Have we ever thought of having a "Find Mob" spell/ability

[jelricle]

Ugh, I keep getting complaints when my lowbie rogue tries to enter secret chambers: "It is too dangerous while monsters are around" or some such. 

Unfortunately, I often cannot find the monsters in question!
Have we ever considered a "FInd Monster" spell similar to "Locate Object" that would point to any remaining monsters?  Throw it on a lowbie item (maybe a reward from Elrin in the docks?)

[chirality]

Something like this would definitely be convenient. There are several common scenarios where a mob must be tracked down and killed in order to progress.

I'm not sure if it's possible, or feasible if so.

In general, HG is pretty good about mobs not spawning in or ending up in unreachable locations, so usually this is just a matter of spending a few extra minutes combing the map to find the mob. It's annoying but outside of than, I don't think I've ever really needed DM assistance to fix it.

If it were a more common issue, a simtool command would probably make sense, but as this would pretty much just be a fairly minor QoL thing, I wouldn't hold my breath on someone implementing it (most likely having it work similar to locate object as you suggest), let alone creating a new item to house it.

Unlike secret locations which don't change (just a list of where they are and which are active), a creature's location is dynamic, so the implementation might be a bit more costly than locate object (which presumably uses GetFacingFromLocation on the PC to generate the arrow direction(s) after retrieving which secrets are active from a static list of coordinates). The difference might or might not translate into anything meaningful. I'm not sure about the best way to safeguard against potential abuse, such as massing entire maps and then using such an item power/simtool to retrieve every single creature object's location, which could be a quite burdensome task. The enforcement of a check to count the number of spawned creatures (likely the best way to limit use for true "find 1-2 remaining mobs we can't find on the map) might itself add more overhead than would be even worthwhile.

This is all speculation obviously, but overall, the project is probably of dubious value from an implementation standpoint, since having players spend <5 mins themselves doing the task when it is required is very cheap--using only the resource of a player's time--and once spawns are learned, it doesn't take much of that anyway, especially in a party where multiple searchers familiar with the spawnpoints are able to cover (most) maps for stragglers with barely more time spent than checking for missed poop anyway.

[jelricle]

Hmmmm, do you know if despawning monsters would make the secrets unobtainable?

As a work around, I am wondering if I can portal away for 5 minutes, before spawning the secret chamber entrance. Any mobs I cannot find would then be despawned.

[chirality]

what runs or maps are you having issues with when it comes to finding mobs? people may have tips or advice to offer.

as prep advised on chat, this tactic would work, although it's probably worth bearing in mind that you'd risk locking yourself out of the next map if you pull the trick on a run that prevents zoning if mobs have been despawned. that might or might not be an issue for you.

[Paradoom]

Don´t forget that dominated pets and monsters are also counted as enemy monsters and trigger that warning.

[jelricle]

Dec 8, 2022 0:08:09 GMT Paradoom said:

Don´t forget that dominated pets and monsters are also counted as enemy monsters and trigger that warning.

YES!  When I was first playing the mod and found the druid pets, that killed me.  I missed so many dragon hoards before learning that!    :-D

This time, though, it is just me.  The darn defiled tomb and the nether caves level2 have mobs that spawn out of sight . . . then I spawn more looking for them!   :_(

I dread trying to keep the crypt levels clear when I take them on.