So...the reduced lockout timers don't work for toon that are in a task/dz at some point, but are not at the finish. Not sure if this is intended, oversight, or bug. If it is a bug, please put on the list of things to fix. If not, consider this a public service announcement for others.
Do you mean if someone started a COV hero mission and then dropped to give their spot to someone else, the person who dropped would have the full 6~ hour lockout?
I experienced the bug on some characters this morning with the Zlandicar Reborn group mission, but I wasn't able to exactly reproduce it with CotF HAs. So either it doesn't affect HAs, perhaps because they don't have loot chests or because they have shorter lockouts (just shots in the dark), or the bug is intermittent. I tried dropping a character from the HA before doing the first step but leaving the character logged into the world. They received the same 1hr 24min lockout that everyone else got. I tried leaving a character in the quest but camped for the completion of every HA step. That character immediately logged back in after everyone else got their lockouts applied, and they all had the same amount of time. I tried leaving a character outside the instance for every step except the final. After the zoning process to ETWK started, I did the final hail. So the HA was completed while this character was zoning. This character received the same lockout time as the rest. I tried having a character in hover mode after a death when the final step was completed. That character was not in the instance for any of the steps of the HA. He received the same lockout. I tried link death with "/ex." As soon as the group got the message that the character went link dead, they finished the final step of the HA. The link dead character logged back in after waiting at the server select for the character to be removed from the world. When this character got back in the world, she had 1 minute longer on the lockout than the rest of the group. For these last tests, I had 4 characters in group when I requested the HA. I then added another character from two of the accounts before I completed the first step of the HA. So there were 6 characters listed in the middle tab of the quest window (Players tab?) for every step of the HA I'll let the numbers 1 and 2 represent the two accounts and A and B represent the first and second characters on a given account. Characters 1A and 2A were present when the HA was requested. Characters 1B and 2B were given task adds, then they camped. Character 1A logged back in but stayed outside the instance while all of the steps were completed. Character 2A remained camped. Character 1A received the same lockout as the rest. About 5 minutes after completing the HA, character 1B entered the world and had 2 or 3 minutes longer on the lockout than those who were logged in when the HA was completed. About 10 minutes after completing the HA, character 2B entered the world and had 5 minutes longer on the lockout than those who were logged in when the HA was completed. Sometime between 10 and 15 minutes, character 2A entered the world and had 6 minutes longer on the lockout.
Dropped Vulak raid, just before the end so someone else could get the achievement. I now have a 2 day 5 hour lockout, which sounds right to me. So maybe some are correct.
Thanks to all that are checking in. Appreciate the help. So, I did some old raids and AoCs with folks being added then dropped before chest, on and off line, etc. And I could not get anyone to have a longer (original) lockout on raids or AoCs. Then I did another Zlandicar with a full swapover, but instead of waiting an hour before logging back the original toons ... I did so immediately. Everyone got a 3 hour lockout timer. So I'm wondering if there's a hidden bug in the code that if you are scheduled for a lockout because you were part of a dz but the character does not come back to the world until after that instance has poofed, that you get the default lockout time and not the shortened one. Going to try some missions and see if I can purposely get the longer timer by having toons stay out of the world longer. In any case, it seems to avoid this, bring back your toons into the world as soon as possible to avoid the longer lockout.
So, I can replicate with various group tasks and determine when I receive a reduced or normal lockout timer during reduced lockout times. When you are scheduled to receive a task lockout (because the character was at some point in the task before completion) but are not online to get it immediately when completed, it seems that the reduced lockout is only applied to the active task/instance. If you are to receive a task lockout but that task/instance has been kicked, the game gives you the default lockout with no reduction check. So basically ... during reduced lockouts ... if switching toons out ... make sure that you bring them back into the world BEFORE the task is kicked so that they can pick up the reduced lockout. If not, the system will revert to the normal lockout. So ... it's a bug ... and can easily reproduce it. There needs to be a check at some point in the default lockout lookup to see if under reduced lockouts. But it's simple enough to avoid if you need to. Gotta love EQ and the code base!
This is still an issue 2 years later. Swapping toons in a task and having those toons offline when a mission is complete will have the offline toons pick up a normal (long) task timer, instead of reduced task timer.
Yes, it seems like a bug, but at least there is currently a workaround. Make sure all characters who are due to receive a lockout are online at some point after the lockout is assigned and before the task is destroyed. I use "/kickp task" to remove everyone but only after everyone has been given their lockout. I don't know what would happen if everyone manually left the task themselves.
