EZ Server

I am not sure what thread to post this in because it seems as though the R&R is just for complaining and this isnt a complaint, just a question based on status.

Hunter and others...
Not sure if you are aware but with the population influx since p99 was down we have a pretty significant issue with the flow of the game.
Now, not everynight is the same, but for the most part here are the numbers.

- FG/CG camps almost 24/7
Lguk routinely has every spot camped almost non-stop.
Items like Begurgle, SSOY and KD are insanely hard to get.
Not sure on the solution.
Good idea maybe to implement an alternatives to FG/CG quests, like the old Live epic 1.0 quests and instead of epic, you get FG/CG.

- Epics
1.5
25+ players in time nightly.
I've been in time helping others all the time and more often than not you zone in and every mob is dead and groups lined up for next kill.
Terror and Quill are dead, every hour on the hour, every night.
*Suggestion*
T and Q spawn 30 mins.

2.0
Hasnt been as bad as expected, with the exception of Lguk5 and chest cards (See FG/CG)
MOW is still accessable, 30 min spawn is a welcoming touch.

2.5
Hushed is greatly improved. Thanks

3.0
TT hasnt been that much of an issue.

Progression...
Qvic... this is like the ghetto of EZ server.
Rampant vultures looming, ninjas and newbs.
Server ettiqeutte is pretty much non-existant. But, has improved a bit since the whole "ninja looting" thread.
*Suggestion*
I know you hate it, but, I beleive we need a Guide/GM online to drop the banhammer more.
We have a few threads on the forum where people are pointing out ninja's and server ettiqette.

Tacvi
No issues, seems to be a good run of loot/mobs etc.

T1/T2
40+ players in the zone nightly.
4 tiki's
10 players per 30 minute tiki spawn.
This is only going to get worse as more players are building boxed groups.
*suggestions*
Add 2 more tikis, one more t1 tiki by the docs, 1 more t2 tiki.

T3
Not sure, i know there are only a few groups/guilds in there, im sure there will be an issue when those numbers are increased.

CHARMS
I know obtaining the ultimate charm is supposed to be an ultimate quest.
But there is a fine line of "ultimate quest" over ultimate camp.
The upgrades are few and far between and LDON6 is camped 24/7.
*Suggestions*
Add charm upgrades to other zones. Possibly t1 or t2

This by no means isnt a RANT. Its a serious question as to how we plan on addressing the increased server population.
We have had discussions on the forums in the past and most of these quests were designed with a very low server population in mine (Hense, EZ quest).
Now if you are lucky to get 2 FG/CG rare items a night, sometimes 1 from quests that were sort of designed to be FUN going through the old zones.
Now you go through the old zones and are met with comments like "camped" before hello or "im running fraps" before hello.

I am just sure if Hunter spent the night on an Alt and tried to complete an FG/CG quest or upgrade his charm, he would see the pain.

Its not even just evenings.  I got up at 6am for the server reset the other day.  Log on to find all of Lguk have someone at it already.  I was on by 6:15am.  I come home for lunch and 25 people in PoTime with the named all dead and lines formed.  Anything you could do Hunter would be appreciated.

Thanks.

That alt progression i have been working on has a new version of the Guild quests/epics and ldon charms that get you the same rewards as the current ones.

When i get it all put together and IF Hunter actually likes it that would fix the over camping a bit by adding an alternative route to do the same tasks.

Not saying that's something to rely on, odds are it won't go through i'm just doing it because why the hell shouldn't i at least try ;P. But the option is there.

I like the tiki idea.   there is a big space back over by all those buildings where nothing is going on.  That would be a great place for a new tiki.

On the charms, it would really help if we had a ldon7.  Maybe make it identical to ldon6 (just gives everyone an extra place to go to help overcamping.)   Or maybe make an ldon7 a lot harder with a bump in the drop rate to compensate for it being tougher.

Potime is very frustrating.
Even with the spawn timers increased, i believe the layout is whats so strange.
There are no camps and the tunnels are way back.

Zone in, check track, find a mob, clear though, find out the mob is at 5% and there is another group waiting for next spawn.
Zone out, zone in, check track, clear though, find out the mob is at 5% and there is another group waiting.
Did this 5 times the other day trying to help a new player to the server and I gave up.
Im not even sure how to fix it.

I've noticed that certain charms very rarely drop in ldon zones 2-4.  Brawlers have dropped for me on 2, Sorcerer on 3, and Oracle on 4. It'd be nice if the chances were brought more in line with ldon6, but the specificity of the charm remain the same.  It would give people a place to focus their efforts if they are only after 1 charm, instead of relying on wild card chance 1 outta 4 in ldon6 when they do get a drop.

I hate selling back charms for 200 points.  The 10% sell back is a joke. For the effort, it should be at least 1000 points.

