Cthulhu

I'm surprised no one had anything to say about the email I got from Voss. I'm honestly a little confused... from what he said, it sounds like the capability to roll back was removed? Ugh... @_@

Yes, that's correct. I'd also like to note that the Ambler, Wanderer, Journeyman, Adventurer, Globetrotter, Explorer, Discoverer are related to reaching a particular region. Chtulhu, CM looks fine (not too wordy at all), though I disagree with the fire/magic mods for PC. Personally I would have thought that the fire mod would be more useful if you're doing ranged damage, since the monsters will more likely be burning & loosing health as they run towards you. IMO, Magic damage is good for all characters, as Weaken reduces the affected monster's stats by 20% which is useful for ranged & melee. I also have a slightly different view (on paper) of Merciless. Yes, it's more suited to defensive players, but doesn't it mean that you only need to get down to 35% health rather than 25% for max damage bonus? Therefore the sociopathic players will be able to hit max damage sooner? I'm slightly confused why you recommend different things for Combat Reflexes & Spell Resistance? They do the same thing for weapon-based & non-weapon-based attacks... If you don't take CR, you're more likely to take critical hits from non-weapon attacks (which is, IMO, a majority of the damage you'll be taking), and since you're going to be low on health, you're presumably going to be seeing more damage spikes? Having said that, I never tried WIDD in S1, I just don't have the intestinal fortitude for low HP builds. Armour Lore doesn't directly affect the buff CA regen malus, it decreases the Combat Arts regen malus from Armour, os it has a similar effect, but nothing to do with the buffs. I'm asssming that Dual Wielding a pair of Sword of the Blood Dryads (with it's sickening amount of WIDD) would go very well with Purifying Chastisement? Yeah, you've pointed out some stuff that probably needs to be adjusted. I was a little burned out on doing wiki edits by the time I got around to Purifying Chastisement. I'll either take out or reword the items you've brought into question; with a few exceptions. My play experience with a Gruesome Inquisition based Inquisitor has left me with too many impressions that I think will be hard to change.

