Differences in Spell Cast time and Mana Cost

[enr4ged]

I recently wrote a simple application to load and compare eff files. I used it to compare the current p1999 spell file with the spell file I pulled off of the EQ Trilogy CD. I output the differences to a file and created a spreadsheet with the differences. I currently only looked at the Mana Cost and Cast Time of each spell.

Here is the link to the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjalwPV92c95dGsxS2hQT0tManNfbHVsVDg4Rnlad 3c#gid=0

Cast time is measured in thousandths of a second, ie 1500 is 1.5 seconds, just like it is listed on the spell file.

Obviously some items should be ignored (like cast time of bard songs) but some differences show that p1999 is probably wrong on the value.

For example:
Effect Difference trilogy spdat p1999 spdat
Shock of Steel Mana Cost 275 300
Scintillation Cast Time 3000 3500


Now obviously these would be the values at sometime during Velious as that is when the Trilogy was released. But if I can get a copy of the eff file during Kunark or at the end and or/beginning of Velious I could do another comparison of the two files, to get even more timeframe accurate of data. Although I hardly see some of these spells as being changed much during that time period.

UPDATED file includes only the first matches of the spells as ones further down the file are not relevant:
version 2 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjalwPV92c95dEFQQzdhaUU3dnljMlNicXlPaVBtR UE#gid=0)

[xcyberpeenixx]

That is very interesting actually. It would suck if the cast times and mana costs are truly that far off when they shouldn't be

+1 for looking into this

[Pudge]

Nice. I do have the install CDs for velious and luclin, so I could give you the spell file for luclin (will contain final version of velious spells).

I noticed according to your spell file sow should cost 0 mana? (At the bottom)

[khanable]

Very interesting. Have you done this with the spell data file from the Kunark disc?

[p-niner]

Bamzal can u upload the spell files for each of the cds individually?

[enr4ged]

Thanks for the interest!

Please upload a copy of the spell files off of each cd and I'll run a comparison of those.

As for some of the goofy differences (like Spirit of Wolf costing 0 mana) I did some looking into the spell file and most of the goofy things are happening due to duplicate spell effects further on down the file... my program was checking each line no matter what. I redid it to ignore effects further on down the file that it already checked once. This helped clear up a lot of the strange things. Those lines were probably just remnants or NPC spells or who knows, they may have not even been used in the game but here is an updated list, which makes more sense.

version 2 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjalwPV92c95dEFQQzdhaUU3dnljMlNicXlPaVBtR UE#gid=0)

[enr4ged]

This is the wrong file there should be another in the same directory called "spdat.eff" or similar. It should have an .eff extension but be larger than the spells.eff file.

This may be why you couldn't find one on the other cds?

Thanks.

[enr4ged]

Anyone have the spell files from Kunark and/or Velious CD?

[Furinex]

I have every expansion on disc. If its not posted here by the time I get home, I will get them for you. Actually, might I direct you to the tech discussion thread, classic spell effects. This could very well help that discussion.

[enr4ged]

sorry, try this

direct link (http://dl13.fileswap.com/download/?id=1UoiA2ETHmnkHx%2B5eCVBXoF%2FPZDHS%2Bv7lg3az6ml vOYfYxZHGUl25lAm%2BEdASsWbK%2BX%2BMjKqFuYLAWpHDSCi akwchAApgDMKPR2CdMmJvUCNBSI%2BuUrMUMOvXbgG1eXe&h=97657f2c545f286b41760f6f05227536&t=51e3ab3f)

alternate (http://www.fileswap.com/dl/sIuIBdjLK1/spdat.eff.html)

What era was this file from?
It looks like it has a different format (although still in hex like the trilogy one) that will require me to do some additional work in figuring out the fields.

edit: Looks like it's a classic file (no 51+ spells) so not really that useful at this point. One of the kunark cd, or even velious cd would be most useful.

Thanks though, good for my stash.

[enr4ged]

Hmm yeah. I see what you mean, looks like the trilogy spdat may be the closest thing to Velious spell data that we can get.

[enr4ged]

Bump for spell fixes, is this sufficient data to get these spells fixed?
Most of these are highly used spells.

Do I need to put in individual threads for each one of these?

