At the moment we seem to have 3 separate camps of people when it comes to BAM difficulty. Those who want more challenge out of BAM encounters, those who think it's fine the way it is, and those who think BAMs should be easier.

Here's an idea (shamelessly "borrowed" from Monster Hunter):

Add some some randomized size variation to open-world non-named BAMs, and scale their stats and (to lesser extent) drop percentages based on their physical size.

That way those wanting a challenge can seek out the bigger BAMs, and those only interested in easy-beats can go for the runts. Everybody happy. It would also bring a bit of extra variation and interest to BAM hunting, not to mention making BAM infested areas feel a bit more... I don't know... "organic"?

To address the problem of there being too many or too few large/small BAMs in an area, spawn size could be biased based on what's already on the map.

Additional: Achievements based on killing huge/tiny BAMs :)

Discussion. HAJIME!

Bump

What if some BAMs were actually controlled by the devs instead of leaving it up to AI coding???

Quote: Drahka on 04/24/2012, 06:08 PM - view


God help us all O.o

I like the idea of variation in BAM size / strength. After all in real nature there's always stronger and weaker representatives of the same species, and like you said it would make the world feel more organic. Then when a really big one spawns you would go by and say "wooow, that's a big [filtered] Basilisk, I gotta kill that right now".

Of course the weaker ones should never be too weak, so that there is still a clear difference between BAMs and regular monster.

On a side note, have you noticed that with regular mobs, there already exist strong versions? They usually have more glowy red in their textures.

i like the size idea, not near enough devs to control all BAMs

Quote: Mageek on 04/24/2012, 06:12 PM

Yeah, I have noticed that, mainly on Noruks. I always assumed they were in a rage state without actually being in combat (which makes a huge amount of sense <.<)

Quote: Drahka on 04/24/2012, 06:08 PM - view

this would be soo funny!

Quote: Drahka on 04/24/2012, 06:08 PM - view

Reminds me of a few of EQ's old bosses. One or two (can't remember NPC name) were "operated" by GM's that had to actually log in for the mob to spawn. Large raid groups could actually converse with the "mob" before attempting to kill it. /sigh the good ole' days...

also +1 for the size idea like MH.

Cheers,

GG

i think when one spawns (the RNG should make it rare) thats the max size it should be given a diffrent name/color or something to let you know this is max, and be treated as a world boss with superior loot, as well as a higher step up from the "second to largest"