Patch Notes, February 18th, 2010

[Rogean]

Code
Rogean: Reverted Secret's Faction/Illusion code for now.
Rogean: Tradeskill World Containers will now return all items to the player's inventory when closed.
Rogean: A failed Charm will no longer wipe the NPC's hate list.
Rogean: Mobs will actually start facing their targets quicker now
Rogean: You must be within 500 distance to a mob to get xp from it
Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.
Haynar: Fix for latest trade bug. This trade bug was due to both trades being initiated at exactly the same time. This situation is handled by the client, and will now be appropriately passed on to the client to reject the trade.
Haynar: Fixed damage shields breaking root.
Haynar: Block adjusted to levels that existed prior to the big Monk Nerf in PoP.
Haynar: Bash/Kick/Slam damage adjusted. Slam/Bash damage is now differentiated based on whether a shield is in the secondary, as it should be.
Haynar: Bash/Kick damage reduced to classic values.
Haynar: Moved skillup check for lockpicking, to only give skillups on doors we have high enough skill to pick.
Haynar: Added chance for aggro that was missing, while trying top pick pockets of a mob who is too high of a level for a successful pick.
Haynar: Corrected spell duration formula #2. This is what was causing the Necro life leech dots to have an incorrect duration. It was also affecting other durations such as snare and root. Instead of scaling by level, they were a fixed 3/5 of the max duration. They now vary the duration properly.
Haynar: Added ability for pets to dual wield if a weapon is equipped in secondary and the pet is level 24 or higher. Pets level 38 or higher will now be able to dual wield without equipping any weapons.
Haynar: Fixed duration on damage shield spells. Updated to use proper duration and duration formula.
Haynar: Fixed duration for Malosi, which was set to 0. Now it will actually work.
Haynar: Fixed damage for Asystole, the formula for damage was set incorrectly.

Content
Nilbog: Bladestorm, Katana of Steel Sleet will no longer drop.
Nilbog: Gnoll pups will no longer drop pelts or fangs.
Nilbog: Firon Dernkal removed.
Nilbog: guards in nektulos forest and neriak foreign quarter will have dreadguardouter primary faction.
Nilbog: guards in neriak commons and neriak third gate will have dreadguardinner primary faction.
Nilbog: guards and trainers within the warrior guild in neriak commons will have IndigoBrotherhood faction
Nilbog: Wandering Guard N`mar primary faction changed to IndigoBrotherhood.
Nilbog: Guard Lumpin primary faction changed to NeriakTrolls.
Nilbog: Guard Swang primary faction changed to Ogre.
Nilbog: goblin merchant in sol a is now on GoblinsofFirePeak faction
Nilbog: Lava crawler is once again a summoned creature. It is also now immune to non-magical damage.
Nilbog: Increased spawn chance of lava crawlers
Nilbog: Beholder npcs will now be on their classic ClanRunnyeye faction.
Nilbog: Added missing dufrenite to cwg loottables.
Nilbog: guano harvester spawn time decreased, placeholder chance increased
Nilbog: willowisps will now assist each other.
Nilbog: Replaced the combine for small/regular/large tower shields. The products will now sell for less.
Nilbog: Akanon and Neriak Foreign Quarter will no longer count as outdoor zones.
Aeolwind: Removed Debugging text to Tearon Bleanix that made it to live
Aeolwind: Thanks to Haynar's guard change, "removed" XP penalty to HHK.
Aeolwind: Bilge Farfathom should now be spawning correctly. Good luck!
Aeolwind: Moved Rondo Dunfire's spawn point to somewhere more appropriate.

[Dabamf]

Code
Haynar: Corrected spell duration formula #2. This is what was causing the Necro life leech dots to have an incorrect duration. It was also affecting other durations such as snare and root. Instead of scaling by level, they were a fixed 3/5 of the max duration. They now vary the duration properly.
Haynar: Added ability for pets to dual wield if a weapon is equipped in secondary and the pet is level 24 or higher. Pets level 38 or higher will now be able to dual wield without equipping any weapons.
Haynar: Fixed damage for Asystole, the formula for damage was set incorrectly.


I love you Haynar

[Jify]

What a patch! Good job guys!

[yaaaflow]

#
# Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.

Well, that takes a big dump all over any mage or necro solo leveling. It's now more/equally effective (depending if there is an XP bonus for grouping, I forget) for them to solo with someone in the group AFK leeching experience, so maybe this will work out OK for the afk mages: they can just pair up and only afk half the time!

[Fawqueue]

Good work guys, it's great to see all the effort you put in. You guys are the reason the server is going to survive and grow.

