sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
When I first contacted L4suicide about compiling his Tornography, he responded by saying he wasn't interesting enough. I wholeheartedly disagree. The man whose history and thoughts we are about to hear has been here since the very beginning, having arrived in Torn City 4560 days ago on February 18th, 2005 - it was a Friday.
In that time, L4suicide has racked up a list of achievements longer than the arm of one of those wacky waving inflatable flailing tube men. Among his notable honours is his collection of the most awards in Torn history with 429, his 21st-highest bazaar earnings of $294 billion, and his status as the fifth person to achieve level 100 back in 2013.
L4suicide has also taken leadership of legendary faction 39th Street Killers for several successful years, in addition to becoming one of the top ten all-time slots players, consistently appearing in the top 50 rich-list and his transformation into the 2nd biggest junkie with 10,980 drugs taken.
Whereas some players dedicate themselves to one or two areas, L4suicide has excelled in every aspect of Torn City life. And what makes his achievements all the more incredible is the fact that he's managed to do this under the most strenuous conditions imaginable - a commandment from his wife to stop faffing with Torn.
"She thinks it's stopping me progress my career. It's true that over the years I've probably spent a lot of time on the game that could have been better used elsewhere, but my thinking is a lot of people play golf, drink a lot, play video games or have other hobbies. So why should Torn not be my hobby?"
Despite his wife's draconian request, L4suicide continues to achieve great things in the city he's called home for more than twelve years. Over that time, his approach to Torn has changed considerably. Today, L4suicide is a seasoned veteran who knows what he wants and how to get it. But back in 2005, he readily admits he had no idea what he was doing.
"Had no aim at all when I started, I just joined as a friend from another game asked (Swoosh-Sexy). We built the original (and best) fan site and that kept me playing for a long time. But he quit and someone stole all our info for another fan site and I was travelling the world so we let it die."
"Back then the dividend stocks were worth owning and I barely logged in. I made 50b or so over a year without doing much but fell well behind in stats (and missed self-busting and no booster caps). Many years ago I decided I'd never catch the players who used self-busting and no cap on FHC cool down to get trillions of stats, so I had to go for something attainable."
That something was the acquisition of awards, and through the careful analysis of stock, faction, job and enhancer benefits L4suicide was able to rise quickly to the top of the table. He thanks IceBlueFire's Tornstats site for its assistance in this endeavour, since it offers an easy way for all players to identify which awards they lack and what they need to achieve them. However, the main driving force behind this incredible feat is L4suicide's desire to find new ways in which he can achieve something.
One such area is Factions, with the official stats recording L4suicide as having led the ever-present 39th Street for over 1,000 days although L4 suspects the actual length of his tenure is much longer, having moved around frequently during his early days. When he first joined 39th Street, they were Torn's premier faction and remained so when he took a break to go travelling around the world. However, upon his return, he found a very different group to the one he had left behind.
"I came back to find internal politics and a few big war losses had left 39th in a bit of a mess. As always it was a clash of egos and differing opinions, and most of our old stronger members joined JFK and SA. We had a few leaders go inactive and not have time for running a big faction like 39th, and at some point I was given co and leader during wars to keep the chain filler going. Then one day suddenly I realised I had been leader for a while and the last official leader told me he didn't want it back."
Having held on to the leadership of 39th Street for some time now, L4suicide believes his responsibilities are twofold; to filter applications to avoid bad influences, and to help the faction's members grow by offering advice and making smart faction choices. One of the smartest choices L4 has made is his transformation of 39th Street into a democratically run faction, with his leadership style self-described as "passive".
"With 2-300 members in the 39th family there are a lot of opinions on the direction we should take and you can never please everyone. The key for me is to communicate the reasoning behind any big decision, and keep everyone in the loop when it comes to future plans. If it's important enough I use polls to gauge the direction which will please the majority and this often leads to great discussions and sharing of knowledge."
L4suicide confided in me that he often disagrees with the results of these polls from a personal perspective since his goals often differ from those of the wider 39th Street clan. Nevertheless, L4 is not the kind of leader to put himself above the well-being of his faction, and nor would he ever allow its members to vote on something he knew he'd be forced to overrule. This altruistic mind-set allows L4 to avoid the infighting which formerly plagued this once-great faction, meaning that those decisions he does make by himself are respected.
