From pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net Sun Sep 6 09:53:29 2020 From: pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net (Preston Crow) Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2020 10:53:29 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] unaggressive monsters Message-ID: <0d51ab1c-c917-4b19-4c1f-6e2acd2c32a1@crowcastle.net> I'm trying to create some monsters that aren't aggressive until they see combat near them.  I've taken a regular monster and added 'unaggressive 1' which makes them stand there as expected, but they don't notice fights around them, only when they are attacked. What do I do to make them more trigger happy, but content to stand still and chat most of the time? From kevinz5000 at gmail.com Sun Sep 6 16:13:30 2020 From: kevinz5000 at gmail.com (Kevin Zheng) Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2020 14:13:30 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] unaggressive monsters In-Reply-To: <0d51ab1c-c917-4b19-4c1f-6e2acd2c32a1@crowcastle.net> References: <0d51ab1c-c917-4b19-4c1f-6e2acd2c32a1@crowcastle.net> Message-ID: <04a26f9e-dedd-931e-efae-52daab31d762@gmail.com> On 9/6/20 7:53 AM, Preston Crow wrote: > I'm trying to create some monsters that aren't aggressive until they see > combat near them.  I've taken a regular monster and added 'unaggressive > 1' which makes them stand there as expected, but they don't notice > fights around them, only when they are attacked. > > What do I do to make them more trigger happy, but content to stand still > and chat most of the time? How close are these unaggressive monsters to the monster you attack? When an unaggressive monster is attacked, it calls monster_npc_call_help() in server/monster.c. It currently has help_radius set to 3, so monsters too far away will not notice. Is this consistent with what you observe? From pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net Sun Sep 6 17:40:09 2020 From: pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net (Preston Crow) Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2020 18:40:09 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] unaggressive monsters In-Reply-To: <04a26f9e-dedd-931e-efae-52daab31d762@gmail.com> References: <0d51ab1c-c917-4b19-4c1f-6e2acd2c32a1@crowcastle.net> <04a26f9e-dedd-931e-efae-52daab31d762@gmail.com> Message-ID: That's helpful.  I got it working.  I think my problem was that I was editing the map on one system and then copying it over to my server, but somehow I missed the update so the server had an old copy. But knowing how it works is great.  In this case, the value of 3 is alright, but I might want to tweak it, so I'll probably change the code to let it be dynamic:     help_radius = object_get_value(op,"help_radius");     if ( !help_radius ) help_radius = 3; I think with that, I can set 'help_radius 5' or whatever to a particular creature to make it yell louder when attacked. That's not quite as good as having a monster get angry from seeing combat near it, even if it didn't start near it, but it will do. On 2020-09-06 17:13, Kevin Zheng wrote: > On 9/6/20 7:53 AM, Preston Crow wrote: >> I'm trying to create some monsters that aren't aggressive until they see >> combat near them.  I've taken a regular monster and added 'unaggressive >> 1' which makes them stand there as expected, but they don't notice >> fights around them, only when they are attacked. >> >> What do I do to make them more trigger happy, but content to stand still >> and chat most of the time? > How close are these unaggressive monsters to the monster you attack? > > When an unaggressive monster is attacked, it calls > monster_npc_call_help() in server/monster.c. It currently has > help_radius set to 3, so monsters too far away will not notice. > > Is this consistent with what you observe? From pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net Sun Sep 13 20:39:30 2020 From: pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net (Preston Crow) Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2020 21:39:30 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] seg. fault with latest commit Message-ID: <9f9b502b-b103-990c-0448-156a559fc579@crowcastle.net> There's a reproducible seg fault in is_identifiable_type() in item.c in cases where get_typedata(op->type) return NULL. I hit this consistently when trying to board a sailing ship. I'm not totally clear on what is going on, so I won't commit my change, but this is what I've found works for me.  