Suggestions for changing the MPK systemFollow

Seconded

I saw this back on the 1st page, this has a flaw in it as a idea. If that party was way away from the zone they would have long waits to get back their monster or they can follow, attracting hate along the way...

My post is designed to focus on a solution to HNM MPKing. I apologize if what I provide is duplicative, but I have not been able to read all of the reply posts.

MPK by its nature implies there are shortcomings in the game that make certain users feel this is their only option to acquire what they desire. Understandably there are some people out there who are spiteful and malicious and simply enjoy ruining the fun of others, but I think a lot of MPKing comes from games who feel they need to take extreme action to get a certain drop.

I think one fundamental way to resolve the MPK issues is to expand the number of mobs that drop abjurations, game end gear and items that sell in excess of $20 million on the AH (Strider boots, Enhancing Sword, etc.). To limit an abjuration or certain to one mob that pops every 21-24 hours or even worse every 4-7 days is just insane.

I think the best solution would be the creation of a new seal and orb system I will refer to as “HNM Seals” and “HNMBC.” Give HNM shells the chance to farm HNM Seals to exchange for HNMBC Orbs, which could then spawn, BCNM style HNMs, Gods and or God Kings in a controlled and closed environment. The HNMBC should be restricted to LS and not just a group of 18. These fights need to be balanced, but not easy, but also, not impossible.

Drop rates, must be increased and consider removing restrictions on what mob drops what gear. If all of the gods have to potential to drop any abjuration, you wont have 10 shells all fighting for the likes of King Behemoth. Also don’t make impossible to get HNM Seal and allow multiple seal drops from HNMs, Gods, forced spawns, special quest or even conquest points. Do not make these seal rare/ex so that leaders of a HNM Shell can consolidate them.

My feeling is that such a system would be a marked improvement to the existing way we fight HNMs and Gods. It would help eliminate fighting over HNMs and would allow shells to coordinate and plan specific events instead of constantly spending hours in the unknown only to be rewarded with disappointment.

IMO.

Most MPKing find place at the HNM's
Suggestion: make a GM watch the HNM fight
Good: MPK's will be stoped and less people will get killed.
(Serket plus train of mobs can easy clear that zone for every living playing in a matter of sec)
Bad: cant see any

Linking mobs aggro people on the way back after a train:
Suggestion: make all mobs unable to link until they have returned to there spawn.
Good: players wont get raped by a random train going back home.
bad: will make it less intersting and ruin some of the fun with getting aggro and have 2+ mobs to deal with insted of 1.

so keep the linking system as it is now imo.

my point: all it take to stop alot MPKing is really just to place a GM at the HNM's.

NM's are great in the fact that they are excentric, to remove AOE dmg to players in the surrounding area would make it less of a challenge, I personally like when Serket poisons with his AOE even if I have claim or not it lets me feel like im a part of the action and understand that a great battle is going on.. also the same with Fafnir/Nidhog, Behemoth etc. etc., on the other hand if a person takes a NM out of its area and it MPKs around the area then clearly that can be a problem for people who dont want anything to do with it.

So I would suggest either putting a limit to how far a NM could go, or atleast having them go back to original <pos> without aggro until it reaches its original spawn <pos>.

Some challenge of NMs is the fact they link with other monsters in the area, I think it would be a challenge to find a way to have a NM not link, but then again if it had restrictions like mentioned above thiers little to no chance of it linking, unless the area it spawns was intented to have the challenge of links added to it.

I always like the strategic battles in past FF games, if you knew how to defeat the monster then it would be a bit easier to fight, but in FFXI it just seems like a slug fest, the more players you throw at it the more of a chance of success, im not pleased with that.

As an alternative to not aggroing once zoned...

You could also change it so that the system is more like WoW and that the mobs only chase you for a certain distance. This seems like a bigger change though, but might also fix some other issues.

I realize many of these are already stated above, I believe Square is probably tallying "votes" and these the ones I see are the most useful.

Suggestion: Bind should not force the mob to attack anyone not already on his hate list.

Suggestion: If any member of a party/alliance are already on the mob's hate list, someone outside of the party/alliance cannot claim the mob before it is 100% health. This should go for any yellow mob that has been affected by my party/alliance.

Reason: I have been MPK'd with Dia on MysticMaker Profblix because I had just dealt with an add, and a non partied RDM Dia'd Mystic. This interrupted my casting of Fire III (You cannot attack this target, it is already claimed), Mystic then promptly killed me, and my duo partner, with less than 5% of his health left. We were unable to do anything but try and cure ourselves, but we were low on health/mp, so we died. In addition, it's not fair for someone to get an easy kill by MPKing a tough NM, or an HNM when the original group died to it. Make the mob stay unclaimable unless it's at 100%, on EVERY NM/HNM.

Suggestion: If you rework Leave, I would do so like this: Non~Aggro pets that are given Leave will act as they do now, and in addition will not link to anything on their way back to their original starting point. Aggro pets will not link or aggro, but also cannot be recharmed if they return to 100% health prior to returning to their starting point. This will discourage folks from randomly leaving aggressive pets far from their original starting point.

Suggestion: GM's need to respond publicly to MPK offenses, and make it known that players were punished for MPK, and the extent of the punishment.

Suggestion: GMs need tools to be able to "play back" the events so they can see the absolutely obvious MPK at many of the NM/HNM/Triggers. Allow a GM to be able to view recorded "footage" of mob and player movement, Requested spells/job ability (to see claim spamming tecniques), magic/abilities used during that time, along with text typed by those in the zone, during set time frames. Have your servers record all of the time during the obvious time frames, such as when a God Trigger is used, during the spawn window of NM/HNM, etc.

