afk mages everywhere

I'm not level 50. I didn't join Ragefire server until 2 weeks ago and now I'm leveling up. Recently I went to Runnyeye Citadel and was happy to see 8 people in there already so it should be easy to find a group. But it turns out that all 8 people in the zone are level 50 mages standing at named spawns spots afk. They even have generic names like Mybotmageone, Mybotmagetwo, Mybotmagethree (the name was a bit different, but I don't remember). When you are in Runnyeye basement and have trouble finding any mobs because they all get killed instantly when they spawn, then something is wrong.

I hoped to come to a TLP server and play the game in a similar way that we used to play it in 1999. And I hoped other players' intentions was the same. But apparently this is not possible and it's possible for level 50 afk mages to prevent low levels from playing the game as intended. In original EQ, I played on a pvp server, so there was a solution to this problem. But here on Ragefire, I don't see anything I can do to stop those exploiting the afk mechanics. Even if I trained a dozen mobs on the afk mage, I might get banned rather than that he gets killed.

So I'm asking Daybreak Games Staff: Is the concept of afk mages camping spots 24/7 the way you intended the TLP servers to work? If not, could you please step in and do something about it? Maybe make pets despawn after an hour?

I have hopes that you'll find a solution to this problem.

Finnster

Actually now that most of the population is 50 (or it feels that way anyways) I've find leveling up and getting camps I want on alts in zones to be very easy.

Runnyeye is out of era, and the Blackened Alloy Medallion is one of two items in the current game with Mana Preservation 2. It is a highly coveted item, sells for a ton, and drops off very easy to kill mobs. For this reason bots or boxes fill the zone and farm it. If you can move past the fixation on Runnyeye you'll have a lot of fun and won't even see crowding again until you get to Lowerguk (The Hole and Sol B are both popular but rarely overcrowded).

I'm with ya man I just started a week ago on ragefire and seems like I have no choice but to xfer to Lockjaw so I don't fall far behind.

As for the mages, the rule needs to be you can't box more than 2 of the same class. It's a fairly good compromise that solves the problem in a reasonable way that should be easy to police. People might still get around this rule but seeing 5 mages auto following should be easy e ough to report.

Lockjaw will not solve this problem, there are AFK mages there too. Transfer to Lockjaw if you wish to have 6 months of classic.

Hmmm

How can that be enforced? The answer is, that it can't without a large CSR presence. There is also the issue that it is positively stupid and easy to get round, at best you would see groups comprised of 2 mages, 2 necro's and 2 other assorted classes, the efficiency would go down, but it would still be very effective.

Right any 6 box is effective but the point is to slow them down and make it a little more manageable. It clearly would need to be coded into the game and maybe take some more CSR to enforce but it has to be worth it right? I think everyone can agree this magi army is the biggest problem the servers have and being so, it should take some effort to fix.

I 6 box, but I dont typically own any camp for more than 14 hours.. I understand your concerns about someone owning it for three days straight, but, if they are AFK, you should get to level 50 so you have the same strengths as them.
Personally I"m a fan of the PVP TLP...

I am not suggesting this will ever be an option in Everquest, but there is a popular emulated version of the game that restricts the number of a single class that can engage an encounter, and I believe for 6 man content it is set at 2. While I never attempted to bypass this I think it's coded into the game, meaning the 3rd player of the same class can't do anything. This does nothing for 6 boxes spread across a zone farming low level mobs, but it's impact on the rest of the game would be interesting to say the least.

Hmmm

1. There is a new TLP launching in the winter, 1 client per computer, it will require a totally separate EQ client to connect to the server. That will address some of these mage box issues, so why not wait for that?
2. At the current time, ALL EQ servers use the same client, so your "fix" would also negatively impact the live servers, I am sure they would be ecstatic over the change...
3. I do not believe it would be as easy to code it as you think it is.
4. It is yet another example of treating the symptoms and not curing the disease/problem.

So is your unachievable solution worth it, or for that matter anything? No.

Hmmm

I am presuming you mean P.99, never played it, so I have no idea about it, also got to say this is the first I have heard of it being in P.99, I am aware of their client restrictions to prevent boxing.

It's not p1999 (which I guess is officially sanctioned now), but I am not sure if I am allowed to mention other emulated servers by name. The game is altered significantly in other ways.

What I think are the biggest issues with box armies that are able to afk farm is the adv-loot function.
Anyone can set up a in-game macro of "tar <mob>, pet attack" and run a loop using any gaming keyboard. I am sure it has actually been used for years for farming faction or exp. With adv-loot, now it is being used to farm.

heh, this is when you can tell people just don't understand automation. This will hurt only the real people, who are playing and suddenly their pet despawns. Automation lets them calculate when the pet will despawn, and do it in a controlled manner. In fact, it would have a pet back up quickly.

On top of that, you are arguing that they have armies of mages. So, one pet despawns, then next pet takes over while pet #1 is recast.

This would be no obstacle whatsoever to automated mages but would be a massive, massive issue for real players. The fix, as so many are, are far worse than what they are fixing.

Then they will change to necro's or combinations of mages and necros.

The only real fix is to adjust the lower end mage and necro pet quality. That's for DBG to decide on whether it is worth it, or whether we simply outgrow the issue as more expansions are released and we "grow into" the live settings. Another way to look at it is that the early EQ mobs just don't stack up against the new pets. One or the other has to be adjusted, but is it worth the cost of code changes (given this is very, very old code), plus the testing which also applies to live servers.

...and this would be botting, something I DO report when I see.

I agree, it IS botting. But that is exactly what the op was describing (or they were utilizing software that is to remain un-named).

Possibly, but that doesn't change automated characters, who can loot with or without the advanced loot system. Again, you are asking for changes which hurt the real players (removal of the terrific system advanced loot which puts real people on a more equal footing with automated characters) in exchange for nothing since it won't change any of the behavior you see.

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"The game is altered significantly in other ways.[/quote]
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Yep, but: AS IS THIS SUPPOSED "VERSION" OF ORIGINAL. MATTER OF FACT: *EXTREMELY ALTERED*.

They should honestly make some way if someone is idle more then 10 mins their advanced loot system shuts off. I know I have seen multiple occasions even on live or lower level zones with people sitting there with mercs up looting up everything but their toons are all afk.

It won't even slow them down. Low end Asus Windows 10 laptops are coming out for $120-180, any of which would easily handle EQ. Garage sale computers handle EQ easily. Old computers you stuck in a closet 8 years ago )but still work, just became obsolete) still work fine for EQ.

There are plenty of work abouts. Sure, they may not have 20 mage bots, they may only manage 10. But, I assume twice as many botters might be interested in the easy pickin's. That's another issue they haven't addressed

Perhaps people will start to see why this is not at all an easy fix, and how hard it is for DBG. But, it's also the costliest since it requires a lot of real person oversight.

Misunderstood, sorry.