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Tyni · 01-13-2003, 11:28 PM

Dont know if this has been posted yet

From Scott Hartsman

*** Slow Mitigation ***

As many know, with the release of Planes of Power, some NPCs were given the ability to "mitigate" the effect of attack speed altering spells, such that Slows would not be quite as effective against them, but would still be useful and desirable.

As part of that same change, others gained the potential to be "sped up" by slow spells. After re-evaluating this mechanic over the past weeks, where a slow spell actually makes the target attack faster, we've decided to pull it entirely.

We're doing this for a few reasons, many of which have also been pointed out by members of the classes for whom slowing is a primary role:

* It was kind of an interesting idea at the time, but unless we decide to add other "I press this button, and bad things happen, instead" types of effects to everyone's core abilities, it really does unfairly single out slowers. Suffice it to say, this isn't a road we plan on going down any time soon.

* It's only used in a total of seventeen NPCs in the entire game. Removing this behavior won't have any impact on tuning in the encounters where it exists. Those NPCs will be either set to slow-immune or will allow slows to have a slight impact on them, depending on the encounter.

* It puts slowers in the unique position of feeling like they could cause a full wipeout every time a new encounter is tried, simply by doing their job. If an encounter is set to penalize slowers in this way, it essentially guarantees at least one failure in a particularly frustrating fashion, since slows can't be removed from hostile targets.

It's entirely different when a failure occurs because someone makes a critical mistake. That's absolutely part of learning and playing any game. However, a failure occurring because someone does what has always been their job; not very compelling.

Just to clarify: Slow mitigations and immunities will be staying in. Slows having the potential to have the reverse effect is Right Out. (Or will be in the next patch.)

*** Bandwidth Usage and /Serverfilter ***

This is one of those that we've been meaning to talk about for a while now, but it always seemed to be pushed back by other, more pressing matters.

For the past months, /Serverfilter hasn't had any practical use. It simply sends a message off to the server that the server no longer does anything with, which is why some folks with overly-restrictive network equipment are still able to use it as a means to "jump start" what appears to be a dying connection.

The server-side filters are now controlled by the individual items that live in the Options window, on the Filters page.

Also in a recent patch, we've significantly reduced the amount of bandwidth that EverQuest needs to use, even in large raid or extremely-crowded-zone situations. Unfortunately, one side effect of these changes is a problem that didn't show up in the small test server community, and is only highly prevalent on the live servers; Periodic movement and health updates are nowhere near as reliable as they should be.

Fortunately, this issue will be fixed in the patch that is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan 15 at 3am.

*** Curses, Poisons, and Diseases ***

The troubles with these types of detrimental spells not being curable will also be fixed in the same patch.

*** Faces ***

With any luck, a fix for the interesting new issues with faces will also make it into this patch as well.

01-13-2003, 11:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
Tyni Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Toronto Canada Posts: 4 +0 Internets	Next Patch Dont know if this has been posted yet From Scott Hartsman * Slow Mitigation * As many know, with the release of Planes of Power, some NPCs were given the ability to "mitigate" the effect of attack speed altering spells, such that Slows would not be quite as effective against them, but would still be useful and desirable. As part of that same change, others gained the potential to be "sped up" by slow spells. After re-evaluating this mechanic over the past weeks, where a slow spell actually makes the target attack faster, we've decided to pull it entirely. We're doing this for a few reasons, many of which have also been pointed out by members of the classes for whom slowing is a primary role: * It was kind of an interesting idea at the time, but unless we decide to add other "I press this button, and bad things happen, instead" types of effects to everyone's core abilities, it really does unfairly single out slowers. Suffice it to say, this isn't a road we plan on going down any time soon. * It's only used in a total of seventeen NPCs in the entire game. Removing this behavior won't have any impact on tuning in the encounters where it exists. Those NPCs will be either set to slow-immune or will allow slows to have a slight impact on them, depending on the encounter. * It puts slowers in the unique position of feeling like they could cause a full wipeout every time a new encounter is tried, simply by doing their job. If an encounter is set to penalize slowers in this way, it essentially guarantees at least one failure in a particularly frustrating fashion, since slows can't be removed from hostile targets. It's entirely different when a failure occurs because someone makes a critical mistake. That's absolutely part of learning and playing any game. However, a failure occurring because someone does what has always been their job; not very compelling. Just to clarify: Slow mitigations and immunities will be staying in. Slows having the potential to have the reverse effect is Right Out. (Or will be in the next patch.) * Bandwidth Usage and /Serverfilter * This is one of those that we've been meaning to talk about for a while now, but it always seemed to be pushed back by other, more pressing matters. For the past months, /Serverfilter hasn't had any practical use. It simply sends a message off to the server that the server no longer does anything with, which is why some folks with overly-restrictive network equipment are still able to use it as a means to "jump start" what appears to be a dying connection. The server-side filters are now controlled by the individual items that live in the Options window, on the Filters page. Also in a recent patch, we've significantly reduced the amount of bandwidth that EverQuest needs to use, even in large raid or extremely-crowded-zone situations. Unfortunately, one side effect of these changes is a problem that didn't show up in the small test server community, and is only highly prevalent on the live servers; Periodic movement and health updates are nowhere near as reliable as they should be. Fortunately, this issue will be fixed in the patch that is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan 15 at 3am. * Curses, Poisons, and Diseases * The troubles with these types of detrimental spells not being curable will also be fixed in the same patch. * Faces * With any luck, a fix for the interesting new issues with faces will also make it into this patch as well.