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Messages - Weeblie
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101
« on: May 30, 2008, 05:43:18 pm »
Ironically: Vista
It looks like the prefetch ability and a huge amount of RAM is cutting down the load times of models, sometimes a contributing factor for crashings (my theory of why the horse crashes are so common).
102
« on: May 30, 2008, 04:49:02 am »
It is not that sneaking into Hempstead is impossible.
But rather that it is not up to the sneaker to decide whether he is successful or not.
Hence the need to actually have a DM present for doing so.
103
« on: May 29, 2008, 07:07:51 pm »
It is naturally the government itself who alone is making this decision, just like it is the government of Prantz that would decide if you were an exception to their no-magic rule, and the government of Voltrex if you were to be allowed a permanent stay on the island (um... yeah... right... big chance...). Due to the nature of exceptions being few, the infrastructure to support the exceptions isn't a bother for the government (for the moment).
If one thinks about it... there are actually exceptionally many exceptions among the adventuring population. Elves following dwarven deities and happily living among humans, dwarves being best buddies with halflings, druids not even hesitating to walk into a crowded city, etc... I would dare to say that among the PC population, the exception is to actually be like the rest 99% of the world, hehe...
104
« on: May 29, 2008, 06:40:34 pm »
How did Drizzt become accepted?  Simple answer: No lone action makes you OK. It's a pattern of well recognised events.
105
« on: May 29, 2008, 06:14:47 pm »
Alantha's WL status has nothing to do what so ever with Hempstead. In fact, what she exactly did on her WL isn't something super well known among all. And... wasn't she allowed into Hempstead far before when her WL was ran? So, what's the reason? Well, perhaps what she did before? The key contributing factor, and probably her most famous deed, is perhaps being with the group paying good old Blood a visit? Classical Drizzt style going on in this case. Heh, and she even has a house in Hempstead so no wonder she's allowed in. To my poor knowledge, I know that there are at least one other person also on the "okay"-list. Though... I cannot remember the name of the said character.
106
« on: May 29, 2008, 04:18:30 pm »
Hehe... did it appear to you that: 1. Aeridin is the primary elven deity and Voltrex itself has been quite "locked" until just "recently". Not even other elves were generally allowed in. 2. Az'atta is a deity of "those who have turned away from the dark side". A bunch of thieves, murderers and dark elves who claim that they now have changed. Not the sort of people with their opinions being valued so greatly by others.  You need to get back to the drawing board again. :p
107
« on: May 26, 2008, 12:17:46 pm »
There is a portal to Spellgard already... Unfortunately, for the PC population, that other town is about as seldom visited as Spellgard itself (even more so I would dare to say).
108
« on: May 25, 2008, 02:49:01 pm »
As an added side note... Poison in its current shape and form isn't completely as useless as one thinks. Yes, it's use in normal game play is quite zero. But on a quest or in the presence of a DM...?
109
« on: May 25, 2008, 02:47:12 pm »
Poison is available for all and not class dependent (but heavily restricted due to RP reasons). A change on it changes it for everyone. The only bonus assassins and blackguards get is the ability to apply the poison without any failure rate (otherwise, a dex check of some sort). Would you find it super icky good still with the present DCs? Why not use it yourself?
If anything item-wise should be blocked, it should be those items giving spells.
Healer's Hug? "Item Proficiency I (Cleric)".
Helmet of Armor II? "Item Proficiency I (Druid)".
Dragon-foe-thingy? "Item Profiency III (Cleric)".
I don't think that would be a good idea...
110
« on: May 25, 2008, 01:11:43 pm »
Oh... I'm definitely out in that case. 23:00 is laaate... and got an exam tomorrow.
111
« on: May 25, 2008, 12:14:04 pm »
Uh... yes, it is in theory possible to create a WM without increasing the threat range at all (just use another weapon), that simply does make no sense. In your case, the threat range would be 19-20 as base, doubling it because of Improved Critical and another +2 from Ki Critical for a grand total of 15 - 20 (6 in 20 chance on each hit). And this is with a completely normal weapon and not something fancy with a base 18 - 20 crit range and/or keen.
In either case, it doesn't really matter.
