EQEmulator Forums - Varlyndria: Ascension

EQEmulator Forums (https://www.eqemulator.org/forums/index.php)

- General::Server Discussion (https://www.eqemulator.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=601)

- - Varlyndria: Ascension - Coming Summer 2013 (https://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36754)

Varlyndria: Ascension - Official Loadscreen. (Files will be available through the
launcher, including new epic music from two steps from hell and more)
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...94811_orig.jpg

Varlyndria: Ascension will have 300-500+ possible item drops in most custom zones on launch but they do not drop often,
making them very valuable to other players seeking a certain type of item out. Overall, increasing the economy seven fold
which Varlyndria was drastically missing before. Overall, the item creation process has been accelerated to legendary
levels due to some new tech we are using.
(Special thanks to my good friend Natedog for all his innovation and additions to this project.)

I've decided to increase the drop rate for stronger mobs but in return have given them some place holders so they don't
always spawn every 5 minutes. Below is a list of the drop rate % and amount of items certain mobs drop.

MPR or Minion Power Rank: 6.25% chance to drop a single item out of the hundreds available in the zone.
(Very common mob in zones and spawns everywhere frequently)

LPR or Lieutenant Power Rank: 50% chance to drop two items out of the hundreds available in the zone.
(25% chance to spawn at their spawn point every 5 minutes.)

BPR or Boss Power Rank: 75% chance to drop three items out of the hundreds available in the zone.
(20% chance to spawn at their spawn point every 5 minutes.)

OPR or Overlord Power Rank: 100% chance to drop four items out of the hundreds available in the zone.
(10% chance to spawn at their spawn point every 5 minutes)

All custom zones are going to be dynamic so they are always up no matter if a player is in them or not, meaning you can't
run in and out and spawn bosses. You'll need to take the place holder out and get lucky for a shot at one. Also, you'll need
to share spawns because instancing in Ascension is something I want to try and stay away from, giving the server an old
school feel but with rules and laws of where players can go depending on how strong they are to keep things balanced.
Zone creation is rather fast now so I'll be constantly adding more and more to each rank for newer players or older ones
alike. The server on launch will have a handful of zones to explore and more will be added weekly. There should be enough
content to keep you occupied for years to come as I work on it, along with the 64 path choices, things are looking rather good.

Also, the way AA vendors work now makes 100% sense as you progress instead of just throwing them some random strong
item that puts you ahead of anything. AA vendors work off of your gearscore now just like the custom dungeons and sell
some nice items of that tier to get you started for AA points and also sell augment upgrades as well. Each vendor will have
different things and upgrades as you progress.

QUESTION: Is this going to be like Diablo?
ANSWER: Somewhat. There are tasks in all the custom zones where you need to kill the bosses and get rewarded but the loot
system is designed around the bases of you're not going to get whatever you want when you want like the old server.
I wanted things to be a lot more sporadic so the zones have more longevity and you'll almost always find something new you never saw before.

QUESTION: Will each zone have their own items?
ANSWER: Each zone of that specific power rank will reward you with a huge variety of items from a list of that type but each zone is
worth visiting because of the quests as well. Example: Cinderfrost: Gear is dropped in both Nagafen's Lair: Rise of the Red Dragon
and Permafrost: The Lady Dragon's Revenge but players can also get special items from completing the quests in those zones as
well which are unique and more powerful than anything that drops.

QUESTION: How custom are these zones?
ANSWER: Every single mob that used to be in there has changed and drops new things and new quest mobs. It's literally nothing like
Old EQ for that specific zone and all of these special zones have had their zone points gutted. Though, some places might lead to
another sub-dungeon of the same place. Like Emerald Jungle -> City of Mist. I do this so players can't just walk in to the zones
without earning their way in first. Progression has always been a fun and challenging aspect of any video game and
Varlyndria: Ascension executes it well.

QUESTION: How will we know which is solo/group content and raid content?
ANSWER: The Rift Keeper will say things like this when your gearscore accesses new options. Nagafen's Lair: Rise of the Red Dragon
(Power Rank 4, Solo/Single Group) or this Veksar: The Wrath of Squilox (Power Rank 5, Raid/Two Groups+)

QUESTION: Are you taking out the walking/porting and adventuring of Everquest completely?
ANSWER: It's not my goal to make everything like this with the gearscore and I might add some random zones you can freely explore with quests.
The main thing is to make sure there is a major balance to progression. I see it like this: You're level 70 and that won't raise so levels mean nothing,
this means there has to be a way to control the flow of content and this system does a good job so far and makes sense which is the most important thing.