Someone who knows the code better should commit a fix: int is_identifiable_type(const object *op) {     /* Special case -- skill tools don't have an associated identification      * skill but still need IDing. TODO: we should probably have per-tool ID      * skills, e.g. thievery for lockpicks and thaumaturgy for talismans, but      * currently there's no good way to do this because the identifyskill is      * tied to the itemtype rather than to the arch. */     if ( op->type == SKILL_TOOL ) return TRUE;     if ( !get_typedata(op->type) ) return FALSE;     return get_typedata(op->type)->identifyskill; } From nicolas.weeger at laposte.net Wed Sep 16 04:38:50 2020 From: nicolas.weeger at laposte.net (Nicolas Weeger) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 11:38:50 +0200 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal Message-ID: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> Hello. I'd like to revamp the archetypes / faces / treasures / etc. "collect" mechanism. This proposal is opened to discussion & suggestions & criticism of course :) To simplify, I'll call "assets" everything that is in the "arch" repository: archetypes, pictures, faces, animations, treasures, artifacts, and what ever else I'm missing ;) The goal: make it easier to add or replace existing assets for contributors, simplify assets distribution, and make it easy for server admins to add/remove extra or "official" assets. My proposal: - have the server recursively browse "data" directory to find all assets - browse in a deterministic manner (sorted case-sensitive, depth first) - allow override of defined assets (thus the need to have a deterministic browsing pattern) - remove the requirement for "collect" - keep the "collect" mechanism to consolidate assets in big files easy for distribution - have it work for non official assets too This way, one could: - use collected asset files in the "data" directory => have "official" Crossfire assets - use collected asset files, add a directory "my-assets" with additional or replacement assets => extend the game - have an empty "data" directory and a symlink to "arch" repository => use trunk assets - add as many directories as wanted to alter assets as needed - use "official" collected asset files, and add custom collected asset files - and so on I think that for asset contributors it'll be easier to test changes (no need to "make do-collect && make install"); it'll allow contributors to distribute "asset packs" which can simply be put into data/subdir by server admins; it'll make it easy for people wanting to maintain extra/non official stuff without messing with the "arch" repository (avoiding conflicts with changes and such). One big drawback is that the server startup will probably be slower, and the code more complex (to handle overriding). I think that's an acceptable drawback, but that's subject to discussion ;) Nicolas -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 195 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part. URL: From pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net Wed Sep 16 11:37:41 2020 From: pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net (Preston Crow) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 12:37:41 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal In-Reply-To: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> References: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> Message-ID: So the simple version of the proposed change is to have the arch directory work like the maps do now instead of like source code that is complied in.  (And other details like allowing overrides.) I like the idea. The current system is broken in that I can make arch changes and the Makefiles don't detect any changes, so I have to manually do the collect to pull in the changes.  Fixing that would be a pain. As to the start-up time, how much longer will it really take? Running 'make do-collect' just took 1.166s on my laptop.  Even 5s wouldn't be a big problem for recovering from a server crash. From leaf at real-time.com Wed Sep 16 11:53:00 2020 From: leaf at real-time.com (Rick Tanner) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 11:53:00 -0500 Subject: [crossfire] seg. fault with latest commit In-Reply-To: <9f9b502b-b103-990c-0448-156a559fc579@crowcastle.net> References: <9f9b502b-b103-990c-0448-156a559fc579@crowcastle.net> Message-ID: <78f0414b-5add-0d8a-2db9-0b809fcb4239@real-time.com> On 9/13/20 8:39 PM, Preston Crow wrote: > There's a reproducible seg fault in is_identifiable_type() in item.c in > cases where get_typedata(op->type) return NULL. This has been fixed. Revision: 21430 http://sourceforge.net/p/crossfire/code/21430 Author: toxicfrog Date: 2020-09-14 13:43:33 +0000 (Mon, 14 Sep 2020) Log Message: ----------- Fix segfault when calling is_identifiable_type() on something with no typedata Thanks to Preston Crow on crossfire-devel for the bug report. From kevinz5000 at gmail.com Wed Sep 16 22:38:42 2020 From: kevinz5000 at gmail.com (Kevin Zheng) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 20:38:42 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal In-Reply-To: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> References: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> Message-ID: <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> On 9/16/20 2:38 AM, Nicolas Weeger wrote: > To simplify, I'll call "assets" everything that is in the "arch" repository: > archetypes, pictures, faces, animations, treasures, artifacts, and what ever > else I'm missing ;) Do maps have a place here, as well? > The goal: make it easier to add or replace existing assets for contributors, > simplify assets distribution, and make it easy for server admins to add/remove > extra or "official" assets. These sound like good goals