Really need an honest answer -- bug or design

[U2502]

I have seen where it says the spawn rates are "fixed". What I experience is that I literally fly for 40 minutes to find a single spider all over the area that once was teaming with the little beasts, and this goes for all other things I attempt to hunt as well, such as Fire Ogres and Jade Golems.

I look around and rarely see anyone else around. The spawn is painfully slow for the things I try to hunt (for Dragon ability quests, Trophy Quests, or just critters that are level appropriate for me at 78).

Is this the way it is supposed to be or is this a bug or being looked at? Because, frankly, at this point it is just an exercise in frustration and futility. If this is the new way, fine, I will just move on, but I really want to know.

I feel I have been more than patient and continue to play, but can we please get this addressed?

Thanks,
Daack
DRAG 78
DRAC 64
Chaos

[Felinor]

They are still having trouble with the spawns it seems. Some areas are fine, others are completely barren and void like you mentioned. I have no idea why they can't get this fixxed, but I can tell you right now, its not intended hehe.

[Korsh]

I agree with Felinor. One other thing I've noticed (and I don't know if this is necessarily you issue) is that spawn are very slow or deserted when I first enter them. If I hang out there awhile mobs begin to pop more and more until it seems 'fully spawned' again. Ihave heardcode has been implemented to support this observation in that they have been trying to save database load by not spawning monsters in areas where there are no players. With dragons I might speculate that flying prevents the area from recognizing you are there so mobs are never spawned?

Again, just speculation on my part. Even is this is related to the new spawn code I think it needs looked at. The amount of time I have to wait around for mobs to start popping with any frequency is in the 10-15 minute range which is unacceptable.

[Jah]

The new spawning systems are very efficient. First, we never actually shut monsters down, we re-use them without actually freezing them so it?s a lot easier on the whole system. We just send them new visual / school information. After start-up, the DB isn?t involved. All spawning information is cached so we don?t have to bug the DB.

Enabling a region isn?t done on a per-monster basis. Instead have you check in to monster regions when you get close enough to a region. We did disable them on a per-monster basis back in beta, but it didn?t work out since they?d all end up shut down in some back corner eventually. There?s also a delay before shutting any region off, so if you exit and re-enter we don?t end up burning CPU needlessly.

Right now, the spawning is actually pretty quick, since it?s based on intersecting with the region, we get that much more warning before someone walks in. The main way you can tell they just spawned is because they usually buff those first few seconds (which we?re probably going to ?fix? soon.)

Our biggest problem right now is detecting the player intent. Despite what I?ve said about the efficiency of our spawning, we can?t afford to turn on every region to full every time because we don?t have a pool large enough to do that. Turning a monster on takes him out for several minutes. So, we only turn on a bare minimum of monsters until we think the player is going to be doing something in that area. Once we decide that they are going to be there for a while, then you see the rest of the region turn on. The system that decided when to turn a region up was what we fixed last night.

Basically you need to wait ~ 5mins for spawn to start up from scratch. The above is a dev response to same question in different thread.

[Atrayou]

remember for you Dragons no collision detection means...

that in order for the player activating spawning process to begin YOU MUST LAND. Flying over an area isn't going to trigger it.

[Korsh]

Yea, that's what i was thinking might be the case.

[Ikfel]

So then it would work something like this: An adventurer enters an area, finds no mobs, stays a brief time and moves on without the mobs spawning; a crafter enters a field, sees plenty of resources and no mobs, starts happily collecting, after a few minutes lots of mobs start spawning and the crafter is in big trouble.

I've had that sort of thing happen to me in the mithril fields. No golems around anywhere until I've been mining a while then suddenly half a dozen of them pop in my vicinity.

So it would seem AE has come up with a system where the mobs are reserved for beating on crafters. I guess they're making due with finite resources and putting them where they are needed most: harassing crafters. [:P]

[Korsh]

I hear next week their implementing a new system wherin crafters will become preferential targets. Mobs will actually break off combat with an Adventurer to go pound on the crafter who wanders by. Something to do with the golems and treants being up in arms about how crafters are defiling the bodies of their fallen brethren. [:P]

[Jah]

a crafter enters a field, sees plenty of resources and no mobs, starts happily collecting, after a few minutes lots of mobs start spawning and the crafter is in big trouble.
I guess they're making due with finite resources and putting them where they are needed most: harassing crafters.

