Sacred 2 - DarkMatters MP Servers 2024: Time to Play : We're here! + Discussion /Announcements

[SLD 523]

10 hours ago, xrystal said:

I put everything which matters into the description (aside from the fact that I did indeed forgot to put "alternate spells" into the alternate spell server... )

Which doesn't matter much as the altenate spells servers are only available on niobium difficulty right now...

Also, while the description shows all required mods it doesn't show the active mods that aren't required, those do still "matter" however as superspawn games feel quite a bit different and should we ever have challenge mode servers, one might want to know that before joining one as well...
 

10 hours ago, xrystal said:

Superspawn, since it is just a serverside config file, is not a technical requirement from the client, as you already wrote, so I have not included it in the mod list. I tried to put it into the more informal server title, but yeah, not much space there for full titles.

There would be enough space, people would just have to learn a bunch of abbreviations, that you could list over in your thread, that everyone wanting to play on your realm has to visit anyway.
Example from your list: "- S2EE 3.2a + Su..." shows there would be enough space for the theoretical maximum of "- HCEE3.2aASSSCM", So it could list everything where we to learn the abbreviations. And those 2 character ones are still not hard to memorize/ figure out:
SS Superspawn
AS Alternate Spells
CM Challenge mode (or CH if you don't want it to be confusable with the Community Patch)

HC hardcore and EE Enhanced Edition are already used anyway.


Also visible on your screenshot and more ingame, the servers you have currently running are quite an inconsistent roster.
From free games with only 5 instead of 8 slots to no bronze pfp campaign games and the aforementioned alternate spells only in niobium, it's all over the place.
I guess that has historical reasons, as you probably just added what people asked for, but I think that could use some review.
But before you misunderstand my intent here, this is just information and not a request. I couldn't care less about pfp, there are no more than 5 players around anyway and the current server naming convention is sufficient even though not perfect. I don't want you to feel pushed to change stuff now.


I do have a request however, as ric has liked my post and gogo has been around as well without objecting to this:

20 hours ago, SLD said:

Otherwise I would argue for a set of premade EE 3.2a Alternate Spells Challenge Mode Superspawn Free Play servers as they would be compatible with ric's already existing characters and add the most stuff to kill and loot, but also some challenge. That set would not need to include a bronze server as those are just a total waste anyway, so that way we can spare some xrystal resources. Any objections to this idea?

So I guess noone has any objections. Would you please create those servers?
I don't think we'd need a bronze one but silver through niobium with EE 3.2a, alternate spells, challenge mode, superspawn would be nice to have.
And make them softcore to not exclude ric's current characters.

I'd really like to try out your realm and see if I can get someone to join in

[xrystal 77]

9 hours ago, SLD said:

Also visible on your screenshot and more ingame, the servers you have currently running are quite an inconsistent roster.
From free games with only 5 instead of 8 slots to no bronze pfp campaign games and the aforementioned alternate spells only in niobium, it's all over the place.
I guess that has historical reasons, as you probably just added what people asked for, but I think that could use some review.
But before you misunderstand my intent here, this is just information and not a request. I couldn't care less about pfp, there are no more than 5 players around anyway and the current server naming convention is sufficient even though not perfect. I don't want you to feel pushed to change stuff now.

That PFP server was pretty much for myself
I should probably add more difficulties for it. 
But yeah, the list has grown over time and it was always a back- and forth between keeping it short but supporting the mods wanted. And last week while trying to get running everything again I copied my serverlist from one file format to another and added even more errors to it.

With the old server, I had less control about the ressource usage of single game servers which made some processes use more ressources than actually needed. On the current one, I can assign precise limits for cpu and memory which allow me to put up more game servers within the same amount of ressources as I can be sure that memleaking processes will now just restart if they hit a memory limit. For the higher player numbers servers however we'll probably have to test how much ressources they actually need under load to not restrict them too much. Especially considering superspawn probably causes more load the different configurations of game servers should probably also be treated different in terms of ressource assignment.

