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Author: bbKing (arsnova30 [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 25-Apr-12, 22:42:46 | ||||
| Another lurker here haha. Reading through this brings back to memory all that I clearly had forgotten. Oh how tempting it is to step in again .... but I resist temptation. To answer Tomy's last line ... yes you basically make (or adapt) your own maps and your own gear and weapons. As Hat master you decide how the hat will look like. In the past many people have customized their own maps and gear. Only a few have actually made new maps, and even less have made maps that uses or triggers logic sequences. As NOVA pointed out so eloquently these last maps require deep understanding of the game mechanics. I lack all of those things which always made me a mediocre player. I still have many maps from my hats somewhere, but I'm sure NOVA can provide you with lots of ready-to-use quest maps, not only his own Chaos maps. Have fun with your ROM2 hat! |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 22-Apr-12, 17:42:40 | ||||
| Quest Maps are called "Quest" because they typically hold the quest gear. NOVA amply explained what the Quest Gear is. He did not explain the meaning of "Quest" in "Quest Map". Initially the Quest Gear was meant to be found only on Quest Maps. And these Quest maps were meant to have only Shop(s), and no Inn(s). And the Shop(s) were meant to only sell Potions and Scrolls (no Armors and no Weapons). To ensure that everyone would find plenty of Potions and Scrolls into such shops, the game designers have introduced another little "hack" in the game, not unlike the 2_gp_value thing. Here it is: By appending the word "quest" at the end of the Map Name, all Shops in the map acquire the ability to instantly regenerate their inventory as soon as the shop is serving no customer. For example: 1) make a map, call it "Yadda". 2) Paint a shop in it, and have the shop sell Potions. 3) Playtest the Yadda map. You will see that the Shop changes inventory only once every few minutes. But if you append "quest" to the map name... 1) Modify the name of the "Yadda" map. Call it "Yadda quest". 2) Playtest the Yadda Quest map. Now everytime you quit the shop, its inventory is completely regenerated. Everyt ime you reenter the shop there will be a new inventory in it. This applies to Potions, Scroll, Weapons, Armors, everything. But it was originally meant to be only for Potions and Scrolls, so you should not abuse it -- or there is no fun. Hm. Yadda Quest. Sounds epic... -fox |
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Author: Tomy (tommy [at] trainingpal [dot] nu) | |||
| Date: 22-Apr-12, 12:47:09 | ||||
| Yes, ofcourse, anyone who wants to play on my hat can just drop me an email :) Then I understand a bit more, so quest gear is simply boosted gear put on a custom map as enemy loot or sacks. Then the next problem arise, where do I find it? :) I take it they're only obtainable on some maps.. Any pro tips as to which map I should play, and where they are located.. Or is it more of a - create your own map and create your own gear? |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 22-Apr-12, 07:20:12 | ||||
| Wow...something got screwed up in that 3rd paragraph....sorry about that. I meant to finish by saying that such gear was referred to as Quest Gear. Instead, the paragraph ends sounding like I'm drifting off into a drug induced haze....haha. |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 22-Apr-12, 07:17:16 | ||||
| A HAT server eh? Well, I would play if you would set me up with an account (and let me know the IP address where it is hosted so that I can join). Should I email you an account request or is there a private chat where we could discuss it? As to an explanation of the term "quest map"... I'm not sure where the term originated, but it is misleading. The map designation has nothing to do with quests and neither does the so called quest gear. Rather, it is the term given to gear which is shall we say super-charged beyond the normal "game legal" abilities. Normally, the ROM2 game code limits the power of items based upon their base gp value. You can override this limitation using the map editor by assigning a gold value of 2 to any item you wish to be designated as exempt from this limitation. These items can then also be assigned virtually any abilities you want. I could go into a long-winded diatribe on gear design, but we'll save that for another day. One other stipulation that comes with this extra-legal gear is that it is never upgradable via inn quest rewards. Think of it as PLOT gear which has fixed stats. And those stats need not be past the legal maximums, the act of assigning a value of gp=2 with the editor simply flags the gear as exempt from modification and the magic power limitations of the game engine. This gear is (for whatever reason) called Quest Gear and maps which contain such items (which must be splashed onto that map into monster inventories or in bags on the ground or given via extremely difficult logic sequences (don't bother with this last method until you are an expert at map design). At any rate, I would love to join you on your HAT server. I can much more readily DEMONSTRATE some advanced game play techniques rather than to trying to describe them on a forum site. If you have MSN messenger or hamachi or skype (or any other), post your contact info and it will make chatting much easier. I hope to see you in your HAT server soon. -NOVA |
