Jump to content

Mountaineering in Ancaria


Recommended Posts

Mountaineering in Ancaria by Pesmontis

@Pesmontis sent me the following account of his recent adventures in D2F.

===================================

Game Configuration

Running around with a HE / Sorceress level 200 specialized in the aspect Fire Spells.
No additional support for the Teleport skill (aspect Lightning Spells).

optionsCustom.txt parameters**:
Camera max. distance is 2200 ('camera.cam1_trackdist_max' and 'camera.dng1_trackdist_max'), options.cameraConfigZoomMax = 20

spells.txt parameters:
Teleport max. jump distance = 1000 (et_jumpdistance 1000, fightDistance 1000)

 

The Centurion / Schattenkrieger / Shadow Warrior / Barbarian has a CA for jumping twice as far, but cannot move into unwalkable terrain: jumping on top of a dead NPC is not possible (see section 'How to move through 'unwalkable' terrain'). The one significant difference with the HE's Teleport spell is the parameter spelllogictype = "ca_ct_direct_attack".
Jumping twice as far, the Barbarian can reach many small islands, for instance the two islands east of D'Ary.

1yCXFTD.png

SFhIetd.png

The Dryad / Amazon has a CA called 'Avoid', which also enables her to jump on fallen bodies and move into unwalkable terrain. Although the configured jumpdistance is equal to the HE's Teleport distance, it seems that the spell's 'fightDistance' halves the jumpdistance.

fp5WY2t.png   j40kBov.png

With a horse, jumping is very well possible but only over a limited distance. For instance, with a horse it's possible to jump tree houses and the elevator cascade in Dyr Lain. It doesn't seem possible to jump on dead bodies with a horse. For the Paladin, the Assassin, the Necromancer and the Druid, jumping with a horse is the only way to reach terrain that can't be walked to (eg. jumping into Hissil'Ta from Libi's Pratfall).

01d7gie.png   Iqjnbcl.png

In the current Community Patch + D2F set-up:

  • jumping with the Temple Guardian / Assassin is possible with the CA 'Dragon Flight', but this seems to be an attack move only ('eCAtype_m_attackmove_jump', not 'eCAtype_m_move_go'), so the Assassin can't jump to empty terrain;
  • the Seraphim / Paladin doesn't have a jumping CA. The 'Charge' CA doesn't give her the ability to move to otherwise unreacheable terrain;
  • the Inquisitor / Necromancer doesn't have a jumping CA;
  • the Dragon Mage / Druid doesn't have a jumping CA, although he should have one when he is in 'Dragon Form' ('dm_form_drgn_feuerball').
     

Certain obstacles in the terrain may prevent jumps. When the jump start point is behind or even near a tree, the character might be prohibited to jump.

** It might be investigated whether a relation exists between the camera settings in optionsCustoms.txt and character jump distances as observed in-game. It is uncertain whether increasing the maximum camera trackdistance lowers the maximum jump distance. However, the game must calculate the distance to the intended jump exit point, and there might be slight differences in the outcome of this calculation, depending on how much the camera is zoomed-in or zoomed-out.

 

Examples of jumpable terrain

Examples of walkable terrain that you normally can't reach, only by jumping:

- Waterfall in the Orc region:

ztpOhrn.png

- Mountainous area between Blulutuz and the Octogalamus basin (with many Orc NPCs):

yVK5Q3C.png

- Mountainous area just above Za'Zuruik (sectors [9, 49] and [9, 48]). This is a roof-top jump:

Lz8hzTx.png

- Small grass area south of Nagash's Nest (in sectors [26, 36], [26, 37], [27, 36], and [27, 37]):

DL8LcI5.png

- Mountainous area south-east of the 'T-energy swamp' (stretching east towards the southern Hissil'Ta temple). Jump start point in sector [44, 25], position roughly [2675, 2981] (near a statue of Philios, the first Paladin):

EausUkV.png

- Mountainous south-eastern border of Hissil'Ta (stretching west towards the southern Hissil'Ta temple). There are multiple spots here for jumping into the mountains:

T0Fz5yR.png

TgENaK0.png

R1M0Faf.png

- Mountainous area south of Rajab (jump start point in sector [37, 12], position roughly [244, 475]). This is a roof-top jump:

uHwZAYv.png

- Dyr-Laigh elevator cascade, including the mountainous area it leads to:

HcSCwYg.png

- Small mountain south-east of Logeiar (jump start point in sector [16, 4]):

HWmAyEY.png

- Small mountain south-west of Logeiar:

7IjwXed.png

- Mountainous area around the Great Machine and down towards the coast. It's possible to reach an additional dungeon entrance at the coast:

ey5aE1X.png   v3XnrVu.png

These examples exclude moving through unwalkable terrain.

