PlaneShift

Support => Complaint Department => Topic started by: ponder on May 02, 2007, 07:50:00 am

Title: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: ponder on May 02, 2007, 07:50:00 am
Well I was making progress finally in this game, had some weapons and some money and found some npcs I could kill fairly easily.  Now all change, even the rogue in the sunken room in the sewer would kill me 3 times over if I didn't run, hide and heal.  You can of course do whatever you want with the game balance - it's your game, however I think these changes have made it absurdly hard for new characters to progress.  I would suggest a simple proportional system for gaining skill levels at the moment it seems to take 14 pps to gain one level in stats str,agl etc.  and this amount seems to be constant - how about a simple ratio: level/14 pps per level gain.  This would make it easier for newbies to progress, seem only fair as you are bent on makeing pps harder to come by.

Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Karyuu on May 02, 2007, 07:55:59 am
Are you sure your weapons simply have not decayed in quality? Check them out next time you are in the game.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: ponder on May 02, 2007, 08:00:31 am
No, my weapons while not at full 50/50 were at around 30 and 34.  Two days ago I was able to kill these npcs with little difficulty and weapons in considerably worse condition.  I am not the only one who has noticed an increase in npcs difficulty. 
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Xordan on May 02, 2007, 08:06:29 am
I haven't made any changes to them myself, and nobody has told me of any changes so I'm not aware that any have been made...
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Zan on May 02, 2007, 08:08:45 am
Check your armour quality as well ;)
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: ponder on May 02, 2007, 08:36:42 am
OK, mea culpa,  :sweatdrop:  I think I can recind my complaint about npc changes.  I had one piece of armor at 0/50 - my shoes - apparently this is enough to get my butt kicked by everyone except sewer rats.  I can ony believe this is a bug.

I still think my suggestion about progressive level atainment has merit however.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 10:19:40 am
The 750XP rogues started to hit really hard back in early February (the ones on bdroad1 for example).

Tulkhan has LA level 30 and Melee level 25 and used to overcome them rather easily without any weapons or armor
equipped whatsoever.  Now he can't even kill them with swords equipped.

I asked Caarrie about it back then and she told me that she "can't do anything about that".
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: neko kyouran on May 02, 2007, 10:47:49 am
Tulkhan has LA level 30 and Melee level 25 and used to overcome them rather easily without any weapons or armor
equipped whatsoever.  Now he can't even kill them with swords equipped.

your melee skill has no bearing on how well you do with swords.  that would be your sword skill.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 11:05:17 am
Tulkhan has LA level 30 and Melee level 25 and used to overcome them rather easily without any weapons or armor
equipped whatsoever.  Now he can't even kill them with swords equipped.

your melee skill has no bearing on how well you do with swords.  that would be your sword skill.

I'm very well aware of that, and had considered my sword skill (45) to be more than adequate
(as it used to be, up to February 2007, that is) to overcome the shabby rogues.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: neko kyouran on May 02, 2007, 11:16:35 am
then you should have mentioned that in your first post.  without it, the reader is to assume that you are implying that you are trying to say your melee skill effects your sword skill, which is incorrect.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: zanzibar on May 02, 2007, 01:11:35 pm
If it's just the one rogue that has changed, then I'm afraid I don't see what the problem is.  There are plenty of rogues in the game and some are harder than others.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 01:59:11 pm
I've justed tested two different Rogues on bdroad1 again (near the Brigand), but IIRC, all the 750 XPs-Rogues are affected.

Since Feb 2007 I can't even defend myself (fully defensive stance) against them, with them doing me about 35 damage per
second, with full leather armor.  It's basically the same with swords equipped, while I can do them about 120 damage per hit,
I can't really block their blows and they kill me pretty fast.  Seems they've got an awesome STR boost.

As I said before, I used to kill them in melee combat without armor equipped and without them doing me any damage what-
soever.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: zanzibar on May 02, 2007, 02:07:30 pm
As I said before, I used to kill them in melee combat without armor equipped and without them doing me any damage what-
soever.

Then maybe the change is a good thing?
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 02:16:47 pm
As I said before, I used to kill them in melee combat without armor equipped and without them doing me any damage what-
soever.

Then I guess the change is a good thing.

I guess that depends on how much XPs they give now.  Or maybe they loot as well now?
I can't check if their newly gained powers are justified...
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: miadon on May 02, 2007, 02:29:41 pm
Things that are hard to beat don't have to be rewarding or justified.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: bilbous on May 02, 2007, 02:54:30 pm
While some of the rogues are indeed quite a bit tougher than they were, I do not think this has changed recently. I haven't been in the sewers too recently, though. One thing I noticed yesterday [May 1 2007] was that the forgetful fighter syndrome, where your character decides to stop fighting in combat, was particularly bad. On the bright side it did not seem to affect the npcs so that is a bit of an improvement. It is hard to win a combat if you are just standing there taking blows.
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Xillix Queen of Fools on May 02, 2007, 03:15:37 pm
nothing about these rogues has changed at all. Perhaps you fought them when the npc server was down :)
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 03:36:45 pm
nothing about these rogues has changed at all. Perhaps you fought them when the npc server was down :)

I think I would have noticed if the NPC server had been down from September 2006 until February
2007, don't you think?  Asking differently -- is Sword level 45 and Light Armor level 30 sufficient to
confront these Rogues in combat?  Or Melee level 25, for that matter?
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Ralleyon on May 02, 2007, 08:06:59 pm
Actually I've seen this phenomenon happening myself and I bet noone changed the power of the NPC's just to annoy me :)

It's happened in the past as well, and I think this is yet another wierdness of the npcclient, just like the "decision" to stop working at times. I'm not sure what triggers it, but the devs are aware that the npcclient is acting up. I suppose we can only signal that things happen at random times and maybe someone will poke it to see what's causing this. But I have serious doubts it's an easy thing to fix (or find more like it).
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: Tulkhan on May 02, 2007, 11:18:05 pm
Things that are hard to beat don't have to be rewarding or justified.

Last time I checked, this was still a computer game, not real life  ;)
Title: Re: absurd changes in npcs difficulty
Post by: LARAGORN on May 03, 2007, 04:03:42 pm
I am also suffering from FFS (forgetful fighter syndrome) :( Maybe I am preoccupied with other things, but my Opponents are not very understanding and take advantage of my ailment.

I have also noticed a couple rouges imediatly drop from 100% to 90% as soon as they are targetted.