EZ Server

Halloween 2015 Live!

Yup...it's that time again. :-)

Some oddness has been happening across Norrath and beyond. Once again, your adventuring will take you to 'The Grounds' to face off against the irritated, bite-first-ask-questions-later type of denizens that typically make it worth your time to put them down 'for the greater good'. Be careful though as there is talk of an invasion of sorts. Not sure how, when, where, or why....but be careful out there. It may become significantly less safe at any point in time.

---

/ooc As we enjoy the Halloween holiday, do not forget the man that started making it a HUGE event and the one that created this sandbox for so many of us to spend time, dodge responsibilities, hide our differences/pain, and relive a new version of Everquest. Hunter, you crazy trolling bastard, I miss you. Rest in peace bud.

New spell file (EZ Spell File) and server files (EZ Server Files) available.


-Hate

cant enter


Try alot of ways

without new zone and spell files

with them

in grp / raid / solo and join an other Event all didnt work Mr. HElloween didnt want to port me and create and instance and same ...

i use UF client

Hate I think you forgot to add some of the zone files for housegarden. Extracting only grabs 2 files for house garden, but there are more than that like the actually .zon file

For those having issues getting in:

1) Download and Extract Halloween Files ->https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50023467/dl/halloween/halloween_2014.zip
2) Download and Extract "EZ Server Files" (left pane, hot pink)
3) Launch EQ


-Hate

I think we crashed the server already... got huge lag spike and toons disconnected and says server isn't responding now. :(

Mix

yeah i crashed out already :)

I'm still on, but my warrior is still having an epic fight that ended 10 minutes ago

Basically unplayable if you try to pull beyond 25 mobs.  Very frustrating, as I know how fun the zone could be.

Server is unplayable atm...pull mobs and then your guys just stand around and get raped.

Blowing Akkadius' inbox and trying. :-(

See: http://ezserver.online/forums/index.php?topic=4837.msg63659#msg63659


-Hate

Haven't played on EZ server for several years, but I always stop by around Halloween to say RIP Hunter you are missed bro.

-S

The zone seems to have a really hard time updating npc movements, small pulls you don't really notice much but as you increase the distance from camp and number of mobs pulled it wreaks havoc and desyncs.  The one thing I did notice was after my toons all desynced and dropped, my warrior was still spamming through fights desynced and I logged a toon back in that had dropped to character select...the mobs on his screen were all conning 79 but on the warrior's screen his mobs were all 78.  No clue if that is a factor in the lag, but it's an observation.

Just logged in after a break to the message "it's not Halloween. You don't belong here" and booted me to Nexus.  ???

Havent played during Halloween since 2010.  The halloween npc says he will give me an insane gob pet but when I click that option I get no response.  Only option that works is to get a quest for disguise masks.  Do i need this on every char?  How do I get to these Halloween zones?

Update your files and try again.

They are update and im in housegarden but im guessing the option for the stone monster pet or insane pet is only avail to people that have finished some quest?

Stone Monster and Insane Goblin are not quests...you have to get a Cazic Thule to spawn and he may spawn a Stone Monster who may spawn a Insane Goblin who may spawn a Black Unicorn who may spawn a Chill Devil who may spawn a Mistress of Flame who may spawn an Angryface....I think I am missing a named in there somewhere but you see where it's going.

I think he is talking about the masks the halloween guy gives out, not sure what the prerequisites are for that.

ct spawns from random kills in Garden zone id assume?

Not to mimic the same exact thread from last year but:

Bosses are having about a 15% chance to spawn the next boss in the chain at the moment. That is around a 0.00001% chance to reach the end of the chain  :P

Also haven't seen werewolves since the first midnight of the instance. They show up once, then never again.

I know there are infinitely more pressing matters to deal with at the moment, just reporting in for the time being.

