Play Moar Mabinogi Nao!

Users who log into Mabinogi between November 18 and November 29 are (forcefully) taken to see Nao, who asks you to care for a baby owl as part of the "Global Owl Event" (it's "global" because it is being run on all servers, not just American servers).

It's fitting that the only response button is "Yes" when Nao asks if you would like to take care of a baby owl. Think about it: NAO asks you to take care of a BABY OWL and promises PRIZES for your help. Who would say no anyway? Everyone loves at least 2 of those things; they'll praise Nexon for such a universally awesome event. And that's their plan...

Feed the baby owl? Y/Y:
When I paused to consider the rules of this event, and the tensions it puts on the player, I realized that this event is subtly a ploy to get us to log into Mabinogi 4 hours a day. There's this baby owl sitting in your inventory, and every hour that popup window asks if you want to feed the owl. Sure, why the hell not? You don't actually have to do anything except press that feed button (and you don't even have to provide the food). When you've fed the owl 4 times, you get a cool item! Er...wait...you have to be logged in for 4 hours total to convalesce it to health and get your payoff? Devious! Consider the player who logs in for (what is supposed to be) a couple hours and gets this owl. 2 hours pass, and they feed the bird twice. The third hour rolls by (because we are all terrible at self-restraint) and they feed the bird a third time. Then, what do you do? That owl is one feeding away from payoff...and it's just one more hour...Plus, who could pry themselves away from the game KNOWING that a baby owl's life hangs in the balance?!

I feel a tad insulted that Nexon is deploying such an irresistable creature for the purposes of evil...but at the same time I have to applaud their game development skills, since this will undoubtedly work.


As a struggling blacksmith, I've spent my time learning and ranking-up the various production skills associated with smithing; the purpose of this is to produce the materials necessary for smithing myself rather than pay someone else for a Common Leather Strap, for instance. As the picture above will tell you, I've managed to rank the Refine skill up to rank 1, which helps me make the ingots for smithing at near-perfect rates. I intend on mastering the skill since almost every player who achieves rank 1 Refining won't go on to master it (I can't blame them, it's a huge waste of money). But because of the rarity of the "Master of Refining" title, I feel obligated to obtain it.

Speaking of smithing, I've ranked Blacksmithing up to rank A, which allows me to make armors. This is a major step forward because armors are the big-ticket equipment type, netting much more money on average than weapons, gauntlets, shields, etc. Using my newly-granted ability to make armors, I managed to make a Plate Mail. It's a sweeter-than-usual type of armor because it grants auto-defense against melee and ranged attacks; this allowed me to sell it for 225,000 gold:

Pro Tip:Tioz Greaves + Plate Mail gives you cankles
And finally, I've posted Pet AI's here before. As a programmer, I'm naturally drawn to this aspect of Mabinogi and I'm pleased to announce an update to my original "Warrensworth's Pet AI," and a new Maiz Dungeon pet AI. Both of them are solid, and I recommend them if you are looking for a smarter AI than the standard options available in-game.

Warrensworth's Pet AI v1.4 can be found here.
Warrensworth's Maiz AI can be found here.

GM Manhunt

That was the pileup at the finish line for Mabinogi's most recent event, the "GM Manhunt," a hybrid game of MMO hide and seek and scavenger hunt. The objective was to form a team of 8 players, and at 3pm sharp scour the entire world looking for 4 GM's. The first GM would tell players what dungeon the fourth GM was standing in. The second GM would tell players what item needed to be used to enter that dungeon. The third GM would tell players what 8 items needed to be handed to the fourth GM to complete the event. And the fourth GM was...well, the finish line.

Since the event was announced on the same day it occurred, and it started at the peculiar 3pm PST hour, nobody from Artifex was online sans a couple indifferent guildies. So, I joined one of the handful of makeshift squads forming in Dunbarton. Our communication was dreadful, and I think a couple of the party members only spoke Spanish. I was tasked to search the Bangor/Morva Aisle/Port Ceann areas, and wouldn't you know it, one of the GM's was hiding behind a House Board in Bangor! He said we'd need to hand the fourth GM Firewood, a Phoenix Feather, an HP 10 Potion, a Wizard Hat, a Pickaxe, Wool, an Apple, and a Ladle. Check, check, check, no check, check, check, check, no check. Awesome! I had or could easily nab 6 of those items and be a hero! Shortly after, one of my partymates found the GM that spilled Alby Dungeon as the hiding spot of the fourth GM, so I rode full steam northward to Tir Chonaill. When I arrived at the Alby Dungeon lobby, I found only 2 other partymates ready to enter, and about 100 of our worst enemies clearly having beaten us to the finish (see picture above).

