[X] My Assistant

many change has happened in here. lol.
tenboro's must very active to update (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/mellow.gif)

OK, this morning when I saw the update, I went to my ability page and saw I had a couple new rows of abilities.

I noticed I had an Item Slots V (which is in the permanent ability row) that had no ability point put into it.

Since it was new, I reset my ability page and of course put a point into it. Yet I still have the same amount of battle inventory slots that I had before. Shouldn't that have given me one more?

The Item Slot V ability was changed, so if you had a point in it (about a dozen people did) that point was removed. Putting the point back would end up giving you the same number of slots as before.

Also, I repeat my notion that parried/blocked attacks should cause damage when the elemental shield spells are up.

Maybe they should. I'll look into that.

Maybe I'm not doing it right, but I just had a senario of where I had processed CM on a mob. I trigger ET on it shortly later than cast inferno on another mob who also had CM. The mob with ET didn't die and had both ET and CM on it. I thought instead of CM, I was supposed to get channeling?

It might not be proccing properly on AoE hits, I'll look into that too.

@Tenb: Can I ask what the considerations were for cutting primary bonuses and mitigation so much, especially given that older weapons don't even have crit bonuses? My longsword's primary STR bonus went from +14 to +7, my agility based silk went from +8 to +3 (same for my club) my END for my heavy was cut by 3/4, and my piercing, slashing and crushing mitigations went from 20,29,20 to 11,20,9 respectively. Is that not a little too much?

There are technical reasons for that. The range of unscaled stats was increased to work better with the improved loot generator, and the scaling factor was reduced comparatively. Primary bonuses were affected the most since they had the narrowest range, mitigations really shouldn't have gone down by more than 20% tops. For most of the other stats, the range was increased somewhat but the scaling factor wasn't altered.

Seeing as older equipment could break out of the range given a sufficiently high bonus, they could still actually be better than new equipment on some factors. So it's a trade-off. The alternative is really that I wipe or re-roll all the equipment so we can start over.

And can you please explain this statement: "Equipment is now about twice as likely to drop randomly. Base value has been halved."

It means almost exactly what it says. Drops twice as often, is worth half as much.

The credit bonus was fixed. Amphibious Sperm Whales and Mutant Peacocks no longer give more credits than mini-bosses. It was fun while it lasted.

Awesome update (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I should realocate all points now (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

edit:
Hmm my equip become a bit weaker bonus stats wise

This post has been edited by pbVeteran: Oct 31 2009, 12:37

Maybe they should. I'll look into that.

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

There are technical reasons for that. The range of unscaled stats was increased to work better with the improved loot generator, and the scaling factor was reduced comparatively. Primary bonuses were affected the most since they had the narrowest range, mitigations really shouldn't have gone down by more than 20% tops. For most of the other stats, the range was increased somewhat but the scaling factor wasn't altered.

Ah shit. I admit mistake on my mitigation decreases. They did go down, but not as much as I thought. Primary did go down as much as I thought though ;_;

Seeing as older equipment could break out of the range given a sufficiently high bonus, they could still actually be better than new equipment on some factors. So it's a trade-off. The alternative is really that I wipe or re-roll all the equipment so we can start over.

That would've gone over spectacularly (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) Is there any chance at all for retroactive crit-chances for old weapons, or should I assume it's not gonna happen and look for something new and better?

It means almost exactly what it says. Drops twice as often, is worth half as much.

Ahhh. I thought you meant the base drop rate was halved and doubled. Was having a little wtf moment >_>

It might not be proccing properly on AoE hits, I'll look into that too.

