Fridgecritter 2X Diablo 2 random loot
 

Hello there,

I have been playing on a few servers here, and tooling around with the idea of setting up a server with 2X exp, and using GeorgeS Diablo 2 loot table editing program. I have been configuring the server for a few days, and am still constantly working on it, but it is up and running, and pretty fun.

I put potions in addition to the mobs' regular loot on mobs level 1-10. From 11 up, the items get better and better as you fight higher level mobs. you never know what the mob is going to drop. It's pretty fun.

I have scripted my own teleporter based on the basic sample from this forum, and made the exp higher in the zones that the teleporter can port to. There is also a spell scriber and buffs NPC in the same area.

I am working on the website next, and will post here when it's up. The name is registered and webspace allocated already, I just need to install a CMS system (probably e107) to house it.

I will be hiring one guide to help out in the next few weeks too. I will be picking the candidates from players from the server. Please don't spam me with emails asking to be a guide if you don't play on the server.

Have fun!

i might have a go at the server , how hard is it in wise , solo ? , gruop , raid server?

Well, I logged in and played for a bit. I have one thing to say... The experience goes far too slow to attract people.

Your server is based off of D2 rules...which is supposed to be fast-paced, fun and constantly moving. However, 2x reg experience makes for a very slow grind to lvl 75. At lvl 3 i was getting less than a blue bubble of exp per kill! I'm sorry, but it might be for some..just not for me.

I'm just trying to offer some constructive criticism. I envision a D2 style game to move fast with lots of loot. This is very very slow.

Some things I would think should go with a D2 style server are the following:

1) Fast lvling
2) Lots of random loot
3) Potions easy to come by allowing soloability and helping the "fast play"
4) Perhaps a timer on how often you can use a potion (5-10sec) so it's not too easy

These are some of the things i would look for and expect. Hope I help ya.

Really, Diablo and EQ are two different games. Diablo2 is much smaller than is EQ and very linear (you always move through the same few towns ands areas). In EQ, randomizing all drops to the same tables is interesting and different, but for me will shorten the game. why would i want to go to Sebilis for a Fungus Covered Scale Tunic if it will drop anywhere in the game? You really have to plan what you are doing if you use the D2 drop system, else you soon run out of goals and interest.
In Diablo you have to get to certain bosses and kill them, in order to proceed to the next level of higher mobs - if you don't, then you can't level, and higher level random drops will not be available to you.
True, D2 has plenty of drops, but most of it is "yard trash". The good drops are uncommon too. Some of the real good drops come off big "area-bosses" (big bosses have increased possibility, you can still get it off a lesser mob, but then you could get stuck by lightning too) and can be very rare. There are extremely rare drops in D2, that to this day I have never seen (and I played D2 a very long time). Take SoJ for example (Stone of Jordan Ring), The only time I ever got a few of these was when I had three bots running day and night for over a week. Legally, I never saw one in all my years of play.
I never liked drop-policies in EQ or D2. I always thought, "If you pay for the game, you're entitled to everything the game has to offer, including drops". EQ is the same story, I would have never seen half the drops had it not been for EqEmu.
In EqEmu, you're able to make your own policies - but be careful how you do that, because players will get bored and drop out fast.
Probably, if you want your players to level fast (2x, 3x) then the drops need to happen faster also. Already by default, the game levels very fast (Eq) , I guess it's that way on Live nowdays, so faster drop rates are in order ( you don't want to get out of level range with few or no drops, and I mean good drops, because they were too rare).

this is a great server, defenitly one of the best i've seen around and defenitly one of the ones I could see lasting. Exp is fast enough so you can level at a nice pace and the rops come quick enough to keep you leveling to get that next peice. very good work!

