Brad McQuaid Posting Spree



Brad McQuaid, CEO of Sigil Games Online and Executive Producer of
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, is at it again. This time he's given a
detailed look at the /con system in Vanguard, and how it relates to the
death penalty, while also carefully stating that none of this is
written in stone just yet. Here's a glimpse:

Mobs have a Threat Level. They also have a regular level
(e.g. their level relative to your level). These are two different
attributes, and when you encounter a mob, you are made aware of both
via the UI.



This makes it such that we can place mobs of the same level or around
the same level in the world that behave differently than one another,
require additional (or less tactics) to deal with, have better (or
worse AI), drop better loot, are rarer (or more common) etc.



The difficulty of the mob (or encounter, e.g. a group of mobs) is
determined by its threat level. Difficulty can mean more HP, more DPS,
special abilities, better AI, and can also relate to location, or that
it's at the end of a quest or an encounter route, etc. It's up to the
designer populating the area.



The death penalty is then also derived by that threat level. We thought
originally about making this region based, but doing it by the mob's
threat level even gives us more control and also allows players seeking
different degrees of risk vs. reward to adventure in the same area if
we so choose.



In simple terms, a basic overland mob likely will have a lower threat
level and a boss mob at the depths of a dungeon a much higher threat
level.



But that is an over simplification. You could certainly find high
threat mobs outdoors, for example. And you could also find a lower
threat mob in a dungeon. It's really relative to the region you are in,
whether it’s designed for solo/casual, or group/core, or raid, whether
it's a boss mob, or a mob at the end of an encounter route, or a quest
mob, or just a basic wandering monster.



It's about risk vs. reward.



When you die to a mob, the death penalty is also different depending
upon the threat level.

There's plenty more where this came from!

• Want to read the entire post? You'll find it href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1278950&postcount=202">here.
• Brad has posted more to this thread, too. You'll find the whole
  thread href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61227">here.
• Join us in a discussion of death penalties in MMOs and Vanguard href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=829">here.