Mercenaries

[Secrets]

Fairly certain on live mercs do not use weaponry, and instead have min/max values based on level. According to a few posts on ZAM, proficiency determines how many NPCs a merc can take on at once before feeling 'overwhelmed', an overwhelmed merc will fight but with a debuff. Not sure where the debuff is from or if it's a spell or anything. Tier determines the quality (dps output) of the mercenary.

Also, from limited testing on live, mercs seem to follow NPC stat rules more than PC stat rules. With the exception of HP, their damage seems more like that of an equal level NPC. For example, a level 50 mercenary deals around 151 points of damage and quad-attacks. This is close to being on par with a Plane of Justice sentinel, but with extra quad attacks. As for HP their HP is more so that of a player. They do not follow AA rules as far as I can tell, however, they have considerably more AC than a player would at that level. They seemed easily damaged by spell casters, so I assume they have very little resists.

I think the best way to do it would be min/max anyways; weapons do not make sense as mercenaries on live do not store items.

That only covers tank mercs, caster mercs are another animal entirely but from my testing they follow PC spell rules in general but only basic functionality; ie, heals, hots, very minor buffs (no resist buffs. hp/ac only), and cures. I didn't play live when caster (ranged dps) mercs were implemented so I cannot comment on them.

Due to the 'era' of what PEQ is in, If they were added on PEQ they would severely imbalance gameplay unless tweaked. The level 68 mercenaries were doing 768 damage quad (!) and that's a bit absurd for PEQ's DPS output at the moment.

Perhaps PEQ can increase the quality of mercenaries per expansion. They should always match the quality of NPC that is in the next expansion, for general rule of thumb. This is why SOE does level cap increases with most expansions; so they can balance out mercenaries and do a gear reset.

[Robregen]

Due to the 'era' of what PEQ is in

could probably add in an optional rule to allow mercenary or what's not.

[bad_captain]

Okay, I'll see what I can do stat-wise, and use min & max hit. Once it's in place and scaling somewhat, the attack & other combat code can be cleaned up.

For confidence, it also determines if and when a merc flees. I was 'moloing' around crushbone and had 4-5 even or higher con mobs attacking me, and had my merc high-tail it out of there. It was pretty funny.

I have spells cast by healer mercs for apprentice mercs through level 60. I will try to test on the test server with journeyman mercs for their spell lineups- it's based on stance, and journeymen have more stances available.

Once option is to have a scaling rule available where at 100 (%), merc damage output would be exactly what is listed in the database, whereas 50 (%) would be half that. That may be oversimplifying it, but I think something could be in place to easily allow server admins to adjust merc damage (and possible stats), without having to manually update thousands of records (or run a script updating all records).

[sorvani]

Originally Posted by bad_captain

Once option is to have a scaling rule available where at 100 (%), merc damage output would be exactly what is listed in the database, whereas 50 (%) would be half that. That may be oversimplifying it, but I think something could be in place to easily allow server admins to adjust merc damage (and possible stats), without having to manually update thousands of records (or run a script updating all records).

This would be the best way to handle it hands down. Most basic server admins can not do a lot of SQL and a simple rule would be perfect.

[trevius]

Originally Posted by Robregen

could probably add in an optional rule to allow mercenary or what's not.

I believe PEQ has optional SQL that enables the Mercenary Merchants in PoK (at least). If someone doesn't want to use mercs, they just don't run that SQL. I know it changes the NPC names, but I am not certain if it changes their class to be Merc Merchant class or not. If it does change the class, then it should be fairly simple for servers to decide to use mercs or not by enabling the merchants or not. For anyone using Live collects (such as the ones Robregen has done), people would manually have to change all other zones with merc merchants like Crescent Reach or other newbie zones that might have them.

A rule would probably be fine, but I think the simplest rule would be to just have it disable the merchants. If it doesn't send class 71, then they can't get the mercenaries. We could probably add a rule to the fill spawn struct function to change class 71 to class 1 or something instead if mercs are disabled.

