MOB/Mobile/Monster AI in MMORPGs is insignificant in PvE and why PvP is more commonplace in MMORPGs

Kuanshu

Hello all

I would first like to start this thread with a story about when I started a Monk on one of the first Race vs Race War servers in Everquest back in the day, which ended up being Lighties vs Darkies:

Of course being a lower level Monk back then I was basically a tool disposed of easily and quickly whenever any other class decided to attack me, especially spellcasters. Also being a Freeport Monk with all of the evil races starting areas nearby, so needless to say Freeport was raided daily once the evil races were leveled, geared and organized enough, which didnt take long. We needed help badly from the other side of Norrath so I decided to run the entire distance to from Freeport to Qeynos to get help as I am a very tactical tool and everyone else was busy concentrated on leveling and gearing in order to compete effectively. Well to make a long story much shorter I made the run through even the worst of areas occupied by many evil faction players and in many zones with higher level MOBs which could have brought me back to my bind point I updated along the run. If you played back then and tried to venture into zones higher then your character you know exactly how hard this was in early Everquest and anything today basically pales in comparison. I was fortunate enough to get a SOW (Spirit of the Wolf) cast on me from someone along the way back which surely helped things greatily. Here I am running really fast and I see a named Gnoll and it said Chieftain something and I realized that somehow I aggrod him from an unusually far distance and I was like oh no as I hoped I could outrun him. He had SOW cast on himself as well and somehow as I had figured he realized he couldnt catch me so he dispelled my SOW and snared me with his next spell, so he easily caught me and killed me quickly and systematically. Before this experience I had never experienced this level of MOB AI and after recalling everything that happened it dawned on me that this MOB had to be Player controlled. I had heard of Developers and other employees of the game being able to control MOBs ingame and would do so on occassion unbeknownst to players.

Needless to say MOB/Mobile/Monster AI in many a MMORPG is basically insignificant simply because of the limitations of technology and programming it efficiently/effectively enough to make it a real challenge and not overly lag/tax servers and areas ingame. Here are examples:

I beta tested WoW and played retail for a while until I fully realized gear was the basic determinent of victory much moreso then skill or strategy, which didnt take long. I was playing when I heard about a Notorious Guild I played against in Dark Age of Camelot (where I was the first player in the game to Realm Rank 7 from the Merlin Server) got banned because they supposedly exploited Raid Mobs in Molton Core. I do not call this exploiting as I am sure many would argue otherwise it basically comes down to poor MOB AI and programming as they just took advantage of it as I have see the same in many other games....mainly Everquest.

Seriously if Everquest Next doesn't improve upon the mistakes of the past they will deal with even more exploitation and rightly so. Some questions:

1) Why is it MOBs/Mobiles/Monsters do not aggro/prepare according to type and design right when you come within reasonable/sensible sensory range as do players?

2) Why dont they learn (from mistakes and adopt better strategies) and grow (level/gear up) as they continually get tooled time and again by players over and over and over?

3) Why aren't they organized, especially if intelligent and aware and seasoned/evolved from defending themselves and their kind in their own lands?

4) Crowd Control is hugely mishandled and poorly designed in MMORPGs and it turns even some of the toughest MOBs into an utter joke easily tooled...how would you like to be mezzed, stunned, paralyzed, rooted, etc...ad nauseum and killed without hardly any regard whatsoever  (As I am sure many have experienced firsthand in PvP)?

5) Why aren't MOBs bringing the attack to the players (Using sound strategies that aren't easily predictible and manipulated) after putting up with being constantly killed by those who deem themselves better and more worthy of respect, even though they commit much worse crimes against nature and their kin?

6) Why can't MOBs have several/numerous counteracttacks to a particular type of attack, instead of a few very predictible handed down and shared attacks players are aware of even before the encounter?

I could go on and on here but seriously it comes down the limitations in technology and here are some other things to consider as simply said PvE will never measure up until technology and programming are adequate enough to provide a real challenge for the player, so therefore they resign themselves to participation in PvP:

Dark Age of Camelot was one of the harshest/hardest PvP settings ever in any MMORPG simply because you could get killed in no time (My character named Ninpo (Albion Scout) killed most players in one shot for 1246dmg and I simply laughed about it, considering it took a while to come back and fight in the PvP zone (15mins minimum unless ressurected and the rezzer wasnt one or two shotted lol). Yet we had a zone specific for PvP and aquisition/protection of Artifacts (held in keeps) was the determinent factor to winning against the other Realms. Often won by Realms possessed of guilds who played a ridiculious amount of hours and would often attack at untimely hours.

Lord of the Rings Online had a seperate zone where players could participate in Monster Play or battle the monsters as Players. I remember being the frst player to 50 on my server and venturing into the zone and killing monsters controlled by players again and again to the point where I gained alot of notoriety and was reported for exploitation time and again. The creators of LOTRO had designed Monster Players to be vastly inferior to Players so I simply took advantage of this and the environment, etc...Needless to say the Monster Players finally started learning and organizing and retaliating against players because the developers didn't cater to their cries for balance and fairness of gameplay. It was then I decided to play a Monster and the exhiliration and excitment against the odds had me hooked. I consider this the future of MMORPGs!

Beta tested Shadowbane and if the Wolfpack could have pulled off their vision it would be a more notable title today. Building your own cities comprised of buildings and walls and towers and defending them was a great idea but simply said too much for the development team to manifest in a MMORPG. Needless to say I quit in beta after informing them they needed to hold off releasing the game until later which they disregarded and ultimately regretted.

As to reiterate and clarify I consider the future of MMORPGs to be player driven dynamic world affected by players who play what is considered the Monsters and players who play what is considered the Crusaders, so to speak. The Players (no matter who they play) can utilize and design their own minions/guards/scouts, etc... (MOBs) which operate as intended on behalf of the collective and lets see what happens. Wouldn't it also be cool if players could dynamically affect the environment above and below ground as well as in the sky and in the water, etc...?

Oh and regarding my story in early everquest on the race war servers being a goodie near all the evil race starting areas against great odds and how exciting and fun it was until a legion of players from around Qeynos zoned into the Commonlands and the entire zone, then server crashed LOL. I knew then and there they had happened upon part of the future of MMORPGs and technology/programming was the barrier.

Needless to say PvE is mostly mere amusement as it is easily and often exploited/manipulated as a means to an end, so as to level/grind and obtain gear/gold so as to participate in PvP. PvP will assuredly be a part of Everquest Next and having alot of PvP experience in MMORPGs and only when you are a part of something (race/team/group/raid/guild) is it truly exciting and fun.

Did I forget Raiding? Oh thats so one can obtain uber lewtz so as to participate in PvP, Duh

PvE will never prove to be a challenge to the player until technology and MOB AI actually bring it in such a way it takes more then simply the player but a group/raid of players to venture out of their towns/buildings/keeps designed for protection and rightly so....

ignore_me

More unpredictable AI would be a welcome thing in my book.