I was bored so I thought I'd make a little chart illustrating Kruciels point.
Boss Chance on Death of Boss:
                            15%    25% 40% 50% 60% 66.6% 75% 85% 90%
CT                        100%----------
Stone Monster       15       25    40   50      60   66.6  75     85      90
Insane Goblin        2.25    6.25  16   25     36    44     56     72      81
Black Unicorn       .3375   1.56  6.4  12.5  21.6 29.5  42     61      73
Chilled Devil         .0506   .39    2.56 6.3   13    19.7  31.6  52      65
Arcing Demon      .0076   .098  1      3.13  7.8   13    23.7  44      59
Mistress of Flame  .0011   .024  .41   1.5    4.7   8.7   17.8  37.7   53
Angryface            .00017.006  .16    .75    2.8   5.8  13.3   32     48

With people getting up to 5 CT triggers in a single pull in the zone I'm not sure what the 'right' number is, but 15% each is definitely low. 66.6% is the most "Flavorful" for halloween but that is definitely way too high.

It's a little tough to properly balance getting a reasonable amount of end triggers without making tons of stone monster, insane goblin etc spawns.. so its possible to flatten the curve with increasing percents:

15-25-35-45-55-65 would look like
15%
3.75
1.31
.59
.32
.21%

20-30-40-50-60-70
20%
6
2.4
1.2
.72
.5%

25-35-45-55-65-75
25%
8.75
3.93
2.17
1.4
1.05%

30-40-50-60-70-80
30%
12%
6
3.6
2.52
2.016%

Just some data to look at and think about
Zexan

This point was brought up often last year and supporting data was offered based on hypothetical numbers we had to guess.  It's exponentially more difficult to spawn each subsequent boss if you are farming from chains, but Hate's counter point was that with Diablo there is a mechanic to force higher tier bosses anyhow.  Angryface was pretty rare, but that's kind of the point I think.  I'm not offering an opinion on the current setup, just saying that it was a known issue to anyone who was around for last year's event.

Diablo has had a 100% spawn rate of CT for me all day long. /shrug

That's a direct result of the lag limiting the mechanic, not the mechanic itself.

Double loot was enabled last year, which doubled all chances for pops as I understand it. This year the pop chance is completely awful, I have had over 110 cts and had about 16 stone monsters and only one ig. This is completely nuts. The cash flow etc are way lower than last year ( money is spent so fast here it's not op to have as much as last year) and most of us, certainly all of us that were T7+ last year already have All the pets except Angry. Also, the ONLY boss that Diablo spawns now is CT. I'm guessing this is a residual effect from last year after halloween when everything was nerfed down.

What this boils down to is this year there is almost no reward for those of us that ran this last year (90% of the server or so.) The lag yesterday was terrible and desyncs were happening constantly. It is better so far today, probably because it's not prime time yet.

If the spawn chances are increased, Diablo actually has the ability to spawn all bosses, the plat drops are doubled again and we actually have a chance to get Angry pets this will actually be rewarding and fun for all.

This actually falls in line pretty closely to what it always has been.  It's only around a 15% to spawn the next boss in the cycle.    Not sure about the money thing you mention as I have never spent any money at all during a Halloween event. It just accumulates for me.  lol   Diablo spawning CT only is probably a result of the problems the server is having but no clue if that is really the case.

Double loot would have no effect on spawn rate of the named cycle, it just simply rolls the loot check twice.

Given the piss poor performance and lack of resolution, there will likely be a new annual event. I was looking to finish T10 literally this week so it could go live November 2...but given the server is barely playable, T10 would sit empty. I'm going to push back one week, releasing T10 on November 9.

I will likely let Halloween run until Wednesday (November 4) as it's been ...just ...bad.

I will attempt to make up for it nearer the week of Christmas. No hints.


-Hate

Thanks for tying Hate. I know a fair amount of people took time off for the awesome event. Any chance we could keep it going and turn on the dbl loot as promised? If you run the event again just don't do it with dbl loot?

pppppppleeeease misterrrrrr. :)

Thank you Hate.  We know you have been working hard to do what you can.

So does this mean Double Loot starting Thursday till next Wednesday? 

:0

:)

Thx Hate :) imo DL should go on now so those of us who took off work and are willing to endure the lag can get something for their time. The spawns and pets in Halloween zone vs. Lag makes it a no go for most, especially those who played hween last year (most folks). At least with DL we can pick a zone.

Just a thought thx for thinking of ways to make it better :)

I failed because of lag with 2 groups..

went down to 1 group.. was able to pull 100+ mobs without a problem

war rg wizzy shammy zerk pally

so not exactly the dream team just the ones who need pets...