Per a quick discussion I had with Antitrust, I've decided to post this spiel on this forum. I have not seen anyone else attempt to discern the game's item drop mechanics at this depth. Thus, this may be useful to the few of you who are into studying a game on this level. If someone else has already done similar research, I applaud you for being faster at getting the word out than myself... and would graciously appreciate it if someone would delete this thread. I warn you however, as you will soon find out, there's still some work that needs to be done before anyone will be able to make a comprehensive list of the game's drops. If you're fine with that matter, read on: How this began: A few weeks ago I set out to create a database that would allow someone to look up a unique/legendary/set item. They could then see what monsters they had to focus on killing in order to get the item desired. Unfortunately, the game uses a seemingly far more complex set of algorithms to handle drops than Diablo 2. 1: The Server Scripts As some of you may or may not know, quite a bit of knowledge can be discerned by reading what's inside the various scripts used to populate a server instance. The following are the ones pertaining to items: A) blueprints.txt <- A script generated by the editor that gives the game the data to fill out all of the items within itself. The names for the items are stored separately in the "Global.Res" file found within your localization folder. + This file also gives the game what it needs to create individual item bonuses, the possible bonuses that rare items can incur, etc. *Thus, if you are already getting ideas - don't try to make your own custom items unless you wish to edit over a previous item.* B) drop.txt <- This script provides a the data that the game needs to know what the possible drop patterns are and what is included within them. One of the things within a pattern is a variable that some of you may recognize - the Danger Class. C) creatures.txt <- This can be used to cross-reference with the drop.txt file and the blueprints.txt file in order to discern what all of the monsters are capable of dropping. 2: What is Done to Determine a Drop's Contents The game uses several variables when you "roll" for a drop: - The weighted probability associated with an item. (see drop.txt) - The "dice" roll of your character, which is modified by the zbonus values located in balance.txt, along with your +% chance to find valuables. (dice rolls are determined to exist by viewing a binary dump of some of the game's system files) - The drop pattern of whatever breakable item/chest/monster that's dropping items. (see drop.txt) - Danger class (see creatures.txt, drop.txt; danger classes themselves are apparently defined internally, I haven't found them yet in any binary dumps; I hope I've overlooked them). - Damage preference (This is less defined than Danger Classes; I think it is defined within one of the libraries or executable file). - Damage probability (Again, undefined). - And this is the BIG ambiguous variable that I was referring to: "Initialization Type" Whatever this happens to be, it is an argument that's sent to a small routine that runs inside Sacred 2 called the "Drop Manager". After viewing the binary dump of the sacred 2 logic file, the drop manager handles a lot of stuff (including, but not limited to): - Keeping track of stuff that falls on the ground when you drop it. - The items being moved around in your inventory. - Item graphics It appears to be a subset of one of the drawing parts of the game. So far I can only see the method calls and dependencies, but the contents of the methods appear to be (for the most part) unreadable, due to compilation. Before we delve any further into this, I want to point out.... 3: Merchant Offerings Merchants, Blacksmiths, Rune Masters (and possibly the mount vendors) use a slightly different approach for their wares: - Die roll modified by bargaining - Danger Class - *Damage preference & probability may or may not be used. They're present in the lists that the vendor pattern draws from, but I suspect they are ignored. - Expected Type (Not clear on what this is, it may be another thing that's stored in the game's system files; I haven't been able to tell what it does from adjusting this value and testing the adjustment in single player). - Minimum Quality (I'm pretty sure this pertains to the zRare Categories listed in the balance.txt file, but I haven't seen enough from adjusting this value and playing SP to be sure.) - *Initialization type * One of these are what was fixed internally to stop bargaining from letting the vendors put up unique, set and legendary items for sale. I'm suspecting it was the initialization type since ---------------- Despite the above, there are some strong assumptions / facts that I have been able to discern: - Based upon their danger classes, all monsters have various drop patterns. Some do not hold anything, while others can have junk, gold, runes or the very wide ranged "Standard list". For example: Certain legendary weapons, such as "Magisil" show up in the standard drop list; this list only gets used for (in order of most possible to lowest possible): - the crystals on the Seraphim island (if you didn't have the misfortune of finding a mutant) - see further below for monsters... As you have probably seen, the last boss doesn't always give good stuff. That's becuase his danger class allows for either the drop pattern of the t-energy crystals from seraphim island (note: he obviously does not drop mutants, thankfully) or empty drop patterns? So, from only looking at the drop patterns for the last boss, one would think that he either has a chance of giving you something from the standard drop list or nothing. But having played the game, that is obviously not the case. From looking at his empty drop patterns, he has initialization types. So what does this mean? Guesses: A) Initialization types take care of loot rolls in the event of Ascaron not bothering to specify a specific one for a monster/chest/whatever. B) The initialization types stack up to form complex randomization/dice rolls that finally pick something out of a monster/chest/whatever's specified drop patterns. Furthermore (these are hypotheses): A) After a blue print list is selected via the drop patterns, the game may use: (any possible) combat arts, elemental damage and weapon types that you hit the monster with. This narrows down which item TYPE will be rolled on. B) Using the weighted probabilities, your chance to find valuables + anything else that might adjust your zbonus rare scores, the game picks an actual item to drop. Also, in addition to the last boss, "danger class 10" is shared with some other monsters/bosses: - The region dragons - The storyline dragons - The Carnac - The Scorpion king - The Crystal boss - The Forest Guardian - Various unimplemented monsters (I.E. T-Energy Dragons) - The Blind Guardian band members (LOL!) Ultimately, does this mean that the Seraphim Island, last boss and other monsters pointed out up above are the best ones to "farm" for rare items? I think it's too hard to tell from what we have at this point. I suspect that Ascaron is not totally finished with the drops in the game. Other nuggets of gold: There is a drop pattern of unique/legendary/set items that is used for determining quest rewards. All items in such a table have only a .10 percent weighted probability of being given to you. That's the only definite I have been able to derive; beyond that definite, it's guess work: - I THINK you MIGHT need to have Bargaining Mastery in order to even have access to this table - And/or it may only be possible that it applies to quests with high star ratings Some of the interesting things seen within this drop pattern are: - Another unique Glaive besides Lord Wayne's Player Killer and the Glaives of Artherton (has 2 gold slots, +chance to find valuables, + offensive skills, -% combat art regeneration). - A unique hammer (Gives life leech, strength, experience per kill, 2 gold slots) - 3 unique batteries that can only drop from quests (Solar, Dura and Ultra; Blueprint ID's 2486, 2658, 2660). - Most of the set items within the game - Practically all of the legendary items, with (presumably) the exception of the one for the Ascaron mega-quest. - Various other already seen unique items

