Alright guys - there's a TON of information here, so I'm going to summarize it as best as I can. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer what I can.

Skills have been updated to use the new combined skill model, as discussed heavily on the forums. If you don't know what the new skills are, I encourage you to check the Experience forum in Abilities, Skills, and Magic. That's got all of the discussion from that.

TDPs are being refactored using the model last discussed on that forum as well.

When you log in, you will be converted to the new system. You should be able to see the new skills in EXP. You'll gain or lose some TDPs, depending on how your skills were set up before.

What To Test
What I'm looking for is for you to test things that performed skill checks. Keep an eye out for anything that's letting you succeed where you don't think you should, fail when you don't think you should, etc.

Right now, the new circle requirements are in, but they're not finalized. Traders in particular will notice that their reqs are WAY higher than previously - They'll be going down from where they are now, as what we had in was very rough. I'll be making a big post about circle reqs on the main guild forums so people can chat about them.

Grandfathering ranks in based on circle is NOT in yet. I've got a task open to do this, but it isn't happening yet.

I'm also looking for anything that happens where the old skill name is referenced. There are some scenarios where this is ok: Certain containers that hold specific kinds of weapons will still only hold those weapons. The weapon classification of 'light edged' and 'medium edged' is not going away - Just the skill that they use. I will be updating appraisal to provide this information. Other places, like in the EXP verb, talking to guildleaders, etc, are places where we do NOT want to see the old skills.

Also look for guild-only skill checks that seem to be giving you no credit for your ranks, or your guild-only skill being called 'empathy' or 'thanatology' when it shouldn't be.

That's mainly it for skills in and of themselves - Test things that grant skills, like juggling, appraising, climbing, swimming, weird little things like that. Skills in particular that may cause issues:

LC
HC
Leather
Cloth
Bone
MO
LE
ME
LB
MB
LX
HX
Staff Sling
Quarter Staff
Short Staff
Short Bow
Long Bow
Composite Bow
Halberd
Pike
Climbing
Swimming
Hiding
Stalking
Lockpicking
Disarm
Stealing
Foraging
Animal Lore
Scholarship
Teaching
Vocals
Percussion
Strings
Winds
Escaping

What To Do With Bugs
By now, anybody that's emailed me should have gotten their username and password for the bug site. Please visit the bug site (URL is listed in your email) and click 'Add New Bug' in the upper lefthand. Fill out the form as best as you can. Please indicate what you were doing, what character, any weird messaging you received, etc. Save the bug, and staff will take a look at it and comment on it.

Important Note
If you perform an action and don't get any feedback from it, that means that it caused something weird to happen in the game and it's causing a lot of scroll for GMs. Please don't keep doing that action (file a bug for it and move on), and for the love of all that is holy please don't spam it as fast as you can in the hope that it will work. Use a command that's known to work ("look" is a good safe one) to make sure you didn't crash the game, if you're worried about that.

That's it for Skills. I'll be making a post in a sec about Magic as well.

Good luck and thank you SO much for helping us test!

--

"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true." -E.A.P.

Related question. Is it possible to use my TF characters to test, or will I have to use my Prime characters?

-Evran

Waiting for Results..............................................................................................................

I'll figure out porting characters from Plat and TF tonight. It'll happen though. It'll likely be a similar system as before, but then you'll have to log out and back in for things to take effect.

--

"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true." -E.A.P.

Thanks for the quick fix!

-Evran

Waiting for Results..............................................................................................................

Hmmm, I spoke too soon. They're showing up my list, but it won't let me connect. I've tried the website, SGE, and connecting through Genie. Getting error messages I've never seen before.

-Evran

Waiting for Results..............................................................................................................

DRT is back up and ready with your latest Prime chars.

--

"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true." -E.A.P.

I believe there is currently a bug in test where it's taking the lower skill instead of the higher for skill mergers. That's something Socharis will have to fix, though he's been occupied with other matters this weekend. Fear not, trust in the power and wisdom of the Socharis, etc etc?

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

I'm not sure tdps have changed over for me. When I logged in, it looked like I had the same number of tdps I had from the day I was copied over(581). When I type exp I see 58, but if I hit info I have 581.

