Random encounters?

[KregorRanger]

War and destruction followers will get the piety for killing the spawns. Why not give the ones who follow compassion something for giving them the coin to just go away?

As I recall, the killing undead suggestion was forestalled, in anticipation that mithreas wants to granulize the piety for tasks and actions along domain lines in a more broad sweeping fashion with a consistent mechanic, eventually. That's how it was put when I discussed it with him. So it may yet happen.

[Irongron]

I may introduce a reward for giving beggars coin, or some kind of negative reputation thing when you simply order them to move on.

Overall the new spawn system is now in place in about 30-40 of the surface, and I hope to finish that server (for now) by the end of the week.

There's a lot of new creatures there, and a lot of surprises when exploring dungeons. While some encounter chances (such as some dragons) need to be reduced, generally the chances are very low, and even then only every few hours.

The change is subtle, but is already quite large. Repeated journeys should often yield unexpected results and opportunities, though keep in mind than many of these encounters won't fire because - a)Your PC is the wrong level to spawn them, b) Your PCS race or class may be reducing instances, and c) The spawn is currently deactivated due to a recent visit by another PC.

I really hope this change encourages more exploration, and more careful exploration than merely using tab-sight. There are already many areas where you will only meet the creature by actually investigating the area close up, rather than just scanning the horizon for monsters.

Thus far I think perhaps the Trickster Imp is my favorite new spawn, frustrating adventurer's throughout the dungeons of the surface!

[The Man of the Moon]

I may introduce a reward for giving beggars coin, or some kind of negative reputation thing when you simply order them to move on.

Overall the new spawn system is now in place in about 30-40 of the surface, and I hope to finish that server (for now) by the end of the week.

There's a lot of new creatures there, and a lot of surprises when exploring dungeons. While some encounter chances (such as some dragons) need to be reduced, generally the chances are very low, and even then only every few hours.

The change is subtle, but is already quite large. Repeated journeys should often yield unexpected results and opportunities, though keep in mind than many of these encounters won't fire because - a)Your PC is the wrong level to spawn them, b) Your PCS race or class may be reducing instances, and c) The spawn is currently deactivated due to a recent visit by another PC.

I really hope this change encourages more exploration, and more careful exploration than merely using tab-sight. There are already many areas where you will only meet the creature by actually investigating the area close up, rather than just scanning the horizon for monsters.

Thus far I think perhaps the Trickster Imp is my favorite new spawn, frustrating adventurer's throughout the dungeons of the surface!

May you give +5 to the evil side alignement each time you kill an innocent npc (like perhaps, the beggars)?

War and destruction followers will get the piety for killing the spawns. Why not give the ones who follow compassion something for giving them the coin to just go away?

As I recall, the killing undead suggestion was forestalled, in anticipation that mithreas wants to granulize the piety for tasks and actions along domain lines in a more broad sweeping fashion with a consistent mechanic, eventually. That's how it was put when I discussed it with him. So it may yet happen.

Wow, that is quite cool. Thank you Kregor.

[Jagel]

Auto alignment shifts are generally abusable, though

[Syrima]

The dragons spawn rate need to get toned down imo. I've seen two spawn on the foothills within a few hours of eachother today. Just got attacked by a third one someone was being chased by.

[Dinosaur Space Program]

Auto alignment shifts have been taken out completely due to that abuse as well. I would not suggest putting them back in after the examples I have seen that got them taken out to begin with.

However, if you want to reward good behavior towards PCs who treat NPCs well, a reputation mechanic that spawns things from a select NPC group on the road would be neat. Could be the same for those that just kill them if it's always somewhat tailored to the character sheet on spawns.

That way depending on character behavior, your special surprise spawns can vary or even give small different rewards linked to the behaviors you have exhibited before that. Like if you have rewarded a lot of beggars, maybe one of their kids finds you on a safer road to give you flowers, etc. And if you killed a bunch of them, a paladin is hunting you down instead (And maybe has some raw gems or a piece of equipment worth selling on him when he's dead).

[one day remains]

... The trickster imp is your favourite new spawn...?

I encountered it in the Bandit hideout with a party and spent 30 minutes dealing with it after confusion wiped out a large portion of our group.

It literally made the two of us leave our computers it was that entertaining.

I can see why it'd be amusing at high level when mind wards are a readily available thing but in low level dungeons that can't resist it's dispels? It's just a frustrating encounter that's not at all worth it.

[Irongron]

... The trickster imp is your favourite new spawn...?

I encountered it in the Bandit hideout with a party and spent 30 minutes dealing with it after confusion wiped out a large portion of our group.

It literally made the two of us leave our computers it was that entertaining.

I can see why it'd be amusing at high level when mind wards are a readily available thing but in low level dungeons that can't resist it's dispels? It's just a frustrating encounter that's not at all worth it.

I'm always happy with feedback for creatures. The Trickster Imp is almost totally unable to harm PCs, it can cast confusion and lesser dispel, though I may need to look at how many times.

It really is only dangerous when surrounded by other spawns, nevertheless I shall take a look at it again, and see if its AC is too high, or if its just too difficult to beat.

[one day remains]

Oh no, the summon it brings forth and it's measly attack bonus aren't so much the problem.

I believe the problem lies in it's AC/Regen and the fact that confusion caused our party to start killing each other. The endless holds/knockdown bolts make it a little interesting but not horrific. It's more when we got to it (with the remnants of our party) we literally couldn't do anything about it and had to run.

For example in this case our soon to be WM walked up to the weave-master under the confusion affect and 2 hit her. Then with his 20 AB stood there trying to hit the imp, even when a successful hit was landed it proved fruitless as in the end it just regen'd the HP back.
That said the post came across a bit more ranty than I meant it.