But even if his faction benefits greatly from his personal decisions, L4suicide believes all praise should go to his crew. Despite being credited with reviving 39th Street and restoring their status as one of Torn's premier factions, L4 rejects the idea that this was in any way his doing.
"I don't think I have achieved anything as leader, no one can, the achievements are all made by the faction as a whole...we have grown in every sense of the word and I'm very proud of our members. They all have desire to be better, but won't shortcut to success by joining "stronger" factions; they want to keep the game interesting."
The only thing L4suicide will admit he has achieved is the acquisition of knowledge which has benefited him in real life. Despite his wife's protestations, L4 thinks that Torn has taught him many invaluable skills such as time management, leadership, business basics and interpersonal skills. As leader, L4 has often provided a shoulder to cry on for 39th's members whenever they have needed time away from the faction. And far from finding this responsibility a burden as some people might, L4suicide values these exchanges highly.
"Members past and present have shared a lot of personal hardship with me, usually to excuse them from faction duties, but with me real life comes first - and I tell each member this when they tell me about these things. In some cases I then become a handy outlet for emotions, someone to ask impartial advice from or in some cases I introduce them to other players I know with the same issues. I now use these tactics in the work place and I've found I am a lot happier in the workplace, and on face value so are the people I work with."
So if anyone's partner is currently chewing their ear over the amount of time you spend in Torn, now you know how to respond.
(Pictured: your comeuppance after spending all night chaining instead of consoling your partner for the loss of their father. Or was it their dog? Ah who cares)
Going forward, L4 sees 39th Street as avoiding any significant involvement in territories until it proves more beneficial compared to the outlay required for victory. His current priority is the rapid gaining of respect, with certain nerve, training and passive stat specials identified as targets. L4 bemoans the fact that strong factions and alliances currently dominate Torn, with both territories and traditional warring both relying on stat-heavy players being online at the right moment. He would much rather see active, weaker players play a key role in determining the victor in faction conflicts, and he also feels that loyalty should be rewarded too.
"No one expects new players to catch up with vets, but I think it would be good to focus on having new players have a relevant impact in top factions. Currently factions are awarded when they only have older (stronger) players - and so older players tend to have better gains as they are in more powerful factions. A scheme which gives a bonus to factions for having some younger players would benefit everyone. Perhaps some of the faction stat gain boosts could be locked if the average age of faction members is above 2500 or something. That way for older players to get better gains they have to have younger players in the faction."
L4 goes on to argue that in exchange for these concessions, elder Torn citizens could be given special missions open only to those who are over 2000 days old, or who have spent more than 1000 days within a faction. Either way, it is undeniable that this change would benefit 39th Street greatly. Their ranks comprise a sizeable number of young, low-statted novices, since L4 decries older citizens as boring, less willing to chain and more liable to quit. Having to accommodate new players would make it enjoyable for everyone, he believes; offering a challenge to the old guard and a reason to stay for the newcomers.
"My hope is that one day soon old members will get bored of where they are and spread themselves amongst other factions to make things more entertaining."
Despite L4suicide's reservations regarding faction warring, he still maintains that Torn as a whole has gotten better during his time here. However, when I posed the same question about the player base, his answer was markedly different.
"The game has matured a lot, and the players have gone the other way. When I started it was mostly friendly with a few small feuds...I guess I am getting older and players are getting younger! But also with more communication available now within the game it's a bit more obvious when someone starts acting like a muppet. Factions didn't officially exist and wars were more about honour and respect. The top factions were all very even, and I don't believe there were many players who roamed between factions for war. If you were part of a family, you stayed with that family."
"The other thing which has changed is the economy. It used to be much easier to generate wealth, but now stocks barely sell and companies struggle to find workers. Trading is fraught with dangers and gambling is never an answer. For younger players this poses a huge problem - they will never catch up with the top 50 players in stats. At a certain point the only way to get decent stat gains is to spend lots of money - not many will manage it."
The problem L4suicide speaks of is one which many will be familiar with: How do you make Torn a more even playing field without diminishing the achievements of its veterans? L4 suggests various ways this could be done, including making high interest bank accounts available to those with lower networths, allowing older players to officially loan money to younger ones, or offering cheaper Duke loans to new players. He also suggests amendments to companies, such as an automated recruitment scheme and the ability to purchase and issue shares in player-owned firms.
