As I mentioned last week, the experiment has now finished. All that is left is for me to complete the rest of the story, so we start this week with the big reveal...
To reiterate, I have revealed myself a little earlier than planned so I can report some of my experiences that I would not have been able to report had I still been trying to hide my identity. Big loots (see the picture on the right), society rescue missions, Mentors names and Society names have all been impossible to report so far.
This week, many of those answers are to be disclosed. Life is not all a bed of roses however; I will be skimming over some days now, as when I simply spent an entire day mining (which is what happened on most days) make for pretty dull reporting. Not all these days were actually boring when I was doing them, but of course copying out a society chat is not really front page stuff now is it
.
Ok, so only two people have managed to guess who the newbie was,
Ender and
Svarog tossing a coin, Ender came out the winner of the 20,000 EFD. For those not guessing right, my newbie alter ego was
snork Snorkmaiden Moomin I was a member of the
NBK Legion Society. (You can read about the mentor later in the article.) One last thing I want to say before the story continues, and that's a big thank you to the NBK Legion - you made my boring days bearable and gave me someone to share the exciting times with. You rescued me when I needed saving and gave me all the information I needed with the absence of my mentor
.
Anything for you NPC!
Three days of solid mining brought me some results. Lots of smalls, a couple of averages and a nice sizable Narc have me pretty flushed with cash.
The skilling was going well, making fast progress on the number of bombs I was dropping. For you stats lovers, the figures were:
550 Bombs = 271 Prospecting
650 Bombs = 310 Prospecting
700 Bombs = 330 Prospecting
Having only to reach 600 to graduate, I was quietly confident about my skilling, and I was also pretty confident I was making some money now. Checking the TT with all my items certainly confirmed it.
206 Ped TT value! I knew I had a little fruit and sweat, any markup on my items and of course the skill values to add to this, so things were definitely on the up!
Day: 19
Today, one of the most controversial things that have happened so far in this experiment occurred. Whilst out on my usual mining run, I got a strange signal... At first I was excited, but after a couple of attempts at getting anywhere near the spacesphip ended with my getting my ass kicked by three bots. I figured I needed some help. At the time, I really wanted to try to keep it quiet from my society, as at the time there were no plans to reveal my name and reporting this incident to them would certainly have given things away when the article came out (you see why I revealed myself early now..
). However I had no choice if I wanted that loot, so I mentioned in society chat that I had a strange signal and asked what I needed to do. The five minutes it took for help to arrive were the longest five minutes in history. I was absolutely paranoid someone was going to steal my ship!
However at the end of that interminable wait, help did arrive, and arrived in force!
Mel Mel Pwn,
Andy Blaise Crook and
Hearse Hearsedrv Driver were at my side. The three of them fought off the bots and explained that I needed to hit the button on the side of the ship to loot it.
As soon as I did it, I knew what had happened. There was a 35 ped Beacon in with the normal robot bits and pieces. I played dumb, as there was no way I should have any knowledge of beacons at this point. It didn't take long for the news to break out, and was fun to see so many people excited for me in society chat. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised just what this meant. Back on my first article there were numerous sarcastic comments about my newbie was going to get all the big loots from MindArk, and here I was sat on a 600 PED silent HoF in less than 3 weeks of play, dressed in Pixie with no real skill levels. Well, I am going to leave it to you guys to discuss. I like to consider it luck, but knowing this forum I am sure others may disagree
. The one thing I did decide at that point was that this loot would not be included in the final avatar valuation total. So when it comes to counting my skills and PED at the end of the experiment, the Beacon will form no part of the calculation as irrelevant of whether it was luck or not, this was not a "normal" loot for a noob to get and would influence the experiment too much. I was glad however that I would now have a decent amount of PED to reward people with at the end of the experiment. Every cloud....
Day: 20-21
Mining again - it is getting a little more costly - I'm certainly not profitable again now, but I still had enough PED left not to be worrying. The stats sat at:
1050 Bombs = 428 Prospecting
Which I figured was pretty good with 10 days left - I only needed another 172 to graduate, that's 17 levels a day average... easy!
I maxed out my OF102, so had another upgrade to my finder to ensure I kept my much valued skill bonus!
Day: 22
The one you have all been waiting for... the big argument with my mentor happened today... here is the full conversation...
