As much as the lagpile is dear to our hearts, it is pretty unsatisfying to many. PoK already has a few spots where people like to gather or meet, so putting a few very relevant npc's there in lieu of a such a tedious activity could keep it vibing as a popular place. What would change it is adding a branch of skills or aa's or quests to unlock your character's buffs that you can cast on with your characters - earning them tier by tier to make cheesy content. Edit: More specifically, this would include allowing the 'buff seekers' to get buffs from a character on your account having access to all buffs on your account's characters that you've unlocked and leveled to meeting in the same process as happens regularly in pok.
I don't know. Removing any player interaction with other players in an MMO never seems like a good idea to me.
I would prefer they "tweaked" the client to handle lagpiles better. The biggest problem with lagpiles imho, is that the framerate sucks and that you lose mouse-control. Thats not a player-problem, thats a client-problem.
Stick figures are ugly though. They were never meant as a serious solution to the performance problem, they were implemented as a joke.
Disabling excessive name stuff helps a lot for me. Set names to first-last or first-last-guild and disable them for pets, mercs, and familiars. While my computer has blasted past geometric complexity, the name rendering stands out as the slowest element.
It's strange to call what is going on with the lag pile social interaction. I actually think the lag pile is very bad for social interaction. By creating an environment where everyone is AFK, it makes it impossible for a random passerby to strike up a conversation. I think that putting in a side room to the lobby that does not have Line of Sight with the rest of the lobby, and putting in NPC that cast buffs on request, you would create an environment where most people you are at the keyboard, which would facilitate social interaction. There is definitely no social interaction involved in what is currently happening. I walk up, hit my MGB, then AFK for who knows how long, come back to buffs and leave without taking to anyone.
/hidemodels all noncombat Works for me for the lag, but not the obstruction of having to move through them.
That is a PC problem. I had the issue on my last PC, but I bought a new one this year and I get 60+ FPS in the FV guild lobby when I am running 5 accounts.
Skipping frames due to lag piles should not result in wild mouse movement. It's a rendering problem and should be fixed at the source. I digress - the odds this ever gets looked at let alone in line for a fix is somewhere around 1 in 1,000,000,000.
You can hide afk players. Isn't that the solution? I'm not sure how badly most lag. It's a slight frame loss for me but I do remember having to stare at the ground.
My lobby solution: /show 1 - Shows only first names Option: Hide all pets in non-combat zones Option: Hide all mercenarys in non-combat zones Option: Hide all players in non-combat zones Option: Hide mercenary names everywhere I used to use the "hide afk" option, but then I noticed there are a lot of people out there who don't enable "auto-AFK".
If they would implement NPCs that gave out level appropriate buffs on request would there even be a need for a lag pile. I mean the only reason there is one is people going afk in a designated spot where buffs have no timer, so they can come back to a buffed toon to then go play.
If it were up to me, i'd boot everyone in POK who has been afk longer than 15 minutes. I'd also apply that to the guild lobby so it doesn't just move the pile to a different zone.
I bugged it awhile ago, there is no fix planned. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...and-irregular-framerates.270521/#post-3969527
Levitate falling rate is tied to frame rate. Falling damage is tied to frame rate. Mouse input is tied to framerate. A lot of this stuff is just old engine nonsense that is unlikely to ever get fixed.
This doesn't address your social interaction point, but the side summoning rooms of the GL already don't have LoS with the main lobby. If the lag pile just moved there, it would resolve a lot of complaints. The best one would be the eastern summoning room. This room has corpse summoning, banking, vending, and parceling. It's off to the side and blocked from view, so it wouldn't affect people going to the Magus, GH or neighborhood. The western summoning room would be deserted and could be used by people just needing the NPCs in that room. The only people hit with lag issues would be those in the lag pile in the eastern room.
Bernel you make a very valid suggestion. It's about the social herd and getting the sheep / cats / lemmings to move. Back in the day, after PoP launch and the few expansions after; I recall there used to be a few folks hanging around outside "main bank". People would /ooc, looking for such n such buff at main bank. This either got a direct buffing for tip, or, a passing cleric / mage / etc, would MGB. Since returning to the game, I found that the herd likes to turn up beside Franklin, outside the zone ramp to guild lobby and sit there afk. Depending on time zone, for hours / overnight, waiting for buffs to come from various classes. Having it moved to the side wing of the lobby would work, but its a people thing. The social herd would need to start congregating there, instead of in PoK. Catch 22, as people will herd where the buffs are happening. Think its down to the individual players, to the guilds, to start calling out in PoK, they will be doing the buffs in Lobby in X minutes. Cease and desist giving in PoK. Supply / Demand, should help see the herd relocate. The more givers are casting in Lobby, and not PoK, the herd will move.