As someone with an involvement in this aspect of Torn, I can reveal that many of the changes L4 mentions have been considered and discussed at length. The problem is that for every good idea there are endless ramifications which have to be considered, with just one potential flaw enough to prove its downfall. Until we come up with a change that is fair and implementable, new players must rely on the existing methods of wealth creation to attempt to bridge the gap.
One could do far worse than follow L4suicide's example in this respect. Having made over $269 billion from bazaar trading, L4 is now worth $191 billion and currently sits as the 30th richest person in Torn.
"Trading is probably my biggest earner. Although through the years I have made lots and spent lots. It's important to know a lot of my networth is faction members money, I invest for them and split all profits. So I am not as rich as it appears :) I would love it if I could securely loan to other players, open a market place, with any defaults handed off to Duke - but I doubt with all the greased palms that Duke would allow this to happen."
Even if L4suicide were able to loan money to other players through official channels, would there be any takers? In recent weeks, L4 has been accused via the forums of involvement in proxy buy-mugging. Citizens John_9511 and Eclipse claim that L4suicide attempted to pilfer their pockets shortly after his fellow 39th Street members had purchased items from them. The Torn City Times has been unable to ascertain the legitimacy of these allegations, but if they were to prove true, it is the opinion of this reporter that L4suicide is merely demonstrating another legitimate way for new players to earn money in Torn. Scam away newcomers, scam away.
Besides, proxy buy-mugging certainly seems a better bet than gambling - if you'll pardon the pun. Despite his status as one of the best slots players of all time, L4suicide is adamant that chancing one's arm at the Casino is not a reliable way of boosting your income. L4 currently stands 9th in Slots for both earnings and losses, with $323 billion won compared to $307 billion lost. But far from representing any supposed skill, L4suicide attributes his healthy slot profits to something else.
"Blind luck. I went through a period of a month where I was in the cruise line job and was trying to win the jackpot - mostly playing $10 spins. I remember I was in a taxi going to Brisbane airport and got distracted by the driver asking which terminal. I accidentally clicked 10m and put my phone away. Once checked in I open up torn and see 10B and three cars!"
"That same month I played for 10m a few times more and managed to get 2x 10b and a 1x 20b win, but sadly I've not had a big win since and my profit from slots is gradually dwindling. For a long time I played blackjack. There was a time when you could take insurance and then split your hand, as well as surrendering a split hand if dealer had blackjack. I raised it as an issue but nothing was done and I was told I could keep playing my way. This was a huge advantage!"
Thanks to a combination of luck and bugs, L4suicide racked up some significant gambling profits back in the day. His winnings inevitably drew the attention of others, and in response, L4 shared his tactics to help others follow in his fortuitous footsteps.
"I started a blog and posted the maths and strategies to use. The strategy has changed but according to some top gambling sites the rules of Torn blackjack are in the players favour - slightly - so for every $100 bet you should get $101 back if you follow those rules. I know there are people who think it's rigged but I honestly don't think it's worth rigging. Most players are so bad anyway that it's not worth Cheds time to build elaborate code to rig it."
Gambling holds a special place in L4suicide's heart, and this is further proven by the story he told me regarding one of his greatest Torn achievements. Several years ago L4 almost single-handedly held together the longest ever chain in Torn history, with his eight-hour stint coming at a time when there was a five-minute timer and no bonuses to assist you.
"I was a big online poker fan back then. I had poker on one screen and Torn on the other. I would line up 3-4 targets and wait until the clock ran down to 45 seconds, hit, and go back to poker. If anyone else came on they just hit as they liked, I was a backup. 8 hours later I had won $300 at poker and hadn't slept in 32 hours. Another guy Stan was there for a fair bit too, my memory for this stuff sucks but it was either WoTW or InQuest."
An eight-hour chain is certainly no mean feat, but L4 feels this pales into significance compared to the day he overtook BodyBagger for the most merits earnt. This was and continues to be L4's finest moment, but he readily admits he's had his fair share of bad days too.
"Biggest regrets...selling WSSB the day before the change in the benefit, selling loads of points the week before points for merits became a thing, selling 20 castles at 130m the week before selling properties back to Torn was put in, getting down to 10nnb the month before self-busting was taken away."
"I've been a muppet recently. I once famously sold a company for 1b but had 17b in the bank when I accepted the trade. Lucky for me the buyer sent *most* of it back."
