Avatar Spawn Mechanics

Re-open an Australian/Oceanic server and I'll happily take my whole guild there so we can have a prime time too!

Nagafen has 3 guilds capable of killing Avatars. I am fairly confident only Nexus is capable of killing all of them, but this basically means that we will never get Tunare, Marr, Tallon or Sullon anymore. You are alienating 33% of the avatar killing community on our server.

Needless to say I'm biased towards my own guild's raid times. - Anyway, what is considered "prime time" during weekends?

Since most short time promotions (like double XP, SC rebates and alike) are scheduled for weekends, SOE obviously has reason to believe that there's generally more player activity on weekends compared to weekdays. Take that into consideration if you really want to hold on to the idea of avatar prime time spawn windows.

Kham, you're drunk. Read the thread please.

It's supposed to be biased. It's supposed to give an advantage to guilds who aren't currently killing them. There was acknowledgement, which is why this thread exists. It wasn't "leaked to many people", it was vaguely mentioned with a couple details in a discussion meant to take place at SOELive, when the system was to be discussed (In less than a week).

The issue is more with excluding individuals, and an undeserved increased difficulty for some guilds. There's not "no chance" for anyone. Guilds DURING prime time DURING their raid time LOOKING for them have missed avatars because there are so many spawn points.

Not only have there been plenty of avatars spawning anomalous to the window I was given, it's only 3 days in, and the times are subject to change. Still operating on many assumptions.

And you, my good sir, are well aware of what they say about assumptions.

The prospect of more contested Avatars? It is a nice idea, but at what cost? It is my opinion that the current policy is a leap backward, and is based on ideology more fitting for the year 1813, not 2013.

I know you are drunk, you have already admitted that, you also seem to be off you meds or maybe you need to go and get some adjustments made to them. The bolded statement you made here is simply not true, it wasn't true the first night of new avatars and it wasn't true the second night, for both Guk and Everfrost (and others I am sure)

I never saw where anyone stated that they knew the exact window, again that sounds a lot like the alcohol talking but I digress, after it was posted on the forums the playing field was leveled. If there is a segment of the player base that is not intelligent enough, diligent enough or dedicated enough to avatars to JUST KNOW that when they add 3 new avatars that there will almost certainly be a 'reboot' of the timers that determine when they will spawn, and that because the number of them has been increased by 50% that there will also be adjustments made to the windows in which they spawn. Perhaps if you cut back a little bit on the alcohol you'd be a bit more lucid and you could figure out basic common sense stuff like this on your own.

Bro. Stop. It WAS leaked. To you. To only you. This thread exists because SOE didn't even give ANYONE a subtle hint about it except you. Are you a Dev/GM? No? Then YOU shouldn't be the one having to slip up and have everyone find out what is actually happening. You should not have even been given that info unless it was/is being announced publicly maybe same day. This kind of makes everyone wonder what other stuff they tell you without it getting leaked to everyone else (should we call you Darkon?). I am not here to start **** with you Maer, because I don't think you are that bad of a guy. But honestly stop sucking Dev's ***** because you slipped up and told everyone you get told information that puts you on a higher playing field than EVERYONE else playing this game.

PS- Didn't the same exact thing happen with duo zones recently? Because I believe you admitted that you were told about the zones. On this very forum.

Saying it was "leaked to MANY people" is a lie. I asked if the loot had been upgraded on old Avatars, because 9 spawning at random times would be obnoxious. I was told it wasn't random times anymore, that they spawn during prime time.

There was no benefit to us. We changed nothing. We didn't wait around for them to spawn.We didn't even have proof the system was working, and this thread existing proves we weren't keeping it secret.

Nothing was leaked about duo zones.
Nothing was told to me at all.
They were discussed after I found and completed them.

Apparently you are here to start ****, accusing me of manipulating inside information for any kind of advantage.

It's no different than reporting lag and being told when it should be fixed.
It's no different than saying a mob is broken and asking when it will be fixed.
It's no different than talking about class balance and suggesting changes.
It's no different than actively testing a zone with a dev on beta/test.

There is reason for communication with individuals, or groups of individuals, instead of the unkempt masses on the forums. There's room for both, but reason for both.

Public 2 way communication is nearly impossible, and this thread proves that like no other. People are slinging mud like there's no tomorrow. People have a bit of reason to be upset, but nothing close to what has happened in this thread.

So many assumptions and mad, mostly because the little information shared with me was vague and somewhat inaccurate.

I didn't "slip up" and tell people anything. There was nothing being kept secret. The only reason I didn't make the thread myself is because in less than a week, it was to be discussed publicly and 99% of this could have been avoided.

I agree with Davito. Stop being an SOE fanboi Maergoth! And try some humility. This would have been self-evident even if you hadn't leaked your pre SOE live discussions with SOE. And you label us curmugeons! I think we have a right to be grumpy and upset.

To make this live without notice, be given a delayed curt acknowledgement in the thread and say it will discussed at SOE live in the future, does little to fix the alienation SOE have created with part of their player base.

