Adding More Noise to the Concert

[Cecily]

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

I get that people come to p99 for "classic" EQ experiences (although we all know this server isn't and can never be truly FULL on classic...)

But you'd think 20 years later there'd be some realization that it's okay to also tweak the game to benefit player's general well being and health.

And that lands my plane on the runway of target windows.

I just don't understand how it is healthy to have 16hr or 24hr spawn windows on a server with such high competition and dozens of mobs to contest.

The large windows are also a major culprit in spread out timers when it hasn't quaked in a while because the variable spawn times spread out all the windows.

Why can't we just agree that 4 or 8 hour spawn timers would be so much healthier, still leave pop times up to chance (and thus require tracking/socking), and decrease the amount of quakes needed to keep people more or less happy?

Maybe I'm delusional but every time I think about this "fix" it works in my head. Someone talk me out of it?

And again, I don't really care about whether this is truly classic or not. We're (mostly) grown adults, I don't think the desire to want something a bit healthier for our lives should be lost on most who read this.

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

Well, you put it in RnF where it was destined to end up.

Join date less than a year old and you don't understand how the server ended up this way. You don't say...

The problem isn't spawn windows. The problem is some people get their kicks from feeling superior when they deny other people the opportunity at something. That's what makes their endorphins flow. The spawn windows was a "hey, stop it" from the admins to try to give other people a shot at something.

Back in the kunark days there was a guild that was so on top of things no one else had the opportunity to try a boss mob to learn techniques. IIRC, the idea was to make the spawn window so long no one would sit through it all. Unfortunately some neckbeards are so thick they will sit through a large minority of their day waiting for an imaginary dragon to spawn and hit the batphone. The idea of dropping spawn windows has come up several time throughout the years, the answer from the top is generally something like: you guys(and girls) treat another like animals. You've proven time and again you won't change. Spawn Windows are staying. Same for decreasing window duration.

On top of this, can you imagine how hard some people would have this server on lockdown if they knew the exact second a bossmob was going to spawn? They could be in, kill it, and log off before anyone knew they were there. How does anyone have a chance if they have to actively track for days to find when something spawn? It's pretty tough keeping track of spawn windows as it is. Doing it the other way would be worse. No thank you.

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

Hey Nuggie,

Yeah I started playing on p99 at the new year... so my knowledge and experience of server history is very limited.

I do disagree with your sentiments however. I think with rooted dragons in ToV it has changed the landscape drastically, so much so that I think decreasing the windows would be very different from how it was in years past. I believe this because if more mobs had conflicting windows (that were shorter), guilds would have to be more selective with their targets. And that is precipitated by the fact that killing most ToV dragons doesn't take 20 minutes or less anymore. So, it is my opinion that shorter windows under these new rules would actually open up targets to more guilds because it just wouldn't be possible for one guild to go for all targets.

And again, guilds wouldn't know the "exact spawn time", that's not even close to what I am proposing. 4 or 8 hours is still a lot of time of variance, especially if there are multiple targets in window. Guilds would still need to be strategic and selective with where they devote their resources.

And like I said, it wouldn't be feasible for one guild to dominate all targets given the amount of time it takes to down ToV targets. FTE locks would prohibit this.

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

Ha, my thoughts exactly when I read that... so we want p99 raiding to be structured so that is fun/optimal for a smaller amount of guilds (and people) than to try to work towards making it better for more people. Seems like an odd philosophy to take up but oh well.

The MAIN and really only benefit I see to such looooong windows is that it does include non-US based players more. If windows were short they'd probably preference US times most and less windows would work their way around to non-US day times.

Anyways, no one is presenting any convincing arguments yet in this thread, so my opinion is still pretty firm on shorter windows = better for the server.

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

@OP

Staff is on record saying they wouldn't shorten or eliminate window lengths unless the community proves that they can play nice. Even if the raid scene DID play nice for an extended period of time, the staff is likely way past the point of eliminating or shortening windows due to years and years of dealing with adult children.

The context for the current window length is that at first there were no windows at all. If you killed a raid mob it would spawn exactly xx:xx:xx later, just like any static trash mob does. That was insane with click fests standing over mobs (like scout if there wasn't a roll. Then the staff added 96 (NINETY SIX) hour windows to raid mobs. That for sure eliminated any casual or even semi-hardcore guilds from getting into the action. Then they dropped the windows to 16 hours (which in comparison to 96 hour windows seems like a huge favor, doesn't it?) and that is more or less where we have been ever since.

I'm not saying you don't have fair points, but just letting you know the staff already feels very strongly about the 16 hour window being the sweet spot of dealing the community and minimizing the headache.

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

From the perspective of a once 2nd tier guild that got stomped every week on every mob during the kunark era before the big windows then as a 3rd rate guild(in a large alliance) near the end of kunark and on into the Velious era with the big windows we were able to compete successfully and kill every mob in the game at our peak. Vulak and ST golems included.

As a side note, I stopped logging in 2 years ago. I came back (to the forums) recently after I heard Green99 was finally going to be a thing and I was tired of fighting cleanly against cheaters in Ark Survival.

My resume aside, server admins have been burned in their efforts to make P99 a reasonable place to play/raid time after time and are jaded to the point where I seriously doubt any petition to change the rules will have any effect.

But to see what's down this rabbit hole for your humor, the closer the spawn windows are allows the neckbeards aOneorter time to have to focus on P99. Instead of spreading them out over the whole week they will super focus on 2-3 days that the spawns are clustered around. Especially when you consider these guilds have wave after wave of characters loaded up with good gear that they can afford to swap 15-20 people mid raid to other chars for 20 minutes to kill the lower tier targets then swap back to help with NToV. Also consider the screen sharing that happens in today's climate. (One person/few people) can now watch all(?) of the spawns in window with the correct infrastructure set up(which skirts the no boxing rule and is -super- bullshit). They have adapted to succeed in this many-mob-in-window climate with minimal effort.

I don't have an answer to fix the raid scene. My only advice to someone who wants to raid would be to join one of the two big guilds, get what you think you need from raiding, and move on with your life. I've tried to be part of the small casual raiding scene and it's largely filled with disappointment if your expectation is to get BiS gear.