Actually, AE already took care of that issue.There is a 20 sec delay after a mob is spawned before it will attack. A crafter simply needs to be aware of his/her suroundings to be safe.

[cauri_order]

The dragon flying thing actually makes sense. When I'm flying around scouting for mobs, I find maybe 1 or 2 in the area. As soon as I land and starting fighting the one mob, the others start popping.

I was playing with Enduring Fyakki last night. At most I could find 1 per beach. As soon as I landed and picked a fight....3-4 appeared on the beach to be destroyed.

This makes dragons landing very dangerous. I've also landed started fighting and then had mobs pop right on top of me.

[Felinor]

Wow, good info people. I'm sure this post answers alot of people's questions as to the mob problem. This seems like an interesting way of handing database and CPU usage on thier part. Only time will tell if their conservative approach is good for us too, but now that I know how it works I think I can use it properly.

[Digita]

Ok, i think i get the "turning on" the monsters thing. However, is there a shut-off valve? Or an upper limit to the # of mobs that pop?

In the new Trandalar area ... i forget which, where Jasper, Citrine, and Aquamarine golems spawn... first there were zip... then there were 8, and for each one killed, they kept popping... NON STOP... Totally surrounded... almost impossible to disengage.

The intent was to explore the area, not to be stuck at one spot casting endlessly.

[cauri_order]

ahhh but just think of the multiple mob xp you'd be raking in!! [:P]

[padishar]

Yea, that tier 3 gem golems area, is pretty nice. they spawn so fast you always have a full field.

I'll have to check the dragon flying thing. I usualy search for mobs during flight, maybe thats why I didn't find any earlier.

[Ikfel]

Actually, AE already took care of that issue.There is a 20 sec delay after a mob is spawned before it will attack. A crafter simply needs to be aware of his/her suroundings to be safe.

There is a lot of truth to that. I used that delay to my advantage in clearing out of an area the pops. But there can still be problems when you're in restricted canyons, like at the Mithril and dragging a slow cargo disk. It's also just plain annoying not knowing where the golems are. You've generally got a lot of choice in which part of the field to collect your resources. You go to the most convenient section high in resources and low in mobs. But now the whole field at first looks free of agro, then wherever you pick will be where the mobs spawn. Does this mean we now have a five minute time limit on collecting before being evicted from the field by heavy mob spawn?

[Neon]

When it comes to the whole dragging a disk and then having a mob aggro on you, there is a way to make your getaway quicker. A while back the devs implemented a command to ground/unground your cargo disk. Unfortunately I'm not positive, but if I am remembering correctly, the command is /equip.

You could then bind this command to a hotkey, so if a mob pops on you, you can just hit the button and run. Something else I would suggest, and I do this myself, is when you are out crafting, keep your adventuring jewelry with you in a pouch (only 1 bulk per piece, so not gonna hurt your capacity), and add it to your equip/unequip cargo disk button, so that you can hit your 'get out!' button, which will boost your health, and your speed.[:)]

[Ikfel]

Adventuring jewelry? You can put adventure techs on jewelry?

OK, yes, I knew that. I just don't really have any adventure jewelry. I have an awful lot of crafting jewelry though. I stopped carrying it with me when I realized that the sum total of it was actually denting my capacity. (I suppose it was after the merge once I could get it back into the expanded vault.)

Now that the techs are reasonable to do again and the components available on the Vielo, I'll have to consider having some adventure jewelry made. Maybe make myself some decent teched armor too (at least the stuff I wear while harvesting).

The trouble with leaving your cargo disk behind is that the pop of half a dozen golems can sit on top of it for quite some time. Since I can only handle one of them at a time, it could be a long time before I can fight my way to my disk again. (Note that the mithril canyons limit the possible approaches.)