Meditation and Mana Regen

[Skynyrd]

Let me preface this with my findings were done using the stopwatch on my iphone and visually seeing changes in mana vs time. Some times may be off by a second or two. But generally fairly accurate. Jack may know the exact numbers on this. However mana regen has always been slower here. This is not a suggestion for change as there may be a reason for meditation being slower. This mechanic may be in place to make other templates or playstyles viable in a typically tank mage dominated era. I do believe some increases in speed could promote more interesting and offensive battles. 

Veranis has done some research on the topic. Most likely a bit more in depth than I. His findings are also interesting regarding meditation. 

On the left column is regen time in Second or the minuteecond. On the right column is the INT left that was hit at that time. You can see noticeable differences. All these test were done on characters with 90 INT and 100 Meditation. Times were taken on passive meditation (i.e not using the skill) and active meditation (i.e using the skill). The numbers from lost lands are compared to a similar ruleset server. 

As I mentioned this is not begging for change , just wondering if this is realized. Or if there is a reason this mechanic could be in place, as it is helpful to other playstyles. Or the fact mini heal is delayed you do not spend as much mana healing and increases would result in too much excess. Idk.

T2A Server PASSIVE - Total Time 1:29 from 0-90


19-20 MANA
29-30 MANA
39-40 MANA
49-50 MANA
59-60 MANA
1:09-70 MANA
1:19-80 MANA
1:29-90 MANA

UO LOST LANDS PASSIVE - Total Time 1:50 from 0-90


23-20 MANA
35-30 MANA
47-40 MANA
1:00-50 MANA
1:12-60 MANA
1:25-70 MANA
1:37-80 MANA
1:50-90 MANA



T2A Server ACITVE  -51 seconds from 0-90

12-20 MANA
16-30 MANA
21-40 MANA
26-50 MANA
31-60 MANA
36-70 MANA
46-80 MANA
51-90 MANA


UO LOST LANDS ACTIVE -55 seconds from 0-90

12-20 MANA
18-30 MANA
25-40 MANA
31-50 MANA
37-60 MANA
43-70 MANA
49-80 MANA
55-90 MANA

Again numbers may be off by a few seconds. But I did this 3 times each and those were results. 

[Swunk]

you get this off the demo?

[Jack]

The demo doesn't have meditation, Swunk, otherwise I would likely take data directly from it.

I've known that mana regen is slower here than on UO Second Age, and it's genuinely what I consider to be accurate.

The formula we use for meditation is this:

Code:

double medPoints = (from.Int + from.Skills[SkillName.Meditation].Value)*0.5;
double rate = 7.0 - (239*medPoints/2400) + (19*medPoints*medPoints/48000);

This formula is known to be accurate, and here is what the output looks like (sorry about the ugly formatting):



Now keep in mind that game "ticks" happen every 0.25s, which means meditation is checked at (in seconds)
0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5

100 med, 90 int gives a rate of 1.11s. So what do we do with this value? It's closer to 1.0s so we should round it down, right? Well, no. UO generally doesn't round values, it just executes the action on the next game tick. This is the case for everything else, why shouldn't it be the case for meditation?

The difference seems to be that UO Second Age is rounding their values down, whereas we're not rounding ours at all. So what we get is:

0.25s: do nothing
0.5s: do nothing
0.75s: do nothing
1.0s: UOSA rounded down, so add 1 mana here.
1.11s: There is no tick here, but UOLL is ready to add the mana on the next tick
1.25s: UOLL adds 1 mana

This means on UOLL the only way to reach the maximum threshold for mana regen is to have 100str, 100 int. It also means you should have at least 91 intelligence if you don't want to drop down a med bracket when you are feebleminded.

[Jack]

To add, I've actually experimented in the past with rounding these values down, but was not really happy with the results. I could try adjusting it for a while, but last time I felt overall the impact was negative, people were not really spending their mana and fights were going on for longer than they do currently since everyone always had mana for mini heal.

[Veranis]

Hmm. I have tested GM Med from 25 to 100 INT, and I only got two regen rate brackets: in the 25-63 INT range, the rate was about 1.1 points per second (active meditation), and 64-100 INT was about 1.65-1.7 points per second (active). I currently have a toon with 100 med and 64 INT, and he recovers mana at exactly the same speed as my bard who has 100 INT and 100 med. So is this perhaps not functioning as intended?

[Skynyrd]

Thanks for the info Jack .

[Skrap]

but last time I felt overall the impact was negative, people were not really spending their mana and fights were going on for longer than they do currently since everyone always had mana for mini heal.

I feel the real issue is being overlooked here.  I don't think the issue is with Wizard v Wizard at all.  Each mage is on level playing field when it comes to mana, it just comes down to how they spend it. The problem here is dealing with a dexxer(which may be intended).  If a dexxer is consistently hitting, you're consistently healing.  In meditations current state, it can be almost impossible to bounce back due to mana lock, much less turn on the offensive.  Now if you add poisons potency in the mix, there isn't much you can do.  

Make Meditation Great Again.

Jack, we respect our Kiwi overlord.  Thanks again for all that you do.

[Jack]

Hmm. I have tested GM Med from 25 to 100 INT, and I only got two regen rate brackets: in the 25-63 INT range, the rate was about 1.1 points per second (active meditation), and 64-100 INT was about 1.65-1.7 points per second (active). I currently have a toon with 100 med and 64 INT, and he recovers mana at exactly the same speed as my bard who has 100 INT and 100 med. So is this perhaps not functioning as intended?

I'll take a look this weekend if there's anything odd going on with varying levels of int/med.

[Jack]

Hmm. I have tested GM Med from 25 to 100 INT, and I only got two regen rate brackets: in the 25-63 INT range, the rate was about 1.1 points per second (active meditation), and 64-100 INT was about 1.65-1.7 points per second (active). I currently have a toon with 100 med and 64 INT, and he recovers mana at exactly the same speed as my bard who has 100 INT and 100 med. So is this perhaps not functioning as intended?

I did find a bug that was causing lower "meditation scores" to be performing better than they should be. Changing this will actually be an overall nerf to meditation.