Non POI mob zones and "Shiny" mobs

In the most recent Dev update they touch on environment, population, and POI (found at this point in video).

Community Question

How do you feel about having mob groups far away from POI and having rare "Shiny" mobs spawn in said groups?

My thoughts:
AoC has be designed around the concept of competition. From resources to raids, each situation is designed to push players together to either pvp or cooperate. Having spawn groups in the middle of nowhere seems like it might take away from that. People could just go to their own private sanctuary and grind away. BUT if we put some shiny mobs that spawn very rarely and drop some goodies or have better XP then we kinda fix that. I like the idea of having a kept secret spot and logging in to find others there (conflict) or asking them to join your group to keep the cash/exp flow going (co-op).

This sounds like a no-brainer / "duh it's in every MMO" but recently most mmos are getting away from this. there are random mobs littered everywhere but not groups. they are just filler that are spaced so far apart or simply have no feeling to them that they are just "trash mobs". The groups are only in places that are quest path POI. In those quest path areas you have to fight for mobs to grind against normal questers. Shiny's are almost non existent now-a-days so people don't whine about mob sniping or campers.

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Comments

Noaani

My opinion is that yes, they should have rare encounters.

To me, every grouping of similar mobs should have a chance at spawning a rare version any time there is a need to respawn a mob from that grouping.

These are - to me - essentially just bonus encounters. They are not required for quests (these should have their own specific spawn timers), nor are they anything that has to have a specific rare reward attached to them - an increased chance of the reward that the grouping it spawned from is enough.

One of the bonus aspects of having these kinds of encounters be fairly common in where they can happen, but very rare in how often they happen is that different players will see more of less of these encounters in different areas, thus leading different players, groups and guilds to place slightly different values on different parts of the game world - especially early on in the games life. In a conflict driven game like Ashes, this has the potential to add another layer of interest to proceedings.

Something else I'd quite like to see a full MMO attempt (as opposed to an ARPG), is generating these encounters psuedo-randomly.

For each monster type, have a list of associated traits and atributes an encounter could have. Then, when a group of this monster type is needing to be spawned, the server could decide if a slightly harder variant is desired, and if so it could select one random trait from the list and give it to the mob - or even to a pack of mobs. Then if the game wants an even harder variant, it could select two of these traits, or even three. They could even have mobs at this level take on a psuedo-random name as well, generated in the same way (or perhaps with the traits that the mob has taken adding a prefix or suffix to the mobs name).

This content obviously wouldn't be designed to take the place of actual developer designed specific boss encounters (whether for solo, group or raid), but could add a lot of actual interest and enjoyment to content that isn't that specifically hand made boss content.

People that have played Path of Exile will know the exact system I am thinking of here, though many ARPG's use a similar idea.

mrwaffles

Oh I like the pseudo random trait + name idea. I've played PoE and Diablo with this mechanic and it never crossed my mind to add it here. It always perked me up from a grind when I'd stumble across one.

As for trains / power leveling / mat farming I both love and hate that I could get a rhythm down of killing an area and then BOOM a shiny with root, freeze, or longer leash spawns in my path and makes it more difficult.

Vhaeyne

mrwaffles wrote: »

Oh I like the pseudo random trait + name idea. I've played PoE and Diablo with this mechanic and it never crossed my mind to add it here. It always perked me up from a grind when I'd stumble across one.

As for trains / power leveling / mat farming I both love and hate that I could get a rhythm down of killing an area and then BOOM a shiny with root, freeze, or longer leash spawns in my path and makes it more difficult.

I like this idea as well. Having some "Champions" or slight variations of mobs in fine. Adds a little spice to the grind.

I just don't want to see proper noun mobs running around. At least with randomly generated mobs it feels like you really killed something. Killing any named mob doesn't feel special, but there is something less satisfying about killing a mob that everyone kills. Sometimes in WOW you show up to a corpse with 5 guys waiting for a proper noun to respawn so you can kill it again.

At least with randomly generated mobs there is a chance only you have seen this exact variant. So long as the generator has a decent amount of variables. Randomly generated mobs just feel more real and organic to me.

Frostshot1

I too hope there will be rare mobs, to kill, and or even befriend as a ranger pet or such. Adds a lot of fun to the exploring when you find one roaming around.

Khronus

Named mobs with above average materials for a more difficult fight would be fantastic. I wouldn't enjoy a named mob that just has increased health. It would be REALLY awesome to experience something unique with these mobs. Maybe a couple different randomized abilities from a large pool of mob abilities or it can trigger a small event when engaged? Portal (on the ground and looking molten/ashes but LIGHT on the effects) can open up summoning fiends from the ashes. There are a lot of possibilities for them to create something unique here.

Jamation

I'd like them if they were unique, or unique in some way, but I'm hesitant to support it fully as many times these types of mobs just end up being "Elite" versions of normal mobs which means they just have a higher HP pool with maybe some more armor and a slightly scaled up size. If it was an actual cool mob that had at least one unique skill that'd be nice though.

mrwaffles

Vhaeyne wrote: »

I just don't want to see proper noun mobs running around. At least with randomly generated mobs it feels like you really killed something. Killing any named mob doesn't feel special, but there is something less satisfying about killing a mob that everyone kills. Sometimes in WOW you show up to a corpse with 5 guys waiting for a proper noun to respawn so you can kill it again.

I completely agree. It encourages the "I only need one hit. Just throw anything at it so I can move on with my day". There's zero interest in it and it's just a passing thing.

I like the idea of being in a tavern talking about running into some hard variant at this one spot. Random adventurers swapping stories about their shared experiences.

"Yeah but have you ever run into one that that has a passive heal? Super annoying to fight. I didn't even notice it in the group until I realized the fight had gone on longer then I thought and saw that it was slowly healing..."

"oh dang, where did you run into that?!"

Jamation wrote: »

I'd like them if they were unique, or unique in some way, but I'm hesitant to support it fully as many times these types of mobs just end up being "Elite" versions of normal mobs which means they just have a higher HP pool with maybe some more armor and a slightly scaled up size. If it was an actual cool mob that had at least one unique skill that'd be nice though.

The skill could also be node dependent. Only specific skills / variants per type of node and level. Beginning nodes have no Shinnies but when the node levels up you get a few scattered now, and if it's a Military Node maybe you get types A,B, & C but if it's Scientific Node you get X, Y, & Z.

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