Lomshir QA/Kurashasa Starter Area

[Jakkal]

So Lomshir is well overdue for some QA, it right now has some of the oldest scripts in game and is in dire need of updating. I thought while I'm here, I'm going to try to set up the original Kurashasa starter area.

The Challenge here is that SOE removed Lomshir from the list of starter areas and turned it into a level 20 zone. When they did this, they cut off access to the "Hunting Grounds" which is the starting point for the Kurashasa. To make a long story short, none of our collectors were able to go there and collect. We have to build everything from scratch.

I will be posting my progress here as I work through it.

The Starting Loc needs to be set at -53031, 63369, -141853 (This will happen last as we don't want people starting there without a way to get out).

Note: Even though I've set the level of the mobs back down to what it was pre-Lomshir Revamp, it didn't change their Hit Points. So some of them have teens level HP even though it should be starter level. I am unable to change their HP at this time, so you have to just deal with it for now.

NPCs:

• Hunter Citasan - Created from scratch. Set Hail.
• Hunter Bhidrata - Created from scratch. Set Hail.
• Huntress Gastina - Created from scratch. Set Hail.
• Dursani Arutin - Added in turn in option for quest "Qur'xa Temple"
• Psion Sakari - Redid hail script from scratch.
• Ati Baramtu - Redid hail script from scratch. Added "Training" quest to him for the turn in. (Light Fighter)
• Barira Cankhi - Created hail script. Added "Training" quest to him for the turn in. (Heavy Fighter)
• Sakras Bhatra - Created hail script. Added "Training" quest to him for the turn in. (Healer)
• Ekaram Bhiuli - Created hail script. Added "Training" quest to him for the turn in. (Caster)
• HunterAtilakara - Created hail script.
• Ghran'ful'une - Created hail script.

04/01/2021

• Various Named Yothkai around Gran'ful'une: Scripted to respond to the "Yothkai Attractor". They will despawn and respawn as a generic follower.

04/03/2021

• Asipra Devkhi - Redid from scratch
• Huntress Gajmi - Set up hail script.
• Psion Illrasa - I let Zukan set this hail script so he can get some experience setting them up.
• Huntress Harasa - Created and set Hail Script
• Hunter Draahi - Created and set Hail Script

Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).

• Trapped! - Complete
• Depths of the Mind - Complete. Added Bracer Rewards (Akin to IOD style, based on Dahknarg's)
• Killing is Hungry Work - Complete
• Spirit to Sartholas - Complete
• Qur'xa Temple - Complete (This takes you out of the "Hunting Grounds" area.)
• Training - Complete. There is a separate quest for each archetype.
• Psion Sakari - Complete. Just realized that it comes at the same time as the Training quest, but I'm going to set up the training quests first, then back to this one.
• The Yothkai Dreg - Complete
• Free Spirits - Complete. This quest specifically tells you to kill Hunters, and while there is an NPC named "Possessed Hunter", there's also Possessed Huntresses. I believe they were intended to be included in this kill list, so I've added them.

04/01/2021

• Parasite Dawn - Complete
• Swatting Pests - Complete
• Striking home - Complete
• The Capture - Complete

04/02/2021

• The Change - Complete. There's some issues with the animation of it, but I don't think that's something we can fix at this time. I also think this is where the Kurashasa get their symbiotic armor racial ability, but I have a feeling that after IOD's intro, they just gave it to all Kurashasa. So it might be moot.

04/03/2021

• The Return: Complete.
• Rachis: Complete.
• The Ahnd'ka Flight: Complete. The quest text indicates that they have different traits like healing or whatever. Rest assured none of them are scripted for that yet.
• Watch Where You Step: Complete.
• Plane Shifters: Complete.
• The Ties That Bind: Complete
• Planar Amulets: Complete
• Severing Rifts: Complete. I think? It really feels like something is missing here. Was it just the Summoning thing you had to destroy? there's more farther up the path with some crystals but I can't find anything that relates to it. After checking, it doesn't appear that part with the crystals is being used by anything and that is a DAMN SHAME. I might put a boss fight up there later.
• Asipra Calls: Complete
• Telon Awaits: Complete

Mobs:

• Dark Scout - These were set to level 11. I've restored them to level 1. Added random movement script.
• Achromic - These were set to level 12. I've restored them to level 2. Added random movement script. Added quest drop for "Depths of the Mind"
• Domain Walker - Scripted for movement and quest drop for "Killing is Hungry Work."

