AI fix yet?

[Montach]

Please tell me they're fixing our AI crits this patch...

[Hecude Poison`Blood]

Last i saw, the fix was on test

[Veril]

Dev posted, it's not yet fixed

[Tordail]

The last developer post I saw regarding AI was a 6/13 post by Prathun, who said AI (and SoF) should be critting on Test. I read somewhere that they're due on Live in the next full patch (not today's), but I can't find that post. I could swear it was from Nodyin.

[Finori]

Apparently various spell related changes cannot be patched to live until the focus revamp is ready. They are in the process of implementing variable min focus values. But that seems to be a rather large undertaking. I think it's worth waiting - variable min focus value sounds like a huge step forward for the focus system.

[anaskesia]

Is anyone else afraid of this variable minimum focus change?

I just have this vision of things going *spectacularly* wrong.

I'm glad to hear the AI fix is on test though. If it goes live in the next code patch I'll be very happy. Its by far the most serious issue affecting shaman right now I think.

Well, I'd sort of like preincarnation to do something too but I doubt that will ever happen.

[Unmei]

[HawklordXegony]

[Adropt]

Just to give more confirmation. AI and Survival of the fittest are both currently working on Test. I expect, or rather hope, they will be patched Live on your next patch.

[Sat Jun 14 02:35:52 2008] Bloopz begins to cast a spell. <Ancestral Intervention>
[Sat Jun 14 02:35:52 2008] Bloopz performs an exceptional heal! (10223)
[Sat Jun 14 02:35:52 2008] Bloopz has healed you for 10223 points.
[Sat Jun 14 02:35:52 2008] You experience an ancestral intervention. You have been healed for 10233 points.

[Wed Jun 18 00:55:35 2008] Bloopz begins to cast a spell. <Ancestral Intervention>
[Wed Jun 18 00:55:35 2008] Bloopz performs an exceptional heal! (20883)
[Wed Jun 18 00:55:35 2008] Bloopz has healed you for 19555 points.
[Wed Jun 18 00:55:35 2008] You experience an ancestral intervention. You have been healed for 20883 points.

The fix went in on the 14th, and the both the frequency and level of crits seem roughly the same as before AI was broken. Without parsing I can only use the term "roughly", though.

[Tordail]

Great, thanks

[Unmei]

[Macnair]

So instead of a random value between 1 and, say, 40, we'll get a random value between [a random value between 1 and 40] and 40?

The current effect, over many casts, is that you get an average focus of 20 (well, 20.5, but let's round off the fraction).

The proposed effect, over many casts, is that you get an average floor of 20, and therefore a focus between 20 and 40, averaging to 30 (again, rounding off fractions).

There are a lot of computations involved in doing that, as you point out.

Wouldn't the same effect come about, though, with a single line of code:

Focus_of_the_moment = Random (FOCUS/2, FOCUS)

If Unmei is correct about what they are working on, what they want to implement would have the virtue (?) of occasionally generating a negligible focus (1%); my suggested method doesn't have that.

Perhaps they want the game to include the occasional annoyance factor of your focus sometimes being very low. Still, the cost of building in that mild irritation is that you have to do all that computation and cross-checking. I am not sure all that extra trouble is worth it, since the overall effect established by thousands of casts comes out the same as my simple method.

[Finori]

Raising the min value can create an extremly desirable focus. The best example is Healing. The current top Healing foci are at 75%. There average is around 38%. However in the moment you need it most you might just get a 1%. Imagine a Healing focus with a min value of 20%. Not to mention all the other implications of overhealing etc etc.

[Macnair]

Sure, that's the annoyance factor I was talking about.

Still, if you currently own a 75% heal focus, instead of your current average of 37%, your new average will be 56%. That is, as you say, a very valuable focus; but that's what they are planning to give you. Whatever issues this may cause regarding overhealing are going to be present, whether they use the method Unmei reports, or my simpler method.

[HawklordXegony]

[Unmei]

[Unmei]

[Macnair]

[Unmei]

[Macnair]

[Finori]

The floor value will be set per focus not per item. Old foci won't change but new foci with a different floor value than 1 can be created. Items with these new foci with floor value > 1 will be greatly valued.

[Unmei]

[Macnair]

[Finori]

[Macnair]

Thanks for posting those links. That's quite helpful.

[Veril]

The change to allow minimum foci percentages has 2 fairly obvious ways of being calculated to my mind.

The first is to do a straight random between MIN and MAX.
The second way is to do a random between 1 and MAX and then take the larget value of the Random number and MIN.
These two different way produce very different average results.

Taking our Min 20 and Max 75, using Min-Max produces a 47.5 average.
(20+21+22+...+73+74+75)/2

With a 20-75 focus using the second meth0d Max(Min, Rand) to Max produces a 40.5 average
(20+20+20+20+...20+21+22+23+....+73+74+75)/2

The second method is MUCH more akin to how combat is resolved in EQ. The random damage number is generated over a large value and then modified by attack and defense values and then coerced into the 1-20 range

corrected typo as pointed out my Macnair

[Macnair]

[Macnair]

[anaskesia]

Just to briefly re-rail this thread... Nodyin posted this:

"AI and SoTF will be fixed the next time we patch spells but I have no real idea when our next full patch will be. QA has been working amazingly hard sifting through everything we're sending them on Test and Beta but until we get some key things checked out and working 100% we can't patch spells and a few other things. That means Harm Touch, the new tasks, the various bug fixes we've done, etc. We're getting there but I don't know when we'll be ready! "

in this thread:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts ... 1&#1937303