More fixes

[kaltrip]

I'm working my way through a list of problems that have cropped up through various patches to the game, especially the final 1.69 patch. So far I've dealt with three of the big ones but there are plenty of smaller things to keep me busy for a while.

• Server restarts: The mechanism that Trespasser used to restart the server was made unusable by an earlier patch. I've now got code that does reliable restarts and takes the opportunity to take a clean backup of the server vault (your characters) before starting the server again.
  
  Item levels: Some items in the game were unusable by level 20s. This was caused because I wanted to make sure that all items that boosted skills for example (like rings of insight, lockpicks and cloaks of elvenkind) were worth a sensible amount. I've now got things working how I want them (I think).
  
  Resting: Rests being interrupted was/is a major issue down in Manatakloss. I believe I've identified and fixed the problem but am not yet certain I've installed the fix correctly. I may need to tweak things slightly but I'm not as worried about this as I was. Also, some low level areas may need some attention along the same lines.

Another issue has come to light which is a result of the 1.69 patch. Weapons, including creature weapons, that do multiple types of damage (e.g. morning stars doing piercing and bludgeoning damage) no longer are resisted unless you have both kinds of damage resistance equipped. This kind of makes sense to me so I'm not really regarding it as a bug, more like a fix, and anyway I'm not sure I can easily code around this change even if I wanted.

There are some other changes to the module that people maybe have noticed. I think they make the module more fun, but if a majority of players think otherwise then I'll change things back to the way they were. These include the following:

• Using ranged weapons will now provoke attacks of opportunity.
  
  Using a potion whilst in combat will also provoke attacks of opportunity.
  
  You will always receive maximum hit points when you level up since everyone seems to reroll until they do anyway.

One other thing. I now have a system in place that effectively archives the server vault each day onto another separate server. This means that if a character becomes bugged, or there is another valid reason, I can restore the character back to how it was at the time the last backup was taken.

If anyone has any problems you can always reach me here via a PM or catch me in game if I'm about; I'm the clueless newbie running around spawning things at random who gets through raise dead scrolls at a record rate.

[Jagannath]

Palace and Manatakloss are still no-rest areas, some odd ones come through, but that's like 1 in 50, seemed a bit better before restart... Could it be the server reverted to a "pre-fix" version of the module?

[kaltrip]

Thanks for the update. The module running is the updated one because I've removed some extraneous debug messages at the same time as the change to resting was made, and they're no longer appearing.

The way resting works is that for each area there is a type of wandering monster to spawn and a percentage chance that this type of monster will spawn. When you attempt to rest a d100 dice is rolled and if the value is above the percentage value for that area then the rest succeeds, otherwise the rest fails and the wandering monsters are spawned in and attack you. Some areas use the same settings for monster type and chance of rest being interrupted. For example, the four drow houses, the three slums and Manatakloss itself all use the same settings and the original percentage chance of rest being interrupted was 99%

There must have been some serious skew in the distribution of the results of the function that returns the d100 value for this to have worked in the past. Presumably Bioware fixed this function at some point and caused the behavior we're seeing.

What I'm going to do is add some debug to the functions that handle resting so that the d100 value rolled and the percentage failure chance that it is being used whenever a rest is attempted in any of the above areas are written to the server logs. I should then be able to see if there is something else going on to cause this problem.

[kaltrip]

For those interested in such things, here's a link to a posting made by Trespasser that I think confirms the suspicions about changes breaking things that I picked up by crawling through the code.

Does anyone else remember that at some point rest spawns used to happen mid-rest? Was that common in all areas or just in the Underdark? The distributed version of the mod that I have does not seem to have this functionality, but there are signs that this may have been in place and then ripped out, possibly because of bugs.

[Jagannath]

I don't remember any mid-rest spawns, however, that does not exclued their existance, might have been a long time ago. What I do remember are, let's call them end-rest spawns, happening after the rest has been successful.

...although now that I come to think of it I have an odd feeling there was a chance for the rest to be interrupted till it was about 1/3 completed. Dunno... If the script says so, I'd guess it was so.

[Jagannath]

Good news, resting seems to be working properly indeed, didn't get any problems resting in Manatakloss and houses, well a few rest spawns occured but that's way better than a few dozen Great job Kal Hope palace is fixed too >:]

[kaltrip]

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Next on my to do list is that I've noticed that certain end game bosses are vulnerable to certain spells. I can't remember whether this was ever changed in versions of the module later than the one I have. I'm inclined to "fix" this but don't want to go against the spirit of PoA. If people have an inkling about what I'm talking about, and have strong feelings either way, then please let me know by a PM and I'll go with the consensus.

[Pug]

Yeah mana seems ok now had a pretty good run there not checked palace since last attemp hopefully we can get one going soon

[kaltrip]

More fixes have gone in today which should show up next server restart.

1) Rest spawn probabilities have been tweaked slightly following mutterings from players.

2) A certain end game boss should be a bit more of a challenge.

I'm delaying the change relating to restoring spells after a reconnect until the changes above have been tested as not breaking anything and until I've done some more testing of the spell restoration scripting on the backup/test server.

[kaltrip]

I've gone live with the scripts that implement the idea I suggested earlier about keeping track of spell usage in between disconnects and reconnects of a character. This should remove something I find very annoying when playing casters; that if you crash out and have to relog, then you find all your spells gone and have to try and rest in what might not be the easiest of places.

I'd like to thank Pixie here for her help in testing these changes, but there could still be problems or exploits that we didn't find. I'd appreciate any strangeness being reported rather than being taken advantage of.

The updated version of the module will kick in on the next restart.