birdsofprey
08-27-2011, 02:07 PM
Ok so I'm a druid. I was in BB at the Master Brewer spawn. He's next to a small footbridge and some water that rests in the surrounding cavern.
I attack him and see that I am getting beat to a pulp. So I snare him and run across the bridge and notice that he paths to me by going around rather than running across the gap between us. He changes direction when I am on the opposite side. I see that I can take advantage of this pathing behavior. First of all, I can move left and right and he'll go left and right forever. Secondly, I can jump and path more accurately, to save time. He can't. His pathing is set and not dynamic.
Observation: this is a tactic. When I normally snare something I have to always run ahead of it to keep distance between us so I can cast or med. By observing the path my target takes, in this case, I am able to reduce the amount of running.
Anybody else found things like this in the way things path? I think this is more noticeable in tight spaces than in outdoor zones.
These are the kinds of things I like to see in games. I don't consider it exploiting. In a sense, it's just very dumb mob AI. If the mob was smart it wouldn't go in the other direction when I shift in the opposite. It would just run in one direction towards me until its snare wore off because it realizes it's pointless to run to/fro forever. And, most of all, it would be able to jump and path accurately to save time.
But tactics are all about outsmarting your enemy. In this case, I outsmarted the mob and was able to jump and move better. If mobs were just as smart as me or smarter than me and had the same abilities, it would be very difficult to find a suitable tactic. I don't think it would be as fun that way. It's not fun to lose or just gamble.
I think developers should look at these kinds of things carefully because they're often a positive thing rather than a negative thing. Sometimes pathing that's exploitable for gain is just simple stupid and should be changed, but other times I think it's appropriate and well placed.
It's sad that these things can be a catastrophe for game balance but at the same time can be so right. These are the kinds of things that're hard to design because it's hard to see them from all different angles. I think some developers might actually try to avoid it like the plague by making workarounds. One example: summoning. Another: no creature aggro. Another: mobs don't path. Another: mobs return to spawn if past a certain point. Another: mob can port itself to you. Another: mob runs extremely fast. Etc.
I have an idea for a game that could be this way. Make it so that loot is a resource. This way if you camp a particular mob that has a particular pathing that just happens to be particularly exploitable, the loot that drops on the mob will get progressively worse until its loot resource count is 0. This 'loot resource count" increases over time. So if you leave the this particular 'camp' for a while, it will go back up to maximum. This would make it so that heavily exploitable places have a limit on how much they will give you. It would have to be this way for all places, not just exploitable places. Additionally, the game would need to keep track of how often a place is exploited so that the increase to the resource count is measured. This way, the game will self-correct for heavily exploited places. This might prevent game imbalance. I can't think of any other way to do it right now.
Was just another thing that made me appreciate being a druid. Utility is nice.
PS: I've noticed other pathing like this in BB. For example, in the snake pit.
I attack him and see that I am getting beat to a pulp. So I snare him and run across the bridge and notice that he paths to me by going around rather than running across the gap between us. He changes direction when I am on the opposite side. I see that I can take advantage of this pathing behavior. First of all, I can move left and right and he'll go left and right forever. Secondly, I can jump and path more accurately, to save time. He can't. His pathing is set and not dynamic.
Observation: this is a tactic. When I normally snare something I have to always run ahead of it to keep distance between us so I can cast or med. By observing the path my target takes, in this case, I am able to reduce the amount of running.
Anybody else found things like this in the way things path? I think this is more noticeable in tight spaces than in outdoor zones.
These are the kinds of things I like to see in games. I don't consider it exploiting. In a sense, it's just very dumb mob AI. If the mob was smart it wouldn't go in the other direction when I shift in the opposite. It would just run in one direction towards me until its snare wore off because it realizes it's pointless to run to/fro forever. And, most of all, it would be able to jump and path accurately to save time.
But tactics are all about outsmarting your enemy. In this case, I outsmarted the mob and was able to jump and move better. If mobs were just as smart as me or smarter than me and had the same abilities, it would be very difficult to find a suitable tactic. I don't think it would be as fun that way. It's not fun to lose or just gamble.
I think developers should look at these kinds of things carefully because they're often a positive thing rather than a negative thing. Sometimes pathing that's exploitable for gain is just simple stupid and should be changed, but other times I think it's appropriate and well placed.
It's sad that these things can be a catastrophe for game balance but at the same time can be so right. These are the kinds of things that're hard to design because it's hard to see them from all different angles. I think some developers might actually try to avoid it like the plague by making workarounds. One example: summoning. Another: no creature aggro. Another: mobs don't path. Another: mobs return to spawn if past a certain point. Another: mob can port itself to you. Another: mob runs extremely fast. Etc.
I have an idea for a game that could be this way. Make it so that loot is a resource. This way if you camp a particular mob that has a particular pathing that just happens to be particularly exploitable, the loot that drops on the mob will get progressively worse until its loot resource count is 0. This 'loot resource count" increases over time. So if you leave the this particular 'camp' for a while, it will go back up to maximum. This would make it so that heavily exploitable places have a limit on how much they will give you. It would have to be this way for all places, not just exploitable places. Additionally, the game would need to keep track of how often a place is exploited so that the increase to the resource count is measured. This way, the game will self-correct for heavily exploited places. This might prevent game imbalance. I can't think of any other way to do it right now.
Was just another thing that made me appreciate being a druid. Utility is nice.
PS: I've noticed other pathing like this in BB. For example, in the snake pit.