One day to go...

... no, not that benefits rubbish, I'm talking about the important things in life. Kingdom of Loathing, a game to which Steve, myself, and several of our friends are utterly addicted to, is having a major overhaul.

Very Brief Explanation for Non-KoLers:
KoL is a text-based online role-playing game which draws heavily on the sort of humour found in Monty Python, Discworld, or The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, as well as being full of "references" to songs, novels, adverts, historical events and that sort of thing. You create a character, you adventure in various zones, you gain experience, and as you gain experience you are able to do more things, visit more zones, wield bigger weapons and so on. Helpfully, you have a limited number of "adventures" per day, so you can't just sit there playing it for hours on end. You start as a Level One character, and then for each level you attain you are given a new quest, up until Level Eleven, when you are tasked with hunting down the Naughty Sorceress.

A month ago, the warning was given that "NS13 is nigh!" NS13 is a project that the dev team have been working on for a while. Primarily, it means the quest to hunt and defeat the Naughty Sorceress is being moved from Level 11 to Level 13, with new quests being inserted for Levels 11 and 12. There's also going to be about 30 new zones, 400 new items, 100 new monsters, and twenty new trophies. Certain aspects of gameplay are going to be tweaked about. Most importantly, there have been no full descriptions of what is staying the same and what is changing. There's been hints here and there, but nothing definite beyond what you've just read.

There is now One Day To Go until NS13.

So yes, anyway, the last month has seen players in the Kingdom trying to get ready. Some have been farming for meat (the in-game currency), some have been trying to get trophies that are considered likely to be unobtainable after NS13, some are stockpiling goods, while some are trying to liquidise their in-game assets. Some have just been repeatedly ascending (explanation here if you want it) as fast as they can.

My own strategy has been a combination of these - I've picked up a couple of trophies, amassed a reasonable amount of meat and goods, and made sure that both the characters I play are up to level 13. At this point I should make clear that by the standards of the forums, I am a very distinctly casual player.

Rollover occurs at 3.30am UK time - in other words, that's when the in-game Today becomes Yesterday and Tomorrow becomes Today. I'm not planning to wait up, but I bet a lot of people are. KoL's load is spread over eight servers but tomorrow, odds are they are going to be creaking with the strain of people bouncing in to explore the new content.

It is only a game, but it's one I enjoy, and have done for over a year. I'm currently somewhere between apprehension about the new game mechanics, a hint of annoyance at having my cheese moved, but overwhelmingly, excitement at the idea of lots of new content to explore.

Which is better than spending the evening stressing over my draft response to the Department of Work and Pensions.