Also: It's okay, I don't mind input, it's helpful. And technically, with everything new and fresh, now is a very good time for changing things. I also still miss some major mods...

About the server names, I am still a bit torn about how much abbreviation would be good: It's not that rare players actually stumble upon the game servers without any outside knowledge. So they would have no reference of the abbreviations in the titles, try to join at random and consquently fail. That being said, not seeing the full title displayed also is no help to them, hmm...

9 hours ago, SLD said:

So I guess noone has any objections. Would you please create those servers?
I don't think we'd need a bronze one but silver through niobium with EE 3.2a, alternate spells, challenge mode, superspawn would be nice to have.
And make them softcore to not exclude ric's current characters.

Sure. You'll have to verify tho whether they are working or not as I currently don't have a matching clientside EE setup to do so myself. I'll add the file for CM later today to my images and post again once adjusted (currently, the servers should now run in various difficulties for EE Alternate Spells but still without CM).

Edited October 22 by xrystal

[SLD 523]

1 hour ago, xrystal said:

About the server names, I am still a bit torn about how much abbreviation would be good: It's not that rare players actually stumble upon the game servers without any outside knowledge. So they would have no reference of the abbreviations in the titles, try to join at random and consquently fail. That being said, not seeing the full title displayed also is no help to them, hmm...

-Can you push a lobby chat message or something, that would give an explanation? Currently there is a welcoming one liner though I'm not sure if the lobby sends that or if the client says that to itself
-Are those "server descriptions" limited to one line or could you put more info there?
Also, the Full Server Name can be read in the pre join stage, so once a server is selected and you press join, there's a confirmation step where the full server name is displayed. So maybe the current state isn't as bad as I thought anyway.
 

1 hour ago, xrystal said:

Sure. You'll have to verify tho whether they are working or not as I currently don't have a matching clientside EE setup to do so myself. I'll add the file for CM later today to my images and post again once adjusted (currently, the servers should now run in various difficulties for EE Alternate Spells but still without CM).

I can verify that the bronze and silver one currently run ee with alternate spells. I can join and cast an alternate spell properly. For the higher ones we'd have to wait.
After testing CM locally I think we should better keep the current cm free ones. CM might kill the attempt to bring the community together
Maybe once you created that server setup just add a silver and gold cm version on top? That would last for a while anyway and we can see which option would be played.

For the resource per server stuff, I would start playing on the cm silver one once it's ready so I can then test server stability and you can at least gather metrics for one client there. For higher player count we'll have to wait for actual people to show up though...

[gogoblender 3,338]

On 10/20/2024 at 9:33 PM, Schot said:

Kamikaze...  Reloaded?  Reborn?  Resurrected! 

Ah the good O'l days of readying for battle and sharing buffs! 

Play loud as possible! 

 

 Atmospheric!

( @ric7202) heh...quoting ric there

 

 

Anyone have more info on which buffs of which classes can be shared? We were so busy huffing and puffing and running away ... we never thought to investigate and categorize...

maybe this can be spread sheeted for the wiki?

Gak... more schtuff to do.

aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

And... dang, I wonder if sharing buffs will still work? Tragic if it doesn't where's that Diablo 4...

 

gogo

ps @xrystal and @SLD thanks for all the heavy lifting here for getting to find servers that are friendly for the community.  Working get our toons up and ready in the servers as soon as we can  

[SLD 523]

1 hour ago, gogoblender said:

Working get our toons up and ready in the servers as soon as we can  

I have already created a blacksmith project to help out with that. I plan on sharing the guy in the download section should I ever get him far enough. That one should take care of all the socketing for our mp endeavours.

1 hour ago, gogoblender said:

Anyone have more info on which buffs of which classes can be shared?

All the ones that have a "effects others" mod. And the SW augmenting guidon I guess. There aren't many things that effect others.