Your argument of that con penalties are severe and good replacements for doing normal damage is all based on the assumption of failed DC. As I mentioned before, the DC is so very low so it makes no difference. A level 30 creature having a decrement of 2 con from poison gets a -30 to HP sounds a lot, but then consider that the chance of failure is about 0 in 20. Or even with a nice 3 in 20, it would mean an estimated "extra" damage of 4,5 and capping after a few hits.
After all, one reaches the second catch 22: High constitution = high fortitude save = cannot fail. Low constitution = capping quickly.
112
« on: May 25, 2008, 08:06:28 am »
You still miss the core problem with poisons: DC
Playing a WM character, I'm quite certain you are all aware of the feasibility of receiving 100+ in damage on each crit. Now... consider the chance of critting and the chance of a level 30 monster to fail the save? You will directly see that the critting chance is far, far greater than the chance of failing a DC 26 fort save (if I recall correctly, DC 26 poison is the highest DC ones existing).
You can't take the best arguments for use of a high level creature and then apply them on a low level creature.
Low HD = low saves = always low damage from con poison
High HD = high saves = on average still low damage from con poison
113
« on: May 25, 2008, 04:27:42 am »
For crippling strike to make a difference, you must meet a creature that... 1. Has high enough HP to survive for some time. 2. High enough strength so the damage output from the creature comes from strength, and not from sneak attacks. 3. Not immune to ability drains. 4. Not otherwise quickly disposed off (think instant death and/or banishment-like spells). This point is of course directly related to number 1 too. Those dragon-like + hydra-like creatures fit very good into this particular description (not so sure about their lack of immunity though). TP giants could potentially have fallen into this category, or does so if you have a "party" of one rogue and one fighter-type character. But with just a slightly more reasonable 4+ people party, they would fall quickly enough anyway. Otherwise, one's back to boss monsters and that's where a huge issue appears. A large amount of the boss monsters are primary casters, not melees, so any form of str decreament has way lower priority than to disable the effects of their spells. Others tend to be undead or undead-like creatures (they are definitely over represented among the boss monsters). You need to go down in levels to mid/mid-high range to find your everyday roaming giant to find a consistent use of this feat. Actually, I can only think of one big boss that crippling strike is useful against, and that would be the arc giant king. Crippling strike has a built-in catch 22. You need to sneak for it to work. But if you can sneak, then you are most likely ditching out tons of damage anyway, and the monster would go down quickly and the effect would have no time to stack. A non-powerbuild rogue (i.e. not 1342 attacks/round at 2883 AB) would probably need about a minute to ditch in enough attacks (10?). Being a healer-cleric and prone to the oh-so-feared AoO, you notice that either the monsters do not really harm you at all, or you get seriously beaten up so it's not even funny (60-ish damage/hit... with a good three or four hits in a single round). The middle-ground creatures who slowly damages you... well, isn't that very easy to handle anyway? With more super high HP creatures, yes, crippling strike will become more and more useful. But right now, there are really only one single group of high level area where you can find those, and that would be the half-dragon one. And back to the poison topic. Scaling up the duration of poison is, as you probably have noticed too, not any earth rattling change with their present DCs. As you said, changing mechanics upwards or downwards (read: "balancing") is a great headache and inheritely flawed with the current system we have. Changing the duration would instead be to making "something of little use and ultra short on-par-with-true-strike duration" to "something of little use and a normal duration". More or less only a pure RP win...
114
« on: May 24, 2008, 07:39:37 pm »
What are the normal areas then?
You pretty much have to be at around level 15, or rather in level 15-ish areas, for the poison to really have any effect (with the tiny DCs available now). And at that time... I seriously doubt anyone who would even consider using the poison (from a reasonable IC point of view - i.e. assassin or rogue-like types) can come close to 7 attacks/round.
Boosting it to 5 turns from the current 3 rounds (?) would do zip in practice. The whole just-like-the-crafted-arrows-issue remains.
The default NWN poison duration is a joke. It's on par with putting True Strike as a spell on an item. You spend a good 6 seconds on the cooldown after using the time... and then have one or two weak hits before being forced to recast (or in this case, reapply the poison).
