Testing Assistant Wanted

[mmiles8]

In the interest of helping the devs sort out some of the mechanics behind spells and the amount of threat they generate, I've spent a few days designing a series of experiments to come up with the best approximation possible.

I did threat experiments back during velious, so I'll replicate these to see if the results match my old notes. If they do/don't, I'll have a baseline at the very least with which to validate the rest of the results.

Due to the nature of aggro mechanics, you obviously need at least two people to test them.

What a prospective assistant would need:

Patience.
One to four free full evenings. I expect the full series of experiments to take about 18 hours.
Help with some, if you're unable to commit to the full experiment would be appreciated all the same.
Send me a PM on the forums if you're interested.

[Itchybottom]

This would be better suited for the EQMac server, as current mechanics are going to differ quite a bit.

[mmiles8]

Ah, don't underestimate my ability to work the numbers in spite of that. :) But I shouldn't expect anyone to invest that much time on faith. With my old research as a basis, and some careful planning, I'm confident that I can find a close approximation at worst. Here are some examples of my unpublished research, all tests designed, data gathered, and reports done by myself. Some of the reports are on a different board that you couldn't see without a login, but FL Scaling is a good example of what they were like.

Flame Leviathan Scaling (http://shenanigans.clangrid.com/forums/?page=post&id=196C61A9-F45A-4193-963D-5C5DE6132FBC&fid=69A1AD89-95D1-4369-9C50-F649C2D23EE8)

Judgment of Light Nerf Investigative Data (http://www.mediafire.com/file/ioijyxymykhyzy2/JOLdata.xls)

Rotface Ooze Research (http://www.mediafire.com/file/y2neuuxwh3ntmjd/Rotface Oozes.xls)

Valithria Variable Relationship Studies (http://www.mediafire.com/file/m4yximk5zirmzom/Valithria.xls)

If you've ever seen the Leeroy Jenkins video, where they ask the guy what their chances were? Not so far fetched, I actually did those for progression bosses for my old guild with data mined from WMO, and made an interactive excel spreadsheet for the average user. Take a look.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wy2yjwwwd2fguzl/IronCouncilPwnChance.xls
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dtdohhqyzajzydi/Jaraxxus Pwn Chance.xls
http://www.mediafire.com/file/w2mczm2mnfqizhm/Rotface.xls
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzjqmhmmhzd1nyz/Festergut.xls
http://www.mediafire.com/file/l5ey2toidjmgzjz/Putricide.xls
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jyzlw0nyzvyvdyq/NRB Pwn Chance.xls

To me, it's like solving a puzzle. If things have changed drastically, even if it requires some off the wall comparative statistics to my old stuff, if there's a formula, which there always is, I can figure it out. :)

[doacleric]

I would also highly recommend the EQmac server over current EQlive to do testing like this.

[mmiles8]

I suppose I misunderstood what he meant then. I thought he meant live would be more similar to eqmac. I'm not familiar with EQMac but will look into it.

[mmiles8]

I'm still looking for volunteers!

[Reiker]

I suppose I misunderstood what he meant then. I thought he meant live would be more similar to eqmac. I'm not familiar with EQMac but will look into it.

EQMac hasn't had a patch since 2002 or 2003 (perma-stuck in PoP). It's as close to "true classic" as you can get right now.

[mmiles8]

Yeah that's been established. The volunteers haven't.

[ryandward]

Sign me up! If you want me, send me a message and I'll give you my contact info

[mmiles8]

Fantastic!

[Quitis]

Am I maybe already signed up since i've secretly helped you twice now? =)

[mmiles8]

Lol. It's no secret, you're credited over in the bug forums, hell you're in two 1900x1200 screenshots. (Alliance/Benevolence bug testing still in the notepad stage though) But if you want to volunteer for the threat testing that's quite ftw too.

[Atern]

EQ Mac definitely isn't the end-all be-all for classic tests. 2 gameplay differences between EQ Mac and P1999 that P1999 hasn't adopted are the autocast and item retention in tradeskill containers.

Autocast - put a spell gem in your hotbar (slot 4 for example), and then just hold down the "4" on your keyboard. It will cast the spell over and over again. On P1999, you need to physically press and release the "4" to cast the spell. This isn't just spells, it's anything in that hotbar slot (like sense heading for example).

Item retention in tradeskill containers - On EQ Mac, it's common to use containers like forges or ovens to transfer items from 1 char to another on the same account. Just simply put your items in and close the container. When you open it back up, the items will still be there. On P1999, those items are returned to your inventory when you close the container.

[mmiles8]

Nothing will be perfect. Doesn't take a genius to point out flaws in any solution (addressed on page 1, nearly a month ago). The difference is one of us is getting busy working on a solution and the other is getting busy complaining about the flaws.