Brad's Journal

Need to talk to a sysop? Here is a good place to start.
Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Hey guys, wanted to give you an update about whats going on post-bdh revamp.

- I'm going full bore on SDC right now, trying to give the area a different "feel" and play style, but concentrating on small group / solo play. SDC is set in a "mountain" environment with climbs / "shimmies", etc.
- Updates
- Maps are 90% done, ground text descriptions are going very well
- I have about half the "climbs/teleports" in.
- SDC will take the user from 38th skill to 42nd skill (this is approx right now, still thinking it through)
- I'm working on some new things to give creatures to break up combat a bit.

Also, we have a "potential" list of skill abilities to back fill 35+, we are waiting on some feedback from one othe person before throwing it to the players to be discussed.

- Omni is swamped right now, so the crafting system revamp has suffered a delay. Its still on the wings though

- On BDC, i have a fix for some of the problems in the final encounter, and its live on test, i'm just trying to finish up a few small fixes.

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Hey guys, sorry for the length between updates:

- Got into a big knot on SDC with cart-before-the-horse issues:
- Implementing darge's new artwork for ability BUTTONS found a problem with the frontend
- Fixing THAT found a problem with how "active buff icons" show up"
- While working on that I went in and added the "effect scaling" for abilities used above their
listed minimum.
- While working on THAT i fixed "why pets never worked right"
- Looked for why not all disc names get sent to the frontend (or at least recorded)
- Looking for THAT found a "lost packet data" problem with the frontend that has apparently been in for about 7 years.

Results: Found and fixed the packet issue. This was causing all those "cmd errors" on "exit" and "re-enter", the vista packet loss issues, etc. This lobby (1.35) will be up on the testing side (http://www.drakkarzone.com/test/DrakkarLobby.exe) if anyone wants to manually replace their lobby and try it.

- Also peeked in at "mug" to see if we can turn that into a skill gainer for thieves. I kinda liked the idea of making it a "reduced power" attack. Looking into the side effects here, do any quests in cob or other scenarios get busted if you wack the guy so hard it may kill them? Or maybe this isnt really an issue, because at low levels you shouldnt be doing enough damage to matter. (Guess you could do it open handed if you wanted to not kill the target if the target is low level).

Next steps:
- Unwind all the debug code out of the front and the back end put in while looking for the packet loss bug
- Still looking for what is causing an error on the backend occasionally in NL when people use advanced actions.
- Finish the item list for SDC so we can start all hitting up darge for new icons.
- Find a way that I can have "falling" go to a generic location instead of just "down" (giving away something about new area here, i know)
- Looking for more novel things / attacks / creature abilities for SDC. There are about 9 seperate areas in the expansion (broken up hunting areas), looking for something unique for each one.. new creature attacks, effects, etc. Open to creative ideas here.

So.. upcoming releases:
- New lobby (DrakkarLobby.exe) that doesnt drop data going to the frontend (drakkar.exe)
- New frontend (drakkar.exe) that understands the new ability icon placement in the file.
- New frontend (drakkar.exe) that understands the new BUFF icon placement in the file

Thanks for sticking with us guys!
Everyone hit omni up for crafting! (smile)

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Vista 64'rs, (and others)

Couple additional fixes to the lobby to increase stability, and connectivity:

Grab : http://www.drakkarzone.com/test/DrakkarLobby.exe again. Should show up as rc2 (release candidate 2)

- The user can now correctly log out (it wont hang and not allow reconnect)
- Fixed a small infinite loop issue with losing connection to the game

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

There is a new test -full-install of the Drakkar product that rolls up all recent changes AND puts in some of Darge's cool new disc/action buttons.

The hearty among us can download:

http://www.drakkarzone.com/test/Drakkar ... taller.exe

CAREFUL using this, it may cause buttons outside of NL to not look correct, but if you are a NL player it will be a good taste of buff icons/action buttons. You will see a new variety to pick from also (new discipline effects have action icons).

It also fixes many issues with connectivity, with both the game client and the lobby client.

Brad

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Just a heads up for you "readers" of this little blog

I have the new login machine in, and configured, but had a frustrating setback when spontaneously it stopped talking to
the ethernet card. Now, it seems to have resolved itself (don't you hate that), but i trust it about as much as an old shoe right now.

What I'm going to do, is put the lobby up on the machine for a couple days this week.. just so we can see if its going to flake on us.

Thanks
Brad

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Also, on the thief issues. I need the thieves help here.

As you can probably notice, the latest round of thief changes has really pumped up the number of crits thieves can steal from.

However, this has showed my laziness because I put some quest items in creatures sacks instead of pouches. Though i'm sure you are enjoying the thievery, please help me compile a list of creatures/items that need to not be stealable. I'm working through some of this on test now.

Thanks
Brad

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Next Round of skill change announced!

