http://www.lysator.liu.se/~tomca/burning/well.txt Note: I've never led any well groups myself, so don't trust this guide blindly. !!! WELL GUIDE !!! ======================================================= The well entrance: ================== A large Well adorns the ground here. You'd swear it's not normally here. The entrance to the well is located in a random room anywhere in the world. It teleports to a new room every 6 hours, exactly, so when "uptime" shows that "Current session has been running: 0 days, 6:00", the well entrance will move. The entrance can be found with a compass. "exa compass" will show a number, indicating degrees, clockwise from north. Ie, 0 means north, 90 means east, 180 means south and 270 means west. If you have problem understanding the numbers in between, make a circle and add the numbers there, to help you better see what direction a number means. One special is that the number "90" can mean both "straight east" and "can't walk there", ie it's on the other continent or only reachable via a portal or other special means of transportation. Whoever enters the well first each reboot, will get a small reward: 1 qp and some rep. This is only given for the first person each reboot. Another way to enter the well is through an oasis in Milo'rai: This area can only be entered by Ktv:s, so until you become one, don't bother trying. And you can only enter through that oasis if someone has been in the well after the entrance last moved. Entering through the oasis will teleport you to a random level between lvl 1 and the lowest level anyone's been at since the well moved. The area: ========= The well is made of 20 levels, top one called "level 1" and bottom called "level 20". The rooms and exits are created randomly, but each level is max 19 x 19 rooms, and contains ice, lava, quicksand, wildmag, traps and other nasty things. Plus a number of monsters. Each monster has a certain range of levels in which it can spawn, so the smaller ones are found on higher levels and larger ones are found on lower levels. Same with orbs - each type of orb can be found only on certain levels. Money increases the lower you go, even for the same mob. As does the number of frags. Earth frags can be found on any level. Water starts at level 6, air at lvl 11 and fire at level 16. Collect enough and you can become Ktv and eventually increase your stats. For more information about this, have a look at the well area on the "MAPS" page. Things to remember as a well leader: ==================================== There are tons of things! Only way to learn and master this is by practice. Expect it to take time. And even as a perfect leader, things WILL go wrong. People WILL die in the well. It can't be avoided. Just try to keep the body count as low as possible. Here are some things that might be worth knowing: * Always bring a peeker (Ro/Ro) and use it to check each room before entering. The first levels are usually safe to rush through, but some combinations of mobs can quickly make things a lot worse than the average fight. * Useful to have a copper (Ma-combo) that can prevent mobs to come in when you're busy fighting. Once fights get a bit interesting (longer and more dangerous), consider putting someone on acop (tell some mage "acop"). * Lvl 1-5 has "grey ooze", which can destroy boots, so when entering, make sure everybody removes their boots: gtell rem boots Once you've hit lvl 6 they can put them on again: gtell wear boots * Lvl 10-13 has "white pudding", which can destroy shields, so when reaching lvl 10, make sure everybody removes their shields: gtell rem shield Once you've hit lvl 14 they can put them on again: gtell wear shield * Lvl 14-20 has "horgar", which can destroy weapons. They are peaceful, so no real bother. But when fighting them, make sure people are using weapons they can lose without crying: gtell horgar Some scripts seem to need you to first tell them to switch to a fire weapon. Not sure if this is actually needed or just an old habit: gtell use fire gtell horgar * Lvl 1-8 has "cloaker" which can grab team members, removing them from the group and making others hit on them. Best avoid these, or send someone in to solo them. * Lvl 1-19 has quicksand, which randomly drops people one level down, to a random room. NEVER enter these with a group. NEVAHHH! If you want to get down and have trouble finding a down, exit, you can have an ak person enter the quicksand, kill off the mobs in there and then wait until he/she drops. Once dropped and ok, gtell "dd cop " to have mages teleport to him and cop (to keep away any nasties). Next, tell a priest to "gate ", then have someone checking the field to make sure it's not a bad gate. If ok, enter it and then look for, and summon, people missing. * Some rooms have "myst" - a lvl 1 mob that can't be killed, which causes the room it is in to become nomag. Annoying and nasty. Avoid if possible. If a myst tries to enter a room that has cop, it will fail, but the cop will be