Spawn Density, might a developer respond please?

[Con]

thx Walter for encouraging me to visit the fire opal golems a second time. when i arrived, there were 4+ present, andi had a constant and sufficient respawn (3-5 spawning each time). so much for good news.

i then visited the emerald golems on saritova again (here my amateur observations, perhaps they are useful):

there used to be 4 linked spawn places for emerald golems (26951/14915, 27206/15284, 27845/15644, 28309/15864), and if clearing one or more of them you could be sure to always and immediately meet reincorcements in the linked field. my visit today went like this:
west field: verdeios there, couldnt kill him, wait 3 mins, 2 em. golems spawn, killed them, waited 15 minutes, no further spawn, left
half west field: no golems present, waited 15 minutes, left
half east field: 1 golem, killed him, waited 8 minutes, 1 golem respawns, killed him, waited 15 minutes, no further respawn, left
east field: 1 golem present, killed him, waited 3 minutes, 2 golems respawn, waited 15 minutes, left

thats 7 golems in 74 minutes!

seems the fields are still somehow linked, and if i had made the way back again i would probably have met (perhaps after waiting 3 minutes) golems again. now having to wait 3 minutes for a spawn to be triggered and working is bad enough, but the trouble is, you never know when one of several linked fields is depleted and all waiting will be in vain. but upon arrival you simply have to wait to find out if anything could spawn there at all. not fun.

i believe the constant spawn of the fire opal golem spot (and on fire volcano island too) is caused by the linked spawn locations there being located side by side (fire opal golems on saritova for example spawn either all near the entry ledge, or near the backside cliff, these might be 2 linked spawn points). so your presence in one field triggers spawn of both fields.

Phade, or anyone at AE responsible for mob spawn, if my observations/guesses are nonsense, please ignore them,but have a look at the 3 threads about spawn problems (not only t5 mobs) in the unity subforum anddo something about the spawn! Thanks.

Varaenion/Unity

[DeathTiny]

(i admit that i have not visited the blight. i try to avoid,since i have not yet found a wayto switch offthe constant lightning flashes (get a headache soon).

if you want to turn off the green / lightning etc (but the sky will ge gone too) just type /setpref environmentsystem false and relog
This will stay permanent until you turn it on with /setpref environmentsystem true.
Hope this helps as i have the same problem with blighted areas if i stay for a longer time.

[Jaraiden]

Well, I am hunting for technique drops and the tier III gem golems around the Tower of Healing were lacking (i.e. spa.rse), along with the Ice Golems SE of Mahagra.

So went north to the island and found tier III golems a plenty. Large group of them. So soon to find the ice golems there.

Rather long way to run (Mahagra, Tower of Sorcery, portal, run more) for a decent spawn of high level 40s to low level 60smonsters.

[Connrad]

Ok, on Chaos, the spawn system seems to work...sometimes. I'm not talking about different spawns, I'm talking about going to the same area at different times. Take silver golems for instance, you go there one day, find one, kill it, wait, boom! golems all over. Go there the next day, find one kill it....wait...maybe two more spawn...kill them....wait...wait.... This is silly. It takes way too long to find stuff to kill to lvl in this game. I think the crafting system is cool, and I don't mind crafting once in a while, but I am foremost, and always will be, and Adventurer first. Spawns need to work right, all the time. I shouldn't have to run around for 15 min, having killed only one monster, and have nothing spawn. I shouldnt have to kill one monster, then sit down and wait, and pray that a spawn will occur.

That having been said, I appreciate the fact that folks like Phade take the time to come to the boards and talk to us.

Connrad

PS Oh, and the ruxus spawn never works right on chaos. I have gone days there without seeing a ruxus.

[Andrew Zozulya]

I was yersterday at nagruk spawn... fount 4 mobs there 3 pygmeys and 1 oger.
Granite golems spawn - 2 at once. In 15 min i've kill 5 of them (1 kill is max 20 secs)... Funny spawn rate.

[Fhrain]

I hope we get this problem fixed soon, hunting last night on Unity was a disaster. The only place where mobs spawn, Deadlands, we get hunted by lag which instant kills us in bigger groups....plz AE/GN....fix it as soon as you can

[Dvergar]

yesterday, I tried to hunt for some tech 5 drops. Giant Ice beetle at Ice island: found one beetle on the whole island. Moved on to the wind/storm ogres. found 2 named ogres and saw 4-5 storm ogres in total (but not a single wind ogre). Even tho there were at least 3 groups running thru the area, there was no increased spawn, it was bad all the time (10 min?). After waiting for wind ogres without any success, I pulled the named wind ogre (lvl 107) and was dead with 2 hits (2,2k hp!), and not a single message what hit me...

I really understand why the adventurers are complaining so much...

And me, I'm back on craft levling, as I can't get the stuff I need for my techs... :(

[DeathTiny]

same here .. back on crafting mixed with shorts hunts with friends sometimes as there are near no spawns where we could have fun in groups without respawn or healthbar-problems. :(

[Malaficeint]

I had no troubles with spawns of Arbotus last night,nor fire pygs, although I couldnt locate Cinderfist, saw Nagruk though.

