Feedback Request: Creature AI 2012-07-05

[Xsyon]

Please provide feedback on the currents state of creature AI on the Test Server here.

In particular we are looking for feedback on:

- Do you experience any desynch issues?

- Balance: Are creatures too weak / too strong (in general) or do they seem to have a decent range of power?

- Creature behavior and reactions to players.

- Are there any situations where you see creatures getting stuck, spinning in circles or behaving strangely?

Any other feedback on the current state of creatures is appreciated. GuideMihr will be available at roughly 2:00 AM PST to spawn and 'age' creatures for anyone that wants to help with specific tests. Feedback on revenants is also welcome in this thread.

There are a few things I plan to adjust this weekend:
- Reduce the ability of small critters to interrupt your swings.
- Adjust reactions of small and injured critters in combat.
- Review and adjust 'hit boxes'.

Thanks

[Pauven]

Revenants are definitely too strong. There are 10+ between me and anywhere, I can't go outside longer than a couple of minutes before one runs up to me. I couldn't kill the weakest one I managed to find (180hp - I was close though), let alone the strongest one (320+hp). They respawn in the exact same position 2-3 minutes after death, so I can't team up with others to clear them away from my area. The revenants alone made the game unplayable.

I didn't manage to test much else because of that, but I did notice that at one point, when I ran into the furthest corner from any that I could find, and stopped moving, a couple of revenants walked straight up to me, milled about next to me for a few seconds, and walked off without killing me.

[Whorlok]

Revenants are definitely too strong. There are 10+ between me and anywhere, I can't go outside longer than a couple of minutes before one runs up to me. I couldn't kill the weakest one I managed to find (180hp - I was close though), let alone the strongest one (320+hp). They respawn in the exact same position 2-3 minutes after death, so I can't team up with others to clear them away from my area. The revenants alone made the game unplayable.

I didn't manage to test much else because of that, but I did notice that at one point, when I ran into the furthest corner from any that I could find, and stopped moving, a couple of revenants walked straight up to me, milled about next to me for a few seconds, and walked off without killing me.

i agree..Revenants TO STRONG....give us also the chance if one of the revenants is not at range of the other revenants that we can kill one of them...or give us a healing bandage/plant..or split the group 1 revenant and 2 revenant are aggresive

[Fyrex]

I agree with what DDT has said above, at this time they are probably way to strong for starting players and they do wander to far from the totem they spawned. Rainy River is surrounded by Rev's and they keep walking through or gates. please fix that. Walls seem to work but gates they just run through which is annoying especially if you run to get pee and come back dead and some zombie chick is now wearing your coat... grrrrr!!!!

[Deacon]

I have to agree...I like a challenge, but I dont like it to be impossible. They seem to have longer range without weapons, than I do with one, or syc is messed up...dont know...but I couldnt hit them, without them hitting me several times as well. You dont need to make each one a monster HP beast....they have numbers that should make up for less HP. Dont know what changed since 2 days ago when I tried them, but it only had 120 HP, which was good...the beast today had 220. No way can we hope to beat them. Dont set things for the few top end players that have extreme HP, and HP (clone deer) suits.


EDIT: oh, and I hope the respawn is just for testing purposes...else how are we supposed to clear an area if only for awhile? (I dont think they should spawn more than once a RL day) Would make scavenging impossible, as well as many other activities

[Snakepit]

Revenants i think to strong because there range of hitting is more without a weapon than me with a weapon. When i try to run up to them and hit and run away the x button have to be pressed again after the hit. That take to much time to get out of the way. The revenants will always hit back. At the moment they revenants grow fast and are around 200 and 350 hp. For one player, starter or advanced it isnt possible to kill one. IF the revenants stay strong as they are now they will bring players together because you need around 4 players to kill one. What do we get back when we kill one? You can make a choice that smaller animals are for solo kills and revenants only can be killed by a group of players. How bad this is for solo players how much it will boost the collaboration in xsyon. And i think thats what we need at the moment. In RL people get a band with each other because the need to work together.

So revenants are to strong if the intention is that they can be killed by one player. The are probably good when they are a group activitie.

Some other think. The revenats walk through a closed door.
I like that they much bigger then player toons
The range they walk is good. I am happy when they walk away from the camp and in the meanwhile i can loot the bins in there camp.

[Olokia]

I have been quite excited about the abandonment phase and I just logged on to the test server to try it out.

I wished I hadn't.

