The stress of having so much work, on so few people, has obviously made the crew, at DB, lose their collective minds. I was going to do the quest, Mischief Managed, until I read the Wiki run through. We are somehow, supposed to leave our character logged in, for 72 minutes, without the game crashing us to desktop or character select. Good luck with that. It hasn't made it through an hour all day without crashing. We don't dare do anything, during that time, because the program is so unstable. And, meanwhile, our computers are tied up for 72 minutes for no reason whatsoever except DB wants us all to believe time sinks are actually content. Perhaps enough players squawked about this that they have changed it since the Wiki was written. If that is the case, someone with HTML knowledge needs to correct the Wiki. While I give DB credit for trying to be creative, in their last 3 expansions, but wasting my time doesn't equal creativity, fun, excitement, adventure, or anything else remotely associated with entertainment. I think the loss of players reveals how this game plan isn't working well for DB. Sentinel's Fate was the last good expansion. Newer expansions have had some bright spots but nothing has come close to the fun I had (and still have) in Sentinel's Fate overland zones. PoP is close, but the complexity of the game robs it of the fun element found in SF. EQ2 is more work, than play, today. It is really a shame too because it is a great game at its core. Fortunately, they haven't messed up home decorating so at least I can still enjoy that, along with playing in the older zones and PoP overland.
I've just done this (as in an hour ago), and the wait was 1 Norrathian Day. What did I do for the hour and a bit I was waiting? I harvested, I picked up shinies and finished a couple of collections, I went and made a cup of tea, and chatted to a friend on the phone for 20mins or so. What I didn't do was sit and stare at the timer countdown. What I'm saying here is you read the wiki, so you knew there was going to be a wait. Why didn't you plan for it? I didn't crash once (and yes, I zoned a couple of times to turn in the collections and to put the spare shinies in the guild box) - perhaps it's not the game that is unstable, but your rig? I must admit that reading your posts and the amount of crashes you seem to have appears a little unusual - I personally have not encountered anything like the instability you have repeatedly described, and I'm based in the Southern Hemisphere.
While I'm sorry to hear that you seem to have a far more unstable login experience than the majority of us, be aware that it isn't the end of the world if you DO crash, as the timer will pick up where you left off. Craft. Decorate. Adventure. Breathe. Do some chair yoga or other stretches. Do the CD harvesting quests. There's truly plenty to do in Norrath. It isn't the first time folks have had to wait a game-day for something (the dwarven workboots come to mind), and there is a "logic" to it. (Traps take time to actually work and catch something.) We may not be 100% thrilled that the timer only works when we're logged in, but it shouldn't be the end of the world, nor a sign that the sky is falling, the game is failing or anything similarly dire.
The Wiki states: "Wait one Norrathian day for the traps to work (72 Earth minutes). WARNING Your character that is doing the quest must stay online. If you log your char out or swap to an alt, the timer pauses." The first problem is the instability of the program which has a long history of crashes. I'm hardly the only one as I have complained about this many times over the years and others have chimed in to say they are having the same problem. I commented about the problem, on the forum, long before I decided to try to do the quest. The second problem is you can't just go off and leave your character and expect it to stay logged in. I'm not sure what the current timer is set for but it seems to be maybe 20 minutes before it sends you to character select. I can't be sure because I can get sent to character select at any time the program feels cranky. And the crashes appear to be program related because I get a message stating that an error occurred and the program has to shut down. EQ2 is the only program I have this happen with and I use about 30 different programs including high-graphics programs. But all of this is moot if the timer continues once the character logs back in. That's why I asked if the Wiki was correct. I've been robbed of so many items and rewards, lately, that I have gotten anxious about quests that are likely to have to be repeated. These problems mainly happen during peak hours but, on Maj'Dul, peak hours never seem to end. Last weekend was particularly crazy. So I'm glad to hear the timer pauses and doesn't reset though I would never place bets on it. I still think DB is cutting its own throat with this type of wait. It doesn't fool anyone and just makes it harder for casual players to do quests.
If you're in a guild hall or a house that doesn't have any activity, it shuts down in 20-30 minutes and boots you to character select. The game has worked this way for at least 5 years now. If you want to go afk for those 72 minute, just leave your toon in cobalt scar and you'll avoid log to character select.
All I did was ran some other quests during those 72 minutes then went back to it. And if you are truly experiencing the level of issues you describe, I think your PC has issues. I play quite a bit, and while sure I have the occasional crash, it's nowhere close to as dire as what you are experiencing. You may need to get your PC looked at for HW/SW fixes or upgrades. You mention not having these issues with other programs you run, so another thought is you have a driver or other program running that is causing the stability issues with the EQ2 client.
Right around the corner from the Anchorage is the NPC that gives out the repeatable quest for the Mysterious Blue Coins and you can do that over and over and over while waiting for your timer to expire. I did that, it took us years to get this repeatable into the game, I utilize it as much as possible.
What are the Mysterious Blue Coins good for? I have a ton of them and have no idea what to do with them.
There is a vendor I think he's inside the tent. But you end up with a ton more that what you can find stuff to buy. Unless there are vendor's that I've missed some place.
He is at the main Combine camp where you zone into Cobalt Scar from a bell. He is in the corner. He sells completed items or he sells the recipes for them and you can get the coins from your tradeskillers apprentice daily tradeskill tasks, but only if they are at exactly level 95. Not at 94 or 96. You can also get the from chests in the dungeons in the Great Divide zones. Now RNG hates me so getting the from the chests has yielded me next to nothing and keeping my tradeskillers at 95 was becoming impossible, they would do their apprentice, get the coin but they were almost all nearing 96. It was a Godsend when they finally got the repeatable in the game. It has stated since these quests went live that there was a repeatable to earn the Mysterious Blue Coins but the NPC that was to give it to us, refused to do so. Kaitheel with the help of Den Mum, finally sorted it out.
Almee, who are you and what did you do with the real Almee? I really don't understand what the complaint is about, this isn't the first quest that has some sort of a running timer based on time spend IN GAME, you get quest and if it wants you to wait and come back after x amount of time, you go and decorate or chat, or do whatever. The crashing may be on your side. It's been a loong time since I crashed last, so long I really can't put it into specific months or years timeframe