Theres an LDoN guy at the end of LDoN6 that mentions something about the futre of LDoN i think? Well its the future! Time to do some changes!

Question for Danyelle or anyone else with experience in this sort of thing.  How hard is it to make the zones instanced?  Potime, Qvic, Tacvi, Etc.  I know there was another post about that but it turned into people talking about how it would require a monthly fee.

Sorry for my nubness.

Isummon

One more tiki in POD for t1 and t2 will not fix the issue or even help at all.

An extra tiki wouldn't make it to where a person could zone up and use there crystals because that one would just be camped.

Suggestions?
I am just trying to find a solution.

Yeah Bikaf that's the post I was referring to.  It ends up just being a bunch of people jumping on the I wont pay bandwagon.

If you read it though it answers your question

try reading it again. I seem to remeber someone getting quite specific regarding making an instanced zone.

Will do when I get to work.  After all that is what work is for right?

I am noticing this issue more and more. Used to be, you could log on at 7AM and get most any cg/fg mob you wanted. Was nice to log in for 10 min before work and get a couple steps of progression. Now I get zero. (Evercamp is back)

----------------------------

Perhaps it's a stretch to program something like this, but I've seen other games do it.

If you could set the loot tables or spawn times to adjust with server or zone population, it would help with congestion.  ie. during peak times spawn timers are reduced or loot is double drop.

Or, just leave double drop on for a while. 

my 2¢

I don't think this would help a lot of the time.  The 4-5 times I've gone in there hoping to get at least one FG item, I've been told the following things by the people in there:

- I'll be here all day
- You no steal
- camped
- frapsing you
- lol, you don't even have 1.5

This server is really, really cool, with the exception of Lguk.  Had some great experiences already, met some great people, and even had Uxt tell my female alt toons (named after my daughters, as always) that they're supercute.  I'm staying here regardless, but it would be nice to have a different path to this stuff, seeing half the time I ask a question the solution has something to do with getting into the FG.  I work way too much and have way too much family time to compete with the sunshiney people above. :)

The only way I see this getting fixed is either by adding mobs that drop these items in other, less frequented zones like Hunter did for the PGT in EK (even tho i know this was for a different reason).

or

by adding alternate items that can be used for the FG/CG quests.
For example - there are 20 some odd items needed for the quest atm. - so instead of making it those exact 20+ items, maybe open it up to an additional other 10 items that you can mix and match with - with the exception I guess of the 4 king cards which could still be a requirement.  That way people who don't want to sit in LGuk forever waiting for those forever camped items, can go an alternative route.

Again, this is not guaranteed to even work or prevent the new places from being camped either, but it was a thought.

I was sorta hoping for Hunter to come in and offer his 2c :)

There are plenty of other 'camp' sites that could be used... Kael would have a few, Karnor's (VS in particular), Maidens Eye, Griegs End... masses of options, but would probably take a while to re-write quest scripts, so modifying loot tables for the new mobs (to match existing CG/FG quest drops) would probably be the easier approach.

Darkest

Having charm upgrades in T2 would be the bomb, or any other zone than ldon.

0 progress today.
50+ players in pod.
tacvi camped all day.
24+ players in qvic for about 10 mobs.
15 players in LDON5
LDON6 perma camped
13 players in POF
9 players in LGUK

This is getting unreal

agreed

Maybe it is just me but it only seems like a few zones are really bad to work with. I would just make 2-3 copies of the over populated zones and put an npc where you get to the zone at and make it offer something like gukbottom 1,2 or 3 the only hard one would really be the top ldon and you could put an npc in fg/cg guild area for that one since you pretty much have to make it the whole way up to get in.

He could always make the drops 100% and take out PH's, that would help a lot

this

I agree with this... Make the item drop every time the mob is up, lower the respawn times and no PHs would probably solve the camping issues for the FG/CG items.

I waited 3 hours for the PGT to drop the other night and luckily there was only one guy there ahead of me (and i was told that was fast).  If these adjustments are made, camps would go quick and the line-ups would disappear faster.

Agreed.  It's kinda strange that epic page bosses are what, 10-15 mins timers, no PH and always drop the pages, but these items are long boring camps...  ;D

Taking out the PH's would benefit the questing, but the overpopulation of just he basic zones wont improve.

Its 8:00pm est on a MONDAY night.
3 groups in qvic. bosses on 30 minute timers, most of the time is spent waiting.
35+ players in podragons. 4 tikis.
3 groups in Tacvi!!!
25 players in potime! Granted the spawn times are greatly improved, but if you've ever been in time with 25+ players, its brutal.
6 players and 6 alts in Pofire.
LDON6, camped.

Seriously, if you wanted to log in right now with a group and plan on doing anything but waiting your choices are slim.

