3 Issues: triggers, zoning and hp bouncing

[AdrianD]

Good day.

Rather than start three new threads, I figured to combine these into one.

Also: I've searched each of these topics to try and resolve them on my own. I've found that giving the thread a title relevant to the issue is important.

I've pasted the issues below and added a brief explanation.
* I'm using old zones with a classic setting in mind, if what is written below doesn't make it seem obvious.

ToDo: things labelled '%trigger%', '%spawn%', etc. are showing up as untargettable human models - how to make invisible
I think I have done this before but it has been well over a year if I did. Noticed on titanium client.
* It's come back to me, I think. I need to change the race of these items to something invisible. After perusing akka's race viewer thing, I noticed race 73 seems to show nothing. I'll give that a shot and please correct me if I'm wrong.
* That did nothing and it was already a supposed invisible race. I'll work on something else and await your replies.

ToDo: Zoning into certain zones always places in the same location (NoRo to Efp, noro to oasis, oasis to noro, oasis to soro, soro to oasis)
Is this because of zone revamps?

ToDo: negative hp (ie damage) registering twice, briefly - possibly related to why mana regens 1 + 1 per tick
When in battle, an npc will strike, causing damage, and for a fraction of a second hp will dip down to, what appears to be, about double the damage inflicted. It happens too fast to take note of numbers. Sometimes the PC will be knocked unconscious only to quickly pop up and resume battle. It's kinda funny but also nerve-wracking.

Thanks

[chrsschb]

For the first question:

Set Race to 127 (invis man)
Set Bodytype to 11 (untargetable)

Also give it the special attacks/abilities that make it immune to Aggro, Magic Damage, and Melee Damage.


The other two are a bit more complicated and will let the experts chime in :D

[N0ctrnl]

ToDo: negative hp (ie damage) registering twice, briefly - possibly related to why mana regens 1 + 1 per tick
When in battle, an npc will strike, causing damage, and for a fraction of a second hp will dip down to, what appears to be, about double the damage inflicted. It happens too fast to take note of numbers. Sometimes the PC will be knocked unconscious only to quickly pop up and resume battle. It's kinda funny but also nerve-wracking.

Pretty sure this is the Character:SoDClientUseSoDHPManaEnd rule. What client are you using? If you don't have this set to true, the newer clients will be a little screwy.

[AdrianD]

Thank you for the replies.

crssschb:
Doing exactly what you said only got me half way. So, I went searching (in the DB) for similar ncp_types with the information you gave me. To make a long story medium, I messed around with bodytypes, as the race seemed to fit with other mobs with invis. There were a couple I looked for but, I couldn't find them. Go figure.

Anyways, bodytype 66 and 67 with race at 127 worked. In addition, special_abilities is set at `19,1^20,1^24,1^35,1`. Now all I have to do is enable all the spawns I disabled over a year ago.

Thank you chrsschb for leading me in the right direction.

N0ctrnl:
I'm on Titanium client and Character:SoDClientUseSoDHPManaEnd is set to `true`. Does the opposite hold true for older clients? I'll give it a shot but, I'm definitely in the dark on this.

Regardless, thanks for the info. It's good to know.

[N0ctrnl]

Try flipping it to false. I think that should do it.

[AdrianD]

Yes sir!

At least with a few minutes of testing, I have not noticed any bouncing. Went to the same zone where I last noticed it. I'll give it more testing later but, it looks promising.

I am pleased and relieved this was a simple fix. I hope this change doesn't affect newer clients as you mentioned.

Very productive EQ day so far, many thanks.

[chrsschb]

Thank you for the replies.

crssschb:
Doing exactly what you said only got me half way. So, I went searching (in the DB) for similar ncp_types with the information you gave me. To make a long story medium, I messed around with bodytypes, as the race seemed to fit with other mobs with invis. There were a couple I looked for but, I couldn't find them. Go figure.

Anyways, bodytype 66 and 67 with race at 127 worked. In addition, special_abilities is set at `19,1^20,1^24,1^35,1`. Now all I have to do is enable all the spawns I disabled over a year ago.

Thank you chrsschb for leading me in the right direction.

Check the genders. Should be 0 I believe.

[Shendare]

Correct. Race 127 only has a model definition for gender 0. Setting an NPC to race 127 and gender 1 or 2 will result in the default human male appearing as a fallback.

[AdrianD]

Yes, I set gender to 0, race = 127 and bodytype at 11 and the model was invis but, the name floaty remained. I'm not sure if it's my stuff or what it is.

I recently "redid" the server except for the DB and required installs. This, along with some other things I did and people here helped with, fixed a bunch of important things but, the hp bouncing has been an issue since I first configured the server almost a year and a half ago.

Aside:
I was busy with RL for over a year during this time so, my knowledge base is not at 1.5 years for my learning skill. Try a few fragmented months from someone that knew almost nothing about this stuff. I digress...

