New Uber Area Comments

Please put your reports, questions, issues, etc concerning the new ubering system HERE:

I respectfully submit that the new area is too hard.

The rate at which the new non uber monsters appear is very high. In addition, things like RHC's and LoA's seem to show up in every third room or so. Hoary Gorgons, Ancient Vampires, Khaos Titans, eternal hunger, seem to be way too common denizens of the new area.

I have just comped my third char down there and I only have a tiny area of it mapped. I like the challenge, but this seems to be closer to suicide.

I will take a look at it in a day or so when I get some time (super busy with RL right now.) It sounds like the initial encounter tables are still populating on the server. I made some changes after play testing to turn this down... perhaps I messed up and didn't carry the changes over permanently.

My advice is to stay away from these areas until I post something.

JPA

Expect some modifications to this area on sunday.

RL reared its ugly head this weekend. I hope to get something done soon.

After an interminable absence spawned by a variety of real life issues, I have returned to the Javatar World and its development.

I am in the process now of reviewing my previous work on the Uber Area and plan to begin its implementation and play testing soon.  I hope to have something out for the game in the next couple weeks or so.  Thank you for your patience.


JPA

Good.
Welcome back.

My backup party is closing in on being able to run level 13. Judging by the almost complete lack of players, I would say your absence has been felt. Let's hope there are still enough players interested in playing to make a go at mapping the new area when it is finally installed.

MLM

Sorry that came off harsh, and that wasn't what I meant to say.

I only wanted to say that for the last couple months I have been gaming alone in javatar, or at most with one other player. The glory days of logging on to see 24 (other people's) chars in the game appear to be gone. Lack of users will make exploring and mapping the new areas very treacherous.

Thanks for devoting your time to this game-- we all appreciate it.

Mike,

I can only worry about moving forward from this point. What damage my absence did or did not cause cannot be undone.
I am not going to leave a party stranded and unplayable because there is no one to go get them. This is a game, and supposed to be fun, right? I have performed operator rescues before, and will do so again when the case warrants it. Does that mean I will be there at a certain time, so you can continue playing? Probably not. But I have no intention of leaving a group of chars stranded for weeks or months on end when they have exhausted their independent attempts at obtaining a rescue. So if you try to map, and it turns out badly AND you make all reasonable attempts to obtain your own rescue and are still trapped-- let me know. Post a note. Send an email. I will look into it and make a determination.

Building a self rescue party is a great idea.
Reporting what you are experiencing when you start running the depths-- another great idea. If you think a certain area is too tough or the monsters are way to strong, report it. It could be that something is wrong with the balance, or it could be that your party isn't really ready for the depths yet. Either way, my just letting your corpses rot doesn't do much for the game or for you. I had this issue once before with Jake (has anyone heard from him? its been ages since he contacted me.) and I eventually told him that operator rescues (at the time there was NO ONE else to get him) were over. Mainly because he was charging too deep too early and just relying on me to pull his bacon out of the fire.

If nothing else, I am a reasonable guy. The game has to be fun or what is the whole point?


JPA

Has something changed on 15? I just brought my group down and stepped off the pad to meet Faeries/Arcane Lords. I thought maybe they were really Far Darrig misIDd, but no way the Irish take down my group that fast.

--Mike (aka Jackknife, aka the 'B' boys)

apparently, when I resurrected the St Pat's encounters, I inadvertently used an encounter table that still had some faerie encounter on it. The % chance of finding a 1 slot faery encounter was 1/1,000ths and a 2 slot faerie encounter was 33/10,000ths. Congratulations on "winning" the JAVATAR lottery.

If you suffered any permanent damage from this mistake, let me know. Sorry for the screw up.

JPA

I mistakenly copied the maps for the new uber area from the test server onto the production server on Monday morning.  This was not my intent when I did this.  My bad.  

I suggest you avoid going below 15 until I have this area balanced.  If you choose to run this area, be advised that the encounters have not been fully play tested.

The player that suffered the ill effects of my screw up will be made whole at my earliest chance to do so.

Sorry for yet another screw up on my part.

JPA

I went down to the new uber to try and help locate some of doc's chars and managed to tp and kill my thief. Morgue resQ seems to be disabled, so I have just left him down there for the time being.
--Mike (aka Jackknife, aka the 'B' boys)

All *known* chars resQ'd.  If I missed anyone speak up.

Some small restitution was granted to Doc for the screw up.  Check the last item slot used on your thief.  You got a little sumpin'-sumpin' too for being a good Samaritan.  Which reminds me...  I think I have to collect something from you very soon.... HMMM.

Update:

I have tentatively balanced things on the test server.  THESE CHANGES ARE NOT LIVE YET ON THE PRODUCTION SERVER (the one you play the game on.)  There is one final round of changes to some of the code that needs to be made/verified before I push the new data.

Please, continue to stay out of this area for now.  I will post something soon when it is all good to go.

