Shattered Kingdoms

I understood this, but was worried other people wouldn't.

An update to last week's update went in last night.

Changes:
- Non-unique charms/controls will now save
- Doubled duration of animated dead

Bug Fixes:
- Having a charm/control does not prevent other pets from saving
- Scouts can tame a single pet even if they have a store pet
- Fixed crash when trying to buy items that don't exist
- Fixed obscure crash related to stone skin
- Fixed bug related to Courage religion spell

Excellent!

I still say that charms should not save, and I think scouts were powerful enough without a storebought pet in addition. All of the updates are great, and charm saving is a plus, but it's just a buff to sorcs and scouts that they didn't really need in my opinion.


All the other refinements are pretty awesome sounding, in both sensibility and balance. Thanks D!

When you say scouts were powerful enough... It wasn't working correctly prior to this change. Are you saying they are too powerful now that is is working?

As far as charms, I'd think this change would encourage sorcerers to use non-unique charms more often now, which is not necessarily a buff. Of course you can still use Lathron if you want to, but perhaps there will be more utility in selecting someone more generic?

Well, that was kind of my point: There was utility in selecting other charms already (The most prevalent being selecting charms that aren't dark-aura), and now that's even easier to do because you don't have to worry about travelling over and getting them (thereby making yourself more predictable, and as such more vulnerable) whenever you log in. The reason that I, as a sorc, travel around primarily with Lathron, Losquaty, Bill or Waish isn't because they're the best necessarily: It's because they're either close to a gate target or summonable. The fact that charms also come with you when you recall now is another level of risk that's removed from a sorcerer: I appreciated the fact that if I lost a fight with a charm, I lost that charm's weapon too. Now sorcs are even less invested in fights because they can even recall before their charm dies if they want.

My point in saying that scouts were powerful enough was because their greatest strength lies in their ability to stand out of melee range and shoot people, and allowing them an extra 2+ combat rounds by giving them a storebought pet in addition to their more powerful tamed one gives them even more protection without any drawbacks. Scouts are one of the most popular "unkillable" PvP classes, because it's just as hard, if not moreso, to kill a scout than a sorcerer and scouts don't have to give up any of their offensive bonuses in order to maintain almost all of their defenses. I don't think they needed another large defensive bonus, much like I don't think that sorcs needed any more defensive bonuses (Which is what the charm saving aspect of the game is also, in my eyes). Even if scouts getting two pets was a bugfix, it's still a pretty sizeable buff because it gives that additional safety net.


I think allowing necros to log out with undead while still limiting them to eight undead total is actually a great change that both prevents necros from being all-powerful, and also lowers the amount of prep work required for a necro to be enjoyable. While I still miss the days where killing a necro MEANT something (because now they're not even close to as scary as they used to be, and unless you're surprised by a necro I'd imagine that two PCs could take one with good odds of winning, especially if one is a paladin) the change overall was probably a good thing.

Scouts were strong, I am happy that they were given an extra pet, but before the change I would have leaned more to the side of if scouts and warlocks don't get pets, then no class that can control a pet through other means should get a store bought.

I guess we should see how it works out. People complained so much about how it wasn't fair for warlocks, so I am a little surprised that you might feel differently about scouts. Letting every class have the same opportunity seemed to be what people wanted, so that's what I was trying to do.

At the same time, I'm not married to keeping it exactly this new way if the changes promote a "pet wars" mentality. Or for another thing, we may need to set stricter standards on creatures in order for them to be eligible for sale in a pet shop. We've never set standards on them although I've long felt they were needed.

Skirmish / bow damage >>> warlock spell damage.

I personally resent the fact that charms (and to a lesser degree, controls) now recall with the player. That minimizes even further the risk / gain ratio of sorcerers.

I think these changes really puts a larger focus on having a store bought pet. Which will go to NPC wars in the end. I wish pets where overall a lot weaker, where they act mostly as mounts to get you around, and maybe the utility of bashing a door. Store bought pets shouldn't be able to beat expert level PC's, or take more then 1-2 rounds to be killed by a gm warrior.