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Post by Pelican on May 2, 2013 18:24:34 GMT -5
I have recently been trying to iron out bugs with mercenaries because I was considering implementing them. Personally, I hate using bots, and I have heard that mercenaries perform better, so I was thinking they could be a viable alternative. I would like to hear all of your opinions on the subject though.
Since you can only have a single mercenary at once, I was trying to think of a good way to keep the server balanced. My first idea is to make the 2nd bot quest in Velious actually be the 1st bot quest, so you can have one mercenary and one bot; thus, you only have to deal with one idiot per group. My other idea is to completely remove bots and just allow you to have a mercenary only. To compensate for the lack of an extra group member, I could possibly do a global weakening of monsters by 20% or so.
Right now, I am having weird crashes when I test mercenaries, so it will probably take a bit for me to change anything anyway, but I just wanted to hear if anyone had any opinions on either of my ideas or ideas of their own.
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slug
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by slug on May 4, 2013 8:13:49 GMT -5
either 1 bot or one merc and a weakened sever would be cool with me. I have never used a merc so i look forwards to a new experience either way!
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Post by wanton on May 5, 2013 3:02:39 GMT -5
One merc and 20% reduction sounds great
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Post by aludais on May 6, 2013 16:20:52 GMT -5
the only server i have tried eqemu with mecrs has totally removed them for the same reason constant crashing of zones and lack of function. im not sure there is a complete replacement for them aside from the lack of need. which in my trials on botless servers the balance is garbage. the bosses are ment to be dynamic and require multi chars to be fullfilled. your current setup seems the most challanging yet balanced of any emu out there. i think changing the current dynamic is a bad idea anyone can control a bot with 45min of practice and hotkeys. i think a full post with a how to on bot function would be more helpful. id happaly playtest mercs for you as much as needed im just not sure thy can fill the gap and honestly losting 1 bot per char is 2bots in a group so 20% downgrade will make most of your bosses past vulak impossable to do alone. again ill test the crap out of it if ya want ill make new chars anything. just not sure its ganna get you what your seeking
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Post by Pelican on May 6, 2013 19:36:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback all of you. I recently tested mercs on my own. Using my rogue/bard combo with sk/cleric bots, I was able to take Phara Dar down to 10% (I know, I suck). Then I tried the battle with no bots, and instead I used a warrior merc and a cleric merc. Despite the mercs being significantly better statistically, I couldn't get Phar Dar past 40% in either of my attempts. It appears that mercenaries, although more convenient, still just are not sound enough in combat.
I still think the one merc + a 20% reduction is a good plan when mercenaries become better tactically. This is because most people play two characters, so if each character loses a bot, that is a loss of 2/6 players from that group. Mathematically, this would justify a 33% reduction for post-Kunark content; however, mercenaries do not need to be geared and have very good stats, so they are probably stronger than bots would be. That is why I think a 20% reduction would be wiser. I'll be sure to design any changes to be easily revertible though in case I am wrong.
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Post by frenzic on May 9, 2013 18:43:09 GMT -5
I do like how mercs work but there is no shaman, ench ect as mercs. Its Warrior, cleric, rogue, wizard only. I think it would be better to just get the bots to work better. I'm surprised that no one has attempted to recode them.
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