Spawn Rates ~ Insane Length

[Rex]

Lets calm down a little bit. 

Actually, Let's Not.  The Point gets  Buried when you do so.  I've actually got an addition to this, just waiting for the right spot to drop it in.

~Rex~IBTL

[Bad_Bud]

I don't think the scalable spawn rates were viewed with a base player number required before they began scaling up, and also up at a small rate.  I think the general concept was TWICE AS MANY PLAYERS ONLINE MEANS THEY SHOULD SPAWN TWICE AS FAST, which isn't the correct solution.  Perhaps now it will be re-evaluated with these other ideas.

[Rex]

I don't think the scalable spawn rates were viewed with a base player number required before they began scaling up, and also up at a small rate.  I think the general concept was TWICE AS MANY PLAYERS ONLINE MEANS THEY SHOULD SPAWN TWICE AS FAST, which isn't the correct solution.  Perhaps now it will be re-evaluated with these other ideas.

Maybe if it scaled to the Levels of the People on at the time?  Base it on Collective CR.

Might work.

~Rex

[Bad_Bud]

I don't think the scalable spawn rates were viewed with a base player number required before they began scaling up, and also up at a small rate.  I think the general concept was TWICE AS MANY PLAYERS ONLINE MEANS THEY SHOULD SPAWN TWICE AS FAST, which isn't the correct solution.  Perhaps now it will be re-evaluated with these other ideas.

Maybe if it scaled to the Levels of the People on at the time?  Base it on Collective CR.

Might work.

~Rex

But it's not like the spawn rates are based on the monsters' CR, so that doesn't make sense.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

The point is - you've been given the opportunity to handle all this in character without the need to explain anything as OOC mechanisms. It's of course up to you whether you want to pursue this, but it's there for you to take. If you instead decide to go OOC and want to be on a constant adventure spree, don't blame the system for not catering your needs. It'll never be it's focus, and any revisions won't be based on that argument. It's designed to enhance roleplay in it's immersive and story-oriented form.

[Lockleed]

This entire topic is kind of making me feel bad for the various monsters.  Are the Elite Vampiress's getting an oppurtunity to go sit down and have tea and crumpets in between every PC ensured mauling?  Although dungeoning, a thouroughly gaming engine developed concept involving the rape of some particular evil beings home, is traditional in our fantasy genre; its probably a good idea to consider that monsters won't always be standing around waiting to be mutilated.  I'm waiting for the day I step into a dungeon to discover a sign reading "On Vacation, please feed the helhounds on your way out."

I know that wasn't completely in-line with the topic of discussion, but spawn rates and regular dungeon hounding... there is a phrase for this... "the luck of the draw."  Just take what you get and roll with it. 

I understand the arguement from a higher level perspective, though.  If I'm an uber level something... where's my challenge in beating to death critters that stand no chance of even harming me?  I imagine that gets god-awful frustrating.  But personally I've never hit that point in game.  There is always some dungeon out there I could go too that I still know will challenge me and leave my PC a quivering pile of flesh on the floor.  (Scrags, Demonologists, few others)  Now if I get to the point where I can solo pwn those dungeons... uh... I've grown too powerful anyway and Strahd is going to come down and eviscerate me.

Just out of curiosity, is this spawn rate discussion aimed more at the adventuring experience, the end result of xp, or the loot?  You could just go RP for the xp end.

[Rex]

The point is - you've been given the opportunity to handle all this in character without the need to explain anything as OOC mechanisms. It's of course up to you whether you want to pursue this, but it's there for you to take. If you instead decide to go OOC and want to be on a constant adventure spree, don't blame the system for not catering your needs. It'll never be it's focus, and any revisions won't be based on that argument. It's designed to enhance roleplay in it's immersive and story-oriented form.

Needs more Thoul Bell.

Technically speaking I think the existing Mechanic is fine, because the things screwing it up, are not the fault of the implemented process but rather the result of dedicated farmers.

~Rex

[failed.bard]

The dedicated farmers aren't the ones hitting the low spawns.  They're the ones willing to sit on a spawn for 12 hours to let it grow to the point they might get a good item out of it.  It's generally the lower level characters that can get a bit of loot and xp from low spawn higher level dungeons that keep the spawns down.

[ethinos]

Soren has already said that the newer Domains will likely have higher level dungeons. Just be patient and wait for them to roll out. The addition of extra dungeons should help keep the current ones from being hit as often.

[kenpen]

Alright. I've been pretty much absent from dungeon running for the last ten days. When I stopped to let all my caps wear off, I noticed the loot was much better. People seemed more upbeat about it. A calm center of tranquility appeared to be forming.

In the last day or so upon logging back in and checking around the dungeons repeatedly and talking to people, I notice several things. Not all the dungeons appear to be respawning properly.

The new coal mines seem to have a randomized spawn setup now, and you'll get a high spawn uber monster, and a low spawn dinky monster together. All the rooms there seem to be lacking in spawn every time I've gone, with only one or two monsters anywhere. Granted, people may be going down there to slaughter ebon cats for their skins, and maybe that's what's keeping the spawn super low, but if that's the case maybe it needs to be permanently cranked up to account for all the people who are just whacking the cats.

The lich tower still seems to be off. Not sure what to make of that.

Sullen Woods appears to be respawning so slowly that I've noticed it being empty when checking. I noticed 10 days ago, too... always seeming to be near-empty or empty, but didn't worry too much about it.

Someone suggested the purple dungeon seemed low, and thought it might be because the outside spawns are killing each other off (jujus and spiders.)

And everything, for whatever reason, seems to be low. I checked every place today, and the only ones that had anything were the ice queen (1 bleakborn per group, rest crystals), the purple dungeon (1 skeletal per group). We had a low alhoon spawn, but the dungeon didn't reset itself after everyone left. I had to log out inside, came back hours later (having accidentally fallen asleep in the meantime) and the place seemingly hadn't reset or grown at all. The junk Tarth left on the floor for other people was still there. The doors were even still open. I'm wondering if this is happening at other places too, because checking around, most of the places seemed completely wiped out. 

Anyway. Spawns just seem back to being off. I'm not sure how they were changed, but I've got enough people asking me about it since I've been logging back on that I thought I should make a mention.

[Helaman]

I'm happy with the current methodology - I just am confused often, as I am sure the Dev's are...

There is a reported issue or request involving spawns, Dev's 'fix' the spawn rates... and then there is an issue because something else is broke... so the process repeats itself.

I swear the dev's must have looked at those scripts 1000's of times.

Maybe we could take the server off line for a few days? Set some passwords and have set people log in at regular intervals with GM generated PCs to check spawn and loot on specific areas' and the comparative regeneration rates.

Thats the only way I think the devs' are gonna get the breathing space they need.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

It's not adequate to try to analyze patterns out of just a handful visits to a place. The spawn rates have natural growth ratios, but also fluctuation. It's intended that some areas will be somewhat dormant at times - that's the nature of the dynamic world.

I've started to record spawn rates once per 1 IG day so I can monitor very closely where the rates are too low. I'm still adjusting toward that, but it doesn't seem in any way far off right now.