1 hour ago, gogoblender said:

maybe this can be spread sheeted for the wiki?

maybe you could just read through the combat arts in the wiki. The info is already there. There are only 105 CAs in the game and most of them aren't buffs so you don't have to look at those.

1 hour ago, gogoblender said:

And... dang, I wonder if sharing buffs will still work?

It should still work, but it has never been worth it. Just like playing in groups.
Yes, I am always that loner that ruins the fun

[xrystal 77]

10 hours ago, SLD said:

-Can you push a lobby chat message or something, that would give an explanation? Currently there is a welcoming one liner though I'm not sure if the lobby sends that or if the client says that to itself
-Are those "server descriptions" limited to one line or could you put more info there?

The welcome message can be modified. Good idea, could put either a short explaination or a simple link there. I just have to get up my build environment for the lobby again to be able to actually do that.

If I remember correctly, linebreak was not possible in the descriptions, but will have to check that again to be sure.

10 hours ago, SLD said:

I can verify that the bronze and silver one currently run ee with alternate spells. I can join and cast an alternate spell properly. For the higher ones we'd have to wait.

Thanks for testing, glad to hear.

10 hours ago, SLD said:

After testing CM locally I think we should better keep the current cm free ones. CM might kill the attempt to bring the community together
Maybe once you created that server setup just add a silver and gold cm version on top? That would last for a while anyway and we can see which option would be played.

Is CM that hard? I have to admit, the "normal" niob is already quite hard enough for me 
I added the silver and gold EE CM ones.

[SLD 523]

1 hour ago, xrystal said:

Is CM that hard? I have to admit, the "normal" niob is already quite hard enough for me 

I don't think it will matter that much in niob, but starting a new character under CM rules was probably not intended. So while my lightsber SW could manage to "hit and run" kill gahanka in a lengthy fight, he still has to hit and run him at level 20 and still gets to warning level when he takes like 2 or 3 hits of him. And SW has more than double the hp and a lot of armor compared to other characters. I also haven't gotten to more than 40% hitchance against that thing yet. So the fight still takes a while and is dangerous while every normal kobold champion is being oneshot with 100% hitchance. The balance is just far out of whack here and lightsaber SW is certainly one of the strongest builds in the game both in offense and defense.
My point is, I came prepared chose a great character, got geared at lvl 1 with socketing and everything and it still was/is hard. Which is also why I'm making the smith as he then can socket high lvl smitihing arts for others starting after him. Just imagine someone dosen't prepare his char and chooses to fight a kobold with his fresh undressed lvl 1 dryad. They'll just be crushed. Now technically one could start in bronze and it would be double time easier there as bronze is easier and the amount of impact from CM is also based on difficulty. So maybe it would be more doable when starting there. On the other hand bronze also gimps your gear, it's not just slightly lower stats but also stuff like set items with less sockets and such bs. So I wouldn't want to play bronze.
Whether CM stays hard till niob, I have no clue. All I know is that it starts out really hard. And that is when you stick with kobolds at level 20. Shouldn't I be killing orcs by now? How about the Gar'colossus or Octagolamus? Any idea on how to solve the mount quest? Yeah CM is not very "noob friendly"

1 hour ago, xrystal said:

I added the silver and gold EE CM ones.

Then I will move my blacksmith levelling there. Thank you!