I divide my time on this project into stuff I know I can do, stuff I can learn or practice and stuff I need assistance with. I'm super stoked two of the three issues were extremely simple considering my knowledge base (albeit limited).

This leaves the zoning thing, for my issues of the day. I can't imagine the issue is zone_points unless there is some kind of default if CLOSE ENOUGH. I'll check it out though. Proximities? What is the purpose of that table? That sounds like it could be related although I don't see any associations.

Enough of that - I have more issues/questions but I'll wait a bit.

Thanks for the help fellas.

[Shendare]

Apparently you'll need to update the zone_points records for those transitions and set the x and y coordinates for the target zone-in to 999999, while leaving the z at the appropriate height so you don't end up under the world.

http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=33289

[AdrianD]

Whoa, really? That's news! Stat!

I greatly appreciate that. Although tedious, fortunately it's not difficult. That also might explain why I saw a bunch of entries in zone_points with that exact value.

I'll report back.

[Kingly_Krab]

Haven't been around today otherwise I would have assisted, but to make an "invisible untargetable" NPC you have to make it race 127, gender 0, body type 11, special_abilities '19,1^20,1^24,1^25,1^35,1', and make the name something like _, __, ___ or just something with # and _.

[AdrianD]

That technique works. It's a little finicky, but not hard to grasp.

In order to allow an accurate zone transfer, the axis or plane of the zone line crossed, must share the same x or y coordinate, or pretty close. The "keep" function, 999999, only needs one sharing coordinate.

This means "keep" can only be used on a maximum of half the zone lines, although, probably much less due to zone coords typically ranging from 0,0 and the irregular formation of all the zones. I haven't, nor will I likely analyze the coords of all zones to apply use of "keep" in the most effective way.

As this applies to me, I still have conflicts, specifically with nro to freporte, and probably others.

Did I understand this right? If so, what can I do to rectify the other zone lines?

* Do the map files play a role in this? I have both new and old east freeport map files. Many of the map files show up with a red ! over the icon which I assume means there is some sort of conflict.

Thanks Shendare.

* Thanks Kingly!

[Shendare]

No idea. The wording isn't 100% clear.

All I can say is: give it a try in the zones with big zone lines where it makes sense, and don't use it on zones with small zone points where it doesn't matter if they're a foot or two off from where they left the previous zone.

I'm curious to hear how it works out myself. I'm surprised there isn't someone who's gotten this all figured out already chiming in to clear all the uncertainty.

[AdrianD]

How did other people make the character zone into the right location when using 999999 in zone_points won't work? I've updated the map files recently and use old zones.

[AdrianD]

Regarding triggers and npc_types:

First, I appreciate all the advice and feedback. It put me on the right track to figure it out.

I've found, with some DB digging, that there isn't a single race/bodytype configuration which identifies a trigger and makes it easy to `select * from npc_types where XXXXX`. I'm not sure if this is on purpose but, I went ahead and made some continuity changes.

Since race 127 is also used for mobs, it makes searching and changing things more tedious. Race 240 is also used for triggers, etc. and not mobs, from what I can tell. As mentioned previous, bodytype 11 didn't do what I wanted but 66/67 did. Gender didn't have any affect with race 240, bodytype 66. I suppose gender could be used to further identify what kind of trigger it is w/o leaving the npc_types table. * Also to note: the name didn't matter with bodytype 66 - _ # or letters/numbers, didn't make a difference

If I'm wrong, say so.

I have recent source from the stable branch at git (thanks akka).

Lastly, I write the above block of text for anyone who may happen upon it and has the same issue or can take something else away from it. I could easily keep this to myself but, the possibility wouldn't exist to get corrected and it wouldn't help anyone else.

I did not write this for people that already know.

I will continue to provide logs to these sort of issues regardless of any contempt swung my way.

Good day.

[chrsschb]

Haven't been around today otherwise I would have assisted, but to make an "invisible untargetable" NPC you have to make it race 127, gender 0, body type 11, special_abilities '19,1^20,1^24,1^25,1^35,1', and make the name something like _, __, ___ or just something with # and _.

Not true.

My custom invis triggers use race 127, gender 0, bodytype 66, and special abilities (19,1^20,1^24,1^25,1) and have normal names (aoe_helper, maldan_proximity, etc)


Since race 127 is also used for mobs, it makes searching and changing things more tedious. Race 240 is also used for triggers, etc. and not mobs, from what I can tell. As mentioned previous, bodytype 11 didn't do what I wanted but 66/67 did. Gender didn't have any affect with race 240, bodytype 66. I suppose gender could be used to further identify what kind of trigger it is w/o leaving the npc_types table. * Also to note: the name didn't matter with bodytype 66 - _ # or letters/numbers, didn't make a difference

Glad you got it working, I completely brainfarted that I use bodytype 66 instead of 11. And yeah race 240 works as well.

As for keeping track of what each is used for, I use the name for that :) Since they are invisible you can name them whatever you want. Makes searching for a specific one easy.