creature control system

Hello, for long time i was thinking that MA should make something with the creature control pills to make players use them more often and get some benefits from them. Players should get something possitive when using them instead of just "having fun"

so, i thought a new token system based on creature pills

Before i start describing, i'll ask from the readers to recpect the time i spent to write all these ideas and prevent them from posting jestingly comments.

so, let's start..

the new system require:
-creature pills will not have any time limit, so, you only pay for the pill and you use it until you get killed (otherwise it becomes a very expensive "hobby")

-players, while are in creature form, could hunt both players and mobs

-mob could do dmg to players (while are in creature form) but only if the player attack that mob first (to prevent from mob training)

-players (while in creature form) that hunt mobs, will get some kind of tokens instead of loot (tokens will have same tt as sweat or fragments), these tokens will vary (some of them will be more rare than others) and the amount of tokens will be analog to the lvl of the mob

-players that hunt mobs, additional to the tokens above, will get avatar bound tokens (or bounty) (something like the reputation you get when killing space mobs/players).

-these bound tokens will not be usable from the player that get em (so, you can't use your own bound tokens)

-if a player, while in creature form, kill another player that has bound tokens, they'll loot some of them or all (i'll let the balance team decide what's the best), if they kill players that haven't any bound token, they'll get nothing!!
So, to prevent players from abusing this system by letting their friends kill them when they have many bound tokens (or high bounty) and take these tokens thyself, i made the rule below

-as more bound tokens (or higher bounty, call it as you like) the player has, as more tokens they could farm when they are killing mobs while they are in creature form

-players that kill creatures under other player's control, additional to the loot, will also get some specific tokens

-MA will add a token shops that you could buy pills for buffs (+1% focused blow, 10% faster reload, 1% life steal, etc..) with 1 or more hours duration, skill pills and weapons (or other items) like these CDF version weapons.

-all mobs should have chances to drop their specific creature control pills

in addition to (for the balance team):
-players that hunt mobs or other players, while they are in creautre form, would get hunting skills

-add a new skill and profession specialised to the creature control hunting system. Creature pills from higher lvl mobs will require higher lvl of the new specialised profession to be able to use them

-as higher the lvl, on this specific profession the player has, as more options/attacks will have while using a creture control pill

-additional to the variety of tokens, you could add some creature specific tokens also (atrox tokens, ambu tokens, etc) to make the token farming even more special

-add stats to the creatures from pills that will increase as the lvl on the specific profession increase too (let's say, higher regen speed, faster move speed, little higher hit points, etc)

-add a new pvp arena system for fights between players while they use creature controls pills

-additional to the weapons you could buy from the token shop, you could improve some of the current CDF edition weapons with buffs (+1% focused blow, skill gain - blp weapons 25%, 10% increase critical dmg, etc)(i don't know if this could work out cause the cdf version weapons are a planetary system, so, that's something you'll have to work out for)

-to make some other matterials, like sweat, more useful, you could mix some of these tokens with these matterials to make new tokens or as requirement to buy the items of the token shop

-add hp increase to the new skill to make even more players using these pills


all the above suggestions will have to pass through the balance team of MA to be done, the balance team will have to decide how this system will work, what the certain rewards will be and the overall scene of this new system, so the result should be fair and worthy for both MA and for the players

if i forgot something i'll add it in a note below

you could make suggestions as well but don't suggest things that will entirely change the main idea of the creature hunting system

thanks for the reading, stelios..

note:
-if you use creature pill, your name should be visible to other players to prevent from kill steal mobs in a creature form (rules for kill stealing a mob will apply the same as normal hunt)

something that might be interesting with the 'dead' planets (Next Island, etc.) might be making an entire continent that is nothing but creature controlled... and don't just make it be land based critters... need flying ones and water ones too.

I like the idea of expanding creature control, but there are a few key issues:

1. There has to be a cost associated with it - you can't just pay once, as the first exploit I would do would be to use a large creature control (hogglo, spider, big trox, whatever) and hunt small mobs. This would allow free generation of tokens (I know you mentioned different mobs for different tokens but, many would still do this). So, either the charge over time would have to apply, or another way of payment (some kind of fuel - nutrio bars? - to do attacks).