I see you're wearing some of the Ilgard set. If you haven't seen my topic about the set being bugged- don't wear the last piece of the set. But other than that... you gotta love being able to not only use light sabers, but also dress up as Darth Vader.

Thanks for the advice; I'll try to break the ten-thousand-edits per 1 update habit. > And I'll look forward to the CA updates.

Actually, I have noticed this problem too; I still don't know what to make of it either. In the least, it seems that if you summon the BFG when you're holding something, you end up making one that displays the ice damage of the BFG instead of the overall physical damage. From my recollection, it doesn't seem to impact the overall performance of the BFG since it may just be a display bug... but I could be wrong. Edit: Back on topic, and the closing on my dillemia with this bug - I finally heard back from Ascaron: I'm a little surprised that they can't roll my account back; but feel rest assured, I'll carry on. Thanks again.

You can push your skills over 200 with +skill items. The game just won't let you put any more than 200 regular skill points into a single skill. Also, I think you may have a good character going there (based on my experience with Inquisitors thus far). I'm a little concerned on the lack of spell resistance... but I guess you'll manage to overcome that since you have a lot of options opened up with Armor Lore, Bargaining and Blacksmithing. Not to mention the benefits that Reverse Polarity holds.

To you maybe. But you have to remember, I'm also dead, but dreaming. And this reminds me... To quote the Inquisitor himself, as he killed a naive Kobold -

I'm not sure what you meant there with your first sentence, care to elaborate on what you meant? You can master all of your skills and still have plenty of left-overs to pump up your primaries.

I didn't say I wanted your over-priced sword.

The Officer's Saber is so damn over-rated (IMO). I prefer the Glaives of Artherton or a light saber with two gold mod slots (I managed to get one with a gold and a silver to show up in Closed ). Edit: But good job getting your bargaining up that high, Gogo! You're even over your own CLEVEL*3 threshold!

I did some filling out on the page for the Inquisitor's "Callous Execution" and "Clustering Maelstrom" combat arts. At the time of this post, Clustering still needs tactical recommendations, but I'm on it. I had to stop and go eat before I could finish it. http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacre...llous_Execution http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacre...ering_Maelstrom Take a look and see what you think. They probably could be a little less wordy and/or use better formating. I'll appreciate revisions or advice. Edit: Clustering Maelstrom is now finished (for now at least). I also filled out Purifying Chastisement. This one was very awkward due to its incredible importance to the Inquisitor in general. You'll see what I mean when you view the page. Any thoughts?

Yeah, my Inquisitor had Spell Resistance, as well as -% detrimental magic effect and +% spell resistance boni. With the exception of this bug, it looked like SR was doing a pretty good job despite the fact that its outputs were not showing up anywhere on the UI tool tips. And yes, I included identification features in the email such as my password. I probably should have included my CD-Key, now that I think of it... but if they want it, I'm sure they'll ask. I wonder if they'll include a feedback/complaint/trouble ticket feature for their website sometime down the road. This was pretty cumbersome. But thanks again Knuckles! As far as reproducing it in SC goes, I put the Illgard armor on a level 200 Inquisitor (single player mode) and started wandering around Ancaria. Sure enough, he would die for no reason whatsoever in very unlikely situations. When I paid attention to his life, it was doing the same thing as what happened to my HC character- randomly taking temporary drops from max/max HP to 1/1 in percentage based decrements! I've noticed when you start fighting monsters who are at least 14-20+ levels higher than you (or somewhere around that number), monsters start to do ridiculous amounts of damage compared to what the "last opponent faced" info states. I think that's due to the fact that right now there's a very nasty armor penalty incurred when you fight monsters who are much stronger than you (level-wise). I wouldn't be surprised if this penalty gets lowered in an upcoming patch... but how people will react is another problem that hopefully Ascaron is prepared to deal with. Edit: It's also possible that Armor Lore may be having some kind of internal roll-over bug that's giving you negative armor once the % increase goes over 255. I don't think this is possible since your total armor displayed never takes a sudden dive... but it wouldn't surprise me. BeeEffGee after all had (or still might have) roll-over problems once the spell starts to make weapon levels in excess of 255. Anything over 255 sets the BeeEffGee weapon level back down to X-255 (where X is the BeeEffGee weapon level indicated in the tool tip for the CA).

