Accepted Alpha Spawn

[Dabriel]

Good day everyone.

Recently, in the on-going giveaway thread, I've explained how I enjoy a specific feature in an MMO. It got the attention of some of the team members and @KabbyDankGod advised me to make a proper thread suggesting the feature.
I'm glad it got the attention it did, but I'm now hoping to hear the thoughts of the rest of the community.

What's the Alpha Spawn?
We all played an MMO before, we all know how people start marking farming spots and mapping out where the Goblins and Skeletons spawn, etc... And we know how it can get boring after the first 5 minutes of grinding.
The alpha spawn feature is meant to add the sense of danger and a bit of excitement to the peaceful wilds with the hopping rabbits and mooing cows.

Tomorrow; sunny, with level 5 cows, with a small chance of... death.

It's meant to target the low level zones in-game but it can be used for all the zones to add a higher level of threat at all stages.

Example of how it works:
Inside of a zone that has skeletons between level 8 and 10, the alpha spawn will add a chance to that zone to include (Or spawn while farming) an evolved version of the zone's default mobs that will be stronger and 3-5 levels higher than the usual level range in that zone, a level 14 Elder Lich for an example.

This will add the danger element to farming mobs, because there will be a chance that you will be fighting for your life in the next 10 seconds instead of fighting for XP.

This feature can be modified and designed to be better, of course.
Adding multiple Alpha spawns to a single zone instead of one, to make it even more unpredictable and harder for the players to prepare for it. Tho I would suggest doing that for the mid-to-endgame zones, to make those harder and not add a lot of pressure on new players.


OP's notes:
I would love to hear your thoughts on the idea and what can be improved to make dyescape wilds even more dangerous

 

[KabbyDankGod]

I think there should be two functionalities for this system!

The first one would:
- In default spawn locations, you would have varying levels. Let's say the "default level" is 10. In this default level range, you'd have a range like 8-12. Then you'd have singular higher level monsters like level 15 or level 15 elites that spawn. This difference shouldn't be too high to make players keep dying to these mobs, but it makes the players more cautious of where and how they level. This would ensure you couldn't just keep face rolling these mobs with your squad.

The second one would be more dynamic:
- This is more thematic and should be used as such. Let's say you're in a small village taken over by bandits. Now, this is just a normal leveling area, maybe you have a few quests here and such. If you kill too many mobs too fast, elite mobs would start to spawn. This could be a bandit mini-boss or a bandit enforcer, or like in the original post an elder lich. This allows for a limit on how much "worse" players can kill in this area as this mob would be harder to kill and such players of lower skill could get a force that can beat them. For skilled players, they can manage their kills or even solo defeat this monster. Or in areas where you're supposed to group up, this would require more teamwork.

I'll be eagerly waiting for more responses and chat about this topic since this is very interesting.

 

[Dabriel]

I think there should be two functionalities for this system!
The second one would be more dynamic:
- This is more thematic and should be used as such. Let's say you're in a small village taken over by bandits. Now, this is just a normal leveling area, maybe you have a few quests here and such. If you kill too many mobs too fast, elite mobs would start to spawn. This could be a bandit mini-boss or a bandit enforcer, or like in the original post an elder lich. This allows for a limit on how much "worse" players can kill in this area as this mob would be harder to kill and such players of lower skill could get a force that can beat them. For skilled players, they can manage their kills or even solo defeat this monster. Or in areas where you're supposed to group up, this would require more teamwork.

I like the idea here.
This can play in both settings. Players at the same level of the zone will have a hard time if they manage spawning the elite mob, and players that are higher level, challenging their skill and speed and see if they can spawn it and defeat it.
It's not really an alpha spawn, it's more of a mini-boss summoning method but it's still a good thing to have. Adds to the PvE of the game.

 

[MrDienns]

Let's say the "default level" is 10. In this default level range, you'd have a range like 8-12.

This we already have. In regions, we configure the level ranges, and a level within that range gets chosen randomly.

Does either have of you have a suggestion on spawn percentages of these alphas?

 

[Dabriel]

This we already have. In regions, we configure the level ranges, and a level within that range gets chosen randomly.

Does either have of you have a suggestion on spawn percentages of these alphas?

I recommend them to be "Uncommon", 1 in 1000. Between 0.1% and 1%;
Though it really does depend on the level of threat that you want to introduce.

You do not want it to spawn often, but you want players to stay on their toes: 0.1% to 1%
You want it to spawn often, make it known to all players as a main part of PvE: 2% to 8%

But maybe you can make it vary depending on what kind of zone it is.
Uncommon in low level zones, rare in high level zones (If you decide to add multiple alphas to a single high level zone, make some rare and some uncommon(Maybe add some very rare ones too.))

 

[Immortal]

Time for my two cents (yay).

I find this suggestion very interesting and it would definitely be good to break up the monotony of grinding.

Expanding on an idea Kabby placed forth on this topic is a mechanic that could be used to determine the spawning of these elite mobs:

Killing a mob within a defined region adds a specific amount of hidden Region-Player threat (essentially, how dangerous the region's sentience finds the player to be ingame). This R-P threat decays over time (Like a fifth of the specified threat per second or something). Therefore, if a player killed mobs, say, once every five seconds, a balance would be maintained in recognition of the player's barest competence to be in the zone and no elite mobs spawned.

Say, however, that another, powerful player, walked in and started slaughtering mobs left and right. This would build the R-P threat significantly faster. When it passes a certain threshold, the region spawns an elite mob up to five levels above the normal maximum level mob for that region.

Another additional thing: If the player manages to kill the elite before their threat dropped below the threshold to spawn the elite, the region would respond by spawning another elite after a fixed cooldown (Say, five minutes).

 

[KabbyDankGod]

I recommend them to be "Uncommon", 1 in 100. Between 0.1% and 1%;
Though it really does depend on the level of threat that you want to introduce.

You do not want it to spawn often, but you want players to stay on their toes: 0.1% to 1%
You want it to spawn often, make it known to all players as a main part of PvE: 2% to 8%

But maybe you can make it vary depending on what kind of zone it is.
Uncommon in low level zones, rare in high level zones (If you decide to add multiple alphas to a single high level zone, make some rare and some uncommon(Maybe add some very rare ones too.))

I think this should be determined by mob and zone. You wanna have these mobs spawn rarely in low level zones, like around 1% of time and if its considered a "rare spawn" it should be maybe 0.1% chance or it has a longer respawn time.

Then pump up the rate with zone level. This could be like 10% at its cap. The gradual increasion makes it easier for players to learn to avoid or combat these mobs. Rare spawns could have a 1/10th chance of the normal alpha mob, but they would have a chance to drop better loot / mounts and cosmetics.

 

[Euvrounin]

This can be done easily thru our region and mob system.
I'll take note on this.

Also

Tomorrow; sunny, with level 5 cows, with a small chance of... death.

done.

 

[Aekalix]

The suggestion has been accepted. Will receive implementation possibly in alpha or later during alpha release.

Thank you!