2. Healing - it would be an almost pointless exercise creature hunting, the larger mobs, unless you could heal yourself (or there was some HP generation). Even hunting mobs of the exact same type/level (say, atrox young vs. atrox young) would end up only allowing you to hunt at absolute most, 2 atrox young (49.9% dmg taken from each). So you would always end up having to hunt at a much lower level than the mob you were controlling.

3. I'm not sure why we would need to introduce both systems - I like the idea of creature vs. creature, but I can just see it being a griefing exercise if you could loot tokens from people - e.g. I'm hunting in an area, someone spawns as a hogglo right behind me while I'm hunting hogglo, and takes all my tokens - I can't defend myself properly from them.

4. Following on from 3, if you allow creature vs. creature, what is stopping someone controlling a big mob, and going around "kill stealing" others' mobs?

In principle I like the idea tho

Finally an actual idea that might be worth the time for the MA devs to look at...there has been many silly ideas that past couple of months. Congrats of thinking of something that may actually improve the game!

Of course there would need to be more thought into how it's implemented, balancing, potential exploits, etc, etc (some of which Aio has already pointed out). But at least it is a start of a good idea.

Subscribing to see how this goes (maybe one to put forward to MA).

Aio said:

I like the idea of expanding creature control, but there are a few key issues:

1. There has to be a cost associated with it - you can't just pay once, as the first exploit I would do would be to use a large creature control (hogglo, spider, big trox, whatever) and hunt small mobs. This would allow free generation of tokens (I know you mentioned different mobs for different tokens but, many would still do this). So, either the charge over time would have to apply, or another way of payment (some kind of fuel - nutrio bars? - to do attacks).

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you could do that until other hunters learn your possition and come to kill you to take the tokens you have as mob.. as larger mob, as more tokens. Big creature pills also cost like 50-100ped in tt (and will be much higher with the mu after this system), so you want to pay 50-100ped and having also a time limit? i don't. i think if you pay that much peds, you deserve to grind for some days (until other player come and kill you)

Aio said:

2. Healing - it would be an almost pointless exercise creature hunting, the larger mobs, unless you could heal yourself (or there was some HP generation). Even hunting mobs of the exact same type/level (say, atrox young vs. atrox young) would end up only allowing you to hunt at absolute most, 2 atrox young (49.9% dmg taken from each). So you would always end up having to hunt at a much lower level than the mob you were controlling.

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exactly like that, you'll mostly have to hunt lower lvl monsters than the creature pill you have, unless if you like to wait for yourself to heal up with your natural regen. Also if MA add additional stats/skills in your creature depend on your lvl (on this specific new profession i mentioned above), you'll have a little bigger advantage than the mob you hunt.
You'll also have to beware of other hunters when you farm mobs, they might kill you while the mob you hunt is in low health

Aio said:

3. I'm not sure why we would need to introduce both systems - I like the idea of creature vs. creature, but I can just see it being a griefing exercise if you could loot tokens from people - e.g. I'm hunting in an area, someone spawns as a hogglo right behind me while I'm hunting hogglo, and takes all my tokens - I can't defend myself properly from them.

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if he want to spend his token for just one player, he can do that.. i just remind you that in hogglo area, are mostly high lvl players. that mean he could die easy if he is there.
that could also be annoying for some people that don't like the idea, but MA could do some areas that you could not enter as a creature, or they can make this system in a certain areas only and then expand it to more areas after some time

Aio said:

4. Following on from 3, if you allow creature vs. creature, what is stopping someone controlling a big mob, and going around "kill stealing" others' mobs?

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kill stealing will apply the same as with normal hunting, so, we'll have to know which avatar is under the creature (something i forgot to mention). So, if someone kill stealing your mobs, you could report him.

Creature control pills were a great introduction a few years ago and the sheer speed of a Pumpkin or Count Vamp can even outrun most land vehicles - fun to try out!

Unfortunately they are time limited and so most people using them wanted to get player kills. The easiest way of doing so was to go to Camp Icarus or other similar places where new players were to be found, so it because a griefing item, especially as the player using them was not known (unless it generated a PK HOF on their death).

