Monsters are sooooooo stupid !!
Gresh
past Friday the 13th, and I had so much fun doing it I stayed up until
5:30 am playing ...
I had 440 str, 631 int, and 107 dex after one trip though the lich
lord gate. Monster stats are randomly generated out of a particular
range - stratics should have a chart up soon, they were soliciting
info from people going through the various gates.
At 631 int, the Mind Blast spell, as crippled as it seems to be, was
absolutely devastating. At one point I killed 3 blood elementals in
quick succession, with a couple of heals thrown in, before running out
of mana These guys thought they were invincible, but you should have
seen them "wtf??" and run - well, sort of galumph - away. Blood els
had like 250 int and 600+ str. Later I was in Moonglow near the orc
mage gate, and saw some orc mages attacking and nearly killing a
brother lich lord. So I started killing them, and killing them, and
killing them. Two Mind Blasts = dead orc mage. Their gate was right
there, so they just kept going through and resurrecting and dying and
dying and dying. They ran out of "fun" before I ran out of mana -
that'll teach them to mess with a brother of mine.
Anyway, my point is, imagine if the monsters actually had decent
tactical AI programming? No one would be able to get near a lich
lord, for example ... but killing one might take you to "Glorious
Lord" instantly as compensation. Heck, I remember when liches used to
cast heal on themselves ... this was way back in October of 97, and
liches were damn hard to kill back then, making them quite dangerous.
From fighting some of the Ophidians, it looks like they have
significantly boosted the speed and aggressiveness of certain
monsters. But they haven't really made them *smart*.
I think they could, AI programming is not *too* terribly hard. DD has
said that they did dumb down the monsters in the past, for server
overhead reasons ... too bad though. Maybe they will take another
shot at it?
And don't get me started on the "fire field avoidance code". Sheesh -
turn to the left, burn, turn to the right, burn, take one step back
.. ok ... take one step forward, burn. It'd be comical if it wasn't
so sad.
Gresh, Catskills
Dundee
>I think they could, AI programming is not *too* terribly hard. DD has
>said that they did dumb down the monsters in the past, for server
>overhead reasons ... too bad though. Maybe they will take another
>shot at it?
I met a guy this weekend that was yelling for an army. He was in BCB,
so I told him BCB *was* an army (95+ people in their guild). He'd
been PKd and wanted a whole bunch of people to come kill the guy that
had PKd him. He said he went back and asked the guy for his stuff
back, but the guy killed him again. Then he went back and offered to
let the guy keep his gold if he'd return his other loot, and the guy
killed him again. The guy killed him *four times*.
Ettins meandering in and out of firefields are freakin' geniuses.
--
Dundee of Lake Superior - Skep...@SPAMISantisocial.com
Good slime. Nice slime. I've always wanted a friend like you.
UO related stuff: http://dundee.uong.com
Barry Smith
> I think they could, AI programming is not *too* terribly hard. DD has
> said that they did dumb down the monsters in the past, for server
> overhead reasons ... too bad though. Maybe they will take another
> shot at it?
>
> And don't get me started on the "fire field avoidance code". Sheesh -
> turn to the left, burn, turn to the right, burn, take one step back
> .. ok ... take one step forward, burn. It'd be comical if it wasn't
> so sad.
I wish they'd allow players to play or become monsters through some
means. You want intelligence in creatures...what a better way and,
AFAIK, no code increases? Later.
Richard Cortese
>
> I had the good fortune to play a lich lord on the Abyss shard this
> past Friday the 13th, and I had so much fun doing it I stayed up until
> 5:30 am playing ...
>
> I had 440 str, 631 int, and 107 dex after one trip though the lich
> lord gate. Monster stats are randomly generated out of a particular
> range - stratics should have a chart up soon, they were soliciting
> info from people going through the various gates.
>
> At 631 int, the Mind Blast spell, as crippled as it seems to be, was
> absolutely devastating. At one point I killed 3 blood elementals in
> quick succession, with a couple of heals thrown in, before running out
> of mana These guys thought they were invincible, but you should have
> seen them "wtf??" and run - well, sort of galumph - away. Blood els
> had like 250 int and 600+ str. Later I was in Moonglow near the orc
> mage gate, and saw some orc mages attacking and nearly killing a
> brother lich lord. So I started killing them, and killing them, and
> killing them. Two Mind Blasts = dead orc mage. Their gate was right
> there, so they just kept going through and resurrecting and dying and
> dying and dying. They ran out of "fun" before I ran out of mana -
> that'll teach them to mess with a brother of mine.
For instance, AFAIK Spell reflection is 100% effective against a Lich
Lords mind blast.
2 bone mages have no/some trouble defeating a lich lord, but it is just
a matter of getting spell reflection up a blade spirit on the Lich Lord.
A little coordination is necessary, if the Lich Lord stops blasting
himself with reflected mind blasts & uses something like magic arrow,
one mage aborts BS & gets reflect up again while the other continues.
Once you get a BS on him, the BS & the effects of poison interupt so
often you can get another 2-3 on him. Only choice at this stage is for
the Lich Lord to run or die.
Gresh
>a matter of getting spell reflection up a blade spirit on the Lich Lord.
As a *regular* lich i had to run away from the skel/bone magi gate in
Magincia a bunch of times, and I still died twice (damn that "last
target" feature!). As a lich lord, with 440 str and 631 int, no way
in hell less than 4 bone magi could kill me. i have 4x the str and 6x
the mana they do. And Mind Blast reflected at me does NOTHING - my
631 int compared to my 631 int = no damage (I think? never tried it).
>A little coordination is necessary, if the Lich Lord stops blasting
>himself with reflected mind blasts & uses something like magic arrow,
>one mage aborts BS & gets reflect up again while the other continues.
>Once you get a BS on him, the BS & the effects of poison interupt so
>often you can get another 2-3 on him. Only choice at this stage is for
>the Lich Lord to run or die.
*cough* or dispel. i had EVs and blade spirits dropped on me several
times on Abyss - solution, run a half-screen away, cast dispel.
*poof* no more problem
Gresh, Catskills
Dundee
>the mana they do. And Mind Blast reflected at me does NOTHING - my
>631 int compared to my 631 int = no damage (I think? never tried it).
I think once it's reflected, it's counted as if the person with
reflect cast the spell (and if their int is less than yours then it
equals no damage, yah?).
My reason for supposing that is the spell reflect town-kill bug a
while back. The reflected spell was treated as though it came from
the person with reflect (resulting in crim' flag, resulting in
guardwhack).