Quote:
Noob: Hi
Mentor: Hi
Noob: Can you release me from discipleship please?
Mentor: Why?
Noob: Because I want to use skill chips and it says I cant while disciple.
Mentor: I dont want to release you as disciple. I gain 50%
Mentor: You gain 50%
Noob: Its not like you have helped me very much, so would really appreciate it. Happy to give you your gun back
Mentor: better you reach 100% of discipleship and then I release you
Noob: Why, so you get a gift?
Mentor: Gift I can give you, I need mentor skill
Noob: To gain mentor skill, you should help your disciples. This is twice you have been seen since you accepted me.
Mentor: What help you need?
Noob: I have a society helping me now - NBK. You should have been teaching me the game since day one. Thats what a mentor is supposed to do
Mentor: I teached you. When you starting how to hunt as you remember
Noob: You showed me how to kill a creature, not how to hunt. You gave no advice - only helped me enough so I couldnt kick you as a mentor because of skills. Can you please release me.
Mentor: only you gain 100% after
Noob: Why - you think you deserve a reward after the amount of help you gave?
Mentor: so hard disciple... I need mentor skill
Noob: I have asked nicely, please release me or I will report you to MindArk as a disciple farmer.
Mentor: and what you say him? LOL
Noob: This is what MA told me to do - ask you and if you refuse to open another support case
Mentor: Ok aks MA. I like to see what MA says about it
Noob: Why wont you release me, you havent helped me at all?
Mentor: What help you need? Releasing from discipleship is not help
Noob: After Three weeks? I needed the help when i started. I didnt see you for two weeks after and when I asked then you still didnt help. Now I want to use skill chip, so yes, releasing me will help
Mentor: Reach 100% of one of hunting skill and you be free
Noob: Hunting? You dont even know what I have been skilling! Thats how good a mentor you are!
Mentor: You first disciple asking me to release
Noob: and yet you refuse, even though i asked nicely and you havent helped me - what do you loose apart from one little skill gain - if as you say is true and you plan on giving me your reward?
Mentor: I not interesting about you skilling craft or mining because you get error buying skill implant at start of game. In begining skill grow fast
Noob: If you are truely trying to help me, then release me. You have nothing to loose, so a genuine person would let me go.
Mentor: not interesting to release you only after 100%. I need mentor skill. I loose 2 points of it and not release disciple before they gain 100% of one skill
Noob: I ask my society if this is true.
Noob: This is not true. You do not loose points by releasing me early, you just dont gain any.
Mentor: I loose point even if disciple gain 100%
Noob: You do not loose points, you just dont gain any.
Mentor: loose because I planning to get it
Noob: but you havent helped me, you dont deserve them!
Mentor: I helped you! not my mistake if you dont ask about
Noob: You think a 5 minute run to a teleport getting me to shoot a few creatures on way is help?? You werent even online to ask for help!! and when I did ask you didnt help me!
Mentor: I different time than you. I cant "sleep" with everyone
Noob: You are in Russia no? The time zones are not that different and you should always check with someone what time zone they in before taking them on!
Mentor: MA+7 hour
Noob: Then why didnt you check time zone before taking me on?
Mentor: It is not writing on rules of mentor
Noob: no, but a good mentor would check.
Mentor: I'm newbe mentor
Noob: Then you should release me and learn from your mistake. I understand anyone can make a mistake . You have the chance to fix it.
Mentor: I release you after you gain 100% only and not ask me about it PLEASE
Noob: You are not a nice person. You tricked me and took advantage. I will make a post on forum about you...
Mentor: I will look so fan  you too
Noob: You should be ashamed of yourself
Mentor: Just piar me
Noob: piar? whats piar?
Mentor: I dont know how about English but to get popular from Newspapers
Noob: Famous?
Mentor: Nearly
Noob: Yes, you may well become famous. I am going. One day fate will pay you back
Mentor: Try. I will see
END
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Well, I guess we are both happy now - He is famous and fate has truly paid him back!
So, who is the mysterious mentor?
Vladimir Aquilla Monomach
It's not often I would consider naming and shaming, but this guy was so blatant about refusing to release me, I figure he gets what he deserves. I only hope this puts him off trying mentoring on any one else for a long while!
Next article sees the end of the experiment. Will I profit? Will I graduate?... see you soon!