QUESTION: What about player vs player gear?
ANSWER: Player vs Player gear will have THREE times the hit points of normal gear and less in the other stat department. This makes it where PVP
gear is an absolute must over PVE and even donator items because the more HP you have the better chance you have to take your enemy out before
they get you. Nothing in pve or donator will even come close to the HP given on player vs player items and I will deny donation item creation requesting x3 hp on
their item. Donator items are designed to help players in PVE.

Question: What is the release date?
Answer: ---?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahar_LoA (Post 222606)

Question: What is the release date?
Answer: ---?

We are mere days away from an announcement on that topic, so not too much longer.

A nasty legion is brewing in the volcanic regions of the world that Varlyndria must face head on. Even the Kobolds of the Ascension have gone from pathetic underlings to powerful minions who are capable of doing some serious harm.
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...68576_orig.png

They will taste both my fierce blade and the flames I call upon them..

If this works out, it's going to make a great resume :)

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...63743_orig.png

The Open Alpha will have the following:

• 64 Class Paths with Epic 1.0 available to obtain.
• Over 10 Custom Zones to explore/gear in.
• A handful of tasks will be available to complete. (big kill missions)
• Some quests will be available.
• Varlyndrian Credit NPC and AA point vendors available.
• Over 2000 items can be found and or bought.
• Ldon Points per any kill and Ldon vendors will be available.
• Dedication Point System will be live.
• Heroic Point System will be live.
• Gladiator Points and Gear and at least 1 pvp zone will be live.
• Donation Items and Tier System will be live.
• Probably other features as well not mentioned.

The Open Alpha WILL NOT have the following until a later date:

• Custom Crafting

QUESTION: Will we be able to keep our Open Alpha Characters?
ANSWER: Absolutely.

QUESTION: How long will this last until open beta?
ANSWER: When there is enough content and bug fixes to call it open beta.

QUESTION: Will we have all of our previous gear?
ANSWER: No. There will be a lot of your gear missing because of the balancing of the new
system and many items I removed. You will have some bits and pieces and your epics will
be fine. Your old augments are history though.

You've just made my day!

Donators getting in early? Or 27th for everyone?

There is still some work to be done before launch and I won't have time to let anybody in earlier than what I announced.

PVP in Ascension will be an endless struggle to gain gladiator points by killing other players. With a lock-out script which
makes it where only 1 of your accounts can be inside the zone, you're surely going to need some solid skills or a trusty
friend to fight your way to the top. When you die, you'll lose some of your Gladiator Points, so you need to constantly
be on your A+ game to get far. Only the best of the best will sport around the strongest of pvp gear. PVP Gear is loaded
with health and extra STA, so you're getting major VSES improvements of 750 per VSES rank and three times the HP of a
normal item.

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...96430_orig.png

Hordes of frost goblins and other foul beasts are gathering in permafrost to fight for their ascended dragon queen. Varlyndria must put an end to this cult before it gets strong enough to become a major threat.

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...15882_orig.png

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...73359_orig.png

Rules for Group/Raid zones will be different on loot drops.

• Lieutenants Power Rank (LPR) are the new Minions and have a 6.25% drop chance.
• Bosses Power Rank (BPR) are the new Lieutenants and have a 50.0% drop chance.
• Overlord Power Rank (OPR) remain the same and have a 100% drop chance.

The server is very close to being ready for Open Alpha. I hope you're all excited as I am! It's been a long four
months of hard work to make this a reality and I appreciate all the support. A big thanks to Natedog who has
helped me greatly with this project.

Any plans to translate those LPR4's into something more immersive? :)

@Secrets
What.. in the hell.. was that.

It's gunna be great!

Are we going live at midnight? or at some other point in the day??

The Suspense Is Rapidly Rising!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsr (Post 222715)

Any plans to translate those LPR4's into something more immersive? :)

Those codes in the mob's last name are extremely important for many reasons.
You'll get used to them after a while.

The server is scheduled to launch very soon. Around - 12am -1am Eastern Time.

The Gloom Pearl Pirates have been risen from the ascension and are once
again up to no good. Journey into Veksar and show Varlyndria what you got.
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...41710_orig.png

The Devourer of Dreams is back because of the ascension. Varlyndria must
act quickly.
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...40486_orig.png

Something terrible is happening on the Island of Monkey Rock...
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/...44591_orig.png

Do we need the launcher to update our files and if so where do we get it at?

I'll be loading up the launcher soon with all files. I will also have a place on the main website where you can get everything you need.

Get your files and get ready to play in an hour or so.

http://www.varlyndria.com/important-files.html

Must say, pretty excited about this.

Anticipation is killing me lol!

Gives me time to really go through the classes to see what i want to try out.

I think Drak fell asleep on his own launch haha

I sure hope not haha, well you know what they say, patience is a virtue.

Varlyndria: Ascension is live. Enjoy all.

Varlyndria: Ascension is an Alpha phase right now so that means it's a little rough around the edges at the moment. Thank you for all the testing you've done. It helps. Please report any bugs on the forums. We'll get there.