04/01/2021

• Defiled Yothkai - Scripted to spawn "Darter Larva" on death (one in three chance) for the quest "Parasite Dawn"
• Darter Larva - Scripted to drop the quest item for "Parasite Dawn"

04/03/2021

• Crimson Ahnd'ka: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Ivory Ahnd'ka: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Onyx Ahnd'ka: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Plane Streamer: Set level to 5 from 15. Scripted for the quest drop for "Planar Amulets". Added random movement.
• Plane Warder: Set level to 5 from 15. Scripted for the quest drop for "Planar Amulets". Added random movement.
• Bane Darter: Set level to 4 from 14.
• Darter Larva: Set level to 3 from 13.

Objects:

• Kurashasa Bones - Scripted for the quest "Spirit to Sartholas"

04/01/2021

• Bane Darter Nest - Scripted to respond to the quest "Striking Home"
• Poison FX - An FX object created and scripted to produce a poison effect when interacting with the Bane Darter Nest for "Striking Home"

04/03/2021

• Twisting Gates: I edited the script on all the twisting gates so that they no longer pointed the character in the exit direction. I did this because it wasn't changing the camera angle in-game and it was driving me nuts. I also edited the Gate that goes from Ghran'ful'une back to the Qur'Xa temple because it wasn't putting you back at the original gate (Yothkai Dreg) that brought you there.
• Twisting Gates: Part 2. All the "remote" gates used a single script which put everyone at the Hunting Grounds gate in the Qur'xa Temple. I've edited them all individually so that they go back to the Gate that sends them to the offworld/remote location.
• Twisting Gates: Part 3. The remote location gates have been set as altars so if you die, you should rez near them. But they stick you halfway into the ground and I'm not sure how to fix that yet (without creating a new object to act as an altar, which I might end up doing anyway.)
• Ahnd'ka Summoning Pillar - Scripted for "Severing Rifts"
• Earthen FX - Created as a rock explody effect for the destruction of the Ahnd'ka Summoning Pillar

Items:

• Achromic Brain - Created for the quest "Depths of the Mind".
• Qurxan Plate Bracers - Created as a reward for "Depths of the Mind". For Heavy Armor wearers
• Qurxan Chain Bracers - Created as a reward for "Depths of the Mind". For Shamans/Disciples
• Qurxan Chain Bracers - Created as a reward for "Depths of the Mind". For Melee DPS
• Qurxan Healer Bracers - Created as a reward for "Depths of the Mind". For Clerics
• Qurxan Cloth Cuffs - Created as a reward for "Depths of the Mind". For Casters/Blood Mage
• Walker Viscera - Created for the quest, "Killing is Hungry Work"
• Walker Viscera Jerky - Scripted so it can be used. Quest reward of "Killing is Hungry Work."
• Black Brooch created for the quest "Spirit to Sartholas"
• Vase of Brains created for the quests "Qur'xa Temple" and "Psion Sakari"

04/01/2021

• Yothkai Attractor - Scripted so if you target a local Yothkai, it will despawn the Yothkai and spawn a follower.

[Jakkal]

Tonight's Work (Will be added to the original post).


Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).
04/01/2021

• Parasite Dawn - Complete
• Swatting Pests - Complete
• Striking home - Complete
• The Capture - Complete

NPCs:
04/01/2021

• Various Named Yothkai around Gran'ful'une: Scripted to respond to the "Yothkai Attractor". They will despawn and respawn as a generic follower.

Mobs:
04/01/2021

• Defiled Yothkai - Scripted to spawn "Darter Larva" on death (one in three chance) for the quest "Parasite Dawn"
• Darter Larva - Scripted to drop the quest item for "Parasite Dawn"

Objects:
04/01/2021

• Bane Darter Nest - Scripted to respond to the quest "Striking Home"
• Poison FX - An FX object created and scripted to produce a poison effect when interacting with the Bane Darter Nest for "Striking Home"

Items:
04/01/2021

• Yothkai Attractor - Scripted so if you target a local Yothkai, it will despawn the Yothkai and spawn a follower.

[Jakkal]

Going to try to get some work done today but I have a sinus headache that's trying to become a migraine, so I'm not sure how much I can do.

Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).
04/02/2021

• The Change - Complete. There's some issues with the animation of it, but I don't think that's something we can fix at this time. I also think this is where the Kurashasa get their symbiotic armor racial ability, but I have a feeling that after IOD's intro, they just gave it to all Kurashasa. So it might be moot.

[Jakkal]

As expected, I didn't get much done last night, especially since I couldn't get that animation to work smoothly. I'll go back and look into it later.

Today's work:

Note to self: Fandom mentioned some NPCs that were not recorded in the Hunting Grounds. They probably need to be recreated. I bet they're supposed to be around the first twisting gate.

The List of Known Friendly NPCs: (Hunting Grounds)

Hunter Citasan
Hunter Draahi
Hunter Bhidrata
Hunter Carpra
Huntress Harasa
Huntress Ghastina

NPCs:
04/03/2021

• Asipra Devkhi - Redid from scratch
• Huntress Gajmi - Set up hail script.
• Psion Illrasa - I let Zukan set this hail script so he can get some experience setting them up.

Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).
04/03/2021

• The Return: Complete.
• Rachis: Complete.
• The Ahnd'ka Flight: Complete. The quest text indicates that they have different traits like healing or whatever. Rest assured none of them are scripted for that yet.
• Watch Where You Step: Complete.
• Plane Shifters: Complete.
• The Ties That Bind: Complete
• Planar Amulets: Complete
• Severing Rifts: Complete. I think? It really feels like something is missing here. Was it just the Summoning thing you had to destroy? there's more farther up the path with some crystals but I can't find anything that relates to it. After checking, it doesn't appear that part with the crystals is being used by anything and that is a DAMN SHAME. I might put a boss fight up there later.
• Asipra Calls: Complete
• Telon Awaits: Complete

Mobs:
04/03/2021

• Crimson Ahnd'kar: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Ivory Ahnd'kar: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Onyx Ahnd'kar: Set level to 4 from 14. Scripted for the quest drop for "The Ties That Bind". Added random movement.
• Plane Streamer: Set level to 5 from 15. Scripted for the quest drop for "Planar Amulets". Added random movement.
• Plane Warder: Set level to 5 from 15. Scripted for the quest drop for "Planar Amulets". Added random movement.
• Bane Darter: Set level to 4 from 14.
• Darter Larva: Set level to 3 from 13.

Objects:
04/03/2021

• Twisting Gates: I edited the script on all the twisting gates so that they no longer pointed the character in the exit direction. I did this because it wasn't changing the camera angle in-game and it was driving me nuts. I also edited the Gate that goes from Ghran'ful'une back to the Qur'Xa temple because it wasn't putting you back at the original gate (Yothkai Dreg) that brought you there.
• Ahnd'ka Summoning Pillar - Scripted for "Severing Rifts"
• Earthen FX - Created as a rock explody effect for the destruction of the Ahnd'ka Summoning Pillar

[Jakkal]

Okay I've gone through all the quests for the Kurashasa starter area. And this is what I've found in regards to the rewards and stuff.

As you can see, the rewards are horseshit. I'll have to fix this. I'll be giving them IOD style gear, and I'll figure out what intervals to give it to them.

Kurashasa Starting Area Quest Rewards:

• Trapped!
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 10c
• Depths of the Mind
  • Gear: Bracers
  • Money: 20c
• Killing is Hungry Work
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
    Other: Food reward
• Spirit to Sartholas
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• Qur'xa Temple
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• Training
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• Psion Sakari
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• The Yothkai Dreg
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 15c
• Free Spirits
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 30c
• Parasite Dawn
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 30c
• Swatting Pests
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 40c
• Striking Home
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 40c
• The Capture
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• The Change
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 20c
• The Return
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 30c
• Rachis
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 40c
• The Ahnd'ka Flight
  • Gear: Bag
  • Money: 40c
• The Ties that Bind
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 40c
• Watch Where You Step
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 40c
• Plane Shifters
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 50c
• Severing Rifts
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 25c
• Planar Amulets
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 50c
• Asipra Calls
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 50c
• Telon Awaits
  • Gear: Nothing
  • Money: 50c

[Zukan]

I ran through the questline tonight on a Disciple and came across some things I thought were worth mentioning:

