Do developers play this game themselves - Mob spawn rate - especially during tall tales.

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    Ahoy,

    Have you noticed that mob spawn rate is out of control recently?

    Could give 2 examples from yesterdays session:

    Art of trickster - trap rooms underneath sailors bounty - after finishing the boss fight and retrieving the vault key, we got it stuck on the traps, after that we had everything from phantoms to ocean crawlers, to non stop skeletons and skeletons with kegs. After numerous attempts to retrieve the key, we succeeded and as soon as we left the island a skelie sloop and a meg attacked us (this one was fun, the non stop spawn of mobs was not)

    Revenge of the morning star - We barrely had to fight Graymarrow as he was killed by Ocean crawlers, 2 big red ones, 1 green, 1 blue spawn among Graymarrow skeletons.

    I mean I do understand if we are doing Athena and the mobs spawn so often, but tall tales are kind of meant to be a doorway for new players to get into the game and they are pointlessly spawning non stop on every island.

    Which leads to a conculsion devs only play this game for social media, aka sailing around, pvp, giveaways etc and content like Fate of morning star is forgotten. As I really can not see a single person who is working for Rare going through that and thinking - Hey players must love not hearing any NPC dialague as the ocean crawlers spawn, and NPCs spawning non stop while i try to decipher this tall tale riddle, this will surely attract more players and make us more money! It's ..just .. good...business?

    Or is this some sort of Rares way to balance things for people who are high level and have completed them already? Can anyone confirm?

    My proposition to this problem - Make those spawns meaningful. It's fine if the mobs spawn, but allow players to be able to defeat them and have some quiet time, the amount he needs to defeat could depend on the difficulty of the activty he is doing. Also if you fight those endless mobs and they 'make you rich' - it's exciting, if they are just a drain on supplies and time - it's not fun. I would believe, a game's job is to offer entertainment and not frustration, it's other players job to try their best to ruin your day, not some random mobs.

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  • RiptideAtlantic
    Marauder
    Insider

    @zig-zag-ltu Yeah, no idea what that is about. I don't typically go island hopping or exploring so idk but that seems like it should change. One thing I have noticed is that after I complete an ashen winds immediately ocean crawlers spawn.

    I do know that Rare play the game quite a lot, so they might not just do old TT's?

    Happy Sailing!

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    @riptide3683 Another good one, I really enjoy playing the game as its intended and exploring and doing all sorts of activity that I find on the way, now sailing to Morrows peak and just killed a random captain on an ashen island. First dig spot - Captains chest - Sweet! Second dig spot - Stronghold powder keg, as my shovel hit the ground the spot immediately became a geizer, the ground started shaking, just made it in time before the thing exploded...It doesn't even make sense to allow this to spawn there, how it could stay there for ''years'' if it turns into a geizer as soon as player hits it. Why those geizers aren't shooting treasure up all the time. A lot of things look good on paper but just don't work in game.

  • OtherFanboy
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @zig-zag-ltu yea some times the spawn rates are a little out of hand but it sounds like you just gotta a bit of bad luck on your spawns leaving Art of the Trickster TT most of the time you can just ignore the enemies tho I'll agree the phantoms can be harder to do so with

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    @otherfanboy I dont mind a few they are easy to deal with, but when you have levels of Serious sam or DOOM spawning the game just feels ridiculous and breaks the immersion of tall tale. Just feedback for developers to tone it down a bit with the spawn rates or make them super rewarding :D

  • PeteyHutch
    Rogue
    Insider
    Founder

    I have achieved 100% on every tall tale except for heart of fire which I have done 2/3 times. Doing it the second time yesterday I noticed ocean crawlers spawning down in the dungeon beneath the volcano as well. I am a returning player and originally completed the tale the first time whenever it came out years ago. I do not remember if the ocean crawlers were down there the first go around those many years ago but I thought it was super cool to have a thousand mobs trying to prevent me from achieving my goal. I had a buddy with me so maybe it was easy enough for me having assistance I dunno... The way I look at it is the more the merrier but I enjoy difficult things. I've heard people complain about everything besides PvP being too easy A LOT so maybe rare increased mob spawns to try and increase the difficulty for the large amount of people who think the game is too easy. Also maybe you were super frustrated at that time due to art of the trickster being hands down the most annoying tale in the game 😅 (my opinion of course) I hope soon they add more variety to the mobs but the amount for me at least is perfect. Once your done with the shores of gold you won't have to worry so much 😊