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Author: Tomy (tommy [at] trainingpal [dot] nu) | |||
| Date: 21-Apr-12, 19:45:40 | ||||
| Thank you guys for your superb explanations. They were awesome in many ways. Just to explain a bit more: I AM playing rom2serverpack on my own hat server, (which is always online btw, hint hint). ;) I have also downloaded a couple of maps from this site - do you guys have any suggestions of very good maps? Altough, I'm afraid I've never come across quest gear really. Does that refer to gear you get as a reward from a quest - as the name implies. Or is it something less obvious like a custom random bag of loot hidden somewhere? Because I've never really had the pleasure of recieving some ridicilously good gear from a quest. I think the most xp I've ever gotten from a quest is about 16 million (8x raise dead on lvl5 necromancer I believe). I've seen that term "quest gear" alot of times in the forums, but never really experienced it while playing :) A clarification would be most welcome. (how to get it basically) |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 20-Apr-12, 02:33:40 | ||||
| Keeping in mind that Defiant is probably the BEST ROM2 player EVER when it comes to using mages (and I mean that quite literally), I would rebut his response simply by reminding everyone that Tomy was asking about playing a mage WITHOUT the benefit of quest gear or any player-made maps (if he already had player-made maps he would already know about quest gear). So for the advice being sought, you only have access to standard (store bought) gear and the original maps (and I'm not even sure he has upgraded with the rom2pack, so he may not even have those maps either). A good way to know is....are you able to upgrade gear to +5 (pre-rom2pack) or only +3 (post rom2pack). Anyway, you won't accomplish anything trying to accumulate body points and then attempting the "punching mage" trick because mages simply won't have enough body to hit and damage a horror level monster AND simultaneously live to survive the pummeling they will take FROM the monster unless they have the benefit of quest gear. There are also NO firewall staffs in the original game/map set (those are ONLY available from player-made maps). The "standard" game staffs are in fact utterly useless against horror level monsters because they simply do not deliver anywhere near enough damage because they are limited to a max mage casting level of 100 (compared to player-made map staffs that can be up to 220 mage level casting and can thus take advantage of high casting level AND the faster spell casting a staff has over spellbook casting). For a standard game mage to tackle horror level monsters, he has to rely upon the compounding damage effect of area-effect duration spells to accumulate enough damage. And so, while using elven curse scrolls to curse your enemies may be over all generally good advice and tactics, it does a "standard game" mage little to no good at all against horror level foes. Offer Tomy some usable advice that does not rely upon non-standard game material (which was the limitation placed upon my advice and implied in Tomy's original question). -NOVA P.S. Nice to see you lurking Defiant. Long time no see. |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 19-Apr-12, 19:50:47 | ||||
| Defiant said: <<-------------------------------------------------- Buy super curse scrolls and curse everything, -------------------------------------------------->> HAHA! I can picture him fast walking back and forth, arms up, waving fists at the sky, and yelling like crazy. Thanks for the laugh :-) Now I need a diaper. -fox |
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Author: Defiant (fireiceviper [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 18-Apr-12, 23:09:51 | ||||
| Oh and if you didn't know clicking ond a spell and pressing Ctrl+A makes it auto cast that spell as default. Also Nova is totally wrong: Mages are far superior in almost every way... :P A few more tips: Study maps in the editor. Be scared of bats. try to find a firewall staff. Buy super curse scrolls and curse everything, this will make them do minimum dmg. Try to download a map pack, they have way more items. get as much body as you can, auto cast fireball then cast shield on the enemy and punch your enemy (don't hold a staff) have fun and also all kidding aside i have cleared every map there is to clear as a mage, it is possible all you have to do is think a bit harder. |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 14-Apr-12, 19:52:56 | ||||
| Sorry, fat finger error.... the male fighter was supposed to be: male fighter B:52 A:50 M48 S:46 |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 14-Apr-12, 19:51:25 | ||||
