Mulitple NPC's

[Nelkie]

Ok, I was thinking again and I have a suggestion for NPC's playing muliple Empaths or archers.

Do the normal time count for the specified action, (aka 60 count for a 30 boom), than let the attack fly for each NPC you are repersenting at the same time (One packet after another. this can repersent a time attack). Now if you get hit you lose one of the attacks becasue of being disrupted.
Now if an NPC is feeling very comfortable with the rules than they can throw different attacks in the same volly.
Example is an NPC is playing 3 empaths and charges for 30 secounds. He can have 1 empath throw 15 magic, 1 emapth do sleep and the other 1 throw fear, or any combination above. The empath has to spend a life point and can not move if they cas sleep.
Once charged and life spend the NPC can throw 3 packets one doing 15 magic, one doing magic fear, and the last is magic sleep.
repeat the process until battle is over.

What do people think?

[Ug]

That's what they were doing that we didn't like.

(ie: 15, 15, 15 from the same person)

[Nelkie]

If my memory holds true, and please correct me if I wrong, the NPC at the fort cut the time to charge abilities by the number of Emapths or archers they where. So if I'm playing 3 empaths, my charge time is 10 secounds to throw 15 damage.

Which way do would people like to see happen?
Decreaed charge time, or full charge time with muliple vollies at the same time.
Or a mix of both

[WayneO42]

In my opinion it makes more sense to lower the charge time because the empaths would be stagering their charging not charging in unison. In a set period of time however, the same number of packets will be thrown either way.

[dier_cire]

I like the all charge at once concept. Though they probably would be staggered slightly they usually end up close. This already happens with pcs. When we get an oppotunity to charge we do it as a group then move in and attack, charge, attack, etc. Also, if I was running at 3 empaths, none of them would have time to charge and throw, so reducing the time means I'd take damage I'd normally not take.

I say leave the counts the same just make it so they have as many shots as they have npcs. Course if there is 1 npc representing 10 empaths, there's a whole other issue of tiny target for a massive group (it's a lot easier to hit someone with a 15 magic when there are 10 of em)

[Ug]

Which is why I disagree with boomboomboomboom. Esp when you don't know for certain how many empaths are left, etc.

[Tonia Glowski]

Just for reference, we were counting full charges, then tossing / shooting consecutively with a few seconds in between.

[Nelkie]

Thanks for the clarification Tonia.

So here is the question. Is it better to cut the time for charge by the number of NPC you are playing or keep the normal charge times, but have mulitple shoots based on the number of NPC's you are playing.

Tonia, You where playing one of the empaths, what is your take? How did it go with normal charge time and throwing multiple packets?

[Tonia Glowski]

I would say keep the charging times to full for a few reasons:

#1 - Cutting them in half does not adequately reflect "staggering" and gives the NPCs a distinct advantage. The whole purpose of trying out ballista NPCs was to even the playing field when there are 10 PCs and supposed to be 3 NPCs, but only 1 phys-rep.

#2 - It's tougher for NPCs to keep track of if you're actually going to require them to stagger.

#3 - If you hit an NPC while charging, which ballista charge do they drop? The furthest along? The least furthest? Too complicated for very little in game benefit.

If you're going to keep the ballista NPC concept, I'd say keep it simple and make them wear a certain color headband to represent multiple NPCs so a PC doesn't just go rushing in only to find themselves FUBARd. The only reason I suggested and felt comfortable executing it against PCs was because of "The Keep" setup (i.e. arguably the PC would not have seen all of the NPCs).

For one last point of note, as a ballista NPC we were informed NOT to charge up a 30 boom (60 count). I don't know if that was mod-specific or experiment relative, but is a consideration for ballistas.

[Ug]

You are three people.

You take a 60 count to charge X.

Since you are three, that is now a 20 count.

You are at 15 out of 20 before you do X.

You get hit.

You are now at 0 out of 20 before your next X.

[GM_Chris]

I am still confused at what was the issue with the balista NPC's...if I had the phys reps to represent all of my NPC's you all realize it would have been a LOT LOT worse.

Is it that the encounter was too hard or that you had a hard time understanding how many peeps we had?

Chris

[Ug]

When you see one person you often think in your brain, well it is one person so you don't expect a rapid succession of 15 or 30 magic to come flying at you. That is why I like the spaced counts over the "all at once" volleys.

[Tonia Glowski]

"All at once volleys" were about 3 seconds apart.

And you would not necessarily have seen all of the NPCs as they were crouched behind the wall.

[dier_cire]

I'm not a big fan for the spaced out thing for one reason. I'm five elvish empaths. Now I can throw 8 magic every 2 seconds. Even two empaths is nasty at 8 for 5. I'd much prefer to dodge a few packets all at once than continually get hammered on.

[Ug]

"All at once volleys" were about 3 seconds apart.

And you would not necessarily have seen all of the NPCs as they were crouched behind the wall.

Then they wouldn't have been able to aim at me