L4 also mentions his involvement in companies as one of his greatest sources of woe, with the sale of an Oil Rig a few months before rig-beneficial changes were introduced proving a particular low-point. While some players would castigate Chedburn for failing to inform them of this alteration in advance, L4suicide believes such things are part and parcel of normal Torn life.
"The only things Ched should be open about are things which can be abused if they are unleashed at a random time of day. When properties suddenly became something you could sell back to Torn there were lots on the market at under the price torn would pay you for them. So anyone who was asleep lost out, and those in a similar time-zone to Ched made millions off it."
Having interviewed a number of notable Torn citizens over the past twelve months I have heard a range of differing views on where Torn can be improved and where things have gone wrong. However, unlike many of his contemporaries, L4suicide comes across as far less jaded when he critiques Torn City. Yes, he has his concerns, but it seems that the tangible and achievable goals he has set himself prevent L4 from slipping into the mindset of a bitter old man who believes things aren't what they used to be and it's all the youngsters' fault.
As we stated at the outset, L4suicide knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. His major goal is to obtain every merit possible, and to this end, he is currently working to have a comic approved and to hit 10,000 busts.
The former is something the authorities can help with, and the latter should be achieved within a week based on his current total of 9,905 busts and recent rate of around 400 busts per month. That would leave L4suicide with only a single-digit tally of awards left to achieve, with these mostly comprised of slots and competition-based accolades.
Once his collection is complete, you can easily imagine L4suicide finding something else to work towards; such is his appetite for goals and glory. But as we discovered earlier, there is one thing which may prevent L4suicide from his glorious quest - his other half. After all the years L4 has poured into Torn, it would be a tragedy if he fell at the last hurdle due to spousal interference.
Although, a quick look at L4's user activity graph shows that he's actually increased his time on Torn more than ever in recent years. So what's happened? Has his wife finally had enough? Has L4suicide used his Torn expertise to riddle his partner with bullets and dispose of her body in a shallow grave in the hope he can summon the nerve to self-bust himself from jail when he's caught?
No. He's just been a bit sneakier about it.
"She's found out a few times but I only really log on before she wakes up, at work and just before I sleep. I changed jobs a couple of years ago and probably had more time to browse around Torn during those hours."
Torn again?!?! You swore you were looking at pornography. You swore on my mother's grave!
In that time, L4suicide has racked up a list of achievements longer than the arm of one of those wacky waving inflatable flailing tube men. Among his notable honours is his collection of the most awards in Torn history with 429, his 21st-highest bazaar earnings of $294 billion, and his status as the fifth person to achieve level 100 back in 2013.
L4suicide has also taken leadership of legendary faction 39th Street Killers for several successful years, in addition to becoming one of the top ten all-time slots players, consistently appearing in the top 50 rich-list and his transformation into the 2nd biggest junkie with 10,980 drugs taken.
Whereas some players dedicate themselves to one or two areas, L4suicide has excelled in every aspect of Torn City life. And what makes his achievements all the more incredible is the fact that he's managed to do this under the most strenuous conditions imaginable - a commandment from his wife to stop faffing with Torn.
"She thinks it's stopping me progress my career. It's true that over the years I've probably spent a lot of time on the game that could have been better used elsewhere, but my thinking is a lot of people play golf, drink a lot, play video games or have other hobbies. So why should Torn not be my hobby?"
Despite his wife's draconian request, L4suicide continues to achieve great things in the city he's called home for more than twelve years. Over that time, his approach to Torn has changed considerably. Today, L4suicide is a seasoned veteran who knows what he wants and how to get it. But back in 2005, he readily admits he had no idea what he was doing.
"Had no aim at all when I started, I just joined as a friend from another game asked (Swoosh-Sexy). We built the original (and best) fan site and that kept me playing for a long time. But he quit and someone stole all our info for another fan site and I was travelling the world so we let it die."
"Back then the dividend stocks were worth owning and I barely logged in. I made 50b or so over a year without doing much but fell well behind in stats (and missed self-busting and no booster caps). Many years ago I decided I'd never catch the players who used self-busting and no cap on FHC cool down to get trillions of stats, so I had to go for something attainable."
