[Suggestion] A creature growth system

[Nabbut.7480]

Right now, creatures respawn after being slain in exactly same state and quality.But what about making a system where creatures initially respawn as hatchlings but when left alone gradually grow into adults, veterans, and elites? This would add a layer of interest to the creature farming.

[Ohoni.6057]

The trick with this is that it means that areas commonly passed through would feel lame and unrewarding, while areas where players didn't usually go would be like a suicide march for anyone who had reason to go there.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Right now, creatures respawn after being slain in exactly same state and quality.But what about making a system where creatures initially respawn as hatchlings but when left alone gradually grow into adults, veterans, and elites? This would add a layer of interest to the creature farming.

The current incentive is that you get tons more XP for foes left unattended. I don't think making them harder to fight makes them more attractive targets.

[Nabbut.7480]

Is it fair that you get more xp from same weak creatures? The balance of effort and reward is upset here.

@Ohoni.6057 said:The trick with this is that it means that areas commonly passed through would feel lame and unrewarding, while areas where players didn't usually go would be like a suicide march for anyone who had reason to go there.

The first concern can be addressed by growing from hatchlings to adults at speed, and second by limiting vets and elites number and spawning rest as adult retinue.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Is it fair that you get more xp from same weak creatures? The balance of effort and reward is upset here.The reward is just XP and it's the incentive for people to travel off the beaten trail. So yes, it's "fair."

@Ohoni.6057 said:The trick with this is that it means that areas commonly passed through would feel lame and unrewarding, while areas where players didn't usually go would be like a suicide march for anyone who had reason to go there.

The first concern can be addressed by growing from hatchlings to adults at speed, and second by limiting vets and elites number and spawning rest as adult retinue.Again, as @Ohoni.6057 said, that would mean that areas where players didn't go would become a slogfest: a slight increase in loot in exchange for a huge increase in difficulty.

This feels like a solution is search of a problem. What are you hoping to achieve by asking Anet to spend a lot of time to invent a new mechanic, balance its rewards, and foist it on a community that has grown comfortable with the status quo?

[Ohoni.6057]

It's an interesting system, and I'm sure you could design a game's ecosystem around it, I just don't think it'd be a smooth bolt-on for GW2 at this point, too much effort for too little return, and not ideal synergy with the type of game GW2 is.

[Nabbut.7480]

Making it more fun for personally me and unknown number of other people who would enjoy visiting distant corners for better fight.

[Nabbut.7480]

@Ohoni.6057 said:It's an interesting system, and I'm sure you could design a game's ecosystem around it, I just don't think it'd be a smooth bolt-on for GW2 at this point, too much effort for too little return, and not ideal synergy with the type of game GW2 is.

Editing some XML's or in what they store spawn placement and timers is not too much effort imo.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Making it more fun for personally me and unknown number of other people who would enjoy visiting distant corners for better fight.

It's tricky for a game studio to introduce "better fights" into areas of an existing game. Look at reactions to the HoT and PoF mobs: people still think some of the interesting fights in HoT are too difficult and need to be nerfed. See also: the shining blade bounty targets, which did get nerfed. Only 1-2 of them were all that tough relatively speaking, but they were apparently tougher than a good part of the community enjoyed.

Take a look at Modus Scleris. It was part of the living world introduced when the game was young: a roving 'guild' that would prey on unsuspecting adventurers offering to assist them (i.e. the player). Those are still among the tougher fights to solo (at least for those that don't think about builds).

I could see ANet adding stuff like that in out of the way places, but not just making foes more challenging for no other reason than people hadn't visited recently.

Or in short, what @Ohoni.6057 said:

It's an interesting system, and I'm sure you could design a game's ecosystem around it, I just don't think it'd be a smooth bolt-on for GW2 at this point, too much effort for too little return, and not ideal synergy with the type of game GW2 is.

[Astra Lux.2846]

I don't know. The exploration bonus for killing long-lived enemies is pretty cool. I don't know if I'd like random fodder evolving into swarms of champions or something in lowbie zones or zones where people are inclined to ignore mobs, lol.Plus, it seems like that would negatively interact with player level scaling.

[Nabbut.7480]

@Astra Lux.2846 said:random fodder evolving into swarms of championsAs i said, it would be not a swarm but rather adult pack with couple veterans and one elite at maximum growth level.Also i did not said it should be everywhere, some maps can have it and some may not.And lore consistency should be maintained, for example wurms can grow unlimited and bears are capped at veteran.

