[dev1026] Changes to the Deaggro Range of Mobs

[ClashBlades]

I first want to start by saying that the deaggro range of mobs is absurd in its current state. By the deaggro range I mean the point at which a mob will stop following you and walk back to its original spot. This problem is often overlooked and is actually very important for the game. The problems arising from this are as follows.



- People are exploiting the walking back and reaggro'ing of the mob.

People will stay at the deaggro range of the monster and keep attacking him while he continually goes through a cycle of attacking and resetting. No disrespect to the people in this video, but that is what this system promotes.



- This promotes carelessness of people in the party.

Engaging multiple mobs means almost nothing in this game. All a person has to do is run the mob or pair of mobs until they reset. This is why FFXI created very careful people and people who understood the consequences of aggro'ing multiple mobs.



- With the current deaggro system crowd control is rarely used.

Mobs scarcely come in sets of 3 or more and the ones that do are usually quickly disposed of. I understand that there is the exception of NM's, but that is a small part of the game.



- The game as a whole becomes easier and less accomplishing without struggle.

I personally love that feeling of overcoming the odds. I'm sure you can think of a time in a different mmo when someone had pulled an extra mob or an "add." You weren't sure if you were going to come out of that fight alive, but if you did a feeling of relief and euphoria would come over you. That is missing from this game.



Possible Solutions:

As this game has no zones the leashing system probably can't be removed entirely or the mob would follow you endlessly. The only way that this would work is if those guards standing outside of the cities and camps killed the mobs if they came to close. This is often seen in many mmo's.

Another solution could just be to make a deaggro range that is long enough where it would not be worth your time to "run it off." If this system were used then the mob would have to run back to its spot when it reached that point. This would prevent the exploitation mentioned earlier.


Please if you have any ideas or comments for a new system I would love to hear them. I just really want us as a community to find a way to deal with this problem which is often overlooked.

[AreeyaJaidee]

This also negatively effects players who wish to grind in an old fashion FFXI party setup w/ puller.

This constrains players to roaming parties and leves as their only source of good SP.

Good thread clash.

[Gath]

I don't aggro anything, I mean, it's literally impossible, I am too awesome for things like that to happen.

[ClashBlades]

Any other possible solutions or opinions on this matter?

[Kaeko]

I usually don't post on these forums but I feel like the devs may actually read this.

This current "return to territory" or deaggro system is very easily abused, as mentioned above, but in case they want more proof of how absurd this system is:

Soloing Elder Mosshorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQScwTR746o
Soloing Uraeus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP_YtWJtLtQ

Blog article on soloing with this technique: http://kanican.livejournal.com/53736.html

They already mentioned they plan to remove universal ranged attack from most mobs. If they remove that but don't fix this this will become even more unbalanced. I don't really have any ideas on how to best fix this problem, but until it is fixed in some fashion, every endgame event is going to be a joke for players that can properly abuse the system.

[SydeBeheln]

I agree on this matter, not only that, but having longer aggro range promotes more "fear" in exploring players, something I think everyone can agree on is the lack of fear monsters currently posses.

I am not too sure how the zones work, but I think it's something involving instances, and if the dev team can signify when a monster reaches a new instance that there de-aggro effect would initiate. On top of that, the dev team could work the city guards near the entrances to put some form of life into the world.

Regardless, the range needs to be drastically increased for multiple reasons. Great post!

[ClashBlades]

I usually don't post on these forums but I feel like the devs may actually read this.

This current "return to territory" or deaggro system is very easily abused, as mentioned above, but in case they want more proof of how absurd this system is:

Soloing Elder Mosshorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQScwTR746o
Soloing Uraeus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP_YtWJtLtQ

Blog article on soloing with this technique: http://kanican.livejournal.com/53736.html

They already mentioned they plan to remove universal ranged attack from most mobs. If they remove that but don't fix this this will become even more unbalanced. I don't really have any ideas on how to best fix this problem, but until it is fixed in some fashion, every endgame event is going to be a joke for players that can properly abuse the system.

Yeah I sure hope we can get some comments on this and a dev to look at it, because it is vital to the success of this game. Thank you for your input. It means a lot coming from someone who can currently benefit from the system, but would prefer the game to succeed.

[kukurumei]

There are some theoretical ways around this, such as "stun" formulas, and back attack formulas(which is already implemented in FF14 to an extent)

It's not impossible to balance out with various solutions that other MMOs have already tested with in regards to "mob training".

[SydeBeheln]

This thread needs more attention. I never thought about it, but I just went and tried it out on a regular mob, and it's ridiculous. Something like this MUST be fixed.

[kukurumei]

This thread needs more attention. I never thought about it, but I just went and tried it out on a regular mob, and it's ridiculous. Something like this MUST be fixed.

The simplest solution (as a bandaid)? Make it disappear instead of walking back ala FF11, or have it back to full HP.

Disappear worked well because you can't have monster trains.(though it was rather fun for a while)

There's dozens of playbooks we can reference...just that...

pretty much everything in FF14 has a playbook we can reference, and none of it was ever considered(thus the epic failing)