They changed invis reliability, yep.
http://www.projecteq.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8875
Those spells aren't supposed to be on a fixed 20 minute duration timer. They have a potential of lasting that long, but since it uses an effect id of 12.
Even on live:
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.htm...22&source=Live
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.htm...06&source=Live, they can potentially break early.
If it was fixed duration, it would use the effect id 314
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.htm...20&source=Live
There's a lot of talk of this on the PEQ forums, and most players imply it's horridly broken.
However, I reviewed latest source along with testing it a few times, and I don't really see where the complaints are coming from. Probably just bad luck with the randomizer. Most people's theories on how it breaks too early are semi inaccurate, saying chances increase substantially each tick, but their math is figuring each tick the chance builds up, when it stays the same chance each tick, so it's actually quite a bit less than they theorize.
Their problem is that they are relying it as it was prenerf, boxing multiple players and your chances increase that much more with every character you're boxing, as a 2% chance x 6 players becomes 12% chance and that's every 6 secs, plus you have to get it on each toon, plus you got to travel with each toon, which you will need invis for a long time to travel. That's why it seems so unreliable. But that's really how it should be until you get a char who can cast fixed invis..! If it lasted 10 seconds it wouldn't really be a wipe scenario. Your best bet may be to travel each character one by one and if invis starts fading find a safe spot, as 2 ticks is plenty of time to do so.
I think they should consider putting this as a rule, so server owners can turn it on/off easily with a simple rule tweak.
And I think they should consider doing some specialty tweaks to improved version invises, perhaps make them have a minimum duration of like 1 minute at least, to make them better than normal invis.. But, that is purely speculation on how live may differenciate the spells. It's really all about getting fixed invis spells on at least one character to cast on your crew, it's the only way to go reliably. And yes, that's how it was on live.
Ever tried to run 6 players through kael with gather shadows and improved invis on live EQ? I did. And your horror story is my memories of it. You had to be smart, and watch each screen and play defensively to ensure nobody's invis broke.
Code:
case SE_Invisibility:
case SE_InvisVsAnimals:
case SE_InvisVsUndead:
if(ticsremaining > 3)
{
if(!IsBardSong(spell_id))
{
double break_chance = 2.0;
if(caster)
{
break_chance -= (2 * (((double)caster->GetSkill(DIVINATION) + ((double)caster->GetLevel() * 3.0)) / 650.0));
}
else
{
break_chance -= (2 * (((double)GetSkill(DIVINATION) + ((double)GetLevel() * 3.0)) / 650.0));
}
if(MakeRandomFloat(0.0, 100.0) < break_chance)
{
BuffModifyDurationBySpellID(spell_id, 3);
}
}
}
Invisibility is broken
~Shin Noir
Linear Mode
