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How to fix bounty "camping"

lordaule#2304 lordaule Member Posts: 7 Arc User
As a former game designer, I know that all new content and changes will upset a certain portion of players, some of which will complain about the system before even trying it out. This post is NOT one of those.

What this is about:
This post is about the "Bounty Board" system in New Sharandar. Every day, each toon can pick up quests per subzone to kill certain bounty mobs. The end reward for completing these is new companion gear, and is in fact the only way to obtain this new gear. This effectively means that every player on the server will be doing these daily quests.

Killing the mobs themselves isn't terribly difficult. Finding them is also easy, thanks to guides and maps freely posted and shared. The issue however, is that not all mobs count the same towards the goal: some give 50%, others give only 10%.

What this inevitably results in is the following player behavior: Camping.
A player picks up the quest, runs into the subzone to the known spot where the guaranteed 50% credit mob will spawn, and.... sits there.

Why this is bad:
1. A player who doesn't camp risks missing the spawn of the mob, because they are easily killed. This represents wasted time, to wait for the next spawn.
2. A player idle camping is not playing the game. They are online, but on their phone or doing something else to pass the time.
3. It causes friction between players, because it is possible to kill steal. Kill stealing is when someone else runs up and kills the mob before anyone else can get any hits (and therefor any kill credit). While possible in other zones for other quests, in those cases there are often multiple mobs that can be killed to achieve the goal AND the mobs are on fast respawn timers, so a stolen kill is not a large impact.
4. It creates a dependence on external sources (aka maps) to enjoy the content, given how rarely the bounty npcs spawn and the competition over killing them.

Ways to fix the current system:
1. Make every bounty mob worth the same 50% percentage. This spreads players out, and decreases the likelihood of negative player interactions (kill stealing)
2. Increase the bounty mob spawn time. This increases the likelihood that bounty mobs will be available in the zone, so that idle camping is not a requirement.

Thank you for your consideration.
Post edited by lordaule#2304 on

Comments

  • someonediessomeonedies Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,257 Arc User
    I have a lifehack if you like to grind ofc, make 10 chairs and farm when everyone is asleep, the instances are just empty at night.
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  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,182 Arc User
    edited May 2021
    I don't have problem with my 6 characters to get the bounty and I don't camp or wait at all. It is not something you can farm forever like Mane. Nobody will camp forever. After you got 2 x 50%, you are done for the day.

    By the way, what does "NPC camping" mean in the title?
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • lordaule#2304 lordaule Member Posts: 7 Arc User

    By the way, what does "NPC camping" mean in the title?

    Fixed. My prior game called mobs NPCs, old habit to type that. I made sure the post said mob/mobs but forgot to check the title.

  • johnnystranger#5900 johnnystranger Member Posts: 461 Arc User
    I have zero problem with someone putting their toon in the spawn area while they do whatever they want to kill time. I actually like to see an afk person , means the boss might spawn sooner .
    I agree make them all 50% , not sure why they’re not anyways .
    This grind has become pure and utter bs , viva le afk’ers
    Sometimes I get lucky swapping instances but mostly not .
  • clash#7275 clash Member Posts: 1 New User
    Sorry to write in the wrong place, but I don't know how to open a new topic on my question.
    Couldn’t it be solved to slightly resize the user interface for the console game? Because the texts are too big and often obscure valuable space on the screen, that’s why I’ve died or caused a problem more than once! Thanks!
  • froger#9967 froger Member Posts: 615 Arc User
    I camp a lot. The first day I ran around for a while trying to find spawns then gave up. I agree, this is not 'playing' the game at all. Hell, yesterday I got a shower while may character was waiting for a spawn, by time I returned the quest was complete.
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  • armadeonxarmadeonx Member Posts: 4,952 Arc User
    It would be nice if they could also make the npc's immune to damage for a few seconds after they appear so that everyone can get a hit in?
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  • rikitakirikitaki Member Posts: 926 Arc User
    In the old days... when you got a quest to kill an unique mob, you obtained the ability to summon (challenge) that mob at certain area. Or you were tasked to kill whatever mobs you came across to - you know, you were tasked to do something what was actually possible to do.
    Those were designs maximised to keep the player actually occupied, doing something.

    The current system is different, designed purely to eat up as much time as possible - regardless how ridiculous the situation becomes. You are tasked with a quest to kill something that is not present on the map - and cannot be summoned? This simply must be an intentional design. The system behaves exactly as it was supposed to behave, so whatever you suggest here, they will not change it.
    It is not supposed to be straightforward or user friendly - because then people would not spend so much time doing something that trivial.
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,083 Arc User

    I have a lifehack if you like to grind ofc, make 10 chairs and farm when everyone is asleep, the instances are just empty at night.

    Night where?
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
  • milehighxr#1299 milehighxr Member Posts: 461 Arc User
    greywynd said:

    I have a lifehack if you like to grind ofc, make 10 chairs and farm when everyone is asleep, the instances are just empty at night.

    Night where?
    I'm in mountain timezone USA, and at 8am on sunday morning most zones are pretty well dead. Hell I think my entire alliance is online so late on saturday that they don't show up till 3pm my time....
  • geminisky59#9345 geminisky59 Member Posts: 79 Arc User
    This bounty camping is huge joke along with the arc defender pin i need to process to get into the forums that I have joined and used for 6 years. This game does not care about about the inconvenience any of this causes as most devs are completely out of touch with the player grind and game in general. Right now it’s all about corporate greed at the moment. And this company just laid off a ton of devs because MTG was not “performing financially”. So I guess my question is how much money does Cryptic want from NW players in order for any updates that are worthwhile to be done? They should just post that and the players that can contribute just fork over and the maybe we will see some content. Not sure. Good luck getting an answer.
  • someonediessomeonedies Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,257 Arc User
    greywynd said:

    I have a lifehack if you like to grind ofc, make 10 chairs and farm when everyone is asleep, the instances are just empty at night.

    Night where?
    12h opposite the time of my post ;). (PST-4, +-4h)
    Rimuru?
    Dead 🔪
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,083 Arc User

    This bounty camping is huge joke along with the arc defender pin i need to process to get into the forums that I have joined and used for 6 years.

    That's part of your account guard. If you don't like it, turn it off.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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