Ryzom

magick1 wrote: Let the creatures pop when there are no players close by or have them wander in from player empty zones, could work.

I love this idea and thought it should be done from early on in my Ryzom experience. Nothing spoils immersion like Capryni falling from the sky....

I don't think anything should spawn within some range of like 200M or 250M of any player. If an area is cleared of a mob either A) the server spawns them far off in an empty area and they wander in SLOWLY or B) it waits until the area is clear. If there are a lot of people around, make them come from far off! Nothing feels real like surprises, finding mobs far out from where they usually are. An exception would be plants, if no one leaves the area for a certain amount of time then they will start to pop there (although some sort of slow growing animation would be nice so they don't appear to magically appear) and even then the whole group wouldn't come at once, there would be a delay between them.

Any named mob should have an extended timer so it can't be camped and NOTHING should appear only on server resets, just long timers that keep counting separate from resets. Things such as Aen's camp or Tunnel of Woe could have a trickle spawn effect. If a homin army clears the ToW, it could stay clear for a while but slowly have kitin spawn within only when everyone has left. If an army goes back too soon there will only only be light resistance. The queen(s)would be last to spawn. The kitin larva I hear are in the depths would have a limited quantity. Could be safely harvested once the tunnel is clear, but not come back until the nest was completely respawned back to full strength ( days, weeks?).

It seems like it would be a fairly simple concept to implement and yet the effect on gameplay would be incredibly substantial. No longer could you sit and hunt in the same place for hours. If you want to level, you have to wander around a region and take on anything you can. I've done this kind of hunt and it is amazingly fun! The problem is, it's not practical to expect levels that way. However if a new spawn system were implemented, and everyone had to hunt that way, maybe the devs could scale up XP a little. No longer would leveling be a pull-kill grind, but an adventure, always moving to new mobs and new terrain. The most repetition you could get was creating some sort of large loop, where by the time you got back to where you started most of the things there had wandered back in.

The danger of having mobs spawn on top of you would be replaced by random encounters with mobs returning to their home area as you trekked across the wild. Even then, it should be possible to scout mobs long enough to learn their routes and paths, something harvesters would have to take more seriously.

I just think this would make the world of Atys feel a thousand times more alive and real. I hate seeing things pop magically in front of me and I hate knowing what the state of the world will be like when I log in after a reset.

This wouldn't let our actions permanently affect the environment, but at least temporarily. And that would be a great start.

Does anyone agree? Is there some basic flaw in this concept? Would people rather keep at the pull-kill grind?


-Sehraci
Officer, Reapers of the Dark

I think this is a great suggestion!
I'm not sure how hard it would be to implement, but it certainly would improve immersion.

Also, maybe NPCs that were killed could emerge from some 'tent' that players could not enter, or even better, spawn at the closest friendly respawn point (eg. altar) and trek back to their position.

I think your idea is perfect, sehracii! Let's all threaten to quit subs unless they implement this.

sehracii wrote:I love this idea and thought it should be done from early on in my Ryzom experience. Nothing spoils immersion like Capryni falling from the sky....

...

Does anyone agree? Is there some basic flaw in this concept? Would people rather keep at the pull-kill grind?

I like your ideas as long as everything you've set forth is addressed. Simply changing it so we can't pull-kill-repeat without doing something about the xp system will make the upper level so unbearably dull that I suspect more people will leave. (Not that repeatedly killing Manda over and over and over and over... isn't somewhat boring)

A simpler version of this (if the coding is too complex) is to simply increase the amount of time between respawns enough that people get too bored camping in one spot and move on naturally. It's certainly not as immersive as your suggestion, but otherwise a change of this nature will have to wait until well after the other current plans (i.e. Outposts) to avoid risking Ryzom's future any more than necessary.

I think it's a great idea, Sehr.

sehracii wrote:An exception would be plants, if no one leaves the area for a certain amount of time then they will start to pop there (although some sort of slow growing animation would be nice so they don't appear to magically appear) and even then the whole group wouldn't come at once, there would be a delay between them.

hehehe. plants are funny, especially when they migrate. >_<; an animation really would be super.

