Randomized Spawns vs. Fixed Spawns. So, I've been thinking recently about PK's(still don't think they're really a problem), adventuring, and inflation....and I think there is a common thread that binds them all that could be tweaked to the benefit of the shard. More Randomized Spawn Points. If all the spawn points in the game were more random, this would promote more adventuring and would make camping impossible. This would then make it much harder for PKs to "hit the hot spots" and would make them venture forth. The end result would be less PK'ing as logistically it would simply take more time and effort. Gold inflation would be minimized due to not being able to camp spots. Overall, there would be more roaming of the dungeons and overland. Thoughts on more randomized spawns...?
Someone has brought this up before. I think this, along with randomizing the spawns of rares and semi-rares, would be a great change. It would reward people for actually moving around the map as opposed to just recalling/gating from spot to spot. Changing the spawns of rares would especially rule, as it gives anybody a chance to stumble upon something cool. What we have now is a handful of players who obsessively bounce from spot to spot and gobble everything up.
It's definitely an interesting idea. Maybe for certain spawns and certain rares. I am not sure, if we want the shard full of tracker scouts though that gate in their tamers. Just remember how thanksgiving, easter and st. patricks day events work already.
Even if it was a shard full of tracker scouts, they're still out adventuring as opposed to camping. Seems more reasonable then the alternative.
I have seen similar systems go live on other shards, to the benefit of said shards. So yes, I think this would be great. But.. It is a programming nightmare and currently there is a lot of other items Chris is trying to get accomplished on this shard, so I would say this isn't a possibility in the foreseeable future.
Great thread, thanks for posting it. I do like the idea of more randomized spawns of all sorts. But I do agree with Black Eye and xXx. The actually tweaking of the spawners might be easy enough. But the time involved to do it would an issue. There are one heck lot of spawners and if they are to be truly "random" they would need to be frequently change. Thus again, Time. Our staff here volunteer their time, and do have lives besides UO. ( I know, how dare they) lol
I quite enjoy camping, it adds to the role-playing dimension, and is a good way to log out anywhere. So I will still camp whatever the rule change is on the topic of this thread.
This thread isn't about the camping skill. It's referencing the act of farming/scouting one spot over and over.
To me it's more of a tracking issue. Doesn't matter where you are, what your doing, 1 skill will find you.
Perhaps for some spawns (and not the majority) this could be interesting. Having spawns at static locations is something I feel is part of the nostalgic aspect that this server tries to bring. Now you may have the most common spots constantly checked by PK's but there are plenty of spawns that are rarely gone through by murderers. Perhaps not messing with any of the static spawns but adding random spawns throughout the wild could appeal to everyone.
Yeah And, I am with you on that. I don't really think Mob Spawns should be random in general. But I think a few 'boss mobs' should be implemented with random spawns. Or maybe even random Gates that pop up[ in the world, are only open for limited time, and have a little AMIB type instance. As for spawnable rares though.. I think they should 100% be random, in where they spawn and how often.
There should really be a way to counter or at least make tracking more difficult, shouldn't there? Not make it cease to function, only drastically hinder its use under certain conditions. Just about everything else in the game has some counter or other, but tracking is both powerful and impossible to evade (other than running out of range, which you can only do if you know you're being tracked in the first place). What if being tracked gave you a message that said "You sense that you are being followed." This would not stop tracking in any way, but it would warn players that they are being hunted and give them the opportunity to react. A tracker could still use their skill to secretly detect the presence of different players in an area without actually selecting them in the GUMP, but it would mean they could not directly locate them without alerting the player that they are coming. I am not in favor of this idea so much as it definitely is a direct nerf to an excellent skill. There are other options though. Say take an existing spell buff that is rarely used (Reactive Armor, Protection, Bless, etc?) or a new spell, and add the feature that it reduces the range you can be detected by tracking. Say cut the tracking distance down to "on screen". Now, people would have to choose whether they could be tracked or whether they were more at risk due to using the weaker spell. If you feel safe enough, you don't use it. Tracking becomes useless on the target while they are affected by the spell, but if you KNOW someone is present you can track their exact location on-screen just fine even while hidden or invisible. This doesn't particularly help thieves that much since the spell may not last too long and will need to be re-cast, or it doesn't work when you're on-screen with the tracker (which thieves must do in order to steal from the tracker). This gives you less of an extreme early warning system and more of a late one. Another way of doing it might be to grant the same effect as above to a specific skill, especially one that isn't often used, thus creating new templates around it. There are several skills described as "useless". A good choice that seems to fit would be Forensic Evaluation (your knowledge of the details left behind by people lets you mask your own). Again, this is a skill that doesn't even really fit with a thief style of play other than the anti-tracking effect. It is far more useful for people who actually want to KILL thieves than for thieves themselves in the first place, but some thieves might take this just for the anti-tracking effect. I'm saying all this about how these types of effects could be done without overly benefiting thieves because I am one, and I want it to be clear I am trying to be as unbiased as possible with these ideas. I apologize that this is sort of off-topic for this thread, but if discussion is truly warranted for it we can make a new thread.
You can actually defend Tracking already by this formula: ((Hiding + Stealth) * Hidden ? 1.0 : 0.5) /2 Source: http://uorforum.com/threads/tracking.2458/#post-18978 Furthermore, I like the idea of spawns being random. It would actually give a lot more use to Tracking itself. Hunters would need this skill to find the spawns and farm. I think it would change dynamics in a positive way.
