Game Mechanics: Cordelia Minster (North Karana)

[Atern]

Couple things I've noticed...

Isabella Cellus is supposed to wander the halls, stopping periodically. Her path takes her through the room with the 2 nobles.

Storm Dragonchaser and Star DreamSpinner are doing some whacked out stuff. I'm not quite sure what, but it looks like that are essentially dispelling my pet. Even with a fully buffed and focused 49 earth pet, after about 5 seconds it's gone. They should be casting spells, but not dispelling pets.

The most recent experience i've had with these NPCs outside of P99 is the EQMac server Al'Kabor. The above is how these NPCs act on Al'Kabor, which has all expansions up to PoP.

[Atern]

Also, all the nobles and Isabella are on what looks like 6 minute spawn timers, and that is correct. The bards should be on the longer timer (24 min?) but I haven't been able to verify that they are on the 24 min cycle yet since i can't kill them. Captain Boshinko should be a 6 min spawn timer as well, but it looks like he's on the 24 min cycle.

[JackFlash]

I just dinged 29 on my wiz and went to solo Vhalen. On live I used him to solo up to 40ish. I do not remember him casting anything ever.

The way he is now I can't even get past his charm song. I'll see if I can dig up any info but I used him to level my wizard during kunark and maybe even into velious.

http://web.archive.org/web/200112250....shtml?id=3323

Faction with Bards/Vhalen By: Faern
Posted @ Sun, Aug 6th 8:57 AM 2000 Score: Decent[2.50]
1) Killing WK Bandits does NOT raise faction with bards.
2) 3 Kills of Vhalen and I am KOS to Bards everywhere. (Quite a Pain)
3) His spawn rate is 6 minutes.
4) His Loc is closer to -200, -200.
5) I reiterate, the faction hits and repercussions are HORRENDOUS.

[JackFlash]

I looked through the entire patch history and can't find anything about changing bards to cast. I killed Vhalen many many times on live and he never casted.

I also never remember being casted on by other bards that would agro me in various cities. Maybe bard NPC's didn't ever sing songs?

[Barthorn]

bards NPCs never casted anything until sometime after velious, maybe during PoP era

[Itchybottom]

To my knowledge, bards have never sung songs on live period. With the exception of Maestro, who casted, not sang his deadly lifetap. None of the classic bards did, that's for sure. Even during PoP, not as much as a peep from the bards I killed. They had really low HP, not so great resists, and usually only punched making them a tad less dangerous than similar level NPC. I loved kiting them on my druid, and later on my wizard twink because they were easy targets, and usually fast repop (due to the Going Postal quest) with the exception of Travis Two Tone, which was a 20 minute re-pop (There was a bard in the Barbarian village in West Karana, that made a good replacement, as well as the bard in Rivervale.)

NPC bards can't sing songs

[mmiles8]

^ What Itchybottom said.

I posted a theory here as to why Bards work here but didn't on live.

I guess it will come down to personal opinion (and whether you're trying to level up on bards) as to whether it's "Grats to the devs on outdoing live!" or "Boo it's not classic!"

Since they never worked in any era, the classic argument is a little moot. Bards, like boats, were something no one ever cared enough to fix, not broken by design. It adds a bit of posterity that they do work here.

[jeffd]

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

Can anyone provide me a date for when bard npcs started casting? Links or patch notes.

bard npcs never used spells, which was common knowledge to every druid/mage/necro and is why the bard npcs were such coveted soloing spots.

if they ever did start casting, it wasn't until well after POP.

Originally Posted by mmiles8

Bards, like boats, were something no one ever cared enough to fix, not broken by design. It adds a bit of posterity that they do work here.

if that's your argument, then other fixes need to be implemented, such as halflings having their +5% exp bonus removed and given to humans. the devs have stated clearly and shown through precedent that they want to keep it as close to classic as possible, "broken" or not.

[mmiles8]

What someone else thinks of what I think is low on my list of things to care about in a given day.
But, if you're going to quote something I've said, please don't crop the most relevant portion to make a strawman of it.

[jeffd]

Originally Posted by mmiles8 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

butthurt e-thuggery

you don't understand the difference between someone disagreeing with you and a personal attack. also, getting defensive (ie, emotionally invested) sort of ruins the tough guy act. now hurry and reply again to prove that you don't care what people think of you.

as for the topic:

August 2000: Bards... are the EASIEST mob for its level as they use meele and none of the songs,believe me if they used the songs they wouldnt be camped half as often.

May 2002: a level 21-24 sk can solo him lol hes a wuss because verant doesnt make their bards use spells

September 2005: killed him he uses no spell that i know of

also, on all the bard beastiary pages (listed under "NPCs you kill to lower the faction), the bards using spells is never mentioned once.