Spice Usage and You: How To Do Drugs And Have Fun Doing It

[nauta]

With all the recent focus on spice, including a new help file and a revitalized clan, I thought I might toss out some tips about spice.  Maybe others can pipe in.  

First, however, there still seems some FUD about spice usage, on two fronts:

1. Addiction.  Is addiction crippling, brutal, and fast?  

The addiction code currently makes your PC nigh unplayable

Addiction is never permanently crippling (see 'help spice', it's been updated somewhat recently).

2. Crim-code.  Is the response from the soldiers at the gates of Allanak crippling, brutal, and fast?

I can't find the quote, but someone staff-side told us that the soldiers (a) won't instagank you provided you have 'nosave crime' on and (b) aren't quite as observant as you might think (i.e., small bits of spice won't get you crim-coded).

Second, some tips:

3. One Toke, Dude.  I view spice kind of like I view cocaine.  Yes, it does come in tubes (joints), but one hit lasts quite a while.  Depending on the spice, I'll take a coded puff, then emote out little puffs now and then.

4. Bribes.  The soldiers are corrupt.  I mean, most of the time.  Always carry bribe money on your person.  It fits right into that little spice pouch you have!

5. Perfume!  Some spices actually give you a smell.

6. Making spice.  You can either 'sniff' the spice (grains and pinches at least) or roll up a joint -- called 'tubes' in game lore --- with 'make smoke papers grain'.

7. Am I Still High?  Some kinds of spice give you a lot of echoes about their effects, others do not.  You can type 'score' to see if you are still high.

8. Quantities of Spice.  There are unrefined grains, and then the refined stuff, which comes in pinches (smallest), knots, thal-knots, on up to bricks (biggest).

Hmm, I thought I had more to say on it.  Anyway, here's the help file (the first paragraph; individual spices are discussed in the rest of the file):

Spice, which comes in a variety of forms, is a narcotic harvested on the shores of the Sea of Silt. It is the main trade of House Kurac, although it is currently illegal in the city of Allanak, under heavy penalties if one is discovered carrying or using it. Different types of spice have different effects, ranging from euphoria to delirium or hyperactivity. Many have succumbed to the addictive effects of spice to the point of debilitation, poverty, and ultimately, death. Many others have recovered from a spice addiction by forcing themselves - or being forced - to abstain from spice over a period of time. It is rumored that imbibing a large quantity of spice in a short period of time can be fatal.

[valeria]

1. Addiction.  Is addiction crippling, brutal, and fast?  

The addiction code currently makes your PC nigh unplayable

Addiction is never permanently crippling (see 'help spice', it's been updated somewhat recently).

Yeah, I'm really skeptical about the word "never" in this quote. Unless the spice code itself has changed, or I suppose unless someone has the time to stay logged in for hours with an unconscious, negative hp character (which would make it technically true under highly semantic use of "never"; if you quit die I suppose you're not permanently crippled).

[Jihelu]

I don't like to do the whole "Staff is wrong or lying to us" thing but from an experience I read about a guy was at like, 1/1 hp/stamina/stun and couldn't do shit without spice, locked in his apartment, and all that jazz.


Now that could be wrong.
But if that IS possible with the spice addiction code, jesus christ.

I'd like to see some spices completely perfume based. Or perfumes to mimic some of the smells of spice. As far as I know some smell /quite/ good. Not smell as in *snorts pile of cocaine* but off hand scents.

[valeria]

I'm not being curmudgeonly. I typically give staff the benefit of the doubt, actually! But unless the code has changed since my spice withdrawal experience a couple of years ago, the statement isn't strictly true.

I wasn't at 1 hp, I was at negative hp. You can't quit at negative hp except by intentionally killing your character with >quit die

I suppose there were "extreme" circumstances involved, since I used spice for two or three RL weeks straight, but still. That's not "never," and this is supposed to be an informational thread.

[Reiloth]

1. Addiction.  Is addiction crippling, brutal, and fast?  

The addiction code currently makes your PC nigh unplayable

Addiction is never permanently crippling (see 'help spice', it's been updated somewhat recently).

Yeah, I'm really skeptical about the word "never" in this quote. Unless the spice code itself has changed, or I suppose unless someone has the time to stay logged in for hours with an unconscious, negative hp character (which would make it technically true under highly semantic use of "never"; if you quit die I suppose you're not permanently crippled).

My experience dictates otherwise, and i'm not sure how to view it as being 'never permanently crippling' when it lowers your endurance to levels that should kill you. Not that I am arguing per se with Nergal, but i'm unsure if that is based off personal experience or just by looking at the code. By my experience, it made playing my PC almost impossible, unless you really rolled with the punches (which I did). I changed my PC's plot line, I rolled with being a full blown Addict, I changed allegiances from Tuluk to Kurac in order to get spice (which I needed a constant flow of unless I wanted to see come down messages spam me every 5 seconds). It definitely appeared permanently crippling from my POV. It also doesn't necessarily make sense that an Addict would 'force themselves to stop' in order to survive. That's sort of counter to addict psychology.

