Curse

Cherno · Feb 23, 2007, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Wait, you are saying that when you kill a group a chest, within visible sight or previously visited, will now appear? That is something unlike anything in any of the games so far (except the keyless chests from the Killroy and UW and FoW quest, which I don't believe they would implement without making this known). They also admitted through one update that chest frequency was a bug that was fixed. It is much more plausible that they have either a bug that needs to be corrected or they changed the spawn location/frquency intentially but aren't talking about it rather than introducing a whole new mechanic to be able to access chests. I don't believe that.

Karlos · Feb 23, 2007, 09:54 PM // 21:54

Ok, allow me to explain...

First of all, here's how chests work: There is usually 5 chests in an explorable and they will ALWAYS be tied to a spawn of monsters. The reason, I guess, is to avoid unguarded chests. There are other parameters (I think distance from each other, distance from where the player entered the zone).

However, if an area has monsters that spawn AFTER a certain trigger (like mobs that appear if you take a quest), then you will come across an unguarded chest in their spot if you do not cause the trigger to take place.

This was especially obvious in Veil. There would be an unguarded chest in the center by the Dreadspawn Maw, simply because the sheer number of monsters that spawn there at the end of the second quest, and another unguarded chest usually on top of on of the three hills in the middle because of the large numbers of spawns there.

If you entered the area and took no quests, you could see all those chests there unguarded.

Now, the change they did is that now if a chest is associated with a mob that has not spawned yet, it will not spawn also. It will only appear when the group appears. We saw this in Veil every time we finished it the last few days. After we'd kill a Smothering Tendrill and have the Torment Claws and Stygian mob show up, a Demonic Chest would pop-up too.

So, this is why it is possible to enter the Gloom and see ZERO chests. Because the Chests can be attached to the big mobs that attack the cave, the Deathbringer company, the Greater Darkness' mob, all of which have not spawned yet. I recall that final mob (which is huge, Greater Darkness + 7 Darknesses + 30 Earth Tormentors) always caused an unguarded chest at that spot. Not anymore.

Anyways, that's what's happening.

Cherno · Feb 25, 2007, 02:14 AM // 02:14

That would seem like an excellent thing for them to tell us if true. I don't get this secrecy from the developers. Maybe next they will just update skills and not put any notes out, make it fun for us to guess what they are up to, what they intend or why they do it.

Why does this behavior differ from chest in virtually every other part of the game then? I don't have to kill things in any of other zones in any of the chapters to get keyed chests to appear.

Karlos · Feb 25, 2007, 04:06 AM // 04:06

Two points:

1) It's not different from any other part of the game, it's been changed for the whole game. However, no other area in the game has as many HUGE unspawned mobs as DoA. This is why you don't see this behavior a lot. However, in Vabbi, for example, the spawns from "Protect the Learned" used to cause a chest to appear on the way to the Halls of Chokhin, now that chest only spawns after THEY spawn.

2) They do NOT tell people about such changes. They never have and never will. It's different than skill changes. Skills are the basis of the game, the tools you are given to play with. When they change them, they want you to know how they were changed. However, if they tell people EXACTLY how chests spawn and how monsters drop ectos and so forth, the hackers and bot farmers are VERY likely to completely exploit it. As a programmer myself, I know that there's a BIG difference between knowing how Windows' Kernel works in principle and having the code to it.

Cherno · Feb 25, 2007, 06:47 AM // 06:47

While not asking for a detailed breakdown of how the chest system would work they should make mention that there was a system wide change to chest behavior. That is an appropriate announcement. The only thing we heard was "fixed bug that made doa chests spawn less frequently." That's it, that was only after the fact and after everyone complained.

Gaile has said herself that changes should be in the update notes. If they aren't there, then someone either didn't tell her or it was put in by mistake. My point on using skill changes as an example was to talk about a fundamental aspect of the game, as skills are, so are the presence of chests.

Even now, despite what your anectodal evidence might prove out to be true, it is still theory and speculation because we do not know that is how it works. The only way to know that it is even acting differently (which I believe we can all agree that it does) is be getting word that it was intentional or not. The amount of detail is left to those making the announcement.

Missmelady · Mar 01, 2007, 05:37 PM // 17:37

I dont have a big problem with the chests spawns in doa. In my opinion making them spawn after the quests where guys spawn is a great idea for a couple of reasons.
1. It prevents the game economy from going down hill from all those wars, rangers, derv, para chest runners just running to the chests. It was either that or nerf the items in my opinion they took the right choice.
2. You have to earn the chests in doa since they have a good % of dropping decently worthwhile items.
3. Doa is the hardest area in the game right now. If they wanted u to chest run they would have let u chest run. It is ment to be cleared not run.
4. I know people r gonna complain about my post and how im picking on the runners. I have done my fair share of chest running in fow so i know why u do it.

Thank you.
Glyph of healing (Pro Hiberna){Ftw}

L|S >+>+G+<+< · Mar 07, 2007, 01:01 AM // 01:01

Well whatever has happened to the chests it also seems to have affected fow & uw too.

I solo uw & do various chest runs & for the uw part, there is now 1 chest per 5 runs or so & with regards to fow, lol ive run all the way through & only gotten 1 chest.

Just my 50 cents.