Having just read the thread with rants about "pick up groups" and then writing LONG reply, only to not posting it due to being an ever larger rant I thought I should pick up one of the things I was complaining and see what people think so here it is on its own instead. The thread mentioned above is found at:
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/index...topic=6546
OK, so I have been playing the WoW for a while now, both in beta and now in retail. I play a lot solo but also group with random people and a few times with people from LL. I have so far not done that many instances and my highest character ever is at around level 37 or so. So, if things change at high levels, so be it and this might be partly invalid.
After playing a long time, always hearing about this "aggro" thing and hearing people talk about ones "roles" in the game and so on, I got to start thinking about the monster AI, or rather, the complete lack of it. Sure, games have always been criticised for bad enemy AI, but to tell the truth, MMORPG seems to have the worst of them all, a complete lack of it! So far, my experience can sum it up as:
"convert damage and healing to aggro and have the monster attack whoever has done the most"
Nothing more, nothing less. No monster that goes more for the melee opponents, none that tries top take out the healers. None that realise that since it tosses fireballs, it can damage plate users well but for melee, perhaps it should go for the cloth characters. None that makes even the slightest deviation from the "attack the one with most aggro".
Since monsters play such narrow minded tactics, of course players will too. There will be a development of a tank, healers and support around that (sure, simplifications) but really, that is how it goes. When the game gets more "difficulty", the only increased difficulty is in that you have to follow your roles better, typically by having more monsters at once so they can't be picked up one by one. Why can't 40 warriors go and kill Onyxes? Why can a character stand and dish out enormous amount of damage or healing and not be noticed by the monster, just because someone did 1 point more of "aggro" or used some "high agro skill" doing something that might be completely harmless to the monster? Simply put, why are there no monsters with even the slightest intelligence? If for no other reason than to provide a variety and a challenge?
Sometimes I feel even pacman had smarter enemies, at least they could behave random at times....
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/index...topic=6546
OK, so I have been playing the WoW for a while now, both in beta and now in retail. I play a lot solo but also group with random people and a few times with people from LL. I have so far not done that many instances and my highest character ever is at around level 37 or so. So, if things change at high levels, so be it and this might be partly invalid.
After playing a long time, always hearing about this "aggro" thing and hearing people talk about ones "roles" in the game and so on, I got to start thinking about the monster AI, or rather, the complete lack of it. Sure, games have always been criticised for bad enemy AI, but to tell the truth, MMORPG seems to have the worst of them all, a complete lack of it! So far, my experience can sum it up as:
"convert damage and healing to aggro and have the monster attack whoever has done the most"
Nothing more, nothing less. No monster that goes more for the melee opponents, none that tries top take out the healers. None that realise that since it tosses fireballs, it can damage plate users well but for melee, perhaps it should go for the cloth characters. None that makes even the slightest deviation from the "attack the one with most aggro".
Since monsters play such narrow minded tactics, of course players will too. There will be a development of a tank, healers and support around that (sure, simplifications) but really, that is how it goes. When the game gets more "difficulty", the only increased difficulty is in that you have to follow your roles better, typically by having more monsters at once so they can't be picked up one by one. Why can't 40 warriors go and kill Onyxes? Why can a character stand and dish out enormous amount of damage or healing and not be noticed by the monster, just because someone did 1 point more of "aggro" or used some "high agro skill" doing something that might be completely harmless to the monster? Simply put, why are there no monsters with even the slightest intelligence? If for no other reason than to provide a variety and a challenge?
Sometimes I feel even pacman had smarter enemies, at least they could behave random at times....
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