Silver_fox

There was a plan to implement "Elite Mounts" for all characters with the CM patch - some creatures that would cost you a lot, but offer better bonus than regular mounts, maybe a special quest to get them too. But this idea is several years old and obviously got stuck in development. I guess it would be implemented sooner or later in one way or another, but judging by slowing down of CM development we would have to wait for quite some time to see the results in game. Speaking of mounts, there was an old suggestion about improving the special I&B horses in some way (discussed in this ancient Mantis thread). The basic idea was to make the Flame horse and Unicorns differ from regular Charger in more than appearance to make a walk to the special trader in Blood Forest worth-while. From what I understand, czevak got swamped with other issues to solve and forgot about this little feature. Maybe you can take a look at these creatures? I don't know if it is possible to make them behave like aspectless special mounts (probably not), but assigning a different set of bonuses (maybe a better one than usually found on an average horse) seems not to be a hard task.

From what I remember, old DarkMatters site designs always sported a big Wiki button, shaped as a map or a shield like the one you can see on the wiki itself. Sometimes during one of the site renewals this design element got lost. Maybe it's really worthwhile mo make it come back. And actually, there are still people who play games but haven't yet made themselves at home on the Internet. Such people never heard about the fact that nearly everything notable has a wiki nowadays, they oftenly do not even know that wikis exist at all. Well, some of my real-life co-workers do not even know that their favorite games have discussion forums. So having a direct button that would show everybody that we have a wiki and give them an adress of this wiki would not hurt.

I wonder if you paid attention to the 5 screenshots they posted on the official site: http://sacred3.deepsilver.com/en/media/?type=images Not sure if these are new ones, but Deep Silver obviously considers them good enough to still keep around. the graphics showcased there is not stellar, but good enough, and the screens are quite obviously done in local 2-player co-op (characters have P1 and P2 marked on their circles).

I'm not sure that guy you met was as well informed as he claimed to be, but that bit of information sounds true. From the heroes description (note, they do not call it "class description") it really seems that each character has his/her name, profession, weapon choice and fighting style set in stone. Let's hope that other things your visitor said are less true, as they do not bode well. Well, I do not really think that allowing some freedom in choosing your weapon is a concept that RPG players find intimidating. Do you? Having a preferable weapon type for a class is not a bad idea, but having it fixed and unchangeable is quite a limitation. Actually, Sacred 1 and 2 were quite novice-friendly - you could not spend an hour just on character creation alone like in Elder Scrolls or Neverwinter Nights series. Yet, previous Sacred games offered some depth beneath their unserious, joke-filled ARPG surface, and that is exactly what people in this community love them for. That is why many of us are sceptical about new game design and have some expectations and wishes for the new installment in the series. Sacred 1 and 2 were games that could have been played without giving them much thought (you do not have to be a veteran player nor a skilled strategist to successfully beat the game on Silver and Gold and have your share of good time with it). At the same time, our guide section shows that people who were willing to pay attention to the game's mechanics could unearth enough information, game rules and formulaes to write a thesis about. Keeping that balance between simple and complex is a hard trick. I wonder if the new developers would manage it. As for Diablo 3, its simplification was not really something people wholeheartedly welcomed. The franchise lost quite a lot of fans because of the game's new mechanics. Granted, the ones who stayed were more than enough to make a profit from this game, but that's Diablo, and its fan base was so huge that even if it was halved the remaining part would still be a big crowd. Sacred never was that popular, and outside its fan base game had a pretty bad reputation because of its bugs (those who could cope with bugs usually joined the fan base). I'm not sure how successful Sacred 3 can be if the game design would be completely different from what the fans want to see. That said, I still hope that Deep Silver finally breaks the suspicious silence and tells us more about what they did with this game. That setup they have with characters is not hopeless, it can be interesting if done right, if different characters offer noticeably different gameplay (unlike in Citadel) and if there is a variety of Combat Arts to use and abuse.

