Mercenaries

[bad_captain]

Okay, I'll see what I can do stat-wise, and use min & max hit. Once it's in place and scaling somewhat, the attack & other combat code can be cleaned up.

For confidence, it also determines if and when a merc flees. I was 'moloing' around crushbone and had 4-5 even or higher con mobs attacking me, and had my merc high-tail it out of there. It was pretty funny.

I have spells cast by healer mercs for apprentice mercs through level 60. I will try to test on the test server with journeyman mercs for their spell lineups- it's based on stance, and journeymen have more stances available.

Once option is to have a scaling rule available where at 100 (%), merc damage output would be exactly what is listed in the database, whereas 50 (%) would be half that. That may be oversimplifying it, but I think something could be in place to easily allow server admins to adjust merc damage (and possible stats), without having to manually update thousands of records (or run a script updating all records).

[sorvani]

Originally Posted by bad_captain

Once option is to have a scaling rule available where at 100 (%), merc damage output would be exactly what is listed in the database, whereas 50 (%) would be half that. That may be oversimplifying it, but I think something could be in place to easily allow server admins to adjust merc damage (and possible stats), without having to manually update thousands of records (or run a script updating all records).

This would be the best way to handle it hands down. Most basic server admins can not do a lot of SQL and a simple rule would be perfect.

[blackdragonsdg]

While I like the idea of percentage based control over mercs I do think a rule should be in place to allow for complete disabling of the mercs. Not all servers will want the bots/mercs because of potential balance and/or performance issues. How about stick with the percentage idea but make 0% completely disable the mercs.

[sorvani]

bots != mercs ever.

Mercs will always be active in code (once implemented) as that is the correct matching live route that EQEmu has taken. If you do not want them, do not add a merchant offering them, that is the customization route that EQEmu has taken.

[Robregen]

another thing to consider is SoD+ clients are not available to purchase or download from stream at this time. Probably the majority of players use Titanium across most server. Unless someone wants to keep up with Live client to make it playable with emu to make use of mercenaries.

[trevius]

Originally Posted by Robregen

Probably the majority of players use Titanium across most server.

I don't think that is the case anymore. I think TFH is about 50% SoD+ clients, and EZ is probably 90% or more now. I don't know offhand what the numbers are for PEQ, but they are probably 50% or so as well for SoD+ clients. Most people run the UF client these days. Even though Titanium and SoF are the only legally available clients, they are still fairly hard to come across and most people don't bother trying to find them. The majority of clients attained these days are probably from illegal downloads. It is unfortunate there isn't a better option at this time, but it is what it is. At least most people who would want SoD or UF could probably get them if they really wanted to so they can use mercs and such.

Hopefully at some point in the future we will have a legal route for clients again that isn't so hard to locate and purchase (especially considering international players).

Sounds like Noport tried the MercsAndBots branch and saw that they are wielding weapons (which they always have on the branch). I guess he thinks that means we figured out the solution to the Mercs equiping weapons discussion in this thread. That is my interpretation anyway. Problem solved!

[KLS]

I've stuck this since it's currently active.

Also yeah the client thing is becoming an issue. I think realistically we're going to have to have a discussion about actually creating our own client sooner or later.

[Caryatis]

Thats going to be an interesting discussion considering the current stance on torrents. At least with torrents, there is wiggle room as if you bought something and lost the CDs you are kind of entitled to that data still, however its much more cut and dry when you are talking about ripping out the intellectual property(models, textures, zones, etc) and using them in your own product.

[KLS]

It's not really anything new, game recreations requiring original installs have been around for a long time. Regardless this isn't the place.

[bad_captain]

The way it is currently in the database (and handled by the server), is that it will not send the data to the client if they do not match the correct client version. So, if a client is using titanium, it won't send any data to it (and it wouldn't be able to handle it anyway).

If the majority of users use titanium, then they have the ability to use bots, if the server allows it, of course.

I guess we just have to hope that they put another version of EQ on steam or somewhere else for purchase.

[Noport]

Secrets said, Fairly certain on live mercs do not use weaponry, Problem has been solved they do now 80)

[bad_captain]

That why I created them under mob, but with stats being handled more like NPCs, I can see why it might work.

I have been working on getting stats in the database. I'm looking through my logs while writing a script to generate the stats and insert statements. I'm getting close to having something usable that can be tweaked, but I have little data for mercs > level 65, besides just DPS numbers ( no max hits, etc). If anyone has any readily available, I'd appreciate it.

[Secrets]

Been terribly busy, sorry am fixing up my local source, then I'll commit it tonight.

edit: just committed it.

[Secrets]

Just an inquiry, can we use the scalerate field in NPC_types and keep them in their own range?

That seems like it would make the most sense, people are more than capable of doing an update query by ID, and we can keep templates somewhat modular that way.

Thoughts?

[bad_captain]

I'm not sure what you mean 'in their own range'? I think it's been agreed that keeping mercs in a separate table from npc_types makes the most sense, if that's what you mean. KLS commented on that earlier.

Keep in mind, we need to include spell damage modifiers (per spell type, as I believe HoT spells aren't affected), as well as melee skills or discs, which don't conform to the npc_types table.

I agree some kind of scaling feature would be nice, but I also think allowing for complete customization has its benefits as well. I may have come over to Trevius' thinking in that respect. I'm not sure some aspects match a specific scaling rate, as looking at maxhit from lvl 1-60 does not seem to follow any particular equation, or any set of equations. I'm sure the same can be said of spell damage modifiers, etc. This also allows customization shown in live pets, where one particular pet focused with a particular focus has extreme regen - a bug I'm sure, but created some differentiation. SOmething similar could be done with something like the mercenary contracts, where obtaining a contract and hiring your mercenary that way results in a superior merc than what is available from the merchant, at the same proficiency and tier.

What I had planned to do was basically split the npc_types table in two and pull out any unneeded fields, and end up with a stats table (hp, mana, str, sta, resists, regen, etc for each level of a particular proficiency and tier), a texture table (to store visible textures and tints- weapons seem to change every 5 levels, and armor maybe every 20 or so?) - no need to duplicate the textures for every level. Then, one more table for the spell & skill mods (instant heal mods, nuke mods, buff duration mods if any, etc.).