Updates to Load Balancing Zones (AKA Pickzone)

So simple that it's overlooked. The problem with EQ camps (exp ones, primarily) isn't that there are too few of them. It's that mobs don't respawn fast enough to support the number of players looking to experience in a given zone.

Take for example BoT or PoFire. If you double the respawn rate you can effectively eliminate the need for picks. Suddenly people aren't competing for mobs since they have ones to kill. It's less of a strain on server stability.

Or you just give the groups already there even better experience while you still get nothing >.> It would make the zones even more competitive not less competitive.

Good point. I would probably make a new toon on a new account in prep for the anniversary if spawn times were shortened enough that leveling isn't the pita it currently is with these pick changes.

No... there's a limit to the DPS a group can dish out. Even with a charmed pet and chain pulls a group struggles to clear F2 in PoFire. This is a solution, it just requires implementation.

I agree, if they leave this change as is they will completely destroy the TLP Servers in the future. The reason that Rage, Lock and Phinigel were such a huge hit was the load balancing. Phinigels instance raid content made it by far and away the most popular.

Since the currently implemented /pick change, I've played less EQ because our favorite camps are occupied more often, /picks are available a lot less often, and groups dissipate or never form. Unintended consequence, or by design?

So, DBG, you have a few choices, from where I sit:
1) Continue down this path and destroy the game, inches at a time.
2) Roll back all these pick changes and return picks to where they were at January 2017 and fix the memory issues.
3) Add an additional optional dialogue choice so all AoC options can respawn just like normal zones, and have all epic quest targets, and all named mobs spawn just like normal zones/base/main picks.

Then people can burn their instance timer and get a private instance they can get XP in, and get their quest updates in, and raid in. Heck, you could even do it elegantly:
As long as there are 6 players, and only 6 players (or less)? Everything respawns as expected in a normal/live/base/main zone. If more than 6 players zone in (a raid), all the respawn ceases, as it does today.

Continue down this path and you might as well remove picks altogether. They were fine for OVER A YEAR. Your technical justification does not hold up under scrutiny. (we can tell when you're trying to deceive us)

Balancing out the ZEM would be awesome for classic through Luclin. So many classic zones go unused because Unrest and Lower Guk are just flat out better xp for no real reason. Same with Paludal and Grieg's End in Luclin. I love going off the beaten path to xp, but it's pretty difficult to find groups unless you just bring your own.

Sigh, picks are part of the reason I decided to come back and play. I don't see this being the solution for the long run without losing a large player base.

Now might be the best time to review and rework the ZEM to encourage grouping elsewhere instead of 2-3 zones or camps only to get good xp.

Other solution is just release LDoN now and problem solved til the next tlp...

The abundant amount of XP locations with active groups leveling is one of the things that has made Phinigel so popular. Changing the amount of picks left open in a zone was the worst thing you could of done to limit the ability for mass amounts of players to enjoy your game. New comers wont wanna stick around when they have back to back nights sitting LFG for hours.

Actually that's kind of clever. I'm sure DB would never do it and I can't imagine what new bugs implementing this kind of code would create, but as a thought experiment it would be interesting to have a zone where the respawn times were decreased by a percentage equal to the percentage of dead mobs in the zone. That is, if a zone normally has 100 mobs, and 25 of them are dead, spawn times decrease by 25%. If 75 are dead, spawn times decrease by 75%. I'm sure there are a million balance issues and this would not work for all zones but... I think there is something to the idea at least.

Above is something they put in the test patch notes that's not in RadarX's original post here. It looks like they actually listened to their player base and lowered the threshold to spawn a pick.

Think it goes live next Wednesday, so we'll see how much of a difference it makes.

While I'm pretty sure this would just lead to one ridiculous AOE group leveling EVEN FASTER... This would probably be a hilariously fun server to play on for a while. Especially if you were a part of that AOE group.

I can tell you exactly what kind of bugs it would create. You'd have 90 seconds to beat Rathe Council instead of 5 minutes. There are several events like this that have never been fixed since the global spawn time reduction 4 years ago or so.

I feel like doubling the respawn rate is kind of hand in hand with people having private picks to farm. By saying they dont want private picks for farming, says to me they want to control the influx of plat/items into the game, thus if youre going to halve the respawn rate then that could be the same thing, but worse, as then youll have double in more than just base when the rare opportunity arises where there is another pick, and then you have two versions of the same zone with halved respawn rate.

Pretty sure the primary reason for changing /pick mechanics was server stability. Inreasing spawn rates presumably would not create the same problems.

Agreed it is the present "primary" reason but before they admitted sever issues, they claimed they didnt want people farming private picks as the reason. So I'm sure that's still a concern. They should just reduce the threshold to spawn a pick. Specially in the lower dungeons where one person can take up a camp or two.

I do not agree with this option.

As hard as it is to find a decent spot available, then forced to compete with another group, when both groups have been there for hours.

This is going to kill a lot of groups, and it will be the group that's the biggest jerk that wins. I hope this is a temporary fix.

It is. Temporary until LDoN, when players will stop xping in static zones, at least for some expansions.

The logic behind these changes is always so dubious, but I gotta admit the widespread angst on these threads is pretty funny.