I was unsure how to treat the Unlock Items, and somehow ended up looking at the main Legendary Database. It was already in good enough condition, so I decided to take a little time and make it better. First I went through a couple of pages that lacked images, then through those that had bad-quality stats. Pages that have good-looking stat images were left alone (for now), though they can use additional info and formatting, and maybe new "in use" pictures too. That's one thing I wanted to ask you about - old "in use" images for most legendary items are not really bad, but they are 150-250KB GIFs occupying the position where 50-80KB JPGs look better. They also were uploaded directly to the server and can not be normally resized - they use additional thumbnail files instead. As a result we have quite a motley collection of differently sized images that can not be adjusted to any standart. I wonder if it would be better to replace them, or at least to re-upload so that their sizes could be adjusted to something more uniform. What do you think? As of now, Legendary Database is partially renewed and looks OK. I still need to do the Relic pages, but I'm going to look into them later today. EDIT: I finished the Relic pages, so now everything in the Legendary Database has clear stat images.

Well, if I ever play Sacred 3, I'd start with Malakhim too. My favorite classes in the first Sacred were Wood Elf, Dark Elf and Battlemage (followed by Daemon and Vampiress), and this guy soungs like he is a Dark Elf with some Battlemage thrown in for a good measure. Besides, the others look more like standart ARPG classes you see everywhere. Though it's a bit early to decide which class looks more promising, as we are yet to see how they can be played. I hope the developers would show some gameplay videos or at least fresh screenshots, so we could see how much they improved the game since the previous demonstration.

It looks wonderful. The template is still very neat and easy to use, but now it uncludes all situations possible in game: generic NPC names, custom captions, quests you are unable to decline - everything. If it's ready to be used in practice, I'll go through some pages I remember and apply these new options. As for the breaks - if you copy from global.res, there is no need to worry about the line breaks. Being a simple HTML, global.res text already has all necessary formatting. It uses double <br> code just as you do in sample dialogs. Though if you prefer using some other way to start a new line, I'll gladly try it.