1. While on the quest Spirit to Sartholas I looted a Black Brooch from the clickable ground spawn, after which other ground spawns continued to sparkle and the cursor changed to the curose with the red !. Not all of them, but most of them did.
2. By the time I got to the archtype trainers I was level 3 and should have been able to learn Blessed Wind as the Disc from the healer trainer, but not only could I not learn that, but the ability list did not show up at all and I got the "so and so has nothing to teach you" message.
3. When you pickup the quest Rachis there is a Twisting Gate right there by Asipra Devkhi which takes you out to Lomshir. I don't know if you'd want to stupid-proofed that or not because I can see people confused by that. But at the same time I'm not so sure locking people into Qur'Xa is a good idea or not. I suppose they can always go back in like I did, but new players may not understand that they've gone the wrong way.
4. When you die, you respawn out in lomshir loc:42149, 6285, 11656

Jakkal you mentioned wanting to add a boss in there at the top of the path in the Rachis relm. I can't remember what happened originally there. The end boss in Riftseeker's Torrent has the same geometry and I keep mixing that orc boss with this place. I don't think it's a bad idea to add one though but it looks like the reason you're sent to Lomshir is because you (the player) messed up and let the baddies get away. So maybe something to do would be to have two guys up there and one of them flees and the other stays and fights.

[Jakkal]

I'm afraid most of the points you've made are things the devs have to fix, we cannot control them. So posting them here on this thread probably didn't help unless a dev happens to read it.

While on the quest Spirit to Sartholas I looted a Black Brooch from the clickable ground spawn, after which other ground spawns continued to sparkle and the cursor changed to the curose with the red !. Not all of them, but most of them did.

I don't think this issue has ever been fixed. Again, something the devs have to take care of.

Edit: Just checked it and it does look like the devs have to fix it.

By the time I got to the archtype trainers I was level 3 and should have been able to learn Blessed Wind as the Disc from the healer trainer, but not only could I not learn that, but the ability list did not show up at all and I got the "so and so has nothing to teach you" message.

I can see if this pawn is set up right, but beyond that, it's something the devs have to do.
Edit: The pawn had the wrong vendor ID. I doubt anyone messed with this, so it was probably recorded like this from Live.

When you pickup the quest Rachis there is a Twisting Gate right there by Asipra Devkhi which takes you out to Lomshir. I don't know if you'd want to stupid-proofed that or not because I can see people confused by that. But at the same time I'm not so sure locking people into Qur'Xa is a good idea or not. I suppose they can always go back in like I did, but new players may not understand that they've gone the wrong way.

I think you're right that it's going to confuse people but we have to try to leave it the way it was. It says in the quest text to take the one to Rachis and has a POI to it. The compass points to the gate right away. And the Gatekeepers tell you where they go if anyone happens to hail them.

When you die, you respawn out in lomshir loc:42149, 6285, 11656

Don't die, scrub. We need to find some spots around the various locations to respawn the characters when they die and I'm not even sure we can set multiple spots in one chunk. While I think we can mess with this, it's still better for a dev to look at it.

[Jakkal]

Today's work:

Real quick I need to edit the twisting gates because some of them are not putting you in the proper location:

Twisting Gate (In the Hunting Grounds to Qur'xa Temple) - Edited so it puts you at the gate that leads to the Hunting Grounds instead of Rachis)
Twisting Gate (TO the Hunting Grounds from the Qur'xa Temple) - Edited so it puts you at the gate IN the Hunting Grounds instead of the starting location.

NPCs:
04/04/2021

• Unlost Horse: Created specifically for "Find the Lost Horse", the lost horse will despawn, spawn this one, and it will run back to the pen.

Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).
04/04/2021

• Collect Young Lion Pelts - Complete. Updated to current standards/methods. Rewards: 20c Arms armor
• Find the Lost Horse - Complete. No change to quest script. Rewards: 20c
• Collect Apples for the Horses - Complete. Updated to current standards/methods. Rewards: 20c
• Pesky Horse Flies - Complete. Updated to current standards/methods. Rewards: 20c. Bag
• Training - Complete. All 4 archetypes. Pretty much did this from scratch and renamed all of them to just "Training". Created and Added POIs to all four trainers. I set "Collect Young Lion Pelts" as a prereq, because giving you a training quest at level 1 will probably just serve to confuse the players. I set them all to level 2 as well. I edited the quest text as it seemed generic "visit the nearby trainer", so I added in the names and made the lines more grammatically correct. Rewards: 10c
• Supply Delivery - Complete. The wikis say that this quest is supposed to take place without pre-reqs. Because this one takes you out of the first quest hub and into the next, I have intentionally given it the Training quest as a pre-req.
• Horse Escort - Complete. I added the training quests to it as a pre-req because like Supply Delivery, this one takes you out of the first quest hub to the next.

