Destard Event Mobs spawn rate extreme dropped

McDougle

The spawn rate is better the drop rate needs more adjustment i got ten this morning when they were working on it and four since so maybe back up a little 

Estel_Randir

Spawn rate is really slow in prime time on a mid sized server. Lvl 1 north section had plenty of mobs this afternoon, now very few. Center section is even slow when several players show up. Second floor is full spawn but so many bad paragons on the ramp you almost die instantly going down so no one is clearing it. Third has at most 6 mobs that slowly respawn. Barely enough spawn to keep half a dozen well equipped players going, imo. Respawn rate is stupidly slow. You scattered the mobs around but made them respawn way too slow. Over reaction as per usual.

dvvid

Estel_Randir said:

Spawn rate is really slow in prime time on a mid sized server. Lvl 1 north section had plenty of mobs this afternoon, now very few. Center section is even slow when several players show up. Second floor is full spawn but so many bad paragons on the ramp you almost die instantly going down so no one is clearing it. Third has at most 6 mobs that slowly respawn. Barely enough spawn to keep half a dozen well equipped players going, imo. Respawn rate is stupidly slow. You scattered the mobs around but made them respawn way too slow. Over reaction as per usual.

Give them a break… they are trying to fix it and have done a good job with this iteration. Getting the balance right for something like this is tricky. Also, this is the first time they have had this event in Destard. Development/design challenges pop up. 

Giggles

Smaller shards now have less spawn, more open area, and no longer any area where people congregate. So all I am seeing is a bunch of archers and tamers running around tagging all of the regular mobs and ignoring the paragons completely. It got so bad I had to honor myself to get through a mob of paragons twice on two shards just to get my body. If I choose to actually play the event "as intended", I'm stuck killing all of the paragons by myself and really not getting any drops. 

This event model is not working well on small shards for Destard. The other events people were "forced" to pay attention to the paragons just to get through the hallways. Now? tag, run, tag, run, tag, runnnnnnn... leading all of the paragons in a giant swarm behind them until they all fall off onto other people. 

Could there perhaps be and additional "perk" added to kill the paragons so people actually work together to kill them? Maybe a guaranteed drop for the higher hit point paragons? Most people are not doing it just because they should. They are drinking potions to make up for the insanely low drop rate and tagging as many lessor creatures as they can find which very quickly makes the event not really fun at all for anyone else.

McDougle

dvvid said:

Estel_Randir said:

Spawn rate is really slow in prime time on a mid sized server. Lvl 1 north section had plenty of mobs this afternoon, now very few. Center section is even slow when several players show up. Second floor is full spawn but so many bad paragons on the ramp you almost die instantly going down so no one is clearing it. Third has at most 6 mobs that slowly respawn. Barely enough spawn to keep half a dozen well equipped players going, imo. Respawn rate is stupidly slow. You scattered the mobs around but made them respawn way too slow. Over reaction as per usual.

Give them a break… they are trying to fix it and have done a good job with this iteration. Getting the balance right for something like this is tricky. Also, this is the first time they have had this event in Destard. Development/design challenges pop up. 

I agree today went well and they are making adjustments but for goodness sake just communicate. even make it so people can't comment but say something...this morning we did this tomorrow we'll try that..

Riner

I like the change making spawn locations more random and on GL this morning I was able to find a decent amount of spawn, with what seemed like a fair spawn rate. What I found unbelievably low was the drop rate, using a potion I only got 15 drops in an hour. This dispite almost nonstop killing with my sampire. 

Estel_Randir

Just make the spawn fairly uniform over the entire dungeon like all the other dungeons and make the respawn pretty fast. That way the bots cannot monopolize the spawn and there will be plenty for people to fight over in all areas. If people can get a fair share every hour, they won't care so much if there are bots here and there.

Kaz

Just spent a good 40 mins on my melee dexer in destard on Catskills.  It was full spawn when I arrived, killed everything, soloed a couple shadow paragons… it respawned to about 50% of the capacity that I found when I got there.  

Next pass around level 1; Im having to run full screens or more to find stuff to kill.  

40 mins.  6 drops. 

The archer/thrower/necro pile ups were boring as hell. But something is off now, doesnt feel like theres enough action.  

