Grey Questing 2Follow

I'm probably being dim for not noticing this earlier but I see the game mechanics being used to avoid content and I have to wonder if it's an exploit.

I realised it when I saw a character in a fairly nasty place (for me ) and the mobs cringing from them and thought - as you do - "What level is he?" Well the answer was level 12. And exp mobs for 19 were cringing?

The answer is of course obvious. Group with someone to whom they are grey and they go grey to you too. It is not dependent on range, they just have to be in the zone.

There are lots of quests that consist of visiting a dangerous place or cataloging a dangerous creature and do not require exp killing at all. This of course trivialises such quests.

Is this clever? An exploit? A bug?

I'm interested to see what people think.

I noticed this, too, and I've used it to get into some nasty places - like Sir Wembly's tomb at 18 - got through a ton of grouped skels that were either green or blue to me - so many I don't think I could have fought through solo.

It's probably not a bug - rather an unintended consequence of a feature - but that's just a guess. We should be quiet - it's really helpful. But is it cheating? Heck, I don't think so. I bet there is some blanket clause in the EULA (Essentially Useless Lawyers' Attrocities) that could be stretched way thin to cover it... and I don't care. If you use it occasionally to just finally get something done - some pain in the %$# quest step - why not? If you sploit it 24/7, well then, maybe it is cheating. But I'm an EvilGnome ... I won't tell.

Our group noticed it one night as we went to do a quest , we added a group member not really thinking about levels and went off to kill . We got to our kill spot and noticed all the mobs were grey , we were like WTH !!! We were just there and everything was DB . We finally figured it out , the last member we added to the group was a few levels higher then us and having him in the group greyed out the mobs to all of us . He left the group and we were fine to do the quest . I dont think it is a bug .

Edited, Thu Jan 6 13:24:41 2005 by Fairystears

Now that I think about it, it's a little odd that it works out that way. I do recall joining a group in which I was the lowest member by about two levels to take down one of the Named gnolls for the Freeport to Qeynos betrayal. The mobs did not change in color for me when I joined the group... they were still white to orange, whereas they had to be blue at most for the other members of the group. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to automatically make the mob grey for *everyone* just 'cause the "big brother" (or sister, of course) is too high for them but that's how it seems to work.

Of course, I could just be color blind. :)

There are 2 exploits that I see...

1. A higher level griefer coaxes someone much lower to join up. The griefer then takes this person into a very dangerous area (in the middle of mobs that would normally aggro and insta-gib the poor guy/gal), then kick the person from group or disband.

2. Powerlevelling through quest completion. Who cares about getting exp from greyed mobs when after the quest is complete, you still get experience. Only deterrence would be the tediousness of the quests (getting them, going through the motions, completing them, talking to whoever if need be, etc).

Other than that, I think it's a nice thing to have in the game. Say you want to go to a certain area to meet up (there's a get together that might be planned on LD near the Qeynos Claymore monument). Wouldn't it be nice to hire or ask for the help of a higher level player to escort you to your destination?

Grouping with someone 6 (I believe its 6) levels higher than you will cause 2 things to happen.

A) give you no xp
B) give you no quest rewards

This is not a bug. Having creatures around you go gray is done for 2 reasons.

1) to prevent the random aggro you would receive if you are within 1 level of the green creatures when those creatures con gray to the higher level player in your group

2) the highest member will not receive xp from a gray con mob (to him) and will make the battle that much easier for you since the mob is of no threat to him. So now you do not receive XP because the fight will be too easy

Example, level 25 creatures are green to you and normally aggro. You group with someone that is 2 levels higher, which to them, cons the mobs as gray. Those same mobs now con gray to you as well. The group, as a whole, no longer has to worry about aggro from low level mobs. At the same time, those gray mobs are going to be way to easy to the player that is 2 levels higher than you and will no longer give you XP since its not a challenge to the group.

This is done more for XP sake than anything else. So a level 10 does not join a level 16 and have the level 16 kill level 10 mobs. Thus giving the level 10 easy, great and fast XP that is no threat to the level 16.

It doesn't have to be a griefer.

What if - since everyone seems to consider this a legitimate ruse - you are busy catalogging in the middle of somewhere nasty and your "protector" goes LD?

It really seems to be another safeguard against powerleveling, which is awesome. If you were in a group with someone to whom the mobs conned grey, and they conned blue or green to you, your group could tear through tons of them quickly, gaining you experience faster than you could possibly get in a group your level.

Moreover, SOE knew what they were doing. The built-in experience nulling at a six-level disparity is evidence of this.

What I don't know (and would really like to find out) is, can someone get quest credit for killing X amount of mobs, while grouped with a much higher level player?

For example, the Balance of Life quests. One needs to kill a certain amount of creatures, then go back to the quest giver to receive their reward.

As far as my experiences go, I can kill grey mobs and still get credit for the kills* and thus be able to complete the quest and get rewards for it, including experience points. Hence the way I worded my first post. I would believe that even if a player was in a group with someone 6+ levels higher than him, the mobs they kill will still count towards the quest. Thus, the lower level can complete the quest and get experience [and other rewards]. This could be a form of powerlevelling, no? However, it's definitely very tedious. That may be a good enough deterrent.

* One very good example I have for this is a quest that can be gotten in the Down Below. I had to kill Bloodsaber Meddlers to recover some stolen bones. The meddlers were grey to me and I would get quest credit. Upon getting the sixth bone, the quest completed and I got experience and coin.

Ah, I understand now. Thank you for clarifying. ^^