Not Mentioned in 13.6 Patch Notes: New MOB Behavior

[MORB]

It's a great thing toward making missions more interesting, but currently some classes have trouble with green mobs, and often can't take on two of them at the same time...

Now, if along with this change, human mobs starts to have realistic HP, ACs, and weapons, it would shift the difficulty from the mobs stats (which just mean that you can either kill it or not to the end, no matter what you do if you're for instance an adventurer), to the mobs number (which would be more interesting, since you can use some pulling strategy to fight one mob at a time)

[fallentci]

Agree with those who are saying wandering NPCs are a good thing *if* Funcom would tweak their HP/AC.

I don't care what level you are. If you are in a room and three Vet Enforcers with their @#$*^#*&$^ 4,574,764,785,684 HP come in without knocking, you're dead. There is NO strategy involved in trying to survive getting hammered by mobs that have insane HP.

[________Dealingdeath]

Originally posted by Kysrs



absolutely true...most people want the path of least resistance, most reward

sad huh

You guys with this type of opinion are making a large assumption here. You assume all professions are balanced/fixed. The fact is they are not and thus making this kind of change to mob behavior before doing so is a bad decision IMO.

You guys talk about most rewards and path of least resistance. For me I'm not playing for rewards (at least not directly) but rather for FUN. I'm not playing for titles so that I can run and say look at me I'm an uber griefing grid camper. I'm playing for FUN and for the adventure and comradery online.

This change simply reduces the FUN level for most people. I really feel for the gimped classes (mine included) and for the newbies that will not benefit from the exploits other twinked characters have.

FC really knows how to jack the fun level but unfortunately its in the wrong direction.

[Meetshield]

The way I see it, Funcom is on thin ice and if they introduce changes people dont like, people are past the *****ing about it stage... most people will just say "enough, I quit"

If they make the game harder before fixing the damn bugs that have existed since release, again, Im done. I wont come here and say good bye, I wont leave a lame "Im quitting" message anywhere, I will just find something more enjoyable to do with my time.

This has been the most frustrating gaming experience in my life. I really really want to like this game, but Funcom keeps making that harder and harder.

[_______________Odaen]

That the game provides a massive static land area (not including missions) and that only two spots in this entire land area provide hunting grounds for 100+ characters. Hunting for most 100+ has been reduced to these missions. Now is concerned that mission dynamics are too boring because all of us have been reduced to doing missions. Why didn't funcom just create some outdoor hunting areas and leave missions alone. Did they fix team missions on test? Did they fix the bug about not being able to easily exit water in a mission. Its a royal pain when you swim and can't get out of the pool in a mission, especially if you are being wacked. What about the problem with being shrunk when entering a mission and getting shrunk much further during zone making it impossible to cast ruse before entering a mission. Did any of these bugs get fixed or they just concerned about changing dynamics instead of fixing bugs introduced in earlier patches. What about fixing conceal in missions. Not only does conceal currently have a minimum to not break but now has a maximum as well. If your conceal is too high, you get seen. I have been unable still to find out what is too high and too low so that I can sneak missions around the same ql as my level. First priority should be to fix bugs introduced in previous patches, then add content. But I guess thats too difficult for funcom, anyone can add behavior (albeit with bugs), only good programmers can code something without bugs or fix bugs. Its pretty obvious to all of us playing this game which catagory funcom programmers falls into. If you want to show some talent funcom, then fix the bugs you introduce, better yet stop introducing bugs.

[Brad, STL/MO]

I was on last night, under test version 13.64, and the new mob behavior has been taken back out. Thanks to all your feedback, I suspect. Mobs are now behaving exactly as they were under 13.5 - they will take a shot if you're close, in sight, and fighting a mob on their side. The definition of "close" seems to depend on the monster level. But otherwise they mostly stay in their rooms and don't agg until you enter.

[___________Avatarius]

Honestly,

If Funcom reduced the uber hitpoints and AC most Mobs (especially NPC's) have then changes like patrol routes through
missions would be completely welcomed by me playing any
of my characters.

For now, perhaps this would be a good addition to team missions they are working on??

Av.

[______________Jennii]

It's hard enough to level at high levels, where you have to fight level 212 mobs to get any decent XP. Now they throw this into the mix.

It would be different if mobs didn't have 10 times the amount of hit points that normal players do, but I find this an un-welcome change without nerfing the HPs of the mobs.

With an HP nerf, I would love this change.

I warn Funcom to really think about this before they implement it. It is real fun to play a high level, but it will be almost impossible to take out a room of 4 or more Ace mobs, compared to ust 1 or 2, which means more dying, no leveling, and finding a new Game to play.

I would rather be wandering mobs, instead of 1 Mob with 20k hit points.

