Goblinworks Blog: When the Demon is at Your Door


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Goblin Squad Member

From the examples above, GW doesn't necessarily have to make all the encounters that occur in monster hexes hostile..they can certainly vary and the monsters' reaction to the approaching party will also vary depending on the alignment of the party and the monsters.

That said, I do like having a significant force to reckon with other than opposing player run settlements, as it would keep all settlements on their toes and provide lots of engaging content even when another settlement were not attacking.

Goblin Squad Member

KarlBob wrote:
Rafkin wrote:
Will monster hexes respond to the number of players in the area? As in, will there be more frequent escalations during prime time and fewer at 2am?
In a single shard game, it's always prime time for someone and 2 am for someone else. So far, that seems to be the intent for PFO: One global server with everyone in it, rather than some North American servers, some European servers, and a couple of Asian servers.

I realize that but I think settlements are likely to attract many people from similar time zones

Goblinworks Executive Founder

Rafkin wrote:
KarlBob wrote:
Rafkin wrote:
Will monster hexes respond to the number of players in the area? As in, will there be more frequent escalations during prime time and fewer at 2am?
In a single shard game, it's always prime time for someone and 2 am for someone else. So far, that seems to be the intent for PFO: One global server with everyone in it, rather than some North American servers, some European servers, and a couple of Asian servers.
I realize that but I think settlements are likely to attract many people from similar time zones

I think escalations are likely to take more than a few hours to resolve.

Scarab Sages Goblin Squad Member

DeciusBrutus wrote:
Rafkin wrote:
KarlBob wrote:
Rafkin wrote:
Will monster hexes respond to the number of players in the area? As in, will there be more frequent escalations during prime time and fewer at 2am?
In a single shard game, it's always prime time for someone and 2 am for someone else. So far, that seems to be the intent for PFO: One global server with everyone in it, rather than some North American servers, some European servers, and a couple of Asian servers.
I realize that but I think settlements are likely to attract many people from similar time zones
I think escalations are likely to take more than a few hours to resolve.

I hope that even a first stage incursion lasts at least 24 hours. Maybe for the first 24 hours, there is no way to shut down the incursion. Mobile incursions might move after X days, and growing incursions might expand after X days. Eventually, if someone shuts down the incursion, it goes into a withdrawal or mopping-up state that lasts for another 24 hours. This way, everyone has an opportunity to interact with the incursion at some stage, regardless of time zone. You might come online to discover that someone in am earlier time zone had defeated the incursion, but at least you can help with cleanup.

Goblin Squad Member

I don't see them lasting anywhere that long. You'll want people to be able to start and finish an escalation in one game session which should be an hour or two. Probably less.

Goblinworks Executive Founder

Rafkin wrote:
I don't see them lasting anywhere that long. You'll want people to be able to start and finish an escalation in one game session which should be an hour or two. Probably less.

Wait, what?! If an escalation grows strong enough to take over additional hexes and threaten settlements in less than an hour or two, then I don't think there will be very many settlements. I think a reasonable MINIMUM amount of time for EACH stage of an escalation might be an hour or two; but the goblins won't even go looking for their scouts until they have either reported back on schedule or failed to report back on time.

I'm guessing that at OE there will probably be about 4 escalations active most of the time, and that each one will typically last a week or so. I don't want a theme park event like GW2 has where twice an hour the same unique event happens.

Goblin Squad Member

If the escalations aren't put down by the players I see no reason why we would think they would just evaporate. They would grow, and eventually increase in tier.

At OE I suspect that unless we have parties scouring the hinterlands there will be one or more we don't even find until they are a full scale invasion assaulting someone's settlement.

Goblin Squad Member

I'd actually like Escalations to take as long as it does as players to spread beyond their Hex.

Those random Orcs you meet might actually be scouts for a stronghold being built two or three hexes over yonder.

The NPCs figure out that since they lose all contact with scouts that head over there, there must be a hostile force in that Hex, and thus build their defences accordingly.

Goblin Squad Member

I hope they are imposing enough to require a few days worth of planning, organizing and building siege equipment. The truly awesome escalations should be a force to behold and (hopefully) will threaten the very existence of some of the largest settlements. That will be a ways away, but I think it will take long enough for the player base to become powerful enough to contain the routine escalations, much less beating down a large invasion or settlement force.

