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Forming Parties with other Players
Parties allow players to share
experience, gold, information about where the players in the party are located,
and quest information. Parties allow players to work together to beat the game.
Many Class skills are designed to help not only yourself but other players in a
party. A good example of this is the Paladin's Defensive Aura: Prayer. Prayer
not only will heal the Paladin but will also heal his Hireling and other members
of the party and their Hirelings. There are plenty of other party friendly
skills and spells.
Party Options
Press the 'P' key to bring up the Party screen. You
see a list of all the players in the game and your current relationships to
them. Names appearing white are Neutral, green are in your Party, and red are
Hostile. Next to each available player's name is the Party button with one of
the following labels:
INVITE: Press this button to invite the player to join your
party.
CANCEL: After inviting the player (but before acceptance), you
may withdraw the invitation by pressing this button again.
ACCEPT: The
player has invited you to join a party. Press this button to accept the
invitation.
If no button appears, then the player is not available - because that player
is already a member of another party. You may not invite them until they leave
their current party. Of course, they could invite you to join theirs.
Once in a party you may leave it by pressing the LEAVE button at the top of
the party screen. If you leave a party of more than two players, the other
players remain in that party. Once you leave a party, you may form or join
another.
To the right of each player's Party button are 4 smaller buttons - each of
which can be ON or OFF. The first one is the Neutral/Hostile button. When the
button shows crossed swords, you are Hostile to the associated player. The
second one is the Allow/Prevent Corpse Looting button. The third is the
Include/Exclude from Chat button. When you Exclude a player, that player cannot
hear or see any verbal communication coming from you. The last is the
Squelch/Unsquelch button. When you Squelch a player, you cannot hear or see any
verbal communication coming from that player.
NOTE: When you press any button on the Party screen, the target player
receives an appropriate message about your action.
Party Relationships
Each player has 2 possible relationships with
all other players in the game -- Neutral (the default) and Hostile. Changes to
your relationships are made in the Party screen. (Press 'P' to bring it up.)
Here is how the settings work:
Hostile: You can target players with this setting - just as if they
were monsters. If Player X goes Hostile to Player Y, then Player Y automatically
goes Hostile to Player X in return. If Player X goes Hostile to Player Y and
then goes Neutral, Player Y remains Hostile to Player X until Player Y chooses
to go Neutral to Player X. A player can go Hostile only while in town. The other
player can be anywhere.
If a player goes Hostile with a member of a party, all other members of the
party will go Hostile with that player in return. If a player attempts to go
Hostile to a fellow Party member, that player is simply dropped from the Party
and becomes a regular Neutral.
Neutral: You cannot target players with this setting. If you try to
target a particular Neutral player, the true target instead shifts to a nearby
monster, Hostile player, or simply the ground. You cannot directly harm a
Neutral player.
Neutral players may form a Party together. Party members share equally in
gold and experience points (with a small bonus to the player that delivers the
killing blow). Certain skills, like Paladin Auras and Barbarian Warcries, apply
to party members, too.
NOTE: You receive a message whenever players change their relationship
settings with you.
Experienced is Shared within a Party
For each party member the
total Experience earned for killing a monster is divided into shares -- where
each member's fraction of the total Experience is equal to the member's level
divided by the sum of all the members' levels. After this Experience Share is
computed, it is multiplied by another percentage that is computed on a sliding
scale that is based on the difference between your character's level and the
monster's level -- regardless of whether you are in a party or not. The sliding
scale applies if the level difference is between 5 and 10. If the level
difference is relatively small (5 or less), you get 100% of the Experience
Share. If the level difference is relatively large (10 or more), a minimum
amount (5%) of the Experience Share is earned. Thus, high-level characters
killing low-level monsters get only a small amount of experience. Similarly,
low-level characters killing high-level monsters get only a small amount of
experience, as well. This is done so that a level 5 character running around
with three level 20 characters isn't getting ridiculous amounts of experience
for the higher level monsters which only his level 20 party members can destroy.
Finally, party members share experience only when they are in the same named
area, defined as the "level" on the Automap.
Gold is Shared within a Party
When a party member picks up a stack
of Gold, Gold is evenly divided among the members with any remainder going to
the one who picks up the pile. Gold is only split when Party members are in the
same level area or "zone" as shown on the Automap or party menu. You cannot turn
Gold splitting off. Keep this in mind when trying to exchange Gold between party
members and when picking up Gold dropped by other party members when they die.
It's a good idea to keep Gold in your Stash when in a Party to avoid Gold
Splitting issues if you die. To exchange Gold among party members without
splitting the Gold use the Secured Trading Screen in town. Other options include
leaving the party to pick up the Gold to avoid the split, then rejoin the party.
You can also drop Gold in Town or an area, then make sure no one in the party is
in the same area when the pile of Gold is picked up off the ground.
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Parties