More, Better encounter options

oslion360 · May 2013

Is there anyway for us to get more mobs/skillsets/enemies to work with?

Right now, the only way to make a foundry quest hard, is to stack a ton of mobs on top of eachother, cut off the escape route and put the players against a cliff. Anything outside of that is a **** joke for more then 2 players. Hell for 2 people its often a joke.

The foundry is wonderful and will allow us to make some cool stuff, but it is so limited and being abused right now its impossible to make something worth a **** that feels good. We can't create bosses that mean anything. Every boss encounter is like "k, we will just **** you and move on." There is no, oh man, there is the boss. What do we do?

So will we ever get the ability to make something hard or will it just be useless HAMSTER anyone can solo and forget about?

chinspinner · May 2013

Have you been pressing ctrl space all the way through your trial runs?

oslion360 · May 2013

No, I was trying to solo it all with a lvl 10 control mage and wasnt having issues. It was only recently i found out about god mode and bothered to the ctrl+space to see what monsters did instead of fighting them.

I made a pretty mob heavy map that takes about 30 minutes to run. With 2 people, (no tank) it was rough but doable with a couple pots. With a tank it wasnt bad either. Got a group of 4 and we waltzed through it liek nothing. About 50 encounters of HARD only mobs smashed together 3-4 deep. The only places people even had trouble were where i added knockback mobs to small pathways with cliffs.

Hell the boss fight is a joke and there is a good 8 Hard packs in there with spellplague all over the ground.

It's just too easy to walk through these dungeouns and not be actually worried about a fight. Especially bosses. I see a boss and im like "whatever, its just gonna melt like everything else"

mosby1 · May 2013

Test it at a higher level? It gets harder.

talmorusmoon · May 2013

"Is there anyway for us to get more mobs/skillsets/enemies to work with?"

I second this. I'm finding the limitations rather, um, limiting

Where's my drakes/dragons/beholders?! I'm trying to make another quest right now, and the encounters just aren't going to do it any justice....

kamaliicious · May 2013

oslion360 wrote: »

Is there anyway for us to get more mobs/skillsets/enemies to work with?

Right now, the only way to make a foundry quest hard, is to stack a ton of mobs on top of eachother, cut off the escape route and put the players against a cliff. Anything outside of that is a **** joke for more then 2 players. Hell for 2 people its often a joke.

Play your stacked encounters with a solo high level character and get back to us.

boydzinj · May 2013

The problem with mobs is this... the level of the mobs scale with the player. However, their difficulty does not scale in this linear pattern. SOME Mobs, or SOME encounters, gain access to more powerful spells, attacks, abilities, and defenses as they increase in level. As a result, some encounters are downright a joke at lower levels (very easy) - while the same encounters can defeat a level 60 player if not the player is not careful.

The one i use allot is this:

The "HARD" Mind Flayer encounter, at levels 1 thru 10 they are a joke. You can close your eyes and defeat this encounter. At level 11 thru 29 they are very easy. Then at level 30 they become tough and gain access to several hard hitting spells and abilities and a few CC abilities as well. When you hit level 60, this same encounter can defeat some players outright.

As a result, at level 1 you stack 3 of these "HARD" encounters together and it seems like an easy challenge. At level 30, you face the same three stacked encounters and you are using potions every time it refreshes and may die once or twice... then at level 60... you do not even bother using a potion - because you are stun lock while the enemy mobs kill you in 3 to 4 hits (6 if you are a well geared guardian).

Mobs do scale to the level of the party/player; however, their difficulty does not... it can be a non linear road.

gizmosdragon · May 2013

We really need a single mob type for every creature type, one for easy and medium. I really do not like the fact I have to put a elite down because there isn't a mob type for that monster set that's single and easy or standard difficulty.

thewatcheruatu · May 2013

gizmosdragon wrote: »

We really need a single mob type for every creature type, one for easy and medium. I really do not like the fact I have to put a elite down because there isn't a mob type for that monster set that's single and easy or standard difficulty.

Yeah, this has been bothering me, as well. Though to be sure, I'm believe there's an easy melee encounter with one mob (skirmisher?). But I'd definitely like to see more options.

nokturnel · May 2013

boydzinj wrote: »

The problem with mobs is this... the level of the mobs scale with the player. However, their difficulty does not scale in this linear pattern. SOME Mobs, or SOME encounters, gain access to more powerful spells, attacks, abilities, and defenses as they increase in level. As a result, some encounters are downright a joke at lower levels (very easy) - while the same encounters can defeat a level 60 player if not the player is not careful.

The one i use allot is this:

The "HARD" Mind Flayer encounter, at levels 1 thru 10 they are a joke. You can close your eyes and defeat this encounter. At level 11 thru 29 they are very easy. Then at level 30 they become tough and gain access to several hard hitting spells and abilities and a few CC abilities as well. When you hit level 60, this same encounter can defeat some players outright.

As a result, at level 1 you stack 3 of these "HARD" encounters together and it seems like an easy challenge. At level 30, you face the same three stacked encounters and you are using potions every time it refreshes and may die once or twice... then at level 60... you do not even bother using a potion - because you are stun lock while the enemy mobs kill you in 3 to 4 hits (6 if you are a well geared guardian).

Mobs do scale to the level of the party/player; however, their difficulty does not... it can be a non linear road.

^ Yes, this is a big problem actually.

The scaling of the mobs makes it so the higher level you get to the harder the mission becomes.

mokah · May 2013

nokturnel wrote: »

^ Yes, this is a big problem actually.

The scaling of the mobs makes it so the higher level you get to the harder the mission becomes.

Wait...isn't this the point? Perhaps at post 30 you are expected to be running with groups? I know that Cryptic said that you could solo, but I don't believe anything they say since all evidence says otherwise.

In the best possible world, Cryptic should add a difficulty scaling system for every mission instance just like how DDO does it, but I'm not holding my breath.

nokturnel · May 2013

mokah wrote: »

Wait...isn't this the point? Perhaps at post 30 you are expected to be running with groups? I know that Cryptic said that you could solo, but I don't believe anything they say since all evidence says otherwise.

In the best possible world, Cryptic should add a difficulty scaling system for every mission instance just like how DDO does it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well technically we could create our own difficulty sliders, by offering different versions of the quest with different encounters in them (could even still look the same, just different mob templates). Though, atm it's almost impossible to create a challenging 5 man encounter without trapping the players into a small room and filling it with stuns, aoe and ranged attacks.

We also can't add bosses yet, just "elites"

Also the whole "Average Playtime" increases with level in any combat oriented quest due to mobs getting access to more skills that you must dodge.

oslion360 · May 2013

See, i wanted it to be run by groups. I watched a 60 contrl wizard attempt this quest and he got smushed. I expected that. It just sucks you are FORCED to stack mobs of hard encounters to create difficulty in a dungeon. You can create boss encounters without stacking mobs in some format. Otherwise, its a joke.

I just ran the foundry with myself (39 control) a 41 cleric and 42 GF and we had one death because the tank didnt angle himself right and got knocked off a cliff. Otherwise, it was simple.

I'm ok with people not getting killed as long as it gets the blood pumping but I tried to design it to need a 5 man and it just sin't possible with our currently available tools.

More, Better encounter options

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