Following is the text of a message I've posted to:
http://boards.station.sony.com/everquest/Forum4/HTML/020098.html
Please bump it so we can be sure Verant sees it and gets it
fixed.
Lullaby (bard L16 song) is not working as GZ stated it should
during his Lullaby test. The relevant portions of that test
are quoted below:
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:14 2000] Geoff says, 'K - sounds like a display message error then'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:32 2000] Sbasii says, 'how often should the resist be?'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:35 2000] Geoff says, 'yea - it should save about 25% of the time at that level difference'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:39 2000] Geoff says, '35% on a white'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:44 2000] Geoff says, 'less for high chr'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:55 2000] Nindars says, 'so how does that compare to enchanter mez?'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:55 2000] Harli says, 'GZ:So CHR should reduce the 25/35?'
[Wed Jan 12 01:24:58 2000] Geoff says, 'yep'
[Wed Jan 12 01:25:04 2000] Geoff says, 'about the same as mes'
The above percentages refer to a second resist chance mobs
have against Lullaby. Mobs have two chances to resist
Lullaby:
A success on the first chance to save has always generated a
resist message in red ("Your target resisted the Kelin's Lucid
Lullaby spell"). I denote this as 'R'.
A failure on the first chance to save generates a "<target>'s
head nods" message, and a second save check. Please move this
message to after a failure on the second save check to cut
down on spam.
A success on the second chance to save was not being sent to
our clients. This was fixed in a recent patch, and now
produces the message, "Your target has resisted your attempt
to mesmerize it" in blue. (Please make this message red. :) )
I denote this as 'r'. Based on GZ's statements above, mobs
that are the same level as the bard should be succeeding at
this second save 35% of the time, less for higher charisma.
For large level spreads (level 1 vs. level 35 in the above
quoted test), the success rate should be 25%, less for higher
charisma.
If the mob fails both first and second chances to resist, the
song succeeds and the mob is mesmerized for about 6 seconds.
I denote this as 'N'.
I ran some tests and culled the results out of my logfiles
(which I can email to anyone at Verant). My bard was level 45
during these tests, her charisma was 154, and she had a lute
equipped all times except for one test.
The first test was when my group derailed a train at the
Mistmoore zone. All the mobs were low blue to green - L20-L35
for the most part. I only got experience for 4 of the mobs:
18N (43%) | 22r (52%) | 2R (5%) | 42 total dark ritualist pets (3)
13N (45%) | 14r (48%) | 2R (7%) | 29 total dark ritualist (3)
13N (54%) | 11r (46%) | 0R (0%) | 24 total dark offerer pet
7N (47%) | 8r (53%) | 0R (0%) | 15 total dark offerer
7N (27%) | 18r (69%) | 1R (4%) | 26 total shadowy scribe
3N (33%) | 6r (67%) | 0R (0%) | 9 total flouting gargoyle
1N (33%) | 1r (33%) | 1R (33%) | 3 total leering gargoyle
19N (42%) | 23r (51%) | 3R (7%) | 45 total glyped sentries (3)
------------------------------------------------------------
81N (42%) | 103r (53%)| 9R (5%) | 193 total
The second battery of tests were against level ~4 snakes in
Butcherblock:
242N (58.3%) | 163r (39.3%) | 10R (2.4%) | 415 total [154 charisma]
428N (61.1%) | 245r (35.0%) | 27R (3.9%) | 700 total [154 charisma]
291N (63.3%) | 156r (33.9%) | 13R (2.8%) | 460 total [80 charisma]
418N (64.5%) | 212r (32.7%) | 18R (2.8%) | 648 total [110 charisma]
452N (65.7%) | 215r (31.1%) | 21R (3.1%) | 688 total [154 charisma]
Seeing the sample still had a variability of a few percent, I
ran a third set of tests:
2105N (63.3%) | 1145r (34.4%) | 77R (2.3%) | 3327 total [154 charisma]
2325N (63.9%) | 1211r (33.3%) | 101R (2.8%) | 3637 total [110 charisma]
2081N (63.5%) | 1089r (33.3%) | 105R (3.2%) | 3275 total [110 charisma, no lute]
Total for all the snake tests:
8342N (63.4%) | 4436r (33.7%) | 372R (2.8%) | 13150 total
I ran some more tests on other low level mobs just to make
sure there was nothing "special" about the Butcherblock
snakes:
421N (63.8%) | 222r (33.6%) | 17R (2.6%) | 660 total - Deathfish Pawns
323N (64.6%) | 164r (32.8%) | 13R (2.6%) | 500 total - large rats
425N (63.7%) | 223r (33.4%) | 19R (2.8%) | 667 total - bats
512N (62.7%) | 280r (34.3%) | 24R (2.9%) | 816 total - stonesnakes
Points that need to be addressed:
- These level 1-4 mobs are succeeding at their secondary
resists (34.7% success rate after you factor out the primary
resists) at about the 35% rate GZ stated I should be getting
at 75 charisma against level 45 mobs. Please investigate and
fix it. It's possible the same bug is affecting Pixie Strike,
as a lot of bards started complaining about PS being broken
about the same time as they started complaining about Lullaby
not working.
- More substantial (high green to low blue) mobs seem to be
resisting at higher than 50%. I assume this is due to the
same bug as with level 1-4 mobs. With a 35% to 50%+ resist
rate against blue/green mobs, and apparently a 70% resist rate
against mid-blue mobs, you can see why bards have been
complaining so loudly about this song being broken.
- Why isn't my charisma having any statistically significant
effect?
- Why isn't the lute having any statistically significant
effect when Lullaby is listed as a string song?
- An apology. Bards have been complaining about this song
being broken for months. We were always brushed off with
"It's working as designed." Obviously it isn't.
Kaearia
Karana
--
John H. Kim
kim@...