Featured Questions #6

It's that time again... so let's jump into another installment of player-submitted Featured Questions! I'm always happy to chat and hear your questions and concerns regarding Nodeka; you can submit any Nodeka-related questions you may have as a comment on this blog or via e-mail, and I will select a number of them every other Tuesday to answer in this column.

Featured Questions #6:

Why is the affect you get when you fail a trade with Gerahf so long (4 days)? Seems like a severe punishment for making a typo.
Is the spit affect for Gerahf being angry with you made invisible once you acquire a smile affect? That is to say, you have the spit affect, he smiles on you, and the spit affect is visibly replaced with the smile affect, but he still holds you in scorn due to ripping him off, and refuses to accept offers that were acceptable pre-spit affect? If this is the case, would it be possible to clear the spit affect once you get the smile affect so you can obtain the full benefit of the smile, or make the affect not disappear?

Gerahf's favor is on a sliding scale. Every time you anger him with a poor trade offer, his opinion of you slips down a little bit. Every time you please him with a particularly good trade (i.e., not just any successful trade but one in which he smiles at you), his opinion of you increases a little bit. "Spit effects" and "smile effects" are not actually differentiated; there's just one sliding scale based on the sum of your positive/negative interactions with him. If you're at the undesirable end of the scale, the effect's duration is reduced a bit.

In invasions, if you hit something smaller than you and don't kill it before you get jailed, when you come out of jail, it hunts you down and hits you and sends you right back (unless someone else kills it). This can result in a cycle of permanent jailing. Can it be fixed to clear the player from the mobs agg list if the player is jailed for hitting the mob and the mob is too small?

Thanks for reminding me. I think there might be a clever way to address this; adding it to my to-do list. =)

...I noticed (or hope) that 'help resistances' is out of date. Reason being it says there that for any given attack only -one- resistance can proc, with the logic being that all resistances provide equal damage reduction. Seeing as this is no longer the case - do resistances work differently now?
Multi-part question, but really just looking for an entire chart as an answer:
1. What is the % damage gain for a vulnerability?
2. What are the % damage cuts for the following resistances: magic, mental, holy, physical?

Currently, some resistances are more effective than others. They work along these lines:
1. All applicable resist percentages are attempted. Of the successes, only the most effective successful resist is applied.
2. Vulnerabilities work the same way; only the most 'painful' successful vulnerability is applied.

All resistances reduce damage by 20%, except for the elemental resists which reduce damage by 50%. These resists are considered elemental resists: fire, frost, lightning, earth, elemental.

All vulnerabilities increase damage by 20%.

Thus, if Serenity has 70% lightning resistance and 50% physical resistance, and is hit by a lightning bolt (which is physical + magical + lightning):
1. If the lightning resist check is successful, Serenity takes 50% less damage.
2. If the lightning check fails, but the physical check is successful, she takes 20% less damage.
3. If both checks fail, she takes full damage.

Statistically speaking...
70% chance: takes 50% damage
15% chance: takes 80% damage
15% chance: takes 100% damage

An attack can be both reduced (via resistance) and increased (via vulnerability) simultaneously.

For empowered aspect - aura: jta rank 1, what's the rank number mean? What's the highest rank attainable? Do they grow naturally?

That rank is the power level of the aura; this power level is determined by the number of times the player has inscribed that aura. For example:

- Iblis has no inscriptions. When he successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, it will be of rank 1.

- Alala has four inscriptions -- [ armor: loj ], [ lightning: sji ], [ visit: xt ], and [ extrinsic elucidation: xt ]. When she successfully empowers an 'xt' aura, its rank will be boosted by 1 for every 'xt' inscription she possesses (thus, her aura will be of rank 3).

Higher-ranked auras are more durable, and they provide a greater combat bonus as well. In addition, many inscriptions base their effectiveness in part on the rank of the triggering aura (these are clearly marked as such in the online inscription list helpfiles).

I've always felt that sun stones played a crucial role in character development and even more so now with everyone needing to augment to progress. Any plans on implementing more ways to acquire these?

Yup, definitely! I feel that sun stones should be (in general) a PvP-oriented reward, with questing as a secondary source. There are plans. =)

How is the precedence of altered attack types determined? E.g. I'm a ru wulniothe fallad and have 100% spiritual attacks with creed of the gods volition, and 64% frost attacks from race, do I ever get any frost-based attacks? What if my spiritual attacks were under 100%?

Right now, halwen/spiritual/black magic are checked sequentially before the elemental attacks. Thus, while your 100% spiritual attack effect is active, you will never see a frost attack (you can verify this by expanding your combat output, since "altered" attacks have their text visibly altered).

I'd like to lodge a complaint about the koj spiritualist immoral trial. I ran around the arena for 15-20 minutes today without one spawning. >:|

Agreed. I think the Trials' concept is sound, but there's soooo much more I can do with them given the advances in AI tech that Nodeka has made since their implementation. The current set of trials on each side is pretty arbitrary and not necessarily superbly balanced (I still remember the two nights I spent drawing them up and trimming them down, in a rush to get this cool new feature out the door.) Expect a redesign. =)

What are you [working on] now? Any improvements for (my_class)?

My active work right now is split between the new Fields of Guidance, a new monk skill, a new sorcerer spell, and helping to prep some new areas for you folks that other builders are working on. =)