[Gameplay] (Frontline beta v0.675a) Shroomies on Parade

[Ryfox III]

Haiya Haiya and Haha!

So here I am again late in the night where I am.. Okay its only about 11:52 p.m. give or take at the time of writing this. Its bed time and you know what that means kiddies? Story time~

So I was doing some card hunting and keeping an eye out for funny things in game. I come back to Mount Bloom by teleport pad and hanging around in the room. To the north spawn Shroomies and Larvacids and I was seeking the Larvacid card drop. Then I get an idea with how the Shroomie AI worked. "Let's lead these guys away from the room where they spawn so I can farm the Larvacids without worry of the spore clouds blinding me." I thought to myself.

So I lead the two nommers over to the southeastern part of the area where they could hang and hop around in peace. With them out of the way I make my way back up to the area where the Larvacid hang out and-

More showed up in their place. Well this is inconvenient. Maybe three more just spawned when I left though. I rounded the Shroomies up and lead them back to the southeast part of the area. However..

The two are still at the area. Huh.. Well I lead them to hang with the others and I make my way back to find five more just hopping around the area. This got interesting and so I round the next five up and made my way down the stairs though a thought came to my mind. "How far away from the spawn would cause a new batch of Shroomies to respawn?" I didn't leave far. just to the teleport plate and I circled around the little bitters, back up the stairs.

Good Lord! these little plants are worse then Rabbies! Curiosity was getting the better of me and there was only one course of action to take now. How many could we have in one place?

-10 minutes later-

By the Goddess what have I done!? Help!!

And Ry Jin was never heard from again.. Okay no after that amount of time gathering what Shroomies I could I started experiencing slowdown and was forced to put down every last Shroomie in the area. Minus the five that respawn north of the teleport pad.

So yeah this was my experience in Mount Bloom trying to pull away the Shroomies to farm the Larvacid for a card drop. I didn't test to see if this kind of spawning happens in other areas of Mount Bloom or if happens with any of the other enemies that can be lead out of their spawning area.

I hope those that read enjoy the little story and to the Developers I hope this helps in finding and fixing this if this was not intended.

Until then to the Developers and the readers I say to you, Aloha Haha!

 

[The G-Meister]

Beat ya to it bud :/ Did you do a quick search on the forums? I'd highly suggest it if you didn't. We have a lot of bugs already documented here, so if you find that your bug has already been found and you've got nothing to add to what's been said, you can forget posting and continue playing the game!

There's a section on searching in the "How to Forums" article in the spoiler below, that I'd highly recommend reading if you haven't already.

 

[Teddy]

This isn't a bug, it's just a side effect of the spawning fields "orphaning" their enemies if the enemies run away from their home, so that these enemies can't block respawns. This prevents situations where the player can't trigger respawns because an enemy has previously gone for a hike or has been led away by a player!

 

[The G-Meister]

Ah I see. Was that something new you were testing in Mt. Bloom? It doesn't seem to happen anywhere else (but then I haven't exactly tested thoroughly), or it's just for very specific enemies. Furthermore, if you decide to make this cover more areas, I'd suggest a slight change to how enemies initially been respawning.

The current system in most areas means you have to kill all the enemies in an area for them to begin respawning. The change I'd suggest is, as soon as the number of initial enemies in the area drops below the spawn cap for that area, that enemies begin to respawn to fill the gap. This would avoid confusion from one area to another when leading one enemy away results in that one respawning, but if you don't do that then you still have to kill them all before they begin respawning.

I guess that other spawn areas should also adopt any enemies that come into them and add them to the spawn cap, so just in case a couple enemies have strayed into a different area the player doesn't get swamped by an unusually large number of enemies.

 

[Ryfox III]

Ah.. Well.. That's embarrassing. Didn't quiet try and search for this one. Tiredness or maybe it was just how silly this was kinda got the better of me. I'll try not to go throwing these around next time.

I did try this same method at Pumpkin Wood with the Jumpkins in the first area and they don't "orphan" any new ones anywhere on the map area as I lead them around. So I think Mount Bloom is the only area and if I had to guess why I think its the time until they respawn after killing a number of enemies. Maybe the programmed time which they have to spawn is too low that it skips another program?

Compared to other areas, when they start their faster respawn cycle it feels like its faster to me. I kill one enemy and before the end of their death cycle or before they disappear from the screen a new one pops up right away. I do notice a slight delay in other areas but in this one area it seems like its instant when they spawn in. That's my guess though.

I would probably suggest ether a boarder or a way to bring them back to home. Think of the enemies as something sentient. Why do they attack the player than the simple game logic of "because he is an enemy." How far are they willing to chase them? If its not to protect something or someone further down the path, then they must be only protecting what they mark as their territory. If they they feel they have chased away the interloper (The player) far enough than have them return back to there territory. Ether by just wandering back or if it like they are trying to be lead astray from their territory than through some hocus pocus.

Thats my take on it and what I feel could be done if this is not intentional for other players to find or exploit.
- Establish a "territory"
- How far does this territory boarder reach
- Determine who among the list of enemies in the given map area will hang around that territory
- How many of each enemy will stand within
- If the enemy has a chasing AI, figure how the enemy will return to its territory if it is attepted to be lead astray by the player

Again, I'm sorry I reposted what is already up here. I'll try to keep a better eye for the same bug if I find it before making long winded posts like this.

 

[Teddy]

I did indeed implement it in Mt Bloom, mostly because of the Spinsects bouncing off, but it was my intention to add it everywhere enemies might do this! So, ironically, that they don't do it in other places is what actually constitutes as a bug (or oversight) here

The current spawn system works exactly as you described (or should, anyway) @Ryfox III with the exception of the last part. It would possible be kind of cool maybe if the enemies went back to their "stations" as in many MMORPGs, but to develop new systems like that to combat a situation that's entirely harmless would be a bit wasteful!

Anyways, I'll have a look at spreading this "bug" to other areas of the game, as was intended