Anybody that's still awake and feels like helping me test, ping me over email. I'm trying to duplicate the issues people are having with the combinations not working and I'm frankly just not seeing them.

--

"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true." -E.A.P.

Hat trick.

I haven't moved plat folks yet - I'll get to it soon, as things start cooling down. I have to be out of my old apartment by midnight tomorrow night, so after that I'll have much more breathing room.

I'll fix INFO to look at TDPs correctly. It'll work.

--

"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true." -E.A.P.

Not what I found Pendus. here..

Melee Mastery: 413
Twohanded Edged: 879
Large Edged: 799

So if average of top 2, it would be 839, not 413.

______
Kertig Heart Magdar Bluefletch, Transcendent Barbarian of M'Riss

Oh and my vocal skills went away. I do have 26 in performing. Where did those bits go?

And I have zero in magic skills. Yes, I am a barbarian, but shouldn't I have inner magic and warding or some such?

______
Kertig Heart Magdar Bluefletch, Transcendent Barbarian of M'Riss

>> At the con we were told it would be off the top two of each, and it clearly wasn't set that way on test.

Did he mention if Offhand Weapon counted as one of the "top two" for Missile Mastery? I'm assuming by "top two of each" you're also referring to Missile Mastery.

~Leilond
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Leilond
http://soundsoftime.bravehost.com

Ahh thanks for the info. I'd be happy if either Offhand Weapon or Brawling counted towards Melee Mastery :)

~Leilond
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Leilond
http://soundsoftime.bravehost.com

Are the bonus pools turned on now?

I think melee mastry and missle mastry calculating as the average is a bit off. What you said at the con, being an average of the top 2 would be better or even top 5. and it is all POST conversion. Shouldn't the size of the weapon bonus pool be considered in the average if we are going with post ranks for the average? Ot will it move up FAST as we work weapons and this bonus pool contributes.

And I LOVE the fact that my music skills are going into my lore bonus pool! As a barbarian I was going to ask that it go into our magic bonus pool as I worked it for the roar improvement (and TDP's I am not stupid). But this works too.

Is there a tool to tell us how much is left in each of our bonus pools? I will train different based on the learning bonus or not. Something like RPA check. Maybe BP check?


______
Kertig Heart Magdar Bluefletch, Transcendent Barbarian of M'Riss

>At the moment, the Masteries are being calculated as the average of all Melee/Missile weapons post-combination. I'm not positive that's where it will end up (The information I gave at Con was me misremebering what I'd done), but that's the formula I've got plugged in at the moment.

I'd be very unhappy with this.

I have several melee weapons I actively train and a couple that I tried out and have never trained again. So because of having several skills in the 0-20 range, my mastery skills will be nowhere near where the rest of my combats are? Likewise with ranged. I actively train two ranged skills, but have a few ranks in two others, so my average is essentially cut in half, making the mastery skills essentially useless to prevent back-training.

-pete

>I have several melee weapons I actively train and a couple that I tried out and have never trained again. So because of having several skills in the 0-20 range, my mastery skills will be nowhere near where the rest of my combats are? Likewise with ranged. I actively train two ranged skills, but have a few ranks in two others, so my average is essentially cut in half, making the mastery skills essentially useless to prevent back-training.

I'm in a very similiar boat.. I only really keep 3 weapons at level, but I'm touched quite a few and my melee mastery was no where near my at level skills.

>I'd be very unhappy with this.

Me too.

-Dek

"That's what she said."
No..
"...That's what Leilond said."

>>And are all bugs suppose to go here, or I heard of some new website?

http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Testing%20Central/GM%20Announcements/view/10

~Leilond
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Leilond
http://soundsoftime.bravehost.com

Yeah my 573 Thanatology suddenly turned into 145 when I was copied over.

>> Yeah my 573 Thanatology suddenly turned into 145 when I was copied over.

Quoting myself, but I thought it might be important to point out that I also was copied over at 145th circle. So it might be giving Thanatology at 1 per circle instead of what it was before.