COGG BBS

The little nethrim incursions near Shadgard and other outposts recently are to this thread's point, by the way. Having the occasional gaggle of nethrim/infested/etc. wandering over to outposts and causing a ruckus should not be considered an uncommon thing in the Lost Lands. They're hand-placed by GMs for now and we enjoy controlling some of the individual mobs from time to time as part of these little mini-attacks, but the plan is to eventually automate these things so they happen on their own and contribute to the feeling that the Lost Lands are indeed overrun by all manner of dangers, and said dangers don't necessarily stick to their designated playgrounds all the time.

We're talking about this type of stuff in the voicechat at the moment, and I just wanted to bump this thread and the general warning that the Lost Lands is dangerous, and leaving town means safety is not guaranteed. We might be seeing more dangerous critters out there wandering about the wilderness and potentially across the roads even, so stay wary!

This has been brought up again recently, and as we have had several new players join us I am bumping this thread again as a reminder.

Leaving town means safety is not guaranteed and several ongoing events mean we are seeing more dangerous critters out and about, so stay wary. PEER is your friend.

Per the changelog: Some of the dangerous explorable areas will now spawn a few of their residents in the nearby wilderness to wander the environs.

This is a mechanics update, but not a lore one; The environs surrounding these areas should always have been considered dangerous with a chance for hostile encounters even if one didn't step deliberately and directly into a clearly-designated danger zone.

Stay safe out there, and remember: You can walk away from encounters! This is primarily meant as a flavor update to reinforce the dangerous state of the Lost Lands.

Rias wrote: ↑Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:47 pm Per the changelog: Some of the dangerous explorable areas will now spawn a few of their residents in the nearby wilderness to wander the environs.

This is a mechanics update, but not a lore one; The environs surrounding these areas should always have been considered dangerous with a chance for hostile encounters even if one didn't step deliberately and directly into a clearly-designated danger zone.

Stay safe out there, and remember: You can walk away from encounters! This is primarily meant as a flavor update to reinforce the dangerous state of the Lost Lands.

Have you considered maybe making it so people actively fighting in the zone suppresses it a bit, if it doesn't already? Much like NPC patrols do for random encounters. That would reward players who go to areas specifically to 'cull' the baddies by tangibly making things safer for others (if only for a little while).

I am glad that this thread got bumped.

I am really loving the idea that the game will become a little more dangerous and non-combat characters will hopefully take advantage of the skills of combat characters provide, instead of things leaning in the other direction as they have been.

Rias mentioned buffing up societies, and I am all for this. One of the ones a character of mine is a part of is looking bare and sad. Not only on the location front, but the activity front. I have been struggling to find some direction for this combat character, and tasks do a lot to alleviate this, at least for me.

Rias wrote: ↑Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:47 pm Per the changelog: Some of the dangerous explorable areas will now spawn a few of their residents in the nearby wilderness to wander the environs.

This is a mechanics update, but not a lore one; The environs surrounding these areas should always have been considered dangerous with a chance for hostile encounters even if one didn't step deliberately and directly into a clearly-designated danger zone.

Stay safe out there, and remember: You can walk away from encounters! This is primarily meant as a flavor update to reinforce the dangerous state of the Lost Lands.

I like this, a lot. Hopefully it means people will stop leaving there horses directly outside of dangerous areas; yes, I'm guilty as well. It's convenient, but also always made me double take.

Rias wrote: ↑Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:47 pm Per the changelog: Some of the dangerous explorable areas will now spawn a few of their residents in the nearby wilderness to wander the environs.

This is a mechanics update, but not a lore one; The environs surrounding these areas should always have been considered dangerous with a chance for hostile encounters even if one didn't step deliberately and directly into a clearly-designated danger zone.

Stay safe out there, and remember: You can walk away from encounters! This is primarily meant as a flavor update to reinforce the dangerous state of the Lost Lands.

I think this change is pretty neat, but these can trigger kind of frequently. It may have just been poor luck, but I hit 3 of these within the span of about 45 to 50 minutes. It's not too, too bad but it'd be nice if there was some kind of reward for dealing with the hostile encounters. Maybe a small bit of experience, or a morale bonus, something like that.

Alternatively, I've not gotten one yet.

Aside from the randomly meandering mobs outside of various spots, that is. No random encounters which have prompted a quick surprised message.

Edited to Add:

Hit submit before I was actually ready to submit. I love the system - it certainly makes things more interesting while just wandering around and looking at things. I've noticed, though, that aside from Tarueka, I've not seen any other critters roaming outside of their zones. Well, aside from nethertouched ravens, that is, but they've always been in odd spots.

Lexx's idea about having them grant a small morale bonus, or perhaps drop something like the miners do, would be a real neat incentive for those that spend a lot of time traveling for whatever reason.

I just pushed a few updates that should have the encounters potentially happening in spots in every wilderness region now (they were only happening around Shadgard for a bit there, oops). There's also potential for them to occur in some explorable areas - bandits and such do love their choke points where they can depend on encounters with travelers. I also made random encounter mobs despawn a bit quicker if no PCs are around, and decreased the chances for additional encounters during the cooldown period.

The patrolled Dominion roads are still (mostly) safe, but going off the road in the Dominion is still risky, so don't get too comfortable and complacent up in the north! The Dominion still has a lot of work to do to tame the Lost Lands, even in their own local neighborhood. It's a very tall order they're trying to fill.

Some of the mobs will have extra drops as suggested, good call!

I do prefer the random encounters to the wandering mobs, because it means fewer mobs constantly existing in the game and taking up server resources and instead just spawned on-demand, but we'll still have a few wilderness areas that spawn mobs in their local area in addition to the random encounters. On that note: Random encounters shouldn't occur in rooms that already have mobs in them, so there shouldn't be any chance of doubling up a threat.

I'll also take a moment to remind that some mobs are meant to be rather generic. Infested vagrants, for instance, might be encountered anywhere in the Lost Lands, and are not exclusive to Tarueka, so avoid making any conclusions based on generic mobs being found in places they previously weren't present in before this update. I also don't want to be spawning the tougher mobs frequently out in the wilderness along roads, because that seems like it'd be making travel too dangerous (all bets are off further from roads, though!). Some road areas still have a chance of spawning tougher mobs from their nearby combat zones, but they're a lower chance and you'll be more likely to see easier stuff like generic vagrants around infested areas, generic phantoms around nether-corrupted areas, generic bandits around bandit camps, and so on. Also expect to see certain mob types in a wider variety of areas even if they don't have associated combat zones nearby. Some bandits and Liberi enjoy going out and waylaying travelers in passes and such, for example, even if they don't have an in-game combat zone camp or base nearby.

And lastly, a reiteration that you can just walk away from these encounters! If a mob seems too tough to deal with, just move right along while thinking about how dangerous a place the Lost Lands can be.