I had no issues at all..


use less toons = more loots

Problem is.. all 18 of my toons excluding my warrior need MOF or chill heh : / Slowly but surely I will get there tho!

Should add AngryFace stats in that

(http://i.imgur.com/3S44Ic7.png)



-Hate

Thanks for the clarification Hate.

I think the biggest issue with the event is that Diablo ONLY spawns CTs.

Yes, lag is an issue and it needs to be resolved, but its not stoping ppl from playing. they adapted fast to keep pulls smaller. But Diablo ONLY spawning CTs makes it almost impossible to get deep into a chain. I myself only witnessed 2 BU in what must be by now over 100CT. From ooc accounts its been only 2 chilled devils. How are we to see and MoF much less an angryface??

Last year diablo would spawn up to MoF. Could we please get that back?

Tempted to throw a tantrum and copy the quest block from last year and this year to show they are 99.9% the same (minus an npc changing). I just don't care this time. I've increased the chance. New instance or reboot will see this change.


-Hate

Havent played the newer version of halloween event.  Diablo an event or just spawns a named randomly?

Smart move thx Hate. To Dimur's point it's the lag which was preventing us from spawning anything else as we can't pull enough mobs.

So, DL is on? Or, move along nothing to see?

Thanks alot hate, diablo no longer just spawning CTs. That goes a long way. thanks alot

Hate,
Thanks for the hard work here :). Not to look a gift horse in the mouth but possible to get DL early?

Wasn't able to kill any mobs today hopefully others are having more luck

If i keep the pulls around 20-30 i can keep killing. Not the best way to go but at least im able to kill.

Once, you get your toons in 1 by 1.  You can take 1 group with you and kill pretty quickly.
In about 3 hours, I was able to get 1x AF, 2x MoF's, 1 Chill devil and a hand full of CT's. None of the CT's went any further than CT. 

You're only able to have a group in because it's 1 in the morning  ;D

Hate,

Some zones are dbl loot some are not. like dranik is not tov is or is not, depends on who you ask.

I think it also depends on your general connection to the server. During prime time I see a lot of people are able to kill, albeit slowly, with a group. For me though it is completely impossible - with 1 group I will desync killing 1 mob at a time. When the server is running smooth my ping is 100+, so it takes less of a problem to push my clients over the edge. On my old connection, which was sub 30ms, I imagine I would be able to go fine during prime time with a group.

I started about 8:30 or 9:00 PM CST and went until about midnight.  There were some lag spikes but I just stopped killing for a couple of minutes and then moved on.

So dbl loot is enabled and most cant play at all. Yet those that can by some computer miracle are reaping benefits?

I'm also confused how some are able to play. Every time I log in it's impossible to do anything.

I run 18 but the lag is unplayable.  I reduced it to 8-10 by getting rid of my buffers and dead weight and lag is mostly gone with the occassional spike.  It's fixed by /q'ing the boxes with highest ping and relogging them for me.

I cant run a group. I can barely get 1 in. I have the herp!

I could barely get one toon on. Then when i did get the toon on I went into T8 thinking it was DBL and nope the nameds kept dropping one piece of gear so no DBL in T8 for me.

heh even solo xp runs in anguish is pretty much a chore at this point, its doable but takes twice as long to finish a run.

i personally wouldn't even be mad if dbl loot & Halloween was scraped until at least the weekend when aka can get his hands on things. until then its just encouraging people to bang their heads against the wall in order to get the most out of the Halloween event and dbl loot, not a fun experience.

Hey hate,
I just wanted to say that though we may not seem like it, but we really do appreciate  all the effort you have put in to try and make this a great week. Even though we gripe about all the bull shit that is happening ... most of us know what is currently going on is something that you could not control. I just wanted to say sorry from all the assholes ... well most of them ... ya know it's that love hate relationship :P

hey guys harthek here - dont post much on forums but most of you know me.  over the last few weeks ive felt compelled to post something. theres three things i love most about EZ - 1) the devs who make this all possible. 2) the community, whom ive spent literally years of PT (starting in 09) with. 3) the actual game content.