That something was the acquisition of awards, and through the careful analysis of stock, faction, job and enhancer benefits L4suicide was able to rise quickly to the top of the table. He thanks IceBlueFire's Tornstats site for its assistance in this endeavour, since it offers an easy way for all players to identify which awards they lack and what they need to achieve them. However, the main driving force behind this incredible feat is L4suicide's desire to find new ways in which he can achieve something.
One such area is Factions, with the official stats recording L4suicide as having led the ever-present 39th Street for over 1,000 days although L4 suspects the actual length of his tenure is much longer, having moved around frequently during his early days. When he first joined 39th Street, they were Torn's premier faction and remained so when he took a break to go travelling around the world. However, upon his return, he found a very different group to the one he had left behind.
"I came back to find internal politics and a few big war losses had left 39th in a bit of a mess. As always it was a clash of egos and differing opinions, and most of our old stronger members joined JFK and SA. We had a few leaders go inactive and not have time for running a big faction like 39th, and at some point I was given co and leader during wars to keep the chain filler going. Then one day suddenly I realised I had been leader for a while and the last official leader told me he didn't want it back."
Having held on to the leadership of 39th Street for some time now, L4suicide believes his responsibilities are twofold; to filter applications to avoid bad influences, and to help the faction's members grow by offering advice and making smart faction choices. One of the smartest choices L4 has made is his transformation of 39th Street into a democratically run faction, with his leadership style self-described as "passive".
"With 2-300 members in the 39th family there are a lot of opinions on the direction we should take and you can never please everyone. The key for me is to communicate the reasoning behind any big decision, and keep everyone in the loop when it comes to future plans. If it's important enough I use polls to gauge the direction which will please the majority and this often leads to great discussions and sharing of knowledge."
L4suicide confided in me that he often disagrees with the results of these polls from a personal perspective since his goals often differ from those of the wider 39th Street clan. Nevertheless, L4 is not the kind of leader to put himself above the well-being of his faction, and nor would he ever allow its members to vote on something he knew he'd be forced to overrule. This altruistic mind-set allows L4 to avoid the infighting which formerly plagued this once-great faction, meaning that those decisions he does make by himself are respected.
But even if his faction benefits greatly from his personal decisions, L4suicide believes all praise should go to his crew. Despite being credited with reviving 39th Street and restoring their status as one of Torn's premier factions, L4 rejects the idea that this was in any way his doing.
"I don't think I have achieved anything as leader, no one can, the achievements are all made by the faction as a whole...we have grown in every sense of the word and I'm very proud of our members. They all have desire to be better, but won't shortcut to success by joining "stronger" factions; they want to keep the game interesting."
The only thing L4suicide will admit he has achieved is the acquisition of knowledge which has benefited him in real life. Despite his wife's protestations, L4 thinks that Torn has taught him many invaluable skills such as time management, leadership, business basics and interpersonal skills. As leader, L4 has often provided a shoulder to cry on for 39th's members whenever they have needed time away from the faction. And far from finding this responsibility a burden as some people might, L4suicide values these exchanges highly.
"Members past and present have shared a lot of personal hardship with me, usually to excuse them from faction duties, but with me real life comes first - and I tell each member this when they tell me about these things. In some cases I then become a handy outlet for emotions, someone to ask impartial advice from or in some cases I introduce them to other players I know with the same issues. I now use these tactics in the work place and I've found I am a lot happier in the workplace, and on face value so are the people I work with."
So if anyone's partner is currently chewing their ear over the amount of time you spend in Torn, now you know how to respond.
(Pictured: your comeuppance after spending all night chaining instead of consoling your partner for the loss of their father. Or was it their dog? Ah who cares)
Going forward, L4 sees 39th Street as avoiding any significant involvement in territories until it proves more beneficial compared to the outlay required for victory. His current priority is the rapid gaining of respect, with certain nerve, training and passive stat specials identified as targets. L4 bemoans the fact that strong factions and alliances currently dominate Torn, with both territories and traditional warring both relying on stat-heavy players being online at the right moment. He would much rather see active, weaker players play a key role in determining the victor in faction conflicts, and he also feels that loyalty should be rewarded too.
"No one expects new players to catch up with vets, but I think it would be good to focus on having new players have a relevant impact in top factions. Currently factions are awarded when they only have older (stronger) players - and so older players tend to have better gains as they are in more powerful factions. A scheme which gives a bonus to factions for having some younger players would benefit everyone. Perhaps some of the faction stat gain boosts could be locked if the average age of faction members is above 2500 or something. That way for older players to get better gains they have to have younger players in the faction."
