Shattered Kingdoms

The changes are moving in the right direction (IE: weakening/removing bounty NPCs) but bounty NPCs, especially in inns, are still an incredible advantage.

If you want to weaken AND BALANCE them and can't actually change their spawn rate (Which I have a feeling you cannot do, Achernar), this is what you should do: I'm only looking at MC and Guardians and comparing them to Templar by the way.

Taslamaran templar currently script cure light instead of normal spellcasting routines (flamestrike, spear of faith, bolt of glory, etc.) This essentially reduces them to relatively low accuracy and speed warriors that can be mostly ignored if they're hitting a mood defensive armored PC, and they wear 30% MR or so also as they always have. This change is good, and I wish MC and Guardians had been brought down to the same level.

Ayamaon guardians: I can't tell what's different about them, to be completely honest. Maybe their level was reduced or something, but they're still centaur pike specced mercs and they still hurt a lot. If you want to put them in line with the Templar (Which would be good) then remove/lower their specialization skill. That would put them on par with templar, because as it stands now they are MUCH more dangerous than templar.


Midnight Council: You did the same thing with these as the templar: Scripting cause light instead of hellfire/blindness/other maledictions. However, the real killer about the MC guards is not their maledictions as much as the fact that they cleave into combat. Now, if I had my way then bounty NPCs would spawn at a max of 1-2 per room regardless of group size so multiple cleaves wouldn't be too much of a problem, but as it stands they can spawn in large quantities and those cleaves, mode stun notwithstanding, really hurt. If you want to balance these relative to templar, then remove their cleave ability but leave their other spells.

I can't comment on necrophidious and golden griffons. But if you want to nerf golden griffons then remove fury from their skillset (And definitely remove headbutt regardless if that hasn't been done yet) and they'll be close to on par with the rest just on account of the fact that they're the only bounty NPCs that can't reach. Necrophidious should lose spec too, but keep the poison bite just cause that's cool.

In summary, if you want things balanced while weakening bounty NPCs as a whole, you should leave templar as is, remove/heavily weaken spec from ayamaoan enforcers, and remove the casting script from midnight guards and instead remove cleave from their skillset. This keeps things distinct so they aren't "completely balanced", but also brings them much more well into line than they currently are since this recent change.

That's my two cents, and yes, I am right.

I haven't tried this out yet. Alot of people are very careful about Cabal raids and won't attempt them unless it's very clear they won't die and leave all their stuff to the enemy, I am a bit more reckless then that but you can't do it alone.

Secondly alot of people won't participate in CRS to spite Dulrik because they don't want CRS to exist, so it's not always easy to get cooperation from players to go on a raid. Since these changes have been in place I haven't even attempted to capture a relic. I don't know if I will either.

As for the bountymobs I don't think making it easier to gank understaffed tribunals is going to make the game better. Now it's even easier to get at the two peacekeepers that exist. And don't forget the two Talons that play regularily.

CRS is stupid because it's still 10,000,000 times easier to gank a relic when the opposing side isn't online.

All bounty NPCs did get basically the same treatment. The changes were made in order to tie together a number of issues that I can't solve directly. I would say the main difference in these NPCs is their status. This directly affects what skills they have and I'm pretty certain that at their status, a handful of each of their deadlier repertoire is gone. While this leaves them still dangerous, additional balancing could occur in the future in both schemes. I'm likely to wait 2-3 months before additional tweaking, as I did before. I'll certainly be watching for good feedback that will help determine if and what changes might be established.

You know, the chances of getting crit cleaves, when running around Menegroth spawning 2-3 hellions every room, is pretty high. Even on mode stun, a crit cleave can easily screw you, especially when you're probably there looking for PCs, and not just mindlessly fighting NPC bounty hunter NPCs.

I'd really prefer that you didn't wait that long, given the blatant differences in the bounty NPCs now (read: Peacekeepers got the shaft compared to Ayamao and MC). I can tell you right now that any opposing force, whether small or large and regardless of class composition, would MUCH rather attack Taslamar right now than Ayamao or the Empire just because of bounty NPCs. You -can't- ignore the Ayamaoan Enforcers (they hurt) or Midnight Guards (they cleave), but you can ignore the templar.

With my limited knowledge of how the DikuMUD Code works, I understand that you can't make changes such as affecting the spawn rate of bounty NPCs, but I think you can disable/lower levels of skills, which is by far the best choice you have in making things balanced with your current abilities. See above for full reasoning of that. I would much rather have a human paladin that spams cure light attacking me once or twice a round with a tanso steel halberd than a centaur mercenary specced in pike attacking me three to four times a round with a stone pike, and I'd definitely take that templar over a human hellion cleaving me with a jade guisarme.

If you aren't going to let them cast any spells anyway, why not change the templars into mercs?

The easiest solution is to make a "bounty NPC" with identical skills, spells, and abilities, and just give it a different name. This way you reduce your balancing workload by something like 75%, if not more.

The same logic was used for CRS and has allowed you to make balancing tweaks just like the one you recently did.

I was going to suggest the same thing.

A lower powered, generic bounty NPC with different descriptions for all tribunals sounds good. Keep their current auras and lower their death cost.

This will make jail breaks/city raids more feasible. Consider this a buff to characters.