We got nothing tangible out of the event except a collection of useless items. But we did get about 30-45 minutes of frantic excitement. I would say this event was fun and unique, but no reward except for the first 3 finishing teams (out of what seemed like a hundred teams) meant a vast majority of us Mabinogians felt a little cheated.

Later that day I received what was a serendipitous consolation prize when an elf chased me down in Dunbarton. She had recognized me from the pet AI I posted on the MabinogiWorld forums. Apparently she was using my AI. I asked her how she liked it, and she called it "godly." I felt like a million bucks! As far as I could tell, nobody used my AI (or at least they didn't mention they were using it in the forum thread), so to hear A) someone bothered using it and B) they actually loved it was a huge compliment. Thus, I met the adorable elf Fifix:
Myself and A.I. fan Fifix
A looong time ago when Pioneers of Iria was released, I gathered up the free character cards for an elf and giant. I quickly made my elf Lyrwen, but I never got around to making a giant. This could be for lack of necessity, or disinterest in the giant race. Either way it took up until a week ago for me to cash in my giant card and welcome Saffi into Mabinogi:
Saffi the Descendant of Giants
It was probably the lack of necessity that kept me from making my giant, because Saffi is now my designated Metallurgy specialist. After ranking Metallurgy to 9 on Warrensworth, I realized I'd have to sink a ton of AP into the Metallurgy skill to rank it further when there are more pressing combat skills to advance. Plus, Warrensworth's inventory is usually jammed with a variety of items that have no other home. Saffi, however, is a newbie with a virtually barren inventory (so she can hold much more ore), and can devote 100% of her AP towards Metallurgy. She camps out on Cor Beach, collecting ore fragments to fuel my Blacksmithing endeavour. All iron gets stashed into my pets (which I then can refine when I log in as Warrensworth), and the rest (copper, silver, gold, mythril, gems, and diamonds) are mailed to Hanakami to be sold to buy more iron. I am now running a multi-character operation to help me accomplish my Blacksmithing goals as efficiently as possible.

Saffi, being my second female character, has given me some time to masquerade as the opposite sex around Mabinogi. For the most part nothing's different (probably because many other people do the same), but seeing as I'm breaking Richard Bartle's "no moonlighting as a woman" MMO rule, there was bound to be awkward moments. A while ago, while I was waiting patiently at the mailbox as Hanakami, a fellow curiously stopped in front of Hana, walked away, walked back and stood adjacent to her, stepped away, then took a seat right in front of her. Then he sent me a note:
Yes, actually. Hana was designed that way.
Since I didn't want to give the easiest answer, "nu im a d00d!", I asked Mistresraven to swing by and act like Hana's lover. When she did, we exchanged some...colorful banter alluding to a girl/girl relationship, and his reply was simply, "holy crap!" and he hurried off. That was probably meaner than necessary. But I laughed so nyahh =P

If anything, experiences like this have shed some light on what it must be like for women to be hit on unsolicited by unsavory guys. Yikes.

Stock Market

I've been pretty busy in Mabinogi this past month trying to find ways to entertain myself outside of combat. 10 weeks ago I rebirthed down to 10 years old, and since August 1st I've been about level 50, which means I could gain almost nothing (no AP) out of dungeon crawling.

Therefore I took the opportunity to goof off!

Last month Mabinogi had the "Watermelon Event", which was simple in concept. Across most beaches in the game, watermelons would spawn. Players would then dash to the handful of these prize-laden fruit pinatas and rend them with Gallagher-like ferocity. If they were lucky, some special swimwear would drop. If they were unlucky, death itself (i.e.Blue Ghosts) would spawn. Most players were smart enough to bail on sight of these Thunder-spamming terrors, but by the final days of the event, because the beaches are not instanced dungeons (so the mobs won't disappear until killed), the ghosts simply accumulated to a point where it was a veritable Peaca Dungeon (the land of all things ghost related)! Well one day, guildmate Venezzia led the rest of Artifex into battle at Port Quilla to do a beach cleanup for the common good. We eliminated the handful of ghosts patroling the near-edge of the beach before packing it in.