L4 goes on to argue that in exchange for these concessions, elder Torn citizens could be given special missions open only to those who are over 2000 days old, or who have spent more than 1000 days within a faction. Either way, it is undeniable that this change would benefit 39th Street greatly. Their ranks comprise a sizeable number of young, low-statted novices, since L4 decries older citizens as boring, less willing to chain and more liable to quit. Having to accommodate new players would make it enjoyable for everyone, he believes; offering a challenge to the old guard and a reason to stay for the newcomers.
"My hope is that one day soon old members will get bored of where they are and spread themselves amongst other factions to make things more entertaining."
Despite L4suicide's reservations regarding faction warring, he still maintains that Torn as a whole has gotten better during his time here. However, when I posed the same question about the player base, his answer was markedly different.
"The game has matured a lot, and the players have gone the other way. When I started it was mostly friendly with a few small feuds...I guess I am getting older and players are getting younger! But also with more communication available now within the game it's a bit more obvious when someone starts acting like a muppet. Factions didn't officially exist and wars were more about honour and respect. The top factions were all very even, and I don't believe there were many players who roamed between factions for war. If you were part of a family, you stayed with that family."
"The other thing which has changed is the economy. It used to be much easier to generate wealth, but now stocks barely sell and companies struggle to find workers. Trading is fraught with dangers and gambling is never an answer. For younger players this poses a huge problem - they will never catch up with the top 50 players in stats. At a certain point the only way to get decent stat gains is to spend lots of money - not many will manage it."
The problem L4suicide speaks of is one which many will be familiar with: How do you make Torn a more even playing field without diminishing the achievements of its veterans? L4 suggests various ways this could be done, including making high interest bank accounts available to those with lower networths, allowing older players to officially loan money to younger ones, or offering cheaper Duke loans to new players. He also suggests amendments to companies, such as an automated recruitment scheme and the ability to purchase and issue shares in player-owned firms.
As someone with an involvement in this aspect of Torn, I can reveal that many of the changes L4 mentions have been considered and discussed at length. The problem is that for every good idea there are endless ramifications which have to be considered, with just one potential flaw enough to prove its downfall. Until we come up with a change that is fair and implementable, new players must rely on the existing methods of wealth creation to attempt to bridge the gap.
One could do far worse than follow L4suicide's example in this respect. Having made over $269 billion from bazaar trading, L4 is now worth $191 billion and currently sits as the 30th richest person in Torn.
"Trading is probably my biggest earner. Although through the years I have made lots and spent lots. It's important to know a lot of my networth is faction members money, I invest for them and split all profits. So I am not as rich as it appears :) I would love it if I could securely loan to other players, open a market place, with any defaults handed off to Duke - but I doubt with all the greased palms that Duke would allow this to happen."
Even if L4suicide were able to loan money to other players through official channels, would there be any takers? In recent weeks, L4 has been accused via the forums of involvement in proxy buy-mugging. Citizens John_9511 and Eclipse claim that L4suicide attempted to pilfer their pockets shortly after his fellow 39th Street members had purchased items from them. The Torn City Times has been unable to ascertain the legitimacy of these allegations, but if they were to prove true, it is the opinion of this reporter that L4suicide is merely demonstrating another legitimate way for new players to earn money in Torn. Scam away newcomers, scam away.
Besides, proxy buy-mugging certainly seems a better bet than gambling - if you'll pardon the pun. Despite his status as one of the best slots players of all time, L4suicide is adamant that chancing one's arm at the Casino is not a reliable way of boosting your income. L4 currently stands 9th in Slots for both earnings and losses, with $323 billion won compared to $307 billion lost. But far from representing any supposed skill, L4suicide attributes his healthy slot profits to something else.
"Blind luck. I went through a period of a month where I was in the cruise line job and was trying to win the jackpot - mostly playing $10 spins. I remember I was in a taxi going to Brisbane airport and got distracted by the driver asking which terminal. I accidentally clicked 10m and put my phone away. Once checked in I open up torn and see 10B and three cars!"
"That same month I played for 10m a few times more and managed to get 2x 10b and a 1x 20b win, but sadly I've not had a big win since and my profit from slots is gradually dwindling. For a long time I played blackjack. There was a time when you could take insurance and then split your hand, as well as surrendering a split hand if dealer had blackjack. I raised it as an issue but nothing was done and I was told I could keep playing my way. This was a huge advantage!"
