Since the day I had completed my last task many days have passed. Terrance, Mira, Kervick, and Tidal had come to sell and get quests, but nothing of particular note.

What I was enjoying however was the quests, before Kervick had asked me for help I’d never really considered the quest dialog and had simply relayed it directly without understanding it. But since then I had been paying attention. A lot of things seemed to be happening around the Mirana Guild Hall, stranger still, no one ever seemed to complete the quests they accepted. Mira and Terrance both got the quests when they asked, and Tidal and Kervick saw a lot of the same quests as well.

“Yeah, I’ll kill the goblins.” Tidal said, accepting the quest as I offered it.

“Will you? Hagas must have lost so many cows! I can’t imagine how He’ll manage if this continues.” I replied hoping that Tidal will finally be the one to complete the quest.

“Hmm?” He replied a bit confused by my response.

I instead offered assistance, “Did you have any questions about the quest?”

“No, it's just a simple kill quest, nothing special there.” Tidal replied.

“So why hasn’t anyone helped Hagas? I’ve given that quest to Kervick and here we are days later with you taking it.” I explained hoping to convey the problem.

“They didn’t complete it?” Tidal asked, a bit confused.

“If they had I wouldn’t be here giving it to you would I?” I asserted.

He blinked at me, “Well yeah, since they probably did it and I haven't.”

That confused me, “Why would all of you need to do it? There are only five goblins.” Clearly, something was getting lost in our communication, though I couldn’t understand what.

Tidal stared at me, “This is getting way too meta.”

“Can I confirm that you’ve completed the quest?” I asked, wanting to be sure this time.

“Like how? I can tell you when I complete it later…” Tidal 

“I can come with you.” I said, it was the only way to be certain, besides after reading and explaining these quests over the past few days I was interested in how they worked.

“That's… Suddenly an escort? Maybe this quest is more than it seems… Alright, I guess you can come along.” I nodded and walked around the counter. I considered for a moment that I should probably be staying behind it as I usually did. But how else could I be sure that people were completing these quests? Cows were bad enough, but Mira and Terrance likely hadn’t killed the bandit king from the other day either. I had serious doubts about these adventurers building in my mind.

I decided to follow Tidal, and we walked towards the door, however, the moment Tidal walked out, he walked right back in a day later, “What's the deal? Are you coming or not?”

I nodded, “I’m coming.”

So I went to follow him out again only for him to walk right back in a day later, “What the hell? Is it bugged?”

“There are no bugs in the Mirana Guild Hall.” I replied from casual dialog.

“You go first.” He said pointing at the door with a grumpy expression.

I complied, opening the door and stepping out of the Mirana Guild Hall. Outside was quite the contrast to the interior. There was grass blowing in the wind, trees swaying, and a blue sky overhead. There was the road as well. I couldn’t help but feel quite excited by the new sights.

Tidal came out behind me, “Alright, that seems to have fixed it. Come on.” He said as he started walking down the road.

I followed behind him, enjoying that I was doing something so new. Each day before this had always been roughly the same, standing behind a counter. Certainly, there were those special moments, but I'd never left the Mirana Guild Hall before.

I was surprised that there weren't other people around. I expected that since people came from outside Mirana Guild Hall that there would be many. Yet as we walked down the dirt path I didn’t see anyone but Tidal. Slowly but surely, nagging curiosity burned in me until I finally formulated a question, “How come there aren't any people?”

Tidal raised an eyebrow at me, “What do you mean? There's plenty.”

“Where?” I asked, confused by his response.

Tidal pointed towards a tree, “Right there?”

I followed his finger to the tree, and certainly, a person was there. I was pretty sure they hadn’t been there a moment before. “Oh! Where else?” 

Tidal pointed up the road, “There's some up there too, I mean If you just look around it should be obvious right?”

I glanced up the road and saw two people walking toward us. But a quick glance around in other directions didn’t seem to reveal anyone else.

We continued walking, and as we walked I used some casual dialog for the people on the road, “Hello.” “Afternoon.”

The two people didn’t reply, and just forged ahead ignoring me. So it wasn’t that different from Mirana Guild Hall after all. Was everyone this way, just ignoring you when you offered greetings?

“You really are a strange NPC.” Tidal offered.

Something about that sentence seemed difficult to process, perhaps it was the extra word, but I ignored the word and it made sense. “How am I strange?” I asked.

Tidal looked at me, “Well you’re a lot more chatty for one.”

“Have you ever stopped to have a conversation with someone before?” I asked.

Tidal considered that, “With an NPC? Hmm... not really, it's usually quest this, and quest that. I honestly had no idea you could have a conversation.”

“What!?” I pronounced in shock, “I’m not that different from you am I?”

