Rare encounters

[Void]

Few thoughts:

* The stuff often spawns on top of you, sometimes with no chance of preparation. This feels "gamey" and less convincing that the original spawn system where spawns wander around the map.
* Over time, spots of possible ambushes will become known, and people will farm them.

Also, I pretty much just saw a bunch of bandits fall from the sky, and spawn within half of my vision range. No sneaks there, no magic, just mundane bandits.

I don't think I'm a big fan of this.

[Hazard]

I can agree with this.

It's really cool when a spider lowers itself down from the canopy on top of you, or a gargoyle lands right next to you...

The orc ambusher ambushing you.

But a bunch of warriors just materializing around you sounds annoying.

Could be fixed by making such encounters always be things that would make sense. Rogues. Ambushers. Stuff like that. Maybe?

[Void]

I can agree with this.

It's really cool when a spider lowers itself down from the canopy on top of you, or a gargoyle lands right next to you...

The orc ambusher ambushing you.

But a bunch of warriors just materializing around you sounds annoying.

Could be fixed by making such encounters always be things that would make sense. Rogues. Ambushers. Stuff like that. Maybe?

I think those encounters should be set up ahead of time and not spawn when the player steps into a trigger.
Because in case of rogues, the person walking into ambush could have 90 spot/listen, and would've seen them anyway.

Spiders and gargoyles make sense though.
--------
In the old areas things work much better. For example, few times I saw Morghun Soldiers and Minotaurs wander into surrounding area (bumped into a group of them on the road from bendir to stonehold, for example), and that made sense, despite being surprising. You also could see them ahead of time and prepare.

[Irongron]

Spawns shouldn't fall from the sky, that sounds like a bug. In most cases, unless there is a reason why not (spiders, flying creature, emerging from cave etc) they spawn some distance away, and often walk a set route. and don't 'fall' on characters.

This belongs in bug reports.

* Over time, spots of possible ambushes will become known, and people will farm them.

I'd find that very unlikely, given almost all such spawns do at between 1-3% every several hours, also this is a highly detailed system that has existed on Arelith for some years.

[Void]

Spawns shouldn't fall from the sky, that sounds like a bug. In most cases, unless there is a reason why not (spiders, flying creature, emerging from cave etc) they spawn some distance away, and often walk a set route. and don't 'fall' on characters.

This belongs in bug reports.

* Over time, spots of possible ambushes will become known, and people will farm them.

I'd find that very unlikely, given almost all such spawns do at between 1-3% every several hours, also this is a highly detailed system that has existed on Arelith for some years.

I checked the recording video of the encounter, and yes, they did fall from the sky.

I'll upload details shortly.

[Void]

Here it is:


Airdrop within 50% of vision range.

[Hazard]

I can agree with this.

It's really cool when a spider lowers itself down from the canopy on top of you, or a gargoyle lands right next to you...

The orc ambusher ambushing you.

But a bunch of warriors just materializing around you sounds annoying.

Could be fixed by making such encounters always be things that would make sense. Rogues. Ambushers. Stuff like that. Maybe?

I think those encounters should be set up ahead of time and not spawn when the player steps into a trigger.
Because in case of rogues, the person walking into ambush could have 90 spot/listen, and would've seen them anyway.

Spiders and gargoyles make sense though.
--------
In the old areas things work much better. For example, few times I saw Morghun Soldiers and Minotaurs wander into surrounding area (bumped into a group of them on the road from bendir to stonehold, for example), and that made sense, despite being surprising. You also could see them ahead of time and prepare.

Fair point.

[Hazard]

Here it is:


Airdrop within 50% of vision range.

Ohmy. LOL!

You quite literally meant "from the sky" ..

That's a bit hilarious.

[Irongron]

Unintentional, but looks great.

I can't fix it without being told the actual area it's in though.

[Aren]

Here it is:


Airdrop within 50% of vision range.

Bug aside, that looks pretty dope.

[Void]

I'd find that very unlikely, given almost all such spawns do at between 1-3% every several hours, also this is a highly detailed system that has existed on Arelith for some years.

((Opinion.

There are few hundred people online and they talk to each other. 50 people passing through a specific spot will discover an encounter with very high probability.

It takes one occurences to learn location of a spawn trigger. Basically, after a single, the spawn location is used up for the current player (not character), and the player will either avoid the trigger or try to farm it or trigger a new encounter.

Similar system existed on BGTSCC, although it was not widely implemented. Pretty much everyone knew that "at this one spot, things can happen", and prepared for it in advance.

Judging by forum chatter, all rare encounters are hand-crafted, and therefore have fixed location, as such people will learn where they happen and which ones. Unscripted encounter with wandering monsters does not have this problem. The issue can be mitigated somewhat by making trigger locations move, but in this case players will learn what kind of encounters can happen in roughly which area, and it will be harder to make them "logical".

[Void]

Unintentional, but looks great.

I can't fix it without being told the actual area it's in though.

It is eastern part of minmir lake.



On related note, that was my first ever death on a courier mission.

[Irongron]

I'd find that very unlikely, given almost all such spawns do at between 1-3% every several hours, also this is a highly detailed system that has existed on Arelith for some years.

((Opinion.

There are few hundred people online and they talk to each other. 50 people passing through a specific spot will discover an encounter with very high probability.

Yes, they get discovered, it was never my intention that they wouldn't be. However, whether or not a PC activates an encounter, it will be disabled for a different amount of time (this is wildly different between spawns, depending on their location), for everyone. Many also have specific conditions, and will not spawn for everyone (They are governed by about 40 different variables, which I will not share) - learning them all is very hard, if not impossible. There is simply no way to farm these. If people want to share where they think these are going to happen, but with hundreds of such encounters, with many subject to change, it's not a worthwhile use of one's time.

This system is, in my opinon, one of the best we have. I really can't and shouldn't go into more details on this, as it would really diminsh the experience I laid out the details of every bit of code we currently use.

[Void]

I'd find that very unlikely, given almost all such spawns do at between 1-3% every several hours, also this is a highly detailed system that has existed on Arelith for some years.

((Opinion.

There are few hundred people online and they talk to each other. 50 people passing through a specific spot will discover an encounter with very high probability.

Yes, they get discovered, it was never my intention that they wouldn't be. However, whether or not a PC activates an encounter, it will be disabled for many hours, for everyone. Many also have specific conditions, and will not spawn for everyone (They are governed by about 40 different variables, which I will not share) - learning them all is very hard, if not impossible. There is simply no way to farm these. If people want to share where they think these are going to happen, but with hundreds of such encounters, with many subject to change, it's not a worthwhile use of one's time.

This system is, in my opinon, one of the best we have.

I'm more interested in "illusion of a living world" aspect of the server, and find things like certain interconnected hidden narrative in dungeons more interesting. Lore, clues, hints, descriptions, things that give impression that this is a world and not a stage set.

Some of the encounters I've met so far feel a bit random, and mostly can only be dealt with via combat.

...FOIG removed.

[Irongron]

THere is far too much FOIG information in the above post.

I really do not wish to discuss system at such length on the public forums. Arelith is huge, and this is getting very detailed. Sure, with literally hundreds of such encounters, and thousands of such creatures some are better than others, some may be more satisfying and others not, but this getting far beyond the realms of actionable feedback.

[Void]

THere is far too much FOIG information in the above post.

I really do not wish to discuss system at such length on the public forums. Arelith is huge, and this is getting very detailed. Sure, with literally hundreds of such encounters, and thousands of such creatures some are better than others, some may be more satisfying and others not, but this getting far beyond the realms of actionable feedback.

FOIG removed