Well, the problem is that most suggestions players make only illustrate what they percieve to be the good aspects. The players who come up with these ideas or support these ideas very rarely if ever bother to think of the bad things that can go with what they propose.Originally posted by Farraday
You're right, Pip... I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes more sense than someone actually saying "I wanna camp mobs" =P
The fact still remains though, that it's there because we the players asked for it.
I really feel sorry for Funcom at times.. and every other online game company. No matter what they do, SOMEONE is always *****ing at them.. that's gotta suck.
For example, recently in Neocron, they introduced some rare weapons in a patch that could only be found. Because they would not be researched, they could not be copied by tradeskill players, thus keeping them rare. At first players shouted a resounding "Yippy!" Then came the voices of reason....
Players responded to the creation of these rares with valid negatives points. These points included things like the fact that the highest weapons in the game would no longer require constructors. Since the economy in thta game is based on players making all the best equipment, it would ruin the economy. Another obvious bad point brought up was of course the camping involved.
Once the "C" word was mentioned, the players originally supporting the idea realized the mistake they had made in supporting the introduction of rare weapons. They still wanted weapons that really meant something, that couldn't be copied, but they also wanted to keep make sure it didn't destroy the player economy. They also didn't want camping. So, Reakktor came up with a solution that the community is still hoping will work out well in the long run:
Instead of these weapons being found whole, you only find pieces. These pieces are labeled as "Unknown" when you find them, so you must bring them to a researcher in order to have the part became a valid component. Once you have all the parts to a particular rare item, you need a constructor to build it for you. The quality of the result depends on the constructors skill and any slot enhancers, etc. used in the process, just like any other item. The difference, is that the finished product can not have blueprints made, and thus cannot be copied. This keeps alive the player economy portion of it. In fact, it benefits the player economy even more, since these items can only be made by other players, and cannot be found whole or purchased whole. The way they addressed the camping issue, was to simply make it so that virtually any mob of a sufficiently high enough rank has a chance of dropping a part of virtually any kind. The rarity is not so high as to be annoying, but high enough that you certainly can't guarantee a part. It's at a point where you can only get one if you can solo a high ranking mob without too much difficulty.
Camping only happens when several conditions are met:
1) Mob has predictable location and at least moderately predictable spawntime
2) Mob is the only place you can get a certain item
3) Certain item is powerful
Some mobs that require camping actually aren't too bad. Well, Neleb, and the Cyborg spawns. No other camped mobs in the game have acceptable spawntimes/drop rates.
So how do you fix the mobs that are currently camped? There are many steps that need ot be taken. First off, they shouldn't always spawn in the same location. So, for example, the lab Director of Biomare should sometimes spawn in other rooms in Biomare. In fact, it would be even better if sometimes he spawned OUTSIDE of Biomare even. There should be an additional timer that causes him to despawn and respawn somewhere else if he does not enter combat for a certain amount of time. So, you could make it so there is a chance he will spawn in various rooms inside Biomare, but also have a chance of him spawning for example, at the Bronto factory in Galway, or possibly even in Omni-1 itself. Make him seem like a living entity that actually interacts with the online world, instead of a mindless creature to thwack. The same can be done with other mobs, like TIM. TIM could spawn inside Biomare, or possibly some zone where his "effectiveness" could be tested. When he spawns elsewhere you could perhaps surround him with "lab Tester" mobs that are observing how he interacts in the field.
Some people might say: "So how would we find these spawns?" Well the answer is have spots where you can find clues. For example, to find the Director, maybe asking his computer terminal might list his last known whereabouts. Similar things for TIM. For Zuwadza you could maybe ask Horatio Campbell about something. Heck, you could even spawn random NPCs just for the purpose of giving info on the whereabouts of certain uber bosses.
So, what does all this do? First thing it accomplishes is that you can't just sit in one spot and expect the boss to show up. Second thing it accomplishes is that it makes you feel like these NPCs are more alive. Heck, sometimes certain bosses should sometimes spawn in 100% suppression areas. That way all you could do is talk to them. You'd actually get to see them walking around going about their business. I'd love to be able to walk through City of Home and suddenly see Elian Zuwadza standing there muttering to himself about some kind of experiments Omni-Tek is doing. For those who don't know it, Zuwadza does not aggro, and he does in fact have things to say, unfortunately, you'll never find out because he's dead 3 seconds after he appears. Give these characters life and player craving content will be very happy. Even power gamers would like it because it would provide variation to the camping.
Of course, I have done the typical player-idea thing and not really pointed out the negative aspects of my idea for changing up ubercamped mobs. Please feel free to address negative issues surrounding this idea in this thread.
Thanks