Goblin Squad Member

@Being I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it, but from the header "Escalation Mechanics:"

Goblinworks Blog wrote:
The combination of different types of strength-based advances, expansion preference, stage advances, and quests associated with stages provides us with a wide variety of tools for creating very different experiences from escalation to escalation. Some escalations like the barbarian raid will effectively "march" across the map; some will reach a defensible limit and fort up; some will keep trying to expand indefinitely and attempt to overrun the entire map. Some escalations will burn out on their own, and simply leave if no one defeats them. Others will continue indefinitely until someone puts them down.

My bold

Goblin Squad Member

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Hardin Steele wrote:
I hope they are imposing enough to require a few days worth of planning, organizing and building siege equipment. The truly awesome escalations should be a force to behold and (hopefully) will threaten the very existence of some of the largest settlements. That will be a ways away, but I think it will take long enough for the player base to become powerful enough to contain the routine escalations, much less beating down a large invasion or settlement force.

The best thing, Haradin? It will take us several months, if not years, to make our way across to the other side of the 'map' if relative scale remains appropriate to the game and the game's engine. And assuming people can make the journey, without dying and losing all their stuff, mapping and exploring, consider that the further you get from 'home', the harder it will be to repair and replenish your supplies ...

And all during that time, NPCs are doing their thing ...

A long time into the game, we may be seeing a small army of Goblinoids in control of a 20-hex zone, AND THEY'RE COMING OUR WAY.

Individually, Goblins are a joke. Hundreds of Goblins being lashed on by a score of Hobgoblin Slavemasters to soften up the Settlements' defenses for the main Hobgoblin Army isn't just going to put the Settlements in danger, it's going to put the entire region on the knife-edge. If the Players don't start turning on this threat, everything is at risk!

The joy of a Sandbox Game is that you've got all this stuff going on in the background, whether you're there or not. Your actions or inactions help shape the world within this game.

Goblin Squad Member

Rafkin wrote:
I don't see them lasting anywhere that long. You'll want people to be able to start and finish an escalation in one game session which should be an hour or two. Probably less.

I sincerely hope not. If so, we will see what happened in many other games (notably GW2 of late) in that 'escalations' will be completely resolved (or farmed) in the peak time periods. This then leaves a PvE gap for the European and Oceanic players.

While I'm not too concerned about this personally, it looks more and more likely that PvE will be an integral part of alignment balancing. Thus, these escalation need to span several days at a minimum to allow as many players access as possible.

Goblin Squad Member

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Rafkin wrote:
I don't see them lasting anywhere that long. You'll want people to be able to start and finish an escalation in one game session which should be an hour or two. Probably less.

This is not true.

What is an Escalation?

...
SC: And unlike a traditional public quest system, this is actually intended to go for several days, maybe even weeks. So you're not just going to happen by and have missed it by five minutes. It's going to be on-going. You're going to be able to think about how to best contribute over several days.

Goblin Squad Member

Woot! That'll be fun finding a huge band of menacing monsters and working with players in your settlement gathering resources, assigning crafting tasks, developing a strategy and sending out a large army to confront the threat. Then when things don't go so well on the first try you have to start again replacing gear, encouraging others to go out with you again and marching out again to meet the opponent that gave you a thrashing. That sounds like a blast to me!

Goblin Squad Member

Hmmm...I wonder if they could design the EC to be reactive to failed PC incursions? For instance, the first concerted, failed, attempt to squash the escalation doubles the mobs in the hex. Kind of like throwing rocks at bee hives but failing to knock them down. Way more bees come out...


Genuine question btw as I can't see it specifically mentioned apart from in passing (no I am not trying to restart the debate either).

It has been mentioned that pve will allow you to grind your way back to good. Can you also grind your way to evil with pve. I gather that mobs will have alignement by the fact it is mentioned you may try and influence an escalation to attack someone and indeed help out an escalation.

If this is the case can I therefore assume that killing the wrong mobs might cause you problems?

Goblin Squad Member

I am hopeful that some Escalations involve mobs that deliberately spread away from settled hexes to give themselves time to develop and fortify before the player-base becomes aware of them.

Scarab Sages Goblin Squad Member

I would assume that slaughtering a herd of unicorns would shift your alignment toward evil. The trick will be knowing which critters are good, which ones are evil, and which ones are just hungry or territorial. That's a great role for Knowledge skills for critters, and Sense Motive for humanoids (Sense Motive might not tell you good/evil, but at least it can tell you hostile/wary/friendly).

As far as PvE content that can be completed in one play session, that role seems more likely to be filled by dungeons, as well as guard duty for gathering camps and caravans (PC bandits won't be the only threats out there).