Merlin

Some general feedback after playing on Atlantic Tram side tonight:

-  Lag was fixed compared to last few weeks.  Kudos on that. 
-  Spawn rate is so-so.  A little slower than before, but was relatively enough stuff to kill.   Some areas, like level 3, had very little spawn when I was on.. but the "main room" had plenty of spawn at all times.
-  Due to open area nature of Destard as compared to other dungeons, paragons are much more difficult to deal with.  As other have pointed out, ranged fighters are basically hitting all the normal spawn and leaving trains of paragons that just destroy you.   Especially with the dismount from the Treefellows, melee fighters and sampires have a tough time.    There is no where to try to group the paragons into a corner or choke point and create a "grinder" with other players to fight back against them.   All players basically just scatter.  Difficult to strategize how to deal with this one.
- Drop rate is atrocious.  I had less than 10 drops from start to finish after popping a potion.   Seeing several others with similar comments in the various Discord servers I am in.

I can understand that strategies for dealing with spawn in this event will need to be different compared to past events due to the unique dungeon layout, but too many paragons and drop rate too low.   

Overall, an improvement from a playability perspective, but still need to calibrate further to find the right mix.    

Sidenote: please re-open Fel side again to give players another option! 

Seth

Giggles said:

Smaller shards now have less spawn, more open area, and no longer any area where people congregate. So all I am seeing is a bunch of archers and tamers running around tagging all of the regular mobs and ignoring the paragons completely. It got so bad I had to honor myself to get through a mob of paragons twice on two shards just to get my body. If I choose to actually play the event "as intended", I'm stuck killing all of the paragons by myself and really not getting any drops. 

This event model is not working well on small shards for Destard. The other events people were "forced" to pay attention to the paragons just to get through the hallways. Now? tag, run, tag, run, tag, runnnnnnn... leading all of the paragons in a giant swarm behind them until they all fall off onto other people. 

Could there perhaps be and additional "perk" added to kill the paragons so people actually work together to kill them? Maybe a guaranteed drop for the higher hit point paragons? Most people are not doing it just because they should. They are drinking potions to make up for the insanely low drop rate and tagging as many lessor creatures as they can find which very quickly makes the event not really fun at all for anyone else.

Actually it is more fun if they remove life leech block or remove paragon from dynamic event esp for low pop shard and increase the spawn rate. 

Sounds like
running or looking for non paragon to kill 60%
fighting 15%
dying 25%
Drop 0.01% of the time.

So the event is only 0.01% fun.

keven2002

I've also noticed the "poor etiquette" where people aren't disposing of the paragons and simply run until it targets someone else. Definitely a bit annoying because these players aren't "taking out the trash" so to speak. 

This wouldn't be a problem if Fel side were open. That type of thing would be a sure fire way to be PK'ed.  

Seth

keven2002 said:

I've also noticed the "poor etiquette" where people aren't disposing of the paragons and simply run until it targets someone else. Definitely a bit annoying because these players aren't "taking out the trash" so to speak. 

This wouldn't be a problem if Fel side were open. That type of thing would be a sure fire way to be PK'ed.  

It's not easy to take out the paragon trash. I wished I could stand and fight any paragon but only if they are not so tough and block my legally trained life leeches. My best equipment in the game with 780 skill points don't even allow me to take on a paragon on a low pop shard unless I have some help.

Sorry if I brought any paragons to anyone but was running for my life. Obviously whoever may complain isn't ready to help.

keven2002

Seth said:

keven2002 said:

I've also noticed the "poor etiquette" where people aren't disposing of the paragons and simply run until it targets someone else. Definitely a bit annoying because these players aren't "taking out the trash" so to speak. 

This wouldn't be a problem if Fel side were open. That type of thing would be a sure fire way to be PK'ed.  

It's not easy to take out the paragon trash. I wished I could stand and fight any paragon but only if they are not so tough and block my legally trained life leeches. My best equipment in the game with 780 skill points don't even allow me to take on a paragon on a low pop shard unless I have some help.

Sorry if I brought any paragons to anyone but was running for my life. Obviously whoever may complain isn't ready to help.

To the contrary, I get some people cannot handle a paragon (and if that's the case all good) but more often than not whenever I try to help someone, that other person is gone and doesn't bother to help; I see this as they've successfully pawned it off on me. I even tell them I'll help and it still doesn't matter. They would rather go kill 3 other things in the 30seconds it takes to kill a crimson drake paragon. 

