You are right, P's and Q's laws in this place is absolutely ridiculous as you can't state anything nowadays without some wannabe mod stepping in with a warning/threat ban,well as far as I'm concerned they can stick it up their arse and ban me for life as I don't give a fuck anymore about this place as it's gone way out of mod wannabe's power control.

Thought about it, but I don't feel like taking any risks at all with methanol. A lot of people are making a kind of pineapple liquor here though. I think I'd rather drink copious amount of black coffee in the meantime :P

It's called grinding. ;)

Also you want to talk money being tight in games? Try playing the original Ratchet and Clank and trying to gather the (iirc) 100 THOUSAND bolts for the best weapon. o.0

(It's 1 MILLION in the sequel, I believe....which is even harder to gather up)

I don't like the term "grinding", so I don't use it. I perfer to still use the old-fashioned term "leveling up" to refer to the task of accumulating experience points to get stronger, or to otherwise fighting to get stronger.

On the other hand, I don't mind the term "farming", for some reason.

Maybe it's because it feels like "grinding" has a negative connotation that "farming" does not?

In Final Fantasy 5, I just spent time farming ability points in Jachol Cave. (One tip: It might make sense to hold off on getting 2-handed (Knight skill that lets you wield a weapon with both hands); having a knight in this dungeon can keep you from having to constantly revive your characters against skull eaters.)

Also, in the game you mention, do you *really* need the best weapon, or can you reasonably beat the game without it? The purchase in Ultima 4 NES that I mention is a key that costs 2,000 gold (a lot when each encounter only gives an average of about 40), and it is not possible to beat the game without it; you can't skip it.

(By the way, for those curious, the key isn't the main factor that makes speedruns of Ultima 4 NES so long; it's actually the fact that there's more mandatory treasures that need to be found, 8 shrines to meditate at (in addition to having to find the rune for each one, and there's also 8 stones), and you have to win 49 normal encounters (dungeon rooms don't count) to reach avatarhood in Valor. Fortunately, you don't have to reach level 8 in the NES version; level 4 is enough to beat the game, and you don't need to recruit any allies either.)

Yes, but that term I mentioned can involve just getting more money and exp and such but not leveling up....so would the term leveling up always fit?

Likely one of those little unique things based on your life experiences(and likes and dislikes).

You don't need it, but it makes the ending levels and ending bits much easier.

Also if you bought it in game 1 and have a completed game save on your memory card or device you can import it for free(iirc) into the second game(via a merchant in one area) instead of needing to pay the higher cost for that weapon in the second game.

(Any weapons that that special merchant in the second game stocks that you didn't buy in the first game have to be bought...if you don't have a completed save game from the first game that "shows" you bought said weapons, I mean.)

All this work reminds me of the work to catch all the spirit monsters in Shivers 1...all the pots and lids and monsters in random spots(well except one of them).

So the situation you mentioned is very different from the one I mentioned, as you can just skip farming for the bolts and still beat the game. In Ultima 4 NES, you *can't* skip farming money to buy that key, as there are plot critical items that are behind locked doors.

Phantasy Star 1 also has plot-critical items that must be purchased and aren't cheap, from a secret at the very beginning up to a mode of transportation in the late game.

Well no...I was more just mentioning it.

(Also while it isn't needed it IS very ideal to have it...and also to upgrade it)

Then you can add your thoughts here on this wishlist if it's a problem with some sections of the staff doing there own thing or if it's a wider problem.

To the trolls downrating me a fair amount in certain threads....I wonder:

Do you not get that you're hiding the very links you likely want others to click on and vote on, or the information you likely agree with and/or want others to read?

Or do you get that but not care if that happens?

Also keep on low rating and obsessing over me....but remember pic related.

I don't think that's going to work. You need to ask Gog for their IP adresses, so you can track them down in troll country and...talk to them in person.
Actually could be an interesting movie plot imo.

Tbh part of me would rather they keep doing what they're doing.....I get plenty of laughs out of some of the dumb moves they makes and(in some cases) some of the "leavings" that issue forth from their mouths.

Also in most cases the only real "trouble" they can send my way is "scary"(not really) low ratings, so not too miffed or worried about them.

(Tbh sometimes I pity some of them for wasting their time low rating me instead of doing...well....anything else constructive at all)

Too late....Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back already did that(albeit as the end bit).

I don't know, isn't it more likely that it's a bot or some other kind of automated programme?
One would have to be pretty mental (and not have much of a life) to be that dedicated to downvoting your posts to do it manually over so many months.

From guesswork and watching it happen to my posts I can say with near certainty that it's likely they need to add new threads into any such bots, and when I changed my name they likely needed to redo it for most if not all threads.

So at least for new threads they likely need to spend time manually adding those threads in, signing into the alts/bots, running them, etc.

Also the the bots only seem to hit my posts once per day till I drop enough rep.....the extra low ratings today are likely being done manually....which makes me somewhat pity some of them wasting so much time over this.

Or someone with a grudge they cannot let go of and more free time than common sense.

Out of curiosity, do your posts in forums other than "General Discussion" get downrated in the same way?

I hardly post to those forums, but not so far.
(there likely aren't enough posts for them outside of GD to bother searching for or low rating them)

An aside: I find also the quality of posts by users is often much better(people more polite and laid back) than in GD.