Robe of Inspiration  

 

If you are using eqcaster, select "Miscellanenous" and "Ultra Death Spell" (I think there's I and II). You can read what's his face's comments in there about how info in spelldat.eff can be fudged (what he calls "poor man's encryption") because the real game occurs on the server.

So in otherwords, spelldat.eff (what you read in eqcaster) can say 1 manna per tick, and that means that when your "client" (i.e., the software that you run on your machine when you play eq) can "predict" your new manna level at each tick before the server sends it the update to give your client the actual new manna level for that tick. And a difference of 9 manna on client prediction isn't going to be very noticable.

If this sounds insane to you (I'm a software engineer BTW with 3D game development experience), take a look at your hitpoints regenerating while you are siting down. If you are lvl 20 or over, you will notice some odd behavoir. You will see your HPs jump by 2 and then jump up another point. (or by 4 and then 1 more if you are 51+).

This is because there is a "client prediction" bug in the client software still (i.e., eqgame.exe) that incorrectly calculates health regeneration to account for the extra point regened at 20+. The client predicts it but when the actual update "packet" is recieved from the server, the real health is displayed.

So if you are wondering what spelldat.eff really dictates if the server gets to really decide what spells does what then here is the answer (and there may be more):

* Tells client how long an effect will last (spell, poison, etc)
* Tells client what spell effects to make (i.e., the visual effects and sounds - this is the spell catagory column - somehting like that)
* Tells the client how to predict changes in health from DOT spells (either healing or damage)
* Tells the client special information like your movement speed (snared or SOW, etc), whether or not you are levitating, not sure about illusion info...
* I think the message info is read when the server tells you that somebody else cast this spell on somebody (i.e., the server only tells the client that a spell particular spell was cast on somebody and the client reads the message from spelldat.eff).

What doesn't matter:
* I don't think DD information is *ever* used on the client.

Anyway, you get the point. Don't look to EQCaster like it's the end all Encyclopedia (although it's useful).

Yuktii (Quellious)
52 necro