Non-Instance Solution to Camp/Raid Issues

[mokfarg]

This isn't completely original I have borrowed ideas from others. Before anyone get's upset that I am wishing to change project 1999, this isn't the case. This is just for fun, dreaming of game design. I enjoy project 1999's emulated classic experience, you can't get that anywhere.

So how do you prevent people from bottleneck all the good named mobs and raids without instancing? It's a source of conflict that some love and some hate. I have thought about this and read some ideas other's have had.

I imagine a way for any random player to have a chance to either get a nice item with chance or profit. Of course the more you play the higher the chance you still will have but in my mind this following idea will at least provide a chance for everyone.

I picture a quest system from mob drops that spawns named mobs rather than the place holder system. The random mob quest item could be global across all mobs with a rare chance to drop. That would make it impossible to target specific mobs to kill and hog named mobs. The higher the level of the mob the greater the chance of the drop occurring but still very rare, I picture getting the chance to where we may see one drop every few weeks server wide or maybe less depending on the named mob/item.

If the mob is trivial to your character's level then the item would not drop, this would encourage people to fight mobs in their level range. Remember higher level mobs have a greater chance to drop the quest items anyway but people would mow down whole zones of mobs if you didn't make this rule.

The quest item would spawn the named mob in a specific location in the world, where normally the name would have spawned in the placeholder system. The quest item would be trade-able. A lucky newbie leveling could find one and sell it to a guild for wanting to spawn a raid boss. After the quest item is used it can not be used again to spawn the quest mob be it raid or other named mobs.

No instance but still this would prevent people from blocking others from having a chance at named mobs/raids. The people who play more that normally would camp for a week to get something could still increase their odds by killing mobs in their range non-stop for a week to have a much greater chance to get a quest item to spawn a named than someone that plays a hour a day.


Edit: Also you could make the quest more fun but requiring multiple items to spawn a named or raid target as well.

[magnetaress]

I like this thread.

[Kich867]

I think the non-instanced solution to raiding / questing is to increase spawn rates of these bosses and have an internal "lockout". If you participated in a kill, you would not receive loot for whatever the lockout period was, you'd be able to look up your lockouts so it was clear when they were active again.

The barrier to entry should be "Can you people even kill this thing". Loot rarity is driven by difficulty and not scarcity of the mob.

Other systems would be required to be implemented to wrap and facilitate this approach, but it's a non-instanced way to alleviate the core problem of open world raiding.

Like, if you could only get loot from Lodizal once a week but he respawned every hour and he banished anyone who is loot-locked out of the zone or something if they got onto his threat list. You don't need these stupid agreements and shit, you just show up, wait maybe an hour or two tops, kill him and do it again next week at your own pace.

[indiscriminate_hater]

I, too, like the idea of 500 bards AOEing every mob on the server

[Cecily]

My suggestion would be to prevent others from ruining your lands much in the same way that they ruined their own.

[magnetaress]

Randomizing rare drops on rare high lvl mobs within a zone, maybe just randomizing the spawn locations, so the ghoul lord can spawn 'anywhere' in the zone very rarely, rare enough that AoEing for 24 hrs is pointless, would have an interesting effect on the way people play the game and gear their characters.

Tradeskills are always an option outside of the "Everyone must wear an FBSS and Trannix crown" approach.

[Patriam1066]

My suggestion would be to prevent others from ruining your lands much in the same way that they ruined their own.

[Baler]

Trivial loot is already a part of the core game. Which would make this idea Not Classic

There is a reason it was removed within the p99 timeline also. It's a bad solution.

Stonebrunt & Warrens have Trivial loot upon their release. By the end of velious their trivial loot code is 'removed'.

[Evia]

This isn't completely original I have borrowed ideas from others. Before anyone get's upset that I am wishing to change project 1999, this isn't the case. This is just for fun, dreaming of game design. I enjoy project 1999's emulated classic experience, you can't get that anywhere.

So how do you prevent people from bottleneck all the good named mobs and raids without instancing? It's a source of conflict that some love and some hate. I have thought about this and read some ideas other's have had.

I imagine a way for any random player to have a chance to either get a nice item with chance or profit. Of course the more you play the higher the chance you still will have but in my mind this following idea will at least provide a chance for everyone.

I picture a quest system from mob drops that spawns named mobs rather than the place holder system. The random mob quest item could be global across all mobs with a rare chance to drop. That would make it impossible to target specific mobs to kill and hog named mobs. The higher the level of the mob the greater the chance of the drop occurring but still very rare, I picture getting the chance to where we may see one drop every few weeks server wide or maybe less depending on the named mob/item.

If the mob is trivial to your character's level then the item would not drop, this would encourage people to fight mobs in their level range. Remember higher level mobs have a greater chance to drop the quest items anyway but people would mow down whole zones of mobs if you didn't make this rule.

The quest item would spawn the named mob in a specific location in the world, where normally the name would have spawned in the placeholder system. The quest item would be trade-able. A lucky newbie leveling could find one and sell it to a guild for wanting to spawn a raid boss. After the quest item is used it can not be used again to spawn the quest mob be it raid or other named mobs.

No instance but still this would prevent people from blocking others from having a chance at named mobs/raids. The people who play more that normally would camp for a week to get something could still increase their odds by killing mobs in their range non-stop for a week to have a much greater chance to get a quest item to spawn a named than someone that plays a hour a day.


Edit: Also you could make the quest more fun but requiring multiple items to spawn a named or raid target as well.


If you nerf tracking and bard aoe, I like this idea.

[mokfarg]

I enjoyed reading the comments and other ideas on the subject. Bard AoE could potentially be the downfall. I will be interested to see how Pantheon ends up handling the bottleneck of non-instance most desired mobs.

Edit: Maybe if you are engaged with more than x number of mobs at the same time, the item to begin the quest to spawn a named mob will not drop or the percentage drops dramatically for every x number above 5 mobs engaged at at time or something like that. I am not programmer I bet what I propose is a nightmare lol. So the bard AoEs the whole zone ... item will never drop or maybe will drop with a .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000001 chance.

[magnetaress]

Just limit bard and wiz AoE to 6- and 8 mobs respectively in order to balance DPM to slightly better than "dot levels" because of risk involved.

[Trexller]

there was a live server where every item was no drop... such a good idea i shoulda tried it