Just a heads up that sometime this weekend I hope to turn on level 1 boss mechanics for several areas. Still have a ton of digging to do to get them spawning right, but they work and are loads of fun :) :) :)

Minion - bog standard critter

Veteran - has seen a number of battles and can take a much larger beating than normal. This monster has a higher base to-hit, and is a bit easier to-hit across all skill ranges. Soloable, with some added risk.

Champion - a stout master of many victories. The champion has damage resistances and an extraordinary to-hit bonus - both of which can be brought down with combos. Without the innate to-hit bonus, the champion is still going to land and take more blows than normal. Limited CC resistance and minor health regeneration. Not recommended for soloing, a small group likely needed.

Elite - the highest rung of warrior. The elite represents the pinnacle of strength and combat capability. Elite enemies will generally be a stronger version of the champion with moderate health regeneration and special attacks to boot. A large group is recommended.

Unique - these will generally be "Lyras" level enemies. Much stronger than Elites. Not always intended to be killable by a large group without resorting to tricksies.

All boss critters will have a flat-chance to fail retreating from. This chance increases with the boss tier and the number you hve engaged with you. FLEE is always an option, assuming you can survive the RT.

The to-hit bonus works both ways. Champions more easily hit players at all skill levels, but are also more easily hit by players of all skill levels. In this way it encourages group hunting within about a +/-25 to 50 circle range, depending on the boss level.

So, these names work reasonable well for bipeds, but I'm struggling with what to call animals at these tiers. Several animal types already use age (baby, young, mature, elder) so I'd like to avoid those. Generally I'm looking for names I can add as an adjective that convey their status, without sounding akward. Help is appreciated!

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

>> So, these names work reasonable well for bipeds, but I'm struggling with what to call animals at these tiers

Alpha could be one.

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Chatter[Sava] well I bled all night and didn't become diseased
Chatter[Tincan] That's what she said?

Majestic also comes to mind

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Chatter[Sava] well I bled all night and didn't become diseased
Chatter[Tincan] That's what she said?

>So, these names work reasonable well for bipeds, but I'm struggling with what to call animals at these tiers. Several animal types already use age (baby, young, mature, elder) so I'd like to avoid those. Generally I'm looking for names I can add as an adjective that convey their status, without sounding akward. Help is appreciated!

Alpha, Beta, Pack Leader, Den Leader, Den Mother, Nest Mother, Respected, Dominant, Rabid(?), Grizzled?

This sounds interesting. I'm curious how the actual "high level boss appears, get a group together" thing will work. Will you have to leave the area to get a group, and will that despawn the critter? Will there be a reward or other reason for a group to come help out? How will you prevent overhunting just to get the solo rewards for a champion sand sprite?

I too am curious how these are going to work. I tend to hunt late at night and solo (especially my Necro) so am hoping these elites and champions are only going to show up if more than one person is in a room.

I am particularly thinking of swarm type creatures where I have 3-4 gryphons on me and suddenly an elite shows up...I would assume that equals me being dead very quickly.

Don't know about anyone else but I'd move elite to before champion as it sounds more logical.(I want to say more historically accurate but don't plan on spending the time digging up the proper references)

Minion* could equal Follower or Parasite
Veteran could equal Scarred or Grizzled
Elite could equal Dominant or Superior
Champion could equal Alpha or Supreme





*I vote for flunky or "yes man" instead

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Caution: may scream about HUGE DRAMATIC AMAZING SIGNIFICANT loss

>>I too am curious how these are going to work.

Just guessing, but I'm thinking they are just going to have X% chance to spawn.

The outcry that follows will be:

1) OMG, my AFK script needs to be updated so I don't get slaughtered! (but of course no one AFK scripts right?)
2) OMG, my "Kinda Watching" script needs an alarm so that I can call out for reinforcements!
3) OMG, I play a MMORPG but really prefer to just solo, so now my training is being interrupted because I'll have to move or stop hunting for a spell.

I have a sinking feeling that if someone so much as gweths about a boss, the room will fill almost instantly with 20 HLCs to smite it. Until the shiny wears off, and the treasure is deemed not worth the effort of stopping your collecting rocks scripts.

On a personal note, while I know it's going to be a pain now and then (I play off hours too and on Ratha to boot) it'll be a nice change of pace to have that "OMGs, I could die!" feeling again. Right now, combat is really about just watching the scroll go by.

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Player of Diggan, Ranger & Halfing of Aesry

>> Diggan

Haha. You are SO right. People, no whining. We don't want anyone to mess with Kodius's mojo.

>>I just reread the entire thread;

Did you read the parts where people asked how they were going to spawn, and hinted at, solo'ing, necros, off hours, etc? You've read these boards enough, and we all know where this conversation is headed.

It's hard for me to believe, I'm that far ahead of the curve here.

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Player of Diggan, Ranger & Halfing of Aesry

>> I don't feel that way about posting my questions here.

This wasn't directed at YOU. It was directed at the nature of the boards.

Just wait for it... you'll see. PM me, let's make a side bet (plats) on this thread.

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Player of Diggan, Ranger & Halfing of Aesry

A point could be made about (many) people backtraining in an area and killing way faster than normal thereby cranking out bosses very quickly and ruining hunting for the lower level players there.