Seth

keven2002 said:

Seth said:

keven2002 said:

I've also noticed the "poor etiquette" where people aren't disposing of the paragons and simply run until it targets someone else. Definitely a bit annoying because these players aren't "taking out the trash" so to speak. 

This wouldn't be a problem if Fel side were open. That type of thing would be a sure fire way to be PK'ed.  

It's not easy to take out the paragon trash. I wished I could stand and fight any paragon but only if they are not so tough and block my legally trained life leeches. My best equipment in the game with 780 skill points don't even allow me to take on a paragon on a low pop shard unless I have some help.

Sorry if I brought any paragons to anyone but was running for my life. Obviously whoever may complain isn't ready to help.

To the contrary, I get some people cannot handle a paragon (and if that's the case all good) but more often than not whenever I try to help someone, that other person is gone and doesn't bother to help; I see this as they've successfully pawned it off on me. I even tell them I'll help and it still doesn't matter. They would rather go kill 3 other things in the 30seconds it takes to kill a crimson drake paragon. 

yup, this type of player is bad 

Drago

Hythloth spawn rate eventually was tuned pretty damn perfectly.  If tweaking spawns between events was a simple 1 = 1 ,  we wouldn't be having this conversation..

Theres other elements at play that are preventing spawn rates to be truly dynamic for each event (no matter venue).

My guess is there are 20+ year old bugs with Destard dungeon that won't allow to tweak it like Hythloth event..  Trying to fix said bugs would probably take longer than event itself.

Foos

I think it's obvious that they are doing everything they can to try to "fix" this for the player base.  They are moving spawns around.  At some point it should be up to the player base to adjust.  I will add though, open it up on both facets.  I don't see the harm in this.  (On all shards, not just Atlantic)

I'll also add, that Hythloth wasn't as easy on Lake Superior as our dungeon in trammel didn't have doors to lock the Balrons in

Merus

IMO Destard needs more low/mid level critters than what I saw yesterday.  Far too much running around just trying to find something alive.  I also think they need to somehow limit which mobs that have fire breath can spawn as paragons to two at a time.  Having 5/6 kinds of paragons capable of 60+ damage ranged attacks all at the same time is unbalanced if you ask me.

Merlin

Merus said:

IMO Destard needs more low/mid level critters than what I saw yesterday.  Far too much running around just trying to find something alive.  I also think they need to somehow limit which mobs that have fire breath can spawn as paragons to two at a time.  Having 5/6 kinds of paragons capable of 60+ damage ranged attacks all at the same time is unbalanced if you ask me.

+1 on this

Didn't the some of the past events rotate different spawn types from day to day?  It's something that should be considered for this event as well. 

Seth

Merlin said:

Merus said:

IMO Destard needs more low/mid level critters than what I saw yesterday.  Far too much running around just trying to find something alive.  I also think they need to somehow limit which mobs that have fire breath can spawn as paragons to two at a time.  Having 5/6 kinds of paragons capable of 60+ damage ranged attacks all at the same time is unbalanced if you ask me.

+1 on this

Didn't the some of the past events rotate different spawn types from day to day?  It's something that should be considered for this event as well. 

Yeah, or they can increase our armour resist to 90 

keven2002

I played some this morning on ATL. The spawn didn't seem too bad on level 1 around 6:30am (granted very limited amount of players). Level 2 and 3 were slow. As people started to log in (around 8:30am) things were a bit more sparse but I'd still say spawn ratio wasn't bad (although I liked it better earlier).

I took a break and just hopped back in around 11am and there's a few more people than earlier but not many but the spawn feels "adequate". It has the feel of just barely enough... every time I thought there wasn't anything to kill I'd run a screen or 2 and see a couple things. 

Personally I liked it a lot more earlier in the AM because it was more risk/reward and right around now for it's take it or leave it (its way better than it was last week). If I'm bored enough I'd still pop in around now to get a few drops. That said, I'm not sure how it would be during primetime (which I rarely play). If at 11am it feels like "just enough" spawn, I feel like at prime time it would feel very slow.