“Uh… is that a trick question?” Tidal offered.

“No.” I replied, certain that there was no trick to the question.

“I wonder if your new chattiness is related to the latest patch.” Tidal said.

“Patch? Is there something wrong with my clothing? Or yours?” I asked, a bit confused by that context.

“No… The game patch.” Tidal replied.

I shook my head, “We’re not playing a game, you're going on a quest.” I asserted.

“Well, from your perspective.” Tidal noted.

“Are you saying that Hagas’s quest is a game to you?” I asked, not liking that idea, perhaps this was why people were not finishing quests, if no one saw the urgency in them then maybe they thought they could wait until much later?

Tidal blinked, “N- No… Geez, this is way too meta for its own good. Can we just stop talking and walk?”

“Alright…” I replied, upset that my longest conversation ended on such an upsetting note.

“I seriously hope this quest’s pay is higher than it said with the escort element...” Tidal said to himself as he continued leading the way, and soon enough we turned off the road and started walking into the field.

As we got to the center a man without a name over his head appeared and waved to Tidal and me, “Could it be that someone’s finally shown up to take care of my goblin problem?”

I didn’t know why he didn’t have a name above his head like the others, but clearly, this was Hagas, “Hagas! Thank goodness we came. So many adventures accepted your quest, but Tidal here is the only one even bothering to come and complete it.”

Hagas replied, “Isn’t it a bit dangerous for townsfolk like you to be wandering around the wilderness?”

I shook my head, “I’m here with Tidal, he’ll protect me.” I nodded at Tidal.

Tidal looked between the two of us, “Alright… I mean yeah... “ He turned to Hagas, “So where are the goblins?”

Hagas grimaced, “There should be some tracks around here that you can follow back to their den. I’ll leave that to you, come back once you’ve dealt with them.”

Tidal nodded looking around at the ground.

While he was doing that I watched Hagas who was mostly just standing there. “These are your fields right?” I asked, remembering from the quest description.

Hagas thumped his chest, “That's right, been in my family for generations, and no goblins are gonna drive me off!”

That sounded exciting, “Do you work them alone? I don’t see anyone else to help you.” I figured I’d ask him since Tidal wasn’t interested in the topic of where everyone was.

“My family helps me run my farm, it's hard work.” Hagas replied.

“Where are they?” I requested additional information, it was clear they weren’t around after all.

Hagas glanced around, as though not sure himself, but he didn’t respond.

Since there was no answer to that I simply forged ahead, “What do you do to work the fields?”

Hagas seemed to consider, then replied, “I wait here so I can spot anyone accepting my quest.”

I nodded, “But what about before you put in the quest?”

Hagas frowned, and didn’t reply.

“Hey guild girl, what are you doing?” Tidal called from a short distance away.

I turned and followed after him realizing he was leaving me behind.

“Do you normally just chat with people like that?” Tidal asked me as I followed him along the path.

“I like talking to people, but most of the time people just ask for quests or to sell items.” I replied. After a moment I added, “I also like the quest descriptions.”

“Uh… ok.” Tidal replied noncommittally.

“Do you like quest descriptions?” I asked, curious if he enjoyed them as I did.

“I mean they are kinda bland, but it's a mechanics alpha test so… whatever.” Tidal noted.

I didn’t quite follow his response. His answer was unclear but based on his tone it seemed obvious he wasn’t as interested in them as I was. “That’s too bad. What do you enjoy?” I asked instead.

“The combat is pretty cool…. Wait- Is this some kind of survey?” he asked.

“You like to fight? With the monsters?” I clarified.

He frowned at me, “Or with players. But that's not the real point… I’m trying to earn cash.” 

I frowned, He kept saying things that I didn’t understand, yet I couldn’t seem to formulate questions to clarify his meaning. It was getting frustrating, “Can you speak more plainly?” I asked instead, hoping he would stop using words I wasn’t familiar with.

“Uh… I like the tournaments, the arena. But whatever makes the most money is the best.” He said.

I nodded, “Oh, I’ve never been to a tournament.”

“Well yeah, you spend all your day locked up in the guild hall.” Tidal replied.

“I’m not locked up.” I stated, “That is just my job.”

“Do you get paid?” He asked.

“Like how you get paid for quests? In silver and gold?” I asked.

“Right.” Tidal replied.

“No.” I answered quite confidently, my inventory was quite empty.

Email: Server Utilization

We are seeing a major uptick in server resource utilization ( roughly 30% ) with the previous patch. Is this expected? Or should we be concerned about scalability?

I suppose another question raised is, is there an issue in the update? Attached is a comparison of server utilization information from production, please verify this against dev and report back any findings.

Kovin - NextVGX Admin Team