If you are concerned that your players are hitting max level to fast but don't want to make the mid levels a drag you could try a code snippet from KLS.

http://eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22275

hmm i elveled to what , lv 4 without a Single drop :(

You need a custom vendor in the Nexus. When I made my Ranger, I had no weapon or Food/Drink and had to result in using Poxans Sword. The upside to that is the sword hits decent at higher levels. Although the EXP could be higher because in the time it took me to hit level 5, I couldve been 8+ on live in the tutorial with most of my gear even. This is just some feedback, not complaining though as the server has a ton of potential.

i also had to use poxes sword

The starting Cities and goods have been fixxed. As of now the drops start to come on mob levels 10-15 and scale up from there. New charcters should now start with a weapon and gear. If you still have any bug's theres a great GM staff there who are willing to help with just about anything.

I had a weak impression on my first attempt with the server. I was highly disappointed with the rate of lvling (weapons didnt bother me b/c i had a monk).

I decided to give it one more try... I found out that there are certain zones with an exp bonus and stuck to them. Lvling def went faster and i'm far more pleased. I would recommend the same exp bonus for these certain zones to be implemented throughout the entire game world. "If" the server becomes more popular these zones will be too overcrowded and people will get frustrated.

Another concern I have is with the loot system. I was looting lvl 50+ items in my teens...Is this how it's supposed to be? I'm not sure of the reasoning with this. Also, is there a purpose to kill named mobs? Do they guarantee a loot drop? I've been getting some INSANE items off of low lvl mobs and am wondering if there's even a point to kill named guys.

Thank you
 

I really appreciate the input from all of you, especially Angelox. I am constantly updating things to try and make the gaming experience better. I think I can address a couple of things that have been said:

The drops need a LOT of work. I will have to spend hours and hours more balancing the loot table. I was using GeorgeS program to automatically insert items into the loot table. This program does the job it was written to do. Unfortunately, this is not what I want. Because of this, I am going to have to actually put in the work myself to insert some more random drops that are level appropriate.

The starting items issue was fixed, as well as the starting cities. Everyone starts with the right items now, and new players start in Nexus now.

I changed the exp rate from 3X to 2X because people got to level 75 in 2 days when it was 3X. I figured out why this happened as well. I went into the zones table and accidentally changed the exp modifier to 1 with a script. This meant that instead of the .4 that some zones have by defualt, it was 1, so you had the 3X, plus the zone modifier of 1. I am changing the exp rate back to 3X soon.

I thought this was going to be an easy thing to do with that program, but there needs to be a lot more taken into consideration as far as the loot tables go. Also, I agree with you about the hot zones. There are hundreds of maps for a reason, and these hotzones fill up quick once the server is populated.

I have a lot of work to do, and I have already dove into the database to try and figure most of it out. I am in it for the long haul. In the meantime, I answer ALL petitions, so if you are on my server, and you don't want to flood these forums, drop me a /petition and I will read it and make changes when appropriate.

My end goal is not to shortcut exploration of the bosses and such, as is noted in one of the replies... Really I just want to randomize the drops game-world-wide, while keeping them level specific. GeorgeS program does not distinguish level increments. It lets you alter tables by regular, various, and high level. I need to either do it with the research and the console, or I need to write a VB program to do it. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks again for the input.

I would first make one starting zone for all, which would probably be tutorialb, since it was made for that, and will be easy to adapt - then have some sort of "flag" system that gets you out of tutorialb, and to the next level. I still have sqls that will convert all starting zones to tutorialb if you need.
Having all starting zones in the same place is also good for any type server who has few members, as it brings them to play together (that's a big reason Sony started tutorialb, as their player base got smaller).
Anyways, in tutorialb, I had figured Krenshin was the highest mob there, hardest to kill, so, I used him for a "jump-start" quest (used to have) to LoY zones. You probably could alter this quest, and use it to your benefit - Krenshin still drops the item needed.;
Since tutorialb is good for about level 1-15, send the players to a small group of zones (level15-25?), with similar (flag) quests on the big bosses.

server offline?

Potorment
 

I chose Plane of Torment for the higher zone for 70s... I think this is crashing the server. None of the other zones seem to crash it. I will be working today to get it worked out.

Thanks for the tips on tutorialb. I had the zone as one of the choices on the teleporter, but not too many people used it. I guess if you make them go there first, and don't let them out until they bring the quest item, it would work out well. I see a problem with sending them to other similar places and making them get a quest item in order to leave... since the game is so big, and people will want to explore all of it.

