Camelot Grab Bag Q&A

Mythic’s Sanya Thomas has once again posted up a Friday Grab Bag Q&A over at Camelot Herald, answering questions about email viruses, third party programs, armor factor, and other game mechanics… such as the following:

Q: Why does (insert monster here) start dodging me like a madman whenever I get too far away?

A: One of the developers asked me to post her mini-essay here. Here’s her comments:

“One of the lesser-known features of some of our monsters is the engage radius. This is a radius defined on a case-by-case basis with specific monsters that we want to keep within an area. For example, the dragons have an engage radius that pretty much encompasses their lairs. If not out on patrol, they will stay within their lair and cannot be pulled from there.

You can often get the monster in question right to the edge of that radius. However, if you a standing even one step outside that radius, the monster will begin to “dodge your blow” (both for ranged and melee attacks). Your character’s body must be inside that radius for the dodging to stop. This is there to prevent people from abusing the fact that the monster cannot physically get to them. Also, most monsters with an engage radius set will have some sort of ranged attack (spells, breath weapon, etc.) that they will use if everyone they were fighting has left the area. The ranged attack is also there to minimize abuse of the system.

The reasoning for giving some monsters these radii vary. For example, one of the newest creatures, Legion, will not go much farther than the bottom of his steps. We limited him to this distance mostly because of his size, and we wanted to keep him away from the pillars that are in his room.

There are currently a couple of minor items that have cropped up relating to the engage radius that may have caused some confusion to players. Those items are:

1. Some forces are able to get a monster such that its back is up against the engage radius. When in this position, a large monster may try to adjust its melee distance against those who are too close by taking a couple steps backwards. In doing this, it is slowly pushed out of its engage radius (which is defined by its spawn point). If the monster gets pushed all the way out of that radius, it will dodge everything. The programmers are looking in to this. In the meantime, if you know a monster you are fighting has an engage radius, try to keep it in the center of its area, if possible.

2. There are a few monsters/npcs, such as the RvR gatekeepers, are not meant to be killed. These monsters will also give you “monsterX swifly dodges your blow” as a message. It is very similar to the message you receive with the engage radius monsters. We will change this message to make it less confusing to players.”