Sign in to follow this  
Ordinii

Low Mob Count

Recommended Posts

I have just traveled from East coast of Release to the center of the map near Sloping Sands - normally I cant go 20 tiles without bumping into a variety of mobs - on this trip I found 1 cave bug lair!


 


The deserts are empty - even on the Steppes which are normally crowded with all sorts of mobs - I found a single wild cat after about a 40 minute search.


 


Am not sure what the situation is on other servers but I have also been over on Xanadu - seems to be same situation over there but being a new server it will probably get better with time.


 


I am thinking this has something to do with the uniques spawning but whatever it is - please turn up the mob dial on Release - I need my croc and scorp steaks! :wacko:


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh Ordinii, if you want to find crocs and trolls, head over my way. They're littered everywhere here. I can't go more than a few tiles outside my property perimeter without getting attacked. 


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Mob count is way down on Release , I was able to walk around the crater gathering olives with out anything other than a few rats jumping me 


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i agree mob count is low, think it still has to do with to many sharks ?


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Seems to be low in every server now


And I badly want to get weapon skills up :l


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

shh  on xanadu  we kinds need it low for a bit.  building highways and towers . i was able to build a 250-300ish tile highway and put up 5 towers without 1 mod bugging me.  now leveling my boarders  so i can put up walls soon.  i'm sure many others on highway works and towers ,fences ect...


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

shh  on xanadu  we kinds need it low for a bit.  building highways and towers . i was able to build a 250-300ish tile highway and put up 5 towers without 1 mod bugging me.  now leveling my boarders  so i can put up walls soon.  i'm sure many others on highway works and towers ,fences ect...

 

Part of the fun of Wurm is succeeding at those tasks in dangerous environments.

 

I'm kind of disappointed by the lack of monsters.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Now this is what I call fun!


 


 


imo, this has proven that we could easily add something to let people toggle off fighting. The only negative aspect here is people who enjoy being threatened by mobs don't have that opportunity.


 


Heck, I'd be willing to spend hours on my deed investing time into some object that could be used to give my combat free time off deed. Basically, store hours in an object via crafting which in turn could be used to get hours of combat free time out exploring. Just to be clear this would be optional. If you want to fight stuff you just don't spend the time making the repel item.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh Ordinii, if you want to find crocs and trolls, head over my way. They're littered everywhere here. I can't go more than a few tiles outside my property perimeter without getting attacked. 

 

Ah ok Bakhita - thanks for that info - will be over later today! :-)

 

Gotta get meat to feed all my alts and 27 dogs! lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On Xanadu people struggle to get furs for making beds, there are no bears or wolves to kill.  Other than that I can agree partly that it could be a bit more optional if you want to get attacked by mobs or not. Hunting zones with more aggros could be an alternative. Then it is optional if you want to go there, Zones could be marked on the map, to give a hint where they are, green, orange, red tint depending on how dangerous the area is aporximately.  


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Xanadu does seem to have a pretty low spawn. Granted its a massive landmass with many pockets for mobs to get trapped; however, while wandering the southwest island that sticks out like a sore thumb, I have only encountered a troll and an anaconda. Seen plenty of spawn lairs for other critters though.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Xanadu does seem to have a pretty low spawn. Granted its a massive landmass with many pockets for mobs to get trapped; however, while wandering the southwest island that sticks out like a sore thumb, I have only encountered a troll and an anaconda. Seen plenty of spawn lairs for other critters though.

 

I've not seen many lairs around Vrocks Lake, only one crocodile spawner. But yes, mob count is either very low - or Xanadu's geography causes that. On a trip round Lake Vrock I typically see 7 or 8 mobs that are in a "hunteable" position - and like 20 other critters that are not, i.e. that sit on steep mountain slopes. This might be a permanent problem on a map with so many steep mountains - unless the critter AI gets changed so that mobs can't go up slopes so easily.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Shhh, the Dev's are having a pleasant sleep while on various vacations. Please do not disturb them and awaken their aggro pestilence in retaliation. All too soon the aggro pests will once again be infesting our now more peaceful lands. Much undisturbed work is being accomplished in the interim, except by those slackers sharpening only their blades in anticipation of their swarming return.


