Dear CMJ

thank you for creating this game.

That is all.

In the bad old days, you didn't have to look for them. When you came across one, it obediently pried itself open and dumped it's contents into your backpack. Pretty neat. Unless you had a small pack. Or were already overloaded.

Now, you have to watch the flavor text with every step in the world. "You see a crate" You then have the option to pick it up, or leave it for the next person. Or pick it up and carry it, unopened, and drop it on your true love's doorstep. Or open and it see what goodies are inside. Anything you can buy from Eboy's was first found in a crate.

Or not.

---

Thank you.

Thank you for saving me a button press every time I clean a carcass. I'm still getting used to not hitting that second C, but I like it.

x8359 at least.

---

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a trombone; what else does a man need to be happy?

Isn't this a little too easy to exploit? Choosing "open crate" or "don't open crate" on the world map is fine, but we can actually pick up crates and move them around. You could mess with the game pretty easily with this.

Gimme an example.

Pick up crates before a DK, stash them in a hidden spot on the world map, DK, collect, open, sell. Free Plasma/Force Gen. (Assuming anything that I said is possible.)

---

You can toast them, but it's dark magic. - MotPax on hotdog buns.

Yup, that'll do it. I guess we'll have to get some more players crawling over the Map, and spawn some more Crate Sniffers, so that your crates disappear naturally while you're trying to find 'em again. Or, block dropping them on the world map, I guess.

(mind you, as long as Dan's Quests still operate the way they do, this is kinda like bolting your front door against the rain when your house has only two walls)

After all the complaints about building materials getting stolen off the map, even from "hidden" spots out in the ocean, I don't see how a crate stash could possibly be safe.

(Thank you for Sheds, by the way, CMJ!)

This this this this this this this this Thank you!

It only takes a few successes for it to mess with the game. Plus the option for it to work like that could be an issue anyhow.

One possible solution would be to not allow the player who drops a crate to pick it back up. Ever. Even if it's been in another players hands. (ie: "Hold these while I go DK would ya?")

---

You can toast them, but it's dark magic. - MotPax on hotdog buns.

Worse, get an alt to go crate hunting and sit there waiting for you to start so that it can drop them all at your feet. You wouldn't even need to spend the stam going to pick them up and carry them around then.

Yes, using alts like this is firmly into the realm of the cheaty, but sadly there are plenty of people who wouldn't blink an eye at that, as we've seen.

Even if you have to open them or leave them where they are, then people can send out alts to find crates so main character can go straight there to collect them.

I do like not having to open them as soon as you happen to walk on the square though.

Dan's quests you have to put a lot of effort into on the previous DK, and they've got a limit of 25K. It's the combination of this with all the other ways of starting a DK with req which are starting to build up. This has been touched upon in another thread by people who have put a lot more thought into it, and are a lot better at it, than I am.

As a side question, would going out crate hunting for a friend, (different player, not an alt) and bringing the crates back for them to open and start their DK with a good req stash be considered cheaty? I suspect that a lot of players would do that for each other. I know that I would if I knew that it was considered fair play.

The Ashtu family is summarily laughing and giggling (and pointing)

---

Thank you.

......at all those (Ashtu included) who are arguing about one of CMJ's gifts to the Island inhabitants in a thread specifically created to THANK PEOPLE!

heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ---> ---> ---> ---> ---> --->

Thank You.

---

Thank you.

This sort of thing is more what I was getting at with how it's easily exploitable. Our experience with stones and logs shows that leaving a stockpile of crates somewhere isn't going to keep them safe. But it's very, very easy to transfer all the benefit of the crates to a character that in fact did none of the work, and that can get cheaty very fast. One thing I have always liked about this game is that it is not easy for a player to transfer things (money/items/cigs/exp/whatever) to another character, or even to their post-DK self. I am really uncomfortable with how players can now transfer actual in-game items, worth req, to other players very cheaply using DP, and also with how players can pick up and move crates, for the same reason.

Also, because this is the thank-you thread, did I mention that I love that you don't have to pick up crates anymore? I love that you don't have to pick up crates anymore. I'm just decidedly uneasy about the current incarnation of that idea.

Oh man. I guess I'd better not let anyone join my clan. It would be cheating to let them enjoy the benefit of my clan buff, when they did none of the work.

I guess I'd better never gift anyone items from the hunter's lodge, or trade three cards to someone in exchange for two.

And I'd certainly better not help anyone build their dwelling. Wow, I would be such a cheater, helping another character to benefit without them doing the work themselves! "No John, you are the cheaters!"

AND THEN JOHN WAS A SINGLE PLAYER GAME.

---

Unofficial Improbable Island out-of-character chat is at irc.foonetic.net, channel #iisland - come on by!

As Ashtu has pointed out, this is a thread for saying thank yous. I think its a good thread to have for that, so lets not hi-jack it. Crates and related issues are worth discussing, but not here. I'm going to start another thread on this subject, once I've had a good think about what I'm going to say, unless someone beats me to it.

Instead.

Thank you Ashtu for reminding me what this thread is meant to be about.
Thank you Calliaphone, Talkydoor, Uncle Bernard and Johnson (amongst others, many others) for making me smile and laugh and for being silly.
Thank you IIsland, and all who sail on you, for being what you are.
Thank you everyone who's helped out building the Mansions, you're cool all of you.

Thank you, Mary, for consistently being a voice of reason and maturity.

And math. I also like math.

:`@ goes off to read about cardinality.

THANK YOU, WIKIPEDIA!

---

Unofficial Improbable Island out-of-character chat is at irc.foonetic.net, channel #iisland - come on by!

OH boy, Peter Chimera quotes always make me happy.

And elsewise: THANK YOU CMJ for Builder's Brew. I don't generally have a ton of cash, but I can tell you that the vast majority of my future DPs will be going toward this single item.

Let me be the first to say:

Thank you, thank you thank you[/b] for making it so that we have to push two keys instead of one to have a smoke. No more clumsily smoked cigarettes!

Except maybe those of us who do their talking `! sometimes. Sometimes the game forgets you're typing and says 'okay, you want to go/do something else!' But 99% of cigs accidentally smoked will no longer be smoked!