115
« on: May 24, 2008, 06:16:01 pm »
So seven attacks ( which rogues can work up-to ) out of nowhere ( which shadow-dancers are ALL working up-to ) will in your eyes not make a HUGE difference  ?
I would suggest to get your highest character remade in a single module and try it out against a monster that is capable to the previous described .
My guess is you will find out that no matter what poison they use , it IS a big difference .
You keep telling what the " really big and nasty monsters " can have , maybe you should try to think further and take into account that there aren't many monsters as you describe .
With exception off those " epic " monsters and maybe some " epic " characters , the impact off poisons weakening creatures/ player-characters is HUGE.( especially if they stack , like from the description from Filatus , " crippling strike " does ) One of my characters passing through HotU was an rogue/assassin, and the conclusion there (with the very short duration) was also that it's really a bigger hazzle than what it's worth. There are two main categories of monsters immune to ability drains: Undead + Golemns And they happen to be in a considerable amount of the highly visited locations... Besides, you are still basing it all on that the poison will actually pass through the saves. Have you checked what the DC really is for even the highest level poisons? The more attacks, the more damage the character will do (especially since the classes using poison will most likely have access to a high amount of sneak damage), and the less reason there will be to use any sort of poison. The monsters would drop dead really quickly anyway. ps. To reflect your words. I would suggest that you would be the one testing a character using poison for any prolonged amount of time. Using it once or twice for a target it actually has any effect on makes one go all "ooohhh"... but then do so for any prolonged amount of time and you would start to cring of that thought. It's the same case with making arrows. Super neat with a considerable amount of damage.... but a really, really insane hazzle...
116
« on: May 24, 2008, 05:11:23 pm »
Rephrasing... high/epic level pure rogue.
117
« on: May 24, 2008, 05:04:44 pm »
It doesn't mean that it's useless in all the cases, or surely no one would pick it. But rather, at the levels where people tend to get crippling strike (epic-ish... as there are no pure rogue and people reaching level 10+ levels in rogue tend to pick other feats first), it's not making very huge differences on trips. It's like having darkfire on one's weapon. It speeds things up and not something one says no to, but it's not something anyone (as far as I know) truly base a tactic on. As for constitution... What about it? A -2 decrease in constitution on level 30 monsters would mean a -30 in HP per successful poisoning attempt. Sneak damage alone is bypassing that (monsters immune to sneak tend to be immune to ability drains too), and this isn't even counting the fact that the really big and nasty monsters tend to have completely insane fortitude save (they won't fail the poison DC). And even if they did, heh... their HP is super high because their base HP tend to be super high. I.e.. base 5000 HP instead of 10,000 constitution. :p Knockdown is by far, far more abuseable (and abused) than what poison with their current DCs could possibly be. Even making the current poisons to last 24 hours, they would be a mere "nice RP flavour". ps. Talking about unfair... it's not very rare at all with NPCs on quests using poison. And then, it tend not to be the normal types of poison, mind you... as I'm sure more than a few have noticed.
118
« on: May 24, 2008, 03:22:12 pm »
Poisons don't really change much.
Easy proof is the rogue crippling strike feat. -2 str on each hit (sneak?) and... uhhh.... the effect of it is still only minimal when you also consider the amount of creatures with any sort of NEP/Foe/general ability drain immunity.
Remember also that monsters do not follow the weight system as PCs do. 100000/1 lbs and they are still quite capable of moving and running (as far as I've noticed).
What could potentially be very harming would be super high DC int/wis/cha poison. I dunno if those exist... but using them on a NPC caster could really mess things up, hehe.
In either case, without looking at any code at all, I think it should be fairly simple to change the duration of poisons.
119
« on: May 21, 2008, 05:40:14 pm »
One possible reason is that the model has too many vertices. When horses approaches the screen, it is not too rare that one get a huge spike and then crashes too.
120
« on: May 20, 2008, 03:37:34 pm »
I've been on another forum where a "positive/negative"-points system has been quite successfully used, with point-anonymity option and some clever google-page-ranking-style balancing (someone who has a lot of points himself will make much bigger difference) in place. Being a computer-stuff oriented forum, it actually makes sense as a way to (generally speaking) show who's more reliable and who's less. On layo...? It would quite not. :p
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