Many have
succumbed to the addictive effects of spice to the point of debilitation,
poverty, and ultimately, death. Many others have recovered from a spice
addiction by forcing themselves - or being forced - to abstain from spice
over a period of time

This is a relatively new addition, or at least a newly unveiled 'old fact', and I didn't know. Thanks! While I don't necessarily think addiction should be easily recovered from by abstaining, it is a fix that works, so...Can't really complain! As I said above, it doesn't exactly make sense that an addict would stop (it makes more sense that someone would force them to stop, but that means physically locking them in a room).

I feel that addiction code in general could be less binary, a switch flipped between 'not addicted' to 'holy fucking shit you are a heroin addict'. If it were incremental (a) and didn't flood you with come down messages (b) and had more interesting effects than lowering your stats (c), I would probably play a spice addict every other character. As of now, it's much easier to play an alcoholic, because there isn't coded addiction for it. To modify that, i've also RPd smoking spice and being high when I am not codedly high, because I want to avoid the addiction code like the plague. I will smoke coded spice, now and again, but I also keep it as an RP flavor tool because I feel that's what it's meant to be (?).

[Dresan]

For the record,  I don't think the consumption of spice has changed over the years. Sure, people did it more often in tuluk because it was easy but it was still in moderation. It was no different then people who drinking wine during special occasions or smoke weed once in a while when the fancy hits them. Also, I'm sure people visiting luirs also smoke spice now and then too, i know my characters do now and then as well. Kurac has always made it convenient any place that isn't allanak after all or if you are rich/influencial.

In allanak its harder for commoners to do because soldier/templar might kill you for it. If you have a good job in a CLAN, a job people should be dreaming of getting...are you really going to risk your job/life getting caught with spice?....sure why not, people go hunting when they are bored too despite the unknown dangers in the sands too.    As I've said before, at the moment in my opinion it is mostly a virtual vice which doesn't detract anything from the smuggling spice role.


I just think it would be nice if it was made more convenient for everyone to use more often without having to play a flavor role like a spice addict. And let me more specific here: Please make the effects last longer. At least a IC day if not TWO. Jack up the price if you have to, it doesn't matter.  Why? Suddenly instead of smoking spice to relax now and then, you can rationalize using it when you are going on a hard mission, when you are getting beat up in sparring, whenever you are going on a dangerous hunt.  It will make spice more reliable to use in the comfort of your own apartment before going out standing hanging out with your sergeant all day long. Since you'll know the buzz won't wear out until the day is over at least and you can get some privacy to do some more at least.

[bardlyone]

Looks like Reiloth and Valeria both got the same addiction as 1 of the 2 I've dealt with. I never let the pc get to negative hp. at 1/1, they folded, terrified they'd die. Ironic, because the addiction code made me playing them so miserable, that their ODing on spice and dying was RPed as basically going on a coke binge and ODing. I purposely killed my longest lived character who was my favorite ever, because after hundreds of hours played (in the pursuit of beating it), I couldn't take the damn addiction code.

Anything that could fix such problems would probably go a ways toward helping pcs get more amped about using spice. Because that's a pretty steep fucking price.

[Nergal]

I said what I said without going into the details of the code, but yes, it is true that spice doesn't have any permanent effect. It may seem permanent because of the length of logged-in time it takes for these effects to go away, over time. It may even be possible to look into the time it takes, but right now I think it's pretty fair.

This is what it says in the helpfile, and it's exactly how it works. If you feel it doesn't, feel free to put in a bug request explaining a recent experience with spice addiction that didn't work as you expected.

Many others have recovered from a spice
addiction by forcing themselves - or being forced - to abstain from spice
over a period of time.

If you can't take my word for it,  that's fine. I'll leave it at this: I made it a point to dive into the code and learn how spice works since becoming GMH Admin, considering one GMH and two other clans revolve around its sale and use. I wouldn't say what I said if I didn't believe it was true in every instance.

[valeria]

Log sent!  Hope it helps explain what I'm talking about a little better 

[AdamBlue]

People who use spice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayFxnfFgZk

Edit: Whew, just realized what the title of the video is. My apologies. The point I'm trying to make is that people who do spice are really into it, but it seems people really seem to avoid it despite it being able to turn them into a 'god damn sexual tyranasaurus'.

[Jihelu]

A sexual tyernasourararas

[Synthesis]

I got addicted down to something like 10/10 hp once.

It took a whooooooole lot of time idling in a safe spot just watching the time pass, but eventually it wore off and I was back up to my previous regular hp max.  I think it was on the order of several entire IC days logged in...probably between 8-10 RL hours of just sitting there staring at my prompt.

Not too bad for someone who plays 5 hours a day.  An entire RL week for some, though.

[Desertman]

I think the general idea behind "how long it takes" for spice addiction to wear off is that it will force people to actually play/socially interact as a spice addict going through withdrawals.

Sure some people might just find a quiet place to sit for a very long time to avoid playing out the spice addiction. Then again it might be entirely in character for their PC to find a secluded spot and solo-rp their withdrawals away from other people.

Lastly it -might- take so long for it to go away to kind of force/entice people to "keeping taking the drug" rather than immediately go through the long withdrawal time to get their stats/scores "back up to max".

I like it.

Sure it takes a long time to get over it, but I feel that's intentional for the above reasons.

Some people will RP being an addict publicly, some people with quietly hide their addiction, and some people with keep up their addiction rather than go through the long wait/withdrawal roleplay.

I feel that is pretty dang realistic actually.