Who is 'The Guide' ...?

[Amazadh]

OK. I'm probably being really stupid, but I've searched here, the wiki, the Compendium, and in TenTonHammer, but I can't find any reference to 'The Guide'!

'The Guide' looks like a Warforged, just standing there amongst the trainers on the Stormreach harbour quay, to the East of the Leaky Dinghy.

I've only recently started playing using my Mac for DDO, although I've played a small amount previously on the Windows version, but only up to a Lvl 7 Character.

It's on the Mac version that I've encountered this guy; I'd run past him, looking for the wizard trainer, then stopped and backtracked, thinking,"What? I don't remember having seen him before!" So, I clicked on him and he asked me various questions, all fairly intriguing, the first being do I want to improve myself? I thought "that sounds interesting", so I clicked on it. The next thing I knew was, I suddenly appeared to have gained a massive amount of xp - 50,000 - and had shot up a level! I was somewhat stunned and went to the trainer, and yes, that is exactly what had happened. I levelled up and sorted the various stats and went on my way, a little bemused.

SO... I was back in the harbour today, and thought..."I wonder if that bloke is standing there again?" ... and he was! ...and he did the same again... 50,000xp.

Now this is all well and good, but I'm going up too fast to get the best deal on a couple of quests! I was only Thf1/Wiz1, and now I'm Thf1/Wiz3 ...!

Why are there no comments about this bloke and what he does?

[Krelar]

You're playing on lamannia, the test server, rather than the live servers. A dangerous thing to do for anything other than testing since it can have character wipes at any time.

EDIT: And there are comments about him. There is still at least one post on first page of the lamannia general discussion. (http://forums.ddo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=94)

[SqueakofDoom]

The Guide is a very helpful Warforged who lives on the Lamannia (preview) server. He is very generous with his gifts of experience. Unfortunately, sometimes he runs off and needs to be brought back to his usual spot near the trainers in the Harbor. I hope one day he will find a permanent home on Lamannia.

We keep the Guide around to help you quickly level up (you can get to level 25 in a few minutes) since we want you to be able to preview new content that is usually at higher levels.

Smiles,
Squeak

[Bulvej]

if only we diddent have to run around in our low lvl gear after getting to the high lvl, so we are useless :/

atleast im allways useless after doing that :/

[UurlockYgmeov]

The Guide is a very helpful Warforged who lives on the Lamannia (preview) server. He is very generous with his gifts of experience. Unfortunately, sometimes he runs off and needs to be brought back to his usual spot near the trainers in the Harbor. I hope one day he will find a permanent home on Lamannia.

We keep the Guide around to help you quickly level up (you can get to level 25 in a few minutes) since we want you to be able to preview new content that is usually at higher levels.

Smiles,
Squeak

The Guide is a friendly enough, if sometimes absentminded friend! :P

[Cernunan]

if only we diddent have to run around in our low lvl gear after getting to the high lvl, so we are useless :/

atleast im allways useless after doing that :/

Lol just wow. Some people are just never nice, no matter how much they are given.
Sqeekerly goes above and beyond to provide every opportunity for people to use Lam land to the fullest. She fills the Ah constantly with top end gear, even going to far as to fill requests on off test cycles. When a specific testing goal is necessary for, you know, testing (the reason of having a test server), she spends hours giving out anything anybody requests so that the, you know, the test server, can be utilized as best with the tools available.
I do believe that being too nice to some people is being too nice. Being ungrateful seems to be a way of life for some.

[Amazadh]

Ah hah...yes, I guessed I was being stupid - I never thought to check under the Lamannia area.

Gosh, I hadn't realised you could go through to lvl 25 with his offerings! I did appreciate that Lamannia is only a test area, but I don't think that Mac users have any other choice yet - none comes up when I log-in, anyway.

I have posted about the appalling graphics glitches, which seem to vary more or less randomly; I change settings, they go away, I change settings back, and they've still gone! Very wierd. ...and the lack of usable store - after buying stuff through my account page that I can't then access through the store... well, that's a nice little earner, Turbine, if you don't mind completely ****ing off your customers!

OK. Thanks people for the speedy replies to answer my enquiry, it also explains why the (few) characters I see are such high levels! Guess I'll go back to playing on the Windows servers for the moment.

[Kaytis]

How does one get on to Lammania when using the Mac? I missed that somehow.

[stoerm]

How does one get on to Lammania when using the Mac? I missed that somehow.

This Mac section being under the Lamannia heading, and based on the discussion above I'll go on a limb and speculate that you can only play on Lamannia with the Mac client.

[Kaytis]

This Mac section being under the Lamannia heading, and based on the discussion above I'll go on a limb and speculate that you can only play on Lamannia with the Mac client.

I have been playing on Orien on the Mac for months. It started out on Lammania but switched over to live pretty quickly. I would like to get back to Lammania but didn't think that was currently possible from the Mac.

[stoerm]

I have been playing on Orien on the Mac for months. It started out on Lammania but switched over to live pretty quickly. I would like to get back to Lammania but didn't think that was currently possible from the Mac.

I'm happy to be wrong on that one! :) Try the client download from the link above "DDO Mac Beta To try ... click here" near the top of this page.

[Kaytis]

I'm happy to be wrong on that one! :) Try the client download from the link above "DDO Mac Beta To try ... click here" near the top of this page.

How about that. The original Lamannia Mac client still works. It has the same name as the real client though. I had to rename it so as not to replace the live one. I also had to run the launcher from the Terminal (/Applications/DNDLauncher\ Lammania.app/Contents/MacOS/DNDLauncher) since double-clicking would not launch it (possibly because I renamed the bundle). It updated after an outstandingly large download and patch. I had to restart the launcher twice since the patching locked up a couple of times.

Once patched, I can get onto Lammania, but I always have to run the launcher from the Terminal since code-signing indicates that the bundle is irreparably damaged in some way. I have to uncheck which server I want to play on when I jump between clients. The clients seem to be sharing the same preference file.

Lamannia had 12 people on it including me. There is next to nothing in the AH and I can't buy astral shards in the DDO store. I would bug report it but you know, lol. Same old Lamannia. But at least I can get back on there from my Mac if something interesting happens.

Thanks for the tip.