Interrupting NPC mages

I did a forum search on the topic to see if its been addressed before, this is the best I found, in the bug section,
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-mages-interrupt-problems.103564/#post-899888

Buggy behavior aside, being able to interrupt NPC mages would also give a rationale to bake in some tactical AI. An elf mage will still try to heal, but he'll move out of the player's reach to do so, so he won't get interrupted. If paired up with another NPC, they'd try to protect the mage who is healing himself.

So you would have to meet their tactics with your tactics, it would make combat more fun and less of a DPS race.

 

100%. I think the only mobs that use any sort of intelligent tactics are archers as in groups they will try to ninja sneak behind you to pop that cap in your ass. Teleports when they had basically no CD were super tactical... and super dumb as a result haha.

Definitely a behavior I hope to see fleshed out as the AI is worked.

 

@Trihugger

The most fun in combat I've had in the game in a while has been with stealth gameplay; watching an elf patrol go back and forth along a path, and using this to my advantage to know when I could sneak around them in a side area. This kind of thing would mean a lot more though if mobs fought more tactically, because there would be some purpose to surrounding them. Then if setting up traps could be a thing, that would be great, too.

 

@Scrambler this is what I was harpin on about... keep up the good work !

 

R49 includes being able to interrupt casting

It just took a bit of time to get around to implementing the proper solution. Thanks for waiting.

 

Wooot !

Any comment about the infinite focus pools of certain mobs ?

 

Mobs use a different mechanics for combat. Mobs and players have combat similarities, but they are very different systems. NPCs have infinite ammo, and focus by design. They also have very limited attack ability (3-5 attacks, maybe a buff/heal), compared to a multitude of skills the player can train and use. We'd rather tune the individual cool-downs for their individual attacks and balance things that way - than to add focus and have two dimensions to tune and balance. I talked this over w/ Chris and Brandon last week - we're in agreement.

 

Thanks, it makes sense... could there be a limit added on a certain skill ? I'm thinking of water elemental heals...

They could heal a maximum of 20-30 times in a certain time period ?

Ghosts with their drain life also seem a bit overpowered, when I was training the other day I killed many, then I fell one one that had super life drain, spent 30 minutes on him and never could take him down.

Unlimited + unlimited sometimes can lead to frustration and less fun, you agree ?

At least we could know that if we persevere, we'll eventually be able to take it down instead of trying to stack and combo until we give up...

 

Yeah, we got feedback earlier about heals being a problem due to the low cooldown. B’ took a pass at bumping the cool downs for heals this release.

So, if the cooldown goes from 5 seconds to 30, then can only heal twice a minute, as an example. It’ll be tuned to be fair. Try the newest numbers in the r49 as build, let me know if that’s better.

As for death magic being too powerful, that mostly goes through Chris and B’ for tuning. If you feel it’s too hard, write it up in the bug forum with reproduction steps and what you think should be fair.

Thanks

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We're going to hide the focus bar for npcs, and for anyone that isn't in the party. Just a heads up.

 

Pitch perfect ! Thanks for the professional stance.

Maybe consider having some bosses with full focus pool and skill realism Would add a twist and force players to adapt their decks !