[Teofa Tsavo.9863]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Making it more fun for personally me and unknown number of other people who would enjoy visiting distant corners for better fight.

Unequip your armor and have fun all the time.

[Pifil.5193]

@Teofa Tsavo.9863 said:

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Making it more fun for personally me and unknown number of other people who would enjoy visiting distant corners for better fight.

Unequip your armor and have fun all the time.

Yep, or just use White or Blue equipment. A Level 80 Basic (White) Berserker chest piece gives 81 Power and 58 Precision/Ferocity while an Ascended chest piece gives you 141 Power and 101 Precision/Ferocity. A full set of white armour and weapons with no trinkets (because there are no white trinkets) and you'll have better fights all the time.

[Nabbut.7480]

@Pifil.5193 said:

@Teofa Tsavo.9863 said:

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Making it more fun for personally me and unknown number of other people who would enjoy visiting distant corners for better fight.

Unequip your armor and have fun all the time.

Yep, or just use White or Blue equipment. A Level 80 Basic (White) Berserker chest piece gives 81 Power and 58 Precision/Ferocity while an Ascended chest piece gives you 141 Power and 101 Precision/Ferocity. A full set of white armour and weapons with no trinkets (because there are no white trinkets) and you'll have better fights all the time.

The problem is, with my build i have illusions tanking all the damage so it would change nothing.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Right now, creatures respawn after being slain in exactly same state and quality.But what about making a system where creatures initially respawn as hatchlings but when left alone gradually grow into adults, veterans, and elites? This would add a layer of interest to the creature farming.

You're not thinking this through. That would mean that as population decreases, the density of more difficult enemies increases. That's pretty much the opposite of what you want! Further, while fighting elites can be fun, constantly fighting trash elites for no additional reward would be no fun at all.

I used to play a game that had a system for monsters getting stronger. However, in this game it happened when a monster killed a player. It was normally no big deal, but they also had some randomness to monster spawns. So, every once in awhile you'd get this perfect storm where a capped player would go up against a max level spawn well above capped level and die, making it even stronger. Then other players would come to the rescue, die, and make it even stronger until you needed a legitimate raiding party to go in and actually kill the thing to rescue all the players (there was no respawn on death...you had to be rescued!).

This would obviously be a terrible system for a game like GW2. The fact is we already have dynamic group events. There is no need to create them in this way. It's far too random and would cause problems when inexperienced players die and essentially double up on scaling the event!

[Teofa Tsavo.9863]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@paShadoWn.5723 said:Right now, creatures respawn after being slain in exactly same state and quality.But what about making a system where creatures initially respawn as hatchlings but when left alone gradually grow into adults, veterans, and elites? This would add a layer of interest to the creature farming.

You're not thinking this through. That would mean that as population decreases, the density of more difficult enemies increases. That's pretty much the opposite of what you want! Further, while fighting elites can be fun, constantly fighting trash elites for no additional reward would be no fun at all.

I used to play a game that had a system for monsters getting stronger. However, in this game it happened when a monster killed a player. It was normally no big deal, but they also had some randomness to monster spawns. So, every once in awhile you'd get this perfect storm where a capped player would go up against a max level spawn well above capped level and die, making it even stronger. Then other players would come to the rescue, die, and make it even stronger until you needed a legitimate raiding party to go in and actually kill the thing to rescue all the players (there was no respawn on death...you had to be rescued!).

This would obviously be a terrible system for a game like GW2. The fact is we already have dynamic group events. There is no need to create them in this way. It's far too random and would cause problems when inexperienced players die and essentially double up on scaling the event!

Old style Death Leveling in Pre-Searing took advantage of this to level capped mobs high enough to get exp off them.Old School LDOAs gained that title by being killed hundreds of times.

[Nabbut.7480]

I never said anything about scaling from deaths mind you.Also fully grown monsters may drop something unique so it feels rewarding. Like in, mowing your lawn every week versus waiting for exotic fruit to ripen.

[PopeUrban.2578]

The feedback regarding release era Orr and HoT proved the community doesn't actually want challenging fights in the open world content unless its attached to a significant event reward. People want the ability to walk past everything in the open world to get to where they're going, nad to ahve their challenge explicitly cordoned off in to confined and predictable event areas and instances.

It's a neat Idea, and I would like it, but based on what I've seen when open world zones are intentionally made more challenging in a general sense I don't think its a great system for the way GW2 is built.