Difficulty of new monsters

Ok, a couple things:

1. The little red gnats offer a pretty good challenge for experienced players, but they seem a little too tough for low level players. Maybe decrease the number per wave?

2. I'm assuming the shiny black warlords are supposed to be null entropy. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I never saw any null warning message or experienced null entropy in my movements when I was attacked.

3. Has anyone else experienced a decrease in FPS with the new monsters? I just bought a new ATI Radeon x800 xt and my game play grinds to a halt in later waves. Maybe it's just me.

I really like the new configurations

nice job!

Okay, this is hard to explain, so see if you can follow:

Note that when you kill spawns of Greater Gasbags or Queens, you don't get score or adren (and I don't think you get any XP for them either). This is because the end of wave trigger is score based, last I knew, and ugly bugs can develop if you *did* get score/adren.

Also note that some maps (one in particular that's now out of circulation) that could kill monsters in unusual ways could cause bugs in the score count, causing monsters to be still around during the wave transition.

The red buggers apparently cause a swarm or clone themselves and due to the change in scoring, we are encountering the bug with monsters still being alive during the wave countdown.

I think I know which map you are talking about. That explains why I saw some gnats alive during the countdown on Thebes. At first I thought I was just seeing things.

I also noted on several maps today, that a new wave begins before all the red flies are dead. And I find them really anoying. Maybe they dont belong in lower waves.

I guess you have pushed it a bit too far with difficulty, today there were around 10 medium level (50-150) players and we once made it to level 13 (thanks to hobo). Imagine playing it when 4 people are on (not to mention the bots). So, it is either too hard or we need extra goodies to survive. I cant even imagine what wave 16 would look like now.

On the other side, it is more interesting as there are many types of monsters. Maybe just tune down the number of difficult ones (like the redheads).

Wonko The Sane wrote:

I also noted on several maps today, that a new wave begins before all the red flies are dead.

I guess I couldn't say it that simply - I had to explain *why* the new waves were beginning with monsters (a la the red flies) still alive.

ECHO wrote:

Ok, a couple things:

2. I'm assuming the shiny black warlords are supposed to be null entropy. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I never saw any null warning message or experienced null entropy in my movements when I was attacked.

I got the null - entropy message once yesterday... of course I was already in 3 webs when it happend

ECHO wrote:

3. Has anyone else experienced a decrease in FPS with the new monsters? I just bought a new ATI Radeon x800 xt and my game play grinds to a halt in later waves. Maybe it's just me.

I too had some lag issue last nite. I'm using an Ati x1600.
It's not terrible, but way more then i'm used to.

Wonder if its a Ati thing.

The red Vampire Gnats only start with 40 health, and do less than 35 damage, so they are not too difficult.

However, do not let them feed.

Each time they bite, they absorb some of the health. And grow. As as they grow, their attacks get stronger.

Once they get above a certain limit (~200), they split into 2 gnats of half health each. And then it really gets difficult because there are 2 of them after you. And they are fast and difficult to hit.

My recommendation - if you see one, take it out. Ignore the warlord or queen and take out the gnat. Before it feeds.

When a vampire gnat splits into two, the new gnat is not known to the monster manager code. Thus, when the last monster known to the monster manager code dies, the wave teminates - even though some of the spawned gnats may still be alive.

It is a "feature". No more relaxing between waves! My recommendation - kill the gnats before they feed!

The queens do handle the logic though... I think they increment and decrement the spawned monster count in the invasion object. It might be worth glancing at.

ECHO wrote:

2. I'm assuming the shiny black warlords are supposed to be null entropy. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I never saw any null warning message or experienced null entropy in my movements when I was attacked.

Agreed. They will be null entropy one day, but I don't think the null bit has been implemented yet.

ECHO wrote:

2. I'm assuming the shiny black warlords are supposed to be null entropy. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I never saw any null warning message or experienced null entropy in my movements when I was attacked.

Yeah, that's my fault. I forgot I was supposed to go in and add the code. Hopefully it'll happen soon

And what of the green Queens? Is that null they are shooting out in the green line? I thought they were strictly poison? Are they both?

ECHO wrote:

3. Has anyone else experienced a decrease in FPS with the new monsters? I just bought a new ATI Radeon x800 xt and my game play grinds to a halt in later waves. Maybe it's just me.

I really like the new configurations nice job!

I'm running a GeForce 7900GS, and haven't seen any decrease in FPS even into wave 16. I haven't played a wide variety of maps with the new monster config, however. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

I guess you have pushed it a bit too far with difficulty, today there were around 10 medium level (50-150) players and we once made it to level 13 (thanks to hobo). Imagine playing it when 4 people are on (not to mention the bots). So, it is either too hard or we need extra goodies to survive. I cant even imagine what wave 16 would look like now.

On the other side, it is more interesting as there are many types of monsters. Maybe just tune down the number of difficult ones (like the redheads).

Level of difficulty is definitely more taxing. I find myself dying a bit more often. As for it being too difficult, not sure I agree with that yet. I played SpaceNoxx, one of the tougher maps IMO, today with only 5 players on and we finished the match. {AW}Violator was the highest level player on. On the contrary, I can certainly see things being much tougher on low level players. I like the new monsters, though.

The only big issue I can see from a player-class balance standpoint is that LW players have a much easier time with the vampire gnats. Having an AVRiL makes life much easier in taking them out. I think they move a bit too fast.

On a related note, it would be great to have an updated monster compendium either here in the forums or on the Wiki site.

TheElectrician wrote:

The only big issue I can see from a player-class balance standpoint is that LW players have a much easier time with the vampire gnats. Having an AVRiL makes life much easier in taking them out. I think they move a bit too fast.

I dont know about you, but I don't use AVRIL onvampire gnats, they move to fast for AVRIL to lock on them. When they are after somebody else, you can shoot them down with AVRIL from a distance, but if they are after me, I find flak or shock combo most effective (perhaps even mines with a chance that mines hurt you too).

From class balance standpoint i think redheads are the one where AVRIL rocks.

Maybe I need some time to get used to this, but today we were all like: "that's insane"

Bottom line seems to be: If you see anything red, take that out first.