11 replies to this topic

[Stig]

So I want to see what players think about this one.

 

For those who are unaware of the reference, the Giant Sand Wurm is most likely based off the sandworms of Arrakia from the Dune Sci-Fi series.  How would players feel about the monster being buffed to dive into the sand and attempt to devour players (not for fatal damage).  The monster moving around I probably won't do because multi-alt has this with the Roc Hatchling (also in the desert) and would make it too complicated on 1-alt.

[Bane]

I'd be up for it moving around that square and camou'ing (maybe not similar to Telatin/Marauders, but at a slower pace),  and possibly a slight pod increase (105 perhaps?) and nice little 1.5mil on death bonus when defeating it? I think this would be rather cool and attractive to all players

[ice_cold]

I think on 1a it would be too hard. But I don't really play so...

[Gaddy]

It sounds fun.
Giant Sand Wurm also has high XP, relative to similar bosses. So the extra difficulty isnt making it overly rough.

[Crescendoll]

Would rather not see this added to 1-alt.

[Gregory67]

I think this is a fine addition to 1-alt it would disrupt the pure ranger farm that is Giant Sand Wurm due to it dropping the ruby ring which is a 1ac 1str single equip ring. Might have to take a cleric with or make more than 1 trip. Also, if it coverts you can run off of square if no other mobs are around since thats how KTP works. I am all for switching it up a little.

Edited by Gregory67, 01 October 2020 - 05:07 PM.

[Crescendoll]

On 1-alt, a druid with the right equipment and inventory can also solo. Any perceived benefit of running off GSWs square risks dragging mobs from the north square and/or risk of the scorpion spawning on GSWs square. The ruby ring and high xp are the catch but the champion usually walks off with a sellable dagger that's barely more than the cost of the inventory required or armor that can't be sold in shop. It's a neat idea but seems to me as a "nice to have", not a "need to have" and would have greater consequences on one server than another. I'd rather see more solo opportunities, not less, given the inactivity of a very small community. 

[Gregory67]

However, the change can happen if he is careful about not increasing the Boss's Damager per round and keeping it similar a druid would still be able to solo. its like if you just change the how the damage is perceived and not give it a radical increase. I think that would still appeal to the greater majority. Having solo content on 1a important due to the lack of community so I can see your concern with wanting to limit change. 

[Stig]

This is what I'm encouraging for the time being... discussion and "what if" scenarios.  On multi-alt, the desert already has a moving boss in the form of the Roc Hatchling (although I think Trevayne missed a great opportunity with a moving Dune-esque sandworm), so having the Giant Sand Wurm move as well may be overkill and unoriginal.

 

1-alt doesn't have this restriction, but as Crescendoll said, it's more of a "nice to have" rather than a "need to have".  Ideally though, taking on a boss should be a team effort rather than cheesing with a single crit, especially as the Giant Sand Wurm has a low chance of dropping a rare and useful artefact (the +1 Str Ruby Ring), but this can always be changed (although I don't really plan to... they are rings I put on relatively mid-tier bosses that otherwise didn't get much love).  I'm open to experimenting with a few things and, depending on player reactions, may try something for, say, a couple of weeks to gauge the reception.

 

To make a comparison with the Roc Hatchling, the monster travels to seven different squares in the desert in a clockwise direction, landing on each one for about a minute before taking off and moving to the next one.  The monster drops no gold, does about 220 damage every 10 seconds that can't be avoided, and originally only had 80 XP, but I increased it to 102 and gave it a hefty XP prize on death, just on account of the difficulty of chasing and catching it.  I'd likely do the same for the Giant Sand Wurm.

 

The only thing that definitely won't be added is Melange; the spice can only be found on Arrakis!

[ice_cold]

Maarten and me had done some development on a boss but he abandoned it. It was going to be a Pegasus if I remember correctly. The boss was going to move to different areas, I specifically remember jahanna desert, sentant mountain, misty path along with a few others. Idea was that it was flying around to different areas, so its in desert for x time, then flies to sentant mountain, etc. I don't recall it hitting very hard, the real challenge was having to move around the map to multiple areas, knowing/finding where it goes and the path to it, not dying to other monsters trying to get to it, etc.

The problem is that realistically you're just talking about another boss that drops would need to be figured out for. I think he had some things in mind but we never discussed them, we just discussed how best to do it, how hard it should be, etc. But something like this I think would be more interesting to me personally rather then an old boss changing; only because if I played, it would give me more reasons to go to places I rarely have reason to.

[Angelus]

That Pegasus sounds vaguely familiar. Reason must've been because of all the camping of bosses. With Pegasus it would introduce a "random" boss encounter with the amount of squares we would potentially place it on.

This reminds me of another one I had written down. With a vampire castle area and a werewolf caves area, in the castle the werewolves would be friendly to you, and in the caves the vampires would. I was tinkering with how one side could grow stronger for a while (and have bigger bosses/better loot) if the other side was killed first. I think I must've watched Underworld a lot back then.

[Stig]

There are a few bosses on both servers that have movement mechanics.  The Jaguar runs around in a rosette shape, but otherwise crosses the central square rather often.  On multi-alt, the Roc Hatchling moves around 7 squares of the desert in a clockwise direction, stopping at each one for about 1 minute, and you have to chase the Shadow Drake before it reaches a square that you cannot enter (a death trap) and it despawns.

 

1-alt has Pamola who also moves in a linear area, and the Shadow Wraith, Shadow Master and Red Dragon can spawn on one of many squares randomly in their respective areas.

 

I am curious to know what you had in mind!