You have been waylaid by outlaws.

[Eclypticon]

I think it should check to see if you are invisible before triggering mob creation. Unless they have see invisibility or trueseeing, they are not waylaying anyone that is invisible.

[Tsidkenu]

There is a check if you are in stealth, I know that much. In that case instead of receiving a message, "You have been waylaid by . . ." it says, "You have stumbled upon an attempted ambush but managed to evade them. . ." or something like that. All the mobs still spawn in though. Would just need to make an additional check for invisibility in that part of the script.

[AlexBnt]

I think it should check to see if you are invisible before triggering mob creation. Unless they have see invisibility or trueseeing, they are not waylaying anyone that is invisible.

On invisibility: Being invisible does not automatically make you quiet. If you do not have the above requisite move silently skill, NPCs will detect you.

For example, my Thayan Knight has -16 MS when he's in his fullplate and has his tower shield out. Unless someone is deaf there is no way they would not know where he is regardless of being invisible or not.

[Eclypticon]

My main concern here is freeing up server resources. RP wise, thieves look for someone to waylay; they especially look for people that have valuables. There may be some merit to listening, but to me this is a bug we need to fix.

[Tantive]

I would actually enjoy more waylaid by outlaws if we had more RP flavor to them.

Spot, Listen, intelligence, wisdom, tracks and all kind checks which could probably detect an ambush beforehand or maybe even see them before they see you. ((Which happens if you are hidden.))

[NegInfinity]

My main concern here is freeing up server resources.

Do you have performance data that proves that ambushes eat a lot of resources?
"Profile before optimizing", "premature optimization is root of all evil" and stuff.

The one problem with ambushes is that they waylay polymorphed druids too, and happily charge to attack bears and tigers while yelling something along the lines of "your gold is mine!". I suppose those bandits are not very smart.

[Storm Munin]

Ah, but they are clever enough to see that possible maneaters and walking trees someone might have made a stash in may contain gold.

[NegInfinity]

Ah, but they are clever enough to see that possible maneaters and walking trees someone might have made a stash in may contain gold.

I wonder how many normal tigers were robbed by accident. Then again, it explains why tigers around beregost are so angry.

[Mallore]

I think it should check to see if you are invisible before triggering mob creation. Unless they have see invisibility or trueseeing, they are not waylaying anyone that is invisible.

Or if its raining? Invisibility doesn't make rain go though you. Be kinda cool if we programed for this. There was a great movie about the invisible man and standing in a street of rain. And in every fantasy and SCI-fi fiction the heroes use water to reveal invisible foes. Oh steam too is often and other gasses.


Anyways....

I know people mentioned the Listen Check thing. Also if your running and not stealthing you basically fail the MS check. So they hear you on the road. In real life close your eyes and sit on a park bench, you can hear people running by.. this is what invisibility is like and moving when your not using your MS, which is used by stealthing.

If your running around invisible and the bandits detect you, yes they will rob you more then anyone else. People with magic have money, more then anyone else is typical logic. Poor people do not have magic. So if there is a guy with an invisibility spell, or a guy with a fishing pole. the guy invisibly is more likely to have wealth.

On the subject of Invisibility, the game should have some improved AI and combat basics. if a group of people are traveling around the Bandits should ambush casters first. This is basic mob control tactics. So yes they should spawn on the caster and sneak attack them down. Lets look at even our players and how they play. You go into the Haunted House and you focus down Chaos first as shes a pain to let get revved up. Bandits are just as smart and know to take down casters first to mob control pc groups. This would make a fascinating improvement on how our AI works.

I know people mentioned the bandits ambush polymorphed people. Sure why not! your a bear, they want to turn in your hide for XP and Coin to complete the quest too! Pcs run up and kill animals all the time, why not a poly player? If anything our town guards should agro on players polymorphic as animals such as tigers, bears and other beasts.

Just some other thoughts that address ambushes as well.

[Mallore]

I would actually enjoy more waylaid by outlaws if we had more RP flavor to them.

Spot, Listen, intelligence, wisdom, tracks and all kind checks which could probably detect an ambush beforehand or maybe even see them before they see you. ((Which happens if you are hidden.))

This would be awesome. Though Intelligence has nothing to do with detecting ambush. Those are wisdom based skills.

I would like to see Spot and Listen checks, along with track possiblity? Already wisdom triggers on Spot and Listen. I could also suspect Search, an under used skill in our game.

[Eclypticon]

I have serious doubts about making the AI more complex in general. It would almost guarantee the need for more resources that do not exist on a single threaded server should everything work to do new checks. It may not be as much of an issue if the random waylay script only did something new and was isolated to just those mobs, but I think we would need to hear a dev's opinion on this.

My suggestion is only about invisibility and sight. Many people will simply run past these mobs while hasted anyway. Some of them have more than enough AC to ignore them while they attack while moving to the next zone if they were detected. The more people you have running together, the higher the chance of triggering a waylay. It is simply more mobs spawning and doing nothing but moving around if everyone is invisible. I thought of this during a laggy session and several of us were having issues as the mobs spawned on us. I know this may not even be correlated with the lag though.

This can go several ways. The script can get more complex or it can become more efficient. We could just leave it as it is too. I just thought this might be helpful, and no one has to agree with my perspective here.

[Mallore]

I have serious doubts about making the AI more complex in general. It would almost guarantee the need for more resources that do not exist on a single threaded server should everything work to do new checks. It may not be as much of an issue if the random waylay script only did something new and was isolated to just those mobs, but I think we would need to hear a dev's opinion on this.

My suggestion is only about invisibility and sight. Many people will simply run past these mobs while hasted anyway. Some of them have more than enough AC to ignore them while they attack while moving to the next zone if they were detected. The more people you have running together, the higher the chance of triggering a waylay. It is simply more mobs spawning and doing nothing but moving around if everyone is invisible. I thought of this during a laggy session and several of us were having issues as the mobs spawned on us. I know this may not even be correlated with the lag though.

This can go several ways. The script can get more complex or it can become more efficient. We could just leave it as it is too. I just thought this might be helpful, and no one has to agree with my perspective here.

I am in no way meaning to knock your idea as "this is terrrible". I get what you where saying, and anything that reduces lag is super good but I do not like the idea as it throws in the face of rp. My initial issue is we got a suggestion which is "im invisible, I should get this perk" so while yes invisible players get a pass on the spawn, no one else does? This is not fair, nor is the reason to give the invisible players a pass a legit RP one, it even throws in the face of it. How much lag is generated by player "buffing" casting spells on end in area? How much lag is generated by players spawning into area's, running through these area's and not slaying their spawns? Perhaps if they dealt with the spawns, the lag be less?

Perhaps forcing people to deal with the spawn instead of running through it. Sure, a fighter with high AC will spawn it, but maybe they should turn and kill the spawn.

Just something i was thinking. You would know how the server works and its lag generation far better then me =).

[Eclypticon]

Sanctuary, greater sanctuary, and ethereal gaunt are also another way to simply avoid enemies.