Does South Ro AC (in Practice) Have Place Holders?

[loramin]

I'm trying to clean up something in the wiki that seems a bit confusing, and having never done the South Ro AC I don't know the answer:

The AC has a single placeholder cycle, which may be Sandgiant Husam, a sand giant, a desert madman, barbarian male A Dervish Cutthroat, or a mummy. Out of all of these, the AC has a 10% chance of spawning in any spawn event. The AC or his PH will only spawn at night (9PM to 7AM in SRo) and has a 30.6 minute respawn timer. This classic placeholder cycle was revealed by EQ Dev Prathun in 2008 and confirmed by Nilbog in 11/18/2016.

Also present in SRo is a despawn/respawn mechanic which removes daytime spawns and replaces them with nighttime spawns at 9PM game time (similar to Kithicor forest). AC's PH cycle is one of these spawns. This means that the AC or his PH will spawn every EQ day at 9PM.

The confusing part is in bold: that respawn timer is almost the entire length of night time in Norath, and given that it takes time to find/kill the PH, and then it takes time to kill the AC (who will despawn in the morning) ... should the wiki even be mentioning all that stuff about the PH, or should it just say "there's effectively a 10% chance for AC to spawn at 9pm" (and then put all that stuff about placeholders as a footnote in fine print or something)?

And if the PH is relevant, am I correct in thinking you'd have to kill it almost immediately at 9pm, and then you'd only have a very brief shot at the AC just before morning?

[Videri]

It does have PHs, and it works as you describe. It's like any other mob with a placeholder. It's just that 9/10 times, when 9pm rolls around, a PH spawns instead of the AC.

And if the PH is relevant, am I correct in thinking you'd have to kill it almost immediately at 9pm, and then you'd only have a very brief shot at the AC just before morning?

I believe this is possible. If you're able to find and kill the placeholder within 1 game hour, I believe it will have a chance to respawn during what is considered Norrathian night, and that should have the same 10% chance to spawn the AC. However, I cannot confirm this.

Also, the respawned mob would also be FTE. However, maybe you'd be the only one who knows to look for it. :cool:

[loramin]

Awesome, that helps. If anyone has ever successfully "respawned' an AC I'd love to hear it though, just because I'd hate to change the wiki to say "you have one chance to kill this PH quickly for an AC respawn" ... if (in practice) that's not ever going to happen.

[Fireblade7]

So wait, to camp the AC, if no one else is there, I can just wait till 9pm and see if it spawns and I I don’t know the ph, just wait till the next 9pm?

Also you say that the second AC is fte? Is it not a camp technically then? I don’t get why that would be fte but not the first one.

I might just be getting everything mixed up.

[loramin]

So wait, to camp the AC, if no one else is there, I can just wait till 9pm and see if it spawns and I I don’t know the ph, just wait till the next 9pm?

Also you say that the second AC is fte? Is it not a camp technically then? I don’t get why that would be fte but not the first one.

I might just be getting everything mixed up.

Generally speaking you can only "camp" mobs with a specified spawn point: technically you're camping the spawn point, not the mob. Because AC can spawn from various spawn points, he can't be camped.

(Actually, like Quillmane, he probably technically can be camped ... but to do so you'd need to know every spawn point, and have a friend waiting at each.)

[Videri]

So wait, to camp the AC, if no one else is there, I can just wait till 9pm and see if it spawns and I I don’t know the ph, just wait till the next 9pm?

Yes, exactly.

Also you say that the second AC is fte? Is it not a camp technically then? I don’t get why that would be fte but not the first one.

I might just be getting everything mixed up.

We're talking about the South Ro Ancient Cyclops. Since it can spawn anywhere in zone, no one can camp it. The first one is FTE as well as any second one that may spawn. I posted what I posted because I believe someday someone will kill what they think is the PH for the AC, they'll tell everyone else they're camping it, other people will say "no," people will petition people, and other dumb stuff.

The Ocean of Tears Ancient Cyclops is, of course, a camp, and not FTE. It has a 6:40 spawn time regardless of time of day. It's just a normal camp.

[Nirgon]

Lemme just spill the beans on this camp so it can be overpopulated like the rest.

There's no one out there exploring or learning on their own anymore, the wiki is fast tracking people into areas and over populating them.

[loramin]

Lemme just spill the beans on this camp so it can be overpopulated like the rest.

There's no one out there exploring or learning on their own anymore, the wiki is fast tracking people into areas and over populating them.

"The beans" are already spilled: the wiki notes on the SRo AC are from 2017!

All I'm doing is clarifying a detail.

[Fireblade7]

Thank you Videri and Loramin! I appreciate your answers!

[Xulia]

Loramin fights the good fight to keep the Wiki looking *pristine*

Mad respect

[aspomwell]

So wait, to camp the AC, if no one else is there, I can just wait till 9pm and see if it spawns and I I don’t know the ph, just wait till the next 9pm?


I've got a friend that always comments on how the population in SRO goes from about 2 to 10 at 8PM every Norrathian night!

[loramin]

It's kinda nuts though: even if you're all alone (as I have been recently) it's a 10% chance every Noarthian day (ie. a bit over an hour?)

In other words, alone it will take you, on average, something like 11 real life hours just to get the ring ... and then if anyone else ever show up during those 11 hours, you have to multiply your time during the period they are there by the number of people that show up.

I kinda get why druids with nothing better to do, who notice that it's 8pm in-game, might pop over to SRo every now and again for a 1 in 20 (assuming only one other person is camping) chance ... but in general it seems like a terribad camp.

P.S. Depending on how this PH stuff works maybe it's only half as bad if you kill PH quick and hang around for respawn? Even if it is the time spent is still huge if a decent number of other players show up.

[jolanar]

I've got a friend that always comments on how the population in SRO goes from about 2 to 10 at 8PM every Norrathian night!

Ya there is basically a bunch of druids that port in before 9 and it's a race to see who can find/attack the AC first.

I wouldn't bother trying to "camp" this AC in the traditional sense. At best you should just leave your character there and log them in before 9 and try to compete with all the druids that port in for fte.