Maybe this is not what you meant. If so, elaborate please. I will also be working on the loot tables today. I will be changing the name of the server to ALPHA since I am obviously not ready to have it open all the time, so players enter at your own risk (and by risk I mean several restarts while it's in alpha mode). I should have done a lot more research before opening it in the first place.

Anyhow, it should be a fun project, and last me a while. The server is paid up for 6 months, so it's here long term... I got a good deal on it through work hehe.

Thanks again for all of your input, and the code, Angelox.

I'm actually having a good deal of fun on your server so far. I do have a couple of questions and would like to offer a couple pieces of advice.

Questions: You mentioned putting the server in ALPHA mode and said we can expect several restarts. Does this mean several restarts per play session, per day or per the ALPHA period? Furthermore, will our characters be wiped once you decide the final version is done?

Advice: Give main bosses their own item loot that will give people a reason to kill them. The other piece of advice would be to make all items dropable.

Dropable/ALPHA
 

There will be a few restarts a day, depending on how many changes made to the database I do per day. I will try and wait until I have a few changes made until I do a restart.

As for character wipes... I don't plan on wiping the chars. I don't know if I will have to, and I don't see a reason to do so yet, so the answer for now is no.

I thought about taking the no-drop or no-trade status off of things in an effort to get people to trade back and forth for gear they can't use since there is no economy on a custom server... But I changed my mind because I don't want people hording items and giving it to their alts and not having to earn anything with their alts.

As for the bosses, there will be some planning involved, but I am not sure what yet. I am thinking not just drops, but custom quests that will take you to all corners of Norrath and beyond to finish them, with good rewards of course.

I like that idea. Perhaps I can help you expand on it a bit. A series of quests to kill several of the big-named bosses that give nice items as rewards...AND if you complete certain chains of the quests you get keys allowing entrance into a few locked zones offering higher challenges and better rewards.

Just an idea that would be fun...

Quests
 

Well, after reading this reply, I am kind of disheartened after some thought. I think the project here at eqemu should not stray so much from the original game that it becomes another game altogether. That is my opinion. Having said that, I think if there is so much work done to the quests that it becomes a custom kill-and-quest server, it will take away from the content and theme of the game so much so that it will not be fun.

Ok, so where do I stand after all of this? I think there should be a few changes made to the original game so a small population can play on it while still having fun, and receive some sort of benefit that they would not receive on another server, making it unique and fun. This is why I need to change the random drops so lower level mobs are not dropping level 75 items. It's just not fun.

If I cannot alter the game just slightly without altering too much of the game, I think I will just open a PVP server. That was my first thought before I saw GeorgeS tool to implement random drops.

For now, I plan to wipe everything but the character and inventory info, and dive into the database to manually implement random drops that are level specific. I think this will be the best way to do it. I will keep the spell scriber and teleporter, but no hot zones, no custom exp for the hot zones. Just 3X exp across the board and random drops that are level appropriate.

Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

Custom query
 

Well, I'm used to just diving head first into software and figuring out how to do it later. I started using GeorgeS Diablo II random loot program (great program btw) for implementing loot on my custom server about a week ago. I didn't bother to read the directions, and added loot to the tables. I was frustrated when I didn't get the results I was hoping for, and there were lower level mobs dropping level 75 loot.

After actually reading the help files and doing a little research, I figured out how to use the custom query tool that is built into the program, and I am now working on getting proper loot for appropriate leveled mobs using the program. It is simple enough... All you have to do is enter criteria for what you want to be edited into the tables. If you put "reqlevel<=10 AND an ac<=6". then a level requirement and an AC cutoff is made to distinguish those items.

I am doing all of the loots over again now, and hopefully it will be a lot better, and players will have gear to prepare them for the next level.

First thanks for a the fun server man, Im having tons of fun playing here, but secondly I was just curiois as to if you have an idea of how long it will be before the custom loot tables are implimented, any updates on this would be really appreciated. I jsut like staying on top of things to know what the next big thing is going to be.