This sounds like a great solution along with the non-ph one.
Would solve a ton of issues.

I hate to bump this again but the camps issues still need to be addressed or at least open for discussion.
From the thread, here are some possible solutions.
- CG/FG - Removal of PH's
Epic 1.5 - Moves quickly, but, still populated zone. At least it moves fast with the respawn timers improved. Terror and Q could possibly be bumped to 30 minute spawn timers.
Epic 2.0 - LDON moves good, respawn timers are good. LDON5 is still a pita with cards but that doesnt slow down Epic progression.
Epic 2.5 - Improved spawn timers on Barrels are a welcome, thanks.
Epic 3.0 - Qvic is a pita, it moves fast for epics, but, its not enjoyable anymore with so many groups competing for spawns. There are normally 6+ groups there competing for 10 mobs on 30 minute timers. Possible reducing the timers to 10-15 minutes like Time would improve it or if possible, another copy of the zone?
MoW- Its camped quite heavily now, you basically need to stand in line. Although 30 minute spawns are improved, this poor mob never lives longer than 5 minutes. Not so much of a bottle neck as the most you have to wait is 1 hr, compared to waiting all day for a begurgle crown or wasting a weekend in Lguk.
TT 3.0 Books, same comments as MoW.

Armor progression.
Qvic - This zone is not an enjoyable experience for anyone anymore. I believe the lowered spawn timers on the bosses may improve the "time" spent in the non-enjoyable zone. Or as others mentioned, is it possible to clone a zone?
Really, I invite anyone to go there tonight with 40 players in the zone and tell me its not the same as getting a root canal.
Tacvi - Perma camped. There are groups that farm this every night for days on end. Unlike Qvic where multiple groups can be supported for multiple mobs, this zone is essentially single group content. Definately a bottleneck. Possibly placing the same mobs in and old school zone like spread across ice-clad? they can still assist eachother etc? Or duplicating the zone.
PODragons - Bottle neck. Another 2 tikis (T1 + T2) and improved spawn timers on the trash dragons would be nice.

Im not sure of the bottlenecks beyond POD.
Again, im not bitching, im just trying to find a way to accommodate the increased populations we are experiencing.

There is countless things to fix a lot of issues, even making certain items drop more etc... could fix issues, but how long do we have to wait for these issues to be fixed? I know timers on stuff has been changed slowly over time but if anyone could correct me on this, camps on stuff and being able to do anything is worse then it has ever been before. If this was one person complaining about camps it would be a differant story, but most the people who actively visit these boards are complaining about the camps and its been for months now? I know Hunter has lots of real life and other things to focus on also, but camps are getting crazy? Even though he doesn't want anyone else screwing with his server maybe its time to find people that he can trust to help him out, even guides that can talk to the server and make some people calm down over the camping situation could possible help?

IDK, just ranting on, but I would like to come play again on server and since camping issues have made me want to stab my eyes out I haven't even logged on very much, IDK about anyone else.

well i can probably speak for the 50+ players in pod tonight on 4 tikis that its getting a bit much.

Your post is right on the money and thats why I was trying to find quick fixes as opposed to whole new content.
I believe we will eventually progress to needing more than just hunter, although that may go away from his plan.
I know that Danyelle has done some significant fixes that have been submitted and just waiting hunters review. Although these fixes are spell fixes and not camp fixes.

As for dev resources, there are more than enough people on EZ willing to help with the load, including myself.

I am sort of hoping hunter at least comments on this thread?

Well this isn't Hunter, but it's kinda close... I just made Instance scripts which should solve the problems of the heightened populations. As this is something that doesn't entirely increase the load on the server too much, it certainly can if people are creating them constantly. That is why they will cost platinum to create...

And considering some of the objects to make instancing possible are not well known, I decided to help Hunter and his endeavors to make EZ a better place to play.

The script originally was just over 1,000 lines long. I revised it into three subcategories to make it very easy for Hunter to utilize where he chooses.

Group instances cost 2k to create

Guild Instances cost 10k to create

You will also have an option to use [Buffs] on these waypoints, but as they are not in a hub zone, they will cost platinum.

There are also in-game links to the website here on the Waypoints to common guides and walkthroughs with a list populated by Danyelle.

Here is a preview below: As it has shown on a test that it can track who has created the instance, and will prompt you to enter it if you are in the same Guild or same Group as the person who created it...

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/Blade654/WaypointInstances.jpg)

o The image above is not completely accurate, as the new script that I updated today does not have the [Bind in Zone] as it was leftover from the script on my server.

o Also, it has had the option to delete an instance, only if there is one tied to your Guild or your Group. A window will prompt you Yes/No accordingly.

o It also has the ability to STORE platinum (in the clouds so to speak) so you don't have to carry it around and use it for buffs and grabbing instances. You can always withdraw platinum from the Waypoint at anytime, in increments starting at 100 platinum.