One thing that I did see on ATL that is annoying is some blatant multiboxing. At least 2 different people have their main char (sampire) running around with 1 or 2 other accounts in tow (auto follow) that are all swinging at things as the main account runs them around. Pretty obvious when you can't auto follow in EC and you can't loop some auto target nearest hostile macro in CC. Hopefully GMs are watching and will action those people.

Merus

keven2002 said:

I played some this morning on ATL. The spawn didn't seem too bad on level 1 around 6:30am (granted very limited amount of players). Level 2 and 3 were slow. As people started to log in (around 8:30am) things were a bit more sparse but I'd still say spawn ratio wasn't bad (although I liked it better earlier).

I took a break and just hopped back in around 11am and there's a few more people than earlier but not many but the spawn feels "adequate". It has the feel of just barely enough... every time I thought there wasn't anything to kill I'd run a screen or 2 and see a couple things. 

Personally I liked it a lot more earlier in the AM because it was more risk/reward and right around now for it's take it or leave it (its way better than it was last week). If I'm bored enough I'd still pop in around now to get a few drops. That said, I'm not sure how it would be during primetime (which I rarely play). If at 11am it feels like "just enough" spawn, I feel like at prime time it would feel very slow.

One thing that I did see on ATL that is annoying is some blatant multiboxing. At least 2 different people have their main char (sampire) running around with 1 or 2 other accounts in tow (auto follow) that are all swinging at things as the main account runs them around. Pretty obvious when you can't auto follow in EC and you can't loop some auto target nearest hostile macro in CC. Hopefully GMs are watching and will action those people.

You do realize you can use both clients at the same time right?  It’s not hard to have a CC character auto-follow an EC character on the same pc.

Additionally, while some macros takes the push of a button, players (like myself) with multiple monitors can move between screens hitting a keystroke really fast.  I would wager that most of the players you see using CC auto follow are not multi-boxing. The whole point of multi-boxing negates the need to use auto-follow.  Instead they have just got the right set-up and lots of practice.

keven2002

You are missing a key point - the account in tow (CC account) is automatically targeting the nearest hostile as soon as it's in range automatically; I'm not talking about the lead account. So from a tech perspective this is impossible given that CC is needed to auto follow but cannot loop some kind of automatic attack (I understand EC can loop a target nearest hostile macro). They would need to, as you say, switch to that screen and press something which is happening as the lead account and secondary account are moving. Unless of course they are using some illegal client to have CC functionality with a looped macro of auto targeting.

I'm not talking about someone with an account in tow fighting a paragon that takes 60 seconds to kill and you can toggle; I'm talking about something like a drake that dies in 3 hits and they barely stop moving before moving to the next thing.

I have multiple accounts and will toggle between them depending on what I'm doing so lI understand how that works and like I said, it's pretty obvious what they are doing isn't toggling.

Arnold7

Was just weird in Destard last night.  First mostly dragon and wyrm paras that killed every one, then nothing after they were eventually killed assuming they were killed, then next to nothing, then some serpents for awhile, then regular dragons, then after awhile some of those green things fey and then I finally left.  Oh, macros not working normally and spells taking forever to work as well. Thought maybe they moved fey spawn to Fel.  Not many play as late as I do so was a good time for developers to play games or do whatever it was they were doing if they were doing anything.  UO’s instability is starting to concern me.  Destard being a prime example.  Rarely plays normally in there now always something.  Play outside of dungeon appeared normal enough after I left although I was not doing much of anything.  Enjoy the game while you still can.

Seth

Now its still unplayable on low populated shard. Destard has an open area with over 10 paragons like the Shadow W and Greater D. When I killed a Phoenix I don't even have time to loot the corpse before a paragon pounce on me. 

Then while I try to fight a paragon, another player was running away from another paragon in my direction. I ended up running as well because I can't heal fast enough. 

Its game over, end of event. 

Bad game. 

Please review Treasures of Tokuno, Deceit, Hythloth which all worked well. They have plenty of medium to low end monsters for good killing spree and the paragons are OK.  

Fire and Destard are disaster. 

Arnold7

Thing is it’s quite playable some days and not at all on others.  Last night it just broke down completely.  Was obvious something went wrong.  It just stopped working. Went from near instant death to nothing.  Then seemed to struggle to spawn anything.  I play on a mid population shard. Software seems to do best with about a half dozen players in there.  Think last night had main spawn area all to myself.  Really, just me and the occasional snake.

