Raid changes (again)

[Splorf22]

Last october I posted the follow thread on raid changes:

Originally Posted by Loraen

So I had a chat with a friend last night about the Sleeper server. Now compared to P1999 the quality of the server and its approximation to classic are very low . . . . Nevertheless after chatting a while we both decided that if the Sleeper ever launched for real with a decent population we'd have to consider moving there . . . most of it is the tokens to spawn raid mobs. Think about this: the endgame scene on P1999 is so bad that we are seriously considering playing on a server that added relative level to damage calculations one month ago and has hundreds of other bugs.

There followed the usual huge thread with the usual consensus: simultaneous repops and FTE shouts would be a huge step towards improving the raid scene, and if that didn't work we could continue to experiment. Nilbog was on board, and eventually we got:

Originally Posted by Rogean

Here is what nilbog and I are currently planning/designing/brainstorming:

We will be cutting the variance in half on the existing raid spawns.

We will be implementing an FTE notice of some sort, whether this is an emote or some type of message.

We will be implementing a simulated patch day respawn. Here is how it will work.

The server will pick one day of each week (Random 1 to 7, Sunday through Saturday). It will then pick a random time. I will not disclose the range of the possible times, but it will only include afternoon and evening hours, so as to give the best chance for the most people to benefit from it.

A serverwide message will go off indicating that the simulated patch day respawn has or will be taking effect shortly. All raid mobs will (either immediately, delayed, or spanned, tbd) respawn.

What happened? The guild Forceful Entry was formed to compete with TMO. The peak server population went up 50% from 700 to 1050 (some of this was the winter of course). Casual guild membership swelled with all the new players who thought they might get to see Trakanon without sitting on his spawn point for days.

Five months later, the raid scene is worse than ever. With 50% more players the competition is even fiercer, and FE/TMO now sock VS for two days at a time and some people are now using autofire programs to get FTE. RnF erupts every other day with one guild accusing the other of cheating/kiting/stalling. It seems that now we have even MORE variance because of all the raid mobs that are missing their windows. Hell even the 'casual' zones like Sky are taken 5+ nights a week. I am seriously considering rerolling on red just because the raid scene on blue is so fucking bad, and I'm not really a fan of getting ganked while AFK.

TL;DR: As far as I'm concerned you guys owe us nothing. I have had large personal projects before so I know just how much time you guys put in. P1999 is great 1-59 and has allowed me to relive a lot of memories. But waving these raid changes in front of us and then not doing them is really frustrating.

[Nirgon]

You know what raid change would save a whole lot of coding?

Uthgaard being back. Lot of Velious content and other fixes done too I'd surmise.

Really though? No variance, whoever gets xp gets mob. Let the players come up with clever ways to manange, just enforce training.

[Alarti0001]

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

You know what raid change would save a whole lot of coding?

Uthgaard being back. Lot of Velious content and other fixes done too I'd surmise.

Really though? No variance, whoever gets xp gets mob. Let the players come up with clever ways to manange, just enforce training.

[August]

I don't know what is good for the server but I can tell you what has happened for me.

I rolled here as my favorite class, enchanter, and was pretty optimistic about being able to enjoy the end game. I took my time leveling and had a lot of fun. When I first started here (ignore my join date - i expressed interest about 2 years ago and had a life event that prevented me from playing) there were about 500 people online at peak hours.

Roll forward 3 months and I'm level 54. There's about 1k people on, and I app to join FE. In my interview, I state that it is imperative for me that I am not involved in any poopsocking.

See, I played on Fippy (and Combine, and EQMac, and Live, but that's another story) - was, in fact, a personality there. I got to max level on Fippy and began to realize my only option was to poopsock. I couldn't justify to my wife the time I was spending on EQ when i was literally sitting in permafrost/seb/what have you waiting for a mob to spawn.

So I quit Fippy. I left behind an empire of platinum and tradeskill mastery because there wasn't anything for me to do - i didn't have the best gear, i hadn't hit all the raid targets, but it was so trivialized by 150 people sitting on spawn that it wasn't worth it.

Where was I? oh ya, in my FE interview I said I wouldn't participate in poopsocking and was told that that didn't happen on this server.

Two weeks later and all the guild messages were about parking your 'raiding alt' at one spot and parking your main somewhere else. We get to 12 hours and a sock starts - we're at Fippy Darkpaw level.

So I quit here, too. I'm not gone for good, but I haven't logged on in several weeks and feel no incentive to do so. I don't know what can fix the server, but I know that right now it feels unhealthy, and it felt like nothing was being done about it. I want Velious to come out as well but I'm not stupid enough to complain about it - it's a free service after all.

Also if you read this and you know me in game no you can't have my money cuz what's mines is mines.

-Tomtee

[Kevynne]

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

You know what raid change would save a whole lot of coding?

Uthgaard being back. Lot of Velious content and other fixes done too I'd surmise.

Really though? No variance, whoever gets xp gets mob. Let the players come up with clever ways to manange, just enforce training.

[Autotune]

I'm just going to vote no, because there is no hope for change.

[Nirgon]

Variance (esp now) creates 10 hour poop socks which aren't classic. It makes any normal human being hate this. It's not like RNF's sewers won't be short of overflowing variance or no variance.

[oldschooltrader]

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

Variance (esp now) creates 10 hour poop socks which aren't classic. It makes any normal human being hate this. It's not like RNF's sewers won't be short of overflowing variance or no variance.

Incorrect. Pixel obessed greedy players create the poopsocks they dwell in. Poop has to b created by the player and then stored in the sock. Honestly the fact that a nostalgic server didnt start off with strict play nice rules and rotations boggles my mind. Whats the point of dominating a 13 year old game on an emulated server.

Oh wait..... makes sense now...

[RahlaeRuffian]

Rotations worked well on my server on live. I don't see why it wouldn't here.

[falkun]

Server Admins set the flags twice in less than a week for simulated respawns. TMO got most of the mobs still, I think that did not sit well with Server Staff. The other option is they are taking a note from EQMac: simulated patches every other week instead of every week. That would mean we are due for a simulated respawn next week, giving Server Staff the benefit of the doubt.

I would think this option should be vetted thoroughly (read: multiple months) before it is thrown out the window as a bad idea. We have had variance for years, simulated respawns are tried twice in less than a week and the "test" is complete? Sample size is too small.

I like the changes Rogean proposed, but they need time for the server to adjust to them if that's what the back-to-back respawns were testing out. Rome wasn't built in a day.