This afternoon
 

This afternoon I will be running all the queries on the tables, this should take about an hour or so, then I will implement them if I have time. If not, then it will be tomorrow morning before they are implemented. I want to make sure I get it right this time.

Also, I don't want to flood this forum with issues like this. The website is up at http://www.fridgecritter.com and the forums will be up this morning. You can post there. Thanks.

Here are the statistics for random drops:

100% of mobs in the game with loot tables associated with them have a 35% chance to drop added items randomly along with the regular loot that was already in the loot table.

Levels 1-10 mobs have chance to drop added items up to level 15 and or items with a recommended level of 20.

Levels 11-20 mobs have a chance to drop items up to level 25 and or items with a recommended level of 30.

Levels 21-30 mobs have a chance to drop items up to level 35 and or items with a recommended level of 40.

Are you seeing the pattern? You may get items that are a few levels higher than the mob's level, but not much over that.

At level 60+, Mobs will not drop items (other than items that are from the original drop table) that are level 49 or lower. This makes it so higher level mobs won't drop junk (if they didn't originally drop junk).

Great addition Fridge, Let's see how it works out. Very excited about getting my druid up some levlels and seeing how things go.

Working
 

It seems to be working very well... I also added a little "extra" to bosses so they will drop some pretty good stuff along with their normal drops. After I'm done figuring out a few more bugs that people have submitted, I think it will be finished.

Having said that, does anyone have any interesting ideas for the server, keeping in mind that I don't want to stray too much from semi-custom?

All I have done so far is add some level appropriate drops, and up the exp rate, so I don't want to change the gameplay aspect very drastically in a way that makes the game totally different than live.

Maybe some added quests, or something... I don't know. PVP doesn't seem to be a viable choice since there are too many bugs that need to be worked out of the PVP system. Am I wrong about that? I read a few posts about PVP being broken, so I didn't even venture into that realm. Also, with a sparsely populated server, All it would be is PVE with the occasional naked kill because the player bagged their gear.

The drops and XP increase are amazing, I think the best route to go for a small population server is adding in Hot zones which i believe you may impliment, or have at least tried. Along with these hotzones i think another great idea would be smaller group related GM events, even running one per few days wouldn't be that hard, and with a helpful guide it would be easy as cake.

I'm not talking about throwing in epic quests, but just a small event here and there appropriatly scaled for level would be wonderful. Even adding small things such as an event where a small group of level ~50's would have to run into the Luggald caves in Dulak, Kill Captian Varns and receive small rewards that are slightly above the average of what is dropped.

Just some suggestions, I think the server is nearing an actual plateau where players can come, level and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be

Also as of 2:50pm EST the server is currently down, just a small FYI if you are reading this thread still.

The Random loot items are put back in with the new rule settings, and The drops should now be level appropriate. It should make things a little more fun that way.

I know a couple of people are having trouble with zoneservers going down and up repeatedly, and I don't know what the problem is. I have not made any system changes, and it was doing fine for the last few days. No idea.

Alot of folks are having the same problem. It seems, when you zone, your stuff goes poof. and you are then naked.. The first time this happened to me, i simply zoned again and that fixed the problem. But after being struck naked again after zoning, i tried zoning, camping out relogging etc.. Nothing worked..

When you camp out to char select it does show your char with all items / equip. Just does not seem to compute when you log in..

revert
 

I reverted a few different tables back a few hours in the database and it solved this issue, or seemed to. I haven't had this problem since.

The server is not in the list for now because I am upgrading the hardware due to the population. I underestimated the popularity of a random drop server. It will be back up shortly with 4 GIGs of RAM.

I will be making a lot of zones static, and hopefully this will solve a lot of the zoning into abyss problems where players need to be #kicked then #movechar nexus in order to get back online because the nexus map is smaller, and loads faster.

One of the final adjustments has been made to the server as of March 04, 11:00pm EST. The server was recently upgraded from 786 mb of system RAM to a whopping 4gig's of RAM. This means more static zones (looking to start with 25, and more dynamic zones (also looking to start at 25). With this improvement we will be able to handle more players, have better zoning time and all in all have a faster server.

