A weird little project I’ve been working on. Still a few left to do but the majority is complete.
This is a playlist full (84 as of writing) of lengthy recordings taken of main mission targets and notable NPCs with lengthier cycles. If you ever want to know where a target or NPC is at a particular point in time, this may help you get an idea.
However, there are some things to note. There is much RNG involved in certain NPCs’ cycles (though not quite as many as some may think), as well as other triggers that can alter them, including triggers that occur just by having proximity to the NPCs (e.g. extra conversations). The majority of these recordings were made with great lengths taken to avoid triggering any of these, so you’ll be seeing the NPCs base behaviours - what they do when you’re not around.
Some NPCs have multiple recordings, capturing some of the triggers and path alterations. There is somewhat of a focus on making these useful for challenge/speed run strategies, making it possible to plan things without spending extra time investigating. But I also felt these could provide value in terms of documenting the game for curiosity and preservation’s sake.
One target of special mention is Wazir Kale AKA the Maelstrom, who has an altered cycle depending on your starting location (it’s generally the same route, but starting from different points, and can be reversed in direction - also a couple starts have the trigger of the flag raising automatically). This covers all of those, and can be used to get an idea of where he will be at a certain time. However, the Maelstrom employs some very effective confusion tactics if you actually get close to him, and will change his behaviour in order to “blend” and seem like any ordinary NPC.
Some recordings are longer/shorter, but as a general rule I tried to capture at least 3-4 cycles after any variations, but only being human and having limited patience, some may be on the shorter side and some may be a little sloppily shot in places due to me half falling asleep after 15 minutes of following a target around. Check the descriptions for any NPC/target-specific notes, and make as much use of them as you can.
I aim to eventually provide more comprehensive documentations in text form that go into all the things these recordings don’t show. These recordings show NPCs’ “base” behaviours, so by following them around and triggering the things that aren’t usually triggered, those things can be documented separately, and maybe we can work towards a comprehensive set of documentation on all the WoA maps… this is just a first step though and I doubt I will be doing all of that myself lol.
(^ playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcO6WQP9gUsh1h0ljFWetvoXEgPqTpxCZ)
