Earthquakes?

[Dark_Magic]

On Halloween 2018, Nilbog posted the following change under News & Announcements:

"0-3 Simulated Respawns will occur each month; 1-3 being the normal amount, and 0 existing as a possibility if we cannot do them at all."

Since then, I'm not sure we've had a single month with 2 or 3 quakes. 0-1 seems to be the norm. Are these automatic now since the Chardok 2.0 patch, or are they still manually triggered?

[theonesler]

There is a thread about whether they are automated or manual. It seems most people are under the impression some are manually triggered. For instance, the one that happened the day before Mother's Day definitely seemed triggered. Similarly, the one that happened the evening of the new ToV raid mechanics release was 100% triggered, given it came with a message from Rog.

I think most people would enjoy more Earthquakes. I've only been around since the New Year so I'm sure there is a lot of history in this department that I am unaware of.

My ideal situation would be an earthquake week/repop week rotation:

Week 1 - Quake
Week 2 - Repops
Week 3 - Quake
etc.
etc.
etc.

But that's just me [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[aaezil]

Seems 0-1 falls between 0-3 move to resolved

[Freakish]

It's supposed to say per year. Month is a typo and will be resolved in the next patch.

[Menden]

Majority are manually triggered by Nilbog, him and Rogean are the only ones that know when they are going to happen.
Rogean did one the other day that was pretty out of the blue and not part of Nilbog's normal cycle.

Be happy they happen at all.

[Hideousclaw]

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

Majority are manually triggered by Nilbog, him and Rogean are the only ones that know when they are going to happen.
Rogean did one the other day that was pretty out of the blue and not part of Nilbog's normal cycle.

Be happy they happen at all.

That was the one where you said your patented "10 min" and he decided to spring it on that 10min mark for funsies?

Good times were had.

[Menden]

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

That was the one where you said your patented "10 min" and he decided to spring it on that 10min mark for funsies?

Good times were had.

hah, yeah pretty much. The troll got trolled. Players benefited! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[saftbudet]

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

Majority are manually triggered by Nilbog, him and Rogean are the only ones that know when they are going to happen.
Rogean did one the other day that was pretty out of the blue and not part of Nilbog's normal cycle.

Be happy they happen at all.

No not happy they happen. Because all earthquakes are america prime playtime.

With no earthquakes atleast most ffa raid targets will eventually space out and have more varied spawn time.

[Twochain]

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

No not happy they happen. Because all earthquakes are america prime playtime.

With no earthquakes atleast most ffa raid targets will eventually space out and have more varied spawn time.

You didn't move to the East Coast of america to be closer to the server for quicker coths and optimal raid time? You sound pretty casual TBH

But for real, that's a selfish thing to say. "I don't like earthquakes because i'm asleep when they happen"

The majority of p99 players live in North America. Those who don't, but want to raid make it happen.

You want Raid targets to be spread out.......... that shit is terrible. And it's not like <Infernus> or <Europa> are going to have a better shot at getting a target over riot or aftermath if Lady M spawns at 5am EST. For example.

Menden, we are thankful for earthquakes. Dear lord are we.

[zodium]

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

Majority are manually triggered by Nilbog, him and Rogean are the only ones that know when they are going to happen.
Rogean did one the other day that was pretty out of the blue and not part of Nilbog's normal cycle.

Be happy they happen at all.

To be fair, I think people fundamentally aren't expressing a lack of gratitude for earthquakes, or desire for Nilbog to get up at 4AM, so much as a desire for automating them entirely. Automating earthquakes would be one of the best possible changes P99 could make for the raid scene. It has been for a long time now.

Two dependable quakes a month significantly eased a lot of the problems on the raid scene that existed at the time. For one, they removed the obstacles to lower-tier guilds realistically competing. They effectively broke the expertise stranglehold A/A held. They brought content spawn rates up in line with classic rates accounting for patches, significantly easing congestion and lowering the incentives to act in a cutthroat manner. But after a couple of months with no or only a few quakes, people stopped to feel the quakes were dependable (and again, it's not a matter of gratitude level here), and so the incentives gradually reverted back to "assume no quakes will happen, just in case they don't."

The perception of dependably regular quakes did a lot of real, tangible work for the raid scene. Sure, quakes are just tons of fun in and of themselves. And we all appreciate the fun we get out of the quakes! But the other, to my mind much more desirable benefits depend on people believing that quakes will happen, for sure. I don't think you have to be ungrateful to think it's a damn shame such a powerful tool so often seems to get neglected.

Edit: even better than twice a month would be a flat 1/15 chance per day to trigger a quake at a randomly rolled time to prevent people gaming conditional probabilities
Edit the second: it bears stating that given the above, the change from 2 to 0-3 quakes a month in a poorly conceived attempt to solve the conditional probability problem was a monumental self-own