I proposed this approach in the past and it was not met favorably. I am pleased to see that a change of heart has occurred. As always, there are those with a suspicion of why this is coming about now (and not previously) but it's hardly worth worrying over. (put away those tinfoil hats)
I am in favor of seeing the trackers no longer being allowed to be the taggers. Allowing taggers to be camped at / near the spawn still pushes a significant advantage to those with exceptionally low latency and high speed disk systems. Adding those with IP exempt accounts to the mix adds to this advantage for some at the cost of fairness to others.
I accept that no solution will ever be 100% "fair" to all involved however I do suggest that we all add to this proposal; a request to the server admins to randomize the spawn location of the raid mob such that it will be somewhere along its normal path route. It is my belief that this minor change would significantly mitigate the multi-account / faster system / lower latency disparity which would otherwise exist and open up these FFA targets to more guilds on the server.
Adding the spawn randomizer is not 100% "classic" but it's a very minor change and would not break the classic feel of the server. It is an attempt to address other factors of the modern computing environment which were not also present in the classic era of Everquest. We also already have other policies which are not classic in place because they make the server a better place for those who play here (no boxing rule for one).
Partial Summary:
- Guilds to agree to a policy where trackers are not also taggers.
- Guilds to agree to a penalty for violating the policy. (This would often require GM assistance).
- Guilds to request a change to the spawn mechanic such that the mob spawns at a random location along its normal path. (If Nilbog is willing to agree to this and can commit time to code it)
We could all then hammer out the final details of where guilds can pre-stage etc. if we can get agreement to the above. Thoughts?