to me. > My proposal: > - have the server recursively browse "data" directory to find all assets > - browse in a deterministic manner (sorted case-sensitive, depth first) > - allow override of defined assets (thus the need to have a deterministic > browsing pattern) > - remove the requirement for "collect" > - keep the "collect" mechanism to consolidate assets in big files easy for > distribution - have it work for non official assets too To keep things simple, why keep the collect mechanism? Couldn't we put the "official" assets into a big ZIP file, and teach the server how to open ZIP files like ordinary directories? Scan the index, create sorted case-sensitive depth-first order, etc. > One big drawback is that the server startup will probably be slower, and the > code more complex (to handle overriding). > > I think that's an acceptable drawback, but that's subject to discussion ;) `make do-collect` on a cold cache on my dated computer, with an SSD, takes 6.3 sec. I imagine it could be a bit slower for those with spinning magnetic media. This seems acceptable for a video game, and particularly for a server that's supposed to be long-running. But, we should still profile, see what's slow, and try to make this faster. What would your strategy be for a change like this? One interim strategy, just to keep everything working, could be to invoke the current collect process at server start via fork/exec, read in output via loader, then start. Then merge the steps until they become one. Regards, Kevin From mwedel at sonic.net Thu Sep 17 00:28:42 2020 From: mwedel at sonic.net (Mark Wedel) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:28:42 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal In-Reply-To: <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> References: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> Message-ID: <4d1aeff5-8911-428a-7236-82cec62514d5@sonic.net> This idea seems reasonable. The original collection dates back to a time when hard drives were much slower (and amount of memory in systems was less, so likelihood of that data being cached was low) Like Kevin, I'm not sure if there is still need for collected archetypes - the tar file could just be distributed as is now, and have it unpacked as part of the install. At least for the .arc files, in theory, I think a 'cat */*.arc > everything.arc' would more or less work - archetype files can currently have more than one archetype. The issue is the png files - those can not be simply combined - some form of container would be needed, whether that is zip, tar, or custom format currently used. One advantage in the past was that having large files was more efficient if you wanted to compress them, but that isn't an issue now days. From nkipps at gmail.com Thu Sep 17 18:31:56 2020 From: nkipps at gmail.com (Nathaniel Kipps) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:31:56 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal In-Reply-To: <4d1aeff5-8911-428a-7236-82cec62514d5@sonic.net> References: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> <4d1aeff5-8911-428a-7236-82cec62514d5@sonic.net> Message-ID: > Do maps have a place here, as well? FWIW, I think distributing maps, arches, artifacts, recipes, treasurelists, etc., as a single unit makes sense to me. The original proposal of moving the collect phase into server-start, instead of server-compile, is a good one. A few more seconds on server startup is really not so bad. More optimization would always be nice, but a server that can still start faster than a client means it is more than fast enough already. --DraugTheWhopper From nicolas.weeger at laposte.net Mon Sep 28 10:06:12 2020 From: nicolas.weeger at laposte.net (Nicolas Weeger) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:06:12 +0200 Subject: [crossfire] Archetypes collection changes proposal In-Reply-To: <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> References: <1906015.4M1vBobDh4@gros> <80a01eb7-6d0c-fb2a-a8b1-f940ce4ff1c5@gmail.com> Message-ID: <3388854.mQ0F4qPJ1e@gros> Hello. > Do maps have a place here, as well? Didn't think about them, good question. They could probably, but I don't plan to have them handled right now like other assets. > To keep things simple, why keep the collect mechanism? Couldn't we put > the "official" assets into a big ZIP file, and teach the server how to > open ZIP files like ordinary directories? Scan the index, create sorted > case-sensitive depth-first order, etc. Having a .zip is indeed a possibility, but that's not something I plan at start. For the 'collect', I like the idea of having consolidated files that were "validated" for consistency (like all referenced archetypes are defined, things like that). Also, what I like with the current system is that most files are plain text files that are easy to adjust if needed. So .zip/.tar support could be added, but imo shouldn't be mandatory, to keep it easy to tweak. > `make do-collect` on a cold cache on my dated computer, with an SSD, > takes 6.3 sec. I imagine it could be a bit slower for those with > spinning magnetic media. This seems acceptable for a video game, and > particularly