If anybody is interested, the english translation of the russian text two posts above goes as following: Regeneration Time for all Combat Arts can be calculated using the following formula: RegTime = cooldown + (cost_base+n*cost_level+m*cost_level/2) / 100 * Stamina_mod * Buff_recuirements_coeff * Buff_bonus * Skills_coeff * Armor_coeff * Item_modifiers * Combo_modifier * Expert_touch * Alchemy_mod The variables in this formula are: cost_base & cost_level - regeneration time constants whose values are set in spells.txt. They define the original regeneration time for each CA and regeneration penalty for each memorized rune. The values for these constants are set in frames (100 frames equals 1 second). n - a number of memorized runes: its minimum value is 1, maximum is 200 m - a number of CA levels added by equipment (these additional levels give only half the penaly to regeneration time) Stamina_mod - a modifier that depends on Stamina attribute. Its value never exceeds 1: Points in Stamina | Stamina_mod _______________________________ 25 | 1 75 | 0,75 125 | 0,5 225 | 0,33 325 | 0,25 425 | 0,2 725 | 0,125 925 | 0,1 Studying this sequence we can determine that in order to halve the regeneration time a character should have 125 Stamina points (+99-100 to starting value). Then, to halve the regeneration time again a character needs 325 points (+200 to previous value), the next time it would be 725 points (+400), the next time - 1525 (+800) and so on. This sequence means that every next point invested in Stamina has less effect on regeneration time than the previous one. Though the same can be said about all the attributes. Buff_recuirements_coeff - a multiplier defined by Regeneration Penalty from Buffs (also know as Buff upkeep cost). Also includes penalties for riding Special Mounts. It usually exceeds 1 (the only exception is the High Elf's Grand Ingivoration that does not have a penalty). Buff_recuirements_coeff = (1 + regeneration time +x%_1stBuff + regeneration time +x%_2ndBuff + regeneration time +x%_3rdBuff +x%_SpecialMount) It can be lowered by modifiers that affect Regeneration Penalty from Buffs: * Appropriate Aspect Focus (of the same aspect as the buff) * Concentration Skill * Stamina (its effect on Regeneration Penalty from Buffs is the same as on Regeneration Time and is described above) * A "Regeneration Penalty from Buffs -X%" Item Modifier. Bonuses granted by different items do not simply sum up, but are calculated by special formula. The result can be nearing -100% but would never reach this value. * Appropriate CA modifications * Penalties for riding a Special Mount can be reduced by the Riding Skill. Buff_bonus - a regeneration time reduction granted by active buffs, Special Mounts or temporary effects from CAs. It is less or equal than 1. Buff_bonus = (1 - regeneration time -x%_1)*(1 - regeneration time -x%_2)*...*(1 - regeneration time -x%_n) It is affected by: * Innate property of a buff (for example, Grand Ingivoration) * Appropriate CA modifications * CAs that increase chacracter's attributes for a short period of time * An Aspect Special Mount grants the rider regeneration time bonus for all CAs of respective aspect. Skills_coeff - a multiplier that depends on the skills learned. It is less or equal than 1. Skills_coeff = (1 - regeneration time -x%_concentration)*(1 - regeneration time -x%_focus) It is affected by the following skills: * Concentration * Appropriate Aspect Focus (of the same aspect as CA) Armor_coeff - a multiplier that depends on regeneration penalty from Armor, 0 < Armor_coeff < 2. Armor_coeff = (1 + regeneration time x%_1)*(1 + regeneration time x%_2)*...*(1 + regeneration time x%_n) Each piece of Armor has an innate penalty to the regeneration time, that can be lowered by the Armor Lore skill. This penalty can be negative, which means that a piece of equipment makes CAs regenerate faster. A penalty value from each piece of equipment is applied as independent multiplier to the resulting regeneration time value; several multipliers do not sum up, but applied in layers: 5 eqiupment pieces with -20% penalty each would not give a character -100% regeneration time, but only 100*0,8*0,8*0,8*0,8*0,8 = -66%. Armor_coeff exceeds 1, when total regeneration penalty from armor exceeds 0, Armor_coeff is less than 1, regeneration penalty from armor is negative. Item_modifiers - a multiplier defined by "Regeneration Time -X%" modifiers found on various pieces of equipment. It is less or equal than 1. Item_modifiers = (1 - regeneration time -x%_1)*(1 - regeneration time -x%_2)*...*(1 - regeneration time -x%_n) Various "Regeneration Time -X%" bonuses granted by different items do not simply sum up, but are calculated by special formula. The result can be nearing -100% but would never reach this value. Combo_modifier - if a character has the Combat Discipline skill and a CA is used in a combo, this multiplier is always less than 1. Hard points in Combat Discipline | Combo_modifier _________________________________________________ 0 | 1 1-75 | 0,9 75 and more | 0,8 Expert_touch - if a character was created with Expert Touch option turned on, this multiplier's value is set to 0.66, otherwise the value equals 1. Alchemy_mod - This multiplier is always less or equal than 1. Its original value is 1, if a character uses Concentration Potions or Trophies the value becomes less for the duration of the potion effect. Multiplier's particular value depends on a type and effectiveness of a potion or trophy used. "Chance to halve regeneration time +X%" bonuses sum up, having 100% grants a permanent bonus of -50% regeneration time. Equipping more than 100% of this chance does not have any effect.

The page for the Light of Eärendil is finished. I tried searching teh wiki for "Light of Earendil" and the search did turn up the page in question, if only because I used "earendil" in picture file names. Regardless, the search works, so everything is OK. And so I finished the Community Patch Legendary Items‎. Now entire CM item database is complete and has new pictures and page design. My next target would be Unlock Items section. I wonder if they should have CM patch stat colors and frames, as installing CM is the only way to get these items without knowing the codes. On the other hand, the codes are still there somewhere and the items can be spawned without CM. Just wonder what do you recommend using - CM design or Fallen Angel one? Also, there was supposed to be an Unlockable shield too, but I don't see it on the wiki. I'll update the first post of this topic with progress. I also searched through the wiki and found these pages: All Temple Guardian Uniques All High Elf Uniques All Seraphim Uniques I guess these list random items of tiers 13-15 that were found sometimes in the past. I wonder how to treat these pages.

It looks very good, and not really more complicated than the original. If these additional fields would be optional and have default values, as you are trying to do, I guess it would be just as easy to use. And yes, a default OK button is a good idea, as most of the dialogues have it this way. The Accept/Decline are only for starting dialogues, and not even all of them. OK ones are much more multiple.