Some guidelines for you:

You need a high defense and a decent save in this area.  I took a test party down with 420-440 (ish) DEF and char levels set right around 460.  They didn't last long.  In fact the portion that houses 15a (the add on level 15) whipped them pretty effectively.  My gaming skills have gotten a bit rusty thru years of not playing, so perhaps a more skilled player will fair better, BUT... more levels, more ATT/DEF, and more spell chuckers are going to work in  your favor.


Other test parties with DEF's around 480 (ish) and levels in excess of 500 did much better, so consider your options carefully before venturing too deep into this brave new world.  I would think twice about exploring if my DEF wasn't around 460+ and my chars had not attained level 500 yet.

The other warning I have concerns the area I am calling 15a.  It seems at first blush to be very much like level 15.  But there are differences.  


1.) You can meet the lesser (semi) uber mobs there in certain rooms.  (Studs and specials)
2.) You will not meet the true ubers there.
3.) Stud encounters (like  Vamp Dragon, etc) can be called by regular rooms, unlike on level 15.  The chances are low, but run long enough and you will see them.
4.) The stud rooms can be quite challenging.  When you find a large water room-- think about it being kind of like a stud room.
5.) The drop for good items is higher than 15 to reward players for the greater risks.
6.) If you venture far enough, you will find the entrance to the true uber area.  I will most likely post a warning sign so that the dungeon mappers don't get taken by surprise.  This warning sign will go away once maps are published by the players.  So don't bother including it on your map!  And don't worry about taking a wrong step and landing into a true uber room.  It won't be that simple!

7.) BEFORE you go to the true uber area-- you should be: higher than level 600 and have a decent assortment of the items you can find on level 15 and 15a.  Your DEF needs to be closer to 480 than 460 and you would be wise to have made arrangements for a rescue party standing by.  Your party needs to be BALANCED.  Cover all the essentials because you need more than just a sorc to go ubering.  
8.) Expect to die.  Expect to have numerous total party wipe outs.  These monsters are the biggest and baddest of the game and are the guardians of the very best items.
9.) There are two levels of ubers.  Semi ubers and Ubers.  Or perhaps I should say UBERS.  Getting rescued from the true uber rooms is not totally straight forward.  There is a catch-- something you will have to figure out... if you can't -- send me an email and I will help you keep playing.  There will be a penalty imposed if it seems like you are simply relying on the operator to recover your chars -- so make certain you have exhausted all reasonable attempts to do a self rescue before you email me.


Lastly-- keep in mind these things:


ONE: this area is new.  I could probably have spent 1000+ hours play testing it, and still not covered everything.  I have probably only spent 30-40 hours doing so.  Expect tweaks, changes and updates.  I need SPECIFIC feedback, so please give it.  
TWO: this is the ultimate end of this game for most players.  Once you grab the loot from the true ubers, there isn't going to be another more challenging area added on.  (Aside from the water area off of level 15, which to date no one has been able to beat)  -- I find it highly unlikely that a single player running multiple copies of the game will be able to defeat the true ubers effectively and often enough to capture all their loot.  So think about teaming up with other players.
THREE: this is supposed to be fun.  If your not up for the challenge, don't go ubering. Simple.

Thanks for your patience,

JPA

The last of the code changes is done. I hope to have this up and running either Friday or Saturday.

These changes are now live... see announcements.

FEEDBACK -- as you asked for:

It seems to me that having a block on teleport, displacement, ethereal portal and having soul search fail (causing damage to the caster, no less) about 2/3rds of the time is a bit excessive for the new level 16.  (or 15a if you prefer) When a thief blows a TP box, life gets really tricky-- really fast.  
______________

Savage zombies-- maybe a bit too strong with too much ability to destroy items in use.  So far I have lost a gold sash, a brown sash, a set of DFA, a ring of splendor and some assorted scrolls and stuff.  Sometimes I see that they "Thieved" and sometimes I see "destroyed."

Temple guardians -- are very hard to get thru.  Perhaps eliminating some of the fog inside the temple would allow me to see what I am fighting.  Or perhaps a code change to give the players and improved chance to ID the monsters.  I have managed to take them out twice.  They may need a slight tweak.

I finally made it to the temple door (getting past the guardians) where I ran into what appeared to be a single "Angel of Torment" who managed to kill off 3 chars in a single round and had absolutely nothing (not even a gold) in it's box.  I assume this is a data error.

-------------

There are very few charmable monsters down there and I am burning thru orb/summons at an alarming rate.  Just an FYI.  Running the new area without buddies is pretty dangerous.  Speaking of-- about half the time the orb tells me there are no summonable monsters nearby, I get some buddies anyhow.  Another FYI.
----------
Dread Pirates and the Dread Pirate Roberts are no joke, but they seem to have items about 60% of the time in their boxes.  Is this intentional, or an oversight?
----------
Vampire Dragon appear sometimes with Sun Dragons in the new area.  This seems strange, perhaps an oversight?  Maybe they should appear with Moon Dragons instead?
---------

Keep up the good work, I am enjoying the new challenges.