AoE's

[calad]

I have been thinking about the total use of AoE's in high traffic mass spawning areas. Example being farm and surrounding areas as well as tower dungeon lvl 2. You take the typical party of lvl 25, (Fighter, Cleric, Mage and Rogue), add CoB, Acid Fog, Grease, Blade barrier, and Storm of Vengence. Each char can cast these AoE's multiple times which not only sends the players GFX lag through the roof, but also laggs the server to the point you would swear thats its never been reset. What I am asking is can we limit to number of AoE's in any pre 40 areas to say 10 total. Thats still plenty of CoB's and Grease to mass spawn areas like farm and still be effective.

[FunkySwerve]

Thanks for posting this, would've forgotten about it again. We can definitely do this, though it'll be awhile coming.
Funky

[Phantanya]

Ooo! Ooooo! I have 2 cents! How about if darkness spell....instead of blacking out an area use the same special effect that infestation of maggots uses. It is a darkish cloud around the victem. This would also be helpful to be able to tell if someone is effected by blinding effects too. I mean in battle you can tell if someone is blind only by looking at thier character chart. The combat info is way to fast.
huh huh? Whatcha think?
Peace,
Phantanya

[holla]

To help with lag reduction could the offending AoEs be made so as only 1 of each could be onscreen at any time, much like the wall of stone. Most of time these spells are all used on a set point and spawns lured to them, then the group moves on and repeats the process sometimes leaving several active that are no longer needed.
To make this viable option I would suggest upping the DC or Damage on some of the spells to try and even out the greater chance of success and damage offer by multiples.
This should have the effect of reducing lag as Calad has suggested for both gpx and serverwide and could also make casters play more tactically rather than relying on pure spammage.
All the best, Holla .

[lusitania]

Does casting a large number of AoEs actually cause permanent lag on the server?
Let this just count as a vote for leaving this as it is. If people cast a large number of creeping dooms, storms of vengeance, or blade barriers, it's probably because it's necessary to get the job done, not because they're fascinated by watching green raindrops. If you want to balance it by making the individual spells more powerful, you could try, but let me give an example- my druid can, and regularly does, cast seven creeping dooms at a time, sometimes more through empowered spell if the situation requires it. Are you seriously going to make creeping doom seven times more powerful?
Also, about the graphics problem- It seems that the easier solution would be to turn down your graphics details while in a party with such casters.

[FunkySwerve]

No, Holla is right, there are plenty of spam-happy casters of AoEs out there. And even the best gphx card on the lowest graphics setting will start to jam up with 7 or 8 greases stacked. Limiting them to 1 or several of a type is definitely an option I'm considering.
Funky

[lusitania]

Well, I took that challenge. At 1600x1200, best quality, all settings at maximum except anti-aliasing, with 9 greases, 7 creeping dooms, and 6 storms of vengeance all going at once, I got 20 fps with a video card that's a year old. If there are some players who have computers that can't handle what some casters do even on the lowest settings, perhaps that's something that should be resolved within the party rather than over the entire server. If your party mage refuses not to cast 9 greases even after asking them not to, it's time to find a new party mage.
I could understand limiting the number of greases, stoneholds, spike growths, those sorts of thing, to maybe 2 each, since having more than one of those at once doesn't get you much more. But storm of vengeance, creeping doom, and blade barrier (for instance) all add up. Limiting the number of casts of those things would be a pretty big change to the game, eliminating a style of play if you limit them severely. Are you planning on limiting those types of spells too?

[FunkySwerve]

And, of course, the other players, and the monsters, and the spells being cast, combat animations, impacts, etc - I was talking about greases used in combat, naturally. The AoEs are admittedly the biggest factor, but they are combining with the stress of rendering other animations as well, and especially of calculating the interaction between all those things, which is where the grease really becomes a burden. And then there's fog. And, of course, the fact that not everyone has a graphics card that's only a year old. My own is 2.5 or 3 years old, and I'm guessing the server average is much closer to that than 1. It's just not realistic to expect all the players to have the newest accessories, and to structure the server around that. If you've been on the server any length of time you've no doubt been in groups where people have to relog to clear up their graphics lag every 30 minutes or so - and that's using the lowest settings, in many cases. I've had to cut fog amounts in half in areas just to allow people to play for more than 10 minutes before a relog.
And of course, all of that just concerns graphics lag, and not the extra scriptload that AoEs put on the server, which is considerable, to say the least - that's one of the reasons the AoEs were scaled up only moderately in comparison to other spells - to make them useful in fewer scenarios. Hell, they won't even RUN without special psuedoheartbeat scripts forcing them to higher engine priority.
Funky