Changes in Mob Aggro

[Justa Mirage]

Somewhere I read, the devs were going to try and change mob aggro again.

I read that they were going to make it so that if the character's adventure rating was "double" that of the mob, the mob would not aggro.

Some of the "distance" that mobs aggro at will be changing based on this too. The higher the rating, the closer you can get to a mob before aggro. Also the reverse was stated, some will aggro at greater distances.

Here's my topic / discussion: (and no... this is not going to devolve into dragon vs. bi-ped)

If a bi-ped (like myself) is playing a single 100 level class and isn't really interested in making myself "Uber-Ped" and have a rating of 102, is this new mob aggro suggestion forcing those that want to be invisible to mobs to multi-class so their rating goes higher?

What about Dragons? Their rating will never go over 100, so level 50 and below mobs will never bother them, why should it... one swipe of a paw takes care of that annoyance.

I can see this being a crafter's boon as if you are a 100th level uber-ped and you want to start doing another class of crafting, you can gather anywhere you want "to a point" without being bothered. Even though most resources have unguarded fields, it probably would be nice to harvest those "other" fields no one would go near due to the mob aggro.

Your take on this??

[Aamer Khan]

kind of a moot point already Justa, as most high level crafters are also high level adventurers. The day of the pure crafter is gone execpt for the few like my wife that have 3-4 lvl 100 craft classes and no adv class over 30.

It is quite easy to level to 100 crafter without having to deal with any mobs. It just takes a bit longer. Even guarded fields can be harvested if a player is careful and patient. Shoot, part of the fun of the naked dryad races is seeing how well you can time your run past mobs that aggro. It's the same for high craft/low adv players. A bit of excitement to spice up the collection process.

My take on the "NEW" changes will form after I see them in action. The only concern I have atm, is that the "random" part will be weighted toward attack and not towards not attacking.

[Vandellia]

I will jump on the bandwagon I will wait till i see the effect for myself still i worry about the worst case scenerio does seem to potentially give dragons an unfair advantage in the area of lessened aggro as they can fly out of aggro range where a Biped has to run thru them.

[Aamer Khan]

After going out and fighting a variety of mobs last night, I have mostly good news!

Mobs seem to see you sooner than before, but the random chance seems to be balanced towards the ignoring of players that run by. And even if you get tagged, they lose interest in you sooner, which will make it a bit easier for crafter to gather in guarded areas if they are mindful of the change.

The only thing I saw that was troubling, was that every so often, a mob will pull up his telescope and spot you from much further away than before. It makes for a much more exciting time that's for sure. You have to be on your toes to not get jumped by more mobs than you can handle. Danger is good, as it prevents bordom. For crafters it may get a bit annoying to had to dodge mobs from further ways than before.

[Varangaard]

Telescopic mob vision (or is certain cases, x-ray vision) may prove troublesome for areas with very limited visibility. For example, the mithril field.

[Mr Goozy Oozy]

agro seems to be ummm excuse the phrase, but ****************.
i'm currently lvl 42, fighting at the ice fortress mobs are ice pgymy and ogres.

ok so here it goes, the lvl 41 mobs swarm me randomly from all different distances, i see them running towards me and try to fire off improved bolt and they are out of range... go figure.

even better the higher lvl ogres (48-50) they are well in range for IPB and just keep walking right on by.

i've learned to use caution while fighting solo but this ups the ante to the point where i need to running around the far outside of an area and hope for agro before i fully start hunting.

[Aamer Khan]

Yep, it changes things... that's a given.

Just a new thing to learn is all. Not a big deal as far as I can see. But I plan on testing all mobs to see how they react. If any of us gets new insights, I hope we all pass them along

[Lycaunoss]

After going out and fighting a variety of mobs last night, I have mostly good news!

Mobs seem to see you sooner than before, but the random chance seems to be balanced towards the ignoring of players that run by. And even if you get tagged, they lose interest in you sooner, which will make it a bit easier for crafter to gather in guarded areas if they are mindful of the change.

The only thing I saw that was troubling, was that every so often, a mob will pull up his telescope and spot you from much further away than before. It makes for a much more exciting time that's for sure. You have to be on your toes to not get jumped by more mobs than you can handle. Danger is good, as it prevents bordom. For crafters it may get a bit annoying to had to dodge mobs from further ways than before.

I was in the mithril field last night minding my own business when I saw a mithril golem from the other side of the field turn in my direction and run right at me. I thought it was the funiest thing I'd ever seen until I realized it was Mhedon. Apparently he must remember me killing him or something becuase he was smacking me around like crazy. Indeed if I wasn't able to have my view distance set to maximum I probably wouldn't have seen him in time to get away. Never mind that he ran straight up a vertical cliff to get me.

