Limit afk time

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Elfish, Jun 4, 2023.

  1. Knifen Augur

    Just remove the ability to cast MGB in non combat zones like GH, GL, POK and be done with the lag piles all together.
    Fenthen likes this.
  2. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    Why on earth do you want to remove the ability to MGB in guild halls. why do people bring ideas like these up
  3. Koshk Augur

    This is by far my favorite solution. Doesn't require moving any NPCs around. Just a couple of new doors, and a small zone with a spinning disco ball.

    All that remains is encouraging the existing AFK masses to relocate. Either by disabling mass-buffs, re-enabling buff timers, and/or enabling automatic logouts, both in PoK and Guild Lobby.

    If they wanted to be super-nice, could add more doors to TLPs before PoK is available (e.g. prevent the mass of players in Nexus during Luclin)

    Fun to dream about. But wouldn't hold my breathe without an EB item equipped.
  4. KarmaKitty Augur

    I though, extending the duration by an hour would be enough. Long duration buffs only of course.
    Maybe extend them to 4 hours to cover a 4 hour XP potion.

    Really, this disco ball should do it, but you know some people :p Disabling mass buffs in POK sounds
    like a good middle of the road solution.

    Nexus, ha! I hate the "get/buy an item, hold or give it to a NPC, then wait" method of travel. At least,
    the wait in the guild hall is short. You can nap while waiting on those spires.
  5. Iven Antonius Bayle

    MGBs and group buffs that can be cast outside groups are part of the broken group game and class balance issues. Classes that can cast buffs were conceptually designed, that buffs are part of their power and group contribution. The possibility to throw buffs on everybody does undermine the integration of buff classes into groups and does reduce them to outside of group buff mules.

    A solution could be to reduce buff durations including the accodring AAs and also adding a minimum buff duration of 30 minutes for long time buffs. Transmuting and consolidating many buffs into auras would be also a very interesting option because then those buffs would only benefit the own group as originally intended. As a side effect it would reduce the work and time to buff group and raid members.
  6. Windance Augur


    Your logic is flawed.

    From the start, EQ had single target buffs that could be cast on anyone.

    The group versions of the spells and the consolidation of effects came later because people (rightly) complained about having to memorize and cast 2,3,4+ different spells.

    Mass group buff was added to make buffing raids easier/faster, etc.

    No one who actually PLAYS a buffing class would suggest wanting to go back to having to individually cast short term, single buffs.


    Could you clarify how buffs have "Broken the group game"?
    Warpeace likes this.
  7. Cloud the Third Augur

    Well buffs broke the game a long time ago but they fixed it by adding level restrictions on buffs that can be cast on low level toons.
  8. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Buffs don't break the game and there is a lot of low level gear that adds more than the buffs will.
  9. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Iirc players used to pay for buffs. Helping the economy in the game and other things. So I doubt they broke the game. The only reason players do not still pay for buffs like they used to is because almost everyone has a buff alt now.

    And that's a lot of afk players waiting around. ;)
  10. Knifen Augur

    Oops good catch, ment GL, PoK and PoT. But the idea behind it is if there's no more MGB buffs happening no need for lag piles to accumulate.
    Fenthen likes this.
  11. code-zero Augur

    People who cast MGB's regularly could fix this by going to someplace away from a chokepoint in the habitual /afk areas and go to someplace like the East room in GL etc then /OOC that there's MGB in <number> of minutes. People loiter at the GL Magus or Teek or whatever because they're lazy and even the MGB folks fall into the trap
    Knifen and Fenthen like this.
  12. Cloud the Third Augur

    I would consider when you can put a 5k ds (yes I know there is no 5k ds buff but you get the idea of 1 round from DS for mobs 10+ levels above you) on a level 1 and then all they have to do is run around and aggro a mob with a 1 dmg spell breaking the game. Did you never PL like this back in the day? level 30 toon with a massive DS using a level 1 nuke to aggro mobs and just kept running to the next mob again and again. I know it annoyed the heck out of other people in a group trying to kill mobs the normal way.
  13. Svann2 The Magnificent

    Lag pile lag is graphics lag, not server lag.
    AFK people dont impact the server enough to affect TS'ing.
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  14. Bernel Augur

    I bet if the MGBs went away, a lot of people would end up quitting. There's virtually no grouping at the lower levels. It's pretty much a solo game. Having a full suite of high level buffs makes soloing above level 70 feasible. An argument could be made that there would be more grouping without MGBs, but I don't think that would really happen. I'm sure there would be a little bit more grouping, but not really enough to making playing feasible for many people. I suspect many people would end up leaving EQ for other games. As EQ aged and the playerbase naturally declined, I suspect MGBs kept more people playing the game since it enabled more solo play.
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  15. Cloud the Third Augur

    Most servers there is little grouping even at top levels. This game used to be alot of random people grouping together and the high end guilds who only grouped with their own guildies was the rare. At least on my server even most high end guild people never group with others and just box their own 6 man team. It is 75% solo game these days unless you are on a raid.

    Well maybe there isn't a high end raid guild anymore. I don't consider anyone high end anymore because pretty much any guild that raids can beat all the raids without alot of trouble.
  16. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Considering all the gear you can get at level one and low levels in general that let players speed through levels quickly I don't think that is an issue. This is of course ignoring mercs which also help players speed through those levels.

    There isn't much of a low level game on servers with a damage shield in that damage range.
  17. Cloud the Third Augur

    This is true the low level game is dead at this point. They would be fine removing all buff level restrictions because noone groups at low levels outside progression. My completely twinked toon with raid gear at level 50 has like 5k hp and the merc he is using has 15k hp and can slaughter all mobs without a healer.

    The point was at one point it did break the game when we had a player base who played at those levels and it wasn't a solo game.

    Don't forget with the random gear that drops down with 120hp / mana when normal rare spawn loot drops has 20-30hp. So they already are getting better than level 60 raid gear drops at like level 40.
  18. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    What it did in the past is not relevant anymore and those buffs don't break the low level game anymore.
  19. Cloud the Third Augur

    You wanted to clarify how buffs broke the game. And it did break the game at one point but that game is dead now so it is no longer a problem in the current game.

    Well let me correct that, it has still broken the game along with mercs and defiant gear has broke the low level game. However since noone groups and really plays the low level game as it was intended to be played it doesn't matter that it is broken.

    I guess ultimately it comes down to the following.
    Is it broken != does it matter that it is broken
  20. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Again, just because some considered buffs to break the game in the past doesn't mean that it is relevant to the game as it stands today and as it isn't relevant to the game today it doesn't need to be brought into the conversation.

    As it stands today with the level limitations they have in place buffs do not break the game and it is perfectly possible to do everything in the game with just the buffs you can get from your group.
    Fenthen and Corwyhn Lionheart like this.