 


=Ayes=


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've killed two mountains already waiting, where are my dang weak mobs?

Send 1000 my way, will see if they damage my armour any..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I love it - being able to freely look around me while standing on some hilltop, instead of only being able to throw out quick glaces around while running for something or fighting something or getting ready to fight something. Fight-fight-run-fight... there's more in life :)


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

sharks killed the agro count, this will remain unfixed for the visible future. 


 


Also, sharks are sissies, I liked the deli sharks of dooommm


Edited by FreeTineen

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the North west coast of Exo there is hundreds of sharks which are having a negative impact on the hunting, Its about time the sharks population was severly reduced or completly removed.


 


Not even able to clear them as when you kill one another just appears in its place.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The mob counts are down because of the sharks like belfesar said.


 


On Epic, hunting on Affliction is ruined because we have like 500 sharks on the NE corner that nobody wants to kill because they don't give ###### for FS gains.


Edited by Propheteer

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think a couple of people in this thread have really hit the nail on the head with the sharks.

Basically, Wurm servers have a set total mob count which (as far as I know) is based on total number of mobs, not the type of mobs. This often leads to a situation where certain kinds of mobs which people don't kill for whatever reason end up hogging the spawn count. In the past it used to be that critters used to end up massed on mountains/cliffs because they are extremely hard to reach places for hunters. Farming mobs like horses, cows, pigs, chickens etc. also takes up some of the spawn count.

 

Most recently I think the biggest spawn count hogs were bison, simply because it's not really worth spending the time it takes to kill them. They're pretty well armoured and don't give much reward for the extra time taken to kill them. But at least Bison are on land.

 

The real problem I think came with Sharks. Sharks seem to have similar problems to bison, except that sharks are much harder to reach by virtue of being in the sea. I don't have access to creature-by-type graphs over time, but I would suspect the shark population on all servers goes up over time rather than staying level or decreasing as I suspect more sharks spawn than are killed. If this is true, then the number of all other mobs will have to decrease to compensate for that under the total number of mobs.

As for Xanadu, that server currently has around 142,000 mobs on a (32km x 32km) 1024sq km landmass and falling. This makes 138 mobs per sq km on Xanadu.

A server like Deliverance currently has 22,000 mobs on a (8km x 8km) 64sq km landmass. This makes 343 mobs per sq km on Deliverance. On any given tile on Deli, you are 2.5x more likely to see a mob than on Xanadu.

A tiny server like Affliction (BL Home on Epic) seems infested with mobs, because it has 564 mobs per sq km (9000 mobs on a (4km x 4km) 16sq km server).

For Xanadu to "feel" like it has the same mob density as Deli, it would need a cap of about 351,000 mobs which would probably harm performance at this stage.

Obviously this doesnt take into account mass penned up mobs which distorts things but it proves why mobs seem so much rarer on some servers and so common on others.

 

The solution in my view would be so:

1a - If this system is not already in, change the system so that each type of mob has its own cap. This would prevent some creature types dominating the creature count because people don't bother killing them for good reason.

 

AND/OR

 

1b - Make mobs like bison and sharks more rewarding to kill.

2 - Raise the mob cap on Xanadu. At the moment it is persistently falling and I don't know why, and is much lower per sq km than other servers.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not sharks, at least not on Xanadu.  Mobs are not spawning, it's painfully obvious from the server graphs.


 


creatures-month.png


 


From a peak of 172K at launch to 140K at present.  There's a loss in aggro and passive animals and they're not being replaced.   Low spawn rates coupled with the low mob count to begin with, should be between 210K Indy density and 350K Deli density, is causing it to start looking pretty sparse.


 


Sharks may be a problem on Xanadu in the future but they're not right now.  They were or are a problem on the other servers so they should be looked at but there is more than one issue.

Edited by belthize

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I sure have plenty of pigs roaming around.... nothing else in days though.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Firstly it's refreshing to have a GM get involved in a topic! =)

 

I think a couple of people in this thread have really hit the nail on the head with the sharks.