[ric7202 119]

2 hours ago, SLD said:

I don't think it will matter that much in niob, but starting a new character under CM rules was probably not intended. So while my lightsber SW could manage to "hit and run" kill gahanka in a lengthy fight, he still has to hit and run him at level 20 and still gets to warning level when he takes like 2 or 3 hits of him. And SW has more than double the hp and a lot of armor compared to other characters. I also haven't gotten to more than 40% hitchance against that thing yet. So the fight still takes a while and is dangerous while every normal kobold champion is being oneshot with 100% hitchance. The balance is just far out of whack here and lightsaber SW is certainly one of the strongest builds in the game both in offense and defense.
My point is, I came prepared chose a great character, got geared at lvl 1 with socketing and everything and it still was/is hard. Which is also why I'm making the smith as he then can socket high lvl smitihing arts for others starting after him. Just imagine someone dosen't prepare his char and chooses to fight a kobold with his fresh undressed lvl 1 dryad. They'll just be crushed. Now technically one could start in bronze and it would be double time easier there as bronze is easier and the amount of impact from CM is also based on difficulty. So maybe it would be more doable when starting there. On the other hand bronze also gimps your gear, it's not just slightly lower stats but also stuff like set items with less sockets and such bs. So I wouldn't want to play bronze.
Whether CM stays hard till niob, I have no clue. All I know is that it starts out really hard. And that is when you stick with kobolds at level 20. Shouldn't I be killing orcs by now? How about the Gar'colossus or Octagolamus? Any idea on how to solve the mount quest? Yeah CM is not very "noob friendly"

Then I will move my blacksmith levelling there. Thank you!

I ran Silver with my toon up to about lvl 50 without CM and it was a walk in the park. Then with CM I got almost instantly crushed and had to run like a little baby, constantly redlining, until I got away from the mob. I was NOT prepared enough. Individuals and small groups are no problem, but when they gang up on you, which they will do quite often, you'd better have a plan. 

Concerning groupfriendly buffs. I have a few but with this toon (The Black Knight) I have not modded my CA's for it, not even Guidon. So for playing in teams, I might wanna make a new one with the right mods. 

[SLD 523]

On 10/23/2024 at 1:39 AM, ric7202 said:

Then with CM I got almost instantly crushed and had to run like a little baby, constantly redlining, until I got away from the mob. I was NOT prepared enough.

And you are the one with all the gear from previous runs and a full set

Actually my Gahankaing has improved significantly by now. Somewhere between lvl 21 and 25 I hit a breakpoint(that should not exist) and now I can just facetank him. I was continuously improving armor mitigation and regeneration, but such a harsh breakpoint should not exist. I don't really have an explanation for it. But I'm happily advancing in levels there.
 

On 10/23/2024 at 1:39 AM, ric7202 said:

Concerning groupfriendly buffs. I have a few but with this toon (The Black Knight) I have not modded my CA's for it, not even Guidon.

Guidon should not need mods to work in party.


@xrystal
The CM silver server works fine, I had no problems so far and the mods seem to have been applied correctly.

Edit: The Gold one works just as well and is even more deadly
The Blacksmith project is coming along nicely.

Edited October 24 by SLD

[SLD 523]

On 10/23/2024 at 2:17 AM, SLD said:

The Blacksmith project is coming along nicely.

It's at level 82 right now.

I just wanted to inform about a probably lag induced problem that occurs when playing on the xrystal realm. There is no measurable lag to be felt but my melee sw when trying to us demonic blow often times "stutter steps" to close the gap towards an enemy, meaning instead of properly walking up and then attack, he makes a tiny step, waits a relatively long time, then makes another tiny step until he gets in range. He gets there, yes, but you basically have to break the target hold or wait far longer than usual to reach the next enemy.

Nothing game breaking, but certainly an annoyance, so if anyone makes a char to mostly play on the xrystal servers keep this potential problem in mind.
It doesn't happen when I play locally.
Also, with both Xrystal and me located in germany I guess anyone else on the planet will probably rather run into more problems of this kind than less.

@xrystal,
other than that, there were no "server side" problems that I could find and I don't expect this one to be fixable.
So your servers run great under single player load.
As for other players I only ever saw 2 other people stuck in a campaign game. I did not want to bother them(and couldn't because they played shadow campaign ),
but I did notice that the lobby overview still showed their server as 0/5 players. There may be a bug here. Solo I can't check wether I "count" while in a game.