I'd reckon the spawn rate on them would or should be very low, maybe once or twice a day per person. And let them drop some epic loot please, if I kill a Sorrow level intercessor I want some nice stuff to show for it.

If people can't script, the new option will be to run away and wait for it to de-spawn, or drag it into someone else's room and continue. Either way, it will be lol.

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IM: Dannyboy00001111

"Fool proof system do not take into account the ingenuity of fools, nor the power of numbers."

>>Did you read the parts where people asked how they were going to spawn, and hinted at, solo'ing, necros, off hours, etc? You've read these boards enough, and we all know where this conversation is headed.

I'm sure the board monitors are up to the challenge of closing a particular thread direction if things turn negative in an non-constructive manner. No need to tilt at windmills.

While I do hope bosses show up during off hours and low populations (let alone that Necros should be the LEAST worried about needing extra hands on deck for them...), it would be nice to know things like the spawning mechanics, how often they show up, so on. My understanding is that people who hunt in particular areas with mixed difficulty mobs already sometimes have issues and express frustration about having to move around too much (tuskies in maulers, for example), so it's reasonable to be concerned about having them move from being a fun experience to a distracting and/or issue with hunting at-level.

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The teeth lands a solid (5/23) hit that pokes the teeth into Turul's rear end (more embarrassing than painful!).

>>I was thinking, maybe if the uniques are unique and rare enough, they could be named, and maybe the killing blow could award a post title to the killer? I think it'd be really cool to earn renown as a trophy hunter by setting your post title as 'Slayer of XXXXXX'.

This sounds cool, but after the initial week or two period they would cease to mean very much on the individual level. A renown system that works sort of like prestige for crafting and grants fluffy stuff like titles does sound very cool though.

>So, these names work reasonable well for bipeds, but I'm struggling with what to call animals at these tiers. Several animal types already use age (baby, young, mature, elder) so I'd like to avoid those. Generally I'm looking for names I can add as an adjective that convey their status, without sounding akward. Help is appreciated!

Hmm, how about the below progression for animals.

Minion/Savage/Frenzied/Paragon/Prime
Minion/Veteran/Champion/Elite/Unique



Elusive
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur

>I see alot of whining by people preemptively imagining complaints that no one has actually posted yet, and then whining about the imaginary whiners

Apu is my hero.

My only question is how often would the 'non-solo' ones spawn? Unless I want to move to the islands (and I don't), I can really only hunt one creature in the game effectively atm, so hopefully they don't spawn too much for those of us with limited hunting options.

Anyway, can't wait to see these released. :)

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Individuals, families, countries, continents are destroyed at the heavy hand of Vinjince.

-GM Abasha

Sounds fun, although, I hope they are a rare occurance. I'd be happy if you could be lucky to see one every week, but they gave some nice rare loot when they die. If they aren't rare at all like it seems people are worried about, I highly doubt the loot will be anything that special.

>>though I then wonder how you'd do critters that can only be skinned

I'd assume larger part sizes.

>>I doubt you'll find custom weapons or such on bosses.

I can't imagine why not. Some of the Hollow's Eve mobs this time around had some "90 hardness/physical"-style gear, and I think the pirates that invaded a couple months before that did, as well.

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The teeth lands a solid (5/23) hit that pokes the teeth into Turul's rear end (more embarrassing than painful!).

I hate group hunting. I don't like the scroll, I especially don't like someone else taking my weapon training, armor training, skinning training, TM training, gems, coins, treasure maps, boxes, or anything else. "You begin to advance on a ... " "You stop advancing because the ... is dead" Ugh.

My primary character is a 90th circle necro has not been outed, nor has he created a zombie yet to "help" with the hunting. I'm not going to call on the cavalry to save the day if a boss shows up. Sure, I would love to leave the area and let it despawn, but when retreat mechanics fail BECAUSE it's a boss?

Will I find a way to avoid it, work around it, hide from it, retreat from it, or some other thing? Oh yes. I hope that there are only a very few places that have bosses implemented because if this is implemented game-wide, it makes every hunting area unhuntable for my playing style. I've hunted in orc raiders when clan chiefs show up. I stopped hunting there BECAUSE orc clan chiefs show up.

If the bosses obey the 4 critter max engagement limit, that would be great. It's how I hunted brocket deer and gryphons. Start off with 2 cougars and 2 deer and make sure I had 2 cougars at melee all the time, then 1 cougar and 3 deer, and then finally allowing 4 deer to get to melee. Start off with 3 baby gryphons and 1 fledgling gryphon, keeping 3 baby gryphons on me at all times, etc. If a boss is in the area, I'll just keep 4 minions at melee until he wanders off somewhere else, provided the same rules apply to bosses.

I am really hoping that this doesn't force us into group hunting. There is no end to the lengths I will go to avoid it.

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"Nope, I decided parry will remain completely and utterly useless. Try something else."

This is indeed a cool idea but I'm not sure how it will work in real game situation. As it has already been discussed, group hunting does not work that well and how do you divide loot with 20 people? How does the scroll look like with 20 people? The boss will just attack one person out of a group of 20 or will there be any AOE type of attacks involved?

This sounds a bit like a total balancing nightmare but lets hope for the best.

<< Sounds fun, although, I hope they are a rare occurance.

<< and the treasure is deemed not worth the effort of stopping your collecting rocks scripts.

I agree with this, it has to be special occurrence or people will get tired of it pretty fast.