[Gilresk]

I wasn't having too much trouble hunting, until recently. I was trying to hunt down some redbacked spiders near Aug. but it was just wait for 5+ minutes, look around. Find one or two, then wait 10+ minutes, maybe find one, then wait some more.

Eventually I gave up and went hunting the golems I also needed for a tech component. Those I had better luck with. What I did notice though was that when there were also a couple other people sometimes wandering through, which really seemed to have helped to trigger the spawns. I also didn't have trouble a week before hunting arbortus with a guildmate. The problem seems to be when you're solo in an area, it's just not enough to trigger the spawning.

What might work, I think, since the devs have said their main issue with spawn rates is trying to get a good way to identify a player's intent (to hunt or not to hunt) while passing through the area. I'd say give us all an ability that would simply trigger the spawning. Essentially it's like going out into the woods and shouting "Hey monsters, come and get me". Would tie in nicely with the warcry emote. Put it on a half hour or hour timer so it doesn't get abused, since the real point is that people should be using it to get the spawns going and then hunt in that area for a good amount of time.

[DeathTiny]

What might work, I think, since the devs have said their main issue with spawn rates is trying to get a good way to identify a player's intent (to hunt or not to hunt) while passing through the area. I'd say give us all an ability that would simply trigger the spawning. Essentially it's like going out into the woods and shouting "Hey monsters, come and get me". Would tie in nicely with the warcry emote. Put it on a half hour or hour timer so it doesn't get abused, since the real point is that people should be using it to get the spawns going and then hunt in that area for a good amount of time.

This might work .. ok more timers and some dev-work but this could be something to handle the spawns and triggers a little bit better than just checking if players want to hunt or if not.

[Digita]

It's nice to read that some spawns are working great. However, I have to say that the spawns are seriously borked in old hunting spots, like around Dralk. In Char, it seem that the introduction of some new mobs such as fire wolf and flame wolf, have come at the cost of several others.

Yesterday, tried to lvl my 65 spiritist. Took the quest for 5 flame wolves. Ok, that worked eventually. (newer mob).
Then took quest for Flame Ogre bludgeoner. Ran all thru the old routes they used to spawn on when they ambushed me on the old run to Obsidian. Zip zilch nada. Stood still for 2-3 minutes in each spot. Cancelled quest after about 1 hr.

Then took quest for Obsidian Boulder golem. Once again, ran down to tower of Wizardry, dropped down, and hung out in the area around it, along the beach in the area where 12 of them would hang out at once (well mixed with Ore golems). Zip zilch nada. Also, again, waited for like 3-5 minutes in old spawn points. Only Tashka Lusa eventually spawned. Cancelled quest after another hour. I did auto target 1 ore golem (wrong type), and what spawns next to him, but a lvl 80 golem. (that's 3 trophy groupings higher than a lvl 60-64 ore golem). What's up with that.

Finally got the shadow spider quest and moved to that area. Oh, they spawned all-right, but always with a spider shadow breeder, (the next trophy grouping higher).

Why do the things that actually spawn, spawn with such a disparate Trophy grouping range?? If i didn't have 100 healer lvls with my spirit, these fights with mixed Range groups would be extremely difficult.

Also took the rare squirrel quest, and lo and behold, 1 small arbotus, 1 arbotus, 2 large arbotus, and 1 tremendous, spawned within a couple of feet of each other. That's 4 different trophy groupings in one small spawn area.

If we're reduced to the trophy hunts now, why mix up the lvl ranges like this? At least under the old imperial task master quests, if you got cursed wolves... you just found cursed wolves. (Well, with the ocassional Dark Stalker spawn).

And a lvl 64 obsidian ore golem, with a level 80 lava golem? That's a huge difference for a character that isn't lvling his 2nd class like I am. If the goal is to encourage new players to come to Horizons and stay, have the game mechanics work for them, not for us with multiple classes. Scenarios like this scream Forced Grouping to me.

Also, with all these tasks with really thin mobs... if' they're a trophy hunt mob, and you're not upping their spawn or making it logical in any way, then just make them drop the bloody trophies already!!!

[Vindra]

Hunting for Frost Beetle Carapaces last week on Unity, because I needed them to tech my new armor, resulted in a friend of mine offering 50 silver for a carapace.

We were hunting on the icy mountain on Scorpion Isles where there's supposded to be 3 spawns of Frost Beetles. After completely clearing the first spot of the 1 (!) Beetle and a few Ogres and Pygmies, we waited for a couple minutes, then moved on to the next spot, killing all we found (Ogres, Pygmies and again 1 (!) Beetle. Waited again, moved on to the third spot. Same there, only without a frost beetle.

Later we camped two spots simultaniouslyfor at least 2 hours (!) with only an occasional Ogre, Pygmie or - very, very rare - Frost Beetle showing up. We didn't find any Carapaces in the about 10 Beetles that we found over the course of three hours. Which made my friend offer the aforementioned 50 silver for one..

