Unintended /pickzone consequences

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by FaloverC, Oct 31, 2019.

  1. FaloverC Journeyman

    I appreciate that devs are attempting to counter the pick trolls that made playing in some zones difficult. The unintended consequences may be worse than the trolls were.

    I logged into Coirnav last night to find I could not enter the same pick the rest of my raid was in. After running to the raid spot, which was a trial projection in MPG. I was finally able to select the same pick which then transported me back to the zone in.

    I again ran toward the raid only to find see invis had respawned between me and the rest of the raid. I had to evacuate to zone, which AGAIN PUT ME IN THE WRONG PICKZONE with a third five minute timer before I could /pick over. I waited five minutes and did /pick and selected the raid pick. IT FAILED but still reset my timer.

    Please find a better "fix" because this one is unacceptable. Every time I have played EQ, because I love it, game administrators have chased me out with poor game mechanic decisions. Please don't chase me out again!
    Hitty and Xianzu_Monk_Tunare like this.
  2. Petalonyx Augur

    Evac should not jump picks. Is that possible to fix?
    Corwyhn Lionheart and FaloverC like this.
  3. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    nor should using a campfire....
    Corwyhn Lionheart and FaloverC like this.
  4. Vaax New Member

    We may be in the same guild Falover!

    Let it be an indication of the severity of this issue that multiple people came to the forums from a single raid to plead for this to be addressed. The new pick mechanics make the MPG trials unraidable, it is truly wholly awful. This is not hyperbole and I really don’t think it is a complaint about something being too difficult, it’s just a game mechanic that makes the experience glitchy and terrible for everyone.

    To echo Falover, there are issues created with picks that absolutely need to be rectified at least with Muramite Proving Grounds (though I’m sure there are zones/events with similar circumstances). Initially last night, our raid could not even get into the same pick- as everyone zoned into MPG to start they were sent to one of 3 picks leaving them scattered. Then, one couldn’t even pick over to the raid because of “picklocking” in which one zone becomes too full (76 when it happened to us) and no other players can join. For some reason, this causes the pick timer to reset delaying things further.

    This was just a precursor to the insanity that continued over the next three hours. One has to zone at least 12 times to complete all the MPG trials (at least six times into MPG and six into the trials themselves) giving at least six opportunities for everything to go haywire. If you happen to get placed in the wrong pick, any picking back will cause the player to be transported to the entrance and separated from their raid by dozens of high level mobs that often see invisibility. We tried to take action to mitigate this- everyone waits until everything is looted and the DZ is closed which hypothetically kicks everyone at the same time into the same pick (this alone doubles the time to complete each event, before the pick changes those uninterested in loot would begin clearing to the next trial to save time). However, this doesn’t even work every time, if there is anyone in a group in the different pick it would sometimes kick the entire group into that pick even if the rest of the raid was in another.

    Potential fixes:

    Fix Picklocking – I’m not even sure why this mechanic exists in the first place, but it definitely needs to be fixed for players in the same raid. Under no circumstances should it be impossible to pick to your own raid. Also, please make it so the timer doesn’t reset if a pick is full.
    Automatically Place Players in the Same Raid in the Same Pick – Or automatically go to the pick with the most players in your raid if there are players scattered among picks.
    Disable Placing Picking Players at Entrance in Muramite Proving Grounds – Basically, disable the new pick changes just in MPG. This might be a longshot; it might be hard to implement and I suppose the old pick abuses would exist in MPG.
    If a Trial is Successfully Completed Port Everyone Zoning out Back to Entrance – Annoying, but it is easier to run from the entrance (you always have to go through six-way anyway) and at least everyone will be guaranteed to be together. This may be the best/easiest fix.

    OR IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY

    If a Trial is Successfully Completed, Port Everyone Zoning Out To the Next Trial – This could be done by having the projection do the porting, or adding a new NPC to do the porting, or actually just appearing at that location upon zone-out. Or alternatively, let each trial be requested from any of the trial locations.
    MPG Raid Trials were already a slog to raid due to the layout of the zone. It requires clearing all the way across the zone (a zone that is purposefully laid out to be a labyrinth) six times. With dozens of trash mobs (that hit for about 1,000) between each trial spread out in a maze as the raid clears from trial to trial, inevitably every time groups get separated and die in places that are very difficult to retrieve. This is WITHOUT the pick issues.

    With pick changes making it nearly impossible to stay together, it has caused an annoying raid to become so punishingly unfun I fear people will just stop playing entirely. Almost everyone playing on TLP servers are raiders and this is one of 2 major raids in the Omens expansion. Considering that Omens is often seen as a bright spot in a lackluster content era (almost a year during LDoN -> GoD -> Omens -> DoN) I think this issue is pretty important to keep people from quitting EQ entirely.
    FaloverC, Hitty and Duder like this.
  5. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Can you not zone into the same DZ from any /pick ?
  6. Zamiam Augur


    Or they could just remove /pickzone ..
    what did peeps do before /pickzone ??
    I dont raid anymore , but getting to and from the raid and retrieving corpses from raid wipes is much easier now than it ever was back then.
    I also do not play TLP so not sure what is avail to you accept for /pickzone which we never had back then .. not sure if you have guild banners , or guild lobby for corpse rezzes ..
    a wipe back then meant running back to raid to get your corpse and sometimes that included breaking in Zin again just to rez corpses ..
  7. Vaax New Member

    I think so, but I personally have not done that to confirm.

