High profile camps, policies, and problems -> Possible solution?

[squarez]

Let me preface this by saying I am still new to P1999 but have played classic and dealt with similar issues.

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine, who is also new, about high profile camps (fungi, etc) on the server and how they are very tough to get into. This seemed pretty reasonable as they are highly sought after items. Through his talks with his veteran p99 player friend, and through personal discovery, he quickly found out that many of these camps are essentially monopolies run by the same people (Blitzkragg and King Tranix was his example).

Now I do not know anything in regards to Blitzkragg or the other 'privately' controlled camps, but with the recent talk of corpse lining bans and other refinements to the camping policies, I thought I would pose a possible solution to what appears to be an issue with hoarding on very scarce items:

Assuming people cannot be agreeable or are running these camps to sustain their financial income through RMT,

What about a CD or cooldown on taking these rare items per account?

Basically, you loot a high profile item (these being determined by staff) twice during the threshold time X, and your account is auto flagged/suspended, with items to be subsequently deleted, etc.

WARNING: if you dont want to read code just skip ahead to TL DR or discussion---

I am not too familiar with what is available during looting in the code, but something like a call to specific SQL procedure for these exceptional item camps that basically stores: account that looted the item, what item it was, and when it was looted, then write these items to a table. Now assuming there is some kind of scheduler in place for SQL operations, every so often run a procedure that basically reads through every record of this new table and performs a check on each high-profile item, and either flags or stores infringing accounts based on difference in date of item loots and the items respective CD for looting.

So for example:

1. Bob camps king for fungi ->

2. Loots Fungi Tunic -> SQL call to procedure: stores his acct, the item, datetime of loot -> stores in our HighProfileLooted table

3. Bob continues to camp fungi ->
Loots another Fungi Tunic -> SQL call to procedure: stores his acct, the item, datetime of loot -> stores in our HighProfileLooted table

4. 4AM Job scheduler kicks off and runs through its procedures -> runs our TrackMonopolyMen procedure/script/etc

5. TrackMonopolyMen now runs and does something like this (sorry for the pseudo C# code):

recordset hpItems = dbfetch(“select distinct * from HighProfileItemEnum”) 

Foreach (rec hpItemRec in hpItems)
{
	recordset hpLooted = dbfetch("select * from HighProfileLooted where item = @0", hpItemRec.item)

	recordset accts = hpLooted.asEnum().SelectDistinct(acct)

	foreach (int acctX in accts)
	{
		datetime previousDateTime = beginningoftime()

		foreach (rec hpLootedRec in hpLooted.Where(r => r.acct = acctX))
		{
			if ((hpLootedRec.lootTime - previousDateTime ) < hpItemRec.itemCooldownTime)
			{
				SuspendPlayer(acctX)
			}
			else
			{
				previousDateTime = hpLootedRec.lootTime
			}

		}

		// do some DB cleanup here
	}
}

With some cleanup automated at the end of the script you could maintain the table for these looted high profile items. This would ensure the script is not processing all of the high profile items ever looted.

Now the fairness of using something like this would be determined by the loot time thresholds set by the staff. While this might be non-classic / intrusive, it could be a very effective way to encourage/force non douche-baggery.

Discussion

This was based on my conversations with my friend and others regarding the camping of high value mobs. My initial take was that you had to know the right people and have some pretty serious connections to make it into these camps which are not always group camped, but many times a single person.

Are a lot of these camps indeed 'cock-blocked' ? Or are rotations generally negotiable?

For things like Fungi, I just assume it would be very competitive, but if someone was say, camping an Epic mob to sell the MQ over someone legitimately trying to camp it for their own epic, I would definitely say that is a big problem.

Is this kind of solution a good idea? or is there an easy way around this system? like chaining the camp through friends / alt accounts / etc?


TL : DR New technology allows more players opportunity at rare camps by enforcing account wide cooldowns on looting (staff chosen) rare items.

[Pheer]

theyd just park mules there on other accounts and swap over to loot it when it drops

[DetroitVelvetSmooth]

You want in my camp just ask to get on the list...unless you are in a certain guild.

[Dirtynads]

Inb4 RNF

[Rararboker]

If your new and haven't got to the point where you can go to these camps, like it sounds, then it probably sounds a lot worse than it really is. Sometimes a camp gets hit hard (sometimes for weeks) but it isn't as bad overall as rumors make it sound. Once you get there, you'll see how it is. Sometimes the camps are taken sometimes they are open. All about whats going on that day.

When earthquakes happen, for raid mob repops, most of the high profile camps are spontaneously abandoned. Great time to swoop in.

[Mac Drettj]

i recommend red server

[danceparty]

approved. bringing server down to patch. stand by.

[toolshed]

Wouldn't it just be easier to make corpses count against lore?

[Hogfather]

Originally Posted by toolshed [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wouldn't it just be easier to make corpses count against lore?

Pretty sure this sort of thing is already against the PnP per Derubael's recent post on the matter of camps. The rule is that once you get your item you are done and must pass on the camp, unsure how well / easily this is enforced.

[Bohab]

This is ridiculous. I suggest you find a different game to play OP.