TEST: Barbarians

[Jenalya]

Since we now have our testing server working, I'd like everyone interested to testing the new barbarians we're working on.
For general informations about the testserver, look here:
http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopi ... 13&t=13388

You can use the gm command "@warp 033-1 66 36" to get to the new NPCs. There are three barbarians which provide a quest series. The later parts of it aren't finished yet.
But it also includes an interactive minigame which is important to be tested.

Please post any bugs you found and suggestions about it here.

[Len]

Needs a limit to how many monsters spawn from apples/cake (I dropped 1500 apples at once and this happened).

needs a cutoff.png (191.75 KiB) Viewed 7602 times

Obviously this could cause server issues...

needs a cutoff2.png (206.48 KiB) Viewed 7599 times

or 10000 Just to drive the point home

Edit/Update: New problem found! I only need to kill one fluffy and I get the yeti skin Shirt (which sells for 10k). If this quest has no lvl requirement that could be a problem... As I would just make a new character kill the fluffy, get the shirt, sell the shirt, bank the gold, delete that char, make a new character, and repeat.

Suggestions: I would suggest making this an endurance mini game with progressively harder rounds (like Candor) have the monsters that spawn give no exp and have nothing drop (you need to make it to something like round 5 to be considered part of the tribe). why fluffys BTW why not something more threatening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSvBr4Qa-Fs

I would also suggest placing the area outside the range of magic spells (as arrow rain, and healing a friend would be unfair on a leader board).

Also just drop the 2nd quest (the one in which you have to collect candy), its just another boring fetch quest and its story is just too foolish and off putting.

[Jenalya]

Sorry that it took me a while to react here. Thanks for your feedback.

Needs a limit to how many monsters spawn from apples/cake (I dropped 1500 apples at once and this happened).

I applied a local patch to the testserver with limiting the number of fluffies being possible to get to 100. I/we still need to figure out the exact value.

Edit/Update: New problem found! I only need to kill one fluffy and I get the yeti skin Shirt (which sells for 10k). If this quest has no lvl requirement that could be a problem... As I would just make a new character kill the fluffy, get the shirt, sell the shirt, bank the gold, delete that char, make a new character, and repeat.

It's planned to set a minimum number of fluffies to kill. That's one of the things that should be figured out by testing.
Giving the numbers you manage to get depending on your level would help to figure out a good value.

Suggestions: I would suggest making this an endurance mini game with progressively harder rounds (like Candor) have the monsters that spawn give no exp and have nothing drop (you need to make it to something like round 5 to be considered part of the tribe). why fluffys BTW why not something more threatening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSvBr4Qa-Fs

We already have some endurance minigames and I wanted to apply a different concept here: Hunt as many fluffies as possible in a limited time.
The reason I choosed fluffies is because the quest is intended to be possible for low level characters. If you play the minigame with a higher level character and drop a higher number of apples, the possibilty to get a different monster than a fluffy spawned is increased, to make it more challenging. (So e.g. a level 99 character dropping hundreds of apples might get a Yeti spawned.)
I already had the idea to replace the normal fluffies by something like "Hungry Fluffy" or "Angry Fluffy" or such, which would be aggressive, but have similar stats.

I would also suggest placing the area outside the range of magic spells (as arrow rain, and healing a friend would be unfair on a leader board).

I agree, that's a problem we were already thinking about. I originally liked the fact that other players can watch, but assistance by magic is indeed a problem. We were discussing some possibilities to block magic healing in IRC and I was wondering if it is a good idea if mages who use arrow rain to kill fluffies from outside would get killed by the script. That's just ideas for now.

Also just drop the 2nd quest (the one in which you have to collect candy), its just another boring fetch quest and its story is just too foolish and off putting.

Well, I guess about the story aspect on that, it's matter of taste. About having another fetch quest... I think it'd be hard to use no fetch quests anymore - but if specifically this one is needed... I'll think about it.
I'd also like more opinions on this.