    The double spawn - kraken, and skelly boat occurred likely due to all other boats in server being at outpost or just not being there at all

  • Merlin MAV K
    Ship Mate

    As someone that just did all of the TT's in order through Shores of Gold more or less agree, the rate and timing(s) of being spawned on are just punitive and not in a fun way.

    As just an example - when I was doing Stars of a Thief I puzzled my way to one of Sudd's stargazing locations and found his journal. I went to read it and as soon as I pushed X one of the big crawlers spawned right next to me, did a Hulk ground pound and launched me off the cliff. Similar things happened numerous times with keg skellies and the like - no reaction time is possible in roughly 1/2 the occurrences.

    Later in this chain, when I finally got to the uncharted island and found the totem I wasn't sure where to take it. It was the crab totem and I reasoned at first that I had to find an island under the direction of the crab constellation (the chamber was really dark and I simply didn't see the crab drawings on the wall where it was found). I had already experienced so much trouble trying to complete this TT that I did look up what needed to be done and saw that I actually needed to go back to where I found it. I hadn't gone far so I turned around, was almost there and then was Kraken'd and sunk (got plucked off the deck - too much damage to overcome when I got back). Respawned on other side of the map, no hope of getting back to the totem before the Totem Lost / TT Failed message.

    When I found Salty, I walked up to him and started his dialogue to start that part of the quest. As he was beginning to talk, a horde of skellies spawned and I'm fighting them off while he's yakking and I'm not hearing any of the necessary information he's imparting and have to to do it again after.

    On the Wild Rose quest one half of the locket was on an island being haunted by the random ghost ships! I tried a variety of strats for a couple of hours, including a shipless (I thought I could get in and out quick without being sunk - nope) epic swim with the locket in hand, to leave at another location, so I could then mermaid to my respawned ship to come back and get it.

    This actually worked but the fatal flaw was that I lost the other 1/2 of the locket I had already retrieved and buried elsewhere to keep from losing it. Unknowingly and while laboring to retrieve this 2nd half I had lost the other when sunk by the ghosts. I knew where I had buried it but the radial map showing its location was lost in the sinking and so also in the game world. A pretty hard way to learn this quirk and it never would have happened had an essential location not been walled off by this kind of randomness that was basically impenetrable as a single player.

    Last night I was just bombing around doing odds and ends and to close the session had this sequence over an hour+: Spawned on simultaneously by a Skeleton Ship AND a Megaladon, somehow survived (was crazy and stressful - a couple of near fails) and went to turn in all of the loot. After that decided to take the meat to the nearest fishing outpost. Spawned on by Megaladon again. Collected loot, went back to main port to turn in that loot. Go back to fishing outpost to sell cooked Megaladon meat, leave for another nearby island and spawned on by another Megaladon. Did the same loop once more and then it happened in the same way again! After surviving the duo spawn that started this whole thing these 1:1 Mega fights were fine but yeesh.

    I generally don't mind encountering mobs. It shakes things up and also can be a nice indicator you are on the right path, or near the thing you are seeking for example (outside of the random stuff) but I really do hate it when you're trying to read a clue, arrive at or decipher a landmark, interact with an NPC or do something essential to finish or progress and this kind of stuff punishes you for actually figuring things out, if not starting a fail-state chain reaction or a no-reaction-time-possible death (which can be funny in doses, but is supremely annoying when almost all of the time). The Megaldon frenzy I had last night is kind of amusing in retrospect I suppose but clearly there was a glitch in the Matrix and this kind of thing could stand for some tuning.