| Two additional things to add now that I read my own post: 1. The "additional ways to get things in absence of shops" are: random dropped loot and reward items offered as inn quest rewards which can always be upgraded via the inns. Keep in mind that all items have a natural limit (which I realize is difficult to understand except with considerable experience playing the game). 2. The natural max stats (from drinking potions such as BODY, MIND, etc) vary only with gender and character class as follows (your starting stats are irrelevant): male fighter B:52 A:5 M48 S:46 female fighter B:50 A:52 M:46 S:48 male mage B:48 A:46 M:52 S:50 female mage B:46 A:48 M:50 S:52 Knowing these natural (naked) character maxes (to which you can add only with stat adders on worn gear) will help you plan your strategies. Good luck. NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 14-Apr-12, 19:38:16 | ||||
| OK. Here we go.... First understand that your initial question is SO vague that it has at least 22,000 possible answers. It's like asking, "I don't have enough money. How can I make more money?". So realize that I must now carefully choose my answers hoping you can benefit the most from very few of my suggestions. Second, I will agree with Gray Fox in principle regarding HAT play and Quest gear. However, it is in fact NOT impossible to kill level 5 monsters without the aid of Quest gear (even for a solo mage). Rather, it just takes superior tactics, capitalizing on your own strengths, and knowing your enemy's particular weaknesses. Third, know that this game is called RAGE of Mages for a reason. Mages got SCREWED royally and totally by this game. I could go into a long diatribe enumerating every way that is so, but let me summarize it in this manner. Name for me a single power or feature within the mage character's realm which the fighter can mimic? A prime answer is: a fighter is actually a much more powerful mage than a mage is because the figther can purchase and use elven scrolls (which cast as a level 100 mage would). Now, name for me a fighter's domain or power which the mage can duplicate?...(crickets chirping...) The answer is...they cannot. In fact, you can actually become IMMUNE to mage damage whereas you essentially cannot become immune to the damage of a fighter (you can technically, but for practical purposes you really cannot). So realize that your mage is already fantastically handicapped from the start bacause of the bullcrap game mechanics. Mages are far superior to fighters only in the early levels. But once you reach HARD level maps, the figher becomes the clear winner and leaves the mage in the dust. And this is utterly true when it comes to HORROR levels. If you wish for me to expound upon this further, please email or message me and we can have a more private "chat". My MSN user (and email) is kingkota666@hotmail .com Having said that, it is not totally impossible for a mage to take out a level 5 monster solo and without the benefit of Quest gear. But they can only tackle them one at a time, you must be ultra prepared for the battle, and the mage's success is limited to just a few monster types. Let me give an example scenario of a mage taking out a level 5 troll to demonstrate how it is possible: 1. You MUST have essentially 100% res to earth magic or the troll will stone curse you and the battle is over. One hit from the troll doing about 650 damage and your mage is dust no matter what your preparation. And here is how you achieve that level of magic resistance. Magic resistance is calculated as (1/2 your SPIRIT) + (your earth res from all other sources). These other other sources stack but that stacking is capped at 70. So to achieve 100 res to ANY magic, you must have spirit of 60. Half 60 is 30 plus your capped 70 from other sources equals your 100 resistance. This IS possible even without quest gear if you find some spirit adding gear (I recommend ring and amulet which can have up to +3 STATS as a basis). You can add more items if you want to go even higher spirit. A female mage has a base max SPIRIT of 52 (after drinking all the spirit potions you can), so you only need 8 more spirit to achieve 100 res to magics. Stick with the ring and amulet and you effectively have 99 max possible resistance to EVERY magic type (fire, water, air, earth, and astral). 2. You MUST be able to do a HELL of a lot of damage and FAST otherwise the troll will simply keep regenerating. Here we expose one of the prime weaknesses of the mage class. They simply cannot do enough damage to take down most level 5 monsters faster than their natural regeneration. SO here's how you take down the troll. You MUST NOT stone curse him. Stone cursed characters have their natural regen rate increased. You don't want him to regen faster, so instead you want to box him into an earth wall behind and in front of him and KEEP him in there so he cannot get out. He cannot move and cannot attack you....only throw stone curses at you which you can resist if you have 99 or 100 resistance to earth magic. And he will keep moving around looking for a way to get to you. While moving, his regen rate is actually reduced (this same principle holds for your character too by the way). 3. Trolls are particularly vulnerable to fire. And trolls cover 4 map squares (they are big dudes). So a fire wall spell can damage a troll from up to 4 map squares at once (essentially 4x the spell damage at once). And your fire damage from the wall is a function of your fire skill. Here comes the next neat trick.... 