Let's talk about drow ambushes

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tango.icecream
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by tango.icecream » Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:10 pm

Sab1 wrote:I like the drow spawns, but simply think there should be something to encourage UD races to be in a group if they want to come above for a wander.
I also agree with this too. I think kill script was too much, but I wish there was some other mechanical deterrent too.

Cerk Evermoore
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Cerk Evermoore » Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:26 pm

Players job to regulate underdarkers on the surface. Plenty of people who play UD races get splatted on the surface by parties they come across. I don't know if it was the case vice versa however and so mechanical drow spawns became a thing.

Trunx
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Trunx » Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:37 pm

The surface isn't nearly as dangerous as the Underdark is in lore. It makes sense for there to be be deadly random encounters in the UD, it's known for how dangerous it is, but not so much for the surface. Maybe a much smaller chance of running into an elven patrol or something.

UDers are already limited by their light sensitivity and inability (in practice) to enter towns. Surfacers have no such limitations in the UD.

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Yorick Shadowfeather
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Yorick Shadowfeather » Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:07 pm

I take a pretty interesting view on this whole thing.. Kinda in the middle somewhere.

I was almost killed on a Level 27 Character, Granted i was alone. I barely managed to survive- And kill them all a few minutes later. I was stealth walking with roughly 60 Hide/MS. They all spotted me, And outright destroyed me within about... 5-10 seconds? That's full hp to no hp, 100 to 0, Right outside the Outpost. My character didn't have an amazingly high hp pool, But I was full hp With epic stealth stats. That's not fair to stealthing at all, It took so much effort to get to this high of a level as a stealther, to put forth that amount of investment, For it to be ignored just because the spawns are randomly made to just kill anyone that walks by.

Not only could they see me with that high of a Hide/MS score, But they were able to kill me so fast that i otherwise wouldn't have had a chance. I can, and will recognize that there are supposed to be times and places when characters need to be afraid, And exercise caution. But for a high epic character to stand literally no chance without a god-save, Is blatantly stupid.

I can only imagine these spawning on any lower level character, roughly 15 or so. In Base D&D You sure as heck better hope your adventure party is going into the UD at that level. That's reasonable, Still dangerous if you're not careful, But survivable if you are. In fact, I think there's only... One or two races that are effected by the death scripts? During the day time only. All people from the surface are subject to these ambushes, And with 40 ab, You need to have a tank, be prepared/buffed everywhere you go in the UD, with a large enough group to be safe, and be constantly waiting for them to spawn.

I think that they need to stay, Absolutely. While the Death scripts may only effect a few races, it needs a balance. Instead, I think these rare spawns need to be worth the effort and danger they present. I got like.... 45 xp for the whole lot of them. and like... 150 gold? Of a group of about seven or so. Sorry, Not worth. At all. We're talking Risk vs Reward; And the risk should be high. The reward needs to match it. Both in gold and xp. If they are going to stay as strong as they are right now- I'm honestly fine with it. 100%. What I am NOT fine with, is a whole spawn that basically can kill me, but only rewards me with... literally nothing.

But hey, that's just my opinion. As far as giving ideas for what rewards they should give is irrelevant, Because it'll get ignored. Otherwise I would...

EDIT: Although- I will say that the general populace of Arelith are Casual, Busy, And usually play after work to cool off, relax, etc. And while some of them may like very difficult games, I'd say most of them don't. As for those who DO like a challenge, They can do dungeons at much higher than their current level. For example, Trying to solo RDI without healing. Or killing Paush, etc etc.

There are Plenty of places for players who demand a challenge. And trying to hole up all the casuals and keep them on the surface isn't all that fair. It's supposed to be an exploration and rp server, But it's partially restricted by itself. Which isn't always bad, But as someone did say; The underdark is 1/3 of the whole server. Which just got cut off from all those players.

