Irongron wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 11:27 pm
From Blue Yeeks, to the Sand Golems, the Sentinel Orbs, a certain group of beholders and some animated suits of armour, over the last few years I've put in quite a few creatures that while not impossible to destroy, are designed to be evaded.
I find the added urgent drama of having to run can make a dungeon a lot more fun, as players have to decide just which approach is better. Its also something for rogues as it invites the use of traps, or thinking through a strategy.
But there is one main problem. On many such occasions I've received messages telling me that the creatures is overpowered and should be remade so as to be easily beatable. In the case of some there are even clues in the description. I think many players, especially if they are in a 'mindless grind' state of mind, presume that everything is designed to be bulldozered through. Its only when we have enough 'thinking dungeons' that player behaviour will adjust.
Because still, in almost all dungeons on Arelith, the monsters are designed to be destroyed.
The idea of making run-or-die bosses is not bad, but it needs to be done with a few things in mind.
- A large number of players don't use the examine function, ever. Not on eachother, certainly not on monsters. Additionally, you have to be within detection range of something to examine something. Relying on a description as the sole way of warning people their PCs are about to engage in a suicidal fight is not a very effective warning.
- This particular boss moves just about as fast as you do, and there are slow traps nearby which will usually doom people.
- This boss has a confuse ray cone with signifigant range, at a DC that level appropriate PCs will struggle with, and can doom entire parties.
- Without any kind of scenery warning, its impossible to tell how strong this boss actually is without already engaging it in combat.
If people do, its already too late to run, they're well within range of the confuse ray cone, and this thing will spam KDs at ABs that people will not be geared to dodge. Most people will assume its a normal boss designed for level appropriate parties. Not something for mid-epics. Just another factor in dooming lower level parties.
- Expecting people to use traps is, frankly, wishful thinking, because Arelith disincentivizes the use of traps through monsters having heavy saves and trap-kills not granting exp. Until this is fixed, people are largely not going to use traps outside of PvP.
- Even if people do escape, this boss is going to be sitting, warninglessly, in the middle of a lowbie dungeon, if not within three meters of a transition. Even if someone does escape, someone else is going to get cheap-shotted.
Overall, this boss needs tuning. If the plan is for people to run, it needs to be possible for that to be accomplished, ideally before one or two people in a party of three are already in the fugue. Ideally before the entire party is within the confuse ray cone. Ideally having an idea that it might be an impossible fight well before they open that door and get engaged immediately. It needs, at LEAST some environmental clues leading up to the boss door, even something as simple as:
*You see signs of a recent scuffle, as though a stinger was dragged kicking and screaming deeper into the tunnels*
Something,
anything to indicate there might be a bigger fish.
Without a warning of any kind, its not really fair to the players.
If you give ample warning, you could haste the boss if you wanted, and it wouldn't be a problem. Right now the encounter is very much a 'gotcha' without much, if any, way of knowing what you're getting into before you're already screwed, which is objectively not very good design and leaves a sour taste in people's mouths.
I encourage you not to take offense to the people telling you this is a problem and brushing off our criticism as people "missing the point" of your design philosophy. We want this encounter to be as thrilling as you do. We just want it to be something we can do something with besides everyone winding up in the fugue from a TPK.
Plays: Durvayas(deleted), Marco(deleted), Hounynrae(NPC), Sinithra Auvry'ndal(rolled), Rauvlin Barrith(Active), Madeline Clavelle(Shelved)