When does this go live? Well... As soon as Hunter gets a chance, as he has mentioned the internet connection isn't entirely reliable, and they have been having storms as well.

Hopefully this was news you all wanted to hear.

Regards, Akkadius

Wow that's even more impressive than i had imagined when you described it to me lol

This imo is definitely gonna be useful. The instances will finally provide a plat sink for the hundreds of thousands of plat people have stored away and will at the same time cut back on the drama and over camping in certain zones =D. Also the little guide thing will solve the problem of all the people that A. are too lazy to log into the forums or B. can't seem to navigate it :P

Yay i was semi-helpful!!! lol

Seriously though i know i've said this before but good job! :) /jealous of your genius

Nice Akkadius, also makes plat worth something heh, thanks for the work you put into this!

P.S. Does this mean you can instance ANY zone as long as you have the plat for it? Or is it just certain zones?

It's whatever zones that Hunter decides to put the Waypoint NPC's in, there are three types, Group Waypoint's and Guild Waypoints, then there are Waypoints that sit in neutral zones for information. Like walkthroughs etc.

ahh ic

wow!
On a side note, i dont think the increased usage would be an issue for the server since EQ handled more than that on live on less equipment (6 years ago) that what hunter is running now.

This would be an awesome addition!!!

Here is a more accurate screenshot of the current script provided:

It has in-game links to the websites Guides and Walkthroughs that will automatically open up a link to the website etc etc.

And the load on the server should be fine as long as it has traffic control from the costs via platinum.

But yes, it is pretty nice. I think you all will be happy to have instances at your demand.

Group Instances: 3 Hours expiry

Guild Instances: 1 Day expiry

o No more people crashing your zones
o No more trains
o No more "Asshat that stole my camp I am going to FRAPS himz!"
o Can we all hold hands now?

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/Blade654/waypoints.jpg)

Ill hold your hand anyday

Actually, after thinking about the load even more.
We are running hardware that was unheard of when instances were introduced to EQlive.
We are averaging about 300 players a night on the server, which is about 1/10th the amount of players on the live servers!
I dont think overhead will be an issue at all, but, im sure time will tell.

Kudos on the script! I would love to see this implemented.

Lulz i can't believe you used my name >.< I didn't really do much haha

Anyway as i've said, brilliant man, brilliant =D

Another option is to cash in/charge AA LOL.

This is a great presentation Akkadius.

You are the one working on that "Blood of Akkadius" server, are you not?
If you are putting the same kinda effort into that, as you are here then i am more excited to try it out than before.

I gotta remote into the server and get the scripts loaded up. Maybe a few hours at most. So far at quick glance, it looks awsome!

Yep I am, this is only one small thing that I wanted to help out Hunter with. If he want's my help, I have no problem with it, I think ops should be able to look after each other 8 /.

+1 Buffer point for nice scripting.
+1 Buffer point for attitude.

Kinda off topic a bit but lets say you have your own instance of PoFire, would that somehow possibly make it so pulling an entire zone and AoEing it at once wouldnt crash the zone? Just wondering, I don't really know what causes crashes anyways. Something in the code?

Depends, the demand for that zoneserver is less and more reliant on your bandwith multipliers via aggroing a shit ton of mobs, AEing.

Also depends on the amount of people on and his connection to the box. Not really concerned with the box...

Our fiber is suppose to be 30 down and 5 up, but not always exact, and I'm sure Live had better bandwidth on their servers.

See, this kind of thing is why I help people out on EQEmulator. Good to see you doing nice things too Akkadius. :D

Aye Secrets, Akkadius has been very helping. We just have to tweak one more thing but this "Waypoint" script should allow people to have their own group/guild instance which is a huge plus for the growing population.

Akkadius and Secrets rock! Both friendly and helpful on EZ Server. Need more people like these in the community for EQEmulator.

We got a ETA on this I am so excite I can .... myself..  Sure make my game experience less stressful.

The Pudge

See, arent you all happy I friggen bumped the crap out of this thread for two weeks.

Thanks Hunter, this should be an amazing improvement!

Well keep bumping it till it happens slacker.

Wasn't so much this thread, but people in /ooc constantly freaking out when I would simply troll on the server. I had to go to bed last night, the woman was tearing at my throat. The fixxes to the scripts are very minor and if Hunter is around atm, we should get this rolling within the next few hours.

Female-based safety first, my good man.  Don't get killed on our accounts. :)

Being able to spend plat to get into an instance would be a wonderful thing on this server. This is the best news I have heard in a long time. Wonderful.

You guys rock!

Good work to Akkadius, Hunter, Secrets and Dany too!  ;D

Making EZ one of the coolest servers around!