On a little side note, I guess the above poster is correct that people COULD group up to afk level correct? How hard would it be to just make pets indifferent to everything, so they wouldn't attack unless manually told to? Seems like would fix the issue right there.

Keep up the good work!

[Ghesta]

Code

Aeolwind: Thanks to Haynar's guard change, "removed" XP penalty to HHK.


That should make a lot of people happy.

[LazyFuj]

Good work guys, it's great to see all the effort you put in. You guys are the reason the server is going to survive and grow.

On a little side note, I guess the above poster is correct that people COULD group up to afk level correct? How hard would it be to just make pets indifferent to everything, so they wouldn't attack unless manually told to? Seems like would fix the issue right there.

Keep up the good work!

If pets were made indifferent, there will be alot of happy necros. Lets just keep it at that.

Also heard reports that the Damage shield isn't working as intended.

[yaaaflow]

Damage shields definitely aren't lasting significantly longer than they did before.

edit: Tested. Level 50 mage damage shield lasts 5:00 now, approx same as before. Level 34 druid ds lasts approx 3:30s, duration is still extended to >11min if one camps or zones after having a druid ds placed on them.

[Landurin]

edit: ...

[Haynar]

As far as the damage shield duration goes, you need an updated spells_us.txt. The new file isn't posted yet for download, but we will get that straightened out. I forgot to let Rogean know, that it needed to be released for the fixes to the DS to work. We will get it out to you guys soon.

Haynar

[Brut]

Bash change is a bit fierce. Did 35dmg earlier, now only 17. With shield. No shield has been doing nothing but 4dmg. =<

Mages bound to be pissed. Good stuff.

[Cheech]

Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.

Lame. Lower lvl's will never solo. I made a mage just so i can play in the mornings after work to solo. Looks like another alt has come to a end.

[Fawqueue]

Ah true Lazy, didn't think about that.

[drplump]

Is the DS fix 10+ min duration? If it is the original 3 min duration I dont see too many people changing spell file :D

[guineapig]

Yeah you need to change the pet rule for a certain class (ahem enchanter). There's no way in hell enchanters can effectively out damage their animations on a regular basis while soloing. Am I the only person who realizes what a huge mistake it is including enchanter animations in this exp nerf?

[Malrubius]

Yeah you need to change the pet rule for a certain class (ahem enchanter). There's no way in hell enchanters can effectively out damage their animations on a regular basis while soloing. Am I the only person who realizes what a huge mistake it is including enchanter animations in this exp nerf?

Agree with this wholeheartedly. Enchanters rarely do much direct damage, and practically never outdamage their pet. It's just not what they're about.

Was it this way in classic? I don't recall solo chanters getting a (nearly always) 50% xp nerf, but anything's possible.

Anybody know the answer?

[yaaaflow]

There is no way for mages to outdamage their pets without drastically reducing the rate at which they are fighting, either. Infact I'd go as far it say that just making 50% xp per kill as a mage using the smart soloing strategy will be faster xp than attempting to outdamage your pet and running out of mana every other fight.

[Finawin]

Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.

Wow, hardcore nerf to mages for no reason. Why can't we just flat-out ban AFK levelers and leave the legitimate crowd alone?

[guineapig]

Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.

Wow, hardcore nerf to mages for no reason. Why can't we just flat-out ban AFK levelers and leave the legitimate crowd alone?

I still don't understand why removing the pet factions from the game is a bad idea. Somebody mentioned how exploitable it would be but I have heard nothing to back this up (since that's how it was on live when I played).

This fix basically just made it 50% slower to AFK level while completely penalizing any legitimate player with a pet trying to play for an hour or two a night....

[Morfnblorsh]

I'm really upset at this pet xp nerf. It's ridiculous. It's completely without base and totally unfair. Did you even THINK about how this might affect Beastlords?! I will never be able to out-damage my Warder!

That's it, you jerks just forced me to reroll Berserker.

[Zanti]

I agree with the 50% hate. This would have made my leveling a huge agony as a necro. I'm lvl 18 and wearing the same plain cloth gear I looted at level 3 and I'm not expecting anything else for a very long time. I cant afford to cast more than darkness and a dot per mob solo unless I want huge down time. I'd say my pet is doing 50-70% of the damage.

I have never afk killed a thing and I think this is unjust for the rest of us. If you could please reduce the percentage of damage you have to contribute solo it would at least be a bit more reasonable.

Why not Live's rule of having to do at least some damage to the mob yourself or you get a massive penalty?

[Kadie]

well, it's the age old story, the few ruin it for the many. I guess we'll just have to 'deal' with it (not that those classes who can't solo will mind :P).

