Ghost Spawn rate is perfect in the new league. Here is how to improve their behaviour / AI

I am loving the spawn rate of ghosts. They come up often and are lots of fun.
However, it is still frustrating to move them around.
Here is a workaround to make the encounter much better. Change the ghosts in the following way:


========================================================
Ghosts follow the following algorithm:

- Phase 1. Stationary mode: Ghosts are stationary until attacked or the player "touches" them (which should be signaled by a visual mark, like a green spark when the player comes in contact with the Ghost).

- Phase 2. Move Mode: When touched (either via attack/spell or proximity) Ghost enters move mode - it will move to a location in the direction opposite to the touch between 0.5 and 1.5 screens away (so they will go pretty far)

- Phase 3. Cast Mode: After moving to new location, Ghost enters spell casting mode: in this mode, the ghost channels a spell (let's call it Infesting Pulse) and after a few seconds it will release a Green Pulse (similar to ice nova). All monsters hit with the pulse will gain the ghost's corresponding touch. The AoE of the pulse can be tweaked but I would put it to be 1 screen large.

After releasing the pulse, ghost behaviour resets to Phase 1, ghost enters stationary mode, and will do nothing more until the player touches it again or it's lifetime expires.

- Phase 4. Infest Rare Mode: If at any time a Rare or Unique monster walks into a certain range ghost will release a final Pulse and infest the monster.
==========================================================

What this achieves is to make them more responsive, i.e. you have to spend less frustrating time chasing them and have more precision towards where they go. Also they infest monsters more easily. BEcause they move far away and infest large waves of monsters, the risk vs reward aspect of chasing them further to continually reset them is still very solid.

Thoughts?

What prevents the player from clearing the map and then kill the ghost?

"

Jojas wrote:

What prevents the player from clearing the map and then kill the ghost?

not sure I understand what you mean?
Ghost will still be on a timer just like now.

Oh, I see. Got the wrong impression there. In that case, the only problem I see with your suggestion is that with high enough dps you can just position yourself in front of it and burst damage it to death, which would be way easier than it is now.
And for balance reasons you could not just give it more life.

I don't think it's that bad an idea.

I would actually like ghosts having different behaviour outside of their mods they give to opponents. Example would be have ghosts that are aggressive which chase your character and applies debuff on touch and is tethered to you. Ghost would also has an aura which applies a buff to nearby enemies and the ghost can only be hit until it applies buff to a certain number of enemies.

For your version, touching the ghost could apply a debuff and the ghost provides a continuous buff to nearby enemies but only adds ghost touch when it actually touches them. It doesn't continuously run away but tries to buff allies moving short linear distances then stopping and changing directions and enters rares still.

My version:

* ghosts are non-targetable and drop no loot
* only infected monsters drop loot
* when ghosts trigger, they actively chase the player, infecting monsters along the way
* infecting monsters only works in proximitiy of the player (ghosts roaming far away or far behind you, don't infect mobs)
* ghosts disappear after a timer or when they catch you (applying a debuff)
* you can drive ghosts around, infecting mobs, but this is highly risky (especially in HC)

-----

Playing in the 1-month, reminded me how stupid these ghosts are... take avian retch behaviour AI and replace 'search corpses' with 'search walls' subroutine >.<

I like this idea as well

"

morbo wrote:

My version:

* ghosts are non-targetable and drop no loot
* only infected monsters drop loot
* when ghosts trigger, they actively chase the player, infecting monsters along the way
* infecting monsters only works in proximitiy of the player (ghosts roaming far away or far behind you, don't infect mobs)
* ghosts disappear after a timer or when they catch you (applying a debuff)
* you can drive ghosts around, infecting mobs, but this is highly risky (especially in HC)

-----

Playing in the 1-month, reminded me how stupid these ghosts are... take avian retch behaviour AI and replace 'search corpses' with 'search walls' subroutine >.<

I like this version much better. The ghosts would need to be much more dangerous in the power of the buffs they apply to enemies to make up for how easily you can spread them around. I also assume they'll still leap into a rare if they find out.

I dont get peoples problems with ghosts besides their AI

GGG gives you free MF, quite often, with the much-coveted risk/more drops mantra that guys like johnkeys always whine about.

and its being called stupid. ghosts are great idea imo, just needs a bit of polishing.