NPC Spawn Issue: There were a LOT more crocs in the water in Oasis on live than on P99

[Dolalin]

From a screenshot slideshow I found on Youtube with screens from 1999, here are two from underwater in Oasis that show there were a LOT more crocs under the water than above it. I would even say the majority of crocs in Oasis were under the water.

Dates on these pics are sometime a bit after October 1999 (the Oct 1999 halloween event with Lanys T`Vyl comes along a little earlier in the slideshow).

https://youtu.be/akdgif0QOkQ?t=296

https://youtu.be/akdgif0QOkQ?t=295

[Dolalin]

Here are the screenshots I found of above the water along the shore in Oasis to compare:

https://youtu.be/akdgif0QOkQ?t=293

https://youtu.be/akdgif0QOkQ?t=263

https://youtu.be/akdgif0QOkQ?t=248

[Dolalin]

To be honest this could be selection bias at play. I'm sure people were more keen to pull from above water than below water, so there'd generally be fewer up. More screenshot contributions are welcome.

Underwater clearly doesn't have enough crocs on P99 though.

[Dolalin]

Yeah that's prolly it tbh:

1/28/01


This is about hunting crocs in Oasis and why someone might
have said you get more xp from the crocs in the water. They
are hunted less and thus are pulled faster than the ones on
land. Less competition for the ones in the water means higher
efficiency in pulling and less wasted time running after the
ones already being stalked by 20 other players.
There are various caiman and crocs roaming the beach. There
are also caimans and crocs swimming in the water. Both types
are non aggressive and aren't social (won't gang up on you ).

Most people fight the ones on land since they can't swim fast

and pulling from underwater to shore can be a pain so the
ones in the water are usually more plentiful than the ones on

the land (which everyone and their mother fights).

So, pulling from the water will in most cases save you the
wasted time in running after the same crocs that everyone
else is after.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....A/xfhLnhJFqrEJ

[Dolalin]

Here's the oasis croc numbers from the spreadsheet I found from late 1999.

I think the numbers have some big caveats though because Oasis was almost certainly being actively hunted when this dump happened (it was always, always busy), and even just the screenshots above would fill up most of the count.

However, consider this. What if it was actively hunted and:

1) nearly all of the above-water crocs were down
2) ...but most of the underwater crocs were still up?

Can't be sure, but if true, and I think it's a reasonable assumption and interpretation, that would mean this would be roughly the count of crocs you could expect to find under the water at any given time. And it certainly seems reasonable given the screenshots.

Judgement call to be made here, above my pay grade [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Dolalin]

FWIW here are the rest of the oasis beach shots I could find in the slideshow.

Of note is the one where they're playing a level 5 wizard and are the only ones in the zone. The beach up towards P2 / zoneline to SRo still looks pretty bare (although not a ton of crocs roam that way anyways I guess).

But there are definitely some roaming the beach because we can see in his Tyffen Kinkhammer shot that they are fighting crocs that almost certainly were pathing up and down the beach in front of P1.