First "rage quit" last night due to....

...a "bug", programing mistake, unintentional side effect or outright stupid coding that is meant to tick off players that mine.

I am a pretty mellow fellow, mostly because life has been interesting these last (nearly) 5 decades. Not much gets under my skin but I do have a tender spot when it comes to seeing people getting screwed over on purpose. It just don't set well with me. So when I experience something that looks, smells, acts and feels exactly like that personally, it really jumps on that tender spot and last night, Arkadia not only jumped on it (AGAIN) but did the thumb grind on it to the point I literally told my soc in mumble I am out for the next week or so and just turned everything off and I mean everything.

Mumble, EU Tracker, EU, Little Big Mining, all the little record keeping progs, the computer, the monitor, the light and went to bed and fumed for like 2 hours.

It was this aggravating.

Now, some history as to why this one hit a nerve so hard.

Back when I was brand new to EU, all of 4 months ago. Niel Greenleaf was kind enough to give me some mining gear and probs and start me off doing some mining. I was looking forward to it too being a "Dwarf" in my online avatar for going on 40+ years now it seemed to fit the entire idea. Granted, it isn't like that but, I was totally new so give me a little slack.

First run was okay, some hiccups with Little Big, didn't get a good return but Neil was kind enough to give me a second shot and this time I went to a new area...Sanctuary Cove...and was doing pretty good mining...until.....(and there is always an until isn't there)

2 markers spawns and one was inside the Tiarak spawn...now, I got the first one but, headed to the second one, one of the little pukes aggro'd me and proceeded to beat me into a soft pinkish lump on the ground. My poor little yellow/orange prisoner clothing was all mushy and yucking and shredded until I appeared at the revival terminal.

Well...how about that...I respawned...(yes this was my FIRST DEATH in EU)...okay..just run back out there, find the marker and avoid the little evil pukes and grab it...

20 minutes later...multiple deaths..and I decide to get out the hoverpod and outrun the spawns and get to it, hope out and mine it fast then die but I will get it and find another place to mine....

Somehow, my hoverpod got hit for 160+ damage in that run (only damage its taken) and it when from .50 TT to .20 TT...that did not rest well with me but fortunately, I got a person that was willing to kill the spawns and let me get my claim.

Aggrivated, but a happy ending. Tiarak are high aggro...fair enough, first one got me from ring 2 at max radar range and they were still coming from that far and the spawn was thick and stayed thick...

Again, aggrivating but, fair. I learned a lesson about mining near mobs....try very hard NOT to do it.

Fair enough....

Flash forward to last night.

Here I am going along mining fine and I come across some widely spaced L25ish Beladoths (?)...okay...move around them...keeping them at ring 3 or farther...don't drop any probes...lets test their aggro range....ring 3...okay...ring 2...okay...ring 1...EEP...that's alot of damage...okay..no harm done....

Heal up, make a note to keep them at least at ring 2, preferably ring 3 and we should be fine. If spawn gets thicker farther in, just stop mining...got it....

4 drops later, keeping the things at ring three...I get a double pop....got the first one no problem...two Bels spawn right next to me and proceed to do the kettle drum on the old fat dwarf....okay...fine...fair enough...you spawned on me...grrr...

Go back and now, instead of sparse spawns, I notice there is about double the number....ahhhh...wth....fine..I will dance around them and get to where I can SUMMON the claim.....up on the mountain...okay, 30 seconds to go...20...WTH...4 Bels appear around me and kill me....sigh...

I go back and now the spawn is TRIPLE in size...so I use my Sle to go over, mark the claim, find a WIDE area 3 rings out I can land in near the claim....land, get out, get the Sle...BOOM BOOM BOOM ... THREE Bels attack me.

This goes on for 47 mins...I find a clear space...land and before I can get 10 seconds off on the summon claim, at least 2-4 Bels come from ring 3 or farther out to kill me. And that was the BEST case situation. A few times I landed on the mountain and let the sle roll down the hill and they APPEARED around me.

It quite literally screwed me out of the marker...no way I was ever going to get it even if a team came to kill the Beladoths. They were SPAWNING to fast unless some real heavy firepower was going to be used.

When I left, the spawn had gone from maybe a dozen creatures to looking like the Carabok and Gallard spawns at the quarry...there were patches where you could not see anything but red dots for 8-12 creatures in ONE spot.