Goblin Squad Member

So do escalations advance at a certain time limit or after a certain number of mobs have been killed? If these are the main source of PVE content I see them getting zerged on a regular basis. So either the event ends quickly or your stuck trying to tag mobs within their 10 second lifespan for hours at a time. Too soon to criticize, just tossing out concerns.

Can a hex produce multiple escalations at once?

Goblin Squad Member

Nihimon wrote:
I am hopeful that some Escalations involve mobs that deliberately spread away from settled hexes to give themselves time to develop and fortify before the player-base becomes aware of them.

Surely they are working the escalations with the intelligence of the mobs involved...i.e. ants, hornets, spiders, all animal life acting instinctively and not through any intelligence. Humanoids should be able to be programmed to act intelligently, setting up defenses, scouting, etc...in order to keep their influence relevant for at least several hours. IF they stay alive that long maybe reinforcements come along and they can upgrade their own little settlement. At least I hope so. Sounded that way in the blog.

Goblin Squad Member

Long Term Escalations

Some threads have discussed the possibility of characters interacting with the land in a noticeable way, changing the graphic environment, if even temporarily. Some escalations, particularly longer term escalations, might lend themselves to this type of change, being able to alter the landscape a bit while the escalation is in effect. Here are a few examples that might be an interesting basis for escalation cycles that last longer then just a few days or weeks, and can return the local scene to its original state after the escalation has run its course:

Archeological Dig – A dig site has appeared in this hex. Players can investigate the dig site using tools in different areas of the dig site to unearth bones, items, and possibly an old tomb, crypt, or ancient settlement. Any number of escalation types could be prompted by the discovery of a set of items, a specific item, a cursed item, an intact golem, or an old tome with ancient, cryptic, or runic writing that must be taken to a settlements library for examination and study.

Mine of Rare Gems – This location is a previously undiscovered site rich in rare gemstones. Similar to the above site, players must methodically dig through the site to unearth the potential of this site. This location would be a “normal” harvesting node, but would be exceedingly rare in appearance and potentially very lucrative, so its discovery would understandably set off a conflict once its location were revealed.

Rock Quarry – Somewhat more common than the Rare Gem Site above, this Rock Quarry Site once found reveals a vast quantity of a specific type of stone. A large labor force would be needed to extract the stone along with the requisite wagon train and guards to safely move this haul back to a growing settlement. While exhausting to extract, the deposit lasts for several real time months and can supply a settlement with a vast amount of the specific stone type found here. Settlements at the upper limit of construction might only be built by using large quantities of stone to create castle, battlements, towers and universities.

(NOTE: Once the programming model is created it seems possible (though I am no programmer) that small changes to the model should allow all three of the above escalation types with relative ease.)

Other "Normal" Escalations

Impenetrable Thicket – This location has appeared as an impenetrable thicket for a long time. An opening has finally appeared in the perimeter of the sprawling bramble to reveal...? This could be an intricate labyrinth, the entrance to a protected druidic settlement, the outer walls of a vast garden full of many types of benign or aggressive plant life (think of the reagents available here!), or a burial place of an ancient ruler protected by magic that has finally faded over time.

Oyster Bed - A water based escalation (or simply a semi permanent resource node). At this location an oyster bed has been discovered. If a nearby settlement hex has been taken over by another humanoid race that would logically find pearls (and oyster meat) desirable this settlement will have already laid claim to the oyster bed, and the fight is on! Alternatively, a friendly settlement might leave the harvesters to their original designs and trade with them instead.


I am interested about water areas...
The largest one would be the river to the west, which may be full hex or even 2 hexes wide of pure water?
Will the opposite bank offer land hexes at all? (IMHO, that would be highly desired and make the river itself much more of a dynamic feature)
Will there be any other rivers/streams feeding into the larger river (passing thru otherwise land hexes)?
Will there be other water features like lakes, or marshlands/swamps/flooded-forests?

I'm interested in what types of persistent features there will be, will there be net based fishing traps?
Floating (and mobile?) barges with Points of Interest?
What will be the signifigant attraction/importance of the river/water hexes? Faster movement? (with proper vehicle, swimming would be very slow)

Scarab Sages Goblin Squad Member

I like the idea of "escalations" that temporarily change the landscape.

I hope the Crusader Road area will have springs and streams that feed into the Sellen River, ponds, and the odd marshy patch of forest (probably the bottomland forest type of riverine forested wetland).

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