Dark Knight Megathread

[Lyth]

It probably is a limitation in the current game engine, which is one of the reasons why I'm interested to know if they have any plans to improve on the existing game engine for the long term, now that we're ten years out. They pulled off a much more technically difficult feat in rebuilding ARR while 1.x was still running.

If there is a technical/financial limitation that definitively prevents this, then there is an alternative that might improve things. All you need to do is to create an untargetable, invulnerable mob that executes actions on behalf of the boss, from outside the arena. Casts still happen, but the boss no longer needs to pause movement to execute them because another mob is performing them in their stead.

[Shurrikhan]

If there is a technical/financial limitation that definitively prevents this, then there is an alternative that might improve things. All you need to do is to create an untargetable, invulnerable mob that executes actions on behalf of the boss, from outside the arena. Casts still happen, but the boss no longer needs to pause movement to execute them because another mob is performing them in their stead.

There's a decent chance the "casts" are themselves the animations, though. If so, that smoothness of movement could only be achieved by leaving said boss without any animations whatsoever.

I certainly hope that's not the case, but it seems to fit what we're seeing. If there's an animation, there's a pause to natural movement. And actual movement skills, both mob and player, not only replace preexisting movement (hence gap-closers cancelling knockbacks) but also prevent any natural movement input over their animation's duration.

[Archwizard]

If there is a technical/financial limitation that definitively prevents this, then there is an alternative that might improve things. All you need to do is to create an untargetable, invulnerable mob that executes actions on behalf of the boss, from outside the arena. Casts still happen, but the boss no longer needs to pause movement to execute them because another mob is performing them in their stead.

Which is a solution that already exists for any number of AoEs and special mechanics for fights.

But when it comes to things like simulating auto-attacks on behalf of the boss... I have concerns about how this would impact encounter design, since it could make things like distance from the boss essentially irrelevant for, say, kiting them out of hazardous terrain. And yes, you could just refine the AI further to mitigate this, but after a certain point it becomes easier to address the core issue rather than work around it sequentially.