Any named mob should have an extended timer so it can't be camped

Named are just like any other mob. It's not a bug that some named mobs are around in larger quantities than one. if poeple want to camp Ora they can, even if it is rediculously easy for them. Bosses DO take a long time to respawn. hours and hours.

and NOTHING should appear only on server resets, just long timers that keep counting separate from resets. Things such as Aen's camp

Actually, I had heard that Aen had been put on a timer that was seperate from server resets. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Perhaps there are exceptions. server resets do seem pretty silly.

The kitin larva I hear are in the depths would have a limited quantity. Could be safely harvested once the tunnel is clear, but not come back until the nest was completely respawned back to full strength ( days, weeks?).

..... I take it you don't know people who have harvested it. It's rediculous. There are only a quantity of 3, and it doesn't come back for days, or maybe not until a server reset or something. Overzealous much?

The danger of having mobs spawn on top of you would be replaced by random encounters with mobs returning to their home area as you trekked across the wild. Even then, it should be possible to scout mobs long enough to learn their routes and paths, something harvesters would have to take more seriously.

I just think this would make the world of Atys feel a thousand times more alive and real. I hate seeing things pop magically in front of me and I hate knowing what the state of the world will be like when I log in after a reset.

This wouldn't let our actions permanently affect the environment, but at least temporarily. And that would be a great start.

Does anyone agree? Is there some basic flaw in this concept? Would people rather keep at the pull-kill grind?

I think the problem is that it's too easy for people to wipe an area. High level characters could wipe out an area of lower-level mobs and ruin the hunting for lower-level players. The large numbers of hardened hunters on during peak hours could clear an entire region and then what? we'd all have to shrink back to one corner of the region so that things could be ALLOWED to appear??
I DO hate mobs popping out of thin air. Not only is it a danger that's hard to avoid unless you've memorized the spawn, but it's unrealistic.
On the other hand, realism isn't always what you want. We don't all want to have to buy toothpaste, brush our teeth, face the dangers of tooth or gum decay, the distraction of a painful cavity while we're casting, and oh my god now my character has to go to the washroom really badly!

Not unless you are playing the Sims, that is.


Noh
Zorai
Infinity

Actually my mistake, they are updating what they say is coming on a regular basis...



Don't hate the monkey in a tree.

faedyne wrote: I think the problem is that it's too easy for people to wipe an area. High level characters could wipe out an area of lower-level mobs and ruin the hunting for lower-level players. The large numbers of hardened hunters on during peak hours could clear an entire region and then what? we'd all have to shrink back to one corner of the region so that things could be ALLOWED to appear??!

I don't think area wipes would be too big of a problem generally. When you think about a region in it's entirety, there's no way players could occupy every 250M range of an entire map.

I think all areas of every region should be littered with spawn points. When any mob dies, the server finds the closest unoccupied spawn point and pops the mob back in, then they run straight back to their roam area. Even if they have to run to Majestic Garden from Upper Bog. I for one wouldn't mind finding out-of-zone creatures for surprise and excitement. But since I can imagine people having an issue with najabs in Cities of Intuition or something, the mob's AI could be turned off until it reached it home area (or it was attacked).

It would be great if the code could incorporate line-of-sight, so things could pop 20m away from you as long as you couldn't see them, but that would be a lot more complicated to implement. I can see packs of yubos running out of Matis arena to return to the gates of Yrk =D.

I do see a slight problem in Aeden Aqueous though, there are a lot of islands and secluded areas that mobs would have to pop on because they can't run to them. I'm sure some fixes could be found though. Like having things spawn at portals (like they had walked through the portal) for the corner regions and flying mobs actually having the ability to cross water (still not able to hit swimmers though)


I love the idea of NPC bandits and tribes spawning at friendly alters. It makes so much sense!


Named mobs wouldn't necessarily need a long delay timer, could just pop out of sight like everything else and run back in. That should be delay enough.


If the kitin larva is that hard to get, it wouldn't be much different under the new system. Maybe speed up the trickle spawn of nests to just a couple days so it's the same as it was.



Sehraci
Officer, Reapers of the Dark

""It would be great if the code could incorporate line-of-sight, so things could pop 20m away from you as long as you couldn't see them, but that would be a lot more complicated to implement.""

Actually I beleive it would be impossible because the server does not know your current camera angle setting and simply streams data about mobs without your visual range.

Mobs spawning behind you would be as bad as them falling out of the sky like they do now.

Running from a nearby unoccupied place is a great idea but I do not think it would cause people to stop powerleveling since the mobs shoudl be returning to the spawn at the same rate as they respawn now.