Game Mechanics: sneak pull

[Daldaen]

From that very same thread:

October 2000:

Its main use appears to be when there are mobs that are Agro, close, but *NOT* social. If you can sneak in and nail one with a shuriken or get yourself inside the vision sector of one but not the others, then sneak back FAST out of the agro range of the second before you're hit and sneak is blown, you can pull just one of them fast and easy rather than the time and hassle of a feign pull. Of course this is easier for rangers, rogues as they have nice long range bows to use for this, but then if it messes up they can't just FD, so I know what I prefer!



Its claimed that sneak can be used as a minor harmony effect on *SOCIAL* mobs to reduce their add radius, but personally I haven't had much success with this at all. By far the best way to pull these is harmony if outside of course, or fd/chain, or the best way "be high enough level to only get one of them" <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT="[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]"> .

[Vega]

Doesn't that first paragraph imply sneak didn't break on a throw and hit? I guess it's possible he's saying you have to re-hit the sneak button, but if so he worded it wrong.

[Daldaen]

Likely worded wrong since there are many posts that it broke sneak as I and Raev linked in era.

[Erati]

lore wise, it makes sense for the game to break your sneak when you throw something

it doesnt make any logistical sense remaining hidden after you successfully hit something with a throwing weapon as your cover is blown now. Pressing the sneak button a second time was how the players 'figured' it out to get the desired results.

I guess it was later changed as the game got harder in other areas, so pulling became easier?

[Thulack]

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

lore wise, it makes sense for the game to break your sneak when you throw something

it doesnt make sense any logistically remaining hidden after you successfully hit something with a throwing weapon as your cover is blown now if you think about it.

I guess it was later changed as the game got harder in other areas, so pulling became easier?

More classes got way to split mobs easier later on in EQ.

[Buellen]

In swamp of no hope tests

My max distance was 60 same as shureken.

Had sneak activated before throwing

I would throw and start to walk backward mob i targeted would turn and start to come after me and would break my sneak, i cannot prove it at time but i swear the mob here on p1999 hit from farther out. that is when the sneak would break.

Usually that would still guarantee me a single pull (IF i was in the back arc of all the mobs etc)

if i was closer than 60 range(but outside agro) the mob would turn and and be within range to hit me breaking my sneak and thus i would agro the rest of the group.

Hope this helps

[Raev]

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

This post not only implies it lowers aggro range for assist, but that it lowers it for consideration. I don't think that's true, or you never would have been able to vendor or turn in quests as indiff while sneaking. My guess is this guy might have lagged and the server thought he was infront of the mob. Is there other proof for it working like a lull? Maybe I missed it.

Basically this guy is sneak pulling some mobs by face aggroing them. This works for him (and everyone agrees it is a standard tactic) because he is not using ranged attack, so sneak does not break.

I am not so sure about the lull aspect myself; the only evidence we have there is Autumn, although from a balance perspective it would be great if the assist range was not 0.

From the same monk thread:

Best use for this I've found: this makes us into chain-pulling gods. Let a monk pull whatever he wants up into a nice tidy FD pile a good distance from the group, target the one you want, bring it to the group. Monk just stands up and re-FDs to keep the pile there while you whittle them down one by one until only casters are left.

This is from 2002 but quoting a Safehouse thread from the Kunark era.

[Daldaen]

While we are on the topic of flight times of ranged items... It should also be mentioned that often times ranged items when fired would get lost in geometry and not even attempt to connect with the target (which would result in no agro).

This was most prevalent in areas where mobs are close to walls. Specifically when mobs are being corner tanked, Rangers could not land arrows on these mobs even if they were a large sized mob. The arrows would simply poof and never connect on a hit because the mob was in a corner.

[Daldaen]

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

I got base framework done for flight time. Guess i need to revisit.

H

Bumpbumpbump.

Dunno how busy you have been but have you made progress on this? Would love to see classic flight times on thrown weapons and classic pulling taking skill, not being a /faceroll jav/sneak fest that it is currently.

Come Velious especially, skilled pulling teams will be very necessary for certain fights. Seeing them trivialized by sneak pulls would be sad.

[kaev]

To get the full classic flight time effect you've got to actually do collision with the missiles vs. mobs moving into the path while it's in-flight. That is, if any mob moves into the path of the missile it should "attack" (agro) that mob rather than the target. For example, shooting an arrow at the orc you see on the other side of a lift in GFay just before Captain Somename walked through the flight path of the arrow got more than one character ganked back in the good old days. Also, IIRC collision with a player character standing or moving in the flightpath of the missile would prevent it from hitting anything, similar to missiles disappearing into geometry (including large treetrunks), but good luck finding anything posted mentioning that bit of arcana.

See the text baalzy quotes in the second post of the thread for an in era mention of hitting a mob other than the one targetted.