[Big Crunch]

I think it was cute, the candy quest. Its not terribly nonsensical, but it is whimsical and lighthearted, and honestly i can see the behavior of the barbarian being incorporated into a fantasy book i was reading or some other game.

BC

[Nard]

tested again on Sun august 28, 5:40 server time.

Edit/Update: New problem found! I only need to kill one fluffy and I get the yeti skin Shirt (which sells for 10k). If this quest has no lvl requirement that could be a problem... As I would just make a new character kill the fluffy, get the shirt, sell the shirt, bank the gold, delete that char, make a new character, and repeat.

It's planned to set a minimum number of fluffies to kill. That's one of the things that should be figured out by testing.
Giving the numbers you manage to get depending on your level would help to figure out a good value.
[...]
The reason I choosed fluffies is because the quest is intended to be possible for low level characters. If you play the minigame with a higher level character and drop a higher number of apples, the possibilty to get a different monster than a fluffy spawned is increased, to make it more challenging. (So e.g. a level 99 character dropping hundreds of apples might get a Yeti spawned.)

I like the idea of # of fluffies depending on char level. may be a 10k sell price it too high compared to the item utility.
A high level mage or archer getting a yeti has no chance to beat the yeti in such a small area. and while testing, i had a yeti spawned with as little as 1 fluffy spawned, and if you make sucessive drops, each one can lead to a higher level mob spawned. In my case, I had 2 yetis and a santa slime with pets in 3 drops while using
the manaplus drop shortcut (repeatable, the more drops, the more high mobs). If player must release all drop at once, he must know how many items he has to drop, if not the high mobs must be spawned independently from the drops. (what about a random instant within the 2minutes, or at the first drop?).

I was wondering if it is a good idea if mages who use arrow rain to kill fluffies from outside would get killed by the script. That's just ideas for now.

Your idea is the good one (in my opinion), Jenalya. Yerrnk is a sorcerer and will ingrav (@kill) anybody who transgress the rules. Could extend it to any char around (and in range) casting a healing spell? will the same be applied to kalmurk and kalakarenk?

Also just drop the 2nd quest (the one in which you have to collect candy), its just another boring fetch quest and its story is just too foolish and off putting.

Well, I guess about the story aspect on that, it's matter of taste. About having another fetch quest... I think it'd be hard to use no fetch quests anymore - but if specifically this one is needed... I'll think about it.
I'd also like more opinions on this.

I personnally like this kind of decayed humour; and just took it like that.
question: will you allow chars to already have the items in inventory when beginning the quest and entering the area? and if not, respawn point must be inside the area unless the player chooses to abandon.

[Villain]

A high level mage or archer getting a yeti has no chance to beat the yeti in such a small area..

Wear armor then. The quest is designed for lower level characters who are most likely not high level mages or archers.

I tested as a level 99 mage. I found that a drop of 150 apples or cakes was a good amount in regards to spawning a lot of Fluffies and avoiding Yetis. I noticed that Apple, Chocolate, Orange, and White cakes had no effect.

I think the number of Fluffies should depend on the number of items you drop, not character level. If a level 38 character wants to bite off more than they can chew they should have the option to do so. I also think the introduction of a random Yeti spawn is a good idea and this should be explained to the character in the quest text ahead of time. Maybe something along the lines of: "Yetis hunt these Fluffies to survive. I know you want to kill as many Fluffies as possible but you may attract their predator as well by gathering too many Fluffies in one area."

A character should receive drops and XP from the monsters fought during the quest. Why make this different than any other quest?

To eliminate the use of outside assistance, why not just make a small little map that contains the insides of an ice cave and only allow the player currently conducting the battle inside? Something along the lines of the Rossy quest cave portion.

[o11c]

The number of fluffies spawned is dependent only on the amount of food dropped, although different types of food spawn them at different rates.

The extra monsters spawned are dependent on level. Note, currently there is a much smaller spawn rate if you don't drop it all at once.