And, no, we were not harvesting from "lower mobs" - my friend's a lvl 47 Healer and I was there with my lvl 40 Mage - so, with two Ogres being able to severely beat the crap out of my Mage I don't think that would count as "too high" for a 30-35 lvl Spawn Area..

As Frost Beetle Carapaces are needed for several techs AND as Frost Beetles themselves are needed for a Dragon Quest, I can only ask the Devs to have some more looks into that Spawn Problem..

Pretty please.. and make it quick, because even crafting get's boring when you're not able to tech stuff for sale..

[Vlisson]

hmm why they changed the spawn system?

all worked fine

ok after merge a lot of more players with old unsufficient hardware you want to work against lag

i hate the new system. a real good hunt isnt possible at moment

the spawn points which triggers monster spawns cant be found (or im to silly to do it)

please fix it

[Digita]

Well, the newer mobs seem to pop just fine... in fact, overly enthusiastly at times. It's just some areas that seem to be CONSTANTLY neglected and slow.

If the total number of spawns is finite, then if there are hot spots elsewhere in the world, can't the total count there be turned down a tad, allowing some critters to spawn elsewhere?

I'm making zilch progress on my trophy quests as the only thing that does seem to spawn are the shadow spiders, along with their higher tier shadow breeder spiders.

[Jaraiden]

I don't know what is going on here.

I am hunting for tier II techs from Leafy oastics and Frost pygmies. Sometimes I can corral up 4 oastics but often times it is an occasional one or two. And yes I look around for others. Low density. Then I go south to Scorpian Island for Frost pygmies . . . Snow pygmies and ogres, wolves, and a few frost pygmies and ogres . . . but a bit lacking.

Then I remember the packed area on the northern island of tier III golems, a nice spawning of Ice golems and even Oak treants.

Are more tier II monsters like this? Or is the northern island so special?

:: Doesn't even mention the poor drop rate of sacs or ears ::

[Finduilas]

I have rposted this in another thread that will probably disappear so here is my feedback:


I got the maple leaf quest, went to the area where the mobs spawn, found 1 which I killed, then ran around for 20 minutes couldnt find another.


Aug mines:

Just after the merge patch I went through there. It was jammed packed with nickel nodes, and took ages to map becauseI kept stopping to kills clusters of golems. Now, almost empty. I have spent ages here mining, but my presence has not alerted or triggered mob spawns.

Elm/Oak: Mapped these areas too, LOADS of mobs once, now very few except wisps.

Just went to the cobalt golem area. Found an killed 2 mobs. Ran around for 3 minutes, found another, ran around some more. Overall, about 7 or 8 mobs found across 20 minutes there.

Ice Island: nice T5 mobs, but few and far between..

Western Dealands; loads of mobs, constantly spawning. Great place to get exp, shame about everywhere else. I have camped the mob spawn sites, not just passed through, but mobs do not start to pop up more quickly if you stay, or kill those you find.

Someone will probably post to say, "there are loads of mobs, you just have to look for them, stop being lazy".I have mapped about 80% of the new world. Been all over, and it is mostly the same story.


Oh, and as the the, "stand still for 5 mins" bit. Crud. Are you serious? Really?

Remember when you first started playing? Back in Dec, Jan?

I remember what a joy it was after playing evercamp to finally have no downtime. Just kill mobs one after another. Wipe out a spawn, run down the road a bit and find some more. Those were the days.No "sudden pops". Groups of mobs together.

When I look back I realise just how broken the present game is.

[Digita]

It looks like we all post and post on this topic... but nothing gets better in older hunting areas. Trophy quests cannot be completed, but they are not changed. The drop rate on the slow to spawn areas for trophies and comps have NOT been increased to compensate for the lack of spawn.

I don't even know why Blight anchors were introduced since their spawn probably takes away from other spawn, thus compounding the problem with lack of spawn in older hunting areas.

Not one peep out of the Devs on any of the posts relating to mob spawns.

[BKBanzai]

Seems like there are either NO mobs that spawn...or 37897418274827148271 all at the same time and kick your...well...my ******.

This makes adventuring very not fun.

We should be given free ambrosia with the deaths due to insane mob spawning coupled with the health bar update bug.

[Fireclaw]

I have seen mobs spawn in sufficient numbers for hunting. Most seem to only spawn when you hang around for 5 minutes. This is vastly inferior to the way it was when the game came out where mobs were always around and you had to watch where you ran because you might run into a mob. Nowadays if you want to get somewhere you can probably just run there without encountering anything, unless you stop to take a 5-minute break.

My theory is the problem is caused by the new server hardware being vastly inferior to the old. Until AE changed the spawns to the present system, mobs weren't spawning at all post merge for the most part. Unfortunately, AE probably lacks the funding to afford hardware sufficient to allow them to go back to a more realistic spawning system, so we are just going to have to live with it.