Bosses and Sub-bosses

[eextreme]

I think that if a group or a player kills enough monsters in an area the area boss would appear.

The boss would be a tougher version of the existing mobs and drop equipment and items based on area lore. Some quest items could also drop from the boss.

As a warning, or a hint to players there will be a sub-boss when at least half the requirement for the boss is met. It would be half as powerful as the boss with half of its skills.

Some example skills would be summoning mobs, disabling the tanks for a moment, charged spells (that gives a warning to change tactic, cast a ward, or get out of the room, summon orbs that needs to be dispelled and so forth)

The boss will wander and chase the players (so group stealth would be useful here)

I look forward to your feedback on this idea.

[Noctere]

Something like this was considered at one time. However, there were a number of concerns with it. Firstly, this would effectively shut down a lone character who is hunting in the area as it would be too dangerous for them to continue without forming a large group, assuming such a group could be made on short notice. Secondly, any scripted action that provides a reward unfortunately -WILL BE- farmed. So all it takes is one decently powered group to intentionally cause bosses to spawn over and over again to farm whatever it is that they drop and if we balance that by making the loot worth very little then those groups will complain that it was not worth their time. Making it a lose lose situation for all involved.

So to avoid the whole mess we decided not to pursue the idea of scripted special mobs and instead provide them on occasion from ordinary GM events. This is better for the world lore as a whole and we can better control the challenge and special loot, if any.

[eextreme]

There could be something to limit the scripted farms. For example, the simplest method would be that the boss only spawn once a day in an area. Lone players are ignored by the bosses when they spawn unless they attack it (they don't think of you as a challenge, add some comment or action by the boss everytime a single person meets it), and the boss will only automatically attack groups of people.

For more complexity, certain condition needs to be met before a boss spawns in an area after N number of kills. This could be things like, guild tasks, town or city mission boards, carrying a certain item while you are in the area, or even a switch or an action that a GM needs to activate for it to be enabled in an area.

[Marauder]

To be fair, we do have tasks that spawn scaled NPCs that could be thought of as minibosses when you get far enough along.

Like I've suggested before, maybe you should experience the game before you make complicated suggestions that require revamps of extant systems or long periods of work on the GM side.

[jilliana]

And we do have mob that do spawn about once a week in certain areas. Well. One for sure.

[Tangela]

Honestly, most of the proposed changes are standard video game fare. There are a number of muds which do have these features, and most of them are also free to play. Generally speaking, entirely new mechanics are unlikely to be implemented, especially if they're the relatively common from other games. If they are very common in other games, its reasonable to assume that gm's here are aware of their existence and for whatever reason didn't find them a good fit for clok.

[Hakon]

If someone pays me enough I'll go beat up people who spend a lot of time in one area

[Edoras]

If someone pays me enough I'll go beat up people who spend a lot of time in one area

Ok, this made me laugh.

What kind of loot would a Hakon drop though?

[Edoras]

More to the point of OP, the topics of risk vs. reward and increased challenges for players providing larger rewards has been a persistent topic over the years. Clok, by and large, does not possess many systems that reward combat-oriented players with powerful gear or loot. I think that stems from a desire to avoid Clok being treated as a traditional hack n slash, where the mechanics overshadow the roleplay, along with the knowledge that once you add in a system like that, it's really hard to scale back down without disappointed players.

I think Clok would be better off if there were more mechanics in place that gave powerful characters consistent challenges and rewards to match them, although I don't think it should be something overwhelming or abusable. It feels like there isn't much to do with a 'maxed' character without screwing with other players or GM intervention, so those players tend to get bored.

That said, there definitely are areas in the game that you can view as 'boss' areas... they're just not necessarily that uhh... rewarding, shall we say, to target in such ways.

[Dorn]

Plenty of mobs in the game that you either have to be massively overpowered for, or take a group with. Just no gain really to do so. But they do exist! One of my favs is middle of the range, and it's so satisfying when you can waltz over the mob without worrying.