These were a bit trickier to code, but I believe they will work out nicely. These are scheduled to go live sometime late week/early next


Thieves:

34 - All poison based damage +15%
35 - All disease based damage +15%
36 - On rare occasion the thief will find himself remaining hidden after a non-fatal backstab

Mentalist:

34 - All ice damage + 15%
35 - All non-primal "buff" durations increased by 1round/skill level
36 - All energy based damage + 15%

Healers:

34 - All non primal "buff" durations increased by 1.5rounds/level
35 - "Disease" damage increased by 300 points (including dots)
36 - Str and Agil bufs increased to 10 points

Martialists:

34 - The martialist gains a +100 damage reflect ability (stacking with other abilities)
35 - CHI Deathtouch gains a third attack for non-fatal blows
36 - CHI Jumpstrike gains an additional "kick" at the end of the series

Fighter/Mentalists

34 - Damage reduction "advanced abilities" +10% reduction (including EnergyShield)
35 - All energy based damage +10%
36 - All melee "hits" have a small chance of casting deplete on the enemy

Paladins

34 - All "armor damaging" abilities have greater effectiveness (special weapons as well as armorstrike)
35 - FOCUS PIERCE gains a 2nd "swing"
36 - MAXSTRIKE gains a 3rd, slightly less effective attack

Barbarians

34 - CLEAVE no longer auto-deserks the barb. Instead a 50 "round" penalty is applied to the zerk (and deserk occurs if this causes a level drop)
35 - The barbarian is better equipped to penetrate the deflect ability of other barbs
36 - The "ZERK" gained by the berserk command increases

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Now on test game!

The concolusion of the pre-40 skill gain bonus tree!

Thieves:

37 - The thief gains an automatic "Quick Stab" ability (cumulative with the quirk), and ANY PARTY MEMBER gets a chance of each combat swing being classified as a backstab
38 - Duration of all thief DOTs increases by 5 rounds
39 - The thief may hide with ANY number of health points

Mentalists:

37 - Increased absorption/protfire/protice discs by 3 times current skill level (on top of existing skill bonuses)
38 - Mentalist gains 5 additional EP regen per round, damage from Corspray/related abilities is increased
39 - All lightning/acid based attacks increased by 30%

Healers:

37 - ANTISTUN now increases the saving throw for PRIMALSTUN by +5 levels
38 - ATONE no longer takes HP or stats from the healer, healer gains a small chance beneficial primal discs will take ZERO energy
39 - Healer gains 200 HP, all party members receive the same boost. Healer gains +5 bonus to EP regen


Martialists:

37 - MA vs MA combat block-bypassing abilities (vs skill blocks) is increased
38 - Damage from Kick/Boot (both kick and jumpkick) is boosted
39 - Chance of any "full force" open hand attack primal stunning an opponent

Fighter/Mentalist:

37 - F/M Gains +5 to EP regen and +50 bonus floating EP
38 - F/M gains a large offensive armor penetration boost based on skill of weapon in hand, PARTY receives the boost based on F/Ms MENTALIST skill
39 - HASTE no longer runs the risk of damaging the target. Additional stress is involved in avoiding this

Paladin:

37 - Paladins gain an additional 30% bonus against E/E crits
38 - Paladin gains a boost to shield blocking while holding a shield, and a bonus to shield penetration if the left hand is empty
39 - Paladin AND his party gain a boost to AC, based on the skill of the weapon the paladin is holding

Barbarian:

37 - The barbarian's natural damage absorption is increased to equal the barbarian's level
38 - The barbarian's ZERK pool is doubled, based on the skill of the weapon being held
39 - The barbarian as a small chance of primal stunning a target

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Sorry for the long update!

Incoming:

Several things coming up:

- Several changes upcoming to support the new SDC quest system. I shouldnt call it the SDC quest system, i should probably call it the "new" quest system, but
it will start with only SDC questers (see link for example)
- New frontend with the same (SDC quest system/banker system)
- New "party abilities system" being implemented (will probably go in with SDC)

- I'll be returning to fixing some of the macro issues i've been hearing about as soon as SDC is off the plate, so if you can get repeatable examples, please send to help@drakkarzone.com (make sure you are running the latest FE)
- There is a fix to the BDC consort cloak coming up. It has too much AC and is missing its acid protection , and it doesnt have a level limit. Just getting this out now so people dont freak when the change goes in (it will be retroactive).

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Just a heads up on the macro issues.

All the recent issues have been caused by my attempt to remain compatible with truely ancient macro formats, because of people having old lists of favorate macros they are trying to use. Its just becoming impossible to maintain a binary file format compatibility

Because of this, and in order to make it easier for people to edit macros, i'm going to turn the .KEY file into an ASCII file, where new features can just be tacked into the list, and if an old version
doesnt recognize it it will just skip it. It will make editing macros externally extremely easy, and as new features come along it will be just a quick edit/modify on the file for each macro.

Yes, this is a diversion from SDC, but there are just too many ancient macro editors, "favorite files", etc out there that are corrupting the macro format (or have incompatible data).

I'll post the format as soon as it is ready, and you industrious guys can have at it.

Brad

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

New quest / brain code appears to be working well, added the first "scavanger" hunt type quest into nork 2. Checked the logs and goblets appear to be dropping correctly.

Next step is to work through some of the questions before tuesday night!

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

Wanted to give everyone a heads up.. i've decided to move forward with a FLASH compatible frontend to the 2d client, so we have a development direction for future growth.

( I'm actually writing it myself ).

This will allow us to be portable across all PC platforms ( and some tablet platforms ), and give me the ability to actually make changes to the client code.

I'm hoping to have some screen shots in the next day or so.. they are very rough but its coming along.

Note: when you see brad1 online you know i'm working on it ( smile ).

Brad
Admin
Admin
Posts: 1572
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:46 am

Re: Brad's Journal

Post by Brad »

"Lobby" Screenshot
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Locked