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    @peteyhutch The mobs did not frustrate me, as the traps have, I just felt like sharing feedback, at one point during tall tale there was around 8 skelletons stuck in a pile 3 had kegs.

    And those sailors bounty tunnels were crawling with mobs. I mean I have done those tall tales before, I did not mind them and I don't hate them nearly as much as those pesky traps. But was just trying to picture a new player trying this game out and seeing that carnage, I think it would put most off. Obviously for a very seasoned player it's ok, we managed just fine.

  • PeteyHutch
    Rogue
    Insider
    Founder

    I see your point..the combination of the two can be infuriating. I can definitely say I had a few runs that were absolute cake and also remember quite a few that I failed due to the swarm. But hey! Maybe it was a glitch in the sea 😅 I caught a dang moonsky pondie in the middle of the roar last night, I know that isn't supposed to happen.

    Thinking about mob spawns more I can remember a time or two I wanted to throw my controller just trying to get supplies from barrels after shooting off to an island lolol

    Digging for treasure as a solo?? R. I. P.

  • HiradC
    Lord
    Insider

    It's a valid point but just to confirm the alternative is if they allow a tall tale to tone down spawn rates then players would end up abusing it

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    @hiradc Please bare in mind that I am not talking about Tall tale related spawns, those are awesome and tall tale related, I am talking about ones that were added much later to the game - Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers mainly, combine those with few random keg skelies and you have a Serious Sam level with a shotgun.

  • PithyRumble
    Sailor
    Insider

    @zig-zag-ltu

    I love getting crawlies during Ashen Captain fights. Especially when one of the Reds shields the rest lol. Get him boys!! Ha.

    Want a higher spawn rate? Put down an old school Athena voyage lol. Skellies constantly.

    I have noticed that completing sections of voyages will cause a spawn of some sort. Finishing a Skelly wave, lots of TT dig up points, I almost ALWAYS get a skelly spawn when I dig up a megakeg from a skelly captian x mark.

    I do believe these are intended.

  • ZiG ZaG LTU
    Commander
    Insider

    @pithyrumble During adventure and especially high level ones, they are fine, they drop gold and gems as well, wish it was on a higher rate tho. But when you are doing tall tale and wanna hear the dialogue and see the 'cut scene' they are terrible and immersion breaking imo.

  • GoldsMen
    Captain
    Insider

    The biggest issue i have is that it seems phantoms, ocean crawlers, and skeletons seem to have their own independent spawn timers. If you couldnt have phantoms, ocean crawlers and skeletons spawn at the same time or one after the other, then it would be great! But with them spawning all independently of each other, it can get overwhelming, especially if you go to thieves haven where the chances are very bolstered.

    They should have all of their spawns connected to the same timer, with a very rare chance that rng from the timer can spawn 2 (not all 3) at the same time just so they can clash with each other as well.

    Right now the only thing you can do is rely on some cheese from the heart of fire tall tale to prevent spawns, but i dont use that just cause idk if it also stops ancient skele spawns.

  • abjectarity
    Commander
    Insider

    One thing I noticed is when I have a captaincy voyage down instead of a normal voyage, I get a lot more mobs. So I tend to avoid the captaincy voyages for activities where I need to be on land a lot.

    I’ve done the tall tales way more times than necessary as I enjoy doing them with people who still need to complete them. I had an awful time with Art of a Trickster in the cave fight because we were getting all the mobs, including gunpowder skeletons, alongside the tall tale mobs.

    I’ve had mobs spawn inside GH vaults while trying to empty the room. During Heart of Fire I had the big crab guys and gunpowder skeletons spawn in the same room and the crab guy slammed the gunpowder skeleton and everyone died.

    It’s not always this way. I do believe it’s actually a bug, because if I’m having a good day with normal spawns it stays like that as long as I’m on that server. But if I’m having a bad day it stays like that as long as I’m on that server. So I think some servers get bugged and the timers don’t count correctly. I’ve had the same thing where the timer for megs or even world events weren’t working correctly. So the internal clock seems to get bugged on different servers, is what I think is happening.

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