can come into the room. No point in trying to get dressed if you're only going to die again in a second, right? - So the alternative....the safer way, is to donate! That's right, grab your corpse and just donate it (or cdon it, preferrably). Then have your recently killed character go to the (c)donation room and get your stuff at your leisure. It's alot safer and probably less messy. Do it fast though, don't lounge around til your corpse decays, that'll make even more of a mess. - Just remember that Limited Items CAN'T BE DONATED! I can't stress this point enough. You donate a limited item, it is destroyed. This applies to containers as well. Make sure you know what it is before donating. - It's a no-no for people to loot corpses in the donation room. It's generally bad for them to take stuff if your corpse decays too, but it sometimes happens. Especially if you forgot Detect Invisible and leave stuff there. Just be nice about it, most people will be cool and give it back. H. Too much Weight? - Yeah, it's fun being a Dragon or Giant, lugging around 600 midgets worth of equipment and potions in your inventory. Not so fun when trying to pick it all up though. Remember weight will be a major consideration in Corpse Retrievals....Not only do you have to be able to carry the weight of your inventory stuff, but also the weight of your EQ that you were wearing, not to mention the weight of the corpse itself. That adds up to a whole lot. - So it will probably be impossible for you to pick up your corpse. What do yo do? Well, you'll have to do it in bunches. First, get the container from your corpse (make sure it's a non-limited container! See later section on containers for more info). Donate the container, that will make things alot lighter. If you still can't pick up your corpse, donate any other containers you have first. That should be light enough. If you have to, pick up items individually that you know aren't limited, and donate them. However, I don't recommend doing so unless absolutely necessary, for reasons explained later. I. Containers, Sucky Limited - Limited Containers suck. They really do. They might have cool names, and carry alot, but are generally a bad thing to keep loose in your inventory. I'll repeat myself yet again, DON'T DONATED LIMITED ITEMS, ESPECIALLY CONTAINERS! A limited container is the worst....donate it, it's destroyed, along with anything you kept inside it! - So what containers should you be using? There's alot of good non-limited stuff, I'll list the ones I can think of off-hand: Pandora's Box, Packet of Time, Box of Birth Control Pills, JanSport Backpack, Hungry Cookpot, Holy Bible, Humbaba's Shrivelled Head, Beast's Backpack, Duffel Bag, Magician's Spellbox, Jewelry Box, etc. Just to be safe though, check any of those I listed first. I'm fairly sure I'm right, but better to be safe than sorry. - Some limited containers that I can think of offhand, these you should avoid: Pqowie, Rebel Corpse, Batbag, etc. Will add more as I come across them. - What about magical containers, how can you find out if they're limited or not? Well, since Improved ID won't tell you, there's only one sure way to know... Donate it! Make sure it's empty first, then donate. If it breaks, then it's just as well. If not, then go get it and it's usable. J. CR vs. Flame/Frost/Bolt/Acid Mobs - You need to watch out for any mobs that do these things. Any item in your inventory can be destroyed if they breathe on you! The exception is containers with items in it, which are normally spared from flame damage. Which is why I say to donate containers only, and not to pick up loose items from your corpse. - The last thing you need to be doing in is getting eq from your corpse, not being able to put it on in time, and having some aggro mob burn it all! A definite no-no....I know a lot of people who lose really good stuff this way! K. CR vs. Aggro Mobs - Speed is the Essence! - OK, you died at some aggro mob that's basically guarding your corpse. If you send your character in, odds are you'll be dead in a round. Here's where speed is important; move fast, get it done, and get out. The best way to do this is with an unequipped character, and aliases: Example: Yupa dies at lions in Gilgamesh. He logs on his unequipped druid Lassie. He sets up aliases to expedite the process - alias com 5 get yupa (or corpse), alias com 6 cdon yupa (or corpse), alias com 7 quit lassie. He sends Lassie into the room, and types 5, 6, and then 7. Lassie grabs the corpse of Yupa, club donates it, and quits out of the game before the lions kill Lassie. Yupa gets his gear safely to his clubhouse, and ol' Lassie doesn't lose con from getting reamed by the lions. L. Scavengers, Blk_Take, and Saccers - K, any mob that does these things is generally bad. Scavengers will pick up your EQ, Blk_Takers will prevent you from picking stuff up, and Saccers are the worst - They'll sac your eq as they pick it up! - In any of these scenarios, you'll pretty much need to kill the mobs ASAP. Do it yourself if feasible, more likely call in for help though. Just try not to get other people sacced in the process, if the task is too daunting. M. Crashes, Reboots, and your Rights to a Reimbursement - You die. Then the mud crashes before you can do a CR, or get everything. That means your stuff is gone. But alas, all hope is not lost... this is generally a case where a reimbursement is in order. If it's because of some problem w/ the mud (crash), then it couldn't be helped that you couldn't get your stuff back. In this instance, consult any Imm that's on. Only higher (God or so, I believe) imms can actually do a reimbursement, but if there aren't any on, the lower Imms can at least make a note of the fact that you died before the crash, and someone can attend to your inquiry later. - There are, however, some limitations to a reimbursement. In general any item that you have that is at limit, may not be returned to you. Now since you, died, theoretically that item is under limit when the mud reboots....however, this isn't always the case. Furthermore, if you don't get your reimbursement done fairly quickly, there's a good chance that someone will go out and put that item back at limit.... so it's best to log on ASAP after a crash, and get it done quick. - Don't be too insistent and annoying though. Nobody likes hearing someone whine and moan. And don't try to take advantage of this by dying, not logging on, and waiting until there actually is a reboot before going back on and begging for a reimbursement....I've actually heard of a couple incidents like this, and the person(s) who tried it got zilch. - And hey, if you don't get all your stuff back....think of it this way. At least you got some of it back, right? No point in complaining too much if you weren't reimbursed a few limited items....better to have some than none at all.