Newsfiend
01-13-2010, 08:50 PM
I reviewed several zones and the spawn times of the rare ("named") npcs there. Everything I saw checked out fine.
There may be a bit of a misunderstanding about how we do this. We set it up so that, on average, each of these rares can be killed about every hour (72 minutes). Basically, that's how often we want the gear they drop to show up in the world. This would be in the best circumstances, where all of it's placeholders are killed when they spawn. So while you may not find a given rare by killing one of its placeholders every time it spawns, that doesn't mean it doesn't spawn fast enough. It probably means there is more than one placeholder.
For example, Vrolg the Charger has three placeholders. If you are only killing one then you will spawn him less often, on average, than the 72 minutes. In fact, once every 216 minutes. Kill all three and your average should be close to expected.
Most rare NPCs have more than one placeholder, so if you have only been looking in one place you may be missing chances. Also, a rare can only be up in one place at a time, so if the rare is up someplace else you can kill the placeholder an infinite number of times and he won't spawn.
I suspect it won't help too much to explain once again about randomization over small samples, so I'll skip that. http://www.mapfiend.net/eq/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif
Others that I looked into and found to be set up as expected include (but not exclusively):
Tracker Rocklin Hammertaker and all Underquarry rares in general.
All the rares in Pellucid Grotto.
Fungal Forest rares.
Shining City rares.
Brell's Temple. I did notice that the Misshapen Formation is basically a global rare. Just about any NPC in the zone is a placeholder. So if someone told you to look in a certain place, they were wrong.
Arthicrex rares seemed fine too. Someone mentioned the nephocratic ooze (what the hell does that mean?) That rare has four placeholders.
No, we didn't use any anti-camp radius in Underfoot.
It's worth noting that most rares have three or four placeholders.
Now there is probably something to the fact that it's harder to clear areas and keep them clear. Harder NPCs with more HPs will make getting to and killing placeholders take longer. That difficulty should decrease as you gather more of the Underfoot gear.
So, barring any new information, I don't see anything wrong with the rares and the way they are set up.
Sorry that it took me so long to respond again, but things came up.
A
More... (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=159963&post_id=2379645#2379645)
There may be a bit of a misunderstanding about how we do this. We set it up so that, on average, each of these rares can be killed about every hour (72 minutes). Basically, that's how often we want the gear they drop to show up in the world. This would be in the best circumstances, where all of it's placeholders are killed when they spawn. So while you may not find a given rare by killing one of its placeholders every time it spawns, that doesn't mean it doesn't spawn fast enough. It probably means there is more than one placeholder.
For example, Vrolg the Charger has three placeholders. If you are only killing one then you will spawn him less often, on average, than the 72 minutes. In fact, once every 216 minutes. Kill all three and your average should be close to expected.
Most rare NPCs have more than one placeholder, so if you have only been looking in one place you may be missing chances. Also, a rare can only be up in one place at a time, so if the rare is up someplace else you can kill the placeholder an infinite number of times and he won't spawn.
I suspect it won't help too much to explain once again about randomization over small samples, so I'll skip that. http://www.mapfiend.net/eq/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif
Others that I looked into and found to be set up as expected include (but not exclusively):
Tracker Rocklin Hammertaker and all Underquarry rares in general.
All the rares in Pellucid Grotto.
Fungal Forest rares.
Shining City rares.
Brell's Temple. I did notice that the Misshapen Formation is basically a global rare. Just about any NPC in the zone is a placeholder. So if someone told you to look in a certain place, they were wrong.
Arthicrex rares seemed fine too. Someone mentioned the nephocratic ooze (what the hell does that mean?) That rare has four placeholders.
No, we didn't use any anti-camp radius in Underfoot.
It's worth noting that most rares have three or four placeholders.
Now there is probably something to the fact that it's harder to clear areas and keep them clear. Harder NPCs with more HPs will make getting to and killing placeholders take longer. That difficulty should decrease as you gather more of the Underfoot gear.
So, barring any new information, I don't see anything wrong with the rares and the way they are set up.
Sorry that it took me so long to respond again, but things came up.
A
More... (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=159963&post_id=2379645#2379645)