Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

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Elysia
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:29 pm

Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Elysia » Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:41 pm

Kitiara wrote:
Mon Mar 31, 2025 11:24 am
Any time frame on when this will be implemented?
From Discord:
Feneon — 3/22/2025
Next list of adjustments are time intensive and will start sometime roughly next week as availability allows. The rollout of things people will be excited to do and hear about won't be finished until maybe April, depending on availability for implementation.
As a sidenote, I'm looking at changing mini-smob chains and do the following:
  • have them at least swing by the center of the map, instead of solely sticking to the fringes. Think more like Patros > Lugard > onwards than Tanchico > Jaq Arenhald or w FD > Kandor.
  • diverting the ones that are solo rogue/channie activities and instead of more duo-friendly, e.g. Mirnavaere currently being way more doable on rogue than other classes.
  • adding at least one new mini-smob chain, probably with an adjusted Alamir as the end guy
  • adding a thing that if you complete a few of these over the course of one boot, you get a roll for a better item
I expect all of these combined will take me more than a few weeks as well.

azareth
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by azareth » Mon Mar 31, 2025 4:40 pm

Elysia wrote:
Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:41 pm
[*]adding at least one new mini-smob chain, probably with an adjusted Alamir as the end guy
The return of A pair of tight soft leather pants!!!

Florry
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Florry » Sat Apr 12, 2025 12:45 pm

Elysia wrote:
Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:41 pm
[*]diverting the ones that are solo rogue/channie activities and instead of more duo-friendly, e.g. Mirnavaere currently being way more doable on rogue than other classes.
I like the idea of them being made to be easier for duos, but I'm also concerned that the shift may result in punishing the player who plays the solo rogue/channeler. Are you going to be leaving some of those smaller chains still soloable?

Thore
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Thore » Sun Apr 13, 2025 12:20 pm

Florry wrote:
Sat Apr 12, 2025 12:45 pm
…punishing the player who plays the solo rogue/channeler.…
I think this is the entire point over the years. Time will tell if it's the correct decision/direction for the game.

Florry
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Florry » Sun Apr 13, 2025 1:54 pm

Thore wrote:
Sun Apr 13, 2025 12:20 pm
I think this is the entire point over the years. Time will tell if it's the correct decision/direction for the game.
I meant this directly in regards to the mini-smob chains.

I don't have an issue at all with the SMOB changes as a whole, especially for the ones that require groups or were given better loads for groups.

I'm concerned about the mini-smob chains being made more unfriendly towards the stabber/channeler, since that's what I like to do when N pk is going on and there's not a lot of people on. It gives me something to do while being logged on.

Elysia
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Elysia » Sat Apr 19, 2025 7:01 pm

The previous way of making smobs harder for rogues, was just adding more mobs, because brick = pain. But that also made them impossible for melee type characters. I'm trying something with making one step of the Mirnavaere chain no-hide, in similar vein as one step in the Patros chain. Hopefully that will slow down rogues a bit instead of them breezing through things like these. I've kept the Mirnavaere smob no-hide for now, because I want it to mostly be alive for others to hit. I also have some mobol that is intended to require both smobs being killed, e.g. no channie sniping. Not sure it works, yet. If not, I will probably have to resort to a chest load that only opens if both smobs are dead.

I'm aiming for possible, but harder in a different way than adding mobs. Rogues with mobs would have it easier by default. Maybe adjustments will be necessary, maybe I will have to rethink the approach. But hopefully deviating from the idea of adding mobs to make it harder for some classes makes it easier for other classes.

Note: Patros, Jaq and Jerad chains didn't have anything changed, except for one step in the Jerad chain, where I left a room as previously flagged. On the upside, that step is now chargeable/ zingable, whereas it wasn't before. :arrow:

I saw Guildencrantz asking for help on globals yesterday, which is part of the goal: it's a multiplayer game, some people have gotten way too comfortable at single player only and it's making the game anti-social, while it's strength has always been the player connections. Some people may also need to be enticed to leave their comfort zone and instead of doing the same things they hit dozens of times, find the plethora of other stuff that has been around, and still is.

Remember, there are no more darkfriends who make asking for help risky. You can ask anyone or anything without the risk of being betrayed to the Shadow.

Sato
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Joined: Fri May 17, 2024 5:49 pm

Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Sato » Sat Apr 19, 2025 9:38 pm

Elysia wrote:
Sat Apr 19, 2025 7:01 pm

Note: Patros, Jaq and Jerad chains didn't have anything changed, except for one step in the Jerad chain, where I left a room as previously flagged. On the upside, that step is now chargeable/ zingable, whereas it wasn't before. :arrow:

I saw Guildencrantz asking for help on globals yesterday, which is part of the goal: it's a multiplayer game, some people have gotten way too comfortable at single player only and it's making the game anti-social, while it's strength has always been the player connections. Some people may also need to be enticed to leave their comfort zone and instead of doing the same things they hit dozens of times, find the plethora of other stuff that has been around, and still is.