 

Examples of jumpable passages

- From the dungeon entrance of the Ancestor's Chambers (south of Logeiar) down to Lughaidh (jump start point in sector [15, 3], position roughly [2556, 1581]);

- From the Blulutuz mountains into the Seraphim hunting area (difficult, multiple jumps):

SkRyxWi.png

- From the Libi's Pratfall area into Hisil'Ta:

HWaVyNA.png

- From the Forgotten Gardens into the Wastelands:

Xn7aRMg.png

- From Rajab into the Jungle region:

p5XrWo1.png

- From the Cobold Camp into Grunwald (entering Grunwald north of the Grunwald Cave Dragon, near a statue of Bul-Kathos, the first Barbarian, probably sector [21, 40]):

3SMVjLy.png

p9xXyqA.png

- The Barbarian can cross the mountains between Derelict Manor and Nagash's Nest.
This requires jumping 'into the void', otherwise the jump exit point can't be clicked with the mouse (!):

TXQjmYt.png

- From the T-energy swamp, the Barbarian can cross Bluestone Lake, and then jump into to the Strange Traveling Circus area. Thereafter he can jump into the mountains and cross them into the human area (requires difficult last jump, possibly into sector [38,35]). It's also possible to enter these mountains from the end of the lake north of Bluestonbury, and from the end of the railway north west of Bluestonebury (this is possible with the Sorceress as well):

M4XbLGS.png   X7CpNA2.png

- The Sorceress can enter the Eastern Dragon Teeth mountains through Crag Rock, but from these mountains she can't jump down into Hissil'Ta. The  Barbarian however should be able to do this:

kC6NSDE.png

aVmFWzy.png

- With some dungeons it's possible to cross-over from one dungeon to another without going back to ground level.

These examples exclude moving through unwalkable terrain.

 

How to move through 'unwalkable' terrain

While jumping into mountainous areas, the Sorceress appeared to have a way to navigate 'unwalkable' terrain:

  • Move the HE / Sorceress to the edge of 'walkable' terrain and find a spot sloping downward into 'unwalkable' terrain;
  • Lure an enemy NPC to this spot as close as possible (make sure this enemy keeps fighting you with melee attacks);
  • Position yourself above the enemy NPC (eg. use the Teleport skill), and kill the NPC with a Fire Bolt so that the enemy NPC is thrown down the slope into the unwalkable terrain (this probably only works with D2F, because knocking back the enemy is required);
  • (Switch back to the Teleport skill, and) move the mousepointer over the fallen NPC: notice that this highlights the fallen body;
  • As soon as the dead body highlights, right click and jump to that position (even when the body is underwater).

** Jumping on a dead enemy NPC does NOT give you the ability to jump on ùnwalkable terrain if the NPC falls on walkable terrain.

WN333WR.png

This shouldn't be possible, but it seems that, at the end of the jump, your character receives some kind of ragdoll property which enables dead bodies to fall and slide down slopes in a ragged fashion according to the law of gravity.

If you ever wondered how this is possible, such a ragdoll property must be given to the 'dead' 3D body, but only at the moment of dying, otherwise NPCs would start wandering everywhere. This property is probably overruling impossibilities that originate from the landscape engine, like 'slope too steep' or 'water too deep'.

If you jump on top of a dead NPCragdoll, your character probably steals a property that allows it to BE on unwalkable terrain. However, this doesn't mean that your character can walk or run there. Once you are on unwalkable terrain DO NOT TRY to walk or run, because if you do, your character will either:

- move by itself, back to walkable terrain;

- show no intention of moving at all.

 

Note that this behavior defines 'unwalkable' terrain (!).

This is different from the general terrain that you can't get to, because terrain that you normally can't get to can still be 'walkable'.