My dog got the awesome "the Ghost Hunter" title for ghostbusting:
Artifex has made the beach safe for watermeloning once more!
Currently the "Dragon Boat Event" is in progress, which is a speed run down the Suytu River in an 8-man skiff. If your crew gets to the Cor Village docks in under 8 minutes, everyone aboard gets a prize box which may contain some insanely rare items, including Selina Lady Dresses and Dragon Blades. Luckily for me, I opened a Dragon Blade of my own, which is probably the only way I could ever acquire one! Guilmate Rikimau even took me up on his Thunderbird to watch the races from the sky (but really just to try to annoy the rowers!):

Events aside, I still needed a way to spend my time. Since I've created an alt account, Hanakami, from which to run a personal shop from, I've rekindled my love for the Mabinogi economy. Often I gather an assortment of items to sell, open shop, and leave the client running while I do more productive things. It's certainly not as exciting as combat, but I've even got into the business of "stock trading," (or Mabinogi's equivalent anyway), by simply buying/trading for underpriced items from other players and reselling them at market value. So far I'm having a hard time arguing against lurking around the market channel (currently ch4) and jumping on a deal.

690k paycheck =D
This market-focused month has allowed me to max out my bank account. It's also taught me a few things:
A) Some individuals within Artifex consider my collection of funds as miserly, and potentially friendship-jeopardizing. I was quite hurt to hear this.
B) Don't loan people gold because they aren't going to pay you back in a satisfactory fashion.
C) Don't spend gold on things people think you should buy.

The stories behind these revelations don't need to be told, but these will be personal guidelines from here on out.

On a lighter note, since I've forsaken pickaxe-based mining in Barri Dungeon and began ranking Metallurgy to 9 (when ore fragments may drop 2 at a time), I've become quite familiar with the latest breed of Asian gold farmers who pan the beaches tirelessly for their unseen master:
All of these people are farmers...er...except me >.>
Since they are bound to the market channel (because they fence their ore in personal shops in Dunbarton), swiching to a less popular channel usually affords me an empty beach to pan in peace.

Giving Back to the Community

As promised in my last post, I'm proud to unveil Warrensworth's Pet AI v1.1, a custom Mabinogi pet AI I've written entirely by hand. Writing this AI was far more trouble than it should have been (due to zero official documentation about it from Nexon), but the result is oh-so worth it.

To summarize this AI:
1. It's meant to be a standalone melee AI. Your pet should be able to handle itself versus reasonable mobs when taken 1-on-1.
2. Locked in a room with 10 Gray Town Rats? Not a problem, the AI auto-targets and wipes out rooms of mobs (nearly) automatically.
3. This AI is somewhat a hybrid of melee and ranged attack pet strategies. If you whip out a bow and let the arrows fly, your pet will melee your target to keep it off your back.
4. Do not expect bodyguard behavior from this AI; if you get hit, tough cookies. Cancelling pets' skills as they fight their own battle will get you both killed, so make sure you know how to handle yourself first.

To use this AI, you can either save it to Notepad as a .xml file and stick it in the My Documents/Mabinogi/Pet AI folder, or you can copy and paste it directly into Mabinogi's AI editor
(New AI-->View Source-->Paste) and save.

The code can be found on the MabinogiWorld forums here.

With the Generation 7 update, a new video recording feature was added to the game. It allows users to quickly and easily capture gameplay footage and upload it directly to YouTube. Probably to promote this, Nexon has announced a contest calling on Mabinogi players to upload tips, tricks, and strategy how-to's in an effort to claim one of seven Adventure Nao figurines being given away:
I want that Nao...
I happen to enjoy some video editing here and there, I have a unique tip to share with the Mabinogi community that I think will get me noticed, and I am not above oogling plastic fantasy characters. So naturally I created and submitted this video:

Wow, two great freebies in one great post! It pays to read Warren's MMO Adventures!

Ancient Secrets of Irinid Released

Generation 7, Ancient Secrets of Irinid, was released last week so quickly that I didn't even notice my client was downloading the update. I blame the Pioneers of Iria release, which took over a month of teasing us players before devCat got their act together and handed it over.

