Working Out

---+ Working Out _Feeling the burn for fun and profit_

---++ Basics

In the world of HellMOO, there are six stats, which can effectively be split into 2 groups; the physical stats (Brawn, Endurance and Reflexes) and the mental stats (Sense, Brains and Cool). Some players are more blessed in one of these areas than the other, but those who enter the world as pathetic weaklings unable to even hurl a television set have an equaliser which over time can see them become well-rounded and productive (or destructive) members of society; old-fashioned physical exercise! There are essentially two ways to work out; either you can use the various exercise equipment in the game to improve your stats, or you can carry around heavy weights and go for a scenic walk. In general, the following rules apply to any kind of physical activity you perform in game, but only when you're specifically training to improve stats do they become significant:

  * Exercise will give you muscle burn; over time, or if you're exerting yourself heavily and very quickly, it will reduce all three of your physical stats, though the most significant reduction will be to endurance which can drop by a large amount. Muscle burn can be removed by either simply not exerting yourself (which also applies when you are offline) or by drinking the sports drink "jooky" which contains creatine, which slowly reduces muscle burn. Jooky can be purchased in Rolf's Gym or in Eschaton Outfitters in Freedom City. Be warned; too much creatine in your system will give you a 'creatine headache' and slowly cause you to lose health. Pay attention to the exact amount in your system using =diag me= and stay below the danger zone.
  * Gaining IP gets harder the more IP you have previously gained that day, even before you hit the absolute cap on daily IP gain of 50 points. Exercising can be a very tedious affair if you have already gained a lot of IP that day, so make sure to do all your exercise before any other IP-gaining activities that day, if stat boosts are your highest priority. After your workout you will still have plenty of IP to spare on training your weaker skills.
  * Exercise will never increase a stat over 13 raw; this includes permanent stat modifications (both positive and negative) such as from the mutations Brute Strength or Twitchy Reflexes (see PlayerMutations), but not those from diseases (including vampirism, even the mutation) or other temporary changes. Take great care in choosing mutations so you can maximise your stat gains!
  * Over exercising will give you a message =You are getting dangerously close to injury; you should stop exerting yourself.= Pay attention to this and =stop= immediately! If you keep plodding along regardless you risk a serious injury such as a groin pull which is quite debilitating and requires the attention of a skilled medic. Just 1 or 2 more reps is enough to cause injury so you need to be paying attention while working out.
  * Every single IP in a stat costs exactly 4 XP (regardless of how high your stat is) so make sure you have sufficient XP for your desired stat gains every time you work out.

---++ Equipment

So you've decided that working out sounds like the thing for you, and you want to know where you can do it. Apart from carrying heavy weights around with you, which can obviously be done anywhere, there are only three locations where exercise equipment can be found: Rolf's Gym [RG] in Slagtown, Brucie's Gym [BG] in Corpclave, and the prison south of Freedom City (see FreedomCityMap for more info). As the latter can only be accessed while you are wanted by the police or are already in prison, the first two are generally the best places to go. Rolf's also has the advantage of having a jooky dispensing machine for easy purchase of the essential beverage, and has a full set of equipment for all 3 stats, as well as a climbing wall. To access Brucie's, you must first be able to enter Corpclave.

The equipment is as follows:

  * The weight set. Weight training increases your Brawn. You must =lie on weight set= before you can =rep weight= and thus only one person can use it at a time.
  * The rowing machine. Training on this increases your Endurance. Much like the weight set, you must =lie on rowing machine= before you can =rep rowing= and only one person can use it at a time.
  * The speed bag. Training on this increases Reflex, and can be used by anyone standing in the same room as it (i.e. in Rolf's Gym). Simply =train on bag= to see the benefits.
  * The climbing set is a totally different piece of equipment entirely, and serves to give a safe place to work on improving your climbing skills. Many of the same rules apply to using the climbing wall, though you only need stand next to the wall and then move =up= and =down= its face to improve your skill. Though you can see small Endurance gains from climbing the wall, that is not its primary purpose, and many players prefer to improve their climbing skills in certain relatively safe spots throughout the world which give more challenging climbs, thus giving better potential for improvement.

For all these pieces of equipment it's worth noting the following:

  * Using high weight / tension does increase the speed at which you gain stats slightly, but gives you muscle burn significantly faster. The higher your physical stats the quicker muscle burn wears off, so those with high stats may be able to do very long workouts at the 2nd or 3rd setting on the machines; new players or those who have very low physical stats should keep their equipment on the lowest setting if you want to see good IP gain, albeit over a longer period of time. Adjusting the equipment simply requires you to =change [equipment] to [1-5]=.
  * As mentioned above, Jooky is essential to a long, thorough workout so you should keep the level of creatine in your blood as constant as possible throughout. This has the unfortunate side-effect of causing you to need to urinate very frequently; however, you can pee in the gym without any repurcussions other than having to work out in a room that smells of piss. It's not uncommon to see people exercising naked or without pants for this reason, amongst others.
  * As the gym often has multiple low to medium skilled players in it, it is often a popular place for griefers to attack or throw bombs or even nukes. Be alert and ready to =stop= in the middle of a workout to flee or defend yourself! Also, make sure you update your clone frequently to avoid severe loss of stats if killed.

Using all the information above you should be able to see an improvement of around 20-30 IP per (ingame) day to a single stat, giving noticable results in just a few days.

---++ Gaining other stats

In addition to the physical stats trainers, it is possible to grind Cool and Brains using the gym system, though the mechanisms are not obvious at first.

---++ Other ways to gain stats

Although working out is by far the easiest way to increase your stats, it has its limits both in what stats you can improve and how far you can improve them. Once you have exhausted the possiblities of the exercise machines, you can still gain stat points (and in any stat, not just physical ones) by performing an activity which is dependent on that stat. However, gains this way are very, very slow and cannot be relied on at all.

-- Main.LochLain - 29 Jul 2008 -- Main.AllyJazera - 09 Oct 2008