since weve been having some server issues its turned into pages of forum filth, frustration, and WHINY BITCHES. I am not trying to be elitist, however when hate and akka say they will rectify and resolve the issues why must we whine so damn much?

so point 1 - thanks devs, they event is sacred to us all including u guys and i know you will do halloween 2015 justice.

point 2 - this community has always been solid. few bad apples here and there but we spend a lot of time together so lets enjoy it. my dad died young at 59 this labor day. it makes you put things into perspective - mostly to enjoy life and dont sweat the small stuff. some remember me as sant, i was a red barbarian that held "santa" events where i would help anyone who needed kt. ive given things away countless times, helped when i could, and always tried to fair trade. all i ever asked innreturn was to pay it forward. so ill take this time to shout out my friends and thank them for good times playing a game we love, with RNG we hate hehe.

Deamonwarrior, kiwis, wareash, rymo, kruciel, daira, krunkley, rent, krinkle, darpey, tankbeard, sudrx, maslow (rip), tereg, myrx, zexan, phoddi, moruk, dimur, fugitutive, fuzy, sonaspud, watchyou, hurty, woodee, chunka, arkain, momentum, warbash, grogan, mrkitty, kaidor, mixlor, fonwar, calley, blighton (rip), raygan, blarr, and so many others that i am forgetting on the fly, im sorry!!!

point 3 - the content. the content is hard, breaks you, gets easy, the breals you again when you grind it a million times. i love nothing more than to challenge myself with everything i do, can i grind somethingnfaster? more efficiently? can i get a server first? (no since my boy rymo is always ten steps ahead of me, love ya my japanese brother - thats so getting lost in translation.). so yes this yrs event has been pretty shitty with so much lag - however i dont have an insane computer or google fiber - but i took the lag figured out what i can and cant do, died a few times, desynch constantly, but i PLOW thru. my halloween lag fest challenge has turned into more than 350 boss kills including every boss downed. also content is more fun with friends - everyone loves to say THIS IS A BOX SERVER BE GONE - it takes connotation to new players that we just mindlessly grind by ourselves. one of my most glorious EZ moments was last year halloween, deamonwarrior and i worked one hell of a week, bit no AF pet for his zerk yet. so its like down to the last hour before reset on last day and we are just pulling everything so hard then boom diablo spawns an AF it was amazing. thanks for sharing that with me deamon, and grats on the pet we did it.

you may think of this as aggressive, or elitist or whatever. you may flame me hard you keyboard warriors, but please dont do it on boards as ill never read it only hear about it. send me a tell in game while i crunching hard making phat lewtzzzzz, heh but seriously i like human interaction and most likely youll find that i typically think with logic and reason. this game takes a lot of time and dedication, so please, whiney bitches, dont ruin my beloved community. when shits fucked up and the bosses are notified they will get to it, be grown and relax. they love the server just as much as us and will make it right, but not if we act so god damned entitled. sorry for the soap box, and i do love you all just figured some need to be told tom stop being little girls.

Harthek

ps sorry for the length i wouldnt even read this post myself! also sorry for the shitty grammer and no caps, im wirting this on a tablet, give me a fucking break!

I hate to be the one to bring you this bad news: http://www.ezserverwiki.com/Talk:Angryface_(Halloween_Reward) (http://www.ezserverwiki.com/Talk:Angryface_(Halloween_Reward))

AF doesn't work on zerk epic  :(

son of a.....lol time to switch out them zerky pets..../sigh

good info thanks

Lol  ;D

Dunno, but without AF my zerk hits 967680 a proc. With AF its 1209600.

BUT......AF DOES NOT stack with VT2.

Good thing I looted mine on the zerker that doesn't use Firestrike anymore. It shall be a nice trophy is his bag  ;D

Doesn't that make MoF much better than AF? Not only does it do more AE dmg but it has positive, not negative stats. Plus, angry is much, much, much harder to get than MoF. Doesn't sound right.  ???

MOF only affects a small # of targets. Angry brings the pain to anything in the vicinity.

MoF (I believe) only affects 4-6 mobs close to you....AF has negative stats yes....but if your zerker isn't suppose to get hit....and it is MUCH better gives 200% to spell damage...that's like having another UC on your toon!