I even LOGGED out about 15 mins into this thinking the aggro got locked on me somehow because these things were coming from OUTSIDE MAX RADAR range to kill me.

Now, I have no idea what caused this. But it is 100% pure brown wet stuff that is the end result of feeding a bull hay.

I don't know if its the coding that caused the spawn to go nuts. Make the aggro go up so much or the fact I got a double hit on my mining...I got 3 singles with no issues and not until the DOUBLE spawn did this happen...BOTH times.

But I can tell you a few things....

1) Its very infuriating to me that this massive change in how the mobs acted and the sudden increase in spawns cause me to waste roughly 45 min trying to get a small (minimal) Tar marker.

You can say I could have simply walked away but, that is not going to hold water with me. The aggro shouldn't have doubled in size and then the spawn increase effectively one full additional spawn every 10 mins. As I said, it was easily 3-5 times the size of what it was when I started.

2) The few pec that marker was worth certainly would not justify the cost of having to wipe out dozens if not hundreds of a L 25 mob with that kind of HP.

3) I am not going to be back for at least a few days, if not longer. As I burn quite a bit of ped every day I am on (given I play 2-12 hours a day depending on my work schedule) I don't see that this kind of code is good for anyone.

Other players are not going to get to trade with me. I am not going to be cycling my ped in any way and I certainly am not going to be singing the praises of EU for others to hear right now much less enjoying the game.

And while I am just one small, insignificant blip and don't matter in the grand scheme of things I know, I can't be the only person that feels this way. Like I said, I normally have a pretty thick hide on this kind of stuff. But this is quite simply ridiculous to the extreme in my opinion.

I mean it would be one thing if I went into a thick spawn, knew the aggo was 10 rings out and dropped probes anyway. I get killed and can't get one...fair enough.

But I made SURE to test the aggro range...make sure the spawn was light...and I had ways to get around the spawns.

It was not until I got a DOUBLE hit that things went south....3 hits on singles and everything was fine...1 double and its over....

Nu-uh...that ain't right. That looks like, acts like, smells like and quacks like a duck....and that means most likely its a duck.

That is a code that seems to be there for the sole purpose of screwing a miner out of a multiple spawn when they drop some probes.

Now whether that is by design, a sad effect of changes elsewhere or just a bad result of some busted code someplace is up for debate...but it needs to be fixed mucho pronto.

I don't mine alot. I do it more as a hobby then a full time gig. But I know enough about it to avoid getting killed by mobs normally. This is not kosher how this has done twice now.

I'll STFU now...don't like to rant but I am still steamed some 12 hours later so I made my post.

Tell me I am 110% right or I am a know nothing noob that needs to STFU and stay STFU'd....but regardless, pls look into this and see if I am just crazy or there is a real problem because I am banking on the problem side 100%.
:surrender:

 

I am not a miner myself and only drop probes on a few occasions, yet I can say that I didn't notice anything of what you describe. That could be because I usually drop probes in empty areas or while hunting, thus around creatures that I can kill. That isn't to say that you are seeing patterns that are not there ofcourse.

When I was still very noobish I was hunting Argonauts around Twin Peaks. For those who don't know: that's on Calypso and Argonauts are mutants. I once complaned to MindArk that new mobs would spawn on me while I was attacking another, causing me to die. The answer I got was that it isn't intentional and that I should prepare/ get better to avoid deaths by mobs spawning on me.
Planet Arkadia isn't the one who can code this by the way. The one to blame is MindArk.

I dare to say that anyone with a more then three year old avatar has taken a break once or more. Days, weeks even months on end for some of us. It is good to go 'outside' once in awhile. After a break you come back a different person. You've gained skills that aren't measured. Myself, I've switched to different proffessions because I was fed-up with the way Swordsman/ Mêlée-users are treated. Then later I come back again because I believe in it.
This game/ hobby/ way-of-life can be depressing, while at other times it can be hugely rewarding with lot's of fun, friends and enjoyments.

If Entropia Universe is so much like real life then we do have a government as well. You might or not dislike/ hate yours for whatever reason you can imagine. Blame the Minister of Mining for what happened to you. We all like to complain about MindArk/ the Government.
Last thing I want to say: don't rage quit, you don't do that in real life either. You look to me like a real down-to-earth type of person.

Ardorj

 

Definitely a smart move to take a break when the game is pissing you off. Look forward to seeing you around when you are ready for another go.