And yeah, from what I have read, confidence only effects how many NPCs they can have on their hate list before they start fleeing. There were some interesting posts on ZAMs about people finding ways around having their mercs flee when multiples were attacking. It probably wouldn't be too hard to copy that mechanic based on the info provided, but to me that sounds like implementing an exploit from Live just to try to copy it exactly.

I agree with Secrets that Live probably uses min/max for Mercs as well as stats instead of equiping armor. There is really no need to have them equip actual items unless they were going to allow those items to be changed out by players. Otherwise, it is just a waste of DB space for them and more DB hits than would be required without them.

I know there was a time when anytime you saw an NPC with a weapon, they actually had that weapon in their inventory. I am not sure exactly when that changed, but I am positive they don't do that all of the time anymore. I know at least by TBS they had started just sending weapon models with wearchange packets for NPCs that didn't actually wield the weapon they showed. I know this because I remember seeing an NPC in Stonehive with a weapon that wasn't on its corpse after I killed it (and wasn't something that is included with that NPC model). They probably changed that to be more flexible and maybe to mess with ShowEQ users as well, since I know people used to look for NPCs with weapons equipped so they knew which ones to go after.

BTW, awesome work so far, Secrets! Hopefully we will be ready to merge with the trunk soon.

[blackdragonsdg]

While I like the idea of percentage based control over mercs I do think a rule should be in place to allow for complete disabling of the mercs. Not all servers will want the bots/mercs because of potential balance and/or performance issues. How about stick with the percentage idea but make 0% completely disable the mercs.

[sorvani]

bots != mercs ever.

Mercs will always be active in code (once implemented) as that is the correct matching live route that EQEmu has taken. If you do not want them, do not add a merchant offering them, that is the customization route that EQEmu has taken.

[Robregen]

another thing to consider is SoD+ clients are not available to purchase or download from stream at this time. Probably the majority of players use Titanium across most server. Unless someone wants to keep up with Live client to make it playable with emu to make use of mercenaries.

[bad_captain]

The way it is currently in the database (and handled by the server), is that it will not send the data to the client if they do not match the correct client version. So, if a client is using titanium, it won't send any data to it (and it wouldn't be able to handle it anyway).

If the majority of users use titanium, then they have the ability to use bots, if the server allows it, of course.

I guess we just have to hope that they put another version of EQ on steam or somewhere else for purchase.

[Noport]

Secrets said, Fairly certain on live mercs do not use weaponry, Problem has been solved they do now 80)

[trevius]

Originally Posted by Robregen

Probably the majority of players use Titanium across most server.

I don't think that is the case anymore. I think TFH is about 50% SoD+ clients, and EZ is probably 90% or more now. I don't know offhand what the numbers are for PEQ, but they are probably 50% or so as well for SoD+ clients. Most people run the UF client these days. Even though Titanium and SoF are the only legally available clients, they are still fairly hard to come across and most people don't bother trying to find them. The majority of clients attained these days are probably from illegal downloads. It is unfortunate there isn't a better option at this time, but it is what it is. At least most people who would want SoD or UF could probably get them if they really wanted to so they can use mercs and such.

Hopefully at some point in the future we will have a legal route for clients again that isn't so hard to locate and purchase (especially considering international players).

Sounds like Noport tried the MercsAndBots branch and saw that they are wielding weapons (which they always have on the branch). I guess he thinks that means we figured out the solution to the Mercs equiping weapons discussion in this thread. That is my interpretation anyway. Problem solved!

[KLS]

I've stuck this since it's currently active.

Also yeah the client thing is becoming an issue. I think realistically we're going to have to have a discussion about actually creating our own client sooner or later.

[Caryatis]

Thats going to be an interesting discussion considering the current stance on torrents. At least with torrents, there is wiggle room as if you bought something and lost the CDs you are kind of entitled to that data still, however its much more cut and dry when you are talking about ripping out the intellectual property(models, textures, zones, etc) and using them in your own product.

[KLS]

It's not really anything new, game recreations requiring original installs have been around for a long time. Regardless this isn't the place.

[Secrets]

Just an update, moved mercs to NPC derived, gonna be a lot of bugs/un-implemented things that were bandaided before, such as merc death, merc zoning, etc.

Group joining/states will also be a pain to work with, from my limited testing.

Committing what I did tonight though