Epic Bottlenecks and Where to Find Them

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Branntick, Aug 25, 2020.

  1. Branntick Augur

    Due to the fact that some recently bumped threads are technically in violation of the forum rules, here's a non-necro'd thread to discuss it.

    Changes to certain epic bottlenecks (Marl Kastane, SK epic) have been made. However, the changes that are made seem like they are arbitrarily decided upon.

    It is confusing to me that TLP servers are as popular as they are because of content availability, yet so many of these gameplay aspects persist. Certain classes have a relatively low, absolute maximum number of quest completions in the 3 month span of Kunark.

    I do not wish to hand players epics for free. I simply want to constructively present the argument that dozens of players crowding around an NPC to do a turn in is not "epic". It is not even in the spirit of classic EQ that this occurs. These servers have an unprecedented number of players ready to do these turn-ins at the same time.

    To that end, I implore the devs to spend some time alleviating some of the egregious bottlenecks remaining for the small number of classes that are disproportionately affected. Games should be fun, above all else.

    The list, some of which is pulled verbatim from Bobbybick's 2018 thread:

    Wizard
    - "a broken golem" in Plane of Fear respawn timer changed to 6 hours. Still no longer spawns in Agent of Change instances.

    Shadowknight
    - Duriek Bloodpool in Paineel respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Caradon in The Hole respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Lhranc in City of Mist respawn timer changed to 3 hours.

    Enchanter
    - Vessel Drozlin in East Cabilis respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Verina Tomb in Neriak Thid Gate respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - The One Key groundspawn in Overthere respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Lost Scroll groundspawn in Dalnir respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Book of Charm and Sacrifice in Plane of Sky respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Wraith of a Shissar now spawns inside of the Plane of Fear Agent of Change instance.

    I'm not sure that I would personally change anything else, because these classes in particular are by far the most affected of all, but feel free to add your suggestions as well.

    I will reiterate one last time: Games should be fun, above all else. This is not an attempt to "give everybody an epic at level 1", it is simply a suggestion to create more parity between the bottlenecks of various epics.
  2. Healiez Augur

    Rogue eldreth and Yenndar 6 hour respawns that despawn on turnin.
  3. Branntick Augur

    Rogue's epic is generally considered the easiest to complete. Pretty much any Rogue on the server with a mind to get their epic will have it, and after the first month it will be minimally contested.

    I'm more concerned with alleviating bottlenecks for classes with timers in excess of 24 hours. A 6 hour respawn for the classes mentioned in the OP would be a dream come true for hundreds of players.
  4. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    Right, because if it's not a problem for you, it's not a problem.
    SunDrake and Skuz like this.
  5. Branntick Augur

  6. yerm Augur

    Rogue epic is not a bottleneck not so much because it's easy but also because nobody makes rogues anymore. If people made rogues in the same quantity that they made monks, you'd see real complaints.
  7. Tweakfour17 Augur

    I think OPs point was that 6 hours is not a terrible respawn (at least compared to Vesel, Verina, etc) so its not too bad, not that it doesnt effect him so he doesn't care. Obviously some feel 6 hours is still too long, which begs the question, where does it end? Assume they change every groundspawn, npc respawn etc for epics so nothing was greater than...5 hours...how long until we get a list of complaints that 5 hour poop sock is ridiculous? Or a new list of complaints that Quillmane is too hard to spawn if someone else is in the zone so let us have a Quill AoC, or Phinny is too cheap so give increase his drop rates by 10x.

    Vessel and Verina should have some way to get their drops w/o 3+ day DPS race, either make a turn in give you their item or dramatically increase respawn. Give Wraith and Broken golem a CHANCE to spawn in Fear DZ. Those are really the only ones that are out of control out of balance. Some will still be harder than others, some will still involve a bit of luck and dedication.
  8. Mynde Kandie New Member


    Yes please! As it stands, Vessel Drozlin and Verina Tomb are both 1-2 day spawns, and finding Wraith of a Shissar up is something of a miracle. As well, the One Key and Lost Scroll are nearly 24h respawns. Of course, everything is contested.

    It's just disheartening to see most classes breeze through with relatively easy quests, or at least ones where portions (or sometimes the entire quest) can be multiquested.
  9. yerm Augur

  10. wade_watts Augur

    Dear Dev's - please address these, this is a great list. It's been a huge pain forever, it's finally time.

    [IMG]
  11. Anker New Member

    For real DPG - Lets make this happen. This would be an awesome customer satisfaction improvement with little effort required. Take the couple hours and at least adjust the Vessel / Verina timers down (or turn-in based ideally) and move Wraith & broken golem into DZ's.

    It feels like talking to a wall. Let folks get their stuff done in-era like everything else in a TLP. Seems like low hanging fruit for the dev teams to address. Kunark is already draining to folks. /plead
    Mynde Kandie likes this.
  12. Goburs The Filthy Casualz Leader

    In all reality, how hard would it be to do the coding to make this stuff possible? I am the last person to point fingers and say it'd be easy, because I have NO clue....

    Is this just pure laziness, or is this something that would take up alot of time and resources?
  13. Tweakfour17 Augur

    I don't have any experience in this either but based on hw companies seem to run in general I'd assume its 2 things,
    1. Bureacracy
    2. Scope Creep

    I assume to change anything a proposal has to be submitted, looked over by a lead/ approved, plans have to be made, meetings to discuss why the change is being made and to what, blah blah blah. The actual changing of a field in a database that says Respawn = 3 days to Respawn = 3 hours I'm sure takes no time, its all the lead up.

    2. If they changed Vessel, Verina, Wraith and Broken Golem then there would just be a new list made the day the patch notes came out, groundspawns need to be tweaked, this other epic mob respawns in 6 hours, why do wizards get theirs in 3! Etc etc etc, as a community we are very good and whining and so its probably less of a headache for DBG to leave in a couple of obvious issues that can be complained about non stop then giving us new things to fight about.
  14. Anker New Member


    They've addressed a number of the other issues, not sure why they can't address these. They are universally recognized as unfortunate bottlenecks. If the argument is 'keep broken stuff in so they don't find new stuff to complain about'... the answer then is laziness.

    See any trends on here? https://aradune-progress.com/
    Zaphod likes this.
  15. Byun Elder

    Are we playing EQ or WoW. How easy do you want this to be?
  16. Anker New Member


    Hahahaha. Yeah, in case you're serious, even with the proposed changes I don't think we are getting into easymode territory. Thats funny tho.
  17. Tweakfour17 Augur

    What trends should I see? Shows a mostly blank page for me, not sure if the site is broken or its firewall blocked

    Also 1 fix leads to 2 requests for more fixes, not lazy, just not enough time to "fix" every perceived issue.
  18. Goburs The Filthy Casualz Leader


    I might be wrong, but I'm assuming the epics lacking for certain classes.
  19. Tweakfour17 Augur

    Ah ok, yeah weird, the link shows a banner and a footer and a link to have your guild or submission added. Clicking the guilds tab does nothing, the submit data tab opens a list box and the discord button launches discord. No epics, no progress, no guilds at all.
  20. Arctodus Elder

    Well a 36 Boxer has been pushing there way into KC Pipe camps.