Used: Toned Down Random Encounters

Just a suggestion.

I do love 'em ... but 4 deaths in 2 hours is a wee bit much. Not everyone's a tank.

Just stepping out of the Trackless Waste to be immediately faced by a Bandit Chief, 2 Invisible Hunters, and 4 wolves ... as in "right in front of you" (well, okay, the wolves were actually at medium range) ... is a bit more than a 7th level mage can handle.

The "Bandit Chief" who can kill said stone-skinned mage in two swipes while he's trying to run should maybe be placed in the "placed encounters" or "DM selected" bucket. Not all bandits have to be Chiefs.

Those things have always been there, though... Did you sprint past them on your way to the waste?

Nope ... been in that area several times working the nearby cave. Death # 4 (entering said map coming from the waste) was the first time this army made an appearance.

The random encounters on various maps are new ... and some just break up the monotony of a trip and make the world seem alive. I have a soft spot for the carnivorous chickens, personally.

But when a 7th level wizard can't walk from the Vale to Macedone without dying (or running for his life and then dying) ....

Were you around for the Viva Gnomes Attack! event? If not, then let me tell you that those gnomes made that journey near impossible at low levels and even gave higher level characters a run for their money. But I digress...

I will admit that at level 7, a bandit chief alone is a pain, and a mage (IMHO) has it easy for that fight. So my question for is this; Can you make the spawning system register character levels/classes on an area wide standpoint? If not, can you work your magic and get it to do so?

Not able to to level-based spawns at the moment (although it may be in the works for future updates).

I'm currently reworking the bandit encounters (and goblin ones) to reduce the chance that bandit chiefs (or goblin berserkers) spawn during any given encounter. Bandits are not supposed to be a constant deadly challenge for everyone.

I also just edited faction relations so that hostile creatures, for the most part, ignore merchant NPCs instead of just attacking on site. Then I waited while the module went through the hour+ "build" time that happens when you do any type of faction editing.

Always a work in progress. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm thinking it's really a question of design philosophy. Should random encounters be an adventure in and of itself - charging about and seeing what spawns after the next transition - or a diversion to keep you occupied while traveling to the next adventure? Admittedly, a perfectly valid choice for an action PW.

Having a tough encounter in what was once a relatively safe area makes sense to me ... if placed by there by a DM. "Dragons have recently taken up residence to the North driving the trolls and stone giants which resided there to the South ... to the very outskirts of the Vale!"

Even the encounter my character had would have been more palatable if a DM had placed it to set up an adventure story arc where it is discovered that some druid/animal tamer had joined the bandits, swelling their confidence, and making them much more bold.

The idea that it was because some kernel selected the numbers 6, 15, and 92 kin'da chomps at me. Then there's the problem with the dying merchants and NPC's.

My two drachmas would suggest percentage chances of varying CR's by location. Within x number of maps of a town not under siege, say an 85% chance that any random encounter has a CR of 1-4, 10% of a CR of 5-7, 4% of 8-11, 1% for anything else on the tables. Of course, these numbers are P.O.A. just as an example and should not be construed as a request. Traveling through uncharted territory towards the Mountain of Hideous and Nearly Instantaneous Death would be a reverse process ... high CR spawns on the map in question, diminishing as the maps are further away.

For my part... level based spawns arent needed, but would be nice.

Whats most important, I think, is sort of what gwidion said.... make the "roster" of potential enemies for an area contain challenges that would be appropriate for the PCs that should be travelling there. Areas that low level PCs will travel would mean low CR baddies in easy to manage numbers. In areas where low and medium level PCs travel, either the numbers increase OR the CR increases, and in rare cases maybe both get bumped up... etc.

Has the ant cave been randomised as well now? I only ask because I've gone down there twice with a level 4-ish PC, made my way through without too much trouble, then got swiftly sent to the Great Hall, courtesy of a couple of Hive Guardians (!) and some Soldiers. I think that's a bit much for what's supposed to be a lowbie quest area.