Unless you already have VT2, in which case it will boost FS aug damage but not the AE proc.

AF should stack with VT2. Not stacking with this and the negative mitigation pretty much makes it useless. Just found this out today, after spending 4 days trying to get one.

If it stacked all you would see is a zerk army like we did a few years ago. 

Right, because it is that common and people can trade it to their zerk toons, and it would make sense to nerf an item instead of balancing a class that is taking over the server.

It's non tradable, they don't drop in numbers, and I'm pretty sure as the top pet in the game it was designed to be useful.  If you have an issue with zerks taking over the game, it would make sense to balance them.

The intended use of the buff is to increase damage in exchange for mitigation. It not stacking with VT2 is not a nerf for zerkers, it's just the fact that one can't foresee all interactions of items in this game and the mods have to have feedback on them.

easy with the nerfing jebus,


I dont care if AF stacks or not everything works ok the way it is...

AF is easy to get if you are ready for it... its really hard to get if you are struggling in t7 ...


you people want it all to fast...

I don't mind either, I don't think some yearly event item should dictate how strong your team is. But without IG, nobody is realistically doing t7+ to their full potential. T10 won't even be possible for someone lacking it. Basically what I'm saying is, the two pets that are strong right now are INCREDIBLY strong. I don't really see the need for that as is. Speaking from the point of view of somebody who's had a pet stonewall for a long time, new players missing out on grabbing one is a 12 month-long kick in the nuts at the moment. Hopefully this is something that can be looked into some day  :) but we have bigger lag-fish to fry at the moment.

BAlidet, Im T9 with a full crew and been playing since beta. Want it to fast? What? You cant get angry unless you play halloween in top tier, I have tried in all levels of the zone and you get crap diablo spawns at lower level.

As for the argument that we shouldn't fix this because lower tier pets... that everyone has are powerful... that doesn't even make sense. This is the top pet and should work, that's all I'm asking for. No nerfs, nothing not intended.

As for the argument that your group performance shouldn't depend on pets... this is a slight boost to damage, the pets that increase mit have FAR more effect on this game and everyone on right now can have one, we are oocing them for free.

Your point that we shouldn't make the simple fix this would take to make it stack with existing spells because we have other problems also has no bearing on this whatsoever.

I just ask that it work as intended and offer more damage for less mitigation.

Hate, I appreciate all you do and I know that you will do what it takes to make this right with everyone, you've already stated this. I have faith in this.

It's really curious to me why anyone would say anything negative about enabling the pet buff to stack, just like every other pet buff does and as intended for being the top tier pet and hard to get as it is. This is a one time yearly event and we should have something to show for literally days of work put into getting one just like every other year.

Hi, I'm an old player too, and when people take shit out of context I write, they meet this side of me. Such as: we shouldn't fix this because people have IG. Lemme think where I said that exactly fuckstick, nowhere. Not everyone has it, unless your statement is trying to say "new players don't matter, let's balance the server around a once-a-year drop, fuck em."


MoF on 2 full groups feels like I added 3-4 zerkers to the roster for free, if you don't think that's a bit overpowered you're delusional.


Obviously it isn't a simple fix or it would have been made by now. Bard epics have been broken for months for unknown reasons. Take things out of context more please, I fucking love it when people twist things to read the way they need them to be, or maybe it's the fact you haven't logged on since Halloween 2014. I find it highly amusing that this item has existed for over a year now, and within me looting it I saw it was broken within minutes.


I don't see anything negative thus far, other than you stating you're "angry" about a drop being useless. I only said "I'm fine with it just being a trophy, it doesn't even bother me" not "You cant get angry unless you play halloween in top tier". What a stupid fucking statement. If Hate scrubbed the stats from it completely and made it summon a giant dildo that followed you around, the server would go on just fine.

HAHA ... Giant dildo's across the server

I cant believe out of the 6 pages the biggest shocker was a maslow rip comment. Wow.

]

did I miss something?

Ok this made me laugh...I mean REALLY laugh.  I agree with you though but that was frigging hilarious!  ;D

Your counter argument to every valid point I made is not logical. Yes, it's an easy fix stacking buffs, as I understand it. Every buff we have here has been through this in order to stack properly. Condensing the buffs we get from the pets/buff bot probably was much harder than making two spells stack.

