All,
I would like to start off with 2 statements on the matter.
1. If there is an ambush and you are careless you should probably die.
2. Invisibility shouldn't be the only way to protect yourself. One of the premises of OL combat was to make it so not all fighters are mages and vice versa.
Personally, I like this idea originally proposed by kiwi and expanded by Learner:
Learner, on 01 August 2016 - 08:50 AM, said:
If listening at the door were to be added, the Perception should help define how far from the door you can hear and it would be a fraction of the Perception or a non-linear curve. I also wouldn't want to ever mention any number either.
But, you still wouldn't be able to tell 5 rabbits from 5 RPF's.
If you are careful and use the seeing eye on a door or flag, the server will give you an estimate for how many creatures are near the door with the radius defined by your perception. I think it should give a guess at "small/medium/large" as the size of the creatures as well. From an RP perspective this should only work on caves, doors, flags...but should not work on waypads such as in WS or the magic school maze (I think this is a valid time to say "use invisibility" since it is a magical thing anyway

). Note: size, not strength, so a rabid fluff and a brown rabbit would both be small, but a male orc may be deemed large!
There is a non-zero amount of time for your actor to transfer locations, and you can be attacked in that time which gives you zero time to respond (especially if the creature can cooldown you). I decided to run an experiment on test server to see how big a deal it was. I went to Carmien Manor and set my screen up so I could click the door going from troll area to fluff area back and forth without moving the mouse. I stood in the troll area and invaded 1400 brown rabbits right next door. I turned on an auto-clicker with 1/100 seconds between clicks to see if my actor would get in and out without being attacked. Alas, my actor was attacked by the rabbit swarm. If it was a swarm of giant midgets and white tigers I would have been rekt, which I think is not great game design. Thus, I think there should be at least 1-2 seconds delay on all doors/cave entrances/waypads.
Ambushes can be an exciting addition to an invasion, but above all a game is supposed to be fun. I think either or both of these changes would overall improve fun for players. Remember, Learner is constantly coming up with new ways for invasions to ambush and kill players anyway!
RM