Frost, thanks for your consolation. Also, do not take this personally, but I wish more people would read everything in these threads before they ask the same question you have. I've had to already answer that question 3-4 times in two other forums regarding this matter because people would not read where I've already answered the question. To quote myself: To elaborate, I was fighting spiders in the Swamp (I have NEVER seen weaving spiders reflect ANYTHING). I stopped for a second to open my inventory when suddenly I saw my mount die. I then knew what was happening, and I was reaching to hit F12, but it was too late - my Inquisitor dropped dead. As the UI vanished, I could see a lone green spider in the upper right hand corner doing nothing; I presume he's the one who hit me while my HP was at 1/1. I then checked the Sacred 2 ladder and it showed I had 1 hp. Furthermore, people have noted that they've been hit by the 1/1 hp bug when doing nothing: http://forum.sacredeng.ascaron-net.com/sho...mp;postcount=16 Edit: Well, I sent an email to service_sacred@ascaron.com. I hope whoever monitors that box will write back. I left them with an overview of everything pertaining to the matter and how they can replicate the bug if they wish. If you want to see what I sent, I'll C&P it; otherwise, I guess it's time to just wait and see how this story develops.

Heh, you're welcome (and I agree, Optimus exceeds ALL. I wish the spear in Sacred 2 that looks like it was named after him was really a pistol. It'd make more sense, IMO). And thanks for the encouragement (I might try a slice of that pie... is it sun flavored or is it lime meringue?). I really do not want to leave, and furthermore, I am not "MAD" at Ascaron. Games are the hardest software to program, after all. Unfortunately, I want to stick to principle on this matter... and in the least, I think it's best to abide by Knuckles advice. I'd rather not lose any progress on my Closed.Net account in the even that Ascaron does want to give me a roll back. :-/ Thank you for clearing that up sir. And no worries, you've done plenty good. .... why haven't they added you in as a secret boss in Sacred 2 yet?

Thanks for the words of encouragement and consolation. I would contact Ascaron, but I do not know who to contact. -Llama8 left a reply to my post in the bug/feedback forum on the official site and said he sent a message to Ascaron about the bug; however I do not know if he meant that he was just reporting the bug or if he was mentioning the fact that I would like my character to get rolled back as well. -I debated sending a PM to Carolyn about what happened, but I posted the bug report far in advance of her having been on the forums today. She looked like she was pretty busy putting up with the beligerant folks in the tech support forums... so I don't know if she'll have enough time to "go to bat" for me. Regardless, I'm sure if I even can have my character rolled back, I probably won't see anything done for at least a week (I imagine). Perhaps with the new patch there may be some ramifications such as a global HC character revival, but I don't want to sit on hopes based in speculation. ---------------- Also, since I posted the bug, 2 other players on the EU servers left replies. Earlier today I noticed there were other dead HC Inquisitors wearing the full Illgard set. They also died with 1 HP. http://forum.sacredeng.ascaron-net.com/sho...ead.php?t=56236 They said they sent a message to Ascaron, but they never heard back (since December). I'm not feeling very encouraged at the moment, despite Ascaron's history of staying close to their fans. ----------------- Hmm, I did not touch my characters since I died, so I don't think there will have been any loss. Well, maybe the couple of rings/ammies I bought at a vendor before getting killed by the bug. I guess I would send an email to Service_Sacred@ascaron.com, right? OPTIMUS!! Hehe, sorry. I like your avatar. Anyway, if you want to reproduce the bug, wearing the full Ilgard set should be enough to set it off. Just pay close attention to your HP while you're doing normal killing activities. + I've noticed that it usually will start to happen when you're hitting stuff. Also, I've seen the bug occur in just about any area of the game on my SP characters (as well as my poor dead Inquisitor). That's why I am certain the effect is not being reflected. (-)Furthermore, I have never noticed the enemies actually losing any HP. The only time I thought it was working was when the Nameless Guardian was listed as having 1 HP in the "last opponent killed" window, but it apparently was due to the bug Antitrust spotted a few weeks ago. + The only thing I did not try was seeing if it may trigger when you have a certain buff equipped on the Inquisitor. Typically, I play with all 3 buffs on or, in the very least, Purifying Chastisement. So you might want to see if the various buffs may have something to do with it. Oh, and also - I've never used Permanent Doppelganger on any of my Ilgard wearing Inquisitors, so I'm sure you can rule that one out.