for a server that's supposed to be long-running. But, we > should still profile, see what's slow, and try to make this faster. Yes, performance isn't that high on my topic list right now. Also since I plan on adding the collect mechanism back later, we will be able to use single files like right now, so I don't expect any performance issue. > What would your strategy be for a change like this? One interim > strategy, just to keep everything working, could be to invoke the > current collect process at server start via fork/exec, read in output > via loader, then start. Then merge the steps until they become one. Current strategy: - have the server recursively find files in "arch" directory - remove the current collect mechanism - maybe rename some files (add extensions and such) - add new collect mechanism to consolidate archetypes, treasures, and such - format for pictures to be defined - optionally add tar/zip/... support (which could solve the picture format question) Best regards Nicolas -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 195 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part. URL: From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 12:05:19 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 10:05:19 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted Message-ID: Pardon: re-sending with a subject line this time. Hi there, I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, is seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's castle, and I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the Zorn quests. I have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and kills me in half a second, leaving me no time to react or heal (i.e. "I hope this guy isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to flip a coin and charge him"). Is there some trick or late-game armor (i.e. with high AC or bonuses) that I'm not aware of that players use to beat these monsters. I'm looking at an old "abusive artifacts" thread ( http://archives.real-time.com/rte-crossfire/Attic/msg00411.html), and it would seem my gear is significantly better (listed below). Also, I'm looking at another thread that notes Zorn castle is an easy way to grind to level 100 ( http://mailman.metalforge.org/pipermail/crossfire/2007-June/011546.html). However, everything has obscene stats (i.e. AC, WC, attack types, attack speed). I could always cheese my way through using "invoke charm monsters; killpets" abuse, but I actually want to do a legit playthrough of this game, without cheesing through the hard battles or using glitches. Is there some play balance issue I'm overlooking, or did some code change years back suddenly make a level 40 dungeon into an impossible level 110+ dungeon? i.e. the first character I need to kill just to get into this dungeon is: >> merchant "Irritable Zorn" >> ac => -120 >> attacktype => 65921 >> can_see_in_dark => 1 >> con => 85 >> dam => 85 >> exp => 20000 >> hitback => 1 >> hp => 10000 >> level => 200 >> maxhp => 10000 >> maxsp => 500 I'm using: - Valriel's Plate Mail (maybe just use chain mail of winter for the obscene AC boost? I've seen someone with WDSM fly through it, but I don't know the rest of their gear). - Gorokh's cloak, etc (i.e. I beat the heaven and hell quests, but the final monsters there also like to instant-kill a level 80 character too; so I had to cheese them with Red Death from Devourers). - Belzebub's Sword of devourers (multiple attack types, prevents confusion). - Valriel's girdle (better than fire god's girdle; best girdle even?). - Ancient bracers of dexterity (acid resistance). - Ring of halvor (prevent paralysis). - Ring of the elements (sometimes switch to ring of combat). - Wizard hat. The best AC I can pull off around now is about -14, hence why I was attracted to the Zorn quests (i.e. chaos crowns and other stuff to boost AC a lot). i.e. http://maps.deliantra.net/brest/zorn/castle.upper.floor.one.xhtml Any advice on better gear I should farm? I genuinely want to play through all of the dungeons (in the little downtime I have) over the coming months, rather than just re-playing heaven, hell, Warrior's Tower, Snake Pit and Wizard's tower, etc; but if I'm getting clobbered by an instant-kill monster I'm prepared for, no point in going into random dungeons that like to teleport you into a room of one-hitters. I've even pulled off getting to the WDSM a few times in Ancient Pupland (but, unfortunately, just got the Zonk instead, so I'm not lazy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 11:46:48 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:46:48 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: Hi there, I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, is seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's castle, and I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the Zorn quests. I have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and kills me in half a second, leaving me no time to react or heal (i.e. "I hope this guy isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to flip a coin and charge him"). Is there some trick or late-game armor (i.e. with high AC