Discussion on Damage Bonus, Rules, and the direction of the Emulator

[ChaosSlayer]

Originally Posted by Cantus

In general, those changes were made with the goal of balancing out the game, and making it even more fair and fun to play.

some die hard vanila pre-kunark fans will say that this changes RUINED eq, starting from the point when iksar were allowed to be monks

I don't think these changes were quite as earthshattering as you seem to make them out to be, Chaos. For example, I don't think that the release of EQ's next expansion will be a complete 180 degree change in the way things work. But that's just my opinion, and I respect yours.

the were gradual and they did happen over course of 9 years, so if you kept playing all this time they did not come as surprise to you, but if you compare eq in 99 and eq today- there is a significant diffirence. I don't have a comprehensive list of things atm, but there were number of things which Brad/Soe keept saying "will never happen" back in a day and then one day the "vision" changed and those things were implemented.

You do have a good point in asking "Which version of EQ are we striving to emulate here?". I'm guessing that the answer is "the state of Live EQ when Titanium Edition was released", but it would be helpful to me (especially if I'm going to help contribute a bit) to have that point clarified by the senior folks involved with the project.

This is gona sound evil, but in no way an attack on you, but... the numbers for DMGB were "carefuly recorded from LIVE" when? Recently right? But EQ Titatium is what 2 years old? This means that they infact invalid
I do know that you guys trying to be as close as posible, but the thing is whatever changes SOE makes - they make it with current content in mind.
As dificulty of eq endgame grew - so grew the bonuses to the players.
And this is one of those little tiny things which "gradualy change" and pile up until you arive at "180 degres turn around" I mentioned.
And it simply will never stops.

And thats prety much when i decided that I am done listening to SOE "vision". Cuase SOE have all the power to change things, for better or worse, and all you can do is keep paying your $15 a month hopping the things will turn this way than another.

And this where I realise what TREMENDOUS potential project like Emu has, when you take the SPIRIT of IDEA behind Everquest but fine tune it in such way that it precisly matches your own vision, wihout having to live in terror that tomorrow your class going to get nerfed or something, and all you worked for (as a player) is complitly pointless now

And thats the idea I am trying to spread

I understand that there are some folks who are interested in setting up and playing on highly-customized servers. Rather than thinking of it as a "them vs. us" situation, the folks who favor customization should support the efforts of the core team to build a highly stable, efficient, and feature-rich emulation of Live EQ, and then build their customizations on top of that foundataion!

Well, let us hope that we all can contribute something to each other final goals

P.S. I'm certainly not insulting or acting as the "grammar police", but I think the word you're looking for, Chaos, is "Canon" with one "n". That means "the standard; the officially recognized general rule".

"Cannon" with two "n"s is "a mounted gun for firing large projectiles" .

I like to spell things with 2 "n"s cause it makes then sound more impressive (j/K) thanks for correctin me =)

[Cantus]

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayer

This is gona sound evil, but in no way an attack on you, but... the numbers for DMGB were "carefuly recorded from LIVE" when? Recently right? But EQ Titatium is what 2 years old? This means that they infact invalid

No, that's not the case. The damage bonuses in this function are consistent with both Live as it currently exists today, as well as Live when EQ Titanium was released. Furthermore, the actual damage bonus added by this function is consistent with the amount of damage bonus displayed on weapons in-game when you right-click on them.

What changed was the way Damage Bonuses were calculated for new levels when those new levels were unlocked, and that's what makes the formula such a mess. For example, when Kunark was released, the damage bonus formula used for levels 28-50 was not changed, but a new formula for 50-60 was implemented. When PoP was released, a new formula for 60-65 came out. That kinda thing. That's why we use many lookup tables in this function -- because there is no one single, simple, fast formula.

But those formulae have never changed retroactively, to the best of my knowledge. That is, if I logged in my level 30 Monk today on Live, his 2H weapon would have exactly the same Damage Bonus as it did five years ago.

[ChaosSlayer]

that part I was not aware of, thanks for bringing it up =)
Back to DMGB - I juts want to make sure that as level goes beyond 80, the 2hs bonus will not start falling behidn 1hs, as I belive you previusly pointed out