Dirt kick is enough to make you want to quit this game.
This skill is seriously driving me nuts.

My problem is that mobs are too good at it, and too many just spam it. Something is wrong when gralan dirts your hero-ranged char.

Sometime in the last 2 years the level modifier for mob vs pk must have been changed.
It is a rare thing now not to fight a mob and not get dirted.

1) Too many mobs dirt kick
2) There needs to be a level modifier, mobs 20 levels lower should not get most dirts successful
3) Mobs like the vanquisher shouldnt dirt so much. I think its a bit unfair to try to retrieve the head where you spend 90% of the time blinded.

The other option is to change dirt from tick based to pulse base, so it lasts a certain time (based on level). Currently a level 50 mob can dirt a level 10 player for 1 second and a level 1 mob can dirt a level 50 player for 90 seconds!

From what i've seen, they are notoriously accurate with dirt kick. I'll hit a dirtkick on an easy con mob maybe half the time at 85% dirt kick, and they will succeed on me about 90%. As if this isnt bad enough, dirt kick also completely blinds you till the end of a tick. I think it would make a lot more sense if there were degrees of success put into dirt kicking, so only rarely are you actually blinded, but you can get a modified -HR depending on how successful you were. (your dex + dirt kick vs their dex + dodge perhaps) It should also only last about 5 violence ticks, not up to a full hour.

My assessment is that lowbie mobs do more skills nowadays than before. It seems to be the trend lately that every mob need a skill that it can do, be it kick, dirt kick or some other funkyness. This results in such things being noticed at a higher degree by the players, making it seems like its worse now than before.

Nepenthe and Valguarnera. It seems the guy has a point. Don't dodge it.

Now basically puppies dirt kick, little zombies blind you for many ticks and little elven girls stoneshatter you like there is no tomorrow.
Baby guards cleave your shields and break your weapons.
I don't think the playerbase will be harmed if we reduce this annoyance.
Those monsters don't hit you well in melee ( and that's realistic ),
perhaps make them less succesful with these skills/spells against heroes?
I don't mind when a huge dragon burns your whole suit,
but it is just annoyance when a little hydra does the same.

I don't have time to track all of those down, but in 90% of those cases, level is already a factor.

The reasons little pyrohydras can burn your whole suit is because most people don't gear at all for breath saves. I don't either (too situational), but every character has that option.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

We don't gear for them because they are "useless".
Even if you have let's say 50 saves vs. breath it just means
you will lose your set not at first breath but at second, no big difference.

They would have more sense, if you could protect your gear at certain amount of saves.
( while still eat some damage ).
For example:
If you have more saves than a monster level, your gear is not melted, you just eat damage.
If you have less saves than the monster's level, your gear may be destroyed.
Take is as an idea :P

>Sometime in the last 2 years the level modifier for mob vs pk
>must have been changed.


Nope!

I seem to recall the level modifier PK vs. PK was either changed or removed, so if mob vs. pk has stayed the same, it may seem that all of a sudden mobs are better at certain skills than players.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

No, level never mattered for skill success in pk hence my basis is wrong?

-- or --

No you don't think someone who is comparing mob ability to player ability would think mobs have become better at a skill (because higher level players now have a lower success rate) ?

No, nothing's been changed here for years.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

As terse as your answers are, my first instinct is to ask if you even read the body of my post or just the subject line. Intention and emotion being difficult to discern, I tend to give the benefit of the doubt.

That being said, I am not claiming that something changed in the skill success of mobs. What I am saying is that if skill success rates in high level pk vs. low level pk have gone down, casual observation could conclude (incorrectly) that mobs skill success rates have gone up.

What I am saying is that if skill success rates in high level pk vs. low level pk have gone down,

They haven't. I'm being terse because there's nothing more complicated than that.

Do you have a source you could point me to about this? I really have no idea what you're getting at.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I did a forum search, but either couldn't come up with a key list that narrowed it down enough or didn't find anything. I would have sworn Nepenthe posting something about 6-9 months back saying that level used to make a big difference in skill success pk vs. pk and he removed most of those differences such that level didn't make much, if any, difference in pk.

I tend to read whatever Nepenthe posts because its either 1) Funny or 2)insightful and informative. This being a subject I'd have paid particular attention to and the fact that I couldn't find anything after a lengthy search I'm going to have to say Nepenthe never said this. Go run on sentences.

Is Nep saying that level did not affect chances of parrying/dodging another player.

Nep saying that level did not affect chances of parrying/dodging another player.

As far as I know, this has always (*) been true.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

(*): Maybe it was different in the very early days of the MUD, but I remember this being announced as true back when I was a mortal. I know for certain nothing of significance has changed remotely recently on that front, however.

>I did a forum search, but either couldn't come up with a key
>list that narrowed it down enough or didn't find anything. I
>would have sworn Nepenthe posting something about 6-9 months
>back saying that level used to make a big difference in skill
>success pk vs. pk and he removed most of those differences
>such that level didn't make much, if any, difference in pk.

I'm pretty sure this would have been several years ago, but I do believe I did say something roughly to that effect.

I discovered that level vs. level was a factor in certain older skills in PK that I had thought it was not. Trip was one of these, I believe; dirt kicking may have been another though I'm not sure. I then changed things for these skills such that level difference was only a factor in dealing with PC vs. NPC.

Nothing has changed in NPC dirt kicking in a long time as far as I'm aware, although one part of the success formula for them is a little different than I would have expected. I'll talk to the usual suspects about it when I get the chance.

Proving yet again a certain person should read posts before making a 'terse' assholish reply.

In relation to dirt kick, I think it is sorta dodgy that mobs so many levels beneath you can keep you dirted for a good portion of a fight. Especially since its as far as I know the most common prog for NPC's to have/use. Rather than edit the NPC progs I would think it'd be easier merely to make level more of a factor. It doesn't really benefit players to know they have a decent shot at dirting a level 60 dragon at level 10, if you catch my meaning, narrowing the range where dirt kick has moderate success to an 11 level difference would seem fair.

>I did a forum search, but either couldn't come up with a key
>list that narrowed it down enough or didn't find anything. I
>would have sworn Nepenthe posting something about 6-9 months
>back saying that level used to make a big difference in skill
>success pk vs. pk and he removed most of those differences
>such that level didn't make much, if any, difference in pk.

He's only ever reaffirmed the point that skills don't have a pvp rank check.

see above heh heh

>see above heh heh

You can't get disarmed if you keep the mob blind too, and at least lowbie mobs are bad at disarming anyway. (I realise that disarming is not the only issue here.)

You only get dirted if you are the tank.

You could usually bring someone just to keep watch for you whilst you are dirted.