Some real talk about Ghost of Scrapyard

[Hedgefund]

What up with Scrappy?  I know it's a perception thing that when you're anxiously awaiting something, you perceive it to take longer to come to fruition, but I've been hunting this guy down for about a week now and I haven't seen hide nor hair of him once (I don't just log in for 15 minutes a day either).

 

By now, has anyone looked into the code to see what prompts his spawning?  Legend says it's defeating Scrapyarders but that's seeming more and more of an urban legend to me.  This opposed to Caleb who reliably appears after enough ghosts in Nerva are defeated.

 

So, my suggestion here, so I'm posting in the right forum, is that something be done to increase Scrappy appearances.  A summon like Adam?  A consistent timer?  Actually defeating Scrapyarders?  I dunno, but we need more Scrappy especially since this is for an important accolade.

 

Another note - I don't recall this being an issue on live.  I did see a couple of other threads about this though, so I'm not the only one thinking this.

[justicebeliever]

FWIW - I have YET to hear on any of those other threads that anyone has seen him...It would be great if someone who has found him can share their experience, and at least let those of us who are unsure know that he still exists and hasn't permanently moved on...(don't go into the light, don't do it, we need your badges!!!)

 

[Sura]

I flew over him one day, but I don't really recall anything more.  A quick query here returns several threads that sure make it sound like he's not popping the way he maybe should.

 

I did see this thread on reddit which has some video of a Scrapyard encounter, so he's out there at least occasionally:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/cnv7b7/my_friends_and_i_encountered_a_boss_wed_never/

 

 

[GM Capocollo]

Ghost of Scrapyard has an unusual spawn condition compared to other giant monsters, and it has a lot of moving parts where the process can get stuck.

 

From looking at the code, this is how I gather it's supposed to work:

• At a random time, the game checks if another strike is occurring; if not, the script continues
• The game picks a random rally point for the miners where miners will congregate
• The game spawns more miners in various points around the zone and directs them to the rally point
• The game waits until enough miners arrive at the rally point, then spawns Scrapyard there
• Scrapyard leads the miners, as well as any other miners who spawn nearby afterwards, towards the speech point

This means the following can cause the event to break:

• The event didn't terminate cleanly for some reason, so a new one can never start
• The rally point is at a place where the miners can't path to
• The miners' path takes them past hostile mobs that tie them up
• Players defeat the miners before they can arrive at the rally point

[Hedgefund]

Thanks Cap. 

 

It's kind of funny that the conventional wisdom that he spawns after defeating Scrapyarders is actually detrimental to getting him to appear.

 

Just spitballing, it seems like, outside of code changes, what we can do right now is, when a strike appears, to broadcast a request that other players not bother the Scrapyarders and furthermore, defeat hostile mobs (Family, CoT, Cage guards) so the Scrapyarders can proceed unencumbered.

[GM Capocollo]

I've heard that he seems most likely to appear right after the server comes up after a restart, so there might be some issue with the strike event not ending cleanly.  If this is the problem, I'm not sure how high-priority it is to fix, but he's definitely on the list of unreliable giant monsters, along with Lusca and Jack-in-Irons/Eochai.

Edited August 12, 2019 by GM Capocollo

[Soulstinger]

Just happy to see GM's posting : D

Thank you for looking into this

[Apparition]

Yeah.  Ghost of Scrapyard can mostly be found on Tuesdays and Fridays.

 

A few weeks ago, I soloed him on a Friday afternoon on my level 50 Radiation Melee/Radiation Armor Brute.  Less than ten minutes later, he respawned.

[Hedgefund]

The server reset just happened, so I made it my first action to head to Sharkhead and guess who I see...

 

It's Ghost of Scrapyard, in case you didn't get that this was a rhetorical question...

[Apparition]

Yep.  He respawns once the server resets, and then usually respawns throughout the day, but then within a day or two he stops spawning.

 

My SG and coalition believed that people were bumrushing Ghostie and leaving the miners alone, which would prevent him from respawning.  From what GM Capocollo said, that may not be the case, but something is causing the event to eventually break which only a server reset will fix.