The new Difficulty Tools

I was wondering about these. . .they sound wonderful, but I have a couple of questions about them?

Will they work outside of instances?
Normally this isn't something I think people would consider to test, but. . .think about when you are hunting down fake nemesis in PI, or trying to get marcone bosses in Port Oaks. Do you not usually make a bigger team, because it SEEMS like they spawn more. (I say seems because I'm not positive they do. . .)

The other thing I was wondering about. . .this is mainly to make sure it gets tested. How will it work with Task Forces/Strike Forces?
For Example, say you are going to run a LGTF, but you just can't seem to get that last person, will you be able to set it to spawn for 8, and be good to go? what if you have 6, or 5, or you want to try it solo!? These are all things that need to be tested . . .on several task forces that require a range of People to begin.

Further more. . .say that setting it to 8 doesn't work to START it. . .I remember long long ago you could get a team on a TF, then everyone could QUIT, and just leave one person on a task force. This has since been fixed. However, what if everyone quits but 1, and the last person is set to a 2 man spawn? Will he/she be left on the team, or will it auto kick him as it did Pre-i16?

I sorta have to wonder though if these can be tested without a response from the devs first. If they simply don't want you running it solo because it would be to easy for the reward. . .that would no longer apply if it is set to spawn for 2 would it? Which you can do on ANY task force currently, should you so choose. As for the setting it for an 8 man spawn to start it. . .you could just turn it back down again once you are started. But then again, you could have also just gotten a padder.

The only people who know for sure are the devs and those in closed beta. The former won't tell us and the latter can't tell us.

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Sorta depends on how they function though :/ I'm thinking of back in the olden days on Diablo II on single player typing in /player 8 or some such made it spawn the whole instance for 8, as if there were actually 8 people there.

If the difficulty fills your team with Pseudo-teamates. . .

From the I16 news alert:

I want to know what happens when a full team of 8 are all considered their own team of 8...

As someone already stated, one of the Dev's did say that the TF limits would be left in as those are gating devices to help alert more novice players of the challenges (and even simultaneous glowie clicks in the case of a few TFs and trials) that lay ahead.

So you can't just say "Ima team of 8" and then run any TF you please. Doesn't work that way.

Your questions regarding outdoor spawns is a good one. In the meantime, you know that point X-ray in Firebase Zulu is really your best location to find fake nems, yes? All bunched up on one bit of floating rock. Fake Nemesis come in two's there even!

Outdoor ambush sizes are usually affected by team size, though. So that may be one outdoor thing that's possible to adjust in Issue 16.

If the team size thing works outside it'll be useful for the Volcanic badge since very few Igneous bosses spawn if you're solo.

Personaly it would be intresting to see if a mission would spawn for 16 on a team of 8

Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study Hard. Be evil.

I will say that I'd like to see the ability to lower the difficulty as well. It wouldn't be a huge deal if we can't but...it'd be nice.

I dont see why it couldn't affect the size of non-instanced spawn since having or being a kheldian causes voids to spawn outside in the city proper and also seems (not 100% on this) to affect at least magma lord spawn rates

Because there no way to determin whos settings would determin the spawn count in open areas

For inctince if a person enters Mercy Island and his seting is for a spawn of 1 and then anuthere person enters whos set for 8 wich would the area spaw acording to? And whou,ld that be fair. Ithere way you put it this mean your going to be spawning more or removing some instintly from the area. Hate to be the person whos fighting a group and all of a suden 5 or 8 more just spawn or disapear just because someone else just entered the zone.

As for kheldian you cant realy compare this since even if the vill spawn into something else it wouldnt effect how they fight non-kheldian since they only get the bounas dam from attacking kheldian

Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study Hard. Be evil.

Having a team DOES affect outdoor spawns. You get more bosses with a team, no question about it. Even a duo will get more Fake Nems in PI, Marcone Bosses in Port Oakes, Banished Pantheon masks in Talos...in fact for certain badges, such as Tracer, having a team that is too large can be detrimental, as you will get bosses spawning instead of the Lts you need.

As for who it spawns for, probably whoever is closest when that spawn point decides to populate itself. If you're merrily hunting masks or Fakes with a teammate, and a soloer enters the area, they will start causing useless solo spawns.

As for setting a team to count as more than 8 people, I don't see what reason they would have to allow that, as all it would do is benefit farmers. Spawn sizes generally hit a certain point and don't get any bigger after that. We'll be getting the option to have higher level enemies, so that should cover people who think Invincible content is too easy.

Outdoor spawns, as I understand it, spawn based on the number of players in the area - regardless of what difficulty setting those players are on, and regardless of whether they're teamed or not. Which would lead to the new options not affecting it, most likely.

If it depends on the number of players in the area, then why do you get practically no bosses when hunting Marcones or Masks solo....but as soon as you invite a teammate, even if they are on the other side of the zone, bosses start appearing?

And when a soloer enters the area, the number of bosses spawning actually goes down, even though there are more people in the area?

Confirmation bias, I'd imagine.

I was fairly certain that it outdoor spawns are tied to the amount in your team when they spawn. Only in certain areas does this not seem to apply like the lower end of IP and security zones like boomtown and eden. This seems to be the case often enough at least that until i see a dev confirmation otherwise that this is how it works. I'll need to test it today and see if anything changes at least with difficulty settings.