Irinid's biggest addition to Mabinogi is the unveiling of the Courcle region to the map, which sits between the Giants' land of Physis and the Elves' land of Connous. As far as new dungeons go, Courcle is a bust. There are zero new dungeons. However, in terms of other new stuff, Courcle (and the G7 update) is a definite success. To my knowledge, the new stuff includes:

A) River rafting. Suytu River runs through the middle of Courcle, so players can hop onto a log raft and travel down it to reach a number of downriver docking locations. More mini-game than practical travel option, the aggressive Hobgoblin tribes that line the banks of the river can be killed for rewards from the natives (who apparently don't like the Hobgoblins).

B) Magic Shields. The Hobgoblins use a variety of magical shields to defend against melee, ranged, fire, ice, or lightning attacks. These shields do not allow the caster to move while it's activated, so it is definitely a support spell. Players can obtain these shields by attacking into the shield to learn about it. Shields can be overlapped to multiply their defensive effect.

C) Flying Mounts. The premium shop now offers mountable pets that can fly their owners around the Iria continent. The Thunderbird was a limited-time-only offering available during the week that Irinid was released. Now the only available flying mounts in the premium shop are Pelicans and Eagles. My main qualm with these fliers is that they cannot be used on the Uladh continent, which is essentially half the world. I'll take another horse before I buy one of these birds.

D) Charge. This melee skill is the answer to the archer menace, especially in the PvP realm. Charge allows a melee fighter (who has a shield equipped) to dash into an enemy's face while reducing arrow damage and ignoring arrow stun or knockdown effects. The melee fighters of Mabinogi let out a collective "finally!" with this one.

E) Metallurgy. Ugh. As a player who has spent the majority of his Mabinogi career mining ore out of Barri Dungeon, Metallurgy has ruined the good thing I had going. This skill allows players to sift ore fragments out of beach sands with a sieve. Since there are beaches all over Iria, Barri no longer holds the monopoly on ore production.

Sifting through sands with the Metallurgy skill
There are several things that make me unhappy about Metallurgy, all of them being selfish reasons. For starters, ore production is far more accessible to players who are too lazy for (or not interested in) endless runs of Barri. This means that I am no longer that special minority who actually has ore to sell to blacksmiths. There are always 3 or 4 player shops open in Dunbarton exclusively selling ore fragments now.

Second, ore fragments are a quarter of the size (1x1 inventory space) of traditional ore mined out of Barri. This would be OK if 10 or 20 framents refined down to a single ingot, but instead 5 ore fragments refine into an ingot just like a full-sized ore, which makes Barri's 2x2 ore strictly inferior to these fragments! Now players have no reason to mess around with the bloated ores I have reserved for sale :(

Finally, as I've feared since the first day I'd heard about it, Metallurgy has crashed the price of ore. As of this writing, players are buying iron fragments at 250g (down from 300-400g), silver fragments at 800g (down from 1k to 1.5k), and gold fragments at 1k (down from 2k to 2.5k). Ore mining is no longer as lucrative as when I first got into the business. Now, instead of seeking profit from ore, my only logical option is to shift into a buyer's role and take advantage of the lower prices.

On an unrelated note, I have been working on my own custom pet AI this week. It's nearly done, and I'll post it here when I'm satisfied with it.

See you in Courcle!

Smithing Ain't Easy

On one lucky run through the Rabbie Basic dungeon, Kazukikun took out a Lycanthrope. His prize was a rare blacksmith manual to make a Bird Face Cap--he isn't a blacksmith, so he handed it to me under the agreement that I would make him one. Since I needed training making helmets, I was very happy to get this manual!

The Bird Face Cap
I only managed to make two helmets before the manual ran out of uses, so naturally I wanted another. It's just a trip into Rabbie Basic to fight the Lycanthropes and harvest more, right? Not so fast. The manual is only dropped by Lycanthropes, and they only appear as bosses in Rabbie Basic, so I needed a basic pass. Venezzia, Kazukikun, Mistresraven, and I ran about five or six Rabbie Normal dungeons looking for it with no luck. On a determined tilt to succeed, I ran alone back into the dungeon one last time to try again, and I was rewarded with a Rabbie Basic pass!

The next day, Kazukikun, Perk, Takashi, and I ventured back into Rabbie Basic to grab that manual. Neither of the Lycanthropes in the boss room dropped it. That was far too much work for nothing D:

Venezzia and I did some research and discovered that Lycanthropes also spawn as bosses in the Albey Blue Gem dungeon. Albey Blue Gem is A) far easier to run over and over than Rabbie Basic (we just need blue gems to get into it, which basically rain from the sky), B) far easier to slash our way through the dungeon than Rabbie Basic, and C) far quicker to reach the boss room. It should be a given that that manual would be in my hands now, right? Nope. We did probably ten runs of Albey Blue Gem in one night, and did not get any of the 30 Lycanthropes we killed to drop it.

