Smarter Part 3, time to think like the devil

[Hungkung]

my wife accuses me of thinking like the devil on occasion, which is proof positive you should never DM family members. but my AI conversation got me thinking and then I realized the brainpower we have on this board and I thought there might be a scintilla of a chance the coders would take help. so I thought mebbe we could help em.

the rules for this..um...contest, yeah yeah we'll call it a contest, there are no prizes other than you can touch my official stan lee blessed Noprize, but only with surgical gloves on...but the rules for this are any ideas you throw out have to be realistically doable within the limitations of the existing AI scripting. Meaning if you've seen a NPC recongize you by name, it means an baddie can but if you've never seen a NPC sprout wings and fart cuz it's thursday, then probably it is beyond the scripting capacity at the moment.

so what would make mobs fight smarter? where suddenly facing 20 pigmies becomes somethign that shoudl award xp for the final quest turnin, even though each pygmy is only 2nd level.

first: is communications between mobs, like a sergent coming around to check on positions, and if one doesn't ahve it's 'usual' spawns the camp goes into high alert, increasing aggro range, giving the baddies a small 'alertness' buff and doubling any wandering patrols as they search out for what is going on.

ok, your turn...and remember, be practical, but be evil, the butt you challange may be your own someday.

[sherrjo]

Random traps in the grass near baddies camps.

You approach from the back of the camp but there is X% chance you are snared by a 10 sec trap that immediately attracts some mobs to beat you up.

I can just hear the soloers sharpening their tongues and I don the flame proof jacket and helm.

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by sherrjo

I can just hear the soloers sharpening their tongues and I don the flame proof jacket and helm.

Er, why? It's like any other trap.

Not all soloers are bad people, by the way. I'm one of them.

[Nil]

Give it a counter (whoo - a group skill for a rogue!), and sounds good to me.

Almost any AI enhancement we add will kill soloers, so these ideas are for 3+ dot mobs only:

The occasional mob to run for help instead of obidiently run up to your party to get whacked when pulled.

Alarm mobs - Take them out quick or expect an army chasing you. In the Dwarven newbie dungeon, the kobolds have "drum-beaters" high on pedistals on the entrance way. If you walk by them, they just aggro like anything else instead of banging their drums to warn everyone. Maybe the warning could be something as simple as a buff to everyone in the complex.

Mob parties - Why don't mobs work in well-balanced groups like we do? Instead of having a camp of Backwoods Sages, you'd see groups of a Backwoods Sage, a Backwoods Brawler, and a Backwoods Sneak hiding stealthed with them. In EQ2, mobs could taunt you off of a target. That was a great feature and it goes well with this.

Int-based tactics. Why don't intelligent mobs kill the healer first, then the DPS, then the tanks? Make the mobs weaker to allow for how much harder this would make the game if you need to, but a better option is just to have the rewards for this type of mob be greater than for, say, a Gnoll dungeon. Healers shouldn't be identified as such until after they actually heal. This would probably overpower paladins, though.