McDougle

Seth said:

Now its still unplayable on low populated shard. Destard has an open area with over 10 paragons like the Shadow W and Greater D. When I killed a Phoenix I don't even have time to loot the corpse before a paragon pounce on me. 

Then while I try to fight a paragon, another player was running away from another paragon in my direction. I ended up running as well because I can't heal fast enough. 

Its game over, end of event. 

Bad game. 

Please review Treasures of Tokuno, Deceit, Hythloth which all worked well. They have plenty of medium to low end monsters for good killing spree and the paragons are OK.  

Fire and Destard are disaster. 



IF the developers would COMMUNICATE  we'd know what to look for and TEST instead they adjust without a word no one knows what's going on which leads to FRUSTRATION  leading to angry post..

Merus

keven2002 said:

You are missing a key point - the account in tow (CC account) is automatically targeting the nearest hostile as soon as it's in range automatically; I'm not talking about the lead account. So from a tech perspective this is impossible given that CC is needed to auto follow but cannot loop some kind of automatic attack (I understand EC can loop a target nearest hostile macro). They would need to, as you say, switch to that screen and press something which is happening as the lead account and secondary account are moving. Unless of course they are using some illegal client to have CC functionality with a looped macro of auto targeting.

I'm not talking about someone with an account in tow fighting a paragon that takes 60 seconds to kill and you can toggle; I'm talking about something like a drake that dies in 3 hits and they barely stop moving before moving to the next thing.

I have multiple accounts and will toggle between them depending on what I'm doing so lI understand how that works and like I said, it's pretty obvious what they are doing isn't toggling.

No offense, but I disagree with what you’re describing.  Obviously I don’t see what you’re seeing, but I’m often accused of playing illegally just because I’m better at multi-clienting than some.

Most of the time when using auto-follow, the client in tow takes a few more steps after the primary client stops moving.  It’s super easy on multiple screens to mouse over to the second screen and hit the attack key before that client stops moving.  One of two things then happens… for a melee character if they get within 1 tile of the mob, they attack… for a ranged character the moment they stop moving they fire.  From the perspective of other players it appears to be some sort of automated function, when really it isn’t.  To compound the perception, the primary client can start moving again slightly before the secondary account stops, making the very momentary pause in movement by the secondary account seem automatically to stop and attack.  This sounds like what you’re describing.

I run two archers exactly as described above, with a bard in tow as well (running masteries).  Because of my setup, I don’t have to toggle, it’s just moving my mouse across multiple screens, which I can do very fast.  I have single button attacks and single button cross heal macros.  I can solo anything in Destard, and have the occasional death.  I have people who know me and know how I play tell me how automated it looks, but it’s just 12 years of practice playing multiple clients across 4 monitors.  The funny part is I can manage pretty well in open spaces, but because of how fast my mouse moves it can be hell trying to get a character through a single tile doorway or pick up a human ring out of my backpack.

popps

Personally, I can live with a reduced spawn rate, and they reduced it LOT as it previously was... if concurrently, @Kyronix increased significantly the chance to get a Fey Artifact drop, un order to compensate the much reduced spawn rate....

Infortunately, as of now, players have to suffer the much reduced spawn rate without seeing a significant increase in the Fey Artifact drops....

Hopefully, the Developers will increase the Fey Artifact drop rate.... otherwise, it will be a pain for players who do not have extensive time to play (nor use AFK scripts...) to get whatever Rewards they might want.

Archangel

keven2002 said:

I've also noticed the "poor etiquette" where people aren't disposing of the paragons and simply run until it targets someone else. Definitely a bit annoying because these players aren't "taking out the trash" so to speak. 

This wouldn't be a problem if Fel side were open. That type of thing would be a sure fire way to be PK'ed.  

Proper etiquette is that if you see someone being chased by a paragon as you said, you attack said paragon and then between the two try to kill that trash. But if the first target simply runs it's downright infuriating!!! However, in their defense, I've also run from some of these parags especially if they are casting ... Their no life leech makes them  subjects for only ranged attack, and that seems a bit of a flaw.

Archangel

I still have a lot of potions that I'd like to use, but not unless the drop rate is decent, otherwise they'll just be in a chest until the next Treasures of- event