My concern was either for the search - many people do not even have the "ä" on their keyboards so they won't be able to search using it. But Google treats "ä" and "a" as the same letter and finds it easily enough. I'll try the wiki search when I finally stop wasting my time on the forums and get to finish that page. And that second pic is my fav too, I just decided to show the other attemps in case my taste fails me. The thing is - it was taken at night and I usually try not to use night pictures for item showcase. But it's so bright that it looks good. Light of Earendil - turns a night into day!

Curse my english. I thought of writing "multiracial" instead of "multinational" but mistakingly decided against it. One should not try being more politically correct at expence of being understood right. And for some reason, I thought about likening to Dungeon Siege III from the very beginning of Sacred 3 discussion. A world that does not seem the same at the first sight, characters with fixed names, stories and professions, console-oriented development. I just hope that S3 would be able to avoid the same fate of nice-to-see-but-easy-to-forget game and would offer good dinamics and gameplay balance. The overall conception of: Warrior, Mage, Hunter, Ranger for these four is pretty standart RPG class approach. But that cliche can turn out interesting if the balance is right and abilities of these classes are fun to use. Seeing as they have some magical aspect added as a second skill, I hope it would be closer to the first Sacred where both elves, daemon and seraphim had secondary magical skills but it did not feel like an unnecessary addition slapped on top of a class. Let's all pray to whatever powers we believe in that Flix turned out to be right and S3 offered a new approach to co-op playing. The developers' attitude on competitive co-op can mean two things - either "we have a new idea that can make our co-op more original and fresh than what other ARPGs have" or "we failed to make a normal party synergy and cooperative tactics so we decided to promote the game as a competition". It's obvious which is preferable. On a bright side - we won't be disappointed to not find many options to support our party mambers because the game focuses on different playstyle.

Maybe there is a chance to refine a low-quality textures. Resourse textures for leather, metal and enamel can be found on the Internet without much trouble. Carefully layering them with the original textures would take time though. But these shields are interesting even in their current state. I did not noticed poor texture quality of spiked shields on these pictuers, and I don't think that in game somebody would move the camera closer than you did for this showcase. That just made my day, really.

I just hope that you, as a well-respected community member, were allowed to know something that we, common fans, do not know. Because I really prefer your interpretation of bloodmage class to the impression I'm getting from his description on the official site. That description makes him look like Dark Elf rather that Battlemage - an assassin with dual blades and curse-type magic. Not that the Dark Elf was not awesome, but a Sacred game needs a good mage class - something that was present in S1 and Sacred 2, but is absent from many other ARPGs. Though even if this guy is an assassin, he still looks like the most interesting of the five. And, as I mentioned the Dark Elf, had anybody heard of non-human races in Sacred 3? All characters except the seraphim are clearly human, while in S1 and Sacred 2 Ancaria was pictured as throughoutly multinational place - what with Elves, Orcs, mythical Dwarves, wise but oftenly violent Dragons and all other types of beings. Wonder if they keep that trait of the world.

Amazing finds, Flix! It's astonishing how many itneresting-looking shields were quietly lying inside game archives, hidden from everybody. And what a waste to hide them like that, because many look more impressive than what was actually implemented in game. As for ideas, I want to nominate Itemtype 11624 ("Spike Shield 2") for a name "Firebird's Wing" or "Firebird's Feather", because that's what its look reminds me of. For such idea Fire-related bonuses would be appropriate (both to defence: mitigation and/or DoT reduction and/or Opponent's chance to Burn reduction, and damage: Fire damage or all damage, + chance to Burn). Making it sort of anti-dragon shield, or shield for fire mages. Maybe making fire mitigation/ fire resistance scaleable with Shield Lore the way Fire Mitigation of Icingdeath scales with Dual Wield (can reach high value but is very skill-dependant). And, as there was a cry for Sacred 1 items, why not to implement Dralkcib's Protection right as it was? Just swap "+Defence against Ranged" for Sacred 2 equivalent "Chance to Block: Ranged"(or maybe even Reflect) and swap "Parrying" for either "Shield Lore" or "+ Defensive Skills" and it's ready to go. Of course, you may prefer another idea, but that shield was good enough and makes a fine reference to Underworld.