From some cakefest where I was testing the way ET works:

2 7 Inferno hits Rabid Hamster for 45 fire damage.
2 6 Giant Panda has been defeated.
2 5 Inferno hits Giant Panda for 493 fire damage.
2 4 Fire Fox resists your spell.
2 3 Blue Slime gains the effect Coalesced Mana.
2 2 Inferno hits Blue Slime for 100 fire damage.
2 1 You cast Inferno.

and later

5 6 The effect Ether Theft on Blue Slime has expired.
5 5 Ether Theft drains 4 points of mana from Blue Slime
5 4 Blue Slime misses the attack against you.
5 3 Rabid Hamster hits you for 1 piercing damage.
5 2 You evade the attack from Fire Fox.
5 1 Fire Fox evades your attack.
4 9 Ether Theft drains 4 points of mana from Blue Slime
4 8 Blue Slime hits you for 1 crushing damage.
4 7 The effect Searing Skin on Rabid Hamster has expired.
4 6 Searing Skin hits Rabid Hamster for 37 damage.
4 5 Rabid Hamster hits you for 3 piercing damage.
4 3 Fire Fox uses Burning Tail
4 2 Blue Slime gains the effect Ether Theft.
4 1 You hit Blue Slime for 47 soul damage.

Nothing in there about that spiffy effect you mentioned.

Having done a short run, here's my thoughts on ET changes (I like the CM changes, btw):
The best staffs have 20%, or 1/5. This on a low accuracy (new staffs don't add to hit accuracy, and even the old ones only added a little) low damage attack (remember a mage using a staff would have low str), when one could simply use the CMed mob to channel a bunch of half off AoE spells, that do tons more damage. Also keep in mind every round I'm not devastating everyone is a round less on my (far more expensive) self-procs, and a round I am taking damage. I can think of very few situations where I would take such high risks for such a payout (after you fix the spiffy effect, that is). Two possible solutions: either retroactively double the % on all staffs with ET, or allow ET to proc on un-CMed mobs, minus the cool self-proc. That way I'd at least get some mana when I'm out, but have HP.


Oh, and while you're here, is this a bug or a feature? Because people with auras and gear that add stats that aren't str and end are currently missing out. =P

I'm looking forward for this massive change... Nice job, Tenboro. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

BTW Tenb, any decision yet on whether Equip/Snowflake stat bonuses should be adding to the derived stat bonuses from a few patches back or not?

Oh, and while you're here, is this a bug or a feature? Because people with auras and gear that add stats that aren't str and end are currently missing out. =P

They are supposed to be added, but currently they are not.

Is it me, or Cakefest lost ts worth for mages? As, there is cold day in the hell of a chance to get ET, and mana gets eaten far too quickly with constant casting. Maybe, norman is it, whe one's life and mana would fail at around same time?

So my thinking after playing a few grindfests with my staff as a caster is that either the amount of mana you get on ether theft needs to go up by at least triple, or both coalesced mana and ether theft chances need to go up. I currently only have a 25% chance of proccing coalesced mana with 151 staff proficiency, and 31% 2 turn ether theft staff. Ether theft is giving about 17 mana a tick back when it procs, I've actually been getting 3 ticks back so thats around 50 mana per proc, but the issue is that I can only get it to proc every 2-3 rounds, which just isn't enough mana. If coalesced mana and theft get procced on a mini-boss then the mana returned is much better so I don't know if this was tuned for the higher round arenas with multiple minibosses, but they still probably only give around 28 mana per tick. I would say you probably need 50ish mana returned per round to last very long, and that would be with a 1turn theft staff since most people don't have a 2 turn.

Although its probably easier just to raise the proc chance on coalesced, 25% seems really really low to me. Honestly I think doubling it would probably be about right since you still need to get ether theft to proc with a 10-30% chance.

This post has been edited by uth: Oct 31 2009, 18:09

Maybe just remove the % chance on theft and make it that if you smack a coalesced mob with a physical attack it triggers theft? Might have to slightly reduce coa chance but not by much.

/edit or uths edit idea works

This post has been edited by marcho: Oct 31 2009, 18:10

Is it me, or Cakefest lost ts worth for mages? As, there is cold day in the hell of a chance to get ET, and mana gets eaten far too quickly with constant casting. Maybe, norman is it, whe one's life and mana would fail at around same time?