    The problem is mostly with small groups/individual's getting completely marooned without the ability to clear and then frequently dying in those picks requiring full teams to retrieve them. Then after all that, you're still in the original situation.
    FaloverC likes this.
  8. FaloverC Journeyman

    Nope, if a pick is "full" you get a failed pick which resets your timers for another 5 minute wait. I even tried zoning in and out of RSS to get the right pick and that didn't work either.
  9. Mazame Augur

    Guild banner.
    Drop a guild banner and once some people zoned in the rest can banner and zone in
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  10. Vaax New Member

    That would probably work, but I don't think Guild Banners are in the game yet on Coirnav (or any server raiding MPG trials).
  11. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Sounds like /picks still need some work but best people can do atm is adapt and overcome.
    Dythan likes this.
  12. Mintalie Augur

    How about no.
    Hitty likes this.
  13. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    Not a problem. All the other TLP successfully dealt with this "issue" , you guys just need to adapt and overcome.
  14. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    We tried to get them to raise the base pick max player count to 250 like Commonlands and other "hub" zones for MPG because of this issue but it fell on deaf ears. From a gameplay perspective I don't understand why every pickzone isn't capped at max 250 players I assume there's a good reason but I don't know what it would be. I don't recall any other zones where it was really a problem at least as far as raid movement. The solution we had was to have anyone not sent to the base pick wait for the majority of the raid to zonein to a trial, then the others could pick over and get CoTH'ed to the zonein, not an elegant solution but it did ensure everyone could get there relatively safely.

    I agree that attempting to /pick into a pickzone that is full should not give you the 5 minute timer, especially since the UI element doesn't tell you what the "full" threshhold is which can vary greatly from zone to zone. Though I doubt this will get changed.

    Pre-emptive sorry Vets lounge for TLP whining.
    Dythan likes this.
  15. Vaax New Member

    Not exactly, picks were changed in last patch to send players to entrance. We were raiding MPG trials prior to that without as much hassle. It's the changes from 10/16/2019 creating the headache.
    However, Bobbypick's solution is a good strategy.
  16. Vumad Cape Wearer

    They fought angrily, camped everything and trained each other. The pick zone concept is definitely one of the positive things the devs have implemented. A slightly buggy exploit intervention is not a reason to take a step back in time in the wrong direction for the pick concept as a whole.
  17. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    The issue isn't that, they had not started the DZ yet; and was likely going to be buffing up and the like.
  18. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    That makes more sense.
  19. Hitty Augur

    /pick is essentiell. Some zones are always blocked by botters and DGB does nothing against them. The top of that seems to be that they have automatied alarm scripts running, so that they are back if somebody interferes with their hunting ground. Their macros still grab mobs which have aggro from other groups and try to killsteal. If a dps race starts then some video it and report it simply to annoy others. DGB seems to really go for these instead for the botter despite some are so wellknown that this seems intended. A friend still discusses his suspension and got confirmation that the 9 days were a mistake. Does not change that the botter kicked him for 9 days and still bots at the same spots.
    Picks are the only way to at least get a chance on a spot.

    But picks are sometimes a desaster and bugged esp. in a raid.

    - Fellowship does fail sometimes
    - Guild Banner does fail sometimes

    I don't have a clue why this is happening. There is no real reason. Banner AND Fellowship sometimes

    a) banner/fellow you in pick0
    b) banner/fellow you in pick0 at succor point
    c) banner/fellow you into your pick
    d) banner/fellow you into your pick at succor point

    This happend last time in a raid. Different people, different spots. If something fails then this idiotic 5min lock is present. You get the 5min lock also if you get LD and try to come back after a failed /pick. Thats the same annoying crap in a raid and happend the last weeks a couple of times.

    If that was to prevent botters from botting picks then it failed miserably for the players. They could simple automate the hopping. Everything which annoys players is much easier for a programmer to somehow automate but much worse for a real player to overcome. If DGB does nothing against the botters but only against the guys who fight the botters then at least we should have working picks. The seasonal stuff like Nagafen revamped was nearly completely occupied 24/7 by the usual botcrew which sold their Ancient Cloaks then for 2M IN PACKS(!!!) and it would have been impossible to get a spot in the small time frame without picks. Picks were a game saver in these moments.

    And I should add that many players where happy that the player number was high enough in Nagafens Lair to use a pick. The botters here do not abuse the picks so far - at least what I have seen.