Dungeon Runs

tenryuutoo · March 2019

I've only recently started playing NWN online (I played the original for years). I love all the quests and generally have been able to create a character that's both fun to play and good at adventuring. But one thing irks me beyond all else and is almost enough to make me want to STOP playing entirely. That thing is how parties SPRINT ahead in dungeons as if it's a race. One time I hadn't even completely transitioned into the dungeon and the rest of my party was so far ahead of me I couldn't even find them.

Okay, I get it...a lot of you are grinding away for some special widget or whatever. But when you're in a dungeon or other PARTY area and end up being left so far behind you might as well be solo-ing the area, that's about as fun as... well, it's just not. And it's not like you get anything additional or special for being first to the end encounter or you get more loot if you kill more bad guys. I honestly do NOT understand why people feel they have to race through these areas. It kills the enjoyment for me to the point where I put off dungeons and such until that's ALL I have left in an area and I can't close the area until I finish the dungeon. There have been times when I get the "Your party is waiting for you." message and part of me wants to move even slower just to spite them.

So why do y'all do it?

plasticbat · March 2019

They do it because they don't really care about running dungeon like a new player. They ran that hundreds times already. They are not going there to enjoy it. They did it to get the rAD and just want to finish ASAP. It is not a race against each other. For them, it is the race against time so that they can leave and do something else that they enjoy.

If the game allows them to solo it and also get the rAD, they will do it that way. The game allowed solo to earn rAD before but not anymore. They are forced to do Random Queue if they want those rAD. Personally, I do not enjoy RQ. Hence, I don't do RQ at all.

tripsofthrymr · March 2019

The best advice I can give you is to join a good guild. There's a huge difference between queueing and ending up with random people and having a more-or-less steady group of people to play with. In my alliance at least (and I know that many other alliances are the same way), if there's a new player in the group who wants to experience a particular dungeon, we'll take our time. Also, the game is evolving so that mindlessly sprinting ahead is less and less a thing at end-game. Whether with the K-Team challenges (depending on the weekly dungeon), the Tales of Old events, or the upcoming Module 16, team play with solid communication is gaining importance.

darkheart · March 2019

Wait for Mod 16 and auto scaling. People won't be running ahead as much with that in place.

Of course, you may encounter a new problem with auto-scaling: waiting forever for lower random queues to pop. Most people don't want to run something that say takes 20 minutes to run the first time through and will take the same 20 minutes to run when they are BIS 2 mods later.

Auto-scaling tends to kill games, so be careful what you wish for.

namelesshero347 · March 2019

Enjoy while you can. There be no more running and buffing in mod 16. Even current runs that are fast (3-8 minutes) will take much longer with the scaling and lack of buffs.

frogwalloper · March 2019

You're like the pooper scooper - picking up all the greens, vacuuming up all the loose change they've left behind - assuming they're killing things as they zoom ahead. It's a vital roll!

The real trolls not only leave you behind but leave most of the enemies behind too.

wolfiekahn · March 2019

frogwalloper#6494 said:
You're like the pooper scooper - picking up all the greens, vacuuming up all the loose change they've left behind - assuming they're killing things as they zoom ahead. It's a vital roll!

The real trolls not only leave you behind but leave most of the enemies behind too.

yeah thats happens alot on live servers right now..it really annoys me.. it makes me want to just take even longer.. you know WALK all the way and collect every single thing JUST to make them wait long as possible. They want to be arseholes and run through not even killing a single thing as though its a race with a prize for getting to the end first, then fine, but they better be prepared for a long boring wait at the final point before boss. I have had to go through dungeons i have done now so many times i can do it in my sleep but i will still have the courtesy to at kill mobs on the way and stop from time to time so others can catch up. Dont matter if a person reaches end first.. they still need rest of group to progress. Guess some just still dont grasp that.

greywynd · March 2019

No, they do. They will AFK until the rest of the party catches up.

frogwalloper · March 2019

Yeah, they're not exactly fretting if you fall really far behind: check in on the Workshop, browse the AH, monitor the exchange if they're on console. If you drag things out intentionally, in some cases they may not even be aware you're doing it.

Being a little late is probably more irritating than a lot late. Just long enough to make them wait, but not long enough to get anything done - or interrupt something they've started.

mithrosnomore · March 2019

It's been said, but Mod 16 will introduce scaling, so hostiles will not melt just because they looked at some characters the wrong way.

Also, speed will be reduced in Mod 16. There will still be ways to increase a character's speed, but they are fewer and seem to require more of a trade-off, so fewer people are likely to even attempt to max out their speed, whatever that new max ends up being.

dionchi · March 2019

plasticbat said:
They do it because they don't really care about running dungeon like a new player. They ran that hundreds times already. They are not going there to enjoy it. They did it to get the rAD and just want to finish ASAP. It is not a race against each other. For them, it is the race against time so that they can leave and do something else that they enjoy.

If the game allows them to solo it and also get the rAD, they will do it that way. The game allowed solo to earn rAD before but not anymore. They are forced to do Random Queue if they want those rAD. Personally, I do not enjoy RQ. Hence, I don't do RQ at all.

The game once allowed more experienced and higher level players to solo content for AD's and as a result many players choose to do just that... however the result tended to be those players who wanted - or needed to run with a party often experienced very long wait times just to get into dungeons because so many people were soloing... which is why it was changed to the present random queue system.

It doesn't matter if someone(s) runs ahead, or whether or not they deal with mobs if they abandoned the rest of the party members and ran ahead, those players will still have to wait for the last - slowest member to arrive before they are able to battle the final boss and get their pay out, so as the OP said:

tenryuutoo said:
So why do y'all do it?

The reality as I see it is speed runnung ahead of the party can have a tendency to just make the wait to get into the final battle longer - particularly if speed runners leave behind mobs for slower players to contend with.

As for the though about intentionally slowing things down in protest of how some people play... there is a timer where other players can vote to remove a party member once the countdown for the timer expires so I wouldn't suggest trying to slow down things too much or someone might find themselves voted out of the party.

As far as I'm concerned the best way to make it to the final boss battle and get the chest at the end as quickly as possible is to stay with the party, allow everyone to participate in their own way, as to their own preference and arrive at the end at the same time...

But that's just my take on it.

namelesshero347 · March 2019

dionchi said:

The game once allowed more experienced and higher level players to solo content for AD's and as a result many players choose to do just that... however the result tended to be those players who wanted - or needed to run with a party often experienced very long wait times just to get into dungeons because so many people were soloing... which is why it was changed to the present random queue system.

And once these players finish soloing on their main for RAD, they bring in their trash alts to get carried for RAD.

dionchi · March 2019

namelesshero347 said:

dionchi said:

The game once allowed more experienced and higher level players to solo content for AD's and as a result many players choose to do just that... however the result tended to be those players who wanted - or needed to run with a party often experienced very long wait times just to get into dungeons because so many people were soloing... which is why it was changed to the present random queue system.
And once these players finish soloing on their main for RAD, they bring in their trash alts to get carried for RAD.

Which is probably why the developers severely nerfed the AD rewards for running more than one character per account.

Seems to me a lot of the more undesirable changes to the game have been brought about by the greed and behavior of just a few inconsiderate, self serving players...

But again, that's just my assessment.

Dungeon Runs

Comments