PvM Challenge : annoying or fun ?

[Tina Small]

Perhaps I explained myself wrong because my suggestion was to achieve the opposite.

A uber fitted player would NOT be allowed into, say, a lower rated Orc Fort or Lizardmen spawn....

Only low rated templates (modifiers and skills) would be allowed into such a lower rated spawn.

So, in order to enter that spawn, the uber fitted should drop all their uber gear and skills and come down to the same level of, for example, newer players doing those spawns.

I will make an example.

Let us assume that the Orc Fort is rated a 20 level spawn area max.

We then have 2 players, a player A with all skills in the 50ies and low modifiers or average items with a global rating of, say, level 18.

Then we have a player B with all skills maxed out and high modifiers across the board and high resistances. The player has a level of, say 90.

If players A and B try to enter the Orc Fort spawn area, since player A is a level 18 which is below the max allowed of the area of 20 this player will be granted access.

Player B, instead, having a much higher rating of 90 would NOT be allowed access to the Orc Fort and will NOT be able to work that spawn with the current skills and modifiers.

So, this will actually leave some spawns exclusive of players with lower modifiers and at a lower level of skills.

I hope it is clearer now.

Yeah, sounds like a different kind of UO than I play. And it doesn't sound like a version of UO that I would ever introduce to a friend or relative because I couldn't play with them unless I were to scrap an existing character and start a new one.

If you're looking for a game with content that is specifically targeted to different levels of skill and uberness, perhaps you should look elsewhere. UO has New Haven and several legacy dungeons (e.g., Despise, Shame, Covetous), and places in Ilshenar and Tokuno with lots of content that can be handled with some difficulty by relatively new characters. I'm sorry you seem to be having so much trouble finding those places when you're looking for relaxation.

I really think that with all the complaints you make and the fact that you seldom if ever have anything POSITIVE to say about the game or the developers, you are truly wasting your time and money playing UO and engaging in a one-man campaign to mold it into your heart's desire.

 

[Lynk]

This thread was over when a poster solved poops problem by instructing him to lure spawn around a corner to kill/loot in peace.

Everyone here is feeding the troll with replies and arguments.

 

[popps]

Yeah, sounds like a different kind of UO than I play. And it doesn't sound like a version of UO that I would ever introduce to a friend or relative because I couldn't play with them unless I were to scrap an existing character and start a new one.

Scrap an old to make a new character ?

Why ?

It would be only necessary that one lowers the global rating to what the area allows.

How ?

Instead of the uber armor and mega modifiers just wear simple, average one.

The skills are too high and still provide a too high rating ?

Well, since the skills are too high, then go in in plain cloths to lower the rating.

Besides, I suggested that the strong cannot get into the weak spawns, not the other way around.

Therefore, the new friends would STILL be able to access the higher spawns and play along with their more experienced friends.

It is the OTHER way around that would be limited.......

 

[Petra Fyde]

Popps, you are in the wrong game. Please google and understand the term 'sandbox' game. UO is, and always has been, a 'sandbox'. What you are asking for and describing is not a 'sandbox' game.

 

[Taylor]

I am beginning to think that Popps is an entity neither tangible nor corporeal, but rather a motif symbolizing our respective internal struggles as we traverse the avenues of life.

 

[Connor_Graham]

I am beginning to think that Popps is an entity neither tangible nor corporeal, but rather a motif symbolizing our respective internal struggles as we traverse the avenues of life.

I'm beginning to think you've had one too many jelly donuts this morning.

Put the sugar down, step away, and no one will get hurt...

 

[Taylor]

I am beginning to think that Popps is an entity neither tangible nor corporeal, but rather a motif symbolizing our respective internal struggles as we traverse the avenues of life.

I'm beginning to think you've had one too many jelly donuts this morning.

Put the sugar down, step away, and no one will get hurt...

Aww...

lol

 

[Nestorius]

Spawn ought to only appear from offscreen. One should never see a spawn generate itself from nothing. A watched pot does not boil. Neither should spawns, except when they walk on from off-screen. I've felt the current way of spawn generation lacking since I first started UO.

 

[Coppelia]

Spawn ought to only appear from offscreen. One should never see a spawn generate itself from nothing. A watched pot does not boil. Neither should spawns, except when they walk on from off-screen. I've felt the current way of spawn generation lacking since I first started UO.

