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Awhile ago SE added the infamous MPK fix to FFXI. This fix was met with a lot of negative response(especially from Beastmasters). It did fix MPKing for the most part.
What the fix was: When a monster travels outside it's "starting zone", it would disappear once it ran out players on it's hate list. Another version of that monster would reappear in the "starting zone". The time it would take for that monster to reappear made it seem the monster was walking back invisible. However, the monster was actually an entirely different one. This allowed NMs to be popped just by training them out and monsters to return with different strengths.
Now, this fix crippled the usual BST strategy of exp, as it relied in the job abilities Charm and Release to get exp chains. Release now makes monsters disappear.
Also with this fix, it is not uncommon for monsters to suddenly stop following a player after he has attacked it and disappear. This gives trouble to soloing RDM and BLMs and party pullers. If that wasn't bad enough, this rarely happens to players who are actually just running for their lives against these monsters, when they aggro.
I think the SE's fix was poor. I think they could have done better. Better for BST, soloers, and people running from monsters. Here is how it should have been done:
(Normal) Monsters have three "zones": Roaming zone, chasing zone, and disappearing zone. Notorious Monsters have only two zones, the first two. What happens when a monster is "Released" or loses aggro is different for each zone.
When I say "loses aggro" I mean: all hate targets die/zone or when the player travels so far that it no longer follows.
Roaming zone: This is the area where the monster can normally be found. It never naturally goes passed this area. Actually, it never even approaches the unnamed borders of this area.
When a monster is Released or loses aggro: They simply begin moving around like normal, slowly regening their HP.
Chasing zone: This area lays between the Roaming zone and Disappearing zone. It is quite massive and different for each monster. I'll list two ideal example sizes of this zone:
All Tracker Antlions' chasing zone would be almost the entirety of the left side of Attowha Chasm's map. Their disappearing zone start right around the caves.
A Goblin Butcher who lives in the first room of the Maze of Shakhrami, right by that first set of bones if you know what I'm taking about... his chasing zone would be roughly equal to that room and the tunnels that follow, but not another room.
When a monster loses aggro or is Released in the chasing zone, it will stop for a couple of seconds(roughly 10 seconds) and wait there. Once that time has passed, it will start to make its way back to it's Roaming zone, slowly healing it's health. While it is walking through the Chasing zone, it will not aggro any player, even through linking. This is key.
NMs still aggro while walking through their chasing zone(which is likely the entire zone).
Disappearing zone: This is area consists of everything passed the Chasing zone. It is here monsters will usually stop chasing players. The zoneline of every zone is (perhaps, thinly-lined) a Disappearing for every monster.
When chasing players through their Disappearing zone, monsters will slowly drop in Enmity. If the character had no Enmity in the first place(aggro'd the monster), this means that the monster will give up really quickly.
When a monster loses aggro in the Disappearing zone, they are inactive for roughly 10 seconds(like above), then disappear, much like the current update.
Normally, when monsters are released, they will do the same as described above. However, there is a way for a BST to keep them around. While under the effect of Reward's regen, monsters will act like they do in the Chasing zone while in the Disappearing zone, until the regen wears off. I have very little knowledge on the duration of this regen effect as is, but for the sake of this fix, let's say it is changed to roughly 1 to 3 minutes of regen, based on the potency of the food.
Optionally, SE could add something like a third zone for NMs where they will not aggro while walking through. This will solve the problem of people training NMs to zonelines to grief players.
With this fix, I'd no longer have a problem while soloing on BLM and BST can return to their old soloing techniques(which required much skill, so I'm not dumbing anything down here).
What the fix was: When a monster travels outside it's "starting zone", it would disappear once it ran out players on it's hate list. Another version of that monster would reappear in the "starting zone". The time it would take for that monster to reappear made it seem the monster was walking back invisible. However, the monster was actually an entirely different one. This allowed NMs to be popped just by training them out and monsters to return with different strengths.
Now, this fix crippled the usual BST strategy of exp, as it relied in the job abilities Charm and Release to get exp chains. Release now makes monsters disappear.
Also with this fix, it is not uncommon for monsters to suddenly stop following a player after he has attacked it and disappear. This gives trouble to soloing RDM and BLMs and party pullers. If that wasn't bad enough, this rarely happens to players who are actually just running for their lives against these monsters, when they aggro.
I think the SE's fix was poor. I think they could have done better. Better for BST, soloers, and people running from monsters. Here is how it should have been done:
(Normal) Monsters have three "zones": Roaming zone, chasing zone, and disappearing zone. Notorious Monsters have only two zones, the first two. What happens when a monster is "Released" or loses aggro is different for each zone.
When I say "loses aggro" I mean: all hate targets die/zone or when the player travels so far that it no longer follows.
Roaming zone: This is the area where the monster can normally be found. It never naturally goes passed this area. Actually, it never even approaches the unnamed borders of this area.
When a monster is Released or loses aggro: They simply begin moving around like normal, slowly regening their HP.
Chasing zone: This area lays between the Roaming zone and Disappearing zone. It is quite massive and different for each monster. I'll list two ideal example sizes of this zone:
All Tracker Antlions' chasing zone would be almost the entirety of the left side of Attowha Chasm's map. Their disappearing zone start right around the caves.
A Goblin Butcher who lives in the first room of the Maze of Shakhrami, right by that first set of bones if you know what I'm taking about... his chasing zone would be roughly equal to that room and the tunnels that follow, but not another room.
When a monster loses aggro or is Released in the chasing zone, it will stop for a couple of seconds(roughly 10 seconds) and wait there. Once that time has passed, it will start to make its way back to it's Roaming zone, slowly healing it's health. While it is walking through the Chasing zone, it will not aggro any player, even through linking. This is key.
NMs still aggro while walking through their chasing zone(which is likely the entire zone).
Disappearing zone: This is area consists of everything passed the Chasing zone. It is here monsters will usually stop chasing players. The zoneline of every zone is (perhaps, thinly-lined) a Disappearing for every monster.
When chasing players through their Disappearing zone, monsters will slowly drop in Enmity. If the character had no Enmity in the first place(aggro'd the monster), this means that the monster will give up really quickly.
When a monster loses aggro in the Disappearing zone, they are inactive for roughly 10 seconds(like above), then disappear, much like the current update.
Normally, when monsters are released, they will do the same as described above. However, there is a way for a BST to keep them around. While under the effect of Reward's regen, monsters will act like they do in the Chasing zone while in the Disappearing zone, until the regen wears off. I have very little knowledge on the duration of this regen effect as is, but for the sake of this fix, let's say it is changed to roughly 1 to 3 minutes of regen, based on the potency of the food.
Optionally, SE could add something like a third zone for NMs where they will not aggro while walking through. This will solve the problem of people training NMs to zonelines to grief players.
With this fix, I'd no longer have a problem while soloing on BLM and BST can return to their old soloing techniques(which required much skill, so I'm not dumbing anything down here).
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