02-28-2004, 11:00 AM
Thank you for the detailed reply, not that I expected anything less :) Having said that, one runs the risk of taking such things for granted, especially with spellforce taking a hold on your time!
Some responses and questions below - mainly for my amusement.
I had wondered if anyone had looked into this behaviour in D2, specifically the effects on monster AI. Such things could make the ancients much less of a strain on ranged attackers, much like leoric tracking the warrior creator of an ironman game. As you have attempted to keep your thoughts on this brief here, presumably in an attempt to stick to the task at hand, I shall do likewise.
How cruel for such elegance to be removed by the, now clarified, ability to dive down into the durance without killing the council.
I wasn't fully aware of this when structuring my initial response, although it makes good sense. There are some questions here for another thread: how and when a zone is fully closed down, what happens to a monster lured out of its starting zone if that zone is then closed - if that zone can actually be closed whilst this is the case! One would imagine, if the monster was a part of the zone (presumably more likely with super uniques than normal monsters - although there may not be a difference at all) and so could stop zone collapse by being active away from the area of the game in which it was spawned, that the slivering effect could be preserved by luring a monster back into active areas of the game and making sure the rushee kept him active during her travels.
I may be entertaining things here which are ridiculous to those who know more about how D2 deals with 'zones' and what a zone actually is, I shall have to search the archive for more information on this.
I understand I wasn't at all clear with my initial observation here. This was an oddity which sticks quite vividly in my mind. I'd like to reply more in-depth on this when I respond to Ruvanal.
You have provided a few hints in your post about your Durimule creation. I have some ideas, but I'd not want to steal your thunder and would definitely appreciate the full writeup. My last sticking point here is how best to deal with the clawviper quest state on the mule (and if it actually matters). The key thing here (for me at least) being how the state of the palace guard is affected by game creation by a character who has kicked the altar vs. game rejoins by characters who haven't.
There are alot of other interesting points in your reply, I don't feel the need to expand on them here as most of them serve to either confirm, expand or correct. I seriously run the risk of heading on trips down memory lane when discussing what I'd like to see from your bank of knowledge - I fear I would rapidly become overdrawn ;) I shall part on that issue with one of many useful quotes on such subjects: "If today's the day it gets tired, today's the day we drop out".
Some responses and questions below - mainly for my amusement.
Quote:In D1 terms players occupy a 0..3 "slot" and players leaving and coming in could actually have some odd attribution effects. I wasn't certain D2 might not suffer the same quirk in some cases. However, atm, I suspect the anti-unfair-PvP tweaks to the game remove most if not all of the latitude for playing with this (poison, open wounds, rabies, etc.) Did you know, for example, that you get credit for your Rabies kills from asymetric PvP (i.e. faux foe) tranmission to monsters?
I had wondered if anyone had looked into this behaviour in D2, specifically the effects on monster AI. Such things could make the ancients much less of a strain on ranged attackers, much like leoric tracking the warrior creator of an ironman game. As you have attempted to keep your thoughts on this brief here, presumably in an attempt to stick to the task at hand, I shall do likewise.
Quote:I am convinced that there is only one truly good all-around answer as low as clvl 6. Other answers mostly work, but I wanted an answer that would work even in act 3 hell
How cruel for such elegance to be removed by the, now clarified, ability to dive down into the durance without killing the council.
Quote:Yes, as I noted in another reply, you can't have long marches opening up zones and then still expect a monster to be nearly dead when you finally show up (if the zone is fully closed down the monster will be recreated with full HPs, even if they are a "doesn't regen" act boss).
I wasn't fully aware of this when structuring my initial response, although it makes good sense. There are some questions here for another thread: how and when a zone is fully closed down, what happens to a monster lured out of its starting zone if that zone is then closed - if that zone can actually be closed whilst this is the case! One would imagine, if the monster was a part of the zone (presumably more likely with super uniques than normal monsters - although there may not be a difference at all) and so could stop zone collapse by being active away from the area of the game in which it was spawned, that the slivering effect could be preserved by luring a monster back into active areas of the game and making sure the rushee kept him active during her travels.
I may be entertaining things here which are ridiculous to those who know more about how D2 deals with 'zones' and what a zone actually is, I shall have to search the archive for more information on this.
Quote: if a player who is allowed to pop the chest (staff/amu) or kill a council member (flail, horcube), etc. etc., then the total count in game of people "live" for the quest *drop* is counted. However "live" is generally restricted to party members. In large public games people often habitually all party up, even though they aren't adventuring together. So the issue is deterministic but rather opaque, having several considerations. In any event, were Durimules not effectively "infinite" horstaves, one could indeed "farm" them for efficiency.
I understand I wasn't at all clear with my initial observation here. This was an oddity which sticks quite vividly in my mind. I'd like to reply more in-depth on this when I respond to Ruvanal.
Quote:You have some implied fuzziness on the interlocks for the Palace/AS. I suppose I'll have to write up my Durimule sometime to attempt, once again, (but in one post) to clear up some of these issues. Once you have my Durimule one of the things you can do is to take a new entrant to act2 and just walk through the act.
You have provided a few hints in your post about your Durimule creation. I have some ideas, but I'd not want to steal your thunder and would definitely appreciate the full writeup. My last sticking point here is how best to deal with the clawviper quest state on the mule (and if it actually matters). The key thing here (for me at least) being how the state of the palace guard is affected by game creation by a character who has kicked the altar vs. game rejoins by characters who haven't.
There are alot of other interesting points in your reply, I don't feel the need to expand on them here as most of them serve to either confirm, expand or correct. I seriously run the risk of heading on trips down memory lane when discussing what I'd like to see from your bank of knowledge - I fear I would rapidly become overdrawn ;) I shall part on that issue with one of many useful quotes on such subjects: "If today's the day it gets tired, today's the day we drop out".