Monster respawn rates

[Kalielle]

I started playing the game with a new level 1 this morning, and the first thing I noticed is how much the monster respawn changes the game - and I think not for the better. First of all, it makes even simple quests take much more time. Going back and forth between the locked treasure chest and the NPC in Forest Haven 3 (? - not sure about the exact level) and doing the other quests quickly turned pretty boring as we had to kill the same zombies over and over. I was lev 4 playing with a lev 4 and 5 who were new to the game and none of us were sure where to go, so we were wondering around getting separated as each had to return to the quest or the dungeon entrance NPC at a different time - which would have worked fine except that every time we did that there were the same monsters to kill again. I had way more than 4 blue zombie hairs by the time we were done (and maybe some extra white ones on my own head as well ). And when I was done with my own quests, I wondered whether the thing to do now is to leave, or stay and help walk the other lev 5 back to the chest - not something that ever came up before.

But the even bigger issue is, it's much harder to join and existing group of players if your path is full of new mobs when you enter a new game. When I joined the forest haven 4 (or 5?) quest there was another player not very far ahead. I was like, great, I happened to join a pretty new game. Except that I quickly realized there was no way I was going to catch up with him. I was level 5 and there were a ton of monsters in my path. Then the issue becomes, do you run past them and drag them until you reach the existing group? (Yeah they'd love that, I'm sure.) Or just sit there slowly killing them alone, when there are more players not so far ahead? (Not fun.)

Also, I wonder how this would change the correspondence between quest levels and the time when players level up. I've already seen a lev 8 and lev 13 doing forest haven 4 quests. Before the respawns the quest progression and leveling were pretty well matched (except for the 1024 tomes quest; got to level 23 at just 150 tomes). Now I think people will reach the level caps way before the quests are done.

I know you put in the respawn rates because of player requests... but I wonder how many of those requests came from level 45s who of course would have no problems with a ton of zombies respawning all the time. Personally I never felt it was a major issue that things didn't respawn before; yeah there were a few times when I got into a game too late, but it didn't happen often and was easy enough to join a new game. It was a minor annoyance, but now this changes the whole game a lot. Maybe we could have a compromise where the boss and others in his room respawn but not all the mobs along the path?

[bmc85uk]

I can see where you're coming from although I don't agree with all of it. Respawns are a definite step in the right direction, all mainstream MMOs use them, and I think one of the resasons people have trouble with them in PL is due to the other mechanics that go along side.

In a mainstream MMO, enemies move around much less, allowing players to carefully move through dangerous areas, in PL, enemies randomly run around (there is no walk speed) making sneaking past them almost impossible. Not all enemies are KoS (kill on sight) in PLs larger cousins, and so moving through crowds of them is easy. Lastly, the 'stun' from enemy auto attacks makes running a very tedious ordeal, it is a very flawed mechanic that could be better replaced by a far more logical solution.

As for the experience curve, that's something the dev team need to work out, levels are certainly far too easy to gain later in the game.

It's easy to blame respawning on the 'level 45s', though I imagine with AO2:3 90% of the player base now has at least one character at the level cap. However I think it's probably far more likely that respawn timers being added are a result of a) the dev team trying to provide an experience of a more contiguous and 'traditional' MMO world, b) Experienced MMO players pushing for a more sensible solution to farming, and c) shared 'quest instances' being a complete PITA without them, I joined so many games with the map mostly completed that I gave up on public instances and just hosted my own games.

So in summary, yes there are some issues, but they can easily be fixed by either restructuring quests or minor alterations to some of the mechanics. Respawn timers may need to be tweaked in certain areas, but definitely not removed. Last but not least, if you join a game that's already in progress don't expect the group to cone back and get you, accept that you will be next to freshly spawned enemies and just play the game!

[Kalielle]

Well I wouldn't know how things work in other MMOs, having never played any before But as you say, there are issues with respawns as long as we can't sneak by enemies, and it doesn't do PL much good that they work just fine in other games. If they change the mechanics so you can sneak past enemies, then it's going to be a whole different world at that point.

Fortunately it seems the excessive respawns are limited to Forest Haven right now. I joined a Dark Forest quest game and there were no monsters were the group ahead had cleared them. So hopefully it's just something they'll tweak soon.

if you join a game that's already in progress don't expect the group to cone back and get you, accept that you will be next to freshly spawned enemies and just play the game!

Of course I don't expect them to come back for me - I never said that! I was just saying, it's a bit tedious to be playing alone until you catch up with the group (if ever). This game was designed to be playable for short periods at a time, so it's nice to be able to fight with a group right away.

Btw, I read your posts on the proposed overhaul. It's nice to see people putting so much thought into improving the game Maybe I'll see you around; I'm Kalielle/Kaley in game.

[Snakespeare]

But they only respawn when you go to the ones for quests, through the portals. The ones that are hosted don't have respawning monsters. Only thing is, I can't figure out if you can fulfill quests in hosted games.

[Iambirdman]

But they only respawn when you go to the ones for quests, through the portals. The ones that are hosted don't have respawning monsters. Only thing is, I can't figure out if you can fulfill quests in hosted games.

Btw quests aren't supposed to be easy that you finish all in a day, it's supposed to take some time, energy, and brain, I mean I played ffxi for years and some of the quests I been doing for a year and still not finished,
So in PL the only changes need to be done, is better reward for the harder quests


I did most of my quests in hosted games, so yeah you can