Just decided to show you, guys, what I'm currently killing my time with. I'm making a page for a brand new legendary that was added in the latest CM. That's a shiny (literally) little throwpotion called "Light of Eärendil" (also known as Phial of Galadriel) - another fine addition to our growing collection of LOTR Easter Eggs. I only wonder if the page really should be named with an "ä" symbol. Game, of course, is God, but how well does the wiki take to unusual characters in the link texts? How easy would it be to find such page (I mean, how would the search treat it)? Oh, and by the way, which "in use" picture do you prefer?

That would be a perfect solution. I thought about suggesting it too, but of course you came up with this idea without any hints. Many editing programs have two versions of the interface - simple and advanced. Maybe the wiki should have a simple version of template that is suitable for most cases and easily accessible from toolbar, and an advanced one for those who know what they are doing. As for how much of exception these cases are - they are not a big percent, but considering the amount of quests in Sacred 2, the number of dialogues that require advanced template would be several dozens. Aside from the Kobolds, there are unnamed quest orcs, and if I'm not mistaken some overlapping with playable character classes too. The Hermit case - the red link that would otherwise require a listing page, is very common. Custom button captions are quite rare, but there are about 10 quests that have them. Maybe more, there being so many of them it's hard to remember for sure. I don't think there can be something else. The quest dialogue basically consists of three parts - an NPC name, the main text, and the buttons. The first and the last were already mentioned, the main text is already a fully editable wiki text, so I see nothing that can go wrong with it.

I understand your point here. Though the real trouble is not even the Hermits. If you look at The Farm Owner quest (yes, the same one we used to test the quest template on), there is a Kobold Chieftain there. Of course, his dialogues are captioned "Kobold Chieftain". Except that this page actually exists and is a bestiary entry for a random enemy of the same name. When the links are red, a page can be created, but what to do when the links are obviously misleading? And after all that, I would still request one tweak to the template. Please, add an opportunity to include buttons into the quest dialogues. Take a look at the Ancient Secrets quest to understand why - this one makes good use of custom button captions. If the dialogues are pictured without buttons, some flavor would be lost.

Well, I know that some sections of the wiki need attention more than this database. Many links in the quest section are still red. I was working with quests in the past, I know I make good pages for them, but I also know that I can easily sink several hours into one such page. For now I wanted some smaller project, where being unable to spent half-a-day per page won't bring a work to a halt. These item pages take only several minutes to edit (longer if you count the time for making images, but still not much) and the result is quite noticeable. Now I do them in big bunches, later may work a bit slower, but there would be some progress anyway. I don't think the template is warranted for stat images. They are small files, so I don't think much space would be saved by changing them to typed text. They are fast to make, once you have a screenshot - I actually doubt it would speed work up if I would have to find an appropiate icon and type out the modifiers by hand. There was time when I tried to type the modifiers into item stat images instead of using a specially configured magic wand selection - I know it takes more time. The only use for a template would be if we have modifiers as links - but that would give us trouble as the links do not normally come in all colors of the rainbow. Besides, if modifiers would be links, each database page would get over nine thousand of them and would become very slow. If you have time to work on templates, maybe you can look at the quest dialogs once again? Though I'm afraid I would need some help later. When I move to the older pages there would be a lot of old images that were uploaded directly to the server and only you have a right to delete these. As of now, I wonder how this page should be treated: Sacred 2:Khral's? It is linked from set items page, but these items do not officially form a set. They are united by the same name, but it's not worth much. This way we would have to also create Gruma's, Charo's, Arnum's and other set pages as many names make multiple appearances in unique and legendary item. Still, I know better than to delete a page without asking first. Also, the images from this page aren't used in other places.

