Why does the Shadowlord spawn in an exact place at an exact time?

[ACB1961]

First, let me say we have robes. We'll get more robes. We will never use the robes, and we will never sell the robes.

This isn't about me. I'm going to be ok pretty much no matter what goes on.

I'm talking about the concept behind this. We loved the town attacks. We loved the bows and spellbooks and all the rest of it. We just couldn't get enough of that stuff. Some of that stuff will be in use in 20 years if the game is still going.

Why would a person who could program an insanely fun series of town attacks program the shadowlord to show up on an exact schedule in a specific place?

They had to know what would happen.

The question is why did they do it?

Is it fun for them to watch 50 (at least) dragons in a 6 square tile area?

Then, we have the cheaters and all around bad people.

These folks actually sit around making Candelabras to place on the ground to block the area. Now, it won't work anyway. You get there 10 mins early & just kill something & throw them away, but it's just amazing how their tiny minds work. They stand in the doorway so dragon number 39-57 can't get in.
They do anything they can think of, any sort of evil and grief to get what exactly?

It doesn't really matter because this will be over in a few days, but I just don't get it.

 

[Dr Poth]

It's easier to do/less effort required.

 

[ACB1961]

It's easier to do/less effort required.

I feel so stupid, that's got to be what it was.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

the SL spawn in the same spot to enable the scripters to get their fair share of the goods. I have stated several times that spawns of any kind should be randomized within a set area to prevent or at least cut back on the ability of script-farming.

But of course the vast majority of folks who post here thought it was not the right thing to do, too difficult, not worth it because their mule might get hurt ... any number of things. <shrug>

 

[wee papa smurf]

The more cloaks there are out there the cheaper they will sell for, i have one and thats all i need but people that miss this event might want to buy one later, and as usual they will just go crazy priced.
As for the shadowlords spawning in the same location and same time, they maybe could of made them spawn with a bit of variety

 

[Farsight]

This is how I see it. It's only my opinion, and is probably wrong:

The shadowlord manifestations aren't an official part of this event cycle. The only reason they exist is that many people never recieved their cloaks the first time around (Moonglow, for those that don't remember) and the devs wanted to give them the opportunity to get one of the new cloaks. I'm not sure if it was by choice or by some suit telling them it had to happen, but in the manner of its execution, I can surmise that not a lot of passion went into this stage of the arc.

Therefore we get a certain time and a very weak opponent with a lot of hit points. The only reason they're there is to give people free stuff. Any change after "There is a spawn, and I'm in it" would probably only give rise to more complaining.

Now the real question is why are people camping it out for weeks? There's no obvious market for the cloaks. They're marginally useful. They're ugly as sin (an opinion in an opinion!). I got my two cloaks (one will be life, the other will stay corruption) and went a few more times to get cloaks for guildmates who weren't as effective at killing as I am.

Now I'm done and have returned to more profitable ventures.

 

[Connor_Graham]

Now the real question is why are people camping it out for weeks? There's no obvious market for the cloaks.

Are you hiding in a closet somewhere? The cloaks are selling as fast as people can stock them. At least the ones that don't overprice things by double or triple. The first few days after the new cloaks were introduced I couldn't keep my vendor stocked. People were literally standing around waiting for me to put out more. The market for these things is huge.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Are you hiding in a closet somewhere? The cloaks are selling as fast as people can stock them. At least the ones that don't overprice things by double or triple. The first few days after the new cloaks were introduced I couldn't keep my vendor stocked. People were literally standing around waiting for me to put out more. The market for these things is huge.

I believe you, but I can get jewelry much, much cheaper to do the same thing than these cloaks do, that sell for millions. It's not worth my gold to get a cloak at the prices I've seen.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

What I would like to have is for all three Shadowlords to spawn at the exact same time. If they all spawned at the exact moment all those dragons would have to split up to be in three locations for the SL spawning, and maybe give that pally archer or mage a chance to get off some kill shots.

 

[Farsight]

Are you hiding in a closet somewhere? The cloaks are selling as fast as people can stock them. At least the ones that don't overprice things by double or triple. The first few days after the new cloaks were introduced I couldn't keep my vendor stocked. People were literally standing around waiting for me to put out more. The market for these things is huge.

My bad, I fell into one of the classic blunders.