A watched pot boils. You certainly have the patience of a butterfly.
It would make farming even more ridiculous, with epic scenes of players going in and out rooms to make them respawn, insulting each other because they are blocking the spawns. Really not a solution.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I do not understand why you keep picking on popps. He actually has a point there.

Monster AI is a joke. Monsters are dumb and no challenge at all, except maybe if they have thousands of hit points. Their behavior is predictable and dull, and almost every monster can be hunted by solo fighters, which makes team fighting quite boring.

Wouldn't a better monster AI spice up the game a bit? Instead of recalling in and standing there, slaying the same critter over and over again for hours, it would be more fun if monster behavior would change and adapt to the threat.

I mean, the current system may be comfortable for people who are farming for ressources and gold (that's one reason why the market is flooded with both and the prices skyrocket). But it is dull and boring for the adventurer who is looking for some challenge.

That's one of the main reasons you don't see any people in dungeons anymore, except maybe Doom and Peerless (the places where monsters have tons of hit points).

We still have the 11 year old monster AI in the game. Don't you think it was time for an upgrade?

 

[Coppelia]

What recent model of AI do you suggest?
From what I see in other games, 11 years later mobs still aren't launching rockets.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Rockets? At least they do not stand there, waiting to be slain, either.
Monsters can flee. Monsters can group and work together. Monsters can call for reinforcements. That's what monsters do in other games. The list of possibilities is endless. Just use your imagination.

 

[Coppelia]

Rockets? At least they do not stand there, waiting to be slain, either.
Monsters can flee. Monsters can group and work together. Monsters can call for reinforcements. That's what monsters do in other games. The list of possibilities is endless. Just use your imagination.

That's very restricted, not endless. Also, while it's easier to script an AI for a specific place (eg Peerless Bosses), it's harder to code an AI that's supposed to work everywhere. So before any dev starts spending lots of time coding an AI that looks cool on the paper and which will get stuck/bug/whatever in the game, before they spend time to add a behavior to a mob that will give them 3 seconds more of lifetime, what kind of behavior do you really want?

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Your questions seem rather distructive and not innovative or creative.
Do you really like the monster AI as it is today?

 

[Coppelia]

Your questions seem rather distructive and not innovative or creative.
Do you really like the monster AI as it is today?

Realist. My questions are realist. They aren't rethorical questions to tell you to shut your mouth. They are questions for you to frame a realist suggestion, and not just "use your imagination" and describe an utopia.
The current AI is a minimum. It works but it's not great. In other games there can be a few other behaviors depending on the possibilities of the engine and the gameplay. Does it make the game challenging or more interresting? Not always.

In UO, elite ninjas in the wild have a different behavior. Do you hunt them? Frankly, who hunts them? Are they really interresting just by their different AI? No, players found a trick when they need to kill them (AOE in the Citadel), and they hold to that.

Remember how UO code is chaotic before any suggestion to change AI. It's not easy so you're not allowed to go wild, mess the code, see it doesn't work and then say "Aw... bleh... now it's like that because it would break everything to go back to something simple..."

Not that I don't want a better AI.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Realist. My questions are realist. They aren't rethorical questions to tell you to shut your mouth. They are questions for you to frame a realist suggestion, and not just "use your imagination" and describe an utopia.

Every great thing starts as an utopia. That's what we call a "vision".

The current AI is a minimum. It works but it's not great. In other games there can be a few other behaviors depending on the possibilities of the engine and the gameplay. Does it make the game challenging or more interresting? Not always.

In UO, elite ninjas in the wild have a different behavior. Do you hunt them? Frankly, who hunts them? Are they really interresting just by their different AI? No, players found a trick when they need to kill them (AOE in the Citadel), and they hold to that.

Remember how UO code is chaotic before any suggestion to change AI. It's not easy so you're not allowed to go wild, mess the code, see it doesn't work and then say "Aw... bleh... now it's like that because it would break everything to go back to something simple..."

Not that I don't want a better AI.

I wouldn't call the current monster behavior Artificial "Intelligence". They just attack when you get near enough. Ninjas also randomly hide or transform into animals, but even this behavior is not intelligent, but merely random.

My point is that if people slay monsters, it should have some impact other than just the same monster respawning again.

Hiding behind messed up code isn't a good way to be innovative. If every great idea is rejected with the crappy code justification, UO will never imcrease its depth, but will just receive new dungeons/skills/land with the same old gameplay.

UO is great as it is, but it could be gigantic with what it can be.