SPELL VALUE DIFFERENCE
Burn Cast Time 250
Blanket of Forgetfulness Cast Time -1000
Drones of Doom Cast Time -450
Fury Mana Cost 15
Rage Mana Cost 55
Shock Spiral of Al'Kabor Cast Time -450
Inspire Fear2 Mana Cost 80
Fear2 Mana Cost -40
Frost Storm Cast Time -2000
Augment Death Mana Cost 100
Chaos Breath Mana Cost 337
Call of Earth Cast Time 1500
Call of Earth Mana Cost -35
Nature's Touch Cast Time 1750
Nature's Touch Mana Cost -57
Lethargy Cast Time -2250
Lethargy Mana Cost -300
Elemental Maelstrom Cast Time 4000
Enticement of Flame Cast Time 1500
Fury of Air Mana Cost 65
Nature Walkers Behest Cast Time 5000
Nature Walkers Behest Mana Cost 380
Reckoning Mana Cost -50
Enforced Reverence Mana Cost -40
Spirit of the Howler Mana Cost -100
Bane of Nife Cast Time -1000
Pox of Bertoxxulous Cast Time -1100
Avatar Mana Cost -50
Breath of Ro Cast Time 500
Breath of Ro Mana Cost 25
Winged Death Cast Time -1000
Winged Death Mana Cost 50
Frost Cast Time 2000
Wildfire Mana Cost -55
Cessation of Cor Cast Time -1000
Vexing Mordinia Mana Cost 45
Pyrocruor Cast Time 1500
Splurt Mana Cost -3
Pillar of Flame Cast Time 1350
Pillar of Frost Cast Time 1800
Winds of Gelid Mana Cost -125
Scintillation Cast Time -500
Char Mana Cost 15
Shock of Steel Mana Cost -25
Seeking Flame of Seukor Mana Cost -10
Manastorm Cast Time 6000
Manastorm Mana Cost 427
Aegis of Ro Cast Time 4000
Dyzil's Deafening Decoy Cast Time -2000
Theft of Thought Mana Cost 15
Gift of Pure Thought Mana Cost -50
Boltran's Agacerie Cast Time 2000
Largarn's Lamentation Cast Time -500

[Sundawg]

Can you list the damage differences too? For example, Wildfire.

[Nirgon]

Pillar cast times on red should all be 4.5, not the case atm

[enr4ged]

Can you list the damage differences too? For example, Wildfire.

Check the v2 spreadsheet for a new tab with a value that is the damage value of nuke and instant damage spells.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjalwPV92c95dEFQQzdhaUU3dnljMlNicXlPaVBtR UE#gid=1

I had to add the program to look at value as well, but I didn't have much time to clean it up it looks like the particular bytes storing this value is sometimes damage but for other spells it's showing something different. But it looks accurate for all of the nuke direct damage spell types.

I can upload the source for my program if you're interested in looking how I'm getting the values from the file, or I can just upload the program as well.

[Alecta]

the particular bytes storing this value is sometimes damage but for other spells it's showing something different.

Yeup, there are a number of 'slots' each of which have an effect type and associated value. See SE_* in SPDAT.h (http://code.google.com/p/projecteqemu/source/browse/trunk/EQEmuServer/zone/spdat.h?r=2087)

[enr4ged]

Updated the spreadsheet to exclude values where the value was 0 (in the eqtrilogy spdat) to get rid of the unnecessary effects.

Some interesting spell differences include:
Reckoning +135 on p1999
Wildfire +120 on p1999
Shock of Steel +75 on p1999
Druid root line damage all higher on p1999
druid 60 heal nature's touch +513 on p1999 (hope that one doesn't go live like that)
some wizard nukes and aoe's are too low on p1999

legacy of spike showing as 20 damage shield compared to 24 on p1999
a quick search on lucy history shows it was changed from 20 to 24 (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spellhistory.html?id=1727&source=Live)
2004-06-16 10:05 Changed Slot 1 from "Increase Damage Shield by 20" to "Increase Damage Shield by 24"


Where was the original Spell data pulled from???

I could expand this to check things like buff/debuff values if I can figure it out but it would be a lot more work and I don't want to do it if this isn't going to be used to fix any data.

[Senn]

Did anything end up happening with these spell bugs?

[Dolalin]

I have a whole sheet with every spdat I've ever found from original release CD up to mid-velious with almost every monthly patch starting from Kunark release.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archives/blob/master/spdat/Historical%20SPDAT%20Data.xlsx?raw=true

It probably needs a script to be written to parse it out into something that could be reconciled against the p99 db.

So the data is there it just needs some (not insignificant) dev time.