World Swarms

Ever since swarms were removed over a year ago, there have been many suggestions on re-adding them, but they are instantly shot down because "they caused too much lag". Which was definitely understandable, but something that I saw in the Gavel changelog made me re-think it. It was said by Salted, so I'm afraid quoting admins is against the rules just like tagging them is, so please clarify that first. But anyway, I will recite what he said, and you can check the changelog to clarify. I will add it in as a quote when someone assures me that it isn't against the rules. Anyway:

"We made a good amount of mob changes in this update. The first one, you guys will probably not even notice! We completely rewrote how mobs work. If you didn’t know, mobs are the most resource heavy thing we have on our server. By themselves they can easily reach 50% of our server lag. Well not anymore! We made them insanely efficient. How efficient? We don’t know. We literally can’t test it. Our Minecraft client crashes because of the insane amount of mobs before the server even starts lagging." https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/the-gavel-expansion-changelog.97175/

As you can see, and you can go check yourself, Mobs apparently don't cause server lag anymore. That means that the lag issue would, in theory, not be a problem anymore.

The servers are laggy enough, this would destroy the servers
I don't know what is causing the current server lag. It's most likely players, but, I can't say for sure. What I can say is that it isn't the mobs, and I doubt having a lot of players in one area would crash the server.


But what about client-side lag? (people's computers can't handle it)
Swarms would be similar to guild wars, which are, somewhat, just swarms of mobs, up to 1000. If people can handle guild wars, then swarms would not be much different. Not saying swarms should be just like guild wars, but they are similar in concept.

How would the XP work?
It's probably false to say that wynncraft has the code from swarms saved from a year ago, and even if they did, that system was flawed. So the new swarms would work like this: Your reward from swarms would be based on the amount of mob kills that you get, to deter people from going to a swarm and AFKing until they get their reward (that's what I used to do). Also, XP would be based off of your level, so that higher level players can get a noticeable XP boost, without lower level players leveling up multiple times. There would be a cap of 1-1.5 levels, but a minimum of at least 15-25%, so you get a boost for being there. Higher levels would get less of a noticeable XP difference, but it would still be more fun/efficient than grinding.

What if a low-level player can't handle the damage?
Now that damage is based on overall hearts, that range from 10 as a new spawn to 15k+ probably, damage would definitely be a problem. How can you make swarms be difficult for a high level player, but not have every mob one-shot players that are lower levels? You could have the mobs deal percent damage, such as fire/drowning does. The more health you have, the more damage the mobs do, but of course high level players would have an advantage, just not one that makes it impossible for low level players.

What towns?
I personally didn't like Ragni swarms. There was no bank to crowd to when the swarm ended, and many players just starting come out of Ragni's castle to see dozens of players and mobs, not knowing what to do. Swarms would happen in towns such as Detlas, Almuj, Troms, and possibly Gavel, but they would have to be different, because the lore states that there is no corruption/undead in Gavel, so having a bunch of zombies running around would be against that. Anyway, the level of the town would affect the difficulty of the swarm. (and the reward) The mobs would do a higher % damage. The only problem with this would be that low level players would kill themselves trying to make it to the swarm, if it was in, say, Troms.
EDIT: Gavel cities could have swarms of different enemies, such as Trolls, Orcs, Gerts, or maybe all three? There could be different tiers of these enemies, but of course Gavel swarms would give more XP (idea credit to Trashcanman)

What if high level players reap all the kills? (brought up by mikelegend123)
It's hard to explain how a swarm works. On paper it's very simple. Very very many mobs attack a city. But in reality there are so many other factors. They spawn in houses, so 2-3 people take a house to kill the mobs, and all the low level players stay on top of houses not to get attacked. But there are also low level mobs that spawn, levels ranging from 1-70, in different armor depending on their level. The low level players kill the low level zombies, but also they would get their XP quicker, so they have to kill less zombies than the high level players, get more XP (relative to their level), but it's also a higher risk for them. Of course, the higher level the city, the higher level the town, and if a level 10 is in a Troms swarm, they aren't going to get much of a reward, probably.