It's just a shame for those newbie pet classes starting out, and those who can only play a few hours here and there and want to solo a bit.

[drplump]

Druid supremacy!

[coldsilnc]

Why not just require the pet owner to do at least 1 point of damage to get exp? (or reduce it by 99% if no damage done).

[Rogean]

We will discuss the 1 point of damage option and have a decision for next patch

[Finawin]

*cheers*

<3 Rogean

[Zanti]

Thank you very much Rogean.

[Morfnblorsh]

Oh! My Tiger warder will be so happy! I'll delete my Berserker and stick with my Beastlord for now!

Thanks Rogean <3 <3 <3 heart <3

[Kadie]

We will discuss the 1 point of damage option and have a decision for next patch

Thanks for listening, even if you lower it to say 10 or 20% it'll be better than nothing, especially for the casuals/new players :)

[Modal]

Code

Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.



Doesn't sound like a very good idea. Kinda eliminates the single most useful tactic a necro has, fear-kiting. And on top of that, it's coupled with a fix that finally has our pets doing a lot more damage with DW.

Definitely need to look into another way to accomplish this. Even with 2-3 dots and 40-50% of our mana on a mob, a dual-weilding pet's gonna content for 50% every time. It's a case of all the work, half the xp.

[Salty]

Rogean: Reverted Secret's Faction/Illusion code for now.


$$$$$$

Rogean: Pets doing 50% of the damage to a mob will now take 50% of xp If ungrouped.


^ This is what it was like on live, so haters quit crying~

[Cormac]

Doesn't sound like a very good idea. Kinda eliminates the single most useful tactic a necro has, fear-kiting. And on top of that, it's coupled with a fix that finally has our pets doing a lot more damage with DW.

Definitely need to look into another way to accomplish this. Even with 2-3 dots and 40-50% of our mana on a mob, a dual-weilding pet's gonna content for 50% every time. It's a case of all the work, half the xp.

Wholeheartedly agree. And I appreciate the dev team's willingness to discuss lowering the amount of required damage for the player to receive full exp (as per Rogean's post).

I'd also like to thank them for the rest of the fixes in the past week. Thanks guys.

[Finawin]

Everything aside, this looks like the best patch I've seen since I've joined.

A lot of good fixes.

[alluvin]

Code
Haynar: Fixed duration on damage shield spells. Updated to use proper duration and duration formula.


not so much. Still only 3 minute duration on DS

[alluvin]

$$$$$$



^ This is what it was like on live, so haters quit crying~only on charmed pets, normal pets the owner just had to do 1dmg. and with having them do 1 dmg it eliminates afk camping. if someone is going to sit and hit a low level mob ever minute for 1 damage they can do so. but leveling is going to be slow as fuck since they can't actually be afk

[WyldGunz]

Just remove the faction on pets , that would settle everything fairly , as a shaman i mainly slow mobds and heal pet to be mana conservative i dont do damage most the time so this is lame.

[Malrubius]

We will discuss the 1 point of damage option and have a decision for next patch

This post gets two thumbs up (or one (50% nerf) until the next patch anyway).

j/k - you guys are kicking ass with this server and we appreciate all the hard work.

[WyldGunz]

well, it's the age old story, the few ruin it for the many. I guess we'll just have to 'deal' with it (not that those classes who can't solo will mind :P).

It's just a shame for those newbie pet classes starting out, and those who can only play a few hours here and there and want to solo a bit.

It is not the few who ruin it for the many , Its the people that cant over look those that are causing the problem or just take care of them rather than hruting everyone in the wake.

It is better to over look a handful of people than to punish a thousand in my opion. And honestly the main goal is gear in EQ not lvl , everyone gets to max lvl if they are worth anything. How about nerfing plvling ?!?! Isnt that unfair as well ?

I'm a lil upset cause i took a 4 day break from eq and come back to being shut down and unable to play now. I like to solo over grouping so YES im done unless there's solo friendly solution.

[Segoris]

not so much. Still only 3 minute duration on DS

Addressed on page 1 of this thread:

As far as the damage shield duration goes, you need an updated spells_us.txt. The new file isn't posted yet for download, but we will get that straightened out. I forgot to let Rogean know, that it needed to be released for the fixes to the DS to work. We will get it out to you guys soon.

Haynar

[alluvin]

Good eyes, i must have overlooked it.

[Devil]

The patch is half decent. I know everyone will be happy once an updated spells txt file comes out for the DS durations, etc. I have always hated that thus far. I hope the 1pt damage will be discussed and become the chosen path for next patch, really not fair to all of the mage classes who don't abuse the system.