First order of business should be to nerf the Mob HPs at least to 1/4 hit points of what they are now. Then it may be fun to level, instead of shooting at the same target for a minute like we do now. Be realistic. Do you think a team of 6 120s would have that hard of a time taking out 1 lvl 200 in PVP? How many Level 200 players have 20k in hps? Let's get the mobs on a level playing field before we make a change. Then it may makke for some fun strategies in the game. :-)

Jennii - LvL 118 Agent

[allenfox]

Originally posted by Magikha


Sure, I can do 50% difficulty missions at level 150, but am I overpowered? Shouldn't you be more concerned that ALL classes should be able to solo a 50% difficulty mission instead?

Ahhh, there is the problem. If you are going to have a game where everyone can solo, the game can not be based 100% on combat. Being this game is - they need to get rid of the idea of each class being able to solo. They need to shift the focus to teamplay. Give each class a well defined role in the game and MAKE it so people have to team up. The way it stands now each class seems to have overlapping skills and support classes are hardly needed in game.

I spent over an hour trying to find a team last night with my enforcer. The most common response was, “sorry I'm soloing some missions right now”. How lame.

[________________Crin]

When I first started playing AO. I thought that one of the reasons it was going to be great was that with individual mission, it would be much easier to balance the game. Little did I kow that Funcom was going to make all classes do the same missions.

Quick mission fix for Funcom's limited resources:

• Can't duplicate or trade solo mission keys
• All mobs in missions give exp. There is absolutly no reason for a mob to give 1 exp. Especially a higher levels when that mob could still put a hurting on you
• Each class is given a difficulty adjustment value. This vaue would be added to the actual difficulty settings to determine the mob difficulty in the mission. For example, an NT might have an adjustment of -20%, so if they picked a mission at 50% difficulty, they would get the rewards and chance of a token of a 50% mission but the mobs of a 30% mission.

Better fix when they get the time:
Allow players to get henchmen for missions. This way a doctor could get a tank henchman to help him out. Of course, mob difficuly would be increased for each hechman added. Henchmen would also get a share of the rewards and experience so if you wern't a good support class and really didn't need one it would be in you best interest to go it alone.


To Halcyinv2,
I agree that the game should be slanted towards team play. If it isn't, then what is the point of it being massively multiplayer. A single player game would be more fun to play in this case. But having viable solo missions is just what you need if you only have less than an hour to play.

[allenfox]

Originally posted by Crin
When I first started playing AO. I thought that one of the reasons it was going to be great was that with individual mission, it would be much easier to balance the game. Little did I kow that Funcom was going to make all classes do the same missions.

Great point! If you want the game to work for players that only have an hour or so gameplay time at one setting, so you have this need for a solo aspect of the game - the missions can't be overall "cookie-cutter".

Make the solo missions actually SOLO missions if that's what the game needs for these "time constrained" players. A mission where a Doctor has to go someplace to heal someone, an engineer mission where he has to travel, and/or buy parts to fix something. A trader mission to exchange goods. A fixer mission where they must evade pursuit to make a drop.

Now that's the type of stuff that would be fun and add depth to the game rather than make it so slanted toward soloing and combat.

However, still if the focus is on teamplay and soloing is a secondary issue the game would be much better for people that actually PLAY the game (for more than an hour at a time).

[_________Truejustice]

Hey don't get me wrong, I'm not whining but....all most classes have to do is put a new clip in after 2 mobs my nano pool is pretty done, gime me some way to rechrage my nano pool in a fight and I'm all for it.

TRUEJUSTICE
LEVEL 63NT
BLACK DAWN SYNDICATE

[Graxxus]

Hmm well I kind of like the idea as far as it being more realistic. However I do think that mission difficulty via the slider, mission size, and mob levels found in the mission should change. First off items around the ql of your actual level should be found on 100% easy missions. Even the weakest gimped character should be able to do easy missions...with NO grey mobs within them. Being forced to kill countless grey mobs on easy to get a mission item (way below what you could equip with your skills) is not fun, its tedious. So in other words the difficulty sliders on the mission generator needs to be reexamined.

In fact it may be a good idea to re-examine all of the sliders for determining mission type. Head on missions should require you to kill everything in the mission area (as a secondary objective) in order to complete the mission and receive a token. Stealth missions should require a secondary objective(ie. plant a bomb, observe a certain mob, assasinate a mob, find the research lab, rescue a kidnapped mob) in order to complete the mission(primary objective) and get a token. I grow tired of having to always kill everything in the mission in order to complete the mission and get a token. Missions should utilize more of your skills other than just how well you can kill stuff.

I like the idea of mobs patroling areas in the missions. But not until mob AC, hitpoints, and initiatives are addressed. Its funny most of the problems many professions have in this game are due to the extremely high stats mobs have over us. Fix the mobs and the vast majority of player problems suddenly become manageable. However, mob AI were given godly stats to counter the rampant overequiping and the rapid leveling associated with overequiping. So its a simple case of the cure being worse than the initial problem.

So the simple question is are you against patroling mobs completely or are you against them while mobs have such high AC, hitpoints, and initiatives?