For those of you whom haven't read this entire thread I figured I would give you a brief synopsis of what makes Fridgecritter's a great place to call home.

The world of Fridgecritter

• Unique Experience
  
  Fridgecritter's runs on a whopping 3x experience modifier across all zones. This means that instead of the grind you have a fun time playing on this server, but still feeling like you have accomplished a lot in doing so. The experience definitely isn't too slow, but also makes it so you can level one or more characters if you feel so inclined.
  
  
• Improved Spell System
  
  Fridgecritter's server unlike many other EMU's has a near complete database of spells, which means instead of finding items with "Unknown spell effect" you now will be able to identify and use every item with every effect.
  
  While this isn't a gamebreaking achievement This really does impact a large portion of the game and makes a huge difference when it comes to 70+ raiding.
  
  
  
• Randomized Drops
  
  Starting level 1 you will see many various potion drops, such as illusions Hastes clarity and various others, many of which sell for tens of platinum
  
  With Fridge's Improved loot system however the fun really begins at level 10. With this loot system you will no longer be collecting trash loots to sell to vendors, instead using a unique setup you will receive loot that is scaled to your level. Which means....
  
  Level 10 - 20 you will see loot appropriately scaled to ~15
  Level 20 - 30 you will see loot appropriately scaled to ~25
  Level 30 - 40 you will see loot appropriately scaled to ~35
  Level 40 - 50 you will see loot appropriately scaled to ~45
  
  And then another great work Fridge has implemented is level 49+ you won't have to worry about finding the next big upgrade because all mobs above 49 have a chance to drop loot level 50 - 75, so the day you hit 51 you may find Amazing top tier loot which gives another sense of accomplishment because it's another achievement you have to look forward too, wearing the new uber armor
  
  
• Great playerbase
  
  
  To date we have average ~9 - 10 players on at ANY given time, that means with the amount of players we have now at any time you can log in and see up to two separate full groups hunting at any location. Not an outstanding number but it's always nice to see others enjoying the same world as you.
  
  Also the playerbase now has reached such amazing numbers (this being Fridgecritter's third or fourth week live) we have logged 25 people on at one given time, that is incredible in my humble opinion for such a new server, and with so many new players joining every day it gives us a good low level spread of players so there aren't just 70's and then the level ones roaming around.
  
  
• Friendly Staff
  
  The staff at fridgecritter's is one of the best around. Not only do they help at any given time of day, they are more than happy to chat up new players, show folk's around and be more than just omniscient figures whom watch others. Also fridge has implimented CSHOME files into his server so now guides and GM's now have a place to hang out. The guides at fridgecritter's take an active role in the community throwing out small custom events and having community gathers such as our Item's Faire this weekend!
  
  

All in all this is a great server,and I hope that everyone here gives it a try just once to see how they enjoy Fridge's world

Thanks!
 

Just wanted to drop my thank you. I've been only only a few times in the past couple days but Wow! You're doing a great job!

Hey what happened to this server?It went down yesterday and havent seen it back.Is there a website for the server?

http://www.fridgecritter.com/news.php
The server is undergoing a loot redo thinggy..
Should be back up before too long

I saw this server was coming back up. cool

Server plans
 

Well, it's been a while since the server went down, and I am back.

I think I should address a few concerns and let everyone know where I am on this project before the old player base gets excited about the server opening again. First off, I am using the server as a dev platform to re-acquaint myself with the server software and commands, as well as the SQL tools (Thanks for all your hard work GeorgeS). This server is going to take a LOT of hard work before it is opened again.

I need to first say that I am currently on the dev team for Lanys' Server, so my time will be stretched thin between the two servers. I am not in a hurry.

The last time I opened the server, I basically played everything by ear and learned as I went along, altering some perl files here and there, and using tools to edit the loot tables a little, paying no attention to the overall balance of the game. This time it's going to be different.

I took the time to read a lot of posts (hours worth of reading) about balance, game play, themes, content and many other subjects pertaining to EQemu. What I found was, there are a bunch of good server teams right now, but few of them are actually organized well enough to roll out a project that will be very fun to play and last a while.

