Quote:
Originally Posted by nilbog
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
If there was a perfect system in which raid targets spawned simultaneously within a certain window:
- Would guilds still poopsock?
- Would a single guild still get most of the targets?
From what I've seen, raiding guilds on p99 have far greater numbers than were historically on my eqlive server. I would hate to make a system that somehow made things worse :T
Anyways, keep up the proposals. Hopefully something is suggested that supports more guilds getting targets without diminishing competition. |
1. With any kind of window, either poopsocking or tracking is going to happen until the server gets to a point where no one cares enough about kills/loot to put in the time. And that doesn't seem likely to happen short of all the un-casual players quitting.
2. One guild would not have gotten most of the kills on the last two repops if either a) the other guilds had picked targets they could realistically kill before TMO showed up to compete and/or b) everyone knew what time the repop was going to occur. It also would have helped for the repop to be during a time when the most players tend to be logged into the server.
Imagine the system below:
1. Trak, maestro, and draco have a 1-hour window in which all three of the mobs will simultaneously spawn. This happens every 3-ish days.
2. Oldworld dragons, gods, outdoor dragons, VS, and VP have a 1-hour window in which all of the mobs will simultaneously spawn. This happens every 7-ish days.
3. The "-ish" accounts for a staff-selected time when the window will be near the 3/7-day mark.
4. The window's opening and closing times will be made known on the p99 site and ingame.
The 1-hour window is there just for a bit of... I don't know, I guess excitement. A chance for people to maybe make it in in time even if they aren't free at the instant the window opens. Whatever. It isn't really of consequence, I don't think, whether this exists or not. HOWEVER, any larger of a window will certainly work against the casual guilds being online in full force when stuff pops.
The 3-day window forces the more dedicated guilds to race/FTE/whatever for Trak to get those tasty BPs and teeth at the cost of missing out on the couple of nice things maestro and draco still have for these guilds. Yeah, TMO could split its forces and kill trak, draco, and maestro at the same time, but I think that thinning of forces really increases the chance of losing 1+ of the mobs to a guild that focuses. Smaller/more casual guilds get to head to/already be in hate or fear, though they certainly still need to be racing because enough people were certainly logged out on ledge to kill trak within minutes of the server coming up.
The 7-day window forces the more dedicated guilds to pick their priority targets. Maybe a guild can split 2 ways, but certainly not 3. VS, Inny, and CT are most likely the biggest targets, but so long as not all of the guilds try to race each other to those three targets, there are still 6 dragons out there sitting around just waiting to cough up their scales and cloaks and belts and shields and such.
Staff picking the windows can try to spread spawns out so that things aren't always popping at 8-11 pm est, etc. Everyone being on notice of when the window opens will give everyone an equal warning to try to be online at the right time, saving the more casual guilds from having to play 24/7 to compete and letting the more dedicated guilds play their alts or farm or whatever without worrying about being interrupted by a batphone.
Alternatively, the 1-hour window remains 1-hour but not everything spawns at the same time. Logging out at your highest priority target is suddenly a huge risk, because if he doesn't pop right away you could potentially lose an hour of other guilds killing everything else.
Random idea, not sure exactly how it would work because I lost my train of thought on it: raid mobs despawn if not engaged within a certain amount of time, and then perhaps their respawn is shortened cumulatively with multiple despawns? I don't know what the hell I was going for when that popped into my head.