Anyway, I was all excited this day because I was anticipating Mugido attaining level 51 with my spt present. We started at our regular time before the maintenance which was extended, then extended again. I told Edge and Harl I wanted to try to make a Light skill chain by myself with my Soboro Sukehiro. The above is what Edge told me. d:

This little exchange was made while I was trying to skill chain. The first few times I tried, the hare or tiger would die before I'd get the chance to complete it. So, Edge would not engage the mob if my Meditate timer was ready. The thing is, Edge wouldn't engage the mob whenever I failed and I'd wind up soloing it until it died. This happened a few times until I said "Edgage" instead of "engage." ^^ Maybe you had to be there. d: By the way, Edge said I should be Jean-luc Picart. ^^

The screen shot to the right is of Mugido stealing hate again. This only happens when Mugido decides to use a weapon skill at the beginning of a fight. He's kind of like a Rng using Sidewinder at the start of a fight. d: Yes, I've been guilty of that a few times...

Hmm... Retrograded to Scale male and Cuisses, and upgraded to Seer's Pumps (level 29). It was his 35th day and 46th call. He did not attain level 51 as he should have. He's had 50 kills to this point and should have leveled around the 42nd or 44th kill. But, I wasn't worried about it so much at this point...

August 23rd, 2005 - Doesn't Yarga-Umiga look cute in his Mythril Breastplate? Nanako is still working that Lizard Jerkin.

We had to camp in a different spot today because there was a pt at our regular camp. This was fine since there were plenty of hares, Esbats, and Glacier Eaters around. In some ways, the Esbats and Glacier Eaters were easier to deal with than tigers (tigers are a bit higher in levels). See that 1081 damage from Sidewinder? ^^ Poor Harl though. We were running around and she didn't have a chance to properly get mp like at our regular camp.

Still, no level 51... He upgraded to Doublet (level 11), Cotton Doublet (level 23), or Wool Doublet (level 42) and Mythril Gauntlets (level 49). This was his 36th day and 47th call.

Now, I'm really sure that SE capped our NPCs at 50. 70 kills and no new level. I ran around talking to all of the known NPCs (Luto Mewrilah, Bheem, Portaure, Red Ghost, Kuah Dakonsa, and Akta). I even tried Maat. I even went back the the Fort Ghelsba BCNM and the ??? in Eldieme, but Nada. At this point, I'm tempted to get the items for the first level cap quest and try to trade them to Mugido.

August 23rd, 2005 - I guess Nanako finally got tired of her Lizard Jerkin and decided to match Mugido with a Doublet. Ain't that sweet? I just checked my screen shots and Nanako had that Lizard Jerkin for 14 straight days (since August 10th)!! Yarga-Umiga is still rocking the Mythril Breastplate however. Tarutaru don't play when it comes to fashion.

This screen shot is of our ninth fight of this session. When the hare used Whirl Claws, all I noticed was the damage log. It wasn't until after the fight was over did I notice Nanako was missing. Sorry Edge. ;; I don't understand why Nanako took 494 damage while Mugido took 317. Their level difference is only 4 now. I joked and said that Nanako used Berserk, but it almost seems plausible.

By the way, forgive my typos. If it's not obvious by now, I don't tend to type well while fighting. d: The correct quote should be, "Dang. Nanako got hit hard."

Okay, what the heck was going on with this tiger? At the start of the fight, Edge hit it for 50, I hit it for 71, then Mugido hit it for a measly 49 damage. Then, the tiger decided to take two bites out of Mugido for 173 and 153 before noticing Edge hit it for 34 + 42 damage. Mugido didn't even use a weapon skill! /em shakes a fist at SE... If I can get Mugido pass level 50, he is so switching a Club...

Just a retrograde to Scale Greaves today. It was his 37th day, 48th call, and fourth day as level 50... There was nothing new at the Rendezvous Point nor from Luto. I dragged Edge and Harl around to pick up an Ancient Papyrus, Bomb Coal, and Exoray Mold (thanks guys <3). Luckily, it only took 90 minutes. Strangely, the Exoray Mold was hardest to get. I tried trading them to Luto (one at a time, two at a time, and all together), but no luck. I talked with Maat, but didn't trade them because Maat didn't mention anything about NPCs. I even wore my Signal Pearl when I clicked Maat to make extra certain I wasn't missing an obvious step. I'm going to try to trade the items to Mugido tomorrow. If that doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas. I don't know why SE would cap NPCs at level 50 without any hints of getting them higher or just announcing that NPCs have a level cap of 50.