The moral of this story is that one must remain alert when gathering higher tier resources now. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure I like it but it's going to keep me more on my toes from now on.

[Nexxus]

This new change does mean that most mobs aggro me before I can even see them, due to my computer not being the greatest in the world.

Not a good change imho, mobs you cant see shouldnt see you.

[LaughingOtter]

Not a good change imho, mobs you cant see shouldnt see you.

And how should the game determine that? If you spot a mob and suddenly turn to face the opposite direction, should the mob suddenly stand there muttering, "Which way did he go, which way did he go?" before wandering off? If you are near a mob with your visual distance at minimum and someone on the other side of the spawn sets theirs to maximum, should the mob next to you suddenly aggro the other person?

I could understand this kind of Sophistry from my six year-old, but not from a rational adult.

[Anima]

<Waves!>


I think the point he is trying to relate to us is, some lower end machines require the view distance to be set lower so the frame rate is reasonable enough for functionality. That must be very frustrating, having something start to attack you before you can even see it.

<Waves!>

[HratLi]

Klaus,

Well, how about if something does damage to you it rises in the draw priority no matter how far it is from you? Anything that causes an effect on your character SHOULD show up on the combat chat.

Me, I'm sick and tired of walking through the wind golems and getting snipped by damage that I never see the source of. Just suddenly I start dying. Or in the case of Gale, I'm DEAD. Just the red -2690 floating over my head and no comment in the combat chat.

Maybe something like this is workable and make us all happy.

-HratLi

[LaughingOtter]

:-) I understand the point; but there is no way for the game to make any kind of evaluation about issues like that. I don't dual-box because my second computer is a PIII 550 with 256mb of RAM. It won't let me do more than have a character sitting in one place. It's not reasonable to ask that the game be changed enough for me to be able to run it well on that system. It isn't going to happen.

[AA0]

If the mob agro can't adjust to what the client has set up as defaults, then the mob agro has to be adjusted, quite simply. This isn't acceptable, really.

[LaughingOtter]

If you walk into an alligator pit wearing a blindfold, do you expect the alligators to refrain from interacting with you on a deep and personal level simply because doing so isn't sporting?

If I spot the Huntress and she hasn't picked up on me, she's going to eat Dark Cyclone before she knows what's hit her. Galewind, no doubt, looks at us the same way.

If mob aggro adjusted based on a player's client settings, it would make any number of exploits possible. Party members wait with 'minimum aggro' settings while another group member tweaks their client settings to draw as much aggro as possible from as many mobs as can be found in as large an area as possible, pulling them in to be slaughtered while the rest of the group enjoys a much lower chance to attract aggro to themselves. I can think of a number of ways this could be used to grief people as well.

Now, an indicator that something has aggroed on you or a highlight that shows who just attacked you - something like that would be great, because sometimes the attacking mob is in a location where you would not normally look for them, such as under the river crossing rocks in the swamp.

[Deth]

*breaks out his danger sensitive glasses out and put them on.*

[Aamer Khan]

How about this as a compromise for ALL players whether fighting or just trying to gather resources...

Have ANY mob that tags you, automatically be highlighted as if you had selected it.

Even mobs that are out of range would still be seen by the beam of light in piercing the clouds. This is exactly how I target mobs as a ranger. I autoselect the nearest mob and look for the beam of light.

If this was implemented, even if the aggro was not changed one bit, then you would have plenty of time to RUNNOFT. And so far in my testing, the mobs DO seem to leave off from chasing you sooner than before. ( but I'm still testing that )

[Magnir]

How about mobs not aggroing you from 100 meters away on the other side of a mountain?

[Helcat]

How about this as a compromise for ALL players whether fighting or just trying to gather resources...

Have ANY mob that tags you, automatically be highlighted as if you had selected it.

Even mobs that are out of range would still be seen by the beam of light in piercing the clouds. This is exactly how I target mobs as a ranger. I autoselect the nearest mob and look for the beam of light.

If this was implemented, even if the aggro was not changed one bit, then you would have plenty of time to RUNNOFT. And so far in my testing, the mobs DO seem to leave off from chasing you sooner than before. ( but I'm still testing that )

I believe that's already ins Option: "Auto-Select Attackers"

[Justa Mirage]

Or better yet....

How about "social aggro?" If you are way out of normal aggro range, and something like a treant standing next to 3 others decides to "pull out the looking glass" and aggro on you, this would in-turn aggro the ones around it, bringing them all to you.

Haven't tested that theory yet.