High Road encounter algorithm is borked

[Fherrit]

Hello fellow DDO enthusiasts (and hopefully, Devs);

I hope I posted this in the correct section of the forums:

I've been running into a issue with the High Road encounter algorithm, particularly in how it related to being able to complete the map. Specifically, I'm trying to complete the map but am unable to do so because I need Scroll #7, which can only be accessed by running the encounter "Rebels Underground I & II".

My gaming pace has slowed a good bit from last year, I play on average now around 8-12 hrs a week. My first character ran into this encounter his 2nd time in the zone while on the 2nd Harper quest, but my 2nd character has completed the entire quest chain that takes place in High Road, and has not encountered Rebels Underground once. Knowing I need this encounter, I have taken pains to run the entire map both before and after doing a quest in the various encounter spawn areas. An example, to go to the Inn of the adventurers I would cover the entire map first then run the dungeon, upon finishing the dungeon, would run the entire map again. While this is particularly frustrating, normally at best all I could complain about is with how low the frequency Rebels Underground occurs.

What leads me to saying this zone's encounter algorithm is borked however is as follows. I have finished the last 3 quests in the zone over the last 3 days, and as before I ran the entire map before and after each dungeon. I have encountered Dia the Orc (identify the magic item) 3x on one map. Not between running dungeons, but on a single map while going to the dungeon on Sunday. Then yesterday I repeated a quest, and upon finishing it while running the map again, I encountered the Twin Brothers (bear and druid) FOUR times, again all on the same map without logging out or changing instances. I went into the next dungeon I was hitting for the first time, finished it, exited and cleared the map again. This time I encountered the spectral shade 2x, and the Shadow Summoner 3x, all on the same map. Today i finished the last quest in the series, on the way to the dungeon, I encountered Dia 2x, and Shadow Summoner 3x. Upon finishing the quest and clearing the map, I encounterd Dia 3x, Shadow Summoner 2x, and Spectral Shade 2x, again all on the map.

In each of the repeated encounters listed above, I wish to stress it happened on a single "drawing" of the map, and scattered across the map's field so it wasn't like I'd hit one encounter trigger, the encounter would spawn and then respawn in the same place after it had been defeated and looted, these are scattered across the entirety of the map on a single pass. While I may not know the particulars of coding, I'm fairly certain this pattern is not the intended one and I'm at a loss as to what I could be possibly doing to cause such repeats while not triggering the only one I need to complete the zone (which as you can guess, is quite frustrating). I have asked members in my guild and those who have access to this zone and its quests have no knowledge of this happening to anyone else.

For the time being, I am going to relegate this to the 1x map clear now as I move on to other content (bit of a completionist) but I thought I'd post my experience to see if anyone has any advice, or if they've encountered this as well and perhaps draw some Dev attention to it.

Regards:

Mad-Fherrit-Drinks-the-Dew

[RobbinB]

Hello fellow DDO enthusiasts (and hopefully, Devs);

I hope I posted this in the correct section of the forums:

I've been running into a issue with the High Road encounter algorithm, particularly in how it related to being able to complete the map. Specifically, I'm trying to complete the map but am unable to do so because I need Scroll #7, which can only be accessed by running the encounter "Rebels Underground I & II".

My gaming pace has slowed a good bit from last year, I play on average now around 8-12 hrs a week. My first character ran into this encounter his 2nd time in the zone while on the 2nd Harper quest, but my 2nd character has completed the entire quest chain that takes place in High Road, and has not encountered Rebels Underground once. Knowing I need this encounter, I have taken pains to run the entire map both before and after doing a quest in the various encounter spawn areas. An example, to go to the Inn of the adventurers I would cover the entire map first then run the dungeon, upon finishing the dungeon, would run the entire map again. While this is particularly frustrating, normally at best all I could complain about is with how low the frequency Rebels Underground occurs.

What leads me to saying this zone's encounter algorithm is borked however is as follows. I have finished the last 3 quests in the zone over the last 3 days, and as before I ran the entire map before and after each dungeon. I have encountered Dia the Orc (identify the magic item) 3x on one map. Not between running dungeons, but on a single map while going to the dungeon on Sunday. Then yesterday I repeated a quest, and upon finishing it while running the map again, I encountered the Twin Brothers (bear and druid) FOUR times, again all on the same map without logging out or changing instances. I went into the next dungeon I was hitting for the first time, finished it, exited and cleared the map again. This time I encountered the spectral shade 2x, and the Shadow Summoner 3x, all on the same map. Today i finished the last quest in the series, on the way to the dungeon, I encountered Dia 2x, and Shadow Summoner 3x. Upon finishing the quest and clearing the map, I encounterd Dia 3x, Shadow Summoner 2x, and Spectral Shade 2x, again all on the map.

In each of the repeated encounters listed above, I wish to stress it happened on a single "drawing" of the map, and scattered across the map's field so it wasn't like I'd hit one encounter trigger, the encounter would spawn and then respawn in the same place after it had been defeated and looted, these are scattered across the entirety of the map on a single pass. While I may not know the particulars of coding, I'm fairly certain this pattern is not the intended one and I'm at a loss as to what I could be possibly doing to cause such repeats while not triggering the only one I need to complete the zone (which as you can guess, is quite frustrating). I have asked members in my guild and those who have access to this zone and its quests have no knowledge of this happening to anyone else.

For the time being, I am going to relegate this to the 1x map clear now as I move on to other content (bit of a completionist) but I thought I'd post my experience to see if anyone has any advice, or if they've encountered this as well and perhaps draw some Dev attention to it.

Regards:

Mad-Fherrit-Drinks-the-Dew

I've just think you've had bad luck as far as the randomness is concerned. I've seen this encounter pop up in 3 major locations, and it doesn't seem particularly rare:

1. head straight down the center path to the first fork and follow to the right heading towards "Rest stop". The encounter pops up along the road near the shack right before the bridge to the castle.

2 head straight down the middle going path the first fork and take the 2nd fork which is heading into the village. The encounter should pop up prior to the bridge leading to the village.

3. head past the little village to the back area and go up to where there appears to be a sort-of abandoned keep. The encounter can pop up near there.

Anyway, make a fresh instance and just run through checking those main areas. If the encounter isn't up, then recall and reset, and try again. I would be surprised if you did any more than 3 or 4 runs without getting the encounter.

[Lanhelin]

Knowing I need this encounter, I have taken pains to run the entire map both before and after doing a quest in the various encounter spawn areas. An example, to go to the Inn of the adventurers I would cover the entire map first then run the dungeon, upon finishing the dungeon, would run the entire map again.

I did the Slayer on High Road map in every life so far. Due to respawn, there are no specific encounter spawn areas, but the whole map is one. If you're looking for the rebels encounter, I'd advice you to not run the entire map once but as long until the rebels spawn. Kill everything because everything possibly could be replaced by the rebels spawn some minutes later. Open a lfg for Slayer to achieve this goal faster.

[Fherrit]

I've just think you've had bad luck as far as the randomness is concerned. I've seen this encounter pop up in 3 major locations, and it doesn't seem particularly rare:

1. head straight down the center path to the first fork and follow to the right heading towards "Rest stop". The encounter pops up along the road near the shack right before the bridge to the castle.

2 head straight down the middle going path the first fork and take the 2nd fork which is heading into the village. The encounter should pop up prior to the bridge leading to the village.

3. head past the little village to the back area and go up to where there appears to be a sort-of abandoned keep. The encounter can pop up near there.

Anyway, make a fresh instance and just run through checking those main areas. If the encounter isn't up, then recall and reset, and try again. I would be surprised if you did any more than 3 or 4 runs without getting the encounter.

I did the Slayer on High Road map in every life so far. Due to respawn, there are no specific encounter spawn areas, but the whole map is one. If you're looking for the rebels encounter, I'd advice you to not run the entire map once but as long until the rebels spawn. Kill everything because everything possibly could be replaced by the rebels spawn some minutes later. Open a lfg for Slayer to achieve this goal faster.

Lanhelin and RobbinB;

Thank you for taking the time to post your suggestions, I'm going to give them a try and see how it works out over the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to post back with some positive results and will take notes so that I can offer informed feedback. Again, my gratitude for your time and replies.

Regards:
Mad-Fherrit-Drinks-the-Dew

[Saaluta]

I did not notice as I was just skimming the wall of text, but are you doing heroic or epic? I have never had a problem on either setting, but I will sometimes just pop a explorer drink(I get them with my rolls) and get some xp as needed when just looking for a few k to level. Usually 2 or 3 runs gets me everything in the zone. I do remember 1 time it took me 7 or 8 tries uncovering the whole zone to get that one to pop up

Good luck and happy hunting

Saal