Instinctively, I returned to Barri dungeon to mine iron ore while I contemplated what the hell I had to do to get manual. On a whim, I decided that I would finally solo the entire Barri normal dungeon, and kill all five of the Ogre Warriors in the boss room (they are terrifyingly powerful when fought head-to-head, so I've always left the dungeon before I completed it). As a cruel joke and consolation prize wrapped up in one, the Mabinogi gods decided that the 5th Ogre Warrior would drop a Twin Horned Helm blacksmith manual, which is a rough equivalent to the Bird Face Cap I'd been seeking for 2 weeks straight. I rate this a 1/2 fist pump, 1/2 facepalm.

I should also mention that three refugees of the late Famous guild, Mistresraven, Freaky555, and Taranee, have decided to join up with Artifex. This is great news since I can officially talk to everyone I need to via guild chat now. Welcome to the guild guys =)

That's My Business

In my last post I mentioned that I would try emulating Angellrose's trick to open a personal shop without paying for the Extra Storage Service. It turns out it works pretty well. I created a separate Mabinogi account with the sole purpose of selling my extra junk. This is a departure from the party ad technique I used to accumulate my ore fortune when I investigated the ins and outs of the game's economy.

My dad likes to talk about the best way to run his dream bar/restaurant (which is always just a couple years away), and one thing that's stuck with me is his concept of hiring cute waitresses to draw men through the door. Along these lines, I decided to make as kawaii of an alt as I could to tend the shop:
Shopkeeper Hanakami
Hanakami is Japanese for "flower spirit." Cute, huh? XD

There have been some growing pains as I've moved into this facet of the game, particularly finding something to do as I watch the shop. Since this is a separate account from my original, I can't have a pet watch things. Not that I'd want to go look around, really, since Hanakami must never reach level 30 or I lose the free Extra Storage for beginners. Luckily the last time I logged in to sell, both Mistresraven and Kazukikun stopped by just to hang out. This screenshot highlights one frustrating aspect of personal shops: I must be present to have it open, yet I don't actually have to do anything to make sales. So as I was needlessly anchored, this is how I spent the day:
Window shopping...
After a week of running a personal shop, I can say for sure that it is not the ideal place to sell Holy Water. I've tried selling it loose via party ads, which was both slow and pulled in 10k per stack at best; I've tried selling it though Ashrayne's house, which magically pulls in upwards of 15k per stack; now I've tried selling it in my shop--the personal shop market is inundated in Holy Water. There are always two or more players selling hundreds of them at 13k per stack, then 12k, then 11k...it's capitalism at it's finest, but it's not in my best interest to sell there. If I am lucky, Ash will continue to pull Jesus-like miracles of turning water into gold for me :)

To wrap up the rest of what's new in Mabinogi, I rebirthed down to 10 years old with Mistresraven for that super-cute effect:
"I can catch a fishy as big as you are!" "Nuh uh!"
Having given it a chance, I will probably not rebirth this young in the future. It doesn't feel like Warrensworth is me anymore. I believe it hinders my ability to project myself into the world through my character and immerse myself. More importantly, though, is the fact that I am already level 31 but still 9 weeks away from being able to rebirth again. This really slows down my acquisition of AP since levels are incredibly slow to come by in the 30+ range. To summarize: I don't like it.

I also ponied up the cash to buy a pony from the premium shop. I'd finally had enough of bumming rides off my friends, being a slave to Moon Gate schedules, and running coast-to-coast when all else failed. He's a Halflinger named Flexeau:
My gallant steed Flexeau
I really wanted to call him/her Silvie, Silvia, Silviana, Fluffo, or Flexo. All of those were taken. If you're not a fan of Futurama, Flexo was Bender's "evil" twin brother that I particularly like, being a twin myself. I chose to get creative and approximate the "oh" by spelling it French-esque.

Finally, I would like to debunk the idea that the banks in Mabinogi only hold a maximum of 2 million gold:
I've earmarked most of that towards the purchase of iron ore and ingots to really get started on ranking my blacksmithing skill.