Thank you for helping me to understand the issue with those items. Now that we established that they are really both unique and legendary, and as tier 14 items they have a right to be so, I tried making dual pages for them. Here is one for Hammer of the Righteous. Please tell me, what you think of it. And that's how it looks in the database: Community Patch Legendary Items#Hammer of the Righteous

When I first stumbled upon this video at russian fansite (wanted to look up a link to ciSacred mod which I know is still hosted there), the still-shot in the preview showed a close up of one of those horned flaming demon faces. My first thought - "Who is that? Diablo the fourth?" Luckily the rest of the video showed more Sacred aesthetics. This! If this fire mage has no connection to DM, I'd start looking for a pitchfork and a torch. Not just because the Dragon Mage was one of the most interesting character ideas in Sacred franchise, but because they copied his looks close enough. For some reason I hate when developers pay attention only to the surface of things, copying the looks (or just names) but not the meaning and stories of familiar characters and objects. If I had trouble with small worlds, I won't have played Titan Quest and Torchlight for as long as I did. However, for me Sacred was always about all the places to visit and quests to do - the only singleplayer ARPG that offers a real sense of exploration. I can live without, but I would miss it. As for the wish to see seraphim flying - it's a hard thing to make a flying character in full 3D RPG. Daemon's flying in Underworld was good, but it was so much simpler to do with the game's 2D landscapes. There are games that have flying, but those are the ones that focus on it quite seriously. Don't think they would bother making the whole flight mechanics for just one CA of one character. Though maybe she can jump very high with wings appearing during that process, or has some other CA with wing animation. As of now I'm somewhat sceptical about Sacred 3. I don't really like the fact that they promote it everywhere as a "fun game to play with friends", up to the point of including 2-player hotseat (at least that's how I understand "an opportunity of playing a 2-player co-op locally"). I have nothing against co-op and party playing (God knows, I love it) but the games that narrowly focus on it during development and promotion tend not to offer enough depth to be interesting in singleplayer. Besides, having hotseat means that the game was targeted for consoles first, PC second - which usually means gamepad-oriented controls. I think it takes a good gameplay video to melt my heart.

Gogo, I posted a link to another site that hosts this mod's files and I have them of my computer. If you think it is OK if I upload them and you title them with Lazy Tomcat's name, I'll do that today.

The giude about Item quality levels vs Enhanced Perception - Magic Find - Bargaining has quite accurate description of item tiers and which of them is which. And yes, tier 14 can be either unique or legendary. Other items of this tier include Methedrin's Scepter(Legendary), Nadjii's Splitter(Unique) and the famous Kal'Dur's Legacy that is known to spawn as both (was pure legendary in FA, drops mostly as unique in I&B, but those who had it from old days still see it as legendary). Also of tier 14 is Braggis' Law which even has two pictures on the wiki - legendary in FA, sometimes unique in I&B. Actually, this whole story immediately reminded me of Kal'Dur's Legacy and its tier change and now I understand why. So I guess the only sane way to treat these items is to include both versions of the stats with appropriate note and include them is both unique and legendary listings. Unlocks are easier as they already have a page of their own so we don't have to think about classifying them.

Well, if the special mounts end up being your task, and if your opinion about my writing is not very low (though I must say that my english is probably better now, at least today I can spot all mistakes and irregularities in this Redeemer book by myself), you might also want to look at this note on Mantis. That's a long storyline concept for the mount quest. It got some positive replies, but then the development stopped. I have no idea if there would be enough quest IDs to furnish it, or if anybody would like me to work on it further. I just wanted to tell you, that if you would be working on these quests and would like to take me on board, I'll finish this quest concept. As for Redeemer, what kind of a quest would you have liked to try here? What is your opinion on the fitting idea for such quest? Which length would you like to attempt (I don't think I have a freedom of getting carried away with the writing, as you want to experiment on something smaller, and those IDs are probably very limited)? And finally, what opinion do you have of the text above? Would you like to see a quest continuing this story, or something completely different?

That was my first though, and I eliminated the possibility quickly by searching through blueprint.txt and other scripts for all items that use particular itemtypes (models and textures). Besides the blueprint 2954, which drops to me as Unique Bugslayer, the only ones that use the same model are clearly Paladin's Honour, Pyx's Cudgel, Grimwald's Guardian and a random rare club. There just isn't another blueprint that looks like it can be a legendary version of this thing. Wonder if I'm missing something, but neither blueprint.txt nor drop list can offer me something that can be an answer.