 

If someone else has agro'd the mob it often runs at another player, I used to this a lot when I'd hunt atrax. An atrax running from the far distance from the edge of radar to attack me, even in groups of players I'd be the one it attacked.

But what you've partly experienced is commonly called be the "ninja" spawn that a lot of us experience yet according to MA doesn't exist. It's as if the server has lost your position and then suddenly updates leaving you in the midst of spawn by making it appear rather than bumping you back to where it had your last location like it used to.

 

Regarding the ninja spawning behavior, mobs will spawn preferentially near avatars rather than in the "unwatched" spaces between avatars. You'll also see them concentrate 100m or so in one direction of where you're standing. I haven't made a real study of it, but this is what they do. Presumably this phenomenon is to help supply hunters with lots of mobs as they hunt. Or maybe it's to spice up hunting and mining with Ninja mobs, or even just some unintended artifact of the mob spawning process. Whatever the reasons behind it, if you spend a lot of time in one spot in a mob field, it's normal to see a very thick pack form within a short time.

Regardless of the ninja spawning behavior, I would have to say that you broke the first rule of mining around mobs, which is to avoid any areas containing mobs you can't handle in one way or another. If something bad can happen in a mob field while you're mining, it eventually will happen.

The best way for you with your skills to deal with the situation you described (other than to avoid that area in the first place, ofc) is to mob train the beladoth away from the claim. You plant your sleipnir about 150m away from the claim, then get in a land vehicle and drive close enough to the Beladoth to get aggro, then drive them all to the sleipnir, hop in the sleipnir and fly to your claim. It takes some practice learning the art of precision mob training but it can often be done without getting vehicle decay.

 

I use the ninja spawn behaviour to my advantage. I will do a session of hunting and then when I need a break, I'll jump into the passenger seat of my vtol and go afk while I do something else. An hour later when I am ready to hunt i can generally depend on being surrounded by lots of red dots, significantly upping my kill speed. And if I am in the mood for some grenade launching mobs are dense enough to make that effective (need to be careful though and make sure u can cope with multiple agro'd mobs).

 

It's not what you want to hear, but if you would just mine when there are no red dots on the radar it would save you so much frustration.
There are loads of places like that on arkadia.

 

Just as a small note...

Can't say I've made a detailed study on this, but it seems to me that I can mine amongst creatures for some time, and there is some hidden "aggro counter" that is not "per mob" but might be "per area". Depending on the mob I can go to the usual level of closeness to them for a while, but after a bit when I eventually make a mistake, I draw some aggro.

But that aggro does not appear to "clear" fully. Once tagged it's like I am on "elevated noticeability" for a while - and the mob aggro range seems to be increased while this feature is true.

Not got evidence and have no intention of trying to get this supplied - just saying that once I aggro one, I kinda expect the aggro range to increase and multiple mobs to start aggroing more easily from that point. Usually I work my way clear of a mob area after that and mine elsewhere for the next hour or so.

 

I have long thought that agro was time-based. If you are 'within range' then a timer starts. If you are still there at the end then the mob will go into agro mode. I am constantly amazed on Ark (compared to Caly) at how long this timer is. I have gone (fairly quickly) though a dense swarm without being molested. Do this on Caly with most mobs and you are in trouble!

Regarding the OP's points, I am a newcomer to mining on Ark. Because mobs on Caly are more aggressive I have avoided high-level mobs while mining on Ark, and it seems to work for me.

I have just nearly completed a cross-country trip on foot from 8 Coins HQ to Celeste to see what appears where, and most of the time the land was empty of mobs!

 

I believe there is a low rate of spontaneous mob recycling, as I sometimes see mobs disappear (especially stuck ones), and many times in a small spawn you can scout around and know you're the only one hunting them, you'll see Ninja mobs spawn there as well.

 

He knows about the summon claim feature as mentioned in his post.
He didnt specificly say there were no hunters on radar, but it was the feeling I got from reading it.
I also wonder about other hunters in the area though maybe killing mobs and causing those to respawn.

I havent spent alot of time on Arkadia, but I do know that some mobs I have hunted elsewhere have spawns with 'dynamic' thickness. You can hunt and there will only be 5-10 in the entire area, acting properly and respawning when you kill them etc.. but frustrating from so few, and then come back a few hours or days later and it will be so thick that you have trouble keeping an isolated hole in them to hunt from. Then next time back to just a few again.