Broken Hopes Shattered Dreams
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Broken Hopes Shattered Dreams » Sun Dec 11, 2016 1:33 am

I've been spawned on while on my 30, and managed to fight through it, and I've been spawned on while on my lowbie and died horribly. Both instanced were the Dark Archers and both instances I was on my Drow while in party with assorted races. I really don't mind them. I agree with Astral's sentiment above. The Underdark should be scary, it should be hard to navigate. PC's should think twice and put planning into place and the encounters are survivable. I was happy to see the implementation and would like to see it remain in place as is. Though I do think the option to employ a "native UD guide" would be a good addition to new RP, even new character concepts. Maybe a dialogue option with the archers before they attack with a bluff or persuade check if your not a native to keep everyone happy.

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A Mystery Clock
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by A Mystery Clock » Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:27 pm

Very happy to see this. Before this was implemented and throughout my whole Arelith experience, I saw SO MANY surfacers just stroll through the underdark unharmed. More than talking about fairness, I was rubbed the wrong way by seeing one of the deadliest territories in the FR lore not being very deadly at all. For comparison, it would be like having people walk through Barovian forests at night and grinding werewolves while chatting amiably, or traveling to the Far Realms as an afternoon jaunt.

For this reason, I would really enjoy to see this implemented in areas such as Baator or the Abyss. They are supposed to be extremely deadly, and communicate a feeling of danger and unease. They are also absolutely optional, avoiding turning something challenging in a blatantly annoying, frustrating feature. It could be particularly cool to let these special spawns drop trophies that would display an additional line in the character's description and hint at their prowess in surviving such a deadly encounter.

As for the argument "it should be done by players" let me assure you, players did hunt surfacers down. I know, because Asb'el flat out mowed down intruders for a while, and let me tell you, it can get extremely stressful. UD players might want to do something else than patrol territories 24/7, and it is helluva immersion breaking when drow cannot go anywhere because level 20-and-something with a whole server to roam decide that they want to grind UD spawns for better xp.

TLDR: great idea, it adds to the immersion, it fixes what was actually a big issue and it drastically reduces placing the bulk of pvp kills that lore technically DEMANDS (and yes, technically drow should KoS surfacers, perhaps even more than the other way around- they are monster races, their evil alignment is enforced to such an extent that playing a surface drow is closely scrutinized on an OOC level) on players, thus allowing less OOC stress on both sides.

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Cortex
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Cortex » Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:53 pm

@Clock have you been attacked by those yet, the archers?
:)

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Durvayas
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Durvayas » Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:07 am

Yorick Shadowfeather wrote: We're talking Risk vs Reward; And the risk should be high. The reward needs to match it. Both in gold and xp. If they are going to stay as strong as they are right now- I'm honestly fine with it. 100%. What I am NOT fine with, is a whole spawn that basically can kill me, but only rewards me with... literally nothing.
I think you are missing the point. These spawns are made to make Surfacers reconsider soloing the ud. They are not meant to be a rewarding encounter. They are a WARDING encounter, as in, ward off random bored epics from soloing, running into lowbie UD parties and splattering them.

If these encounters had good risk v reward, you would see surfacers patrolling the UD expressly to trigger them to farm them, defeating their purpose. It would be avernus all over again, but on a smaller scale, and with lowbie casualties.
Plays: Durvayas(deleted), Marco(deleted), Hounynrae(NPC), Sinithra Auvry'ndal(rolled), Rauvlin Barrith(Active), Madeline Clavelle(Shelved)

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Cortex
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Cortex » Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:10 am

That reminds me, I remember Irongron saying that the UD had more EXP in order to give incentive for surfacers come down and interact with the UD (this was a year or longer ago). This will keep away the more casual people, but it won't do anything to the good ol' grindsquads, I don't know which party is the problem here for people, if it's the casul nubs strolling about, or the grindsquads pillaging the UD dungeons.
:)

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Hatsune Miku
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Hatsune Miku » Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:08 am

I've been having trouble with these even though I'm seriously not inclined to come down here. The problem for me is, as far as I know, a certain guild only has it's headquarters in that city. Had I known that when I made this character, I would have rolled an outcast to begin with.