1) Outside my tribe, there are at least 15+ revenants. I can't get anywhere without dying. Running from them is not an option because I run out of stamina and a new lot of revenants kill me.
2) There is no point killing them to be able to go anywhere because they re spawn within 3 minutes.
3) As a fairly new player, I have no chance of killing them. They kill me in 2 hits and I do no damage to them. I'm not going to risk wearing my armour because they will still kill me.
4) I can open bins but I can't pick them up. Is this going to stay like that? Empty bins will just litter the place.
5) I am not allowed to either open or drag a cart in a deserted tribe. The cart is obviously abandoned, so why can't I access it?


I had been hoping that because there is an unusually high amount of deserted tribes right now that the revenant spawn would be lower initially until most of them are gone.

I also think that if you kill a revenant, then it shouldn't just respawn again within a few minutes in the same area. I don't think animals do that so why should revenants?

As there are quite a lots of revenants, then they shouldn't be limited to only the strongest players killing them. You will just put new players off if they keep dying all the time.

I think the game is quite unplayable as it is and I am actually thinking about not renewing my subscription if things don't change.

P.S I would give feedback on animals but I can't get anywhere to actually test them.

[Pauven]

I had been hoping that because there is an unusually high amount of deserted tribes right now that the revenant spawn would be lower initially until most of them are gone.

I also think that if you kill a revenant, then it shouldn't just respawn again within a few minutes in the same area. I don't think animals do that so why should revenants?

As there are quite a lots of revenants, then they shouldn't be limited to only the strongest players killing them. You will just put new players off if they keep dying all the time.

I think the game is quite unplayable as it is and I am actually thinking about not renewing

Unfortunately, Olokia is right. I agree with how they shouldn't be limited to only the strongest players killing them, and maybe a decrease in their spawn until the abandoned tribes that currently litter Xyson have been completely removed.

I can, however understand the fact they respawn (albeit much too fast), but I think, however, a good balance for this would be them respawning weaker than before, maybe 1/2 or 3/4 health, until they spawn under a certain health value, where once they're dead, they don't respawn (for example, 180hp gets killed, respawns as 90hp, dies and respawns as 45hp, then as it's under 50, stays dead once it's killed again).

I also understand and agree with Olokia about how impossible to play the game currently is. When you spend more time respawning than you do playing, things aren't fun.

[MrDDT]

I think at the current stage in the game Zombies are too hard. There is a lack of any tactics or tools to fight them. Healing HP, and Energy is very hard with 10 monsters attacking you. Even if you just count up the fact they hit for 15+ HP per attack, and say a player hits for 15HP per attack.
Most players have about 70HP. Zombies have about 120+ HP. Players will run out of stamina long before killing a pack of them, with no way to heal energy other than running off (which takes energy) and resting. On top of this you have HP issues which takes a very very long time regen. So what are players expected to do?

I myself have no problems with current state of Zombies, I think its great seeing the life in the game, however, there everywhere, even in the starting areas. Newer players are shit out of luck with trying to build up or even place a totem.

Zombies should have a shorter leash to the totems they are respawning at to help solve this problem.

Other animals seem to be fine to me. Again there should be harder areas of the world for advanced players like myself, who have some of the best armor, weapons, tactics and skills.
Even harder areas where players need to group up to kill things or harvest resources.

[Azzym]

Immensely fun in that you have added something that is really dangerous to the game. I like how they camp at totems, but even more that packs of them roam from one totem to another (at least thats what it looked like). This makes no place safe for afk'ing

They are a bit strong though. As a new player dressed up in low quality leather they hit me for lots of damage. They seemed to be nerfed a bit today compared to the test run I had 3 days ago tho but it was still alot. I really can't come up with a strategy to kill one of them on my own without they killing me first (I have 72hp). They move slow, but hit fast. As soon as I try to get in range to hit them, they hit me, and they dont miss. So IMO it would be a little more fun if I actually had a chance to kill one on my own. Lots of reservations here due to the fact that my combat skills are very low.

The first day I tried the test server the revenants seemed to be linked in a much harder way and there were more of them around each totem. Today there seemed to be fewer of them, but stronger. I like this change. Perhaps the nr of revenants should depend on how large the homestead was before it was abandoned, perhaps it already is...

I think something should be done with the re-spawn rate. Its too fast now. Perhaps spawn the revenants once daily or something like that.

It would be cool if you could skin them or extract bones from them.

My thoughts for now...