List System

[Enshadowed]

The stories coming out of the Manastone camp are pretty concerning. Staying glued to your computer, unable to afk for more than 15 minutes at a time, for over two days in some cases, is going to get someone seriously hurt. This is madness.

"Then don't camp it!" I hear some of you saying. There's no way in hell I would right now, even if I were of the appropriate level to try. I'm not posting this for myself; I just don't want to see any dead nerds over an elf pixel. And I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that's where we're heading, especially as more people join the queue, should the list system stay as-is.

I'm not a dev, nor do I totally understand how complicated any of this is or is not, but here's my proposal:

1. Take away the AFK checks.
   
   
2. Make the corpse FFA once the expiration reaches one minute.
   
   
3. If your IP changes after camping out, going LD, etc, your position on the list is forfeit.
   
   
4. Root the mobs in question, or code the corpse to slingshot back to spawn point.
   
   
5. Permanent character lockout for each legacy item.

Let people afk. You'll still need to pay attention incase of a group wipe, group leaves, or your item drops. But it wouldn't be the dangerous level of commitment we're looking at now. People are seriously risking their health over legacy items, or have the unfair advantage of multiple people account sharing to take their turns in shifts. Let's not wait for the worst to happen to make some changes.

This obviously creates new problems, like having 60+ people on the list for any given item. There's no perfect system, but I feel like permanent character lockout, and being unable to play your account for however many days you're AFK on the list, would be pretty self-regulating.

The list system was a wonderful idea, and I'm so glad they tried something. But I think a few tweaks would go a long way for the health and safety of everyone.

[hotkarlmarxbros]

This has already been solved. People are using Teamviewer/RDP/etc to access the char on the list and go through the afk checks. Checking IP, or even machine ID etc will do nothing. It has no reason to change under these circumstances, and people can spin up as many VMs and bring as many characters over that they want. This makes this an enterprise to share between 2-3 friends working in shifts to grind that one character to the top position and get their manastone. People who are claiming 60 hours awake and paying attention are probably not being completely honest. I'm sure they had someone pick up 5 hours here or there so they could get a nap in, likely through the more conventional method of just ld and have them log in from another computer altogether. When the reality of this settles in, it will be understood that sleep coverage will just be a necessity and that is how the camp will proceed.

My biggest concern, though, is when you have 2-3 people working shifts on a host machine via teamviewer, it starts to get awfully tempting to, instead of clicking one characters afk box, to start clicking several characters at once. Completely untraceable. IP address and machine/game ID, whatever other external methods of tracking, are never changed.

Something should be done about this sooner than later. Otherwise this "pure" green server is going to be just as tainted as the bug-riddled blue "beta" server that everyone looks down their noses at, with the majority of rare drops being held by an unscrupulous minority while everyone legitimate looks on gobsmacked.

[toasteroven]

Which is worse?

A. Players who take turns on one account

B. People who RDP and control multiple characters at once

C. One person staying awake for 100+ hours

You can't bash the players for responding to the system. You have to redesign it. If this was a real camp you would pass it on to someone else who may not even be logged in, out of the zone, or AFK up until that point. When it's their turn they would be called to the camp. That person would then start their grind for the next 5 - 30 hours. This sounds more reasonable than one person spending an entire week here, which is the projected time as of now.

There's no reason for the next person on the list to be here until it's their turn

[cd288]

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

The stories coming out of the Manastone camp are pretty concerning. Staying glued to your computer, unable to afk for more than 15 minutes at a time, for over two days in some cases, is going to get someone seriously hurt. This is madness.

"Then don't camp it!" I hear some of you saying. There's no way in hell I would right now, even if I were of the appropriate level to try. I'm not posting this for myself; I just don't want to see any dead nerds over an elf pixel. And I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that's where we're heading, especially as more people join the queue, should the list system stay as-is.

I'm not a dev, nor do I totally understand how complicated any of this is or is not, but here's my proposal:

1. Take away the AFK checks.
   
   
2. Make the corpse FFA once the expiration reaches one minute.
   
   
3. If your IP changes after camping out, going LD, etc, your position on the list is forfeit.
   
   
4. Root the mobs in question, or code the corpse to slingshot back to spawn point.
   
   
5. Permanent character lockout for each legacy item.

Let people afk. You'll still need to pay attention incase of a group wipe, group leaves, or your item drops. But it wouldn't be the dangerous level of commitment we're looking at now. People are seriously risking their health over legacy items, or have the unfair advantage of multiple people account sharing to take their turns in shifts. Let's not wait for the worst to happen to make some changes.

This obviously creates new problems, like having 60+ people on the list for any given item. There's no perfect system, but I feel like permanent character lockout, and being unable to play your account for however many days you're AFK on the list, would be pretty self-regulating.

The list system was a wonderful idea, and I'm so glad they tried something. But I think a few tweaks would go a long way for the health and safety of everyone.

No offense, but I don't like any of your ideas.

1. AFK checks are needed or things will get a lot worse in terms of people abusing the system. While I think it's stupid to spend so long camping an item, I do think you need to be present. This is how things were back in the day. You held down your camp and waited for the drop. You didn't sit there AFK for several hours to get a valuable item.

2. Yeah, no. This will create rampant abuse and griefing.

3. Account sharing is legal on P99. Therefore, there should be no limitation for when you do it. If you don't like how you have to camp it solo, then go join a guild. Become friends with people and be social in the game so that they will help you. Offer to trade shifts from them while you're camping it for shifts from you whenever they camp it themselves.

4. Not really sure how this solves any of the current MS list situations.

5. I guess you could do this, but I highly doubt that, based on the length of the list and the immense amount of time it's taking most people to get an MS from the time they join the list to when it drops for them, that there are many people (if any) who have or are camping multiple manastones. Also, not classic.

[Phaezed-Reality]

whole lot of effort to cheat to get a digital pixel.

wonder what would possess someone to do that.

[Hoppkins_Wytchfinder]

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

Something should be done about this sooner than later. Otherwise this "pure" green server is going to be just as tainted as the bug-riddled blue "beta" server that everyone looks down their noses at, with the majority of rare drops being held by an unscrupulous minority while everyone legitimate looks on gobsmacked.

Luckily its not the earths gold or oil reserves we are talking about.

If people want to become Mr Robot and destroy their bodies with lack of sleep or become human MMPORG relay teams to get a classic item it seems more trouble than its worth trying to stop them.

Considering the devs dont get paid for the benefit i can understand why they are not breaking their backs to do it [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Fammaden]

Just get rid of these stupid items, they aren't necessary to enjoy classic everquest, in fact they make the entire community feel less classic. Get rid of all this legacy obsession and the people who just want to okay the damn game regardless will still log in.

[cd288]

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

whole lot of effort to cheat to get a digital pixel.

wonder what would possess someone to do that.

Eh, I wouldn't call it cheating. Account sharing has always been legal

[AegnorP99]

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

Just get rid of these stupid items, they aren't necessary to enjoy classic everquest, in fact they make the entire community feel less classic. Get rid of all this legacy obsession and the people who just want to okay the damn game regardless will still log in.

I'm starting to agree with this. People are sitting on the list for 50+ hours if another thread is to be believed...

[Cen]

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

This has already been solved. People are using Teamviewer/RDP/etc rerouting the MD5 hash to access the server icon laser space explosion doritos inserted into their own ..... gobsmacked.

Okay how many people are doing this versus not, let alone know what the hell any of this is your talking about.

I dont think 99% of the playerbase is elite hax0r