Suggestion: Make god Triggers Rare/Ex. This will stop a lot of griefing. Our LS had a party getting XP in sky yesterday, Ulli popped, and they claimed, but they were promptly MPK'd by a gil selling operation. Absolutely unacceptable junk for a game that is for our enjoyment.

Suggestion: Continue to Offer more level appropriate BC style battles, even if you come up with new (farmable, rare/ex) triggers besides KS and BS that allow comparable rare/ex gear and can be accomplished by individuals and/or small groups (3, or 6, capped and level appropriate for the gear). If you offer rare/ex alternatives to some of the highly sought after equipment, and do so in BC's that are immune to MPK, you'll offer the player base an alternative location to attempt to retrieve gear that they desire.

Suggestion: Offer single instance (BC style) battles when triggered NMs are used. Basically make triggers create a generated item which can be traded to all participants. "Warp" everyone holding a generated item, ala the Timeless Hourglass/Perpetual Hourglass into an instance of the entire zone when the trigger is used. Noone else will be in that triggered zone. The zone has X hours of life, and closes automatically when the triggered whatever is killed, or if the time limit runs out.


Suggestion: As a side note, and on a similar tangent, modify the drop rates of the new rare/ex NM drops. Killing the same level 14 mob 13 times with no drop is getting annoying. The drop rate appears comparitively much worse than it was before they were made Rare/Ex. If it's the same, state so to the community, and consider increasing it.

Give several Jobs abilitys / Spells to get rid of aggro. This will give your Players a Chance to defend themselves against MPK. Furthermore, everyone likes new Spells/Abilitys :D

-Bard gets "Calming Song", mob gets /sleepy and returns Home slowly.
-White Mage and Red Mage get "Peace", does same as the "Calming Song"
-Warrior get ability "Anger" which will make the Mob "Run Away!"
-Thief gets some kind of "Escape", which retreats Party from Battle.(Mob will run back to its Spawn-Place, not aggro to anything till back Home)

These Spells/Abilitys dont work on NM/HNM.

When an Alliance gets Claim on HNM/NM everyone who doesnt belong to Alliance/Party will get /Warp out within a Certain Radius around HNM/NM. Invisible Wall will block Mobs and ppl not in Alliance/Party from entering.

Edited, Fri Nov 4 09:43:12 2005 by redisdead

Suggestion for Argo/Links

#1This would help.... Easy Prey and Decent chalange should not link or argo a player. When I first started the game I thought it was weird that a mob that I check as easy prey (I'm T or VT to it) would argo me. To me this just doesn't makes sense. This would solve some of the NM camping MPK'ing. It should also make it easier to tell if a MPK was on porpose or not (attacking many mobs, then zoneing).

#2Improve the /blist command, if you put someone on your /blist any action or involvment that person has on the game will in no way aggresivly affect you. ie. they pull a mob to zone that mob will not attack you until it is re-set in one way or another. You can however take action on the mob if you would like to. I would go so far as to make this work with the AH.

If you have any comments about this idea I would love to hear them.

edited twice cause I changed my mind....

Edited, Fri Nov 4 12:06:14 2005 by Tiltmonster

Edited, Fri Nov 4 12:52:57 2005 by Tiltmonster

SUGGESTION: Add in a short record ability similar to Fraps that allows a player to record a period of time (up to a minute or so) for the sole purpose of summitting to a GM. Design it as an in game ability with the movie stored on the server to prevent tampering. This will not only allow players to record proof of MPK by someone else but also allow players to record proof of any other violations and report them. Due to memory limitations I would imagine the number of these videos would have to be severely restricted (mabee allow only 1 per player till he/she deletes it).

A few suggestions:

Suggestion: Have some GMs on a (non-published and varying) rotation through the "big" NMs. Particularly the ones for which the "Mr.Argus" bot is most often used (i.e. the ground kings). GMs would be there for the duration of the spawn window - and would be watching for MPK as well as use of bots/hacks used to claim.

Suggestion: Set up a system whereby a window is opened once a monster pops. Once that window is open - a high priority GM call (i.e. the GM gets there in <2 mins) is automatically generated if there is mass aggro/linking of mobs in the area of the NM/HNM. Example: Serket pops <window opens> Person X claims Serket. Over the next 30 seconds, Persons R,M and T have gained aggro from 6 Over/Valut Weapons, 2 Fallen Majors, 3 Fallen Mages and a Wraith. By the end of the 30 seconds the system automatically has generated a high-priority GM alert for the area - hopefully with the GM arriving in time to see what's going on still.

Suggestion: Members in good standing. This is tricky, but SE should create a system whereby a customer may become a member in good standing. 1. The person must be a mentor for x amount of time. 2. SE will occasionally review logs for that mentor (say, shout, action logs - no tell/ls/party per privacy issues). 3. If the member is adjudged as being a "good" player (adhering to a set of internal guidelines made by SE) - then the member may be invited by SE to become a member in good standing.

Results/benifits. Member gets a special mentor flag, higher priority GM calls, access to a two-way board to interact with key SE people (senior GMs, development team, etc).

Obviously this would/will be difficult to implement well, but if done well it will present some reward to those players who try and comply with the spirit of this game and games in general. Will give SE a known "good" pool of players from whom they can get reliable feedback. Will give some greater incentive to the use and function of the mentor system.

My feeling is that the pressure to compete for claims is at the heart of the MPK problem. Here are a few ideas:

In the case of relatively low-level NM's which have short respawn pops but valuable drops, and so are heavily contested why not make a much higher level, but non-aggressive, non-linking version spawn alternately. Say for every 2 regular Mee Deggi a Super version spawns that is around level 60 rather than 40. This mob would depoop if left unclaimed after 30 mins and wouldn't link/aggro, but would to compensate have a much highert drop rate of his item.

This way a full and organised LS could claim for a member with a high chance of success, without intefering (competing) with those who camp the mob for profit.