Tone Down the Invasions

[Craig210]

The side attacks, are not scripted and done by the DM team, and often done because the front are abusing the AI of the spawns.

[MindTerrorist]

I feel like everybody says it's "abusing" the AI, but why would you just stand at a bridge waiting for a horde to attack you, and eventually bring you down? It doesn't make sense IC and usually ends in a lot of deaths. As the bridge is way harder to navigate. Maybe the Team should work on the AI?

And they almost always have a warning.

It is free XP, and usually a lot of loot.

I think they need a slight tuning up. But nothing drastic. You could always NOT go, as the sendings say "All abled bodys are asked to fend them off, and for unable bodys to hide inside"

[lovethesuit]

Something that needs to be said: when the sending warning about an incoming invasion is made, advice is also given to not be there if you can't handle it. Don't ignore this advice if it applies to you.

I disagree with this suggestion. Keep the number of invasions the same, or raise it.

[sylvyrdragon]

It is free XP, and usually a lot of loot.

I've been in these things for I don't know how long.  I can say honestly, that I have yet to get anything near a "fair" amount on the loot found.  As was said, you get players that go invis and grab everything they can.  I gave up on it.  If I fight, I fight and leave, I don't even bother trying to get any loot.

Here's an example;  Kobald invasion.  Fought off the main force, then a Kobald SuperHero came along.  Strong PC's fell, so I stepped up to help hold it off giving them a chance to respawn.  Well, we managed to kill it.  I used more supplies than I thought I would.. know what I got?  Nothing.  

Free XP, sure.. lots of loot... can't prove it by me.  I do the invasions only when it makes sense.  I refuse to go out of my way for them anymore.

[O Fortuna]

I am not sure if it is scripted or not, but having the invaders spawn from the side entrance is the only issue I have with the invasions. Not noticing the sending, my low level character basically ran outside straight into a death trap. Otherwise, everything seems fine.

[Semli]

I'd be in favor of making it much tougher to invis loot everything during these events. I held off a scripted invasion solo (with the NPC Stygs) one night back in Archipelago and some stealther looted nearly everything before I finished off the boss. I had no C&C items so even while he was around making bags disappear I had no ability to counter him with despite the fact it was painstakingly obvious what was going on OOCly and ICly. Maybe a script that simply bombs your H/MS for a round when you take an item in stealth. I'd like to say it isn't an issue but this is the same reason PC corpses autolock during DM invasions; people, maybe just 5 or even 10 percent of the playerbase, really cannot be bothered to control themselves.

Getting nothing for your efforts, not even recognition, is a colossal letdown, enough that people may be inclined simply to avoid these encounters altogether. A simple change like the one suggested above could fix the issue and make these encounters more enjoyable all around as was the original intention before buttheads (players) got brought into the equation.

As far as difficulty, I haven't really been around much lately and the last DM invasion I saw a month or two ago was indeed a bit much due to the monsters being used, but that is more an issue related to that particular staff member moreso than anything else, a topic I have commented on previously. I can't seem to find the thread for posterity's sake.

[Donovan Lorcan]

Guys, please read the above posts before responding. [Delete] There was NOT any warning on the last couple I have seen [/Delete] (Apparently there was one and I just missed it.) and you can't just "not go" because the invaders are getting into the village itself. That was what prompted the posts from above. If you want to give a warning that would solve a lot of these issues. Then like everything else it's fair game, you choose to go knowing you could very well die. Everyone else heads inside to the Mist End or the like.

Look at it this way, it takes about three to four well buffed or equiped PCs to hold the front during an invasion if the invading forces are tough at all. When its kobolds there tend to be a few "super kobolds" to spice things up so you end up needing this anyway. Fewer than that and someone gets overwhelmed. Before this wasn't an issue in the Ziggurat because there was only one front. Now we have two fronts. One on or before the bridge and one to the side of the village. How often do you have eight or so well equiped PCs on and in the village who are able / ready to hold the two fronts? Thats why you tend to get the death into the village issue, bridge is going fine and then its oh crap we just got flanked. PCs run back but they are usually cleaning up a mess when they get there.

[lovethesuit]

If only I read the post, I would agree with you entirely. Unfortunately

[Semli]

Getting flanked is bad. Your argument was made and required no further comment - if its a script issue hopefully the suggestion thread will get followed up on, if its a DM issue you're probably SOL. My advice is to chug invis second things get nasty and let NPCs/retards take the worst of it (unless you're a pally dork, in which case you fall under retard by default).

[DeusBellum]

The rampant let's call it Ninja? Looting by PC's is the only downside I see to the invasions..and I have died on several of them.  This is strictly a player problem. If your doing it, stop. If you see someone doing it, kill them, on site. (Subdual of course), as you would to any thief stealing supplies dearly needed by Mistlocke and it's defenders.  Doubt the DM's can make the invis looter stop, so it falls to us. The Muster is sure to understand...do it ig. Have them tried for treason, or whatever after the fight is done..or kill them outright and put their head on a pike at the gates as a warning to other carrion pickers..lots of ways to solve it ig.

[VanillaPudding]

They are normal spawns and don't really drop a ton of loot. I can't really imagine anyone thinking that they are missing out on things from these invasions even if they get nothing.

[Porkolt]

I think the main issue here is that the transition between Mistlocke and the springs is far too much of a blind spot in defense, both IC and OOC. There isn't the slightest bit of a buffer between what is supposed to be an NPC-controlled safe area and a wilds area with dangerous spawns. Just the other day I got transition cubed there by an elder werewolf and was forced to flee. When it caught up with me, I was in the middle of Mistlocke and got downed in two hits.
 
 
Just put some NPC guards by that trans or remove it completely. Really don't run invasions through it.

[Egon the Monkey]

My problem's been with the fact that I've seen a couple of Gaathmars turning up when no DM was visible on EFUSS. They then proceed to crush the crap out of a lot of the PCs there. The old setup there was an unkillable Stygian NPC who would definitely be able to clear the mobs eventually. We don't have that here and the scaling has been a lot more vicious on players, especially since mobs started drinking their loot too.

The "spawn exploiting" is a pain in the arse as PCs end up moving forward naturally to kill archers/mages even if they started further off. Best solution I can see is to split invasions into a smaller number of larger waves of enemies, so PCs can't outnumber mobs as they spawn. Of course, that risks lag.

As for what Semli mentioned, that "bomb your H/MS script" exists. It's attached to a lot of quest loot chests to stop people sneaking in and stealing all the loot without a fight. As players have mentioned before though, even if you see people looting, the "X acquires an object" notices are in the combat log and rapidly get lost in there.

[Ebok]

The Guard just past the bridge is immortal in the same respect as that stygian. People just hold the line outside of mistlocke normally.

[Halfbrood]

On a related note, don't surround the monster spawn sites on invasions and stand there buffed to high heavens slaying the creatures that appear IN THE MIDDLE of your group. And ESPECIALLY, if this is the case, don't continue to ROLEPLAY BEING SOME KIND OF BADASS, while abusing the system. There is nothing more horrendous than a group of players screaming warcries and shouting "ANYMORE FOR ANYMORE, WEAKLINGS?!", while stood in a circle around an endless trickle of monsters. Players doing such stupid things will find themselves swiftly corrected.