The West (as of 3/09, Bat Country will be on World 8)

[Righ]

I have a pure tactics adventurer on W1 as an experiment and it's pretty easy to level. Despite the recommendations of the forumtards, a pire hiding build sucks shlong for levelling. A pure tactics soldier could do well as some kind of bizarre job-tank build 

I have to disagree on hiding. Its the easiest and fastest pure build to level - trapping only beats it for initial income (and then gets hammered as soon as the hiding character gets to Ambush level). I know of what I speak - I created alts on worlds 1-7 at the same time to test XP and income rates on different builds. My trapper caught up in experience at level 44 only by dint of doing the adventurer quest line and because my hider spends too much time making a fortune on Ambush now - a pure hider can't get past Trading with Indians in the adventurer quest line.

A pure Fine Motor Skills build is mostly worthless. Grave Robbing in the mid 20s is neat, but there's nothing else worth doing, so you end up with a gigantic point migration later on.

[sidereal]

How did your pure Health Point build go?

[K9]

I have a pure tactics adventurer on W1 as an experiment and it's pretty easy to level. Despite the recommendations of the forumtards, a pire hiding build sucks shlong for levelling. A pure tactics soldier could do well as some kind of bizarre job-tank build 

I have to disagree on hiding. Its the easiest and fastest pure build to level - trapping only beats it for initial income (and then gets hammered as soon as the hiding character gets to Ambush level). I know of what I speak - I created alts on worlds 1-7 at the same time to test XP and income rates on different builds. My trapper caught up in experience at level 44 only by dint of doing the adventurer quest line and because my hider spends too much time making a fortune on Ambush now - a pure hider can't get past Trading with Indians in the adventurer quest line.

A pure Fine Motor Skills build is mostly worthless. Grave Robbing in the mid 20s is neat, but there's nothing else worth doing, so you end up with a gigantic point migration later on.

Ah, I haven't pushed it that far. Pure hiding seems to hit a massive cockblock around level 12, and the net result is that my equivalent pure tactics and pure building characters are now 6-8 levels ahead. Maybe hiding catches up in the mid-game, but at the start it sucks pretty bad in my experience.

[Reg]

The Eagles have started an attack on our fort.

[Aez]

Would like an invite back to town.

The attack will be monday at 2 pm east?  Meh.

[schild]

How annoying. I hope I have enough money for a gun by then.

[Samwise]

Welp, there goes our fort.  

On the plus side, now we can have fun making them defend it constantly.  Nothing else to spend our cash on at this point.

[schild]

Why would we lose the fort? We've done a good job upgrading it and I think only 3 of us don't have weapons atm, or can't afford them.

[Samwise]

Why would we lose the fort? We've done a good job upgrading it and I think only 3 of us don't have weapons atm, or can't afford them.

Because it'll be about 10 defenders vs 128 attackers?

[Samwise]

FWIW, from the couple of fort battles I've been in, the best strategy seems to be to position yourself as a group such that you can focus fire on smaller numbers at any given time.  For example, the last fight I was in as an attacker, I was able to get on to one of the towers, but the attack bonus I got was obliterated by the fact that I was suddenly exposed (alone) to the 40 people inside the fort, and therefore received 40 shots for every 1 I made.

So I'm thinking the towers might actually not be the best place to defend from, especially if you're outnumbered, because it lets the attackers fire at you en masse from their starting positions.  If you stay inside (maybe on top of the buildings?), you can ignore everyone outside the fort, and just pick people off as they trickle in.

I still don't think we'll be able to keep the fort against the sort of numbers the Eagles are likely to call in, but I am going to buy a precise shotgun and take a few of them out before I go down.  

[schild]

We might want to call on some of the other towns to help, if they're willing. IF.

[Phildo]

Why wouldn't they be?  Hell, you could probably get FoM to show up just so the Eagles don't get another fort.

[Aez]

Don't forget to invite me or I won't be able to help.

How does the fight even work?
If I show up 2 or 3 hours later it's too late?

[Amarr HM]

I think the trick is to make sure leadership and hiding are getting good bonuses.

