Mercs are quirky; I enjoy them but they will do things or NOT do things that make no sense from time to time. Some of my observations/tips listed here:
- Grouping bugs; once you zone, you may or may not have your group intact if you are boxing. Easy fix, reinvite/regroup.
- Cleric merc will not always rez you. I've discovered this has something to do with the client that you are using. SOD/UF seemed to work; the latest ROF2 client gave me issues. Your mileage may vary.
- Also for cleric mercs, once you get higher level they will spaz out and spam you with a duration heal. I fixed this on my server by removing said spell from their spell lineup. Also, along this same vane; post 65 level mercs may loop weird animations and stop functioning altogether at times; check their spell lineup table to ensure that they are casting what they are supposed to be casting. I found mistakes in the code where 'zerker abilities were assigned to a cleric which would cause the issues. Bottom line, any time the merc is not acting right with casting, check their spell lineup; nine out of ten times, that is the culprit.
- Never exceed ten minutes for the merc upkeep/charge. This will crash your client after the first ten minutes of loading.
- By default, apprentice tier five mercs will have more hitpoints than journeyman tier two; I notice NO difference in their confidence. However, I believe their AC is lower. Hire or adjust accordingly.
There's probably other things I've fixed along the way but these are the main highlights that stick out from using the base merc SQL code from 2013. If someone has updated it since then, I'm not aware of it. All of these observations are NOT from combining the base merc code to the latest server code; but, I suspect it may have not changed much. My base server code is a couple of years old. But at least you'll have an idea of what's going on if you see any of the above happening.
Happy Merc'ing
Hybrid Mode
