Shattered Kingdoms

Was it really necessary to beef up bounty NPCs? I moved three rooms without dealing with the bounty NPCs until the third room and had to deal with nine of them. I got my behind handed to me, when before they would barely hurt me. I am against this change, for it only forces more NPC wars. Bounty NPCs should be speed bumps and notifyers for tribunal members, not fight wars for them. And if an opposite aura human character with heavy armor, a shield, mood defensive with all the tribunal buffs, protection and sanc has a problem with them, I am sorry to anyone else.

Except Baldric, he deserves to die to bounty NPCs.

QQ moar newb

Oh wait, that's Trag. He can't handle simple bounty NPCs? I'm against this change as well!

This is a wonderful change.

More NPC wars is bad NPCs wars. Seriously. Bad enough you have a NPC a person doing half the tanking anyway, but...really? Help campers more.

In other news, Tragonis got wrecked, so I am pleased.

It probably won't happen, though, because I have this l33t tactic where I don't move three rooms at a time in places I'm outlawed for 400,000 crimes. Send me a PM if you want a more detailed description of how this is accomplished. It involves not moving three rooms at a time in places I'm outlawed for 400,000 crimes.

I have always argued that bounty NPCs should work to slow down invaders and give away their location to the defenders. I agree that actually killing them shouldn't be challenging or dangerous. Though even with the recent buffs, I'm sure they're nowhere near as strong as they were when I started playing, so that's good.

Why was it changed? And was it a ninja change? Maybe it was an unintended effect of something else?

Stratford, why would you want to buff bounty NPCs??

Wouldn't it make more sense if the strength of a bounty hunter changes with the number of crimes instead of the number of bounty hunters?

Such a setup could even allow tribunal leaders to set parameters of the formula to determine how much of a bounty presence they want to fund with their coffers. Anything from simple hide/sneak NPCs who follow and give away positions, potentially even acting as gate targets, to a beastly paladin NPC, all with different costs and selectable by the tribunal leader(s). Bounty NPCs don't respond to leadership, so giving them diverse tools does not necessarily create the same issues stocking a city with comparable guards would. Either way, a sufficiently long criminal record could allow the fugitive to 'intimidate' guards into fleeing/withdrawing X rounds into combat, perhaps also influenced by the formula and the city's traditional enmities. This way they become a slowing force you must endure, not a pestering nuisance you must deal with.

Since the major PVP developments depend on NPCs instead of objects, and scripts instead of skills, I think avoiding NPC wars is a pipe dream. It would be better to come up with ways to inject some kind of tactics into it than call for alternatives that aren't within the development scope. The words "mindless grind" come to mind when I see current bounty NPC culling.

Maybe defensive stance got the much needed nerf it needs.

Probably not.

No, bounty NPCs got ninja-buffed recently.

Bring back the times of Teron battles!