I assumed that since I don't see the point, other people may miss it too.

I'd say it won't happen again, but it will.

 

[Eman Resu]

Over ICQ just this moment.

Me: What's up?
Them: trying to catch a look at one of those shadowlord things
Me: Any luck?
Them: not yet
(time passes)
Them: that was silly
Me: Do tell.
Them: the second before it spawned like 50 people recall in and start spamming i didnt even get to see the boss
Me: lol

Come on, this is pathetic.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

or all 3 spawn within a few tiles of each other in each spot at the same time. three spots, 3 SL each - 9 SL at once

3 instances of any 1 SL - in 3 spawn areas. Let's see all the nutso behavior when three SL are whomping on ya. Spread them out in such a way that they are flanking players ... hard to fight on 2 or more fronts - even for a few seconds.

 

[Eman Resu]

This is one of those things that no dev is ever going to comment upon because the only possible answer is "We weren't thinking!" Anyone who's ever tinkered with a shard emulator knows that it's easy to tweak respawn timers and locations, and production shards can't have worse tools than an emulator.

 

[Maximus Neximus]

The Shadowlords come through the open rift. The rift does not move. The end.

 

[Uvtha]

The Shadowlords come through the open rift. The rift does not move. The end.

Theres a point in time where gameplay > story. This outcome was so glaringly obvious that any newb could probably have predicted it. If they wanted to stay true to a story, they should have came up with one that allowed for at very least a random spawn spot.

The fiction is no excuse for a HORRIBLY implemented event.

 

[Lore Master]

I like it better the way it is now makes it fair for everyone I mean as long as you do enough damage to loot it you get atleast a minor maybe a mempo or cloak. having it spawn randomly at random times and locations would only benefit guilds and factions word spreads out between them fast but as for non faction and non guilded players like me we are in the dark about many things so that is why i like it the way it is now.

 

[(Jah)]

I think the whole shadowlord portion is just a stress test for the new client. Why else would they have everyone go to the exact same tiny place at the exact same time all spamming words at the exact same time...........they just want to see if SA can handle large amounts of data onscreen.

 

[Dr Poth]

Why not just have one spawn in one fo the 3 spots randomly, sigh.

 

[Dean478]

I don't care so much about the spawn time/location so much as I do the Shadowlord itself.

It's really quite static. 10 players with dragon pets turn up. 5 of them with blackrock spamming the armageddon spell... shadowlord dies rather quickly.


Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny had the right idea. Shadowlords only appeared at certain times of the night. If they player got to close, they are teleported into the shadowlords realm. The only way out is for the entire party of adventurers to die or to defeat the shadowlord.

It wasn't an easy fight. Maybe add some abilities to the shadowlord. The ability to dispell dragons (given that tamers with dragons has been a key tactic for a decade). Make the fights dynamic.

 

[Maximus Neximus]

It wasn't an easy fight. Maybe add some abilities to the shadowlord. The ability to dispell dragons (given that tamers with dragons has been a key tactic for a decade). Make the fights dynamic.

I'm pretty anti-tamer. I think it makes the game way too easy at times. But dispelling dragons won't help that much. People will just bring different pets; beetle/bake, beetle/mare, frenzies, cu's, etc....

If this were the case people would just complain about warriors being too good at the event, or mages casting EVs and direct spells being too good. Not everyone will be happy regardless.

 

[wee papa smurf]

Over ICQ just this moment.

Me: What's up?
Them: trying to catch a look at one of those shadowlord things
Me: Any luck?
Them: not yet
(time passes)
Them: that was silly
Me: Do tell.
Them: the second before it spawned like 50 people recall in and start spamming i didnt even get to see the boss
Me: lol

Come on, this is pathetic.

lol that sounds like me, cant even see the thing when it spawns

 

[aoLOLita]

Forget the cloaks, the sell or did sell for 3-5 million each even today.

It's the MEMPO drops from SL's. I had about 200 tokuno drops prior to SL event w/o a Mempo amongst them. On my 5th SL and one yesterday morning, I got mempos And both times it was on a mage using EV's and "not" in the top 3

So I finally have my mempo, and an extra one for a guild mate. Now I am at SL just to hopefully get more mempos for more of my guild mates, and lacking that, you can't beat 3 martie drops in 5 minutes every 2 hours...