I do not know but I was able to burst through 10 or so rounds Hard grindfest now without any items.
Do not forget you now have passive regeneration even in combat with now nice set cost of spells.
I was able to kill with spells exclusively.

If you have some exceptional weak mob than leave him at the end and smash him with staff to submision while gaining some mana for another round (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And now with CM activated with AOE spells I am able to have it on multiple enemies at once so it is little hinderance [Blast AOE than smash around with the staff and hope for best, so far it works nicely]

Mages were always able to do burst play. It's just when things extended past that it got dicey.

The main problem is that you still cant reliably go any farther than you could before as a caster.

Being able to intentionally trigger Ether Theft got me to 10 rounds easily without using items, usually topping out around 20. I'm lucky to get to round 5 or so now that everything costs mana.

Getting CM to trigger gives, at best, 2 spells for the price of 1.5 rather than 2-for-1 like we could get before. Ether Theft is crazy hard to activate..

For hourlies and arenas, I'm getting smacked around a lot more, primarily because it takes much more time to kill anything. Given that mage is a weak defensive type, this makes life tougher.

So, I just cleared Power Flux. If I had known there would be two mini-bosses per round for five rounds I would never have attempted it... which would have been a pity. Prior to this update, though, I think I would have had a much harder time.

On the whole, having had Silence replaced by Bewilder and not being able to use it with Weaken hasn't been as much of a problem as I feared. I've started using Barrier again and was pleasantly surprised to see it now blocks 50 points of damage. The extra MP cost is more than made up for by the reduced cost of AoE spells. The jury's still out on some points (can I still beat a Manbearpig, or a Battletoads Tentacle Monster?), but overall this update's working pretty well for me. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I think there may be a problem with Mooglemail, in case no one else reported it or noticed.

I attached elixirs to four different messages last night. I know for sure that one got through, one didn't, and the other two I'm still doubtful on.

Plus some of messages come out weird, replacing punctuation with "openquot" or "039;".

I think there may be a problem with Mooglemail, in case no one else reported it or noticed.

I attached elixirs to four different messages last night. I know for sure that one got through, one didn't, and the other two I'm still doubtful on.

Plus some of messages come out weird, replacing punctuation with "openquot" or "039;".

The text gets screwed up, I already posted a picture.

8 9 You have reached Level 67!
8 8 You gain 238.46 EXP!
8 7 You are Victorious!

0 5 Spawned Monster D: MID=4 (Cockatrice) LV=65 HP=660 MP=20 SP=11 NA=91 Type=hostile
0 4 Spawned Monster C: MID=1 (Green Slime) LV=66 HP=670 MP=13 SP=15 NA=91 Type=hostile
0 3 Spawned Monster B: MID=2 (Tentacle Monster) LV=64 HP=670 MP=25 SP=2 NA=91 Type=hostile
0 2 Spawned Monster A: MID=5 (Giant Panda) LV=63 HP=659 MP=21 SP=18 NA=91 Type=hostile
0 1 Initializing Item World (Round 8 / 54) ...
0 0 Battle Start!

Wrong thread pal.

@Tenb: >_>

I think there may be a problem with Mooglemail, in case no one else reported it or noticed.

Seems to be working for me. Note that you can track outgoing mail from the Sent Mail tab, so you can always check on them.

Plus some of messages come out weird, replacing punctuation with "openquot" or "039;".

Yeah, that's a combination of HTML entity escaping and the need to not do that when it outputs it in that way. The real problem is that this is the first time the system has actually needed to output something user-submitted using the font engine, so it still has some rough edges.

I haven't tried the arena yet, but my old strategy for going through Grindfest is pretty much dead now, since I used a strategy that basically relied on Ether Theft keeping my MP high throughout the whole thing. I guess I should see if I can fare any better with a different build. I think this new version of the HentaiVerse was meant to make people more likely to try a mage build, but for me it's stopping me from using the mage build for now. Ah well. I do appreciate the other changes, though.

This post has been edited by FinalixerX: Nov 1 2009, 02:26