I tried searching for an answer/explanation to my question but didn't see it posted anywhere so I apologize in advance if it's already been discussed... I notice the merc revive timer seems to be random as to when it actually 'lights up' and allows you to revive the merc. On some incidents, the timer will reach zero and you'll instantly be able to revive your merc, other times there seems to be an addtional amount of time, be it 5, 10, 20 seconds, till you can actually revive the merc. This seems to happen all over, guild lobby, in fight zones, instances, anywhere really. Any reason why?
The timer is 5 min from when the merc dies, lag, maybe overclocking, could affect being able to revive the merc. In my cases, it always feels like 10 min, but that is just because i like to keep the cannon fodder available.
Well that sounds reasonable but I notice it happens when I'd simply suspend a merc as well, and that timer usually starts at 3 mins 13 seconds (or thereabouts). Same deal though, timer counts down then the revive button does not go active for 10-20 seconds till after the timers done. And this is normally sitting somewhere, nothing going on, no lag, no action, nothing.
Get another of the same merc. Then you can suspend one and immediately summon the other without waiting.
I have 7 merc slots on a couple toons (it's possible to overcap merc slots but you can only utilize the first 6 via the merc bandolier without dismissing a merc) *5 mercs via station cash + 1 merc via master of alaris) I often buy multiple generic cleric mercs and if a situation turns dire and the merc dies or oom's I will flatout dismiss it fully then fade and pop its replacement.
I haven't felt the need to spend any SC cash on an extra merc slot yet but I appreciate the suggestion. I'm truly not complaining about the additional wait at all, it's not THAT big of a deal to me. I was just curious as to if there was a reason for it, that's all.
Its probably just server lag. The past week or 2 I have noticed some server lag even though it doesn't show it my network/ping meter up in the corner. Ive tagged a few mobs for pulling and they just sit there (check my meter says 100%), then bam the mob warps on top of me. Doesn't happen too often so I just assume its some of the backend changes they have been making to make the servers more stable. Also seems to happen more when the server shows almost full on the everquest page.
I think everyone I've talked to has some sort of problem with it. My timer runs too long, but updates/jumps to "Revive" or "Unsuspend" somewhere around the 20s mark. For a few of my guildies it runs too short. I don't know about you, but it can't be hard to send an integer of how many seconds (or ms) are remaining and when the client receives it, add it to some timestamp variable of the current time. I mean I just don't understand how the timers are so borked, this isn't rocket science.
Last night I believe I had the problem you are describing. When the Revive counter gets to 0 seconds the button remained grayed out showing 0 seconds for a while, then changed to Revive. The delay feels like 30 seconds (since my friend and I were waiting!), but I bet it's only a few. I had to revive mercenaries on multiple accounts a number of times during the evening and I do not recall a time I was able to click Revive immediately when the countdown reached zero. Total conjecture: The client is managing the UI timer, but the server has the final say as to when the ability is available and my clients were running fast (sounds like UnnamedPlayer runs slow). That would reduce the client/server traffic (constant updating of all active UI timers). If that is the case, maybe zoning effects the sync between the two. Because I did zone (or evac ><), mostly.
The same thing happens with my OOC timer. The timer is almost always gone long before I actually get the regen benefits or am able to click tranquil blessings.
I have seen that too, Glad. I think it's server lag. As for people wondering why the merc has different amounts of time left when you suspend it, that's a function of how long he's been out and paid for. If you pop it out, buff and then suspend him, you pay for the full 15 mins, whether you left him out or not. If he's been out a while and you have 14 mins left when you suspend him, you still get the 14 mins when you bring him back out.
I believe this is a synchronization problem between the client and server. As someone said above, the same thing happens with the Out of Combat timer for Tranquil Blessings. I consider synchronization different than server lag. The server isn't lagging, it is just out of sync with the client. The same kind of thing happens when you log into the game (or zone, etc.) You show up in the world (i.e., others see you there) before your screen actually loads. EQ isn't the only game with this problem, but I wonder why any game at all has it. You would think that the server would do everything necessary to put you in the world but would hold off on the final actually placing you there until it got a message from the client that the client was ready... The result of that kind of thing means you can actually be killed by mobs even before you enter (according to your screen) the game. Similar issues happen with evac spells, where you see on your screen that you safely managed to evac, while the server has marked you down as dead before your evac spell has gone off. Which means you get "Entering zone A" (the same zone as you hit the evac spell in) showing up on your screen, and then find yourself in zone B (your bind point zone) dead.
Mine was off by a few minutes for months. When I fixed the clock on my computer to stop being a few minutes slow, it synced up correctly
