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Last night we had a typical example of an invasion done right. Lots of death and wiping against the huge army at first, then slowly gaining the upper hand and whittling the army down, and then after the last soldier falls the appearance and nuking down of the boss (Akilia in this case). This is roughly the same pattern that most successful invasions go. So this suggestion isn't specifically about last night but about invasions in general.

I think that the last part, the nuking down of the boss, could do with a little excitement. These bosses usually have so much health that it takes the whole army of 50ish players several minutes to nuke him/her/it down, yet their attack is usually a normal ~2000 damage melee that isn't a threat to anyone with so many healing as there is flying around at this point. This makes the boss a bit lopsided in how powerful they are, and is also a bit of an anticlimax after fighting the army of mooks (which usually involves many player deaths).

So I'd ask that, if possible, these bosses be given somewhat more dangerous attacks. Now don't get me wrong, I know the boss isn't supposed to be an actual threat to the players; the challenge is the army of normal mooks, and fighting the boss is the prize for winning that. The final boss fight should remain un-loseable for the players. All I ask is that at least a fair portion of the individual players die at the hands of the boss, so that the boss *feels* like a real threat.

At the least, have the boss' melee attack do 6000 damage so it instakills one player every hit. Even better would be if the boss pull out a launcher (only once the last soldier is dead) and demolishes half the mages before running out of ammo. If you can emulate mob abilities, then Madakam Shield, Vorax Shout, and Gingo Sand are also all attacks that can also wreck havoc on a crowd.

Though ofcourse these abilities would have to be limited to one use per fight - again, I just want the boss to 'have a trick up their sleeve' and feel dangerous, not to actually be able to defeat the whole player army. If there are 50 players nuking the boss, the boss could insta-kill 20 and it still wouldn't be a threat to the army, so long as the boss can only use that attack once, the players will get rezzed almost instantly too, but it would make the boss feel like more of a threat.

But, that's just my opinion. I'll use this opportunity to poll how the other players like their event boss fights. Poll included for that purpose, also with the option to have event bosses be actual bosses like Aen that require specific strategy to defeat.

(Also, I'm not sure if a suggestion about events should go in here or the "Ideas for Ryzom" forum... please move the thread if I chose poorly.)

oh raid PvE content would be great, many other game's have event bosse's that can wipe an "army" if the correct strat is not followed.
Boss Mechanics would be awesome

This seems more intended for the player-controlled Event Bosses, like Akilia Ash Storm, not quite like a real raid boss with real mechanics, but many of the same principles apply. For PvE encounters, I agree 100% new mechanics would be great.

In the "battle" in Zora standing in the middle of a bunch of people, I was hearing sounds of melee. Turning the camera around a few times looking around, I finally saw that the player-controlled boss was standing right next to me hitting people. I concur that the damage from the event boss didn't seem all that great compared to the incoming healing.

1) We need to know where the boss is, so increase the physical size of the character in engagements. It's not realistic, I agree, but neither is ignoring the body collision effects to hide in the middle of a crowd =) It also exaggerates the difference between the individual player (miniscule, insignificant) compared to the boss (ominous, powerful). I'd say at least 1.5x the size of an average Zorai would be a minimum.

2) Each boss would likely be known for a characteristic move or ability. From the Lore, it seems that Akilia is called "Ash Storm" because that is all that remains when she leaves an area, so it would seem that Akilia has a signature move related to fire or burning. It would be completely appropriate for "her" to use this ability in combat.

3) Before the move is executed, give a few seconds of notification and perhaps let there be a slightly longer cast, so that observant players can react. Experience raiding in other games proves that most people will not pay attention, so you need not fear that "everyone" will see the warning and save themselves. Ryzom mechanics also make it harder than in other games to move around instantly, so that adds a delay for most people (especially casters) right off the bat.

For an Akilia example, suppose the event team member pushes the "Boom" button. What happens is: some message or shout about turning the world to ash (voice-over would be awesome), followed by a 3-4 second cast where flames encircle Akilia growing larger and brighter, suddenly disappearing to be followed by a large explosion and mushroom cloud surrounding her and billowing over her head. While casting this, she cannot be interrupted, stunned, etc. Any players caught in the blast area (10m? 20m?) are dead. Only invuln could protect a player from the blast, but that also removes them from battle for a period of time, and will still be on cooldown by the time the next "Boom" attack can be used.

If the effect can be targeted, indicate this somehow so players can move if they're paying attention.

If you do this, you don't need to limit the special ability to a one-off, but can repeat it every few minutes. You also won't need to decimate a huge percentage of the opposing force at once either, and maybe won't need to raise her health/regen so high. The attentive will survive, those who like to stand in fire will die. Battles with the event bosses aren't so frequent that everyone will keep the mechanics fresh in their minds all of the time.

(It would have also been nice for the corpses of the slain marauder foot-soldiers to remain behind, like the city guard corpses did)

Akilia Ash Storm seemed to be controlled by an Event Manager, but we've also had invasions where the boss is an AI-controlled mob, like the Kitin Swarmheader, that followed the same principle of having a gazillion health but only a ~3000 damage melee attack. So once all the minions are down, it takes 5-20 minutes to kill the boss, but the boss hardly kills a single player during that time - except the two tanks who are expected to die so their deaths only add to the feeling that the players are in total control.

Principle is the same for both. Though EM-controlled bosses can at least use their human intelligence to go for the healers ^^

This would work nicely IF there were dozens of masters of all skills applicable in the fight.
From the last invasion in Yrkanis, this isn't always the case. There the only way to eventually kill the boss was to pull him on the karavan guards who're invincible yet do massive damage.
Eventually (after some 10-15 minutes) the guards managed to kill the boss while all players were long dead several times over (as were all the city guards).

Making bosses harder or even impossible (if they 1-hit anyone they strike they're effectively impossible to kill) to kill most people simply wouldn't bother (after the Matis exterminator, the number of people going to Fairhaven to take on the one there was even lower, in your scenario hardly anyone'd have gone at all).

Boss mechanics, requiring more coordination among the large number (50+) of people now needed to eventually kill them would be even worse. It's simply not feasible with our population and game systems.

As evidenced by the current poll results, the majority of people want more than just a "push button, receive bacon" sort of encounter.

Such changes as I've mentioned would only require the ability to coordinate yourself. While I admit that is difficult for some people, we have been able to teach people how to focus fire on targets (most of the time). That is something that actually does require coordination between multiple people.

And to repeat something I've already said:


If you pay attention, instead of just stand there half-asleep spamming a button or two, everything will generally be fine. As an exercise in paying attention, please note the part of what I quoted that is most relevant to "harder or impossible" concerns.

Yeah, seem most people would like some flashy tricks on these bosses, and Erizon has some good pointers for using them properly.

We don't really need flashy new super-attacks though, there's plenty of things that are already ingame that could be used for wreaking havoc on a crowd. Apart from the already mentioned Madakam Shield & Gingo Sand & Vorax Roar, there's Frippo's sap drain, Bolobi's stink, Kizarak's spit attack, Lixie's mines, Pei's Stun, summoning gas clouds..

And ofcourse just giving our lovely Akilia a q250 rubarn boosted all stats at maximum launcher with q250 rubarn boosted all stats at maximum ammo. Seems wrong that the supreme commander of the Marauders is less well equipped to kill players than your average avid PvPer.

I've no idea if our Event Managers have the power to emulate these attacks when controlling an Akilia, but if not then this just becomes a suggestion to the devs to give them those abilities. And for AI-controlled bosses it's definitely a suggestion aimed at the devs anyways.