Anyone who has played any MMORPG, not just this one, knows that new players are the life blood and anything that causes them to quit and uninstall is a bad idea - being attacked by a Great Big Pumpkin that the turret ignores, probably has caused more to quit than should have happened (especially those who started in Oct / Nov last year)

My

Mega said:

Creature control pills were a great introduction a few years ago and the sheer speed of a Pumpkin or Count Vamp can even outrun most land vehicles - fun to try out!

Unfortunately they are time limited and so most people using them wanted to get player kills. The easiest way of doing so was to go to Camp Icarus or other similar places where new players were to be found, so it because a griefing item, especially as the player using them was not known (unless it generated a PK HOF on their death).

Anyone who has played any MMORPG, not just this one, knows that new players are the life blood and anything that causes them to quit and uninstall is a bad idea - being attacked by a Great Big Pumpkin that the turret ignores, probably has caused more to quit than should have happened (especially those who started in Oct / Nov last year)

My

Click to expand...

i don't think someone would waste his creature pill to hunt newbies that have no bound tokens on them instead of farm mobs or trying to kill players with bound tokens. Also, hunters may camp these areas where the creatures spawn to kill them to loot tokens. So, i believe that new players will be more protected than they are now. Also, MA could add some safe zones for where the new players are, or make creature pills work in only certain zones and then expanding these zones by time to time

Not too worried about "noob hunting" - MA have made Icarus and equivalent areas prohibited to creature controls.

ntelinatsos - 50/100 ped for a lot of players is not a lot of money if the reward is enough to justify it (and in some cases not). All systems in EU (apart from the basic ones) need to match the main three - hunting, mining, crafting. If you make a fourth (Creaturing?), it should have the same scales - accessible for near-free for noobs (CC a berycled), be reasonble for mid players (1-10$/hr, CC an atrox young) and have the scope for the high end (5-100$, Spider young-stalker).

In some cases, maybe someone would be willing to spend 1000PED on a Spid stalker, for just rewards.

But again, whether it is by cost/hr or initial cost, the activity has to be maintained at the same rate as the other activities. So if Player A were to spend $10/hr hunting, for the same level, he should be charged $10/hr creature controlling. Otherwise, why would MA introduce such a system.

The griefing situation, it's just a bit too easy to manipulate. For example, players using EST? Jump in with a CSI mob and decay their armour. Player grinding the same mob as you? Spawn something bigger, kill him until he leaves the area, and then continue.

Sure, you could report it (and I agree that the controller's avatar name should be made public on the creature) but MA's stance on PVP is "anything goes" so I can't see why it would be different.

A solution to all this? Maybe make an area (new continent?) where multiple mobs exist, and they all have a flag "Controllable" - a "C" on their healthbar, like the heart for tamable; and those mobs can be hunted by creature controlled avatars, and the controllers can also be hunted - like a PVP5 where your tokens can be hunted.

This would solve both the "noob hunting" in non specific areas and also the token spawning.

another abuse came to my mind..

i said that creature/players could hunt other mobs and loot only tokens instead of loot..
but i also said that if a player and a creature/player hunt the same mob, the one that does the most dmg take the loot (loot for the player or tokens for the creature/player)...

so, this could lead to abuse, having friends in creature form to hunt mobs for me and when they are little above half hp, i kill them and take the loot while spending about half of the cost i should have spend to kill the mob..

so, as a solution i thought the rule below:
when creature/players want to kill other players, this will be free (like it is atm), but if a creature/player want to hunt other mobs, some kind of charge should apply...

MA could make a new kind of ammo to use it when you are in creature form.. so for example i buy 1k of this ammo and when i'm in creature form, i could hunt mobs until this ammo end (or someone else, or a mob kill me)..

dmg per pec on this action should be close to 3, like most of the weapons

but what if someone run out of ammo while in creature form?

Maybe, they should add some options to buy ammo while you are in creature form too

well, i don't know.. it seems it's not so easy to make something good..

note: if we have to use some kind of ammo to kill mobs (while we use creature control pill), then the mobs, in addition to these tokens, they should drop normal loot also