Suggestion for Monsters of the Moment.

[Mara]

First I'd like to say that I like the concept of of this idea, and I congratulate the people that made it happen. I've been away from heRO for every long time, almost 2 years, I have visited but no long than a day with months between visits. After such a long time, when I heard that Anubis was at double exp because he was monster of the month, I thought, well, we'll have a large number of transcendent and 99s this month for sure, which in itself is a good thing. Higher level characters means, more MVP runs, more end game dungeon loot, more people willing to help lower level players out with their high level players, and so on, this is what should happen, in an ideal world...

Sadly, that's not the case, given that nothing is ideal, there will always be problems. The question here is, "How well can we handle these problems?". For instance, one of the problems MotM creates is the lack of variety in leveling spots, because people will just opt to go with the more efficient route than explore other places, even if it's having to stay in one place for weeks so they can 99. This also creates a problem with the variety of the server's market, less people leveling in other places means, less rare loot, rare loot because over priced, then we have a lot of zeny, but nothing to spend it on. Another fact is the value of the loot dropped from the spotlight monsters, since the genocide creates a flood of loot, the value of such loot diminishes extremely fast (try selling a nekoring backpack now, and you'll see). But, there is an easy solution to this problem, and that's to shorten the time period on the spotlight.

My suggestion is to have the monsters be selected weekly instead of monthly. This will provide much needed variety for the server, it improves the market and it gives players a reason to explore the game. Another thing that could be done is to select 3 monsters per week from a pool or monsters, ranging from fields to dungeons. If the selection moves this quickly with more options opened, people are bound to be open to more ideas in were to level or farm. This were, this idea will truly foment variety in maps, because it's not like Anubis was unpopular, and nekorings can be done from such a low level that there's no reason to leave the island until you can join a mini-muspel or DG party.

Now if we really wanted to revive maps, selecting a mob with relatively high exp in an abandon map would be ideal, for example the Necros at the Abbey (sad that Nameless is now a forgotten map), Water Elementals at Nydd, even Garden Watchers at Fairy Dungeon, or Nightmares for Magma Dungeon and Geffen Dungeon. Well, you get the point.

TL;DR: Change Monsters of the Moment into a weekly thing, it adds variety, and helps the server economy.

[Liminality]

Mm. I do agree with this idea; while I've a mind to explore rather than always use the most efficient options for leveling, it hasn't escaped my notice that the MotM rarely leave my attention, and a numerous amount of people on the server try to shoehorn their way into things like Anubis parties just because it's really good exp (in fact, a Champion coerced my goodwill into an Anubis party once on my TU priest and didn't contribute at all to helping, so he was more or less leeching off of me).

The desperation to take advantage of this system for people who prefer to play efficiently, as well as the boredom of following the same express route over and over again on alts, or complications it can create because it can be different than what could be optimized for their kind of build, is a little striking.

I personally like the idea of Monsters of the Moment as a spot-lighter; a way to showcase a particular set of monsters without allowing it to upset the economy or playstyle of characters too much. Unfortunately, as Mara described, letting it go on for more than a week appears counter-intuitive to its intention to some degree. (Perhaps Maps of the Moment could be an alternative idea, but that's for a separate discussion...)

I understand that GM-Pandora has a busy schedule, and so cannot update MotM reliably, so... hm... I am not entirely familiar on what custom coding is capable of, but perhaps a script of some sort that automates randomization at a set interval might be something to craft up?

[cane 33]

They already make mobs like necromancer and Gold Acidus double exp in past and guess what changed?
Nothing!
There are only 2/3 people that organize party that aren't boring DG or Mini-Muspel of my dick, with or without exp double.

Your suggestion is good but is something that GMs already did with various mobs for try to make old leveling spot alive again (Nameless, Abyss, Nydd, ID, Moscovia, Ayothaya, Sleeper, Manuk, Thanatos, Anolian, Payon, ect.).

The goal of MotM was this, but it failed because people are lazy and I don't think edit this in a weekly change can do something usefull

[GM-Pandora]

Some clarification:

The current monsters of the moment were chosen by a Fairy Auction pack winner, so yeah that's how we end up with mobs that are already good being boosted XD

Monster of the moment are not changed "monthly", they change at an unprecise amount of time we refer to as "moment", which can be about a week, or a few weeks, depending on my schedule mostly ^_^;

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Mara]

Thanks for the reply Panda.

Some items in the FA have a lot of effect on the server, so it be nice if the timer on them would be a bit shorter. Anyway, thanks for keeping the server running.

[The Legendary Joe]

I dunno, I was one of a few people that leveled down at Tamruan when they were the MotM, as efficient as they were for my rogue to bowling bash (no worries about skills being replaced, easily mobbable, and had a weakness to the Holy daggers gotten from the Selkies at muspel, only thing really needed was a Marduk card and a stockpile of healing items and it was definitely a nice place)

When the MotM was Sidewinders, I think I only saw 1 other person there when I leveled a ninja and a non-peco knight on them. With Eye of Dullahan to prevent the poison due to lack of vit, they were easier to tank than High orcs and gave similar exp with their doubled exp.

But the thing that gets me, these moments seem to last a millennium. It'd be one thing if it were a sporadic weekly thing. But it gets to last so long that we get used to it and it kinda hurts when it's gone.

My thinking on why I see so few people at these spots, the ONLY source of documented information on the MotM is in the forums. Outside of someone @mi-ing a mob and noticing their exp seems a bit higher than normal, there's no place in game that tells anyone that any particular mob has that boost, other than asking other players (some of them tend to keep quiet so they can hog the maps with those mobs to themselves)

But anubis with doubled exp is ridiculously easy exp. that's like 3% base exp at non-transed 90 for solo-ing as a priest (without exp boosting gears like deviruchi backpack or am mut shoes).

[cane 33]

The forum is born for be used: all people should be use Hero's forum.

Btw you can found information about MotM on hero Wiki too and in exact moment that GM made this chance, they announce on game too: there isn't a problem about lack of communication, the problem that people prefer leech in the same 2 spots instead get fun in random parties.

The idea is good, the monster choose from GMs too, the problem is always the same: lazy leecher

[Aqualys]

If it was up to me, I'd change the "monster of the moment" on a daily basis.

You cannot change the mentality of most people who just live by efficiency. Or by what they are used to. If a monster like, I don't know, Earth Deleter for example, was to give double experience, most people wouldn't care because they probably don't even know where the monster is located, how to fight it, yadda yadda. They just don't know it, whereas they know their usual grinding spot like the back of their hand. Those people won't care no matter what you do, so it's irrelevant to worry about them.

What you need to worry about is people who enjoy visiting different places, who can adapt to new strategies, and who can find way to make it work and have better efficiency than the usual boring grinding spots. Some people would enjoy having a new place to go to daily, while keeping a good efficiency, and it would never be boring because... well, new spot daily!

But that's only my opinion.

P.S. : Don't make monsters of the moment a monster that is already frequently hunted, or on the same map as a frequently hunted monster. It doesn't help. For instance, if you make Pasana a monster of the moment, it will mostly keep attracting the same people that hunt Anubis (well, minus priests), and it doesn't really change anything. Instead, pick less popular, but still worthwhile, monsters. Again, only my opinion.