Remember, there are no more darkfriends who make asking for help risky. You can ask anyone or anything without the risk of being betrayed to the Shadow.


I'm looking forward to the new smob changes and the time frames that will hopefully improve the loads and generate more SMOB groups and possibly pk by upping encounters. Currently, Weir be forming some great smob groups and we go on for hours of smobbing covering Worms all the way down to Pahar/Wolfie and hitting everything in between. Mind you that in the end, we are lucky to come out with 1 gold chain, a few random gold pieces, Gold coins, and some potions, no TAR but we have fun together.


As per doing stuff solo, this is my two cents on the matter Elysia. Also, this reflects the opinion of some others as well. The current player base is composed of mostly veteran players in one way or the other. This means that we need solo stuff to do when there is downtime while we wait for people to get on for PK, RP or Smob Trains. A lot of great pk sessions or smob sessions happen because we are online doing solo stuff and suddenly players log on and things pop off out of the blue. If we were not on doing whatever it was we were doing, those interactions would not have happened. Which means that less people in the MUD becomes a dominoe effect of others logging on, seeing nothing is happening, and logging off. This can kill the mud very quickly since at this point in our lives, real life can rapidly take our attention away from the game. One day can turn into 1 week, then into 1 month and before you know it, years have gone by in some cases (which we all have experienced at one point or another).


I understand your argument about wanting to make us do stuff together but it is more likely that people will just not log on. These situations of getting together need to happen organically by people already being in the mud doing other stuff. In the end, whatever you decide to do, just don't forget that a lot of us need stuff to do while there is downtime if not then it will just breed inactivity which can spread very quickly due to real life taking over or people prioritizing other stuff (such as another PC game, etc).


Listen, I agree with you that hitting the same thing over and over becomes monotonous but it helps kill the time while you play the game and wait for stuff to pop off or others to log on. That's it! I encourage you to please find a balance in your vision of wanting to promote multiplaying and the player that sometimes wants to do solo stuff for one reason or another.

erulak
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by erulak » Sat Apr 19, 2025 11:37 pm

I recommend just giving absers some sort of mob-only wizkill option so they can just kill mobs on repeat easily until things pop off and we don't have these "just doing something until someone else creates something" people resulting in 6-rogue PK sessions.

Elysia
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:29 pm

Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Elysia » Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:55 am

Sato wrote:
Sat Apr 19, 2025 9:38 pm
These situations of getting together need to happen organically by people already being in the mud doing other stuff. In the end, whatever you decide to do, just don't forget that a lot of us need stuff to do while there is downtime if not then it will just breed inactivity which can spread very quickly due to real life taking over or people prioritizing other stuff (such as another PC game, etc).
That's why the minichains are being re-routed through the center of the map.

People seem hyper focussed on rogue friendly things being removed, but in the meantime, melee classes have had years of not being able to do things solo and it's not unlikely that that's why the game is a rogue-fest at times. It's push and pull. Push people away from Almoth and surrounds and into the center of the map where now more things are happening and new content will be added (Alamir chain / complete x amount of minichains for a roll), so hopefully things do start happening organically if people are closer together.

Mirnavaere is also an experiment of what works for boosting melee classes and making life a bit harder for others. What the game needs is a way to balance high damage output characters such as rogues and channies against melee type characters. Ideally, it would cost rogues more hps and channies more sps, so they will need to regen too, while making things doable for warriors and hunters. We'll see whether that is in fact possible.

We'll also be making it easier to travel to the center of the map, by removing the clan coach system and current coach system and changing it to a transit hub with spokes going everywhere. So you can coach from BE to WB, walk/ride to Lug, coach to Tear. Coach from Tear to Lug, then walk to either WB or 4k (I can't remember which I had put in my plans) and then coach to FD. That way, the center of the map becomes more active, even just to pass through and everyone can go there easily.

There is so much solo content still left, but when we see 2/3 stabbers at a time messing around solo west of the Misties ad infinitum, that's just not balanced and doesn't help the game. That means those people will have to get out of their comfort zone and do the plethora of other things that are still doable for them. It just won't be the thing they had a habit of doing.

Sato
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Re: Smob project recent changes & discussion

Post by Sato » Sun Apr 20, 2025 11:09 am

Thank you Ely for responding. I understand. Was just voicing a concern/opinion.

Also, Yes, we may be on our Rogues to kill time but people do alt to bashers if PK/smobs starts and there are too many rogues. My main point was just being online for a long enough period where others will log in and see some sort of movement/crowd and then stuff starts happening. If people log online and nobody is around, they will most likely just log off. However, it is accomplished, the main point is that we need to keep people online long enough for others to log in since we are a limited player base in different time zones around the world.

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