random item drop question.

[Zhorn]

Hey, I like the idea that my wizard can take off all of his gear and Finger of Death people nekkid and score PHAT LEWTS!! $$$$$ !!

What worse..... being killed by someone called "Squiggles" or being killed by a Naked Wizard. I guess both.

I'm going to have to make a new char now that starts in Neversummer City because that's gotta be the most frequented XP spot around. I sure as hell know that's where to go to ambush people with me Bigbies/DC 100 Web/Finger of Death/Maxed IGMS/etc

[Brennan068]

And that's ^^^^ exactly what I was trying to say Joran

[TheBestDeception]

Remember guys, this drop only applies when "within enemy territory". This means that even if a melee player defends his faction, he apparently faces no penalty other than a respawn.

Squiggles, by defending NS City, you are going along with the NS4 faction system, which is perfectly acceptable.

The point of this system is to implement a risk to the aggresors...not hurt the defenders.

[Flailer]

That is true - perhaps a level spread check isn't necessary: If a level 26 was currently guarding his home city and a level 19 came to kill the guards, he would be rated as effortless to the defender. But, he *is* attacking the city, so he should potentially face a penalty if he's killed. So, I think for city defense, the item drop penalty would probably work regardless of the level spread. The time that it will likely be problematic is if the item-drop zone is extended to areas that lower levels typically hunt that are more border-regions.

Shade

[SmurfZG]

But, this would mean that a lvl 19 would be afraid of attacking another faction because there would surely be a lvl 26 guarding it for the item drops. This would then turn into that noone at all would attack the other cities because the highlevels don't gain anything from doing it, so they defend their own faction instead

[scruffyspellslinger]

Maybe its because I'm a newbie but....
What could they do with a high level item?
They can't use it (level limits).
The shops won't buy it in their hometown, and they aren't tough enough to get anywhere that would buy it.

Carry it around to show their friends?

Actually my 8th level char has a pair of boots that would cost me 36000 to ID. I know I won't be able to wear them if I do ID them, so I'm carrying them around for 10 levels just so I can see what they are eventually when I have that much spare money.

[TheBestDeception]

But, this would mean that a lvl 19 would be afraid of attacking another faction because there would surely be a lvl 26 guarding it for the item drops. This would then turn into that noone at all would attack the other cities because the highlevels don't gain anything from doing it, so they defend their own faction instead

Perhaps rightly so...how much sense does it make that a single lvl 20 character should be able to conquer an ENTIRE city? Not much at all. The guards have limits on how powerful they can be (being "AI")...human players are the best defense.

[Dracovin]

Isn' t that the point, though? To stop these invaders from constantly attacking and killing lowbies, shopkeepers, plot guys, etc without fear. Now there will be a higher risk

I'm sure once the epic areas exist, this will not happen as much anyway. I'm hoping, though, that it's only the main town areas that are affected by this.

Dracovin

[Argamath]

Is it possible to drop out of combat? Are there any game mechanics that allow this?

If so, someone could start a fight, drop out of combat, the other person would then become the aggressor (?) if he presses the attack, then the original aggressor finishes him off and gets a piece of gear.

Or is this not possible - or coded in such a way to negate this?

[Zhorn]

It appears to me that the intention is to encourage players to defend their faction whilst at the same time adding a small element of risk for the attacker. The hard part is making it so it's not abused by exploiters (lets avoid the term griefer because lets face it, thats a fact of NWN).

I think what's being proposed is a good step in the right direction. It's just slightly unbalanced in terms of caster vs melee (who may suffer more from loss of gear than casters - unless they carry a spare set of everything).

I am guessing that it would be possible to script different penalties for different classes of the "Failed Attacker"?

I play a pure caster (at the moment) and I'd actually be in favour of exp loss rather than item loss because lets face it losing any one piece of gear won't matter (yeah even losing a Staff of the Dead).

Hmm here's an idea, maybe you could make it "item loss for melee's" and "regular death" for a Caster. That way the caster could either choose to immediately take the exp loss OR wait for a buddy (to also launch an attack) and Rez him. Now obviously that could be exploited if the buddy was on the faction as the player being rezzed... so you could always make raising an enemy INSIDE your towns area as hostile an act as killing one of your OWN guards. That'd put a certain stop to that!

[Quiett]

On the Idea of caster xp loss instead of item loss, I'm guessing it could be scripted as a death the same way a planar-touched character dies. XP loss weather raised or not.

[iceburn]

When will the item be droped? on death or respawn? if its on death you could lose all your equipment if your buddy keeps rezing you? if its on respawn I could see someone dieing and calling to thier buddys to come try to get the item when they respawn. waiting and timing it out with party chat... ie when the defender rests or leaves.

I like the idea.. Give riskes and reason to defend your city. Just think it needs to be more clear.

[Zhorn]

I forsee an increase in the number of people who suddently "crash" when they're about to lose in PvP in a City...... I've had people quit out in combat with me when they hit near death and it's rather annoying!!

I do know that it is possible to script checks for this though. I'm sure Lokey could chat to Sir Elric (on Melnibone) about exactly how he does this. On that server it counts up... on your 5th mysterious disconnect-in-combat you auto-login to the DM's den!

Guess we'll just have to wait and see how many people "take it (death) on the chin" vs "quit out like a cowardly lap dog".

[AndrewCarr]

I kinda like the 100% gold loss idea. That or a loss of all potions and 50% of gold.

[Zhorn]

Gold is a joke atm.

Although I am guessing this will change if/when an Epic shop gets added.

It's too easy to amass 1,000,000 gold. I think my level 21 wiz has 3.5 mil gold he can't spend and the only use I can see for it is to twink out new chars.