QOL idea -- "Ambush Warning!"

[Yomo Kimyata]

A lot of the time, I don't even notice when I finish a mission and an ambush is spawned.  Lots of the time, I'm already teleporting out to the next mission, leaving some purple Malta behind to screw up someone's day.  I realize the point of the ambush is surprise, but how about once the ambush attacks, a large text popup saying "Ambush!".  I, for one, would probably notice that a lot more, and I'd be much more inclined to clean up my own mess as a result.

[Galaxy Brain]

They usually say something in the NPC channel 

[Arcanum]

Galaxy Brain is right, but that is a nifty idea!

[Yomo Kimyata]

Considering my penchant for using market-related NPC chat for my forum signature, I seem to be remarkably good at mentally filtering out NPC chat.  I'm certainly not observant enough to distinguish between "Get 'em!" and "I can't believe I'm dating a Skull!"

[Redlynne]

Actually, something that could be done along these lines would be to have any passing Civilian say something in Local Chat upon triggering the ambush ... and then run away.  Something along the lines of ...

 

Civilian: Hey, that's $Name!  The $Ambush_Faction are coming for them!  EVERYBODY RUN!!

 

Key point being that if someone NAMES the PC that might trigger a sense of "hey, they're talking about me!" that could draw Player attention without "spoiling the surprise" of the Ambush directly.  You get a "heads up" that the ambush is coming, but the ambushers themselves do not betray their position while they're closing in on you.

[Leogunner]

Personally would rather it be something of a power or specialization of your character.  Like having a certain amount of +perception will give you a unique audio ping once an ambush is within a certain range.  Low +perception would mean the ping would happen when they're right down the hall and of course -perception would mean you probably won't see them coming.

 

But then I'm thinking in the era of games where little extra perks like this or finding/disarming traps or being able to convince someone with your words were things to differentiate your character.  But the era we're in is one of convenience.  Giving prior indication of all ambushes is like giving everyone a Spider Sense...or it just neuters foes even more than they already are, making them seem so incompetent, they can't even coordinate a simple "wait behind a corner" trick without broadcasting their location to the world.

[Call Me Awesome]

Open zone ambushes tend to spawn some distance from the player and take awhile to arrive so most players never notice them and leave without ever knowing the ambush was there.  Usually it takes 30 seconds or more for the ambush to arrive, and by that time the player has moved on to the next mission never knowing the ambush existed.

 

As an alternative, why not have the ambush spawn close to the player instead?  NPC dialogue won't accomplish anything since most of us ignore it altogether, but if the ambush is right there then we know to deal with it... or alternatively run away.

 

 

[Galaxy Brain]

37 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Personally would rather it be something of a power or specialization of your character.  Like having a certain amount of +perception will give you a unique audio ping once an ambush is within a certain range.  Low +perception would mean the ping would happen when they're right down the hall and of course -perception would mean you probably won't see them coming.

I'd love this, and other things more related to non-direct combat... but I think that ship has sailed for CoH at this point in time 😞

[Saiyajinzoningen]

id love big bright letters saying incoming ambush, also i dont like how all ambush seem to detect stalkers even with stealth+hide+Super speed+Stealth IO. Seriously how much invis u gotta stack to avoid an  ambush?

[boggo2300]

so whats the big deal? if the mission is over who cares if you stay for a few more minions?

[Redlynne]

8 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Open zone ambushes tend to spawn some distance from the player and take awhile to arrive so most players never notice them and leave without ever knowing the ambush was there.  Usually it takes 30 seconds or more for the ambush to arrive, and by that time the player has moved on to the next mission never knowing the ambush existed.

 

As an alternative, why not have the ambush spawn close to the player instead?  NPC dialogue won't accomplish anything since most of us ignore it altogether, but if the ambush is right there then we know to deal with it... or alternatively run away.

The Ambush spawns out from the Mission Door you just exited ... kind of like a Trick or Treat that resulted in a TRICK! ... that would work since it the location of the PC is "defined" by exit of the Mission Door and you can then arrange the code to have the Ambush spawn out of that specific Mission Door.

[Call Me Awesome]

20 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

The Ambush spawns out from the Mission Door you just exited ... kind of like a Trick or Treat that resulted in a TRICK! ... that would work since it the location of the PC is "defined" by exit of the Mission Door and you can then arrange the code to have the Ambush spawn out of that specific Mission Door.

Sounds like a great solution.  As it is Ambushes can take 30 seconds or more to get to the player and in that time usually you'll have already left for the next mission.

[Redlynne]

12 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Sounds like a great solution.  As it is Ambushes can take 30 seconds or more to get to the player and in that time usually you'll have already left for the next mission.

Back in the EARLY days of the game (like Issues 2-3 time frame) things were a bit "worse" in one rather unpleasant way.  Since you needed to reach the "third bar" of your Contacts, rather than just merely the "second bar" of their reputation progression by doing missions for them, it originally took a long time to get cell phone numbers for your Contacts ... meaning you spent a lot of time traveling to and from your Contacts to drop off and pick up missions.  But the nasty thing was, a number of missions would spawn Ambushes on you when they were turned in to your Contact ... and in order to turn them in you HAD TO BE right next to your Contact turning in the mission "by hand" rather than simply over the phone (cell phones were a rarity/luxury item in the mid-2000s back then, not the ubiquitous item they've become since then).