or bonuses) that I'm not aware of that players use to beat these monsters. I'm looking at an old "abusive artifacts" thread ( http://archives.real-time.com/rte-crossfire/Attic/msg00411.html), and it would seem my gear is significantly better (listed below). Also, I'm looking at another thread that notes Zorn castle is an easy way to grind to level 100 ( http://mailman.metalforge.org/pipermail/crossfire/2007-June/011546.html). However, everything has obscene stats (i.e. AC, WC, attack types, attack speed). I could always cheese my way through using "invoke charm monsters; killpets" abuse, but I actually want to do a legit playthrough of this game, without cheesing through the hard battles or using glitches. Is there some play balance issue I'm overlooking, or did some code change years back suddenly make a level 40 dungeon into an impossible level 110+ dungeon? i.e. the first character I need to kill just to get into this dungeon is: >> merchant "Irritable Zorn" >> ac => -120 >> attacktype => 65921 >> can_see_in_dark => 1 >> con => 85 >> dam => 85 >> exp => 20000 >> hitback => 1 >> hp => 10000 >> level => 200 >> maxhp => 10000 >> maxsp => 500 I'm using: - Valriel's Plate Mail (maybe just use chain mail of winter for the obscene AC boost? I've seen someone with WDSM fly through it, but I don't know the rest of their gear). - Gorokh's cloak, etc (i.e. I beat the heaven and hell quests, but the final monsters there also like to instant-kill a level 80 character too; so I had to cheese them with Red Death from Devourers). - Belzebub's Sword of devourers (multiple attack types, prevents confusion). - Valriel's girdle (better than fire god's girdle; best girdle even?). - Ancient bracers of dexterity (acid resistance). - Ring of halvor (prevent paralysis). - Ring of the elements (sometimes switch to ring of combat). - Wizard hat. The best AC I can pull off around now is about -14, hence why I was attracted to the Zorn quests (i.e. chaos crowns and other stuff to boost AC a lot). i.e. http://maps.deliantra.net/brest/zorn/castle.upper.floor.one.xhtml Any advice on better gear I should farm? I genuinely want to play through all of the dungeons (in the little downtime I have) over the coming months, rather than just re-playing heaven, hell, Warrior's Tower, Snake Pit and Wizard's tower, etc; but if I'm getting clobbered by an instant-kill monster I'm prepared for, no point in going into random dungeons that like to teleport you into a room of one-hitters. I've even pulled off getting to the WDSM a few times in Ancient Pupland (but, unfortunately, just got the Zonk instead, so I'm not lazy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net Tue Sep 29 12:26:09 2020 From: pc-crossfire06 at crowcastle.net (Preston Crow) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:26:09 -0400 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 2020-09-29 13:05, Siegfried Eureca wrote: > I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it > on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, is > seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's castle, and > I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the Zorn quests. I > have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and kills me in half > a second, leaving me no time to react or heal (i.e. "I hope this guy > isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to flip a coin and charge him"). Well, you don't need to kill or even confront him to get into the castle.  There is another way.  But if you really want his key, another approach is to get good enough with the stealing skill to just take it.  Of course, if you aren't good enough, you'll anger him, and he'll kill you. From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 12:58:39 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 10:58:39 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thank you: good to know (I'm really trying to avoid map/source diving). But, it seems everyone else in the castle is in a similar league to this guy. On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 10:26, Preston Crow wrote: > On 2020-09-29 13:05, Siegfried Eureca wrote: > > I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it > > on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, is > > seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's castle, and > > I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the Zorn quests. I > > have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and kills me in half > > a second, leaving me no time to react or heal (i.e. "I hope this guy > > isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to flip a coin and charge him"). > > Well, you don't need to kill or even confront him to get into the > castle. There is another way. But if you really want his key, another > approach is to get good enough with the stealing skill to just take it. > Of course, if you aren't good enough, you'll anger him, and he'll kill you. > > _______________________________________________ > crossfire mailing list > crossfire at metalforge.org > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From subscriptions at eracc.org