removed. So if a cop runs out too fast, there's a myst trying to visit. * Some rooms are wildmag. Most people have ways to handle this (not casting single-target spells), but still advisable to avoid if possible, since fighting is a nuisance. Useful to ask for gpow in these fights. If you have a priest that doesn't heal at all in wildmag, use him for gpows. * Some rooms have lava. Damages group a bit at a time. Usually not much of a bother, as long as you don't stay in there too long. Just remember that most healers only check the group when there's a fight, so if you stay long, you may need to manually ask for gpows, or people might die with the priests idly standing by. * Some rooms have water. Sitting will damage you and force you back to standing again. this is only a bother if there's a wind coming (through which you need to sit, to avoid damage). People handle wind automatically, but if in a water room, many will sit and take damage, then wait for the wind to damage them some more. If this happens, it helps if you can move the group to another room and "gtell rest" before the wind comes. Just remember to "gtell stand" afterwards. * Each time you move, there's always a risk that you or a follower will trip on a stalagmite. This will sometimes remove them from the group. People usually handle this automatically, but it doesn't always work (you can eg trip several times in a row). So be prepared that members might get lost here and there, which can be bad if you eg lose too many priests, and worse if your peeker isn't in the same room as you are. Fetch if needed, by using priests to summon them or by "leave " to walk back and fetch people without dragging the whole group with you. Tell ungrouped people "exp" to have them rejoin. * Some rooms have icy floors. When moving out of these, people may slip and be left behind, or even slide of in another direction. And when fighting in these rooms, people may also slip or slide away. So they are good to avoid, and if you pick a fight in these rooms, it's a bonus if the surrounding rooms have been cleared. * Some mobs force-flees people. Here it's also a bonus if the nearby rooms are safe. * Some rooms are no-flee, some are no-summon, some are no-recall. If you need to recall to fix something, it's advisable to first try getting a summon from one of your priests, to make sure you can actually get summoned back to the room once you are done. * Most rooms have holes opening up now and then, through which someone may accidentaly drop. If you need to leave for a longer time, or have the group rest to heal up, try finding one of the rooms that doesn't have these holes. (Glittering Passage, Shimmering Room or WM-rooms) * Note: NOBODY has a trigger to keep cop & not sleep on "gtell keep cop", so it's useless to try. Mages probably won't even stand to recop if resting, nor stay awake when you gtell "sleep", even if they are on cop duty. How you solve this is up to you. If you're lucky you might find an ak mage. * The well is dangerous. But fun. And rewarding. And fun. Orbs: ===== Orbs are spread out in the well. Each time the area respawns, some new orbs may be added. So the best time to hunt for orbs is a bit before reboot, at a session where nobody's been welling. Orbs can be picked up by some mobs, so they can be found on mobs too. For a list of orbs and what level they can be found on, check "The EQ FILE" page. All orbs and all other well eq are nolocate. Mobs: ===== Mobs have different irv:s and specialities, and they have certain levels they are limited to. For more detailed information on them, have a look at the well area on the "MAPS" page. For an easier handling of mobs, check the mobsubs.txt page on the "tinyFugue scripts" page. This file substitutes mob descriptions with the real mob name, plus some added information (irv:s and specials). Mob summons: ============ Finding the down exits in the well is sometimes very simple, and sometimes frustratingly hard. To make things a bit easier, you can summon a non-walking (sentinel) mob to the room once you find an exit, so it'll be easier to find next time (until reboot). Walking mobs work too, of course, but then you will have to sleep them. For simplicity, the best would probably be to find 2 kinds of mobs that are low level, non-walking, non-agg and preferably rarely killed. Then, if you are on eg level 12 by a down-exit, you have someone summon 12.downexitmob, and if you are at lvl 15 by an up-exit, you have someone summon 15.upexitmob. That way, you won't risk summon a mob that already is being used as a marker, and it's easy to remember what to summon. So whenever you need to find an up- or down exit, you just have someone track that upexitmob or downexitmob. Only question is, what mob would be good to use? I'm thinking maybe "fish" can be used as downexitmob? Haven't tested yet. If you find more than 40 of a suitable mob, you could summon *2. to make it a bit safer, not messing up even if one mob is killed or respawned.