SMOBs

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Ganelon
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SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Ganelon »

At the moment, I'm engaged in an overhaul of SMOB's

- the main drive being to remove them from their parent zones into self-contained zones of their own, address the loads they give, and expand some of the smaller ones to make them a bit more interesting and so forth.

Any feedback, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated, and comes best from the players as they do them more often and tend to have a better playability view of them then builders.

Note that Skeletal King has already been removed into his own zone and will now only repop if no players are present within it (shouldnt anyway). Any oddities, let me know.

Jeerdarl/Huntress should be completed about this time tomorrow. It's been shifted into it's own zone as well and I'm working to expand it from it's original four room set up into something more equivalent to SK or Gruath.
"How the fades must gnash their teeth......."

Demandred of the Forsaken.
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Sahrine
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Sahrine »

Hard smobs should require hard tasks/quests/riddles whathaveyou, if they have them at all. I think riddles and tasks to get to a smob or get a reward are freakin' awesome!

However, they shouldn't be some obscure utterly unsolvable riddle that can only be done by getting someone else to just tell you the answer because the riddle is so stupid and nonsensical.

Good example: Snakey gates smob thing. The gate riddle was great! the inside riddles are very cool, too. They make sense. Its pretty clear, with some thinking, what you're supposed to do.

Bad example: Tainted Nym door. Am I supposed to say a flower's name? Which of the thousands of flower breeds that fit the apparent riddle in the description should I say? Oh, do I have to say it or what? In this room? In another room that has something in the room description that fits the words in the riddle? Oh, Do I need an actual flower? Hm. Riddle doesn't say that I do.

Not a very constructive suggestion hehe. But I've been working on this puzzle for literally two plus weeks. :p So in the future, smob riddles shouldn't be like this! It may be difficult to see how unsolvable it is because you guys already know the answer.
Ganelon
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Ganelon »

Actually, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm after.

Curiously, Nym and Serpentine Gates were the two we were discussing last night. A SMOB barely anyone knows how to access is not of much value to the MUD.

So yeah, I'll take that as constructive.
"How the fades must gnash their teeth......."

Demandred of the Forsaken.
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Velis
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Velis »

Did SK today with Sylvae and Dakan, all worked great, no repop and was done with only one death (due to Sylvae trying to stab im guessing). We only needed to rest once and it loaded bone blade (its rare item). Seems great! Cheers.



Also we hit Gray-haired man and Maerik.
Still cant kick Maerik's mask off, gray-haired went without a hitch tho.
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Sahrine
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Sahrine »

A few more little ideas. :)

More money on smobs, please. Smob that can be done alone by a normal person should load 500 or so. Smobs that take an entire group, 5k.

Red herrings. Please don't! Doors to unfinished smobs should not be visible to travelers and explorers.... It really drives me freakin' nuts. Sometimes I'll waste hours.. days trying to figure out how to get in only to find its not even finished.
Ganelon
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Ganelon »

More money on SMOB's was something we'd already decided on.
As to doors to unfinished ones....I'm not sure what you mean. Could you give me some examples?
"How the fades must gnash their teeth......."

Demandred of the Forsaken.
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Sahrine
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Sahrine »

yay! good on the money thing.

The doors. I should have been more general, because its not only for smobs. For instance. We get a lot of 'you cannot access that area' - which I'm thinking an exit is left "open" that is either not connected or ..welll... connected to an inaccessible room.

Or the 'You see nothing special' on looks. 'Why bother, its in plain sight!' for search. and 'You cannot go that way' or w/e when you attempt to move there. Sometimes you can actually see and open the door. Sometimes there will be interactive clues - things you can look at, move, push, pull, etc. And they do nothing because the exit/door is nonfunctional.

One example is the obelisk one off the Cair to Waste road. Niila popped in and kindly let me know that it was not finished, after he found me sobbing whilst repeatedly walking into a figurative brick wall hehe.

I don't mean to nitpick.. but its SUCH a huge letdown when you're like 'OMG I FOUND SOMETHING!!' and practically bouncing in your seat, only to find that its just .. not finished. Its more a player experience gripe. So much goes into making a beautiful and immersive environment... it just ruins the otherwise seamless atmosphere to see huge 'under construction' signs everywhere. They just shouldn't be seen or noticed.

So why not just not add those things until its actually completely ready, rather than using it as a placeholder. Don't dig exits that do not actually lead anywhere, or lead to a place that isn't ready, etc.

That's all I meant by that. :) ( Sorry if I came off kind of bossy, here. )
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Shawnyve
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Shawnyve »

One of the reasons we do that is because, well we need the placeholder to know where something goes. So often builders don't finish their zones and we're lost when it comes to what was supposed to go where at what join. There is no documentation, no notes left etc. We can even do it in our own zones. like well damn just where was i going to add this? There really isn't a way for us to leave a note, a visible one imms can see other then keeping an exit there but unaccessible.

I've tried various things over the years unsuccessfully so finally i was just like keep the exits and block them off. Not sure there is a good way to solve it.
Ganelon
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Ganelon »

Yeah, what Shawnyve said basically.

It wasnt us! ;)

As far as blocked exits - Some of these zones have been in these states for 10 years, the builders gone from the MUD just as long and nothing for us to look up as to what they were doing with it. I've been here for about four, if that. So I've never even spoken to these people.
Does that mean we cant put something else in of our own devising? Of course not - but we're back-engineering a decade of stuff and priority is priority. It was annoying when I was just a player, equally annoying as an imm. But right now, adding new stuff to old zones is ULTRA LOW PRIORITY unless it serves another additional purpose. :(

It's pretty much the same with the 'Why bother? It's in plain sight thing'. To track down every room that was left in that state would take an entire year - and long before that I'd freak out and just delete the entire MUD in frustration :D
No, I'm kidding, but you get the idea. Would require walking every single zone on the mud and checking every single exit.
5 pages of zone X few hundred rooms per zone X up to six exits per room.....I'm sure you get the idea.

I have three builders. All are part-time due to RL constraints. Only so much we can do.

But like I said, I share your annoyance at the situation. It's not a situation I'm happy with either, but without further builders to go over these things, it goes to the bottom of the list of things to be addressed.
"How the fades must gnash their teeth......."

Demandred of the Forsaken.
Dakan
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Re: SMOBBING DISCUSSION/SUGGESTIONS

Post by Dakan »

more abs on smobs! to date the only abs upgrades I've ever gotten have both come from Skeletal King and on the same kill. So...dozen+ smob kills, only 2 upgrades from 1 boss.
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