 

The practical upshot was that being near your Contact was often times the most dangerous place to be, because that's where you'd be when the Ambushes tended to come hunting for you ... which made for a rather nasty surprise if you were trying to read all the fluff text for the mission complete (or the new mission that followed) and then right in the middle of doing that you'd get attacked (for no readily apparent reason).

[HelenCarnate]

I have done that a few times.  Leave a contact mission that sent me to a much lower level zone and get ambushed when I exit and have no idea that mobs are on their way.  I call the contact, get the next mission and go.  Little do I know there are lvl 50 mobs wandering around Perez waiting to 1 shot some poor lvl 16 that wanders in the zone grabbing badges.  A big warning on the screen would be nice so I can clean up the mess and not accidentally get someone killed. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by HelenCarnate

[Saiyajinzoningen]

8 hours ago, HelenCarnate said:

I have done that a few times.  Leave a contact mission that sent me to a much lower level zone and get ambushed when I exit and have no idea that mobs are on their way.  I call the contact, get the next mission and go.  Little do I know there are lvl 50 mobs wandering around Perez waiting to 1 shot some poor lvl 16 that wanders in the zone grabbing badges.  A big warning on the screen would be nice so I can clean up the mess and not accidentally get someone killed. 

i remember this on live it was weird sometimes seeing wandering high level mobs in low areas

[Megajoule]

On 12/26/2019 at 1:21 PM, boggo2300 said:

so whats the big deal? if the mission is over who cares if you stay for a few more minions?

 

On 12/26/2019 at 9:28 PM, HelenCarnate said:

I have done that a few times.  Leave a contact mission that sent me to a much lower level zone and get ambushed when I exit and have no idea that mobs are on their way.  I call the contact, get the next mission and go.  Little do I know there are lvl 50 mobs wandering around Perez waiting to 1 shot some poor lvl 16 that wanders in the zone grabbing badges.  A big warning on the screen would be nice so I can clean up the mess and not accidentally get someone killed. 

This is why it matters (to some people, anyway).

[boggo2300]

2 minutes ago, Megajoule said:

 

This is why it matters (to some people, anyway).

Thats entirely different to the in mission ambushes that the thread has been talking about though

[Megajoule]

Um, no? Post-mission ambushes in the open world, that get left behind to menace others because the hero who spawned them didn't know they were there, is exactly what most of this thread has been about.

[Leogunner]

34 minutes ago, Megajoule said:

 

This is why it matters (to some people, anyway).

But does that even matter?  How often are lowbies street sweeping screaming to the heavens that they got pk'ed by some random high level ambush in Atlas/Talos?

[Redlynne]

1 hour ago, Leogunner said:

But does that even matter?  How often are lowbies street sweeping screaming to the heavens that they got pk'ed by some random high level ambush in Atlas/Talos?

Ah yes ... the "I've got a sandwich, so why would anyone in the world be hungry?" argument ... that is entirely reliant upon a Somebody Else's Problem (S.E.P.) field in order to "work" ...

 

Good show old chap.

 

[Leogunner]

16 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Ah yes ... the "I've got a sandwich, so why would anyone in the world be hungry?" argument ... that is entirely reliant upon a Somebody Else's Problem (S.E.P.) field in order to "work" ...

 

Good show old chap.

 

Good job not answering my question.

[boggo2300]

3 hours ago, Megajoule said:

Um, no? Post-mission ambushes in the open world, that get left behind to menace others because the hero who spawned them didn't know they were there, is exactly what most of this thread has been about.

but wasn't what was being discussed when I made my post, but even including post mission ambushes, why the hell would anyone care? its a minor inconvenience for lowbies in the zone for a few minutes IF they are really unlucky.

[boggo2300]

2 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Ah yes ... the "I've got a sandwich, so why would anyone in the world be hungry?" argument ... that is entirely reliant upon a Somebody Else's Problem (S.E.P.) field in order to "work" ...

 

Good show old chap.

 

you realise thats a strawman, and not one that makes very much sense either,  I hope?

[boggo2300]

1 hour ago, Leogunner said:

Good job not answering my question.

shhh, they were having a nice argument with er, well themselves (one of whom seems to be wearing a mask of you)

[srmalloy]

On 12/26/2019 at 9:28 PM, HelenCarnate said:

I have done that a few times.  Leave a contact mission that sent me to a much lower level zone and get ambushed when I exit and have no idea that mobs are on their way.  I call the contact, get the next mission and go.  Little do I know there are lvl 50 mobs wandering around Perez waiting to 1 shot some poor lvl 16 that wanders in the zone grabbing badges.  A big warning on the screen would be nice so I can clean up the mess and not accidentally get someone killed. 

Or -- and this would require programming effort, so it's a 'down the road' thing -- make the ambush 'aware' of the ambush target's location and despawn if they leave the zone (either by changing zones or entering an instance like another mission or a base). Because this would need to be added to the AI loop for the ambush, it's a more 'blue sky' suggestion, although it addresses having high-level ambushes dangling around in zones.