Same monsters, such different strengths!

[blakarchr13]

I agree with under the moon, its not that hard to just go up and examine the creature, and besides its more fun if their levels are differnt.

[sgtkwol]

It gets frustrating when you can kill a tefusang 1 time, then the next time you aren't even doing any damage at all.  Then you are stuck with hunting rats until that monster resets.

[Waylander]

It's almost necessary for RP that creatures of the same species have different stats.  Say you attack a puppy, you will probably beat it.  Now try attacking a full grown Rottweiler, you probably won't fair so well.

Perhaps they will be able to do something with scaling in the future, stronger creatures appear larger.  But for now, look at the desc.

[Aerianna Kzin]

Has anyone else notced how aggressive they have come lately? I mean you see something and think to yourself "oh yeah, I can take that" you extange a few blows and realize "oh my gosh I am gonna die!" So you take off running, and you run and you run and you run, and finally you have to stop because you have run out  of stamina...and it catchs up to you and kills you because you can no longer run away.

Or maybe this has just happend to me. I guess it makes it a bit more realistic tho, cuse if I was a teffy, and some shrimp  came  and started hacking away at me then then tryied to run, I'd chase his butt down and pound him good, I was just trying to graze before he came along and ruined my day.

[bilbous]

Well I haven't seen this myself too much but monsters should have stamina issues themselves and big ones ought to tire fairly quickly.

[Farren Kutter]

I agree with Velh, Rongar, and UtM, personally. Remember that strength and size isn't everything even with monsters and animals and all that. There is experience behind it, intelligence, etc. Take two people the same physical condition and everything. Heck, take twins the the same physical condition and everything, have one fight 100 fights, have the other fight 500 fights. Then have the two face off. Who's gonna win? More likely the 500 fight one. They look the same, but that doesn't account for everything.

[LlubNek]

After 100/500 fights they wouldn't be in the same physical (or mental) condition anymore, even if they were identical before.  They wouldn't look or behave the same either:  one would have more muscle, or more battle scars, or might glance around nervously anticipating attack, or confidently seek out opponents, etc.  Basically, an experienced/aggressive monster should be distinguishable from a less experienced/less aggressive one, not just in their description (which should be done better), but in behavior and appearance.

As far as the description goes, it would help to mention apparent age, physical condition, battle scars and behavior.  Like "A young looking rat, shivering with fright and ready to bolt" vs. "A rat, seemingly in it's prime, it's battle scars a testament to many successful fights."

I doubt it could be easily implemented at this point, but personally, I think NPCs and player characters should be pretty much exactly the same to the server except that one is controlled by a script and the other is controlled by a client.  For spawning (rats for example), have a rat make a nest, another rat finds it and wanders in, both adult rats stay in /near the nest, the nest produces baby rats, baby rats level up to adult rats, which then go make new nests.  A player could destroy a nest, but it would be defended by two adults and lots of babies and might require special tools (like a shovel, axe, pickaxe, torch, whatever).

[cyber]

What about something like FFXI has with Notorious Monsters? basically sometimes randomly some mobs will spawn instade of a normal mob that is MUCH stronger... usually....

[Mordaan]

I agree that they should be of different strengths, but with a realistic variance.  I think what the original poster is getting at is the extreme difference in some cases.  Take the 3 Dlayo Gladiators in the arena.  The guy without weapons can't scratch you (understandable...he doesn't have weapons) but goes down in a couple of hits (from Mordaan's swords, anyway).  The guy with swords also doesn't seem to scratch Mordaan and takes a lot more to defeat.  But then the guy with axes once hit me for 1900 damage!    

Sure, they SHOULD be of different strengths, experience, training, etc.  But not THAT much.  It just seems to be a real extreme difference.  Sure they are all of different abilities, but they are still all of the same race.  To take one teffy down with one swing while not being able to scratch another seems a bit extreme.  The puppy/pitbull example is a good one.  Perhaps with scaling not available yet, descriptors could be added like "Baby Tefusang", "Young Tefusang", "Alpha Tefusang", etc.

But as with everything in this game...all in good time.   

[Rongar Elani]

All types of monsters could have a general strength, which varies within certain bounds.

Code: [Select]

Name    ---    General Strength    ---    Variable Strength

Rat     ---          10            ---         5 - 15

Clacker ---          20            ---        10 - 30

Gobble  ---          30            ---        20 - 40

Cons.   ---          45            ---        30 - 60

Rogue   ---          60            ---        40 - 80

Bandit  ---          75            ---        50 - 100

...
Something like that... This way, the strongest rat can be stronger than the weakest clacker, but in general it can be said, that different races are either stronger or weaker than others.

[Baron Samedi]

I agree that they should be of different strengths, but with a realistic variance.  I think what the original poster is getting at is the extreme difference in some cases.  Take the 3 Dlayo Gladiators in the arena.  The guy without weapons can't scratch you (understandable...he doesn't have weapons) but goes down in a couple of hits (from Mordaan's swords, anyway).  The guy with swords also doesn't seem to scratch Mordaan and takes a lot more to defeat.  But then the guy with axes once hit me for 1900 damage!    

  Yes, there should be some way for the character to sum up the opponent, moreso than just There is a rogue, I hope he is one of the weak ones and not one of the killers. In my experience, the viewing the creature is unreliable enough that I do not generally use it anymore. Maybe INT helps...but my character is not a spell caster, and with the combat and crafting I am trying to learn, I simply can't expend all that money and PP's into Intelligence just for this purpose.

   I have also found myself getting 1200 XP from a rogue that can't touch me, and 200 XP from a rogue that gives me a few whallops when I fight him. I am sure these imbalances will be worked out at some point, but until then, there will always be the "Whack the rogue" parties in spots where they are easy to kill and give a lot of XP's and loot. Everyone knows what I am talking about.

   

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

A system will be made to regularize them at some point, what i cannot understand is why they are reading incorrectly in relation to players. Did someone put in a bug or feature request?

[Caarrie]

yes it has been reported bug 864 [if i understand you correctly]

[Rjal]

I'm solidly in the 'leave it random' camp. I mean, what kind of creature is always the same?

[Baron Samedi]

I'm solidly in the 'leave it random' camp. I mean, what kind of creature is always the same?

   I don't know...when you see a dog, can you tell the difference between a Beagle and a Rottweiler?

   Can you tell the difference between a Clydesdale and a racehorse?

   Can you tell the difference between a professional wrestler and marathon runner?

   Can you tell the difference between an Offensive Lineman for a pro football team and a cornerback?

   A dog is not just a dog. A horse is not just a horse. A person is not just a person. There are differences, and you can see the difference from one to the next. that's basically the problem here....one rogue looks the same as the next, but one can't hurt you, and the other can kill you in 2 hits.....and the experience points do not reflect their toughness.