Basically, Wurm servers have a set total mob count which (as far as I know) is based on total number of mobs, not the type of mobs. This often leads to a situation where certain kinds of mobs which people don't kill for whatever reason end up hogging the spawn count. In the past it used to be that critters used to end up massed on mountains/cliffs because they are extremely hard to reach places for hunters. Farming mobs like horses, cows, pigs, chickens etc. also takes up some of the spawn count.

 

Most recently I think the biggest spawn count hogs were bison, simply because it's not really worth spending the time it takes to kill them. They're pretty well armoured and don't give much reward for the extra time taken to kill them. But at least Bison are on land.

 

The real problem I think came with Sharks. Sharks seem to have similar problems to bison, except that sharks are much harder to reach by virtue of being in the sea. I don't have access to creature-by-type graphs over time, but I would suspect the shark population on all servers goes up over time rather than staying level or decreasing as I suspect more sharks spawn than are killed. If this is true, then the number of all other mobs will have to decrease to compensate for that under the total number of mobs.

As for Xanadu, that server currently has around 142,000 mobs on a (32km x 32km) 1024sq km landmass and falling. This makes 138 mobs per sq km on Xanadu.

A server like Deliverance currently has 22,000 mobs on a (8km x 8km) 64sq km landmass. This makes 343 mobs per sq km on Deliverance. On any given tile on Deli, you are 2.5x more likely to see a mob than on Xanadu.

A tiny server like Affliction (BL Home on Epic) seems infested with mobs, because it has 564 mobs per sq km (9000 mobs on a (4km x 4km) 16sq km server).



For Xanadu to "feel" like it has the same mob density as Deli, it would need a cap of about 351,000 mobs which would probably harm performance at this stage.

Obviously this doesnt take into account mass penned up mobs which distorts things but it proves why mobs seem so much rarer on some servers and so common on others.

 

The solution in my view would be so:

1a - If this system is not already in, change the system so that each type of mob has its own cap. This would prevent some creature types dominating the creature count because people don't bother killing them for good reason.

 

AND/OR

 

1b - Make mobs like bison and sharks more rewarding to kill.

2 - Raise the mob cap on Xanadu. At the moment it is persistently falling and I don't know why, and is much lower per sq km than other servers.

 

Either of 1a or 1b would be very helpful for managing the spawns.

 

Option 2 is also extremely desirable, but can the server handle it? Mobs spawns seemed to be one of things that were looked at when Xanadu was suffering with the severe lag. Is the slowly decreasing mob count indicating that the spawn cap has actually been lowered?

 

If that is the case, and we're only expecting more deeds/players/items as the server matures, is it likely to require the sacrifice of a healthy animal population as a trade-off, or can the server physically handle all the player stuff PLUS sufficient animals?

 

You mention that increasing server load "would probably harm performance at this stage" which makes me very curious. Can more info be given about the development of a server?

 

I'm hoping there can be an honest assessment of the servers capabilities. If it's likely that the server will chug on as it is now due to hardware limitations, that's going to be a serious downer. If however it's expected that the server can handle a significant additional load but it's desirable to wait until the devs vacation is over, then that's cool. We'd just like to know what's going on, and to be reassured that there is a plan. =)

Edited by Delakar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the subject of Xanadu spawns, earlier today Rolf said that the spawn cap on that server is 200k, even though the graph is suggesting a downward trend. So, we will be looking into why the creatures arent respawning fast enough to stay at the creature cap.

From what he said other than that, he seems open to the possibility of reviewing creature caps.

 

I should retract what I said about Xanadu, that it would "probably" harm server performance if the cap was raised to 351k mobs. I don't know much about the performance capabilities of the server so it was just a guess, and the word "probably" should have been "possibly". For all I know, the server could be able to handle many millions of mobs hehe

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the subject of Xanadu spawns, earlier today Rolf said that the spawn cap on that server is 200k, even though the graph is suggesting a downward trend. So, we will be looking into why the creatures arent respawning fast enough to stay at the creature cap.

 

 

Thanks Wossoo. 

 

I'm glad it's being looked at, from the graphs and that statement it appears reality and intent have diverged so hopefully the proper hamster function will get tweaked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this