I'm not going to go into too many details... When you equip the full Inquisitor set "Ilgard's Judgement", you gain the set bonus + [X]% chance to cause SERIOUS OPEN WOUNDS. That sounds great, especially since this is the debuff that causes your enemies MAX HP to drop by a certain percentage temporarily, right? But wait until you find this out... IT'S BUGGED AND IT HITS THE INQUISITOR INSTEAD! Even better, it can stack! So now my HC 115 Inquisitor is dead because of this set (died with 1/1 HP). http://www.sacred2.net/#/char.html?char=117170 Unless Ascaron has the ability and the desire to revive him (I don't care what anyone says, this was their fault. That set was NOT doing this before 2.34)... I'm done with this game. I'm not going through another 6+days to get another Inquisitor back up to where I was due to a mistake on the behalf of the game's creator. I suggest that you AVOID this set unless you want to see your Inquisitor drop dead for no reason.

I'll take a gander in it with Darth Vad- I mean Dragnilar (my Inquisitor). I've been very impressed thus far with how strong he has become. And also, judging on how he has faired against the likes of Olms and other detrimental magic casters... I can definitely say that Spell Resistance still works, despite the display saying otherwise. Edit: I must admit, the experience is awfully nice. However, I prefer the Jungle Region south of Bengaresh/Khorium... mainly because the hero statues are easier to locate. But still, I can see how the Swamp could be better overall. Edit #2: If you're curious, I mainly stick to the northern part of the jungle, starting from the western port town (I can't remember it's name off the top of my head) and loop all the way around down to where the Kral is chilling and then start over again.

I know this is kind of a waste for a whole topic, but I haven't been able to find a clear answer to this question anywhere: Based on what I read about Sacred 1, critical hits in that game have the potential to do anywhere between double to quadruple damage. Does this apply to Sacred 2 as well, or is the maximum potential for a critical hit in Sacred 2 only double damage?

All of these Seraphim... URGHK! Such gross underestimation of the dark side of the force. Vader is NOT pleased. ... Hm, I think I liked it more before I cropped it and threw on the skill name.

I'm surprised it drops in MP! I was under the impression that it couldn't drop ATM because it wasn't finished. I remember seeing the shield and sword in the graphics files within the PAK folder... and then later ran cross both of them when I was screwing around with the drop scripts. As pugi said, they didn't provide a set bonus. Come to think of it, I don't recall them even having any stats?

hmpf, Erling thinks Cthulhu is very wrong, Cthulhu is a Inquisitor and is wearing white robes, Cthulu needs to make up Cthulu's mind and join me in evilness edit: eek, I just saw my Inquisitor was wearing white robes aswell on picture Cthulhu aims to get the black Vader robes... but Cthulhu must admit they are unsurprisingly less common than the white and green Vader robes.

Cthulhu thinks his White Vader looks more pleasing to the eye versus Erling's Fashion Police Target Vader.

This thread inspired Cthulhu to add a demand to his list of self indulgent busywork for Ascaron. Cthulhu must admit is is very self indulgent - adjusting the experience curve. Cthulhu is groaning already.