Amethyst347 wrote:Has the ant cave been randomised as well now? I only ask because I've gone down there twice with a level 4-ish PC, made my way through without too much trouble, then got swiftly sent to the Great Hall, courtesy of a couple of Hive Guardians (!) and some Soldiers. I think that's a bit much for what's supposed to be a lowbie quest area.

I dont remember there ever being "hive guardians', that must be a new addition.... and considering the queen herself is more than enough trouble for some builds.... making that area harder doesnt make sense to me. Keeping the difficulty the same as before and upping the XP rewards would be good, I think.

There's been hive guardians for as long as I can remember. They used to only spawn for levels 11+ or so. They're soldiers on crack basically.

And they will be disappearing after the next server reset to keep that area good for lower level characters.

I think in areas well-trafficed by higher-level PC's, amping -up- the Random Encounters would make it worthwhile just to go to those places, rather than making them scenery on the way to some other bashing spot.

I also agree that Aenea is already pretty brutal on lowbies, so it's a tricky situation to tweak.

Maeglin Dubh wrote:I think in areas well-trafficed by higher-level PC's, amping -up- the Random Encounters would make it worthwhile just to go to those places, rather than making them scenery on the way to some other bashing spot.

I also agree that Aenea is already pretty brutal on lowbies, so it's a tricky situation to tweak.

This is excellent feedback. I was mainly concerned with lowbies in my initial post, and I agree that Aenea is very very rough for new players when they come in with their lowbies and have to absorb so much info and learn the world amidst some really, really deadly encounters if they step off the beaten path, or even sometimes along the beaten path.

For higher level PCs, however, even some of the remote areas that are not often travelled by low and mid level PCs become just 'filler' and 'scenery' on the way to the more challenging encounters. It would be cool in some of the remote areas to have random encounters have a chance to be bumped up in difficulty. It leaves the chance that a mid level PC might get overwhelmed once in a while in those areas, but that can also be an opportunity to test out one's tactics and character build against a very challenging foe all in the process of travelling a well known path. That would add some excitement to the mid to high level areas, I think. It would be incentive to travel on foot through those areas rather than teleport or use the portals to skip as much of them as possible.

Keep that feedback a comin', folks! It helps to make Aenea better.

I don't know if this would be possible with the sparkyspawn system or not... but...

I think it'd be kinda cool if when you entered an area where there's a random spawn, you get a feedback message. Say, you're a ranger with X amount of search skill (since there's no track/survival skill in NWN), you get a floaty message along the lines of "You notice some unusual tracks along the road you're travelling. They appear rather fresh, and are not typical of creatures in this region."

Or, a message that anyone could get, but rangers would get a bonus on the search/spot/listen checks, barbarians and druids a lesser bonus, and everyone else no bonus, but a chance to get a hint that something unusual lies ahead.

That would give some custom content love to the woodsy classes, and from a player standpoint, it'd be cool for lowbies (who make the check) to decide "Um, maybe I should take another route", and cool for higher levels who want to actually "Hunt" creatures, not just go to a typical smashup area with the same ol' typical spawns.

What would be even more neat is if (for rangers and druids in wilderness area's) the tracks said "these appear to be the tracks of xxxxmonster, not common to this area".. and be based on the spawns in the area.... afterall any good ranger should be able to tell the difference between goblin tracks and ogre tracks... .. ...

Personally, I love the last two suggestions. Not sure how they could be put into play, however, with the spawns not having yet appeared (and if they have, it would probably be too late).

I'm not too wild about basing spawns just on character level. I know that this is classified an "action" server, but I fell in love with the world for the "hey, play the way you wanna as long as everyone's having fun" feeling.

I don't think I have a single "combat build" character. Heck, I never intend to use the de-level tool unless a new "silly" feat was put in which would be just perfect for a particular "silly" character I was trying to play.

To attempt to rationalize my babble ... even highbies can be lowbies ... combat-wise.

**By the way ... I've experienced the newer encounters. Thank you! The bandit rogue and his bandit mage backup still managed to kill me, but it felt like a fair fight! Well, a fair backstab by Melf's Acid Arrows.