What if a low level player dies and spawns in the middle of the swarm and keeps dying?
When you respawn after dying, there would be a "grace period" of maybe 15-30 seconds, where you don't take any damage, but also don't deal any damage. This would mean that low level players could escape/get to a high spot before the swarm continues.

Swarm boss
This is an idea that I just thought of right now, and was not in the old swarms. Perhaps, as extra content for the swarm, a "swarm boss" would spawn at the end of the swarm, either when a certain about of mobs is killed or a time limit. The boss would have to have extreme amounts of health, once again depending on the city, but would not do very much damage, to deter the lower levels from getting demolished when they try to help. Anyway, this would make the ending more fun and cooperative, and also make the swarms even more hectic. When the boss is killed, there would be 30 seconds before the XP is delivered, so that everyone can group together in the bank, like the old tradition.


Overall Pros/Cons:
Swarms were one of my favorite memories of WynnCraft 'back in the day. I have dozens of screenshots of dozens of players huddled together in the bank because they thought it gave more XP, and while that wasn't true (maybe it was...who knows), it was hilarious. It was a place to make friends, get together, trade, duel, and have fun and mix with the community. And, obviously, they gave XP, and provided a fun break from grinding. There could be a new invasion tracker on the forums, etc.

Cons: While the Mobs themselves apparently don't lag anymore, the massive amount of players might. The amount of particle effects from spells/players might lag the servers.

Thank you for reading my suggestion. It took a lot of courage for me to suggest something like this because I knew how hard suggestions like these got shut down in the past. If you have read the entire thing, I hope you give constructive criticism in the comments, and also tell me if quoting admins is allowed. I'll put a direct quote from the changelog if it is to prove that statement above.

 

Poll please
This is a good idea, +1 supporter. Also for Gavel cities they could be orcs or something instead of zombies

 

This is the first good swarm suggestion that I've read.
Nice job!

 

My thoughts exactly

 

WOW!!!111 I like this idea!! Im only level 30 so this wil help me lvl up!!

 

Eh... Good job. You made a decent swarm suggestion. I like it.

 

SWARMS I miss them ;-;

 

Honestly not to be nasty to the developers who have worked hard on this update, the lag is still there because literally every mob is like an armour stand with 4 entities to make them unique and that LAGS the server. Either better hardware is needed or to tone down on the entities. The current lag on the servers is horrible, horses go at about walking pace, music is ruined by the lag making notes blend together into some garbled mess, and some puzzles in quests require timing and the skips that happen on the server makes the puzzle 10x harder than it should be.

 

Did you not read the changelog? Mobs no longer cuase lag. The only thing about unique mobs is that not all mobs are unique. You can just do generic mobs with no spells and all the same hp. Afterall they are a swarm

 

I was thinking of making a post like this but you have done my job for me! :D I really would love to see swarms return to wynncraft, They were such an awesome event to take part in. All I would say is xp based on kills wouldn't be good due to high level players raking in all the kills.

 

Sounds like I missed out on this

You can have +1 support on this as I would like to experiance what you old veterans did!!!

 

Good point, I'll add a solution in for that. Also, I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking of this, if you have any ideas that I didn't include please tell me I'll give you credit for them.

 

The current lag is caused by mass amount of red stone

 

1. Thanks, I didn't know that
2. Cities would probably be the last place you would find redstone contraptions/command blocks, since they are for quests, and the swarm itself would not take any redstone, it would be a plugin like it was before.

 

I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS IDEA! i hope it gets added one day!!!! :) :) :)
~DankMemeMakr

 

The redstone contraptions (not command blocks) cause very little lag in the scope of things. The most likely factor for the large amounts of lag is player data.

For the swarms, to equalize the ability to kill, I would recommend also having each player's damage changed to X while in the swarm zone.

 

I remember the swarms, they were fun.

One that I especially remember was the last swarm I was in, it was in nemract, after they balanced it.
That swarm really felt like a war, with the mobs attacking from outside, eventually players managed to push the zombies back further and further, and then the swarm was over. If swarms could be reinplemented, I, and a lot of the community would be so happy.

 

I don't know about that, because the higher level players are getting less of a reward, compared to their level, and they are higher level anyways, so they should have an advantage.