August 25th, 2005 - I'm running out of things to talk about at these call pictures. d: I guess I'll talk about what Nanako and Yarga-Umiga are wearing. I think Nanako must be cold wearing metal Plate Leggings in the snow. And, Yarga-Umiga doesn't seem to want to give up his Mythril Breastplate. Can he go as long as Nanako did without changing it?

Hehe. We decided to xp in the tunnel with the worms and bats. With his natural talent, Edge got not one but two tigers to aggro him on the way there. It must have looked pretty silly with Harl, Mugido, Nanako, Yarga-Umiga, and I in tow. For a moment, I wondered whether Edge was going to aggro everything on the way to the tunnel. Luckily, he stopped and we gave our NPCs their first two kills of the day. After that, things were pretty much routine except for the false and loud fire alarms going off in my building.

Today was Mugido's 38th day and 49th call. He upgraded to Seer's Pumps (level 29), which he wore two days ago. Make up your mind Mugido. d: Maybe since he can't attain 51, he's going through fashion withdrawal...

I tried trading the level 50 level cap items to Mugido (one at a time, two at a time, and all together) and that too failed. I'm out of ideas now. His gear isn't getting much better either. He's either capped (in which case SE should tell us that NPCs cap at 50) or SE changed the way they get xp when they attain level 50. What I mean by that is that maybe we PCs start affecting their xp gain. In which case, my NPC would only be getting 50-70 xp per session since attaining 50. Either way, SE should let players know. I used the live Web Chat off the official POL website to speak with a representative on the matter and he or she told me to submit a bug report which I did. I'll let you know whether SE gets back to me regarding the matter.

A lot of folks have NPCs that are gonna hit level 50 within the next week or so. It took 33 days and 44 calls for my NPC to hit 50. Assuming perfect conditions (meaning no deaths NPC or PC wise or any other mistakes [yeah right]), I think having an NPC going from level 30 to 50 in 39 calls is possible. It takes 135,000 xp to go from level 30 to 50. If you assume an NPC gets 200 xp a kill (reasonable assumption from my experiences [click on these August 10th, 2005 through August 16th, 2005 and August 17th, 2005 through August 21st, 2005 links for proof]). The first 18 calls, NPCs can only stay for 15 kills so that's 15 kills times 18 calls times 200 xp equaling 54000 xp. The next 21 calls would be 20 kills times 21 calls times 200 xp equaling 84000 xp. 54000 xp plus 84000 xp equals 138000 (you'd be 1000 xp short with 38 calls).

I did pretty well getting Mugido to level 50 in 44 calls in this case. ^^

August 26th, 2005 - Nyuk, Nyuk! I haven't done a sci-fi joke in a while, so here's a random one above. ^^ Hmm... I took a bad picture. Can't really tell what Yarga-Umiga has on. Mugido and Nanako are still wearing Doublets though. Now, let's go kill some tauntauns...err...

On the way to the tunnel... Guess what... Yes... Edge got aggroed by a tiger...again. This time only one though. The other tiger linked while we were fighting. What you're missing in this picture is the Cwn Annwn that aggroed before the second tiger. /sigh. Edge, (Good job!)

Here we are just being silly and doing all of the obvious jokes we could think of within 10 seconds. The buffalo joke is regarding the event that's happening. This has nothing to do with NPCs really. I just thought it was a cool screen shot. d:

Ah, a retrograde in feet back to Gaiters (level 11). We pretty much had a run-in-the-mill session today. Yarga-Umiga attained level 41 while Nanako attained 48. /em yawns. Only two more levels Edge!! Only thing exciting that happened was when Edge Tricked Attacked a Dancing Edge onto Nanako and had her tanking while Harl was desperately trying to keep Nanako alive. Edge, you're so cruel sometimes... Afterward, we killed some buffalos in the event. It was fun for about 4 kills... Then, SE announced they had to cancel the event due to complaints from PETA. ^^

By the way, SE really announced a maintenance from August 28th, 2005 22:00 to August 29th, 2005 4:00 (PDT). I'm hoping that they'll slide an NPC update into it. It seems unlikely because SE said it was for server equipment to be exchanged...again... /sigh

August 27th, 2005 - Sorry for the quick rush through this day's update. I was busy helping some friends with CoP missions and trying to get one of my mule's fame up so I could do a Mog House expansion quest. Anyway, not much to report. Mugido's body piece and hands retrograded to Scale Mail and Trader's Cuffs (level 20). His feet upgraded to Trader's Pigaches (level 20).

Oh, I almost forgot. Edge didn't get aggro from any tigers today, but Harl and I did. /sigh By the way, I tried changing his head gear again, but it won't change.