Faith Temple dummies on stun

[Tyhan]

Just a thought but perhaps everyone could go into other temples to train on the dummies in them but perhpas only the faithful of that temple are only stunned by them? Like say...... a Lathander fights a tempus dummy, they would die if the fight lasted that long, but challange a dummy in Lathander's temple and they are only stunned if they are defeated..... any other thoughts on this?

[Denvar]

I'm not a builder, so I don't know how much work it would be to reprogram the dummies. But I think that is a great idea! I've made the mistake of attacking dummies in other temples. :p

[Raona]

I like this suggestion. I don't think it is difficult code, but would need to be done on every dummy in a faith temple, which is a lot of them.

[Brar]

... even more thinking about it, how would a dummy ever kill you?

I mean, they are not supposed to be golems are they? Or else, why not make them into golems.

For me, a dummy is inanimate object good for basic training, once you animate it, it either becomes an animated object with a definite pattern (and then it would be very unlikely that they kill you) or becomes Golems sets for training, but I doubt any sane or insane wizards would set a golem in a training ground on kill order.

What do you think?

Brar

[Tyhan]

Raona: This is what I was thinking i mean they are DUMMIES


Brar: True, I mean Yes, they should be hard to beat in the faith temples but they shouldn't kill you unless your not of that faith, I dont know how the code works, wouldn't mind learning either, but just keep giving me feed back.

[Uleha]

Even killing a non-faith member is too far for some of these guys, I'd say. a Tyrran dummy wouldn't kill ANYONE, would he? Maybe a Beshaban dummy or something, but the animating wizards of the churches of goodly faiths definitely wouldn't want their creations killing anyone, restricted access or not.

[Briek]

I think this should be standard for any area designed for training regardless of faith, alignment etc

Accidents do happen in training but no area with training in mind would be designed to kill.
Making it standard would eliminate any complications of who gets stun and who gets kill in
these areas.

[Mask]

The only standard I'd consider appropriate is making it so that dummies don't fight back and thus do not give experience points (except for experience gains from skill gain). I don't really like the concept of a bunch of twigs and straw providing a viable levelling option as it seems a bit of a cop-out on actually providing a reasonable area for low level characters to level in. There are a number of low-level areas in progress from the Bardic Circle crew, and I'd like to see these replace the tired 'training dummy' idea through-out the game.

[Uleha]

With the exception, perhaps, of the starter area dummies? For new players, you know. Otherwise I think that dummies fighting at all is silly, too.

[Mask]

No, I don't really see the need for any exceptions. If the best 'new player areas' we can come up with as a community are rooms packed with identical dummies, I think it hints that we should try harder.

[Uleha]

I'm willing to reimagine the lot of these starter areas, then, if you like.

Edit:
In fact, I'm willing to replace all dummies, starter or not.

[Nysan]

As long as any reimage does not make starter areas harder. MH, for example, has mobs that impale (critical hits) in newbie areas. This is fine for advanced areas, but I would hate to see a dummy replacement in Waterdeep do it.

[Tyhan]

Well can we just make all the dummies on stun but make them hit the same? Like the training area in the Temples, have them still be that strong but only have them stun? Is there a way to make it so you only get experiance toward leveling if you beat them ? but allow the increase of weapon skills and such to still procede?

[Raona]

Risk/reward has been a consistent paradigm of the game, and one I gather Mask isn't keen to see changed. That is, if you do not risk anything, there should be no reward. Specifically, in the case of dummies, if you aren't putting anything on the line by fighting them, then they should not reward you with experience. The recall and return-to-life system currently in place for levels up to 5 should (?) give brand new players the out they need if they make a mistake. Dummies do not pursue, so later on you can flee them if you act rashly (you can also CONSIDER them quite readily). They also shouldn't hold a grudge, so if you die at their hands level 5-10, you can easily get your things back. That said, I've seen newbies turned into stains by assuming that a dummy wasn't going to kill them, or pose a deadly challenge (myself included, specifically on the Halls of Justice dummies).

Perhaps dummies could have an OOC indication of the level of PC they are designed for, to address this, something like:
WARNING: These dummies are likely to kill PCs below level 20!

Or, even better, let's get all the dummies out, or make them so that they only train skills, and do not give experience. (I'm pretty sure the latter would not be overly hard to do.)

[Harroghty]

I disagree with making dummies no longer provide experience because they provide a valuable RP training option for PCs for whom wholesale slaughter is not appropriate.

I think the answer is just to build more dummies suitable for lower levels (10-30) because the updated race file put dummies for those levels at a premium.

[Raona]

Perhaps dummies could have an OOC indication of the level of PC they are designed for, to address this, something like:
WARNING: These dummies are likely to kill PCs below level 20!

Would this be doable?

[Harroghty]

Unnecessary though, at this point. Find the dummy that while provide such a challenge. I know of one set, "globally". I feel that this suggestion is overtaken by events.

[Gwain]

I'd be in agreement with Harroghty, for the most part the difficult dummies are in areas that are reserved for specialty classes/guilds/faiths that can take more abuse than unnafiliated or lower level characters. It should not be an issue for them since the only dummies they should be focusing on is the ones in the new player temple or other areas they are associated with.

[Raona]

I'm thinking of the Halls of Justice dummies, in particular. I recall tangling with one of them shortly after emerging from what used to be the Font training area, and getting utterly pasted (killed!) before I could flee. It was demoralizing (but led me to learn about CONSIDER and realize that not all beasties of the same name posed the same threat). But if that's either something rare (i.e. I'm a moron!) or its been addressed somehow, I'm not aware of any other dummies that new PCs can readily bumble into.

[Mask]

Again, I dislike the idea of using dummies for anything. Combat golems or something similar, sure.