Thanks to a combination of luck and bugs, L4suicide racked up some significant gambling profits back in the day. His winnings inevitably drew the attention of others, and in response, L4 shared his tactics to help others follow in his fortuitous footsteps.
"I started a blog and posted the maths and strategies to use. The strategy has changed but according to some top gambling sites the rules of Torn blackjack are in the players favour - slightly - so for every $100 bet you should get $101 back if you follow those rules. I know there are people who think it's rigged but I honestly don't think it's worth rigging. Most players are so bad anyway that it's not worth Cheds time to build elaborate code to rig it."
Gambling holds a special place in L4suicide's heart, and this is further proven by the story he told me regarding one of his greatest Torn achievements. Several years ago L4 almost single-handedly held together the longest ever chain in Torn history, with his eight-hour stint coming at a time when there was a five-minute timer and no bonuses to assist you.
"I was a big online poker fan back then. I had poker on one screen and Torn on the other. I would line up 3-4 targets and wait until the clock ran down to 45 seconds, hit, and go back to poker. If anyone else came on they just hit as they liked, I was a backup. 8 hours later I had won $300 at poker and hadn't slept in 32 hours. Another guy Stan was there for a fair bit too, my memory for this stuff sucks but it was either WoTW or InQuest."
An eight-hour chain is certainly no mean feat, but L4 feels this pales into significance compared to the day he overtook BodyBagger for the most merits earnt. This was and continues to be L4's finest moment, but he readily admits he's had his fair share of bad days too.
"Biggest regrets...selling WSSB the day before the change in the benefit, selling loads of points the week before points for merits became a thing, selling 20 castles at 130m the week before selling properties back to Torn was put in, getting down to 10nnb the month before self-busting was taken away."
"I've been a muppet recently. I once famously sold a company for 1b but had 17b in the bank when I accepted the trade. Lucky for me the buyer sent *most* of it back."
L4 also mentions his involvement in companies as one of his greatest sources of woe, with the sale of an Oil Rig a few months before rig-beneficial changes were introduced proving a particular low-point. While some players would castigate Chedburn for failing to inform them of this alteration in advance, L4suicide believes such things are part and parcel of normal Torn life.
"The only things Ched should be open about are things which can be abused if they are unleashed at a random time of day. When properties suddenly became something you could sell back to Torn there were lots on the market at under the price torn would pay you for them. So anyone who was asleep lost out, and those in a similar time-zone to Ched made millions off it."
Having interviewed a number of notable Torn citizens over the past twelve months I have heard a range of differing views on where Torn can be improved and where things have gone wrong. However, unlike many of his contemporaries, L4suicide comes across as far less jaded when he critiques Torn City. Yes, he has his concerns, but it seems that the tangible and achievable goals he has set himself prevent L4 from slipping into the mindset of a bitter old man who believes things aren't what they used to be and it's all the youngsters' fault.
As we stated at the outset, L4suicide knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. His major goal is to obtain every merit possible, and to this end, he is currently working to have a comic approved and to hit 10,000 busts.
The former is something the authorities can help with, and the latter should be achieved within a week based on his current total of 9,905 busts and recent rate of around 400 busts per month. That would leave L4suicide with only a single-digit tally of awards left to achieve, with these mostly comprised of slots and competition-based accolades.
Once his collection is complete, you can easily imagine L4suicide finding something else to work towards; such is his appetite for goals and glory. But as we discovered earlier, there is one thing which may prevent L4suicide from his glorious quest - his other half. After all the years L4 has poured into Torn, it would be a tragedy if he fell at the last hurdle due to spousal interference.
Although, a quick look at L4's user activity graph shows that he's actually increased his time on Torn more than ever in recent years. So what's happened? Has his wife finally had enough? Has L4suicide used his Torn expertise to riddle his partner with bullets and dispose of her body in a shallow grave in the hope he can summon the nerve to self-bust himself from jail when he's caught?
No. He's just been a bit sneakier about it.
"She's found out a few times but I only really log on before she wakes up, at work and just before I sleep. I changed jobs a couple of years ago and probably had more time to browse around Torn during those hours."
Torn again?!?! You swore you were looking at pornography. You swore on my mother's grave!
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