In the some of the areas, would it be worth moving the spawn a little further from the trigger point?
Give those who do not wish to fight a chance to crank the ol' legs up to full rate ....

I like the idea of more/tougher spawns, particularly in new areas. Something a bit different ....

With bandits, would it be possible to have the trigger a bit further off then have the bandits all hidden/stealthed?
With a hide high enough that a decent search is required to spot them?

The randomized encounters do not use triggers...they spawn in when a PC enters the area. Their spawning locations are random, so they can appear pretty much anywhere in the area. I can limit it to within x meters of a waypoint, but that's really no better than the old BioWare encounter spawns, since you'd always know exactly where the enemies would be.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:The randomized encounters do not use triggers...they spawn in when a PC enters the area. Their spawning locations are random, so they can appear pretty much anywhere in the area. I can limit it to within x meters of a waypoint, but that's really no better than the old BioWare encounter spawns, since you'd always know exactly where the enemies would be.

I can think of times this would still make sense to do.... if a certain spot on the area map was an orc camp, or wolf den/bear cave entrance, or somesuch..... spider webs, etc..... there will be times and places that it makes sense for any PC (not just a ranger/druid/woodsy type) to know where the baddies would be just by observing the environment.

Cool, sounds like a fair trade.
I need to log in.

cheers,

Random spawnings are better than the waypoint spawning.... At least the baddies won't *always* be right on top of a transition (which can really suck for those with lower end systems; while you're still looking at a load screen, your character is actually being gleefully impaled by a bandit chief and his mage harlots, and you go from one load screen right into the great hall load screen...)

But... the spawning in stealthy could even up the chances of giving a lowbie character a chance to react with some enemies such as the bandits. Stealthmode would reduce their movement, so they'd take an extra second or two to get at you. Spawning in stealthmode can easily be done with a vairable set on the creature too.

K. Gone way beyond my paygrade. I remember studying Pascal and the prof's saying that "C+" would never take!

MannyJabrielle wrote:Random spawnings are better than the waypoint spawning.... At least the baddies won't *always* be right on top of a transition (which can really suck for those with lower end systems; while you're still looking at a load screen, your character is actually being gleefully impaled by a bandit chief and his mage harlots, and you go from one load screen right into the great hall load screen...)

But... the spawning in stealthy could even up the chances of giving a lowbie character a chance to react with some enemies such as the bandits. Stealthmode would reduce their movement, so they'd take an extra second or two to get at you. Spawning in stealthmode can easily be done with a vairable set on the creature too.

Hmm... My understanding of the 'waypoint' spawning is that it allows to set a center point, and radius from that point within which the enemies can spawn... so as long as the waypoint and radius are placed/set to avoid allowing spawns close to transitions, it allows certain encounters to be spawned within a specific area that makes sense for the environs... but not in an area that might cause a problem like you mention.

Totally random spawns can be cool too, but have potential to be on top of area transitions, or in spots that might not make good sense. The waypoint system seems to offer a bit of control which can be applied as needed.

I think the main benefit of the sparky system, if I am understanding correctly, is that, whether you go with waypoints or totally random spawns.... the enemies are spawned as soon as someone enters the area.... so there is time to spot them in the distance, rather than the bioware spawns that simply pop into existence just a short distance from where the PC is, and automatically notice them unless stealthed or invis. It also allows more time for the spawns to wander from their initial positions in most cases. Provided I am understanding clearly.

How about rare mini-boss type spawns in some areas in which they drop nice named loot. For example a 15% chance a named Orc Boss will appear randomly at the Orc Stronghold that drops specific to that boss rare loot or some rare strong dragon pops up in a cave. Putting random encounter mini-bosses all over Aenea with chances to win rare loot may add some more enjoyment to Aenea.

Keeping them rare will add mystery and some "wtf" moments when you are passing through an everyday area. With a chance to get some cool items!