[Irongron]

I've adjusted the imp already, he shouldn't be a game-breaker anymore, though has kept many of his abilities.

[daemonshadow]

Okay, so a repeated problem we're having is people bringing dragons into Wharftown. Generally, neither PCs or NPCs are able to handle them.

Normally, when the WT Boys run in, it's in the realm of possibility to defend against, but uh - the Dragon's really aren't.

[JediMindTrix]

Dragons: once per in-game month.

[one day remains]

Having been in the dragon encounter... It was actually quite fun to have something difficult to handle for the commoners to deal with. That's just my opinion though. Stops it from being a "let's sit by the bench and do nothing for a while" kind of day.

[Syrima]

Having been in the dragon encounter... It was actually quite fun to have something difficult to handle for the commoners to deal with. That's just my opinion though. Stops it from being a "let's sit by the bench and do nothing for a while" kind of day.

Having been in one dragon encounter a day four days straight, and three in a single day I say it does the opposite.

[Yellena]

Irongron, would be possible to add balistaes spreaded in the cities, so any player could use it on monsters? Possible needing two players, one to reload and one to aim and trigger. The second would even be a NPC what should be protected (or you have no one else to aid with the ballista, except if another player appears).

That could give lowbies some chance against epic spawns, and if the AI uses it also, some chance of common folks (NPCs) surviving.

(Would be fun if they could be crafted too. As it woudl require more than one user to work, it coudl lead to a lot of interesting and fun RP).

[Cortex]

Irongron, would be possible to add balistaes spreaded in the cities, so any player could use it on monsters? Possible needing two players, one to reload and one to aim and trigger. The second would even be a NPC what should be protected (or you have no one else to aid with the ballista, except if another player appears).

That could give lowbies some chance against epic spawns, and if the AI uses it also, some chance of common folks (NPCs) surviving.

(Would be fun if they could be crafted too. As it woudl require more than one user to work, it coudl lead to a lot of interesting and fun RP).

Mobile two-men mega gonnes?

[msterswrdsmn]

Question: good idea or bad idea to make unique encounter critters despawn if they try running through an area transition? Related note; some of the critters are a little wierd with the difficulty/payout ratio.

I just ran into a veteran duelist with a higher level character, completely unbuffed. It had a decent dual-wielding AB, and was enough to drop my health pretty low before I killed it. Granted, I was curious to see what happend and half-heartly fought, but its moderate AB and very aggressive dual wielding attacks absolutely shredded the nearby tower golems, and likely would murder anyone that wasn't on par with Mifune in terms of PVE.

Emphasis on lowbie-and-npc murdering. I'd imagine this is somewhat common with people fleeing from spawns into settelments/traveled areas. NPC guards are vastely underpowered in comparison, and its pretty much up to the wandering high level to clean up the offending npc/the bodies of its victims.

The payout? 14 xp, a +2 dagger, and some minor loot. The loot was fine, but 14 xp was kinda low. To compare, the (non-boss) adult green dragons gives 14 xp as well to Mifune, and I killed one unbuffed about five minutes later without taking a single point of damage. Elder ogres have the same CR XP payout, but don't attack nearly as aggressively.

[Irongron]

The Duelist despawns in conversation and is not a hostile spawn unless someone accepts his challenge.

That being said he does have a script issue, whereby currently he is turning hostile to all, where in reality she should only attack the PC who accepted his challenge. We're still getting round to making this work properly.

As for the payout, most are as much for flavour as anything else, though in most cases I have tried to put something interesting in their inventory.

As I recall, though I may be wrong, there are only 2 'deadly' unique spawns, and both are friendly until the PC chooses to fight. There are a lot already though, so I could be wrong, and I don't want to see too many of them detailed on the forums.

[Kuma]

I don't think it'd seem out of the question to have some of these unique encounters give boss-level XP and/or bounty heads, at the very least.

[msterswrdsmn]

The Duelist despawns in conversation and is not a hostile spawn unless someone accepts his challenge.

That being said he does have a script issue, whereby currently he is turning hostile to all, where in reality she should only attack the PC who accepted his challenge. We're still getting round to making this work properly.

As for the payout, most are as much for flavour as anything else, though in most cases I have tried to put something interesting in their inventory.

As I recall, though I may be wrong, there are only 2 'deadly' unique spawns, and both are friendly until the PC chooses to fight. There are a lot already though, so I could be wrong, and I don't want to see too many of them detailed on the forums.

Gotcha. Yeah, he was hostile to everything around him. Luckily, it was at like, 5 am, so there weren't piles of player-corpses around him. Would've been a pretty nasty issue during high traffic, considering he wasn't all that far away from a respawn point. Die-respawn-immediately-die again sort of thing.

The xp isn't really an issue if its intentional; wasn't sure if it was or not.

[Cortex]

When do we get escort missions? They're always the most enjoyable and least infuriating in games.

[Urch]

^Escort missions would be fantastic

Another question, and sorry if it's already been brought up, but, would some of these random encounters make use of unused/underused skills, such as persuade, intimidate and parry?

[The Man of the Moon]

When do we get escort missions? They're always the most enjoyable and least infuriating in games.

As in Baldurs Gate!

Oh man, I needed always to tab-stop time to better protect those suicidical npcs

[JediMindTrix]

I don't remember escort missions in either Baldur's Gate unless you count babysitting Aerie

[Syrima]

Maybe you should look at the crystal cave tribal lair spawns. Specifically the entrance area it seems to be a bit high. I had 3 trickster imps spawn there at the same time (and then a cave slime and legendary goblin right after within seconds of eachother), and have seen at least 2 spawns everytime I passed through it.