A little help understanding the 'new' spawn system

[thefatone]

Ok. I was hunting brighter spiders (Chic) last night and noticed something.

I looked around near the entrance to the Dead Pool where i believed there were spiders hanging out all the time.

I saw none. "Hmm ... they were here before" I thought.

Oh well, I figured. I ran towards the entrance and what do ya know. I found one lonely spider.

"Ha. Die spider," I screamed and shot him in the left eye, well one of the left ones I think.

He ran towards me, all pissed off, and started biting me. I was kicking his thorax when about 5 more spawned right on top of us.

One, no problem, two ... ok, but Ill have to use all my heal/syphon spells/abilities then rest afterwards.

Six! I ran, fast.

Is this how it's supposed to work? You look around and see none, and then when you get to a certain spot, it 'activates' the spawn?

If thats so, then my only gripes (minor, not game stopping) are this.

A: it looks kind lame to have an empty landscape but you know there will be mobs when you get there. No more, "Look Bill. over there, at the bottem of the hill, Spiders."

B: what about the Scout ability "Sense Enimies" How is this going to work if you have to be right where the mobs spawn in order for them to be there?

I dont know. Maybe I am wrong, or just not noticing the Pros of this.
Any thought? or answers?

[Kulamata]

I gather that the spawn system is still being tweaked, and it is considerably improved. However, some of the versions have tended to "rain" critters. Great for groups, not so great for solo adventurers, and quite awkward for miners and gatherers.

I'm not sure if it is easy, or even possible to differentiate the spawns, taking into account the adv. group size, and whether the critters are a resource sources, such as mineral golems.

One saving grace is that there is a 20 second pause now before the critter "awakes", so that there is usually time to run before disaster strikes.

On balance though, it is definitely getting better.

[thefatone]

It doesnt seem that bad. Once i was there, spiders were all over the place. I actualy found it had to avoid them, which is nice. I like fighting.

Im glad AE is improving the system. Hopefully it keeps getting better.

I wonder, does this help with lag? Not having all the mobs there when no one is around?

Also, what do you think on what I said about looking around ahead of you and not seeing any mobs? I think It would be nice if when you aproach a spot where mobs are you can see them in the slight distance.

Like i said, nothing game stopping. More just 'extra'.

[Silvanathan Shadowbane]

The area near the dead pool always has (well in the 2 months I've had HZ) has always had an insane spawn of those brighter spiders. Some places have mad spawn, other, like ruxus, have almost no spawn.

[thefatone]

Ill go do some more hunting tonight.

Im having some trouble finding Mobs in my range.

Maybe some suggestions from some experienced players?[:D]

I'm a lvl 20 Spiritist atm. Rated 28.

[gopher65]

The more objects that the servers have to keep track of the more they are bogged down. This is esspecially true of non-static objects (mobs, PC's). I imagine that this is part of the reason why NPC's trainers/guards/randoms don't move around. To lessen the lag they gererate by their very existance.

The millions of Gruoks that used to infest Aug were a good example. My FPS dropped a good 15FPS whenever I ran though there because there were 40-80 lvl 1 gruoks wandering around for no good reason. Thank goodness they removed them.

[imported_Lycaunoss]

It's usually only a problem in the high aggro areas but I've definitely noticed that the spawn is behaving strangely. Mass spawn and even mass de-spawn occured to me last night in WD. The de-spawn is the scary part because it typically turns back into a mass spawn faster than if you just entered the area. I assume that's the way that it's configured by the devs and it's way better than the enter area and wait form of spawning that we were getting a few weeks ago.

[Finduilas]

At this point your feedback is only preliminary and does not yet reflect the "new" spawning system as a whole.

However, it looks like a place holder solution to AEs question, "how do you determine the player's intention?"

Well, if you spawn 1 placeholder mob close to a low level adv/higher level crafter, and the crafter ignores it to carry on gathering then you don't bother spawning more mobs. Server gets less lag, crafter is happy to safely craft.
If you attack the mob it spawns more, assuming your spoiling for a fight.
However, it should really depend on the speed with which you dispatch the first mob. A solo player will take longer to kill an evenly matched mob thana player20 levels higher, or a group of same level. So, you spawn mobs depending on the kill speed, to determine whether a player is equipped to take on 1 or 2 more, or 5, 6 10, and so on.

It also makes sense. One animal wandering about, or guarding the nest, will call out to alert others when attacked, and more will appear to help. Would be nice if they didn't "just" pop though, but appeared from offscreen, or had an animation showing them emerging from the ground, bushes, lairs etc. This could also serve as a 5 or 10 second timer, in which you can choose to run if you think you can't handle the emerging spawn.

Would be good also, to be able to snare ALL mobs nearby, then pull out the one you are fighting, to kill it, but still have an option on the others, if you want. That as opposed to the mobs despawning if you pull away with first mob.

You would have a max number of mobs spawning in a given period, but for certain creatures (insects,spiders) you could a real challenge by say, doubling the spawn each time, 2,4,8,16, and so on, up to point. Or a wave of drones/workers, then warriors, then a named.

I wait and see.