Random monster encounters

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Dominik Windslasher ~
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Post by Dominik Windslasher ~ »

Ok, I got it.
But as a last point, I'd like to suggest, like, the random encounters happens one time. Then it will only happen again in a random place after the first random monster was killed.

Just a suggestion, I already gave up on this proposal, though I still like the idea.
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cjauncey
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Post by cjauncey »

perhaps you cvould have random encounters
that occur one tile off your screen so you see
them coming and have a chance to run

also you could have a warning
ag
cjauncey:The air smells foul here and you
can hear the aproaching footsteps of an enemy.

this way if a new person goes walking outside
town and an ogre or something appears then
they have a chance to flee
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Misjbar
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Post by Misjbar »

I want to make a final argument, quoting the site.
The Illarion Site wrote:ToDo - What is yet to come...

<......>
Monsters will recieve some intelligence (actively run around on the map, can calculate escape and attack routes...)
<.......>
Domitrio
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Post by Domitrio »

I would like to see a bit more danger in the forrests of Troll's Bane. I do agree though with the random spawn lag issue. If the parameters are set wrong it can spawn many monsters and slow us down significantly. It's also not even possible within the scripting language (Which has been mentioned twice I think) and would require a deal of testing before people would accept it. Although, personally I like the idea to some extent, and would like to see it implemented some way. Though it will have to be in the future it seems. Maybe, once we're in the new client and things are going smoothly it can be brought back up, and discussed with the programmers?
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Aegohl
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Post by Aegohl »

Well, as I've already mentioned, monster spawns that are completely random are an impossibility. To explain:

The scripting language, although quite powerful and even used in many professional games (Neverwinter Nights is one that I can think of off the top of my head) is like any other scripting language: All the scripts are a series of cause and effect. There needs to be an "entry point" that tells the client that when something happens, something else should happen.

It is quite easy to do in a one player game, because that entry point could be the player entering an area of the map. On the other hand, when we're instead dealing with up to twenty to thirty players, this option is entirely out of the question.

There is really no such thing as "random" encounters in any game. The illusion of randomness is had instead. In a multiplayer game, that illusion is harder to provide for the players, but that isn't so bad. If we examine creatures in real life, we find their behavior not to be so random anyhow. Each animal has a niche that it lives in and off of, and certain inborn habits. While you may be suprised to find an animal in a certain spot, a hunter or predator would not be so suprised; rather, they'd be expecting it.

Aegohl
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falco1029
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Post by falco1029 »

could the cause not be a timing countdown and then within that it checks if there are less than so many monsters in the map?
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Aegohl
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Post by Aegohl »

There is a problem there as well, but lies within the scripting language itself. The only way to pull that off would be to place NPC's all over the map that would then summon those monsters.

Although the scripting language is capable of using time and also capable of spawning monsters anywhere on the map, it is not capable of putting those things together.

However, I don't know of any other mmorpg where the monsters are random. They may not spawn exactly the same amount or kinds of monsters, or what have you, but the spawns, what kinds of monsters are available, their locations, etc.. are all coded in by hand and certainly not random.

As for monster spawns spawning different combinations of monsters here and again, that would rely more on our gallery of monsters expanding.

Aegohl
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falco1029
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Post by falco1029 »

Hmm, I''m not sure, obviously, but coulnt a timer trigger something else that could then be used to spawn the monster?
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Aegohl
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Post by Aegohl »

No. We would find ourselves with the same problem of having no appropriate Entry Point.
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