[Ghesta]

I say extend the duration to double duration as a way to appologize to the DS using community. ;D

[Stonewall]

This patch sucks for rogues too. Side stepping for a free backstab is now a lot harder :(

[Trimm]

It was way too easy to do in the first place. It's still possible with good timing.

[ENUS]

The pet nerf is really dumb; you could make it a number that is much more reasonable such as 20-25%, since most of the pet classes can then just nuke once for 200+ damage proving that they are at least doing something. 50% is pure crap for any pet class that is leveling up and wishes to solo. Guess we should all make melee classes....... OR DRUIDS!!!!

[Tsuken]

mmh I played a mage yesterday just for fun, but there is no way a mage can out damage a pet at level 4.

[MisterLomax]

Why not just require the pet owner to do at least 1 point of damage to get exp? (or reduce it by 99% if no damage done).
Other possible solutions regarding AFK leveling:

A. Make pets unable to attack unless commanded to, e.g. when a pet or its master aggros something, do not allow it to defend itself or its master automatically.

B. Despawn pets automatically if they have not received a player command within x (15? 30?) amount of minutes.

C. Zero XP is received if the master does not deal at least 1 point of damage to the mob, or cast a debuff on the mob, or if the pet does not receive a buff or at least 1 point of spell healing during combat. Basically add more ways that the player may prove that they are not AFK other than just dealing 1 point of damage.

D. Automatically disconnect any player that has remained inactive (not chatted/moved/attacked/cast a spell) for x (30?) amount of minutes.

Any fix that relies on a percent-per-kill XP penalty that is not 100% does not discourage AFK leveling at all IMO. It simply encourages the offenders to remain AFK for a little bit longer.

[joe]

Woot Illusions not broken anymore ... .. or at elast back to however broken they may have been before .. anyway .. they work and I was able to complete my stein quest =) thank you

[LazyFuj]

not complaining but isn't DW for pets without weapons supposed to be the lvl 34 pet spell?

[Segoris]

Not a big fan of how fast mobs turn and face me as a rogue. I think it was way too easy to get a backstab in pre-patch, but post-patch I think it's overdone.

[Otto]

Not a big fan of how fast mobs turn and face me as a rogue. I think it was way too easy to get a backstab in pre-patch, but post-patch I think it's overdone.

On live it was really really difficult to do.

That or i was just bad at video games in middle school.

[Finawin]

It was nearly impossible to pull off on live. It was WAY too easy to do here exploiting the turn speed.

[Segoris]

I remember it being difficult, but not to this point. Of course I could not be remembering right, or I could be a lot worse then I was at gaming before, but this definitely seems and feels a bit overdone.

I got to mess with this for about ~3 hours last night, it just didn't feel right. I'll test it more tonight after work.

[Kutles]

Regarding the damage shield changes: so they are being changed to have an increased duration of 10 minutes? The level 49 spells for druids and mages had a maximum of 5 minutes on live servers in eq classic. Just curious why they are being changed.

[Haynar]

Regarding the damage shield changes: so they are being changed to have an increased duration of 10 minutes? The level 49 spells for druids and mages had a maximum of 5 minutes on live servers in eq classic. Just curious why they are being changed.
Because the way damage shields were working, it was causing sync issues between the client and server. They were put back to the original formulas, because they were allowing people to just zone, and have their timers reset. And that is much more of a problem, than having the duration be off. When we have more time, we can look into working out those sync issues, and then we'll see about nerfing the damage shields for ya.

Haynar

[Haynar]

Regarding the damage shield changes: so they are being changed to have an increased duration of 10 minutes? The level 49 spells for druids and mages had a maximum of 5 minutes on live servers in eq classic. Just curious why they are being changed.
Just so you know, I figured out why the duration was not working as originally planned. When the spells were set up to be like classic, the spell duration formula was set to the one it was historically. Unfortunately, that equation has changed. So a different formula should have been used. I know how to fix it now. Thats what a few extra hours of work does for you. Just make the checks out to "Haynar".

kk thx

bubye

[Kutles]

Sweet, thanks for responding so quickly. Appreciate the work.

[Haynar]

Learning the workings of spells, and how to get them fixed, is way more fun than chasing down zone crashes and exploits. So I will be glad when I get back to actually doing fixes people will notice. Well, other than those who notice their little tricks no longer work.

Haynar

[ulrich]

Haynar I would like to say Thanks! and you rule!

I don't know when you joined the project, but your hard work is much appreciated by others and myself. Rock f'n on!