The Enemies In The Livestream Felt Like Wet Noodles

Bewoelkt

Hello everyone,

First and foremost: I'm aware that mob balancing/difficulty is something that is subject to change. That's not what I'm going to point out in this thread.

https://youtu.be/cqIiIeI-XvA?t=2034

Take a look at this encounter that we have seen in the livestream. The golem seems confused and doesn't really do anything except casting 1 ability.
It runs against the bridge - does one auto attack on Keenan - then continues to run against the bridge. The golem could have had 30.000 HP and it would have not mattered. It's not challenging at all if the mob AI behaves like that.

Also not to mention: The animations on the enemies in general look all janky. (34:12 for example). Though I think Intrepid is aware of that already.

What I think Elite Mobs should look like in the future?:

https://youtu.be/BfsiS5-Vdg8?t=32

https://youtu.be/u11TNYGi7MI?t=6


Thanks and have a good day everyone.

Halae

... I don't agree with your assessment at all? Tackling your apparent misconceptions, first off, The graveyard golem is not an "elite" mob in the same way you showed in the other two videos. A rare one maybe, and more intimidatingly large than the zombies around it, but it was not appreciably stronger than the zombies. Your comparison to the demon and Laytenn is flawed based on the fact that the Grave Golem was NOT a boss monster, overworld or otherwise. It was just a random overworld mob with a different appearance than the others.

Second, the flow of the battle is not one of the AI breaking. In fact, it looks like it was completely fine the entire time. What happened is as follows:
1. Steven pulls the golem's aggro.
2. As the golem is charging towards Steven, Keenan and Dred are both laying into it. You can see when the golem's aggro table shifts by the way its head refocuses onto another player.
3. Once its action table updates, it immediately swaps over to attacking Keenan.
4. Keenan stays on the move, circling around it to keep it from hitting him and dodging away.
5. While Keenan is circling, it lets out a stunning roar, which is why it doesn't seem to attack; Keenan is clearing out of the AoE it's doing, but it does hit Steven.
6. Dred attempts to stagger it with Whirlwind, but fails as it moves out of his AoE - it's still after Keenan, and Keenan has moved away.
7. The moment it reaches Keenan, it attacks with a downward slam. Keenan eats it to the face, and only dodges after the attack. The attack does a quarter of his life bar.
8. The golem attempts to stay on the attack by using its auto-attacks. While it's doing this, Steven and Dred lay into it's ass with attacks of their own, one of which chunks it down by a quarter of its HP.
9. It falls to the party, as its HP pool is not that of an elite mob, so focused fire from three players takes it down in short order.

Having world bosses/elite enemies in the overworld is a great idea! But they did not showcase one in the last livestream, and they certainly didn't showcase a buggy AI. This one was working perfectly fine. There was no AI breaks involved, and given it wasn't an overworld boss like the other videos you showcased, the health pool it had was alright as well, as it was tougher than the zombies and skinwalkers but not actually boss monster tough. It also did completely respectable damage when it hit.

Botagar

The stream was not showcasing the "new and improved updated AI", it was showcasing the day/night cycle and the cleric with a bit of party play.
They also incidentally showcased new mobs first seen as artwork in previous streams. The AI seems basic but it's not what they were seeking feedback on.
I do agree that elite mobs should be interesting and dangerous, but I agree with @Halae here in that that golem didn't seem like an elite to me; maybe a mini elite. It could be an elite, but i'll wait till Stephen asks for feedback on AI behaviors or we're in a spot test/A2.

Azherae

Botagar wrote: »

The stream was not showcasing the "new and improved updated AI", it was showcasing the day/night cycle and the cleric with a bit of party play.
They also incidentally showcased new mobs first seen as artwork in previous streams. The AI seems basic but it's not what they were seeking feedback on.
I do agree that elite mobs should be interesting and dangerous, but I agree with @Halae here in that that golem didn't seem like an elite to me; maybe a mini elite. It could be an elite, but i'll wait till Stephen asks for feedback on AI behaviors or we're in a spot test/A2.

Piggybacking on that (I'm neutral here), I didn't find the comparison to Laytenn all that weird, they're among the only real 'hey this is an actual fight' concepts in BDO, but Halae points out the real 'thing going on' here. It's at worst a 'feedback' issue from what some are used to.

Same for Don Diablo, maybe it's a wish for more 'impact' or for it to last longer, but if you had pretty good gear on three different people, the fights would look about the same as the Graveyard one. I don't know how to suggest handling this, for Ashes, it can be really complicated when you have players of Keenan's skill controlling a mob, to also make the mob look threatening.

Like, for Don Diablo some players will basically just never get hit, and you wouldn't even know it was hard.

I do agree that the Golem seemed to fall a little fast, but Keenan ALSO responded perfectly by using the charged shot to chunk off 1/4 of its health and then basically kiting it, which is honestly what I'd expect a Ranger to do when faced with 'large slower mob while in a graveyard full of zombies that they might aggro while fighting it', leaving that to the fighter.

So while I agree that the Golem came off more as a 'gate guard' or 'just shy of a miniboss', if anything the 'issue' is in the usual place 'ability to frontload a ton of damage from one class that then survives'. The question is if he'd have survived without a healer and when dogpiled by zombies.

Who knows.