4. You can get up to skill 220 in any magic skill simply by wearing skill adding gear (robes, hat, etc). These can be upgraded (if they have nothing but that skill on them) up to +18 skill level. Now with a base of 100 skill from your mage and adding to that five items each giving you +18 fire skill, you can temporarily have 190 skill level in ANY of the five magic realms. So while wearing your fire skill gear, you now have 190 fire skill and the damage from your fire walls climbs tremendously as does the duration of each spell. Fire wall is an area effect spell and has a duration (it does not go away right away but keeps damaging as long as the troll is in the wall spell). Now if you keep stacking wall spells and capturing the troll's four map squares in each spell AND he cannot run away because you have walled him in front and behind and you keep restoring those wall spells before they time out....the troll will roast to death slowly but surely. That is how a mage with no quest gear and doing it solo can kill a level 5 troll. Now for the next neat mage trick.... Do you know of any way to remove a character's spell resistance? The answer is....there is no way except killing them (so they respawn with all effects refreshed), you exit the game and come back, or you wait for the spell duration to expire. So imagine buffing your character with all 5 magic resistance spells by having a full complement of skill gear for each skill (fire, water, etc) taking you up to level 220 and then you cast the resistance spell. You can now take that skill gear off and move to the next skill yet your resistance spell will last for a VEEEEERY long time. Your resistance duration becomes over an HOUR real time from just a single resistance spell. So once you are done casting your res spells, you now put on your +3 spirit ring and amulet, and you now have 99 resistance to ALL five magics that will last for over an hour and cannot be removed except by your death, you exiting the game, or the passage of over an hour. This will free you up to concentrate on offense tactics without fearing being damaged by magic of any kind. For instance, now you can worry about keeping that troll inside an earth wall and keep casting your fire wall spells as fast as you can so you roast them. There you have some basic tips for maximizing the potential of your non-quest gear mage. There are many more and the number of tips for fighters is a far larger list (which are the real work horse of HORROR levels), but I shall hold back in the interest of brevity (if you can call this post brief). It is often easier to demonstrate these techniques than to describe them. Good luck with your ROM2 gaming. P.S. The Bull crap of fighters being able to replicate mages (but not vice versa) I demonstrated for all non-believers when I ran my CHAOS series of ROM2 HATs (CHAOS1 thru CHAOS 14). I removed all shops so that fighters could no longer stock up on heal potions (2000 stacks high) nor just buy themselves level 100 casting elven spell scrolls. When stores are gone, you suddenly realize just how much of a TOTALLY unfair advantage these stores are in favor of the fighter class. And yet you can still get virtually everything the stores had to offer. It just requires much more clever strategy rather than gold coins. And the mage becomes considerably more important (though still tremendously under-powered compared to the fighters). |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 14-Apr-12, 15:49:19 | ||||
| Level 5 monsters are meant to be tackled with Quest Gear. Quest Gear is especially powerful armor/clothing and weaponry meant to be found on Quest Maps. Quest Maps are special-challenge like maps meant to be found only on a Hat server. A Hat server is what you are not playing. You are playing standard Multiplayer. You have pretty much reached the pinnacle of Multiplayer. Hat servers were invented to go higher than that pinnacle, up to the point where players get to slay Level 5 monsters with the same ease by which you now slay Level 4 monsters. Yes -- Quest Gear is THAT powerful, and you will not believe it until you get to play with it. Which can only be on a Hat server. Google for "rom2 Hat Server" to find out more. Many a link will point you to these very pages anyway. All the info you need are around here in other topics not far. Just read. -fox |
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Author: Tomy (tommy [at] trainingpal [dot] nu) | |||
| Date: 13-Apr-12, 22:56:25 | ||||
| Hi, I've been playing this game for a couple of years, on and off with friends. But we've never really managed to get the hang of killing lvl5 monsters. Atm I'm playing with a mage with skill levels of 100 (without gear) and max attributes through potions. I have a 21-65 * 7 prismatic spray staff which I've upgraded alot of times through quests, now it seems I cannot upgrade it anymore. And nothing else I'm wearing is upgradeable anymore. It seems I cannot become better ;) What should I be aiming at, gear wise I guss, to be able to kill lvl 5 monsters? Any pro tips? (ps, I just got 16 million xp quest but still I could not upgrade gear) |
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