One of my Greatest Hopes

Chongo · 04-22-08, 08:42 PM

.. in a persistant world is randomized spawns. Where running into a goblin at level 40 is still a surprise, dynamic, and unexpected.

It completely changes our mindset on one of the most simple of fronts. It changes player activity profoundly. Sure, you need 'regions' that dictate ranges to an extent. But I sincerely wish that now and then I'd run into a dragon walking across the spirit dunes, or lurking in the trees of Dapplemare.

It changes things profoundly when you look at the upward ripple towards mindset.

Skywatcher · 04-22-08, 08:46 PM

I agree totally on this one. It would really make the wilds wild. Random encouters is sort of a staple to PnP D&D that I missed in NWN. Although, if you're going to possibly meet a dragon I think the characters will need more Soul Strands :/

Falonthas · 04-23-08, 06:57 AM

nah dragons are fun to talk to

ycleption · 04-23-08, 09:16 AM

But... but...
Then we wouldn't have adventurers walking past an area and going "wait! there are normally only three wandering orcs in this area... somethings wrong!"

Then we won't be able to run roughshod through an area with utter disregard for whether something may be hiding in the bushes to ambush us... we might even, (god forbid) RP during the time we would otherwise be running by without a word.

We wouldn't be able to laugh at the scouting type characters, because they'd actually be useful (maybe even demanded) on average trips.

Then it would encourage spontaneous PC reaction, and might even dissuade players from just grinding xp...

Seriously Chongo, no disrespect intended, but I really think you need to think these things through before making wild suggestions like this.

Eight-Bit · 04-23-08, 09:21 AM

What I'd like to see along with randomized spawns are different spawns at night. When the real creeps come out to play, and pose an actual threat to an adventuring party.

Dorganath · 04-23-08, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eight-Bit

What I'd like to see along with randomized spawns are different spawns at night. When the real creeps come out to play, and pose an actual threat to an adventuring party.

We actually have this system in NWN, though it's only used in one place IIRC, as we never had the time to go back and think about day/night spawns for every place it would make sense.

Just an FYI.

As for the rest.... *cheshire cat grin*

Eight-Bit · 04-23-08, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorganath

We actually have this system in NWN, though it's only used in one place IIRC, as we never had the time to go back and think about day/night spawns for every place it would make sense.

Just an FYI.

As for the rest.... *cheshire cat grin*

I remember hearing about that but never finding the place. It's probably a good thing.

Do you remember when the ancient was miffed about something and shadows showed up every time at night? People started to fear for their lives being outside of a town at night. I know I spent a few huddled around a camp fire, trying to fight off as many of the brave ones as possible before I died. Trying to capture that feeling would really spice up the MMO.

Pen N Popper · 04-24-08, 09:22 AM

A NWN PW I played on long ago had a system they called a "biosphere." It consisted of a triad of resources: plant, animal, and mineral. These had to be kept in balance in the druidy sense. Over harvesting plant material would mean a loss animal, etc. All well-defined in scripting. The druids could detect nature's balance and offer specific suggestions to the hunter/gatherers of the land to restore balance (and CNR material production).

Another side-effect addressing Chongo's request was that the "monsters" also had a balance. Wipe out the deer in an area and the wolves get hungrier (and meaner). Fail to kill off the wandering orcs and they'd expand territories and grow in number.

Basically, a database was kept of everything that was killed or harvested and then spawns would adjust off of that based upon a formula. As long as the players have an IC way to get a sense of where the problem areas are, they can work ICly to maintain (or disrupt) the world's balance.

A further concept was this: Since all the killings were tracked, if one PC was repeatedly "farming" an area of bandits, at some point that PC would get a price put on their head by the intelligent creatures. So as they skipped along some valley road far away, a group of thugs might ambush him. (Since the bandits would have to pay for this, their loot drops might decrease for a time or they might branch out into other areas for a while.) Again, if the paladin goody-goodies have a way to discover the imbalance, they may themselves seek to stamp out the PC problem themselves.

Eight-Bit · 04-24-08, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pen N Popper

A NWN PW I played on long ago had a system they called a "biosphere." It consisted of a triad of resources: plant, animal, and mineral. These had to be kept in balance in the druidy sense. Over harvesting plant material would mean a loss animal, etc. All well-defined in scripting. The druids could detect nature's balance and offer specific suggestions to the hunter/gatherers of the land to restore balance (and CNR material production).

Another side-effect addressing Chongo's request was that the "monsters" also had a balance. Wipe out the deer in an area and the wolves get hungrier (and meaner). Fail to kill off the wandering orcs and they'd expand territories and grow in number.

Basically, a database was kept of everything that was killed or harvested and then spawns would adjust off of that based upon a formula. As long as the players have an IC way to get a sense of where the problem areas are, they can work ICly to maintain (or disrupt) the world's balance.

A further concept was this: Since all the killings were tracked, if one PC was repeatedly "farming" an area of bandits, at some point that PC would get a price put on their head by the intelligent creatures. So as they skipped along some valley road far away, a group of thugs might ambush him. (Since the bandits would have to pay for this, their loot drops might decrease for a time or they might branch out into other areas for a while.) Again, if the paladin goody-goodies have a way to discover the imbalance, they may themselves seek to stamp out the PC problem themselves.

That must have been a seriously interesting experience.

Eorendil · 04-25-08, 06:41 AM

Wish had made an MMO stab at a similar system where ecology was dynamic and effected by player actions as well as algorithms for growth and conflict between animals or npc groups.. Its an awesome concept but one that can be very very difficult to pull off.

Falonthas · 04-25-08, 07:18 AM

oh that sounds very nice but, i dont think some druids need more reason to hunt poachers

we get into enough troubles the way it is now(and this we is basically a cover for me myself and i)

stragen · 04-29-08, 09:44 PM

I would like to see Wandering Monsters and NPCs. Monster spawns could appear completely out of sight of all PCs in a region. Then they should move based on some intelligence (goals, agents etc) across the landscape. If they want to set up an ambush they must creep into place or and prepare spells and such. With the larger regions of Layo2 this may be possible.

Every adventuring section could have a random set of Random monsters associated with it. If PCs (or monsters) are in the section then monters / NPC's won't spawn. However, if PCs are in an adjacent (nearby?) section, then their is a chance of spawning monsters. These monsters then can move from section to section based on their goals.

Not all 'monster' spawns need to be hostile to PCs. For example one spawn could be a herd of deer. Simply traveling from section to section grazing.

What would also be cool, is if these monsters could interact with one another. For example a spawn of wolves in another section moves from section to section until they encounter the deer. At which point they hunt them!

Yes this is likely to be expensive on server CPU time. However, if the server is written to take advantage of modern multi-processor multi-core machines it should be doable.