You might have appeared just as one of those 'dynamic' timers went off saying that a spawn needed to switch from a few to a multitude.

Another thing I have noticed in heavily hunted spawns is that respawns don't happen one at a time but in groups.

There are times (mining etc...) when I wish all mobs would stay off my radar completely.
There are times casual hunting when I wish that there were only a few mobs just at tagging range for me to plink at.
There are times when I am grinding when I wish that there was always a second mob agroed on me ready to switch to when I am done looting the current one.

The good thing is that with the different agro types of mobs you can somewhat choose where to go based on your mood.
The bad thing is we dont fully understand how it works. (or maybe thats good since it adds to the spice of life?)

Either way I feel bad for ya and know lots of people are frustrated the same way, but like mentioned earlier, mining should be done off of rader of high lvl or high agro mobs. (for lower ones always have enough ammo to kill what attacks you, I have had a ridiculous number of globals from single kills that agroed on me while mining, so I cant pass up opportunities like that )

gl and have fun, hope you have some relaxing in RL and can come back renewed.

narfi

 

I am pretty sure that after a mob has been in the 'unrechable' state for x amount of time it is randomly teleported somewhere else on radar in order to 'unstuck' it.

Because I have seen unreachable mobs dissapear, and I have seen them appear as well. Cant remember 100% but I am pretty sure I have even had the HP bars of some while doing it in the past that helped me to figure it out.

 

Keep your head up Simeron, you don't have any quit in you. Situations like these suck, but I don't believe that MA has created an intentional spawn due to a double-hit in mining. Get back to doing what you do!

 

I'll take Bella's side on this one. You can't call it a bug and state that it's bias toward miners. First off, you're the one who decided to mine next to red dots, second, you /know/ if you use a flying vehicle the mobs won't attack you, so you can fly, land, jump out extract, re-enter vehicle. It's not really fair to write 2 pages of rage and blame if you didn't bother to educate yourself fully on mining yet and the mechanics of it. Spend your RQ time reading up on how to mine safely, how resources work / area (so that you won't be tempted to mine near red dots), and some helpful mining guides by Fallen and Neil. I myself have been spawned on while trying to extract a claim but going in, I already knew what to expect since I made the decision to mine in a mob spawn. It sometimes takes me 15-20 mins to extract a claim due to stubbornness, but it's something that I chose, and I alone.

 

No other green blips anywhere near me. The thing that aggravated me the most was the fact I would hover in my VTOL, make sure there were NO red dots within the tested aggro range and often, I would get to get out of my vehicle, nothing would turn at me (signaling you are about to get attacked) and I would start my summon of the claim and THEN 1-5 of these things would spawn on me.

And of course the spawn grew exponentially.

 

Tried something like this...no land vehicle...just running and letting myself die far away from the claim.

Then dropped back with the Sle....and the result was more spawns that nailed me before I could even mine the claim or try a summon.

It just wasn't going to work to get that claim.

The thing is, everything was fine until I got a DOUBLE hit on the drop. This has been the case 2 out of 2 times now...I get a multiple pop anywhere around mobs and they go nuts spawning and aggroing from across the globe.

 

I do that but when nothing is popping, its a waste of ped and you have to follow where the claims are.

What really gets me is the fact that the spawn when from scarce to a sea of red in a very short time (2-5 deaths) and just kept going up and up.

It was not like this in May and June when I started. This is a change from the last update when I saw the carabok and gallards go nuts at the quarry.

 

This could very well be the case because I can sure tell you that once that first death happened things went south fast. This whole mess was no more then 30 mins I would say from being a happy miner to rage quit.

I haven't logged into the game for over a week I think now...sigh...need to get back on and tend the XIV though at least.

Getting calls at 350am for rides kinda sucks when I don't wake up..lol...I do have customers that want to ride the ship...really wish MA would allow me to assign a manager to the ship...

 

No, I know about "Summon Claim" but it takes 30 secs and you have to be in range.

I never got past the 10th second when I managed to get in range and even getting to the claim and trying to excavate it I couldn't live long enough to do that either.

By the 5th or 6th attempt the spawn was so thick that it wasn't funny and even when I "shifted" the mobs by getting aggro and dying away from the claim, more spawned close to me or the claim before the timer ticked down much and killed me again.