Chapter 4.1 Monster Summons and Nests
What Causes Monster Occurrences
Monsters are attracted to accumulation of spirit and value
Monster Attraction Term Definitions
Spirit is a categorical type of an item
The basis of a spirit value is based off of their ecological type
Special traits like elements, status effects, rot, blight, diseases, are also traits of spirit
Tinder is the burn value of an item
Spirit Relics focuses on tinder value as being a base worth of items (think of this as what gold would typically be for an item)
All resources, creatures, monsters, items, crafts, and construction have spirit and tinder value applied. Monsters crave and consume spirit that matches their type.
Examples of Monster Occurrences
In each of these instances, monsters start off small, and increase in size and difficulty as a player progresses their claim progression
Land and vehicles claims large enough to attract monster threats
Overcrowding resources/Clusters of evolved resources
Rituals and tributes intending to attract monsters
Wild herds/packs and livestock groups
Monsters will go after the highest value of spirit that attracts them
Predators in the wild, typically aim for the lowest (if no other traits are involved)
Self claim player's items and equipment
All of these stated instances can either be created by players or NPC.
Monster Appearance - Monster Summoning Circle
If the criteria is met for a monster to appear, they will appear from a portal called a monster summoning circle. It looks a magic circle. The inner circle gets bigger, the closer the meteor gets. Once the inner circle meets the outer circle, impact will occur. Players cannot build on impact markers. These can appear on the ground, water/sand/lava, and sky.
Monster Summoning Circle - Proximity Warning
Players in the summoning circle will experience the screen shaking, and turn red, urging players to leave the area. The inner circle gets bigger, and once the inner circle meets the outer circle, the summon will occur. These summons vary in size, and will not occur on active player buildings. Players cannot build on these markers.
Monster Threat Scaling and Progression
Since monster threat level is determined by the spirit type and total values, monsters will scale based on how far in crafts, equipment, construction, skill and nature proficiency a players or group of players have progressed.
Defeated by Monster Threat
If players lose against the monster, the monster will damage land and vehicle claim constructions, and wildlife claims lose favor if injured, and self claim players can get resources and equipment damaged. This lessens the value of a claim, making the next threats weaker. This allows players to determine their skill levels, and figure out how to overcome challenges, or tailor their play style towards their a specific challenge scale and consistency. Communities and quest posting can help with coordination and support where needed, with players and/or NPC.
Undefeated and Unappeased
Monsters that are either undefeated, scared off, or given insufficient offerings to be appeased, they will flee to the wild and create a nest in an available space. Players can opt to fight these monsters again at the nest, or wait until the monster comes back. Monster nests will change the ecology around their nest to their own ecology, which will grow in favor the longer more resources they claim.
Spawning Limitations
Monster nests (covered in the next section,) are created by monsters that persist in the world if not defeated. Monsters are linked to the claim, or ecosystem (based on clusters/herds/packs) that summoned them. A new monster threat will not appear for that spirit category for that claim or ecosystem, unless the claim exceeds enough points to summon another. If other player(s), NPC, or other group successfully hunts the monster, the threat will be cleared. Claims can have more than one threats linked to them for different spirit values, but new threats have cool down timers.
Monster Nests - Shared Threats
Players who reach the same threat level of a close enough monster nest, will have the monster travel to them, instead of summoning via the summoning circle. The more times a monster brings collected spirit back to the nest, the more favor they will gain over time. There may be instances where monsters evolve.
Monster Nests - Evolved Monsters
Evolved monsters will stop visiting claims that don't match their threat level. Instead, they will send lesser monsters if they generated through their nest that matches the threat level. A monster may take time to build up enough spirit or favor to create a minion that matches a threat level, and may send more smaller minions to make up the difference if a threat is due. Monsters heal overtime at their nests.
Monster Nests - Traveling Monsters
A monster traveling to a threat will not engage with other spirit unless aggroed, or if resources/structures are in the way of their travels. Monster groups traveling in packs will leave enough minions to engage the threat. So self claim players (solo or groups) may attract a ton of monsters, or a few based on their spirit and value. This is determined based on the minion's reactivity radius, which links to other minions when close enough in a group. Stopping a monster on route to a threat is called threat disruption.
Traveling Monsters - Threat Disruption
To avoid aggroing too much, it is a good idea to use long ranged attacks to hold certain minions back. (If player is hidden, they will look around, confused, the group will leave them.) However, larger monsters will usually immediately engage a angro, due to larger reactivity radiuses. Minions will follow their leader in these cases. If a player cannot defeat the group of monsters, they will start traveling to the threat location. If there are more than 2 disruptions, monsters will first wait to regroup, before proceeding to the threat together. They can sense if members are dead, and will not wait for dead monsters.
Monster Threat High Level Overview
Claim triggers monster threat -> Impending Monster Warning (summoning circle/travel from nest)-> Mechanics to slow down, halt, or start challenge early
Monster is summoned -> Player defeats/appeases monster -> Monster can be looted or corpse/items can be destroyed -> Cooldown until new threat cycle
Or
Monster is summoned -> Player cannot fully defeat/appease monster -> Monster (if not exhausted) consumes resources to fill need (if exhausted, skip) -> Flees to create nest in the wild -> Will re-engage the claim that summoned them when need matches monster again (restart loop)
(This is covered in detail in future sections.)