When do spawns reset? It seems like it takes a very long time if at all to reset the spawns.

the bioware system spawnpoints are only "right on top of the player" if placed such. You could paint the trigger for the spawn in one place, and have the creature(s) themselves spawn across the map. They can be set to wander via a variable in the onspawn script.

Alundaio wrote:How about rare mini-boss type spawns in some areas in which they drop nice named loot. For example a 15% chance a named Orc Boss will appear randomly at the Orc Stronghold that drops specific to that boss rare loot or some rare strong dragon pops up in a cave. Putting random encounter mini-bosses all over Aenea with chances to win rare loot may add some more enjoyment to Aenea.

Keeping them rare will add mystery and some "wtf" moments when you are passing through an everyday area. With a chance to get some cool items!

This idea is awesome.... just plain awesome.... so I second this suggestion.

evilkittenofdoom wrote:

Alundaio wrote:How about rare mini-boss type spawns in some areas in which they drop nice named loot. For example a 15% chance a named Orc Boss will appear randomly at the Orc Stronghold that drops specific to that boss rare loot or some rare strong dragon pops up in a cave. Putting random encounter mini-bosses all over Aenea with chances to win rare loot may add some more enjoyment to Aenea.

Keeping them rare will add mystery and some "wtf" moments when you are passing through an everyday area. With a chance to get some cool items!

This idea is awesome.... just plain awesome.... so I second this suggestion.

Agree 100%. I think it would need to be something where the mini-boss would spawn well away from any any area transition so the PC can spot it from afar and decide whether to engage or bypass it.

Perhaps a "Dread Pirate Roberts" who can appear at any port?

Gwydion669 wrote:Perhaps a "Dread Pirate Roberts" who can appear at any port?

That sparked in me an interesting way to implement this mini-boss idea, so that it really is random. Given some consideration as to what creatuers actually belong where, simply add each mini-boss that fits many (but not too many) of various areas to spawn at a low chance; my suggestion being no lower than 1% and no higher than 3%.

For example; any area that spawns bandits has a 1.5% chance of spawning a Bandit Warlord, instead of the normal Bandit Chief.

Since the new sparky system went active .. has anyone found that the world actually seems "less full of harmful monsters"... .. .. I've been doing an awful lot of walking lately and all I seem to ever spawn is large groups of birds(daytime) or bats (nighttime)... I'm rarely ever actually getting anything to kill as I wander about (no goblins, wolfs, etc)..... Is anyone else experiencing this or is it just me ?

I'm still finding many things to kill me.

I've seen an increase in non-hostile creatures in the areas close to the Vale, but I've still found bandits, bandit magi, wyrmlings, brown bears (born from the darkest pits of Hell!!!), worker ants and the like.

On the road for Darla's quest, I've even run from a green dragon.

They seem to be still there (at least close to the Vale), but a mite more newbie-friendly. Further afield, I don't know as of yet.

Those are all things you -should- be finding, AFAIK...

Yeah, Aenea has always been harsh on lowbies. I personally like the struggle. You'll soon realize that you spend more of your character's time in the lower levels. Once you reach teens and epics you'll sky rocket to level 40 in much quicker time then it took you to get to epic. So enjoy the struggle and take it slow and enjoy all the little things lowbies can actually benefit from (Like all the trade skills and rune painting) and it'll make your time as a lowbie in Aenea magical.

You can actually become pretty strong for a low level character if you utilize all the things put in here and there. Buffing yourself with Rune paints and herbs can get you some decent stats and effects along with knowing where to find the enhancement crystals to imbue your weapon or armor with elemental properties.

What I like about the new random spawns is all the non-hostile creatures. It livens things up. Also it makes Animal Empathy useful for low level rangers needing a hand here and there.

evilkittenofdoom wrote:
For example; any area that spawns bandits has a 1.5% chance of spawning a Bandit Warlord, instead of the normal Bandit Chief.

"Bandit ... warlords?!?!! AHHHH!!!!!"

Both Gilion and Maurice run screaming into the darkness like naked halflings to find altars to their respective gods to crawl under and then whimper in fetal positions while sucking their thumbs.

