[MUD-Dev2] [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs

[Ian Hess]

--- Lachek Butalek <lachek at gmail.com> wrote:

<mass snippage for clarity>
>
> In an ideal (virtual) world, I do not believe that there needs to be
> such an inflation of baddies that the randomly wandering uber-monsters
> would actually become an issue. Sure, they would slaughter a player
> here and an NPC there, but wouldn't make any more negative impact than
> your average ninja griefer would (and would be In Character and
> actually add to, rather than detract from, gameworld immersion). Word
> would quickly spread that Jarvis the Red Dragon was on the loose in
> Hintervale, and common people would temporarily abandon that area
> while the national guard and high-level heroes prepared for the
> assault.
>
> Why is it that when an enemy corporation suddenly launches an assault
> on your home system in Eve Online, players scrambling to evacuate
> and/or organize a defense, it is seen as "fun and immersive gameplay"
> but when an NPC mob does it in YAFMMORPG it is seen as gamebreaking
> and disruptive?
>
<more snip>

I suspect the devil would be in the details of implementation.  

In the first release of EQ1, there was a level 45 minotaur hero who
spawned at a cave and began killing everything in a straight line to the
gates of the gnome city.  In theory it was a great idea.  When I was
level 9 and 10 and the highest character on the server was level 22, the
wandering boss ended up being either a community rallying point as its
position was scouted and announced, or a ganking strategy, where the
first person who saw it would stay quiet and watch it blunder into
unsuspecting hunters.

In the text game inferno, 1% of the critters that spawned in any area
were from a much higher level hunting area.  This was added to the game
partly as a defense against scripters, and as a way to get a chance for
player cooperation for better loot.  In practice, if a boss mob without
a ranged attack spawned, the scripters could casually run from it and
resume hunting.  If a boss monster with a good ranged attack or an
immobilize effect could spawn in an area, that area was suicide to hunt
in.

In Final Fantasy Online, there was a quest to spawn a world boss.  It
was an invisible archer that could be detected and killed by
like-levelled, powerful hunters.  However, griefers quickly figured out
that if anyone spawned the archer-boss, they could kite the boss to the
gate of the next city.  The sum effect was, newbies and even medium
level character zoned out of the city and were usually killed before the
outside gate zone loaded.  The fact that high level hunters could come
along and kill it was immaterial.  The boss could be used to deny access
to a city for hours.

It think if you could deduce and program a limiting set of rules for
these types of bosses, or design containing environments, then they
could be much more useful for heightening tension and cooperation,
rather than creating instant death or griefing situations.

I think this borders on a conversation about whether players (read:
customers) are willing to see disaster and loss situations cast in terms
of story.  I've been working on a post on that topic, and hope to post
in in the next few days.

Ian Hess