Alternative for No-attack Critters?
By
Brachaesnethar,
Posted on: 2009-04-14 11:01 in Suggestions and Ideas
I may be misunderstanding your intent, but you can already create a custom critter of the PERSON type, which prevents them from having any powers at all...
You can also set a critter as non-combat within the mission editor.
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
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You can also set a critter as non-combat within the mission editor.
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This.
If you let the people get a hold of the ability to give enemies NO powers, then you create no-risk rewards, which would reward people for monotony... You know, moreso than what they might feel with running Farming over and over.
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If you let the people get a hold of the ability to give enemies NO powers, then you create no-risk rewards
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Not that they haven't already since it's quite easy to create enemies that have no ranged attacks. Just give 2 melee sets to a custom critter (avoiding SS and others that have ranged attacks automatically) and get flight (whether via the power or a flight pack). Virtually no risk (they'll try to jump at you and can kill you that way, but that's more player error).
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If you let the people get a hold of the ability to give enemies NO powers, then you create no-risk rewards
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Not that they haven't already since it's quite easy to create enemies that have no ranged attacks. Just give 2 melee sets to a custom critter (avoiding SS and others that have ranged attacks automatically) and get flight (whether via the power or a flight pack). Virtually no risk (they'll try to jump at you and can kill you that way, but that's more player error).
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But that doesn't apply to everyone. Hell, Demons aren't a risk to someone with Fiery Aura, are they? But they're still a risk to SOME people. For MA? It's Scrappers, or those without ranged attacks that are forced to get into melee range to get the job done. I don't complain, there have been worse outcomes.
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If you let the people get a hold of the ability to give enemies NO powers, then you create no-risk rewards
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Not that they haven't already since it's quite easy to create enemies that have no ranged attacks. Just give 2 melee sets to a custom critter (avoiding SS and others that have ranged attacks automatically) and get flight (whether via the power or a flight pack). Virtually no risk (they'll try to jump at you and can kill you that way, but that's more player error).
[/ QUOTE ]Actually, flying against melee-only critters is counterproductive, since they'll switch into "I'm being griefed" mode and run away.
You want to fight melee-only critters and use AoE immobs on them.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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But that doesn't apply to everyone. Hell, Demons aren't a risk to someone with Fiery Aura, are they?
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Technically, the demons are a risk, just not a very big one. If you go afk with the demons surrounding you, you'll eventually take enough damage to die. The problem I have with the custom critters and their no-ranged capacity is that there is, literally, zero risk if you've got flight, which was something fixed with the normal enemies back before I3 dropped. It seems like a giant oversight.
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But they're still a risk to SOME people. For MA? It's Scrappers, or those without ranged attacks that are forced to get into melee range to get the job done. I don't complain, there have been worse outcomes.
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It's still something that needs to be tweaked in my opinion. Players can purposefully make completely gimp enemies to kill easily. If you really want to make mobs that anyone can kill without much effort, just give them 2 power attack sets that have long animation times (BS and Battle Axe, for example) and they'll never use half of the attacks you give them. The entire second half of the powers are completely ignored because there are a glut of powers.
The only way to fix it that I can imagine would be two fold. First, fix the risk-free-with-flight enemies by making every attack set have a basic ranged attack baseline, even if the set that players have access to doesn't. Give Dark Melee the ability to use Dark Blast, Energy Melee Power Blast (or Hurl). Heck, if they didn't want to do that, they could just say that all enemies get a default gun attack. Second, prevent some powerset combos from overlapping. Disallow having 2 pure attack sets (combined with this, I'd also give every custom critter baseline rank mez protection and reduce their scalars from player ~3.63 to NPC ~2.0, but that's not integral to the issue).
In the interest of having the possibility for escort missions where the critter being escorted has no attack powers, and thus won't (theoretically) aggro on hostile critters and go running off to be defeated...
I suggest the following alternative:
If a custom critter is created with no attack powerset they are flagged to be worth 0 XP, 0 Inf, and 0 Tickets on defeat. To keep the "buffbot" problem down, one could also have any rewards earned on a mission that includes a no-attack custom critter divided by the number of those critters in the mission design. Lessening or negating Recipe/Salvage/Vanguard Merit drops for such missions would also be a good idea.
After all, it's only one mission with "nerfed" rewards. The loss wouldn't be greatly missed, I would think.
The 0 Xp/Inf/Ticket thing could be extended to the Cimeroran "Immunes Surgeon" or Council "Transformation Capsule" Bosses and similar, instead of making them totally unavailable.
Admittedly it is probably easier/faster to just make things unavailable (And prevent exploitation) then try to implement the above suggestion at a later time, when circumstances allow. (Re: Priority List)
So this could be a "pointless" suggestion, in which case I look forward to having the freedom to include these concepts in custom Missions.
Cheers.