Tue Sep 29 12:49:31 2020 From: subscriptions at eracc.org (Poof) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:49:31 -0800 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20200929094931.5c7ebb36@ealexhome.local> On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:26:09 -0400 Preston Crow wrote: > On 2020-09-29 13:05, Siegfried Eureca wrote: > > I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it > > on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, > > is seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's > > castle, and I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the > > Zorn quests. I have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and > > kills me in half a second, leaving me no time to react or heal > > (i.e. "I hope this guy isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to > > flip a coin and charge him"). > > Well, you don't need to kill or even confront him to get into the > castle.  There is another way.  But if you really want his key, > another approach is to get good enough with the stealing skill to > just take it. Of course, if you aren't good enough, you'll anger him, > and he'll kill you. > > _______________________________________________ > crossfire mailing list > crossfire at metalforge.org > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire Siegfried, I create the Zorn stuff. Unless someone has changed it, there is a hint by talking to a NPC in the area near Zorn where you can find out how to defeat him. Zacharus Zorn is not intended to be easy to beat without knowing his weakness. However, once you know his weakness, you can get in without much trouble. Be aware that Zorn Castle is not easy either. ;) Actually, the suggestion of the stealing skill is a good alternative to exploiting his weakness. But you have to have a pretty high stealing skill to do that without getting stomped by ZZ as I recall. Finally, the Zorn quest was an ambitious idea I had way back when I was active in Crossfire. I moved, changed jobs, and really had / have no time to continue developing it. So it is an unfinished quest, but is good for leveling. Gene Alexander -- Mailing List Subscriptions - subscriptions at eracc.org From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 13:19:22 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 11:19:22 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted In-Reply-To: <20200929094931.5c7ebb36@ealexhome.local> References: <20200929094931.5c7ebb36@ealexhome.local> Message-ID: I recall that now. It's just that I can't get in a clean shot with my attack unless I lure him outside his shop, and when he's close, he one-shots me. Maybe I can make a prayer-trap or something. On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 11:07, Poof wrote: > On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:26:09 -0400 > Preston Crow wrote: > > > On 2020-09-29 13:05, Siegfried Eureca wrote: > > > I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it > > > on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, > > > is seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's > > > castle, and I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the > > > Zorn quests. I have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and > > > kills me in half a second, leaving me no time to react or heal > > > (i.e. "I hope this guy isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to > > > flip a coin and charge him"). > > > > Well, you don't need to kill or even confront him to get into the > > castle. There is another way. But if you really want his key, > > another approach is to get good enough with the stealing skill to > > just take it. Of course, if you aren't good enough, you'll anger him, > > and he'll kill you. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > crossfire mailing list > > crossfire at metalforge.org > > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire > > Siegfried, > > I create the Zorn stuff. Unless someone has changed it, there is a hint by > talking to a NPC in the area near Zorn where you can find out how to defeat > him. Zacharus Zorn is not intended to be easy to beat without knowing his > weakness. However, once you know his weakness, you can get in without much > trouble. Be aware that Zorn Castle is not easy either. ;) > > Actually, the suggestion of the stealing skill is a good alternative to > exploiting his weakness. But you have to have a pretty high stealing skill > to do that without getting stomped by ZZ as I recall. > > Finally, the Zorn quest was an ambitious idea I had way back when I was > active in Crossfire. I moved, changed jobs, and really had / have no time > to continue developing it. So it is an unfinished quest, but is good for > leveling. > > Gene Alexander > > -- > Mailing List Subscriptions - subscriptions at eracc.org > _______________________________________________ > crossfire mailing list > crossfire at metalforge.org > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 21:26:11 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 19:26:11 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Advice for late-game