Time to stop... Time Stop!

[Emanon]

This is my singular most hated pet peeve... Time Stop stopping the entire server.

So many servers have altered Time Stop to only affect the area it's cast in (without haks, mind). We need to do this. As a guy who plays level 30s+ constantly, these liches who blow Time Stops immediately onsight spawn *EVERYWHERE*. I'm not talking about just in dungeons, but I'm talking all over 'transitive areas" leading from one place to another. Some of these areas have upwards of almost 10 of these liches! Some dungeon spawns can spawn 6 or so liches, all of which force the entire server to wait as they Time Stop one after another.

I want to make something clear. I don't use Time Stop. I am against inconveniencing the server greatly just because I need to get to Point B and there's no alternative route. This can be fixed without a hak. I'm sure the code is out there on some forum for it since every server since ever has it now. Please, let's add this so I can romp through liches with five other people on and not feel bad about ruining their experience.

[raradra]

All this after I paused the server twice tonight with the spacebar

[Xillie]

My two cents are: I have absolutely no problem with people running into hostile spawns with timestops, as long as spawns are not bypassed.

Cheers.

[Valikar]

I feel your frustration, but here's something you can do that is constructive. Can you make a list of exactly which areas (with names) have what spawns (with names) and approximately how many there are. Timestop has become more of a nuisance for people rather then a tactical advantage for monsters. Since it is a level 9 spell, lichs use it first and don't often use haste before it rendering it less then effective. I may consider removing time stop from spawns and replacing it with another suitable level 9 or 8 spell, it would be a good compromise. It might have to stay on somethings however depending what they are and where they are.

[Xillie]

Changing NordockLich, If I would change them I would do it purely on the basis that they are "ineffective".
I wouldn't take away TS from them because someone complains about nuisance in name of others. I think players "greatly inconveniencing the server" by using TS is nonsense, I never had that experience in 12 years of constant playing.
Today it's hostiles TS, tomorrow it's players TS.
I would stick to the argument that the highlevel liches are not deadly enough..(lol).....and/or implement the localised TS script.

Cheers.

[Valikar]

If we're going to be pedantic about Lichs in general, having them just in random spawns greatly reduces their stature in DnD lore as fearsome, rare creatures that are among the greatest villains in all the planes. The fact that they are so trivial on top of their common place appearance is only icing on that cake. Infact we can say that about a great deal of creatures in Nordock, i'm looking at you vampires.. It's just a small oversight by the original designers of nordock when it was only a budding server for which i can hardly blame them trying to get some content in what they had. Most Lichs in encounters come from the earliest of areas created and most of the named, deadly Lichs are solitary and difficult to get to. Which is what they were supposed to be. In a perfect module we could go through and replace all of the Lich and Lich apprentice encounters with more suitable creatures, but that's a lot of time i don't think anyone wants to spend since we have to locate all of that. If we had a list of areas that were high traffic that people could supply us with, very specific places, we could address these concerns fairly quickly. I'm open to suggestions to a Lich/Apprentice Lich monster that fills the same role.

[raradra]

Lich should be more akin to Blackavar in their meanness. I'd be ok with them not having timestop and with nerfing TS so it only effects the area it's cast in. I can't recall why Qel said no when it was proposed years ago.

[Valikar]

Qel declined to add in localized timestop because it was a sloppy implementation. It was essentially stunning everyone in the area with some other scripting tricks which made it appear as if time stopped for everyone but the caster. The only other way to change it was to forcibly alter it in some kind HAK that directly edited game files and we were very anti HAK then. So it was off the table.

[olddog]

I think it's awesome that the whole server freezes. It makes people think before using it, and it's only 6 seconds out of your day. No biggie. Agree'd that Lich's don't use it very well so that would be a worthy change.

As far as I remember, when you modify the script to a local timestop, it cancels the current action que which can be kind of annoying. I think that is why no one wanted it done. Plus you know someone is probably fighting something deadly when a TS goes off, which i like.

[Xillie]

Haha, let's be pedantic about liches alright.

Since we are talking about these timestop liches in "generic" spawns......I believe most of these are "encounters" based on encounters selectable from the blueprint list. I agree with the "DnD lore" argument.
Wouldn't replacing this encounter blueprint with one where the "nordocklich" versions are replaced by a fiersome non-lich type undead immediately "replace all instances"? Seems maybe doable to me but please correct me if I'm wrong.
At least modifying one or a few of these encounters should take care of many spawns rigth?


Cheers