Quick Important Update Here

• Removed over 150 guards in Toskirakk to save on lag. The roleplay value is just not worth it.
• Players no longer leave a corpse when they die to save on lag. No need for corpses as an ascended being.
• Lessened the amount of mobs in starting area and added a portal master so players can just leave the newbie
area if they wish to. (Good gear there for starters though)
• Reduced all NPC melee damage on server by 25% (was a little brutal before)
• Removed some of the buggy cleric spells from bots that were causing some clients to crash.

First glance looks promising, it's clear you've put a lot of effort into the details. Some feedback below;
(updating as I go)
At this point it's difficult to do much general testing as client crashes are so frequent.

- Placing monk's Valyndrian desperate strike ability in a hotbar causes client crash. Client will then crash upon entering world, unless the hotbutton is removed from charname_Varlyndria.ini (section [HotButtons2]) in eq folder.
- Confirmed all other 70 discs can be hotbuttoned ok.
- *FIXED with client restart* There seems to be an issue where not all discs are learned. The first attempt on monk learnt dragon disciple and one other, an unlearn and relearn learnt white lotus and one other.
- Suggest you consider removing reagent requirements from class pet spells or add reagents to a nearby npc (i.e. as a mage it was very challenging getting past the first set of npc's without a pet)
- A few times NPC's swarmed up to the starting point and wouldn't leave (I FD'd) until a player came to run them away. Makes it tricky when you're trying to set the UI, read all the intro text from npc's, and otherwise get a feel for things.
- Every time I've zoned so far, client has crashed. Appears to be an issue with globalload, as it does not happen with default file. Looking through the log there are quite a few global load errors, let me know if you need them.

System details - Win7 64 prof
* Clean install of the SOD client.
* Unzipped 'Var files - install these into main eq directory.rar'
* Unzipped 'varlyndria_ascension_files_resources_directory.ra r'
* unzipped 'fallen.rar'

--------------

Global load errors on SOD:

Code:

GlobalDRK_chr.s3d.

abysmal_chr.s3d.

anguish_chr.s3d.

barindu_chr.s3d.

bloodfields_chr.s3d.

broodlands_chr.s3d.

causeway_chr.s3d.

chambersa_chr.s3d.

chambersb_chr.s3d.

chambersc_chr.s3d.

chambersd_chr.s3d.

chamberse_chr.s3d.

chambersf_chr.s3d.

corathus_chr.s3d.

corathusa_chr.s3d.

corathusb_chr.s3d.

delvea_chr.s3d.

delveb_chr.s3d.

drachnidhive_chr.s3d.

drachnidhivea_chr.s3d.

drachnidhiveb_chr.s3d.

drachnidhivec_chr.s3d.

dranik_chr.s3d.

draniksscar_chr.s3d.

dreadspire_chr.s3d.

dulak_chr.s3d.

eastkorlach_chr.s3d.

ferubi_chr.s3d.

fhalls_chr.s3d.

freportn_chr.s3d.

freportw_chr.s3d.

ggm_chr.s3d.

guka_chr.s3d.

gukb_chr.s3d.

gukc_chr.s3d.

gukd_chr.s3d.

guke_chr.s3d.

gukf_chr.s3d.

gukg_chr.s3d.

gukh_chr.s3d.

harbingers_chr.s3d.

ikkinz_chr.s3d.

illsalin_chr.s3d.

inktuta_chr.s3d.

kodtaz_chr.s3d.

nadox_chr.s3d.

natimbi_chr.s3d.

nedaria_chr.s3d.

nektulosa_chr.s3d.

nro2_chr.s3d.

nro_chr.s3d.

oasis2_chr.s3d.

oasis_chr.s3d.

potranquility_chr.s3d.

provinggrounds_chr.s3d.

qimini_chr.s3d.

selibis_chr.s3d.

soltemple_chr.s3d.

sro_chr.s3d.

.s3d.

Removing globallload offenders does not fix the crash while zoning issue with SOD client. I've removed each of the error generating lines from globalload.txt (including a couple not detailed above) and it still crashes on zone (100% of the time).

Reverting to standard globalload.txt resolves the issue.

7400MS and rising, really really laggy, thought I'd let you know.

EDIT: Reached 8600MS before disconnecting.

Starting zone is down.

Varlyndria: Ascension is down for maintenance while we try to find the bugs that are causing some of the crashes. We'll be up later today.

awww damn, just got home from work. was psyched about playing =P

Removed all buffs from players in the database since older buffs that don't exist anymore were causing major crashes when getting buffed with a newer spell.

The EQemu Launcher now properly works with Varlyndria: Ascension.
Please make sure to use this version of it:

http://moestaverne.com/download.html...ncher_v171.zip