I don't mean to imply that anyone is doing anything worse than anyone else, but for my own preferences, I have some things that need to be done before any real work begins. Being an Army veteran of over 9 years, I believe wholeheartedly in the philosophy that no one plans to fail, they simply fail to plan.

This having been said, I have set up an organizational structure to ensure the stability of the planning of this server. There will not be two DEVs running around like a chicken with their heads cut off doing the work using sticky notes and coordinating only in-game and through emails. This is just not the way I want to do it (I have been involved in teams like this before).

I will tell you the steps I have taken just in case you want to incorporate some of them into your organization.

First off, I am using a freeware version of Microsoft Groove called Collanos. If you don't know what Microsoft Groove is, basically it's a super collaboration tool that allows several individuals to work on a project without having a central server for the files. How does it do this? Each person working on the project synchronizes with the other members on the team, updating the files on everyone's computer at the same time to the latest version.

If you are thinking... how do you keep three people from updating the same perl script unnecessarily? The answer is, tasks, delegation and roles. When you create a new task in the software, you assign a timeline for it to be done, a priority, and a person who is going to do the job. That person updates everyone else (using the collaboration software) on it's progress, and when they commit the final version to synchronization, everyone gets the updated version of the perl file, and everyone is notified that the task is done.

After that lengthy explanation, another lengthy one... Secondly I plan to reopen Fridgecritter.com using a nice CMS (haven't decided which one yet) that will integrate certain aspects of the server into the website. This will include forums with bug tracking (nothing new about that) but the bugs will be confirmed by a Guide (More on the Guide program in a minute) and escalated to the Senior Guide to decide whether the bug needs to be simply escalated to a GM, or handled by the DEVs. If DEVs are needed, the bug will be entered into the collaboration software and a task will be created. See the beauty of this setup? I also want to fully integrate the /guidehelp function into the website so the petitions sent in-game can be read by a mod on the forums. This way even if there are no guides logged in helping, someone may be moderating the forums and can address the issue. Guides will pull double duty on the Forum as mods and in-game helping.

If you are still reading this, hopefully you see a method to my anal-retentiveness. The third aspect of my plan is to bring back the Guide program the way I think it should be ran... strict, rewarding, and fun. This means no Guides with summoning access, or anything close to accessing the database. This means your purpose isn't to run around and flaunt power and be abusive in ooc, kicking people that you have provoked. Guides will be player-volunteers who login to a Guide account and log hours of helping. If this means I go through 50 Guides before one is hired permanently, then so be it.

Oh, I almost forgot the fun part... Work vs Rewards. Just like on live, you will be rewarded for helping. There will be a database (remember that collaboration software I was talking about?) and the more people you help, the more points you will acquire. The Guide gear will be purchased using these points. You don't get to start out with full clicky-gear and run around wielding celestial swords your first day on the job. You will earn medals for helping. These medals are already in the database (Guide medal).

I guess I need to talk about the most important thing... THE GAME. There will be no epics at level 1. There will be custom content. This means you may see limited means of transportation other than the PoK stones. This also means there may be a buff NPC that will help you a little. He will not give a level 1 character a 55 dmg shield. Items will drop that are APPROPRIATE for your level. This means you will not kill a fire beetle and loot a 40/20 sword. This will all be done through custom queries to inject the random loot into the loot tables. There will be a lot of "reclevel<=10" etc... and a lot of thought put into what items go where.

Finally, there will be bots. I don't want to nurf the mobs so much that they can be walked on, and I don't want players to be OP. I want you to be able to spawn 2 bots (yes 2 bots max) and experience content that 3 player groups might experience on live, and a little more. I also want you to be able to put away the bots and group for higher level instances, so no nurfing the mobs in order to solo. That's just my preference. The exp rates will be 3Xexp 3Xaa and increased regen/mana rates.

BTW - how did you fix the random loot to not drop lvl 75 loot on a lvl 2 skelly ? if you can put it into n00b terms for a new server admin that would be great :)

I am really excited about the server Fridge! Any estimated ETA on when a possible playable server will come about?

Spell scriber?