Eliminate Taggers and Failed Monsters



I think battling monsters is one of the coolest features of Castle Age. The whole coop teamwork thing is different from a lot of computer and fb games. I noticed fairly early in my Castle Age career that some of these monsters were pretty tough to beat... and quite a few of them failed. I wish that someone would have sat me down and told me then what I am about to tell you now. Here goes.

It takes teamwork to defeat a monster. The monsters in Castle Age are designed to be challenging but not overly so if everyone pulls their weight. As with every team, when someone doesn't do his or her fair share, everyone else has to work harder. This inevitably leads to bad feelings, hostilities and increases the likelihood that the monster will fail. Some folks invest days working over a monster along with a ton of energy and stamina... only to get nothing for their efforts in the end. That just plain sucks. Everyone therefore has a responsibility to do as much damage as they are able, put out Call to Arms and, in the case of many monsters, spend energy.

Do as Much Damage as You Can

This starts with taking on the appropriate monster for your level and not spreading yourself over too many monsters. Use the guidelines under the "summon monster" tab in the game if you are not sure. If you attack a monster you are taking up one of a limited number of spots. If you can or will not invest a goodly portion of your stamina (and in some cases energy) then you are taking that spot away from someone who can and will. This is known as "tagging" in Castle Age (because some people will "tag" a monster with one attack and come back later when they have more stamina). If you don't have the stamina NOW then don't commit to this monster NOW. Without exception everybody in Castle Age hates taggers.

"There are others here way tougher than me who can kill this monster." "Yeah, but I am also working on 3 other monsters." "It looks like the monster might fail so I will lay back and see how it is going before I commit my stamina." All it takes is a small percentage of folks with these attitudes to ensure a failure. 4 or 5 people like this on the bottom of a small list of attackers discourages others from joining in or doing their share if they are already in. YOU are committed to this monster once you make your first attack. YOU must do what YOU can to help kill the monster. Don't leave it to others to do YOUR job.

Let me give you an example. Azriel probably has one of the highest failure rates. Why? She has around 600 million points and only 135 spots. 45 of those spots are for big hitters level 150 or above. Including launching some the weapons, and assuming some of the bottom tiers don't get filled, that works out to an average, give or take, of about 6 million damage per player. Yet time and time again players take up a spot and do 1, 2 or 3 million damage (and sometimes even less) thinking they have done their share. People end up having to spend favour points to bail out everybody else or worse yet some high level player who could have contributed more can't get in because YOU, who have taken up one of their potential spots, are happy with your 2 million damage... and the monster fails.

Call to Arms (CTA)

In addition to doing as much damage as you can, you should also put out a CTA regularly throughout your battle with the monster. First, it lets others know about the monster and invites them in to fight, filling up spaces. More people fighting = better chance of success and less work for everyone else. A good rule of thumb is to CTA once about every 6 or 8 hours or so.

Second, putting our a Call to Arms allows people seeing it on your page, the fb feed or the CA monster feed to help summon a special weapon that will inflict a massive amount of damage on your monster. It costs 1 stamina to respond to a CTA and gets you 1-3 experience. When you do the math, CTAs are a very economical way of inflicting damage on a creature (as well as collecting xp)... and reduces the amount of stamina everyone fighting the monster needs to spend. You can click on your own CTA once per weapon as well further reducing the amount of time it takes to summon the weapon.

Spend Energy

Many monsters require the use of energy as well as stamina. In some cases it is to reduce a forcefield, fortify, or a use special class skill such as strengthening, healing, crippling or deflecting. As is sometimes the case with doing damage, some players are stingy with their energy. Maybe they are saving it up for questing or maybe they think because there are so many folks participating in the battle someone else will step up. Don't be one of those players. You get experience for using energy as well as stamina... experience which increases loot when the monster gets deaded.

With some monsters such as Bahamut, Gehenna and Azriel, when the energy bar is under 80%, less damage is inflicted on attacks. The lower the bar the lower the damage for folks spending their hard earned stamina, in some cases up to 1/2 or 1/3 the damage they could have done if the bar were full. Personally I won't even attack isf the bar isn't at least 3/4 full. Proper etiquette is to leave the bar as full if not fuller than you found it. Don't cheap out.

Good players do this stuff automatically. Unknowledgeable or selfish players don't. Which category do you fall into?

Feel free to use this or link back to it as you see fit. I honestly think the vast majority of taggers just don't know any better. Education is the first step to eliminating taggers and increasing the chances of a successful monster hunt. Cheers everybody and happy hunting. :)