I found a discussion from 2013 (here at UOSA), regarding various patches enacted in-era on production shards, that left me with more questions unanswered than answered, particularly since the most-relevant aspects of that discussion quickly degenerated into vicious venom ...
In the interests of the prevention of more and repeated venom, I would ask to limit the invited respondents to only the following members:
- Any/all current staff, naturally (Anarcho, Boomland Jenkins and, of course, Derrick)
- Faust, in particular (I'll be quoting/referencing you, but you also know demo-stuff, UO:R stuff, RunUO stuff, as well as UOSA stuff: you are the person who knows stuff)
- Kaivan (staff during the time-period I'm about to revisit, and also UOSA's premier historian)
- nightshark (because I might quote/reference you, and I remember your Hally-Cycling thread and the '99 Japanese PvP guide, which may become important)
- Roser (remember that summer, 2010 thread about "The OSI Double Hally Hit"?)
- I sure would love to hear from Batlin, too, especially if he possesses any incisive insights into this matter
- Malaikat and Mikel123 (both very knowledgeable, and I've never had reason to suspect that either does not know what is claimed to be known)
What shall answer my question before I've even asked it:
EDIT: This is poorly phrased.
So far as putting this inquiry down without other discussion, this is the only (sort of) thing that will serve. However, such will serve quite nicely, and thank you very much!
Yes, all you folks are now aggravated to apprehend that my 'can of worms' is the reconciliation of the mechanics of Hally-Cycling, as they are implemented here, with a very-specific, and unambiguous, declaration announced in the Feb 26, '99 Update.
I'll explain my confusion, first, as addressing that might also serve to swiftly dispense with this inquiry.
Faust had given some numbers in the relevant discussion (and this will be quoted below but, right here, I need to be brief) that I had found problematic: specifically describing the Explode-EBolt-Hally combo, Faust gave casting-times that were 1 Tick (0.25 seconds) per Circle, rather than 2 Ticks (0.5 seconds) per Circle; I can't reconcile 1 Tick per Circle to my UOSA experience(s), or to relevant documentation (this info might not be reliable, I concede, but it commutes with what I know and remember), or to memories of my own (admittedly limited) "real" experiences in-era on OSI.
In short, if casting-delay is 0.5 seconds per Circle, Faust (I am sure, only accidentally) supplied some bad numbers, and his conclusion that "Explode-EBolt-Hally proves Hally-Cycling" becomes potentially much-less conclusive, and may indeed simply describe a coincidental synergy between the sequence of actions and the weapon-timer changes announced in the Feb. 26, '99 Update (let's not forget the 'equip delay', also; yes?).
As to the commencement of formal argumentation, I'd better furnish the most-relevant links, first:
Haly [sic] Cycling with the Wrestling Timer, from March, 2013: this is the primary discussion I am sort-of reviving; hopefully, with less venom.
Also of (potential) relevance,
Publish - February 2 1999,
Update - February 26 1999,
Google Groups: Patch Fixes (info from Runesabre, Feb. 25, '99, to be implemented Feb. 26, '99),
Combat Sytem [sic] and Swing Timer, from April, 2010,
and The OSI Double Hally Hit, from July, 2010.
Of possible useful reference:
Insta Hit, Weapon Mechanics, and much more...,
Understanding weapon cycling and your halberd,
2.5 second hally hits with 25 dex mages is NEA (there is interesting discussion to perhaps consider)
The 'meat' of the matter:
and,Publish - February 2 1999 wrote:
- Your swing rate or firing rate with all weapons is now dependent on your current stamina, instead of your dexterity.
- Damage for your blow is now assessed on your opponent on the start of the swing, instead of at the end. This change makes a fast connection less of an advantage in melee combat. This will apply to wrestling and attacks made by monsters as well.
- Equipping a weapon now causes a short "prep time" before you can start swinging.
and,Update 1 - February 26 1999 wrote:An exploit for getting slow weapons to hit faster has been fixed.
Now, what Faust said that inspired me to open this 'can of worms',Runesabre (in Google Groups: Patch Fixes), 02/25/1999, wrote:10) The disarm/arm exploit to get slow weapons to hit faster has been fixed. It
will not be to your advantage to disarm/rearm a weapon.
I've underlined the part I wish to contest. My point is this,Faust, from page2 of Haly Cycling, wrote: Please do the math....
Explosion Damage Delay: 3.0 Seconds
Ebolt Cast Delay: 1.75 Seconds
Ebolt Damage Delay: 1.0 Second
Hally Delay: 5.0 Seconds
Again, please explain to me how you can unload this combo when your hally resets to 5 seconds after being dragged AND equipped when the equip/arm delay is triggered if you could not cycle a weapon????
If the Feb 26 Update enforced the 5-second halberd delay, considering also the unequip/equip delay(s), without any "cycling-as-we-know-it", this quite likely would coincide (almost exactly) with the casting times of Explode-EBolt, and it might only seem as if the halberd had been "cycled" ... was there an 'arcane technique' to the player's actual order-of-operations, when preparing this combo, that I do not apprehend?
So, can we revisit this, and with civility?
BTW, another potentially-relevant piece of information supplied by Faust:
[quote="Faust, on page 3 of "Haly Cycling", quoting Publish 5 (Renaissance),"]Players using melee weapons in combat will now hold their swing until their target is in range. Additionally, the timer that determines melee weapon swing times (combat timer) will now advance as the player is moving. Thus, melee weapon users will no longer be required to stop moving before swinging.[/quote]
Which would confirm all of Faust's remarks regarding, "What is known to be wrong with UOSA's combat mechanics" .
Can this be sorted-out?
SS