To avoid the situation where your character walks back to walkable terrain, it's better to jump ONLY. When your character doesn't move at all, this is the only possible way to traverse unwalkable terrain. Luckily, you can jump any kind of slope at that point. Being able to jump on any slope gives you the assurance that your character still has that stolen ragdoll property. However, when you jump on walkable terrain, your character will lose this property. So before you start jumping 'unwalkable' terrain, it is important to know the extent of the wàlkable terrain, even in areas that you normally can't get to. If you don't know that extent, you might accidentally jump into walkable terrain, getting frustrated that your character cannot jump any further into ùnwalkable terrain.

Usually, walkable terrain is quite flat, but at the borders of a region, any kind of terrain is usually set to 'unwalkable', probably to prevent illegal border-crossings. The 'unwalkable' bandwidth around a region is usually greater than a jumpdistance of 2000.
To give you a notion of distances in Ancaria, one sector is 2400 x 2400, and the outlines of Ancaria stretch within 64 x 64 sectors.

 

Houses

Houses that you can enter are walkable terrain of course, so if you try to jump on the rooftop of such a house, you'll end up on one of the stories of the house, ie. on walkable terrain.

 

New findings

Examples of 'new' findings about Ancaria so far:

- Christmas Island is not an island (its shore only stretches west);

- There is an additional dungeon entrance at the coast of the Wastelands (sector [12, 21]), which leads to the dungeon entrance giving access to the Copper Peaks pirate bay. The additional dungeon entrance is only one-way;

- Islands around Seraphim Island are full of enemy NPCs;

- There is some kind of landscape testing area under the ocean south of Christmas Island (eg. sector [58, 51]). In this area there's an additional portal, but it can't be activated:

SZ1Vv5w.png

- There is no additional island in the Bluestone Lake, only a kind of water spike (probably sector [41, 28]):

2rwIEcX.png

- In sector [52, 3] there is a single flying crystal (purple, enemy NPC):

VRMSPnl.png

- There are two half-undressed Seraphim statues, probably in sector [35, 0]:

6KW12Wp.png

- It's possible to go back to the Seraphim Arena (south of Seraphim island):

ItPlhpM.png

 

Jumping Objects

Examples of unwalkable terrain and objects that can be jumped:

- seabeds / lakebeds / riverbeds;

- waterfalls (eg. Libi's Pratfall);

DZj9MmO.png

- small islands;

- extremely steep terrain (eg. sector edges);

- passages / entrances (only when the mouse pointer says 'no go');

- tents;

- lighthouses;

- lanterns;

- rocks;

- statues;

- karts;

- fences;

- unwalkable ships:

tjkXWCR.png   wCkYzDG.png

- small boats:

2Qk7vNH.png   DvfbWPu.png

- furniture:

o8PzVYl.png

- easter egg chimney:

MehbrH0.png

- etc.

wSb70fy.png   7ryvqCv.png

MxRbiIS.png   MWct7wM.png

uloii5E.png

 

To be Investigated
In sector [39, 2] the 'mastereye boss' should be present, but can't be found;

It seems impossible to reach DM start island.

An area with crystals in sector [60, 63] can't be reached.
Jumping on lightrays is not possible.

 

  • Like! 1
Link to comment
11 hours ago, Flix said:

Yeah I had no idea that was there.  I feel like I'm seeing a whole different Ancaria.

How has come the idea for the developer to put these eggs there? "None will ever see them anyway" may have he thought, desperatly. And yes! We saw them :lol: What a good surprise it must have been to discover them. Nice find.

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, desm said:

How has come the idea for the developer to put these eggs there? "None will ever see them anyway" may have he thought, desperatly. And yes! We saw them :lol: What a good surprise it must have been to discover them. Nice find.

This game is like a fine wine ... its developing with age.  With the help of its devs past and present... the Sacred vintage just cannot be beat.

Also delicious with slices of camembert

:D

 

gogo

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Been a looong time since I opened up this guide, I was astounded at all the "bumps" I kept getting as image after image kept loading me up, downloading , and jetting me through Ancaria's lands. 

Its still a well-thought out, instructional, beautiful guide Flix, and will put some issues of National Geographic to shame 

:thumbsup:

gogo

Link to comment
On 2/18/2022 at 7:56 PM, Lindor said:

South of the crystal region there's an area which looks vastly different on the minimap than the actual terrain, kinda like something the aliens would send to us. Some screenies are from that area, but I was too lazy for windowed mode so I could screenshot the minimap.

R9g6BoP.jpeg

This goes on for a long distance, like half the map or so.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up