Discussing it with me has nothing to do with the fact that they should have done a forum announcement.

I completely agree the information should have been made available and public. I don't agree that saying something to an individual about it to see the response is a sin.

Now that (I think) I understand what they're doing, I think it's a good idea IF they implement it right and not leave out guilds that raid at off hours. But seriously, like Arabel said, communication from SOE needs major improvement. This sort of thing happens way too often, people lose their minds over an important issue and the devs wait for DAYS before saying something that could have diffused the situation much sooner. It reflects a fundamental lack of respect for their customers IMO. And as Davito pointed out, the blatant playing of favorites is a pretty glaring problem as well.

All of this could have been handled way better. But enough of the gripes, I'd like to offer suggestions on the concept itself.

If I understand it correctly, this change would make it less likely (if at all) that avatars will spawn in the dead of night when hardly anyone's on. Personally I think it needs to be a bit more than a 12 hour window (at least on AB, where you have Immersion raiding at 11am Pacific to After Dark raiding to however late they raid). Them and everyone in between deserves a chance at taking an avatar down, even if it's a remote chance.

I can also see how a smaller window (evenings US time) should have an increased chance over the other hours. For instance, let's say the general window of spawn times is 11am Pacific to midnight. Then let's say from 5pm Pacific to 10pm it's a 75% chance for avatars to spawn, whereas the other hours get the remaining 25%. To me that would be reasonable, giving as much exposure to when the majority of guilds raid while still giving the off-hours guilds a chance now and then as well. For Antonia Bayle, at least, I think this would be the smartest and fairest way to implement it.

But then that's the other issue, every server is different and they should have their own windows based on what time their guilds raid. If SOE goes this route I hope they will take input from guilds from all those servers and work out agreeable solutions. Yes I know it's a hassle and you'll never please everyone, but I think it's the best way to go about this change in spawn mechanics.

I assume you've PM'd them and they haven't answered, then?

All this prime time spawning does is screw non US based guilds on any server out of any chance to kill any avatar any longer except in the arena. Do you honestly expect them to be excited by the comparitively crap arena loot and the rare potential to spawn (and kill) Bristlebane once every three days and never see an actual contested avatar again?

Maybe some US based guilds might have a smaller chance of being able to kill an avatar if they spawn in "prime time" simply because more will obviously be spawning now over a shorter window, but for alot of guilds this still doesn't really change anything for them anyway, why? They still won't necessarily be able to form up a raid force and kill anything outside their raid times (not prime time - a very restricted raid time of maybe 3hrs in that 12hr window) for a variety of reasons including a lack of willingness to camp them in the first place and a complete lack of interest in being online outside of scheduled raid times anyway...so who gets these avatars that spawn in the remaining 8-9 hours of the day when these casual type guilds aren't raiding then? The very same guilds that got them before minus the Aussies, Euros, Asians, Moonmen and all other aliens deemed unfit according to "prime time". Congratulations on just increasing the amount of kills the more dominant US guilds already had. They get ALL of them now instead of maybe having some spawn later that EU or Aussie/Asian guilds MIGHT have had a chance at.

With the implementation of this new spawn timer you have listened to the whiners who never wanted to put in effort in the first place that cried about avatar monopolization and you went and handed spawns to them on a silver platter that they still won't give 2 ***** about because they never did in the first place, they just want SOE to hand them free loot for no effort once every few days.../claim <avatar loot>, lame.

True contested is random if you want to kill it put in the effort, if you don't then visit the arena and spawn them on demand like a blue movie in a cheap hotel and be thankful you got the arena loot and walk away.

Restricting spawn times is completely discriminatory.

Why do you think there was an official response in this thread finally?

Abusing dev connections to get replied in this thread. How dare you, Davito.

I wasnt talking about a specific person Maergoth. This is what I know. A week before this happened, a random Unrivaled in my ventrilo says kham, you know this alliance with resonance you have to kill avatars next week right, the avatars will spawn only at these times, sutley you wont want to alliance them then. I figured it was smack talk or the start of some stupid rumor till I did some digging. I know for a fact that some of their guild were well informed on ths matter with no pulic information given, so shut your mouth idiot and quit acting like it isnt what happened. thx.

I wasnt talking about a specific person Maergoth. This is what I know. A week before this happened, a random Unrivaled in my ventrilo says kham, you know this alliance with resonance you have to kill avatars will end next week right, the avatars will spawn only at these times, sureley you wont want to alliance them then. I figured it was smack talk or the start of some stupid rumor till I did some digging. I know for a fact that some of their guild were well informed on ths matter with no pulic information given, so shut your mouth idiot and quit acting like it isnt what happened. thx.

Sounds like he's been on a multi-day drinking binge.

and for the record i personally love the changes, 2 guilds together have been routinly beating unrivaled t oavatar pulls, and been getting well over 20 % the kills for like 6 weeks. now thewy spawn in both said guilds raid windows per say, and both are still willing to hel each oother out before, and after raid times and on off nights. gg. I think its extremely unfair, is all.