Taking the ballidet comment out of context? Pretty plain text there he's saying new players are trying to get end game content easy. I'm no new player and not trying to get anything easy.
12-month kick in the nuts? How is this any different than any other event or special item? And who's going to miss out on it? The tiny number of new players during the year? I would bet most new players come to the server around Halloween because they've heard of the event. It gives people something to look forward to.
Angry pet is hardly game breaking. If it really is that much damage increase that could be lowered then made to stack with the vt2, perhaps... This would be a more appropriate response to this idea.

Your Mof comment... wtf? Again ... what does this have to do with angry pet?? How is a bit more damage on a single target breaking the server? The item was intended to add damage in exchange for mitigation loss. I'm just pointing out the lack of stacking, which is something that was likely just overlooked.

When the hell did I say I was "angry?" And wtf are you talking about, haven't logged on since halloween 2014? I have been off and on Ezserver and read the boards from time to time, I don't comment alot.

By negative I meant that you are opposed to fixing an item that is giving no real world benefit due to the stacking issue. You took that out of context...then you attacked me like a child.

If Hate doesn't want this item to work, then why put it in the game. I was simply pointing out that for this to be useful, it needs to stack otherwise there is no reason at all to own the top pet.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/05/1d/28051db3625dc6d761392b1689c86f79.jpg)

Let's see rational though: MoF is already on the virge of being too strong, I'm fine with Angryface doing what it's doing (providing VT damage to fire and ice) it doesn't need to be stronger.

Your response:

welp, you seem to have no clue that some things aren't stacking at the moment like they used to, due to source changes. Currently, the bard epic comes to mind. Guess I'm busted on making a bad assumption. I'd apologize, but you're not worth it. "Rambling, incoherent response" rofl go fuck yourself.

It's true. I am retarded... and I'm not worth it. You are angry and pissed off and giving it to me good.

But the pet though, it should stack with vt2.

I don't think it's a matter of should or shouldn't stack.  it's more of a who really cares right now, especially with the other issues which need attention.  its not a big deal and when it gets fixed great. if it doesn't then it's fine also. 

It's really not that big of a deal right now, and yes there are other issues. I agree. But it probably would be an easy fix and it is that time of year right now when we are getting this pet. Seemed to be a logical time to say something about it, again, after putting 5 days now into getting one.

I agree with everyone basically, AF should definitely stack with VT2, but there are bigger issues which akka/hate are fixing right now.

Try to enjoy the event :) It's still a lot of fun!!

Just looted another on a paladin to test the damage bonus to Firestrike XI.

UC3 damage > 4.081 mil per hit
UC3 + AF damage > 5.101 mil per hit

So VT2 is the buff players can use to buff magic only (Ult weapon proc, Ninjastrike proc, magic-based nukes from casters) and Angryface will buff the rest (Firestrike proc, Icestrike proc) but that's not all. If you don't have access to VT2 Angryface will also replace it by buffing the Magic based damage as well.

TLDR version: VT2 increases magic damage only, AF increases all types of magic damage (fire ice magic poison disease) but will not double stack with VT2 to make magic absurd.

Finally, if they DID stack, ult weapon users would be hitting too hard and rolling their damage into the negatives. I've already been able to produce this type of attack on my warrior when SOA started giving a 22% damage bonus randomly one day this month (which was immediately fixed).

Edit: By the way, the "Slot8: Increase Melee Mitigation by 15pct" does nothing on either character. Pally Stonewall reads 36% with it on or off, Zerker reads 11% with it on or off.

If that's working as intended, then it's a big problem for anyone who doesn't know. Meaning, you can get some benefit from putting AF on a zerk, but if you already have VT2, its a complete waste to put it on most other toons (eg NS toons, UW toons).

Just had a CT to Angryface chain!

dang congrats that is crazy

I did not get a single AF this event.

I am fail.

Was good I had fun I hope others feel the same.


Would a AF be good for a wizard? I kept thinking it would..

Halloween will continue to be active until Wednesday morning per news post.

Best DBL and Halloween for me yet =).

Hate and Akka, you guys are the best!

Already having double loot withdrawals  ;D