Encounters (Sieges) - when are they going to be worth anything?

So as you see on the road in front of me is a bandit. I can run around them or go down the road but most likely they will waylay me.

My question is when is this encounter going to actually mean something? When dragged in I can waltz thru and not engage anything nor harvest anything or I can destroy them EASILY and harvest the meager resources there but in the end it is mostly nothing but a nuisance.

I would much rather they just go away until there is some thing that actually challenge me to engage or when engaged a risk actually there. Also with that risk some more viable reward for engaging and eliminating the threat.

This also applies to the Siege Encounter, as it is just another encounter when will they be scaled to the parties engaged?

These affect all players not just PvP or Player in MP so I would think a more robust effort be applied to finishing these than other aspects.

 

The problem is that the emcounters don't scale to the level of the player. The resources and difficulty are fine for me at my (low) adventurer level but would be meaningless to someone just 5-10 levels above me.

 

Ever since random encounters were first introduced, most people just ran for the exit. And I predicted that Siege scenes would quickly lose their novelty and become another loading screen you had to endure.

I think the loading screen has a big part to do with this. I imagine there would be less complaints if things seemed far more seamless.

 

Loading screen suck sure but the content is what is lacking and you said it yourself, people just run thru it. You also nailed sieges since they are just another encounter so what is / was the point.

They could have justscrapped what they call sieges and worked on something that actually worked with the town involved. It would have been much more rewarding. They could have just added the Town Entrance Encounters like they did. BTW that is exactly what these "sieges" are now Town Entrance Encounters.

In the end the content of both is lacking any real sustenance.

 

I am very disappointed with both Encounters & Sieges. Even more so because that's the only real content I've seen added since persistence began.

Give me a reason to want to find an Encounter please.... quests from npcs in them? Mobs scaled to level, but a little on the easy side, that give great xp? Maybe with 20 silver nodes inside? Put some loot in that chest? .... something, anything, to make these more impressive?

 

In the Ultimas of yore, these were the only way to fight monsters outside of dungeons. Their value laid in that you could gain XP and gold to prepare and provision yourself for a dungeon run. It doesn't make sense to have them if you can go to your favorite scene for the same ends.
Lord British insists on them being a part of SotA, that's the only reason they exist. Chris and Starr made the effort to at least be able to see (and avoid them) in recent months and I assume there will be improvements to come. I say let them balance combat, add in some more monster varieties, work out the end game stuff for Episode 1, then get to working out some proper encounters that will properly scale with a players progress and party size.

We need at least some people to test them out to provide data if they are to improve, however if encounters and sieges exist merely as proof of concept, then they should be entirely avoidable.

 

I see a big difference between sieges and encounters.

I basically like the encounters, especially when the bandits whistle on the overland map. They add life to the overland map. If you don't like the encounters, it is very easy to avoid entering into one. The only time I ever entered an encounter without wanting to was at Cooper's Pass, because there was no way around the bandit and through the pass. I understand that high-level players would like more challenging and lucrative encounters, but maybe these could be restricted to certain areas.

For many people, the low level road encounters are the only chance they have to mine a bit of silver or gold. I usually get 4 or 5 silver from a forest road encounter and it's a cause for celebration each time. Once I had to log off when in an encounter and was delighted when I was able to log into the same encounter again the next day and found everything had respawned. I even thought of logging in and out until my supply of silver reached 20, but I didn't want to exploit the situation, so I didn't.

The sieges, on the other hand, are a major nuisance. The last time I exited Ardoris I found myself surrounded by a bunch of liches right near the zone-in point and died immediately before I could even get my bearings. If I see a city under siege on the overland map I won't enter it.

EDIT: Regarding sieges: townsfolk should know when their town is under siege. If I am in a town and all is peaceful, I shouldn't exit the town to find myself in a siege. That is ridiculous.

 

These are amazing places to farm endless gold with companions. You can go out and get back in endlessly and the mobs respawn quickly. It is also an amazing place to farm experience for newer players. If you destroy all the catapults high level liches spawn which can kill even moderate players that are unprepared but the give a ton of experience. My guild farms these almost daily so if you see a swam of Organized Chaos members inside you know what we are doing.

 

The encounters are always low level when encountered on the road.

Plains encounters are higher level with higher level resource nodes.

They are boring atm and provide a nice easy source of resources including silver and gold without having to brave the bowls of a mine. And provide thr only non-hostile areas to harvest wood ore and cotton

There are plans to make them more fun in the future.

 

Yup.
That being said, they arnt anything special compared to other zones.

I think they could have done a lot more with sieges.. and i think adding a 1500g reward for everyone who helps close it would make it less of a pain. Or at least something.

 

Sieges should play out like this, houses buring, NPCs dying, chaos...

 

Wondering encounters should be synced to player/group level, and the chest (if there is one) should have something worth looting and be locked until all enemies are dead, key maybe on last guy.

Sieges... great idea, but should be optional, 2 options (1 sneak past siege to town, 2 enter siege)

Sieges need more reward and the split difficulty is not acceptable: as it is now -> low level players can kill basic enemies and get to town, then medium level characters kill the slightly higher enemies and catapults, then high level players kill Lich's, sounds great on paper but doesn't make for fun for anyone, especially with respawns.

 

Love that idea!

Even better if those chests have a tiny % chance of having an artifact. Then the encounters would always have the potential to be something amazing.

 

Wandering encounters already have a purpose honestly. I almost never skip by one without going in because it's about the only place I can go to get silver and gold ore. Not everyone is super high level and/or able to go into the mines to get this stuff. Not everyone wants to go mine for hours either. As more come online I'm sure there will be something for everyone but we shouldn't be redesigning things that are already working fairly well for some people because some are too high to be challenged by it, or can't be bothered to avoid them.
Sieges I won't coment on because I've never even seen one.

 

I love the atmosphere in the video for sieges and also as a consideration to meeting someone in an encounter that you have to lead to safety at a different part of the scene. I love the look of that game, it makes me want to play it sometime . Thanks for sharing.

 

The HUD that appears as you exit will tell you whether it is to a siege or to the map.

 

Well, I was always under the impression when a town was under siege, that the "town" would actually be under siege...not some outlying camp before you enter the town. Where are the cowering citizens, the burning buildings, the fighting and chaos? As Kara mentioned...when you enter a town siege, all is peaceful when in the town proper.

Wasn't one of the reasons to have the world broken up into specific scenes, was to have the ability to change the dynamics of a scene to make the world seem more alive? I could be wrong about that assumption, but it sure would be nice to see a town survive or fall under a siege, then show it's celebration, or slow progress back as they rebuild. *shrugs*

Tracker

 

Ah, I see what you mean, yes that would make sense. It would also mean a lot of code. Perhaps they are planning on something like that for the next Episode.
Peaceful town, Under siege town, Celebrating town, Rebuilding town - for each location.

 

The challenge is to take a break of beeing effective or want everything is usefull and has a meaning.

I bet this challenge is something people will really hard accomplish

 

Im sure if Port had 100 million to build SOTA we probably would

We cant compare this game to AAA games.

There is no doubt that they will continue to work on encounters and sieges as they can and they still have refinement pass's before release. But I would suggest people lower their expectations a bit. Maybe in a few years as we get though episode 2 and 3 they will come around as long as the $$$ still rolls in.

Richard said this in his book about games today (using EVE as an example). SOTA is going to be a game that matures over time as content is slowly built. You simply have to think in the long run, UO was a lot like this at first too. In 5 years this game has the potential to be great. We will have a complete game in a year, we may have a great game in 5 years.

Sieges and encounters will be basic in 1 year, in 5 years they may be great.