[Nard]

@villain:
if a 95 mage has difficulties with full armor available, what about of a level 60 one? And I don't know actually the minimum level this quest is actually designed for, but there is no maximum, so the xtra mobs spawned is designed for higher level chars to have a harder challenge.
read carefully the quest dialog: it explains that you can drop apples or cakes (item 513) and that "other monsters living here like the food as well".
I got experience ad drops while doing the minigame :/
the number of flufffies actually increases with the number of apples or cakes you drop, as o11c said.
I prefer Jenalya's idea about killing cheaters as it is more quest like, thus more fun

[alastrim]

Currently, If you are not inside and kill any of the monsters you die and the monster is re-spawned. And if you end up inside the area and there is a fight going on you are warped out.

[Flenix]

• I tested the barbarians' script

I find that really nice to use fluffy in another way that killed them for they white fur, now you kill them for ... fun , why kill all of my brothers , damned humans !
else, I like that the Nivalis' maps are growing and make this land biggest (Nivalis is so smaller than hurn and tumil).


why humans don't take conscience that when they kill an animal it won't respawn indefinitely.

[Jenalya]

I worked on the second part of the barbarian quests and now Birrod gives you a task to hunt some Wolverns on 034-1. (They are spawned via the script on certain places while you're running around on the map)
Since the wolf monsters spritesheet isn't finished yet, I'm using the Hungry Fluffies as a placeholder at the moment.

[taree]

at level 80 with a speed based archer (wearing chaps, black boots, leather gloves, forrest armor and cat ears) i have no chance to beat the yetis.
stats: 11 83 20 1 100 1
skill: speed skill level 9

im dropping 2 apples at a time and after about 5-10 apples a yeti appears and i die immediately, every time. i think it is impossible for a lvl 80 speed archer to finish this quest. i'd be happy to be proven wrong though

[Jenalya]

at level 80 with a speed based archer (wearing chaps, black boots, leather gloves, forrest armor and cat ears) i have no chance to beat the yetis.

I adjusted the formula for the spawning of difficult monsters. Before, it was mostly depending on the level, now it depends more on the amount of living and newly spawned fluffies. This gives the possibilty to influence the chance to get unwanted monsters by the amount of dropped stuff. (Which was my original intention, but it seems that got lost within all the transformations of this script...)
taree and I already tested the new formula, but more impressions are welcome.
Thanks for this report and the testing.

Another formula that needs to be determined is the amount of fluffies needed to success the quest.
Based on the testing we did, I thought about something like one of those

Code: Select all

    set $@Fluffy_Min, (baselevel*7)/10;
    set $@Fluffy_Min, (baselevel*2)/3;
    set $@Fluffy_Min, (baselevel*3)/4;

It'd be helpful to have some informations about what amount you manage to get for different levels and stats.

[taree]

level 80 archer, speed skill 9,
stats: 1 88 10 1 100 1
killed 83 fluffies

level 60 archer, speed skill 9
stats: 1 50 8 1 90 1
killed 54 fluffies

level 40 archer, speed skill 9 (forgot to remove it)
stats: 1 25 5 1 69 1
killed 36 fluffies

level 20 archer, no skill
stats: 1 12 5 1 38 1
killed 18 fluffies


level 80 warrior, speed skill 9
stats: 50 75 45 1 50 45
killed 52 fluffies

level 60 warrior, speed skill 9
stats: 45 45 45 1 40 20
killed 46 fluffies

[taree]

Jenalya, we managed to replicate the Very Strange Thing i told you about earlier.
screenshot
what i did:
1. stand next to the quest when knight is killing fluffies
2. do nothing at all
3. die

also, i have about a hundred messages that say "taree! this hunt is for Knight alone!", but i wasn't doing any magic or anything at all.

exactly what knight did i don't know. i bet that would be useful to know.

ps. isn't it suspicious that two fluffies seem to have died outside the area in the screenshot?