gear: getting constantly one-shotted In-Reply-To: References: <20200929094931.5c7ebb36@ealexhome.local> Message-ID: Thank you for the help. For the longest time I just focused on elemental/status resistances, and completely ignored AC.I think more recent years of DnD and Monter Hunter made me realize how silly that was. I'm now at AC-30 and cruising through Zorn castle. FWIW, I think it's cool to hear from devs, esp. when they last worked on a map over a decade ago. I've played this game a long time it seems (and only recently started learning how to play it well). :) On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 11:19, Siegfried Eureca wrote: > I recall that now. It's just that I can't get in a clean shot with my > attack unless I lure him outside his shop, and when he's close, he > one-shots me. Maybe I can make a prayer-trap or something. > > On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 11:07, Poof wrote: > >> On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:26:09 -0400 >> Preston Crow wrote: >> >> > On 2020-09-29 13:05, Siegfried Eureca wrote: >> > > I've been gradually getting back into Crossfire, having played it >> > > on-and-off over the years. One thing that has always frustrated me, >> > > is seeing the Scorn Sale Shop littered with gear from Zorn's >> > > castle, and I can't even beat Zacharus Zorn at the entrance to the >> > > Zorn quests. I have decent gear, IMHO, but he just rams into me and >> > > kills me in half a second, leaving me no time to react or heal >> > > (i.e. "I hope this guy isn't another instant-kill enemy; time to >> > > flip a coin and charge him"). >> > >> > Well, you don't need to kill or even confront him to get into the >> > castle. There is another way. But if you really want his key, >> > another approach is to get good enough with the stealing skill to >> > just take it. Of course, if you aren't good enough, you'll anger him, >> > and he'll kill you. >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > crossfire mailing list >> > crossfire at metalforge.org >> > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire >> >> Siegfried, >> >> I create the Zorn stuff. Unless someone has changed it, there is a hint >> by talking to a NPC in the area near Zorn where you can find out how to >> defeat him. Zacharus Zorn is not intended to be easy to beat without >> knowing his weakness. However, once you know his weakness, you can get in >> without much trouble. Be aware that Zorn Castle is not easy either. ;) >> >> Actually, the suggestion of the stealing skill is a good alternative to >> exploiting his weakness. But you have to have a pretty high stealing skill >> to do that without getting stomped by ZZ as I recall. >> >> Finally, the Zorn quest was an ambitious idea I had way back when I was >> active in Crossfire. I moved, changed jobs, and really had / have no time >> to continue developing it. So it is an unfinished quest, but is good for >> leveling. >> >> Gene Alexander >> >> -- >> Mailing List Subscriptions - subscriptions at eracc.org >> _______________________________________________ >> crossfire mailing list >> crossfire at metalforge.org >> http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From siegfried.eureca at gmail.com Wed Sep 30 13:38:02 2020 From: siegfried.eureca at gmail.com (Siegfried Eureca) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2020 11:38:02 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Chaos attack type (v1.12 17760rc): good or bad? Message-ID: I've been playing around with a Xerina I blessed with devourers (i.e. attack types include physical, chaos, death, depletion, drain, life stealing). I'm noticing that, despite the weapon having great speed and WC bonuses, it performs poorly on angels (Valriel's Church) and demons (Gorokh's Pit), it performs poorly compared to other one-handed weapons like Dark Blade of Devourers and Harakiri Sword of Devourers. It's to my understanding that, if a weapon has multiple attack types, the server will calculate the potential damage per attack of each attack type, and use the "best"/maximal value when deciding how much damage a creature receives (nice!). However, I'm noticing that when using a weapon that has the chaos attack type, this doesn't appear to be the case. I see attack types that don't benefit me being used (i.e. electricity on hill giants, fire on demons, etc.). I've done some source diving, but can't quite make out how chaos is supposed to work. Does it just pick a random attack type from the "pool" of attack types that chaos provides, or some random value of the other attack types on the weapon AND those supplied by the chaos "pool", or some other calculation? It seems that chaos isn't a particularly useful attack type in general, since it appears to be random in nature (rather than the default "pick the best" behavior most other weapons have), and seems to turn off the life-stealing ability of Devourers-blessed weapons. Also, does armor with chaos resistance block damage from chaos weapons/spells, or does it just protect against a random element when I'm attacked? Thank you. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: