IoD and Saltmarsh wilderness designer, I HATE YOU!

[Drunkendex]

Seriously?

tab targeting mobs before you run up to them, jump on their head, type /dance, they do their little reaction, and then maybe, just MAYBE you'll be able to tab target them?

Only reasonable explanation would be that you think people farmed too good XP/min in wildernes zones... (yeah, unless something changed in last 2 years, only Orchard and Grim Disturbance were considered GG XP/min)

As someone who mains archer ranger and loves roaming wilderness areas, it's an insult to have to mouselook to hit mobs, and over half of them ignore damage before you run up to them to boop them on the nose.

This is mess on level of Amber temple ruining...

Feels good to rant a bit.

[Baahb3]

100% agree

I have no idea why or who signed off on this but they need to drawn and quartered.

In all honesty, if this is the direction of new wilderness areas, just stop making them. They are NOT fun in this design.

[Wizard1406]

Yeah it's unfortunate that enemies are only active and are targetable once you get close to them. But I heard the developers HAD to do this, so the instances don't cause extra lag. Better to have less fun wilderness than to add to the server lag. Sadly DDO has this weak engine that can't really handle big zones and lots of active mobs at once.

[Kutalp]

Just to mention it as humbly as possible.


Mounts and all the fancy visuals also cause serious latency in the game. Especially heavier at the highly populated instances.

[Drunkendex]

Yeah it's unfortunate that enemies are only active and are targetable once you get close to them. But I heard the developers HAD to do this, so the instances don't cause extra lag. Better to have less fun wilderness than to add to the server lag. Sadly DDO has this weak engine that can't really handle big zones and lots of active mobs at once.

If that's reason for this... trolling, then they could have separated wilderness areas into multiple zones, like Subterrenae.

[TedSandyman]

People complain about the lack of mobs in areas like the Kings Forest. I think these new areas were an attempt to pack more mobs in, but keep them less active so you didn't get immediate red alerts.

It didn't work. It is dangerous to run to a quest with a party in these new areas.

It almost immediately goes red and one hit can cause a slowing of your movement and death.

And if you are farming the outdoor areas, especially as a ranged, you can't because you have to get on top of them to "activate" them.

The get close to activate isn't new. There are lions in Cerulean Hills and the Vale that do the same and these are some of the oldest parts of the game. I think the devs just took the idea to a new level with these new areas.

I hope they were simply trying out this new way of setting up outdoor areas and I hope they realize it isn't working.

[Xgya]

We were told in no uncertain terms that mob pathing was one of the biggest sources of server load.

Reducing the amount of pathing the mobs do is crucial to reducing potential lag.

That means less mobs active/targetable at once.

Want to see areas where this ISN'T done? Go to Wheloon or Thunderholme. If you've ever run those areas in groups, you have seen the freeze lag. THolme is the bigger culprit because it can fit a bigger group to activate even more mobs at once.
That level of instance lag MUST affect the server in some way.

Mobs not being active until you get near enough to smell their breath is the cost we have to bear with for now.

[ahpook]

We were told in no uncertain terms that mob pathing was one of the biggest sources of server load.

Reducing the amount of pathing the mobs do is crucial to reducing potential lag.

That means less mobs active/targetable at once.
...

Mobs not being active until you get near enough to smell their breath is the cost we have to bear with for now.

Yeah but their solutions are all band-aids to the problem which is why we keep getting solutions we hate. They really need to go back and rework the pathing logic to get this train back on the tracks.

For example, mobs should have decision on whether to pursue (especially in wilderness). Mobs that move slower than you, pathing to follow you only to leash 20 seconds later is a waste of cpu.

And some mobs shouldn't path but only follow your trail and thus not need to calculate a path. The cpu cycles wasted on dumb mobs like oozes is far more "thought process" than such mobs actually have.

[Strider1963]

People complain about the lack of mobs in areas like the Kings Forest. I think these new areas were an attempt to pack more mobs in, but keep them less active so you didn't get immediate red alerts.

It didn't work. It is dangerous to run to a quest with a party in these new areas.

It almost immediately goes red and one hit can cause a slowing of your movement and death.

And if you are farming the outdoor areas, especially as a ranged, you can't because you have to get on top of them to "activate" them.

The get close to activate isn't new. There are lions in Cerulean Hills and the Vale that do the same and these are some of the oldest parts of the game. I think the devs just took the idea to a new level with these new areas.

I hope they were simply trying out this new way of setting up outdoor areas and I hope they realize it isn't working.

This is EXACTLY why we need to be able to port directly to the quests ala Ravenloft and Sharn. Let the people who want to do slayers do them, and the people who dont want to do slayers simply direct port to the quest.
Nothing more annoying than riding to a quest and getting a red alert, then getting knocked of the horse and have to fight a bunch of stuff. It just slows you down.

[Ereshkigal]

Seriously?

tab targeting mobs before you run up to them, jump on their head, type /dance, they do their little reaction, and then maybe, just MAYBE you'll be able to tab target them?

Only reasonable explanation would be that you think people farmed too good XP/min in wildernes zones... (yeah, unless something changed in last 2 years, only Orchard and Grim Disturbance were considered GG XP/min)

As someone who mains archer ranger and loves roaming wilderness areas, it's an insult to have to mouselook to hit mobs, and over half of them ignore damage before you run up to them to boop them on the nose.

This is mess on level of Amber temple ruining...

Feels good to rant a bit.

I also hate the design, and I try to avoid them both as a result.

If allowed to choose, I'd gladly accept the lag to retain the old mechanic.

[ahpook]

This is EXACTLY why we need to be able to port directly to the quests ala Ravenloft and Sharn. Let the people who want to do slayers do them, and the people who dont want to do slayers simply direct port to the quest.
Nothing more annoying than riding to a quest and getting a red alert, then getting knocked of the horse and have to fight a bunch of stuff. It just slows you down.

Yes. And on repeats you can re-enter the quest by talking directly to the quest giver. Why spin up an explorer area that the character is immediately going to leave?

[Ereshkigal]

This is EXACTLY why we need to be able to port directly to the quests ala Ravenloft and Sharn. Let the people who want to do slayers do them, and the people who dont want to do slayers simply direct port to the quest.
Nothing more annoying than riding to a quest and getting a red alert, then getting knocked of the horse and have to fight a bunch of stuff. It just slows you down.

Ah, Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I really think being able to port directly to quests would be a big loss. I would not like to see this change.

I'd much rather they make those areas work more smoothly and keep the running intact.

[Phatlewts]

This is a total development idea fail. Hey, let's make a huge wilderness area for fantastic immersion, the players will love it! Oh, but let's just make the actual game play there super lame and unrealistic where you wander in the vast wilderness and stumble upon inactive bots. then you walk up, wait a minute for them to wake up and fight them. Super immersive experience.

[LazarusPossum]

Seriously?

...and over half of them ignore damage before you run up to them to boop them on the nose

This. Running through Sharn quests with my stick-fighting acrobat and just swinging for at least four or five seconds (I counted) before they become active. I used to be able to use my clickies right off the bat, but I've been having to restrain myself so they're not in cooldown when the mob finally becomes active.

[Valerianus]

we asked for ravenloft-like guides for such a long time, or at least some fast travel, and we got it with isle of dread. now we see it comes anyway with downsides, now not only players who asked for teleport at quest are dissatisfied, also players who love wild areas are dissatisfied. so now instead of one crippled feature, we have two crippled features. yay.

i can't help myself, i think that such a U-turn happened when mounts were released. why and who and how was possible to think that the only way to go was the old turbine way, punish and inconvenience the players, to make the new thing shine? anything related to movement, it sells by itself. you just needed to consider the older areas and the public areas, we would have jumped on mounts just to move faster in them, why did you felt the need to ruin the new content?

cause gargantuan tech debt, come on it is crystal clear, those teleport-to-quest features have to be (should have been since after ravenloft) the default. seriously there's nothing to discuss imho.

[Aelonwy]

This is EXACTLY why we need to be able to port directly to the quests ala Ravenloft and Sharn. Let the people who want to do slayers do them, and the people who dont want to do slayers simply direct port to the quest.
Nothing more annoying than riding to a quest and getting a red alert, then getting knocked of the horse and have to fight a bunch of stuff. It just slows you down.

Agreed.

Ah, Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I really think being able to port directly to quests would be a big loss. I would not like to see this change.

I'd much rather they make those areas work more smoothly and keep the running intact.

But you would still have that choice. I have NEVER understood this argument. You would rather the choice to teleport be taken away rather than make the choice for yourself to run up to the quest entrance if you want?

I love Wilderness zones and if I'm smelling the roses I will even make my meandering way to the quests in Ravenloft at times however if I'm with a group trying to get things done I will happily teleport to stay with them. Removing the choice of teleports just aggravates players of a particular play style and wastes store pots of various types for such players which may be the real goal.

[droid327]

we asked for ravenloft-like guides for such a long time, or at least some fast travel, and we got it with isle of dread. now we see it comes anyway with downsides, now not only players who asked for teleport at quest are dissatisfied, also players who love wild areas are dissatisfied. so now instead of one crippled feature, we have two crippled features. yay.

I think IoD does it pretty well. Fast travel that's unlockable after you do the initial run-out

I might have made it tied to discovering the location itself as opposed to completing quests (like Stormhorns waypoints), but other than that its a good system. Makes it far more convenient to access quests, but doesnt completely divorce questing from wilderness zones

[Valerianus]

I think IoD does it pretty well. Fast travel that's unlockable after you do the initial run-out

I might have made it tied to discovering the location itself as opposed to completing quests (like Stormhorns waypoints), but other than that its a good system. Makes it far more convenient to access quests, but doesnt completely divorce questing from wilderness zones

i agree.

but if the price is to ruin the wilderness areas, for those who enjoy them, then just enable teleport to quest instead of putting in place useless ways to lower alert\detection\pathing that will happen anyway and leave normally functional wild for those that want to explore, do kills and rares and stuff.

[Wizard1406]

This is EXACTLY why we need to be able to port directly to the quests ala Ravenloft and Sharn. Let the people who want to do slayers do them, and the people who dont want to do slayers simply direct port to the quest.
Nothing more annoying than riding to a quest and getting a red alert, then getting knocked of the horse and have to fight a bunch of stuff. It just slows you down.

Yep. Making mobs active in wildernesses only adds to lag and doesn't really add anything (mobs on "normal" mode wilderness are pushovers for most players; some epic quests even have lowbie heroic wilderness zones). If you want full immersion you can still ride there instead. But far less people going that route and most people directly porting there as they only want to play the quests will lower server lag, wich is always a good thing.

Yes. And on repeats you can re-enter the quest by talking directly to the quest giver. Why spin up an explorer area that the character is immediately going to leave?

Good idea. AFAIK zones stay open for 5 minutes after people leaving them, so that's a pointlessly created instance.

[Drunkendex]

Personally I consider Barovia best wilderness zone.
Both in mob trigger (TBH it would benefit from lower, yes lower, mob density) and reaching quests.



It should have been premise on which future wilderness zone were based on.