    * +1 bonus with one point and up
    * +2 bonus with 3 points and up
    * +3 bonus with 10 points and up
    * +4 bonus with 23 points and up
    * +5 bonus with 43 points and up
    * +6 bonus with 71 points and up
    * +7 bonus with 108 points and up
    * +8 bonus with 155 points and up
    * +9 bonus with 211 points and up

These probably add up to your AV & DV so it's best to get as many as possible. The skills you need for defending are Leadership, Hiding, Aim and Dodge. Aim or dodge are only used when shooting or defending respectfully so consider these slightly secondary. If you are only getting 68 in one skill try and swap out some gear to get another one over a benchmark or two. eg. Best to have all needed skill at 23+ than just one skill over 155.

[K9]

Out of interest have any of the forts actually flipped? Superficially it always seems that the defenders do have an advantage.

[Amarr HM]

Yes standing on gates and towers gives defenders a bonus so they always have some advantage. I've sent a heap of telegrams to would be allies, hopefully some people turn up.

[Reg]

Could I get an invitation back to Bat Country?  I need to buy me a gun. With equipment I can actually get my Leadership and Hiding over 23. Is that enough so that it's worth my coming along to try to defend?

[Righ]

Absolutely. Everybody is helpful. Hell, even if you don't have a fort weapon, come along. Just putting a few more health points in the way of some bullets could make the difference.

[Hawkbit]

I don't know the whole dynamic, but should we be worried about them rolling up a few hours before and KOing everyone waiting at the fort?  Is it best to be sleeping until the battle time?

[Reg]

People who are KOed can still fight in fort battles so we're OK on that score. Although sleeping might be a good idea anyway because you want to start the battle with full hit points.

[Amarr HM]

I don't know the whole dynamic, but should we be worried about them rolling up a few hours before and KOing everyone waiting at the fort?  Is it best to be sleeping until the battle time?

Once you go to the fort and click on defend button you aren't duelable.

[grebo]

Um, so a "Fort Gun" is any ranged weapon, or no?

[Phildo]

Only the left-hand weapons are useful in forts.  They're listed at the bottom of the Gunsmith's menu.

[Amarr HM]

Could I get an invitation back to Bat Country?  I need to buy me a gun. With equipment I can actually get my Leadership and Hiding over 23. Is that enough so that it's worth my coming along to try to defend?

I have the same it should work out ok I hope if I have the assumption of how the bonuses work correct. Although it might not matter as we are likely going to get Zerg'd.

[Phildo]

Should probably make a thread on the forums letting people know that one of the few unaligned forts is about to get run over by a coalition of Eagles and FoM (there are two FOM at the fort already).

[Amarr HM]

Should probably make a thread on the forums letting people know that one of the few unaligned forts is about to get run over by a coalition of Eagles and FoM (there are two FOM at the fort already).

Way ahead of you brosef http://forum.the-west.net/showthread.php?t=23299

also we should probably all jump on Chatzy tomorrow.

[Aez]

You guys play from work?
I'll miss the fight if i'm working?  Or the fight last more than an 1-2 hours?

[Samwise]

You do not have to be online when the fight happens.  You just need to get to the fort and click the button to participate in the battle sometime before the fight starts.  You could do it right now if you like; you just can't do anything else until it's over.

[rk47]

Just left a town. Gonna have to wait 8 h 25 min before I can rejoin. Please send invite when you can.

[Phildo]

Don't need to be in a town to defend the fort, do you?

Incidentally, anyone else notice the number of FoM people that are showing up already?

[Amarr HM]

No you don't have to be part of a defending town to join in, but you get first preference if you are in the unlikely event more than 128 people show up to defend. I also noticed a few Crater lake guys turned up so we'll know better tomorrow it's early days yet. Just send out a few telegrams to any contacts you might have in game it will help.

[Prospero]

can headcrabzluvu get an invite?

[schild]

Righ is our shining hope on this shit.

I was suprised to find out I had so many points in Aim. I've started migrating to pure melee fighter after Bat Country was finished, though I'd only started dumping points into vigor.

[Amarr HM]

Yeh thanks to Righ (and partially me for reminding them) a fair amount of Crater Lake guys have turned up which is awesome. Right now it's about half defenders, half attackers.

[rk47]

Do we actually need energy to defend the place or do I just park my guy there? I was wondering if I should just spend the energy doing some jobs while waiting fort battle to start.