Encounter Levels?

[Ronan]

I will probably have some time to put into the toolset over the holidays and am looking to make the most of it. Please keep in mind I've never played on BG, am responsible for nearly none of its spawns, and so am not familiar with many of them.

What are people's thoughts on the server's encounter difficulty? We rarely see PCs adventuring, I believe due to excess difficulty or excess spawn randomness. I have an EL range in mind for each geography but wanted some opinions on the current state of things.

[kid]

Im generaly in the same position as you are. mainly DMed, never (almost) played.
the only two areas I partly know are

CW which is around EL 2 to 5.
And WoST which is around 4-9

mostly due to randomness of spawns its hard to judge, but those are my rough guesses.

[jmecha]

I can only speak for myself but it is not the current content that keeps me from adventuring, if anything it is a matter of not having fellow adventurers to adventure with. I have not been around much in the pass few months so my perspective maybe out of date but I enjoy the Adventure Content on BG, and my only complaint is that I do not often enough have time to enjoy it, or the companions to properly explore it with. On occasion I will even dare to solo around a bit exploring areas and poking into and often then quickly out of caves. If anything it maybe incentive that players need to leave the taverns and abandon the mail runs. Maybe you can tool up some fatty McGuffin Chests to place in the back of dark caves and in the depths of the various dungeons?

I would say change nothing with your tool set time, and instead add more if you can. More Caves, More Dungeons, More Wilderness Areas, etc....

What is works in my opinion, just add more of it if you are inclined to toolset.

[kid]

If we're going on suggestions on how to tool stuff then i'd say have a little more consitancy with EL in a single area and go higher EL the deeper you go in. lets say CW....

The area near the mansion should be EL1. adjest areas 2. go deeper and hit 3. (roughly at least. could have minor jumps here and there.)
that way people know, sorta, what to expect, and it semi makes sense.
Caves should be tougher than the area they are in, after all its a mob hub. should be more rewarding. higher loot %, etc
Thats about all I got. hope it helps some. and yes, also agreeing with J. BG areas are awesome to explore. the more the merrier.

[jmecha]

I will agree with Kid that a steady progression towards overwhelming odds the deeper you go into a forrest, cave, or dungeon makes sense.....but I think that BG currently has such in place for the most part. There is the occasional unexpected Wyvern swarm, or Red Cap where you do not expect them...but for the most part there is a progression from little danger to dire danger.

I take that back....there is a cave in which things go from " We can manage" to "Oh No!" with a very sudden quickness....maybe changing the spawns up there might be cool?

[Ronan]

Redcaps should only be in select locals and very rare. If you see them in normal forest areas, let me know.

I did actually recently reduce wyvern spawn chances. I was under the impression BG's spawns were considerably tougher than they ought to be, but have yet to hear anyone agree with that opinion.

Making sure loot drops are staggered should be easy.

jmecha, which cave? If you deem it a real problem stating it here is fine; I'll be changing it anyhow.

[jmecha]

PM sent

[Ronan]

Got it.

That cave's spawns were changed back to their original much-less-lethal state some time ago. They were the way they were due to plot developments, but the orogs are now dead. If an orog spawn remains let me know and I will remove it.

[Heero]

Its been a while since Ive really 'played', but I remember the Cloakwood being pretty good for exploration with myself, holly, and oftentimes a gollumnator PC. I believe Holly and myself were level 5 and 3, respectively, at that point. This was a while ago, mind, back in dirtelf v. 2.0 and the Witch days. Other than that, Ive pretty much just sepukkued on boars.

[dirsa]

while salt has not been sticking his head into every corner of the server, caleb did. unless lots have changed -- there's a fair amount of adventuring areas, don't think any of them are deadly beyond the reason. there certainly are areas where most pcs would get their asses handed to them, but those are reasonably so areas. clearly and obviously "enter at your own dumbass risk" labeled areas.

i think most places make sense, there are areas for different levels. more is always good, but also like jmecha mentioned, some incentive to go and adventure would be good.

[t-ice]

A system along these lines would be still be my suggestion for making encounters:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 36&t=48369

It is hooked to the world map on Amn, but any AT should do.

It abstracts the spawn hunting a bit, like what would happen around a PnP table if the gaming group wanted the party to go hit a random encounter. And thus is ICly infinitely repeatable (with IC breaks for R&R of course). What is missing is encounter tables (other than the couple Riot has done). Mixing local flavor beasts with a generic environment table, and attaching collecting quests on things the local beasts drop, should take it a step further to nudge PCs to "go hunt".

By attaching the system to spawnpoints that spawn placeables it should be possible to make randomly placed ATs to cave entrances that also need skills to find.

The bottom line however is the second point in the system description: PCs are actively hunting for things, and it's assumed they are strong enough to kill what they find. Death by sudden roflstomp is not designed as the factor in keeping PCs out. It's easy enough to find something above your level when you're low level, but the stage is set so that the PCs have initiative on anything they find.

Looks like I'll pick up DMing on BG during late winter, so maybe I'll get the time and the chance to bring it over for people to try...

[Stormbring3r]

From what little Merry has explored on the server I think its a little to easy.. Even when she was 3rd and 4th level.. But she was even ubber back then.. If you need bait.. I have a test Hin on BG's server I think and can run through a few things for you and see if its tougher.. Not sure on the Hin's level though.. I think 6th..

[Stormbring3r]

A system along these lines would be still be my suggestion for making encounters:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 36&t=48369

It is hooked to the world map on Amn, but any AT should do.

It abstracts the spawn hunting a bit, like what would happen around a PnP table if the gaming group wanted the party to go hit a random encounter. And thus is ICly infinitely repeatable (with IC breaks for R&R of course). What is missing is encounter tables (other than the couple Riot has done). Mixing local flavor beasts with a generic environment table, and attaching collecting quests on things the local beasts drop, should take it a step further to nudge PCs to "go hunt".

By attaching the system to spawnpoints that spawn placeables it should be possible to make randomly placed ATs to cave entrances that also need skills to find.

The bottom line however is the second point in the system description: PCs are actively hunting for things, and it's assumed they are strong enough to kill what they find. Death by sudden roflstomp is not designed as the factor in keeping PCs out. It's easy enough to find something above your level when you're low level, but the stage is set so that the PCs have initiative on anything they find.

Looks like I'll pick up DMing on BG during late winter, so maybe I'll get the time and the chance to bring it over for people to try...

This would be a nice thing to put on every server.. that way you never know what you might spawn in a cave..

[Stormbring3r]

Has anyone taken a look at this?

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... ail&id=107


He has a whole list of things that might be worth looking at.

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nw ... ys_back=10

[Magile]

Since I saw Cloakwood mentioned...

Be aware that some statics exist in this area, and would probably be over-tuned (and very difficult) for other groups that go in expecting lower-ranged fights unless adjusted.

edit: Also, since Ronan requested this, DO NOT FORGET ABOUT FIXING SHADOWS