More Bard Questions

[t0lkien]

Here's the thing though - it absolutely was not like this on live during Velious. No-one on live could hold down 5 songs, ever. No-one could hold down four without one dropping briefly. There are issues with the EMu implementation of this which have been pointed out in other threads and other discussions on other boards. The anecdotal evidence of that is that conversations like this about song persistence variance never occurred on Concert Hall, EQDiva, or The Safehouse that I ever read. If it was a factor, Thott and others would have been all over it and it would have been common knowledge. There was lots of discussion about server ticks, but nothing that suggested a mechanic that would allow 5 songs to be held down. That *may* have been because by far most of the conversation centered on group and raid mechanics. They do do five songs easily now on live, but everything has changed so direct comparisons aren't valid.

It's moot though really I guess. Whatever is different in the EMu implementation is foundational and isn't going to change. The game still feels pretty darn close to what I remember in all other respects.

[Cords]

I have to think at this point that you never played Everquest when kunark came out. I played eq from day one, as a bard. I never had problems on Morell Thrule pre Kunark, and post kunark pulling 4 songs twists without drop off's. Drop offs start at 5 song twists.

That said your right, there is nothing that can be done to change this.

[Dalven]

Whether or not it was possible on live, people were certainly discussing it.

Originally Posted by Dalven

People were having this same discussion back in 2001.

This guy thought the idea of twisting 4 songs was dumb but acknowledged that people did it. This other guy kinda liked the idea and goes into it in a bit of depth.

Seems this is an age old argument amongst bards.

[t0lkien]

Originally Posted by Cords [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have to think at this point that you never played Everquest when kunark came out. I played eq from day one, as a bard. I never had problems on Morell Thrule pre Kunark, and post kunark pulling 4 songs twists without drop off's. Drop offs start at 5 song twists.

That said your right, there is nothing that can be done to change this.

No, you're right. I joined just after Velious shipped. However that would hardly have made any difference. I know some people claimed four songs, but if we're talking beneficial songs as has been shown, sorry I call shenanigans. Detrimental songs, yep, I concede it's possible here (though I find that weird, had never heard of it on live pre-Luclin, and this despite playing the forums as hard as I played the game). Beneficial songs - it's not possible even here without drop offs beyond the second twist.

I also totally concede that the small drop off is not necessarily a concern in non-critical situations. I only wanted to establish the truth that there are dropoffs, and this is hard-coded and has nothing to do with skill, ping, or CPU power (as no matter what anyone does they are never going to get a net song change of 0s).

@Dalven I read those (I skimmed the last, but am pretty sure I read it when it was on EQDiva), and that's the merest anecdotal mention without any hard data or testing. The hardcore parse-monsters that lived for stuff like that on Safehouse and TCH never once visited it that I saw, and that's because it was understood the limitations of pushing the twist. If exploiting the server tick to gain an effective ~6s on song duration had been an understood reality it would have been required knowledge and discussed constantly, and outlined in painful chart filled detail in all the guides.

Anyway, here we are on p99, and it is what it is. Thanks for the discussion by the way. It's been a good one for me.