Avatar Spawn Mechanics

You really have no idea what you are talking about do you? Are you new? EQ2 catering to marshmellows would make more sense then them having to cater to Asian/Australian players. Do you realize where this game is based out of? Not in Asia or Australia. Now don't get me wrong because I completely agree that the way this system has worked out so far (lol 2 days) it hasn't proved ideal for non-US based guilds. It is mind boggling you think that this has anything to do with any country besides the U.S. and think SoE should apologize to anyone. They should have stated what they were doing, and possibly gotten feedback before implementing it though.

I was not implying that they should cater to them. Merely that they should not beat them with a hammer. As for the end of my comment when I do to someone what SOE did to them I think it only polite to call them later.....never been a one night stand kind of person.

Thank you for replying. This is the kind of important communication I was talking about. Had this happened prior, this whole thread could have been avoided completely, along with all the frustrated players!

Now to take it a step further, I'd slide some of the windows based on server. 3 to 3 (assuming you meant EST time) would work fairly well for AB, because it still gives Immersion a chance. On Unrest, that window doesn't really work at all, it gives them all to Shoukin. Without knowing the exact times the Asian/Aussie guilds raid, I'd recommend something more along the lines of 8pm to 8am (EST). Yes it sucks for Shoukin, but that's when the other guilds raid (and honestly, you'll probably need to make it a little longer then 12 hours on Unrest). On a server like Oasis I'd also go later, as Oasis has tended towards late night guilds for a long long time. Something more along the lines of 6pm to 6am EST. I don't know enough about other server populations to give a solid timeframe, but I believe Transcendence is still raiding Aussie times on Everfrost, so that would need to look something like Unrest. A few of the servers don't really have off hour populations and could probably have the windows shortened.

To be fair, if they didn't communicate at all, this thread wouldn't have happened either. Which is part of the reason I facepalmed when it started. While I agree that it should have been information volunteered publicly, it's not a system that can be properly explained in simplicity.

Hence, wanting to talk about it at SOELive, with an unfortunate push of the GU early.

The only reason it was mentioned to me at all is because I asked about the situation concerning old avatars, having to camp all of them along side the new avatars would be beyond tedious, and how they spawn, not necessarily when. That's just how the conversation went.

And.. not that it's even remotely an excuse, but there ARE non-American servers.
This is part of the reason why.

Some servers a flat window like the one they are testing works. On other servers that have Asian/Aussie or Euro guilds the window could be broken up. You'd think that SOE would have a way of tracking when the raid zones are being used though out the day. Then use that to adjust the spawning mechanic. During the downtime between US vs Assuie vs Euro guilds nothing spawns.

Weighting the spawns on raid zone usage would favor more spawning during US times but not exclude them spawning during off hour raid guilds times. May not sound fair to off hour guilds that they'd get less spawns. But in general each of those guilds has a monopoly on anything that does spawn because they are the only game in town at that time. US guild may get more spawns but they are going to be fighting to get out and get the kills.

You probably didn't play this game, or even if you did may not know it happened, but there where international servers merged into US servers. It's not a small coincidence that a lot of Australian and Asian population is on Unrest. It happened because those servers got merged into Najena, which then got merged into Unrest. Trying to use international servers as a cop out is a non-starter. Doubly so because even non-international people play at all different times of day. It's easily evidenced by people in the US who raid in the middle of the night, morning, afternoon, and standard evening.

This thread would have happened, because people in this thread have already pointed out wack spawns where Avatars are outside of windows. It also wouldn't take people long to realize hey I haven't got woke up in 2 weeks. Or hey we haven't seen a single Avatar remotely close to our raid time since the GU.

How about this: every week, every guild that kills an avatar in the Arena of the Gods gets to enter their desired spawn window. The following week, one of those windows is chosen at random for each avatar. That way you're always guaranteed that the avatar spawns during a certain guild's preferred time, but no guild has the advantage.

Because honestly, for a guild that raids 10am-4pm, the 3pm to 3am spawn windows would blow.

Right. People wouldn't have noticed before SOELive, most likely. Which is when the system was going to be discussed. Which means this whole thread of assumptions and accusations of poor communication wouldn't have taken place.


My comment about non-US servers was mostly directed at the removal of that option for people in different time zones, not criticism of people who refuse to "play where they belong". There are implications beyond total population and ping that go along with it. This is one of them.

If it's 12 hours spawn timer - then all is OK. Let it stay as it is. I thought it was 3-5 hours...

We already explained how it would have noticed since people already noticed avatars spawning off the previous schedule. Furthermore people would have been looking much more closely than usual since there were new avatars added. The very first night I would have thought something was up since 2 avatars, one off schedule, spawned at the same exact time. Not within in 5 minutes, but within less than 10 seconds at least. Whether or not it was a result of the change it would have peaked suspicion due to the circumstances.

Would this thread be as long? Probably not. The best case scenario would have been a thread of people saying 'What did you guys do?' followed by MOUNTAINS of speculation and possibly a dev post saying 'We'll explain it at SoE Live' But the whole 'explain at SoE Live' excuse is just pathetic since we don't have a convention for every update. Who ever decided to wait until then to announce it screwed up royal. You announce changes BEFORE they go in, not after. Even waiting until the day of is questionable.