Mobs:
04/04/2021

• Young Lions and Lionesses - Now share a script. Drop the items for "Young Lion Pelts". Updated drop code to current standards/practices.

Objects:
04/04/2021

• Lost Horse - Added random movement. Edited access timer and timer bar message to data taken from Live.

[Curby]

I ran through the Kurashasa starter quest yesterday and boy did it FEEL like I remember. Granted, I only did it once on Live, but it does leave an impression. The purple skies and the portals mostly and I also remember getting lost. Not so this time, everything was laid out very well and I was able to progress from one quest to the next without trouble. There were a couple minor quest dialogue issues that I /bugged, (is that the correct thing to do, or should I post them somewhere on the forum?) but nothing game breaking. All the mobs spawned as appropriate, the quest items and collects all functioned correctly and experience / rewards were all earned as expected.

Something new for me - I never knew there was a temple underneath the shipwreck in Lomshir! I think on Live, I just used to clear the inside to get the diamond, then head off to the undead pirates and the Sea Hag Grotto. I got about halfway down on my little level 9 Dreadknight before my lifetap failed while being swarmed and that ended things, lol. Still was great fun and I'm looking forward to giving it another go.

I was doing some side quests and it was funny (and a little sad) to see some of the Quest NPC's up by the horse thieves have their dialog be something to the effect of "We don't know what the dialogue for this quest was. If you know it let us know!" Wow, the work you all have put into this is nothing short of amazing and I can't say enough how much I appreciate it! Thank you X 1000.

[Jakkal]

Today's work:

NPCs:
04/25/2021

• Yvler Kruug: Edited her script so that if the player loses the Sickly Horse (The follower) for the quest "Horse Escort", then they can hail her and have it respawn.
• Quojor Wulner - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Savard Wenlav - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Drujor Kelva - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Frell Pourja - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Avlour Sheenj - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Shudjo Quelour - Script is old, but no changes were needed.
• Ambassador Rolande - Script needed some cleanup and changes so I redid it from scratch.
• Rowen Satha - Script needed some cleanup and changes so I redid it from scratch.
• Kjorna Aluroun - Script needed some cleanup and changes so I redid it from scratch.
• Lephik Suvn - Script needed some cleanup and changes so I redid it from scratch.
• Akhun Ali-Kamil - In the Wayside Pasture area, there are no merchants to sell stuff too. So I created this NPC as a general goods vendor to make it easier on players to offload trash loot or buy supplies.

Quests: (Not doing a gear rewards pass unless the quest already had gear rewards).
04/25/2021

• Speak with Mraroun Ali-Mar - No work needed to be done to this quest since it's a simple, "Go to this other guy" quest. But I believe that where we have the Varanthari starting is not correct, and they should start in front of the questgiver for this quest. Mraroun Ali-Mar is the questgiver with the first set of quests for players. And it's odd to run into this guy as they're leaving the outpost to do other quests (Which Mraroun has no other tasks for you). So I think we need to change the starting location of the Varanthari to be in front of Ambassador Rolande. Or just get rid of this quest. After discussing this with the rest of the team, we believe this questgiver was created to funnel players rifting to Lomshir after it was made a teens-20 level zone, and he would direct you to the quest hub, which was the original starter area. So I feel confident that we can get rid of this quest without any issues.
• Healing - Updated to current standards and practices. Reward: 20C. Choice of earring with +3 main stat and some have absorptions. Two of the 4 available have Con. That should be fixed. They're inconsistent with each other.
• Bonding - Complete. I don't really know how this will work out with groups, but it does work for the solo player at least..

Mobs:
04/25/2021

• Apple worm: I set them so that they don't social with the young lions. I feel like as one of the first quests, having two aggro mobs on you will likely kill the character.

Objects:
04/25/2021

• Placeholder

Items:
04/25/2021

• Placeholder

Other Thoughts:
The Quest "Young Lion Pelts" offers a lot of gear reward items, but notably and annoyingly, two of the three medium armor pieces have healing focus on them. Given there are only two healer classes that wear medium and 4 melee dps classes, this is disproportional.