Aggro NPCs around Obelisks + loading = Desert Time

Game mode: [Online ]
Problem: [Performance | Misc]
Region: [US/EU]

So, the game didn’t manage to kill me yet in this way, but once again I was close enough (guess is just a matter of time)
You’d think that not placing aggressive npcs around teleport spawning point would be common sense in all videogames, not for Funcom apparently.
We all know how slow can be loading the game after teleporting at an obelisk location, the game runs terribly on PS4 blah blah blah.
What not everybody noticed is that the game -instantly- ports you there, which means you are there physically while the game keeps loading the screen, you are not appearing in that position when you see images appearing on your screen, you are there immediatly.
During this time you are totally vulnerable to any attack (thats why there is the corruption, mainly to keep players away from camping the area, corruption that has no effect on npcs).

My experieces of near-death during this situation:

  • Sinkhole Obelisk (southern desert) , where the obelisk is placed on the very edge of the sinkhole, and you frequently spawn on the wrong side, the one close to the hole, one wrong lag/stutter and you are down.
    There are only low level hyenas that deal little damage around there, too bad they push you when they attack you, one little push after another, you move.
    They make you fall down the hole pushing you while you still loading the port:
    you spawn as your mom made you in the desert (because thanks to the stuttering that normally follows your death you frequently dont even have the chance to chose among bedroll/bed or …desert -default-)

  • Southern port of the Jungle (south of Buccaneer Bay)
    Here the problem are the panthers, that very smartly (sarcasm) have been placed roaming all around the obelisk.
    I once ported loaded with stuff to move around bases at that obelisk, and in the moment I hit the button port on my map room in the north I started hearing big cats hitting me.
    When the screen finally loaded I had the smallest percentage of health possible (I was wearing full Silent Legion), spent all my stamina immediatly to dodge as far as I could and survived.

  • Silent Legion Obelisk (Betrayer’s Bridge)
    The npcs around there are way more scarce in numbers, but they hit very hard even at high level.
    Is way more rare that one of the Silent Legion soldier enters the orbit of the Obelisk, but again, happened to me, and escaped the experience with few lines of health remaining, probably becuase was just one npc hitting me while loading.

Now, how hard can it be to avoid placing aggressive npcs around the spawning points of obelisks (especially in PVE servers), sparing many frustrating moments and losses to players ?


Steps on how to reproduce issue:
1 Use a map room to teleport and keep your fingers crossed
2.
3.
4.

2 Likes

Happened again and again with panthers, at the jungle Obelisk.
Fix this non-sense, or at least make the players spawn in a confined area, I don’t know, put some low fences around obelisks or something.

2 Likes

tbh map jumping should be a risk. I like the way it is set up, as the game shouldn’t be easy to travel across the lands. Witchcraft is what it is called in Conan. and there should always be some type of risk reward with it.

So you should be ok also with game crashes and disconnetion from the server, that lead to death and definitive loss of your inventory.
After all is a risk playing online right ?

1 Like

1st off, dont get froggy.
2nd…
A technical failure is different than an in game mechanic/feature.
there are ways avoid being killed by npc’s at obbies.

  1. build a structure where the spawn is. you can accomplish this without blocking off obie. maybe a community map room?
  2. if in a clan and moving high value loot, have a person naked port to clear out or check.
  3. is if you are lvl 60, in my exp they do only about 1/3 bar damage, and you can survive the ambush.

As for players stalking lobbies, it is a tactic, whether honorable or not, that is part of the environment. in RL, if there were ports, and I was at war, I would definately ambush my enemies there.

  1. Froggy ? you are delusional.
  2. If you have read my post I clearly wrote that I was wearing Silent Legion (that is lv 60) and 2-3 panthers hitting you for a minute during loading time can easily kill you.
  3. What I am talking about here, is clearly a technical problem, not at all part of the game risk, and you go even further calling it “a feature”, so my analogy with being disconnected fits then, that could be a feature as well, one you may not like much as taking advantages of defenseless players during loading time, of course.
    But I guess we just have to agree to disagree here.
1 Like

Could be worse, on my server the griefers built around both Jungle Obelisks and have fences around the edge. We’ve since blown them to hell, but newer or lower level players that were unaware spawned in to an obelisk to get lit up by Hyborian III archers with throwing axes, and no way to go back in to get there stuff. Ive never almost died to an enemy near an ob, but this other thing is an issue in my book.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.