It's frustrating. I had expected the opposing cities (Cordor, Andunor) to have roughly the same facilities and NPCs somewhere in reach, particularly the trap seller.

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Lorkas
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Lorkas » Fri Dec 23, 2016 1:08 pm

If you're talking about the assassin's guild, there is another headquarters elsewhere that you could search for.

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Hatsune Miku
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Hatsune Miku » Fri Dec 23, 2016 1:51 pm

Lorkas wrote:If you're talking about the assassin's guild, there is another headquarters elsewhere that you could search for.
But this still holds true, right?

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Cortex
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Cortex » Fri Dec 23, 2016 1:51 pm

Yes.
:)

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BlossomSeason
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by BlossomSeason » Fri Dec 23, 2016 2:06 pm

You can't join the guild from Andunor, you have to find the main headquarters.
The Andunor chapter is only for putting up contracts.

Gods_Kill_People
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:11 pm

This is still very much a thing, I just had my collared slave, murdered by drow raiders. No I wasn't disguised at all. It really makes no sense that they are attacking a Drow Slave.

07 Dec 2016 07:10 - Considering the date of the original post, Can we please please please get this dealt with, it makes no IC sense.

Gods_Kill_People
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:14 pm

ActionReplay wrote:
DarkDreamer wrote:They spawned on me.
That is a bug then, they should not spawn on Outcasts and Slaves. Unless they were spawned beforehand by someone else? Either way I will look over the ambushes and tweak them.
Just gonna quote this, it is a bug, its cost me 400 xp for.

Sab1
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Sab1 » Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:47 pm

If a slave is out alone, I fail to see why drow out in the middle of nowhere would hesitate to kill a slave. As pointed out before the UD is a dangerous place and "accidents" happen. If the drow ambushers die then they were weak and deserved death for failing, if the slave dies well the master should take better care of their property.

Gods_Kill_People
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:50 pm

The collar is visible at all times, they would know that and see it visibly. Also it IS a BUG.

Nitro
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Nitro » Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:30 pm

And even the NPC's in Andunor remark that slaves are free to walk around as they please since escape is impossible with the slave caller system.

Gods_Kill_People
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:31 pm

Mhm, and since killing another drows property is as good as a death sentence, more so as one marked as a Lolthite and such. Again, makes no sense ICly.

Dorkas
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Dorkas » Tue Oct 10, 2017 4:59 pm

Did you choose slave on creation or was your char collard after the fact?

Gods_Kill_People
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:00 pm

You cannot choose it on creation for an elf...which I have petitioned to change.

Sab1
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Sab1 » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:11 pm

Gods_Kill_People wrote:Mhm, and since killing another drows property is as good as a death sentence, more so as one marked as a Lolthite and such. Again, makes no sense ICly.
What no ones sees, never happened. If you're slave out alone and get murdered, then where are the witnesses? Again this is why I fail to see why drow ambushers would give a care about a lone slave wandering around the underdark. Hasn't there been post after post about how dangerous it is down there, so imo a slave wandering about alone is taking their chances.

Nitro
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Nitro » Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:48 am

Then why even bother with the slavery system at all? The whole point of it is supposed to be so that the owner doesn't have to hold the hand of their slave constantly, but if you get ganked just going outside the outpost alone you might as well just roll an outcast unless you have underdarkers to go around with 24/7.

Sab1
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Re: Let's talk about drow ambushes

Post by Sab1 » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:54 am

From what I have seen, slaves get asked out a lot for groups. One of the reasons people have pointed out many slaves out level their owners. Slaves are always being used as pack mules for groups. Also slaves routinely go up alone to the surface, so they have up there if they must be out alone to.

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