Just be thankful the suggestion was bandit warlords, and not ex-apprentices of Aurora

And yes... some areas seem "less full". I haven't played much lately, but the sparky-enabled areas I've been too tend to be more poking about for baddies than poking baddies.

I like however that they're not all in the same predictable spots though. Just up the number of baddies, like in the searing sands... more mummies would be nice, especially in the old maze area which is massive and has plenty of room for smashups.

MannyJabrielle wrote:Just be thankful the suggestion was bandit warlords, and not ex-apprentices of Aurora

And yes... some areas seem "less full". I haven't played much lately, but the sparky-enabled areas I've been too tend to be more poking about for baddies than poking baddies.

I like however that they're not all in the same predictable spots though. Just up the number of baddies, like in the searing sands... more mummies would be nice, especially in the old maze area which is massive and has plenty of room for smashups.

Agreed. Higher percentages of encounters in certain spots would be helpful. Not everywhere, but in places that have enough space to accomodate.

Aw man you took my carnivorous chickens out of plainsedge! That was my secret level 3 leveling spot for super xp.

That's alright, Monsterous bats give a ridiculous amount of xp and don't fight back. Monsterous bats are hostile but don't fight back and they give about 200+ XP. Probably should do something about that. They do take awhile to kill however.

Monstrous bats are the less amusing leveling device for low levels. Might as well make them scary. Give them a very low chance to hit for 1-2 damage and chance of disease. Considering how long they take to kill, that could make for a scary fight to a lowbie.

But I do miss dem chickens. Good eatin', too!

MannyJabrielle wrote:Just be thankful the suggestion was bandit warlords, and not ex-apprentices of Aurora ...

I thought they were all dead...

Anyhow; those Monstrous Bats were rather piddly for the XP they give... though for the area, the number of enemies I saw when I encountered them consisted of about 15 bandits (at least 4 mages) a Purple Worm and at least 10 Monstrous Bats.... all spawned by a level 7 wizard, a level 4 wizard and the 4th level wizards familiar....

Fortunately, that level 7 wizard of mine is more than capable ...

I helped!

214+ xp to a level 3 with 30% xp penalty is ALOT of xp for somthing that doesn't attack back. This is considering that anything you can remotely kill gives about 17 xp with that kind of penalty.

I went to recuse Elaine Mard with a level 3 Wolf-Blood Fighter. On the first floor of the cavern I noticed that the goblins spawn in very large clumped groups. The first time I went in I met around 15+ goblins near the entrance and died.

I tried again. This time I ran into 3 groups. The first two groups were separated by a door so I'm assuming it may have been one spawn but one group had 7 and the other 8. I cleared those out and met another group of 11 all bunched together.

The second floor I noticed a big difference. The goblins spawned in groups of one or two and were spread out everywhere. It was much better. So my question:

Is your intention to have the spawns more spread out and random like the 2nd floor of the cavern? I think you need to thin out the goblin spawns on the first floor and spread them out. Because they are spawning in very large clumped groups on the first floor and are overpowering for such a noobie quest.


EDIT: Okay this is ridiculous. While on my way out after rescuing her I ran into this group:


ALL ONE GROUP Back on the first floor.




28 loot bags from 28 goblins.

Took a stroll through, myself.... it looks like the issue is that the first floor is all but totally unoccupied until the last room... where a small horde is waiting. If they could be spread out, it should fix the issue.

Uh, I had the opposite happen. I got one huge spawn in the first area, and that was it. Like, right in the entrance.

I'm quite scared to venture into the Sunset Cauldron now. Seems those Lava Elves have been *very* busy making more Lava Elves! I often end up fleeing whilst screaming like a little girl.

This was one of my favorite places for teen-level PCs to visit, as the XP was OK and it was fun but not horrendously deadly.

Reminds me of an old Wormy strip in Dragon Mag (Probablly early 40s or so). The Imps and Wormy are playing some RPG and the goblins walk in and ask who is winning and the imp says "Duh wanderin' monsters'. My players joked (I think they were joking, that they must have me off screen doing the DMing.