Game Mechanics: "all EQ guards seem to be immune to the charm series" July 2001

[Dolalin]

A bit more on this from the eqsongs.com in Feb 2001:

Some NPCs are highly resistant to charm (guards in particular).

https://web.archive.org/web/20010202...ngs/Song27.htm

And from the eqbards list in April 2001:

You can charm almost any NPC, however, guards are resistant to charm. I've
never gotten charm to stick on them, and I believe you aren't supposed to
be able to.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...tml/24471.html

[Dolalin]

Some pretty good evidence that the dark elf guards in Nek were charm immune (Oct 1999):

I've tried charming the greenest of green Dark Elf guards. I could NEVER get it to stick. And I charm orange-con stuff all the time. (high yellow / low red =).

https://web.archive.org/web/20000306...ML/000010.html

Up thread someone mentions charming guards, but never says which ones or where. So that's unknown. Clearly some guards were charmable though.

[Passenger]

From Torven's study of client decompiles:
- https://www.eqemulator.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=44358

Hardcoded Immunities and Spell Level Limits

Various spell immunities are in the decompiled resist function. This confirms a lot of what was common knowledge but it also provides hard evidence for less understood immunities, such as charm on merchants, so this was a nice thing to find.

Charm Limits

Charm level limits are in the clients. They were hardcoded back then. Not only that but Sony changed the limits on some of these spells over time.

The pre-launch February 1999 client did not have any immunities or limits in it. They were added later.

The next client we have and examined is the March 21 2000 client. (very late pre-K classic era) The limits are in this client, and they are the following:

Charm: 18 (-7)
Befriend Animal: 21 (-3)
Beguile Plants: 24 (-1)
Dominate Undead: 32
Charm Animals: 33
Tunare's Request: 35
Beguile: 37
Solon's Song of the Sirens: 37
Beguild Animals: 43
Cajoling Whispers: 46
Beguile Undead: 46
Allure: 51
Allure of the Wild: 51 (+2)
Cajole Undead: 51
Call of Karana: 51 (-2)
Thrall of Bones: 51 (-2)
Boltran's Agacerie: 51 (-2)
Enslave Death: 51 (-4)
Dictate: 51 (-7)
(The number in parentheses is the difference from Al'Kabor/TAKP's spell data)

This client calculates a level limit for lower level charms using a simple formula. So it appears as though Sony first tried to level limit charm using a formula but later decided to go with individual spell hardcodes for the higher level ones. Said formula is level_spell_was_obtained * 15 / 10, capped at 24. Enslave Death and Dictate are set to 52, then right after that there is a "if higher than 51 make equal to 51" check, which appears to be vestigial. It was gone in the next client we looked at.

Thott mentions that, for a period some time prior to March 2000, charm level caps were spell_level + 10 here: https://web.archive.org/web/20040301...bard_charm.php

It's noteworthy that Boltran's originally had a cap of level 51. Necro charms also had lower limits. Druid 44 charm had a higher limit and it was nerfed at some point after Kunark. Dictate too was much lower than it ended up being later. This client also included a "Your target is too high of a level for your charm spell" message. (patched in October 28 says notes) You might ask why Boltran's and Call of Karana were useful then because they had the same level limits as the Allures and Boltran's had a shorter duration. The answer is because the Kunark charms had -10 modifiers and shorter cast times.

The March 2000 client also had charm immunity for city guard NPCs. The spell logic checked for specific race IDs in a switch case. These IDs are: 44, 67, 71, 77, 78, 81, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 106, 112, 139. If charm was cast on any NPC of any of these races, the spell automatically resisted. To be clear: charm immunity was added to guards at some point during the classic era, and this March 2000 client is only one of two clients in that era that we were able to obtain and decompile, the other one being before the game even launched, so it was likely added much earlier than March 2000. (perhaps December 99 since a patch note mentions guards gaining 'stats')

The next oldest client I examined was from 4 days post Kunark launch. (April 28 2000) These clients are 5 weeks apart. The differences between these clients include:

Merchants were made immune to charm. Class was checked for this. (class 15 at the time was merchants)
Body type 6 (emus call it type 'Extraplanar') was made immune to charm. Not many NPCs have this type. These NPCs include: Efreetis, Fearplane minis, PoSky bosses, planar projections, Yael and a few other things.
A check was put in that prevents level 38+ bards from charming NPCs that are higher in level than the bard is.
Enslave Death and Dictate were raised to 52 because the "if < 51, set equal to 51" check was removed.

The following spells were either added to the client or had their limits changed:
Charm: 25
Befriend Animal: 25 (+1)
Beguile Plants: 25
Solon's Bewitching Bravura: 51
Enslave Death: 52 (-3)
Dictate: 52 (-6)
Alluring Whispers: 49
Persuade: 35

The November 29 2000 client, which is the final client before Velious launch a week later, had the same limits as the client from 4 days after Kunark launch.

When did Boltran's limit increase from 51 to 53? A post in this January 30 2001 thread says it was 53: https://web.archive.org/web/20010212.../052705-4.html

The above charm level limits applied to Kunark and later era zones. In pre-K classic zones (Sky is not included in this), charm was limited to level 51 and under NPCs, meaning Dictate would fail on level 52 NPCs in these zones. Sony had stricter rules for these older zones. That may sound strange but a May 2002 patch note says this: "The Hole now uses Kunark-level Mez/Charm/Taunt rules" and this: "High level NPCs can now be taunted in Cazic Thule". It appears that at Velious launch they increased Boltran's to 53 and Dictate to 58 but limited all charms in classic zones to level 51, and Hole was limited like classic zones until May 2002. (incidentally the old taunt rules were probably that NPCs above level 50 were immune)

The decompiles don't show this pre-K charm limit. I found it in old threads. This Caster's Realm thread is quite explicit about it:

The thread can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20010430...c&f=9&t=004361

This may be known, given the source, but there's a lot of interesting information I wasn't familiar with.