When you keep people in the dark all you will get is lies, suspicion and innuendo. So for a company wanting to be liked by its customers (presumably) its quite a big no-no.

3pm EST is approx 5am AEST. So this 12 hour spawn window is 5am to 5pm our time. Ie: when we're at work. As its been stated while a 12 hour window may work for some servers it doesnt at all for unrest. (And several others)

And for those of you thinking "they just need to asjust which 12 hour window the avatars spawn in" I say "why does it have to be 12 hours and not 24?" On a server that has people playing in peak times if avatars spawn when everyone is on it'll be truely contested. If people kill them outside of the hours you play then its your choice to extend the hours (which because of this change we cant do because its when we're at work) OR make sure that in the hours you and your guild are available you make sure you're actively ready to take them down if they spawn. (Which again will never happen with this change due to mobs spawning when we're not on.)

If you guys are making the contested avatars inaccessible outside of US timezones, it would be better to just remove them entirely and put the lockout timer on the Arena back to 18 hours and buff the loot equal to that of contesteds.

You cant restrict the spawn times to 12 hours (Which is actually more like 3 hours based on recent spawns between 9-12) it's completetly unfair for us.

Either around the clock to its fair for everyone, or none at all.

And there you go. Confirmation with no apology and a fob off on the explanation until later. Not even an attempt to explain which server clocks differ.

This is a new low in SOE customer service.

ITT: People being curmudgeons

Cool, can you please flex it to 24 hours on Unrest? thanks.

This is exactly right. While i understand that your trying to promote competition, this change as been in for 3 days, and i have still yet to see a single person on Unrest in a guild other than Shoukin or VVV camping avatars. Quite surprising as in the original "avatars are not fair" cry fest thread, a lot of it was fueled by an American guild on Unrest who have still yet to make the slightest effort.

I guess at least Shoukin is getting heaps of easy loot.. Means when this absolutely ridiculous change is reverted maybe they will have the majority of their gear already and won't need to camp them as hard.

Also .. 3 days reset on the Arena for 1 mob that drops average loot and the slightest chance of Bristlebane spawning.. compared to 9 world avatars that drop best in game items you can kill every 3-6 days, which have now been tuned so the US HC guilds can monopolize even easier without having to make 1/2 of the effort they previously had to. Just put the same loot on the arena mobs, you can only do it once every 3 days anyway, are people really going to cry if the 'lower' tier guilds have access to 2 decent items twice a week. You've already removed 2/3 of Unrests avatar raiders from having a chance at the real deal, give us some candy.

Makes me wonder what USA HC guild out there has a dev in it who's sick of getting out of bed in the middle of the night.. ahh who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory?

Being in the #2 guild on Antonia Bayle, Heaven and Earth, I'd like to quell all the Equilibrium and 'elitist' bashing that seems to be spit out all over this topic.

First off, many guilds help Beta test content, including ours in this last GU67. While you may get strats ahead of everyone else, to be able to 'test' certain scripts or functions (Prexus item from small chest for example, or seeing if an add spawns to quickly or late to dps down), it still takes the skill to actually pull off the strats. (You can be told to stop casting on Divinor in SG, but the player(s) can still suck so badly they never follow instruction or script). I'm sure anyone in Equilibrium will tell you how to "win" Challenge SG content, but, without the actual skill, you won't get any where. (Paladin MT ftw? Euuuuwhaaaat!?)

Lastly, It's funny that people think this will actually exclude the raids that put in the effort to actually monopolize the avatars, and I also disagree that this takes out any effort and replaces it all with luck as Ainaree said (although I understand the point you made Ree). If Equilibrium can wake up at 3:23 am on a Monday morning before work and put a raid together to pull a contested avatar, what's going to stop them from doing the same during 'primetime'? It won't change anything, (other than certain members who work during 'primetime') the effort still needs to be there, and camping is still possible for the guilds with the resources to keep the avatars in check. The difference is, we don't really care. Does it make it slightly more convenient for us, as a PST raid force, to have avatars spawn somewhat between our window? Sure. But it also makes it convenient for Equilibrium to already know the strats, the spawn points, and know they have people competent to pull and succeed on the encounter. (Read: Our Wednesday night Sullon pull?)

In the end, Heaven and Earth will get avatars that they are alert for during raid, as will any raid, just like before when they spawned at any time. It is unfortunate that EU guilds get screwed on AMERICAN servers, but from Sony's perspective, it's "Go raid on an EU server".

I would say the same as Glndotto though here on Permafrost we got to Drinal just as Punished finished their last pull. They got their before we did, so they killed him. We leared the spawnpoint and a few things about the strat. So next time Punished has to be more alert since we know more.

Those raids that put in the effort will get it. The only negative this has is those of us who have Jobs during "Prime Time" and are completely unable to log.

Both an Australian and Asian server got merged into Najena, and then Unrest. There is no server for them, they play on US servers for a reason.