Game Mechanics: Sneak and CoS Pulling (Monks/Necros/SKs)

[Infested]

It was 1999. It actually went live with the dec 1st patch though:

------------------------------
December 1, 1999 7:00am
------------------------------

The following changes and enhancements have been introduced with the
latest patch:

*Monk Enhancements*
-The Feign Death changes which were mentioned on November 16th are now
live.

[Xadion]

ahh thanks, so...when this gets pushed it should function as posted and ref in the above patch notes.

[Treats]

More info here also from a Q&A that Gordon did:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fro...st/SsveEiscx_c

This was a reply by gordon to some questions that was posted on a
www
char site. It is sufficiently informative that i deemed it
worthwhile
to post here.

My comments are interspersed.

> Gordon
> Well, here's my reply to the various issues I've seen brought
up. I
> think I've covered the majority of them that weren't already
> addressed by Brad

> >>> Why was feign death changed?

> Feign death was broken, and there were 2 bugs at work.

> 1. When you successfully feigned, you were never removed from
the creatures hate list unless you feigned 7 times.
> 2. However, the creature would not remember that it hated you
until it engaged something else.

> Example: Bob the Monk attacks a guard. Bob runs away and
feigns. The Guard says áOh, he just fell over deadá
> and goes back to his spawn point. Bob gets up and starts
chatting with the Guard. The Guard says, áOne second
> Bob, I have to go kill this moss snakeá.*kills snake*á Er,
Bob, didnát you attack me a bit ago? Monks like you
> have ruined your own lands, youáll not ruin mine!á

> The first change to Feign Death fixed bug #2. The down side to
this was that the first bug became apparent.
> Anything that was feigned on would instantly remember the monk
when he stood back up. This caused a ton of
> problems so a set of changes was put in to effect the
following:

> 1. Creatures level 31 or below will always forget you (100%)
if youáve successfully feigned and they miss their
> ásee through feigná skill check (same check existed before).
> 2. Creatures 32 or above will always (100%) forget you if
theyáve returned to their spawn point.
> 2a. If they havenát yet returned to their spawn point, they
have a good chance to forget you.
> 3. Roamers (creatures without spawnpoints) have a good chance
to forget you.

> So, the bottom line:

> Before, if you feigned on something, and ran off to do
something else, it would come running after you the moment
> it got done fighting something else, and was libel to bring
the entire zone with it, at any point up until the time you
> zoned. The upside of this was that if you were in the only
group fighting in an area, the chances of this happening
> was rather small. You could also feign multiple times until
you got a single critter from a group.

> After, if something is going to remember you, it is going to
remember you right away. Itás still libel to bring the
> entire zone, but you might be able to get it off of you for
good by feigning multiple times. The downside is that
> your chance of successfully getting rid of a critter is tied
exponentially to the number of critters of which you are
> trying to lose. For instance, if you are feigning on 1
critter, you will get rid of it for good in an average of 2
feigns.
> With 2 critters on you, itáll take an average of 5 feigns.
With 3 itás 13.

> Thatás the long answer. To answer the questions concisely, the
bug with feign death was noticed and fixed because
> Monks were able to pull singles from places that they should,
per game design, have needed an enchanter, druid, or
> the like.

> >>> WHY do necro pets stay alive after a necro feigns?

> Good question. Iáve heard of the cheesy tactic of the
charm/dot/feign. Weáre considering fixing this so that the pet
> behaves as if the owner had went invisible. That means that a
skele pet would commit suicide, and a charmed pet
> would turn on the necro. What do you think? Weád like to get
input before making the change.

> >>>Why were they so broken that THE CENTRAL ability of the
class had to be removed. For monks, it was as
> bad as removing "bind anywhere" from mages.

> I disagree that feign death was the central ability of Monks.
I believe that their central ability is to be a melee class
> that was 90% effective while naked.

It was pointed out in the thread this article was written in that
this is
not true. Even if it was true, the central ability of any class
resting
on the fact it leaves a pretty corpse is darn lame.

> >>>The effect of individual saving throws means you can no
longer feign against groups.

> Well, it depends on the size of the group, but yes, you are
basically right. FD was supposed to be a spell that
> allowed a Monk to save their own life, not to be used as an
offensive measure. As a life-saving maneuver, FD is
> still very effective.

Forgetting the fact that this is now useless for saving you life
if there is
a group of mobs attacking you, ie. most of the time.

[Nirgon]

This was a super hot topic re: charmed/summoned pets and necros solo'ing the ghoul lord room in classic (FD->keep pet).

[Raavak]

Originally Posted by Nirgon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This was a super hot topic re: charmed/summoned pets and necros solo'ing the ghoul lord room in classic (FD->keep pet).

Weren't necros soloing the room while afk? Musta been nice to go to school/work and come back max 50 or w.e it was at the time.

[Nirgon]

Part of it was that you could just charm something, throw it at lord, watch it die while FD'd so yes.

Part 2 was how murderous the 49 pet was when wielding fine steel daggers. It took the delay from the daggers but not a change in damage. It was spamming out stupid dmg. So that was another fix. I won't even get into the mage vs necro vs wizard raid debate when wizards didn't have ice comet. Simply put, pet classes were just too godly, the necro having charm (for a time not undead only) was ridics.

[Sunderfury]

Resolving as I believe this was implemented long ago and tweaked for level disparities between PC / NPC.