EZ Server

Sadly, I have to bring this up... know I'll get some flack for it but..

I know years ago EZ used to have AFK code, it would kick you after 20 or 30 minutes I think, of inactivity. I'm pretty sure it applied only to Nexus (non-instanced).

I'm sorry to say I think this needs to be re-implemented. Performance even on a beefy machine like mine (i7 6700k 4.0Ghz quad core, 16gb ram, Geforce 980) slows to a sad slideshow in Nexus now where we are seeing 100+ toons, most of them idle.

Apparently a lot of these toons are just parked there to get uber-buffs (which is maybe a whole other topic but..).

I know logging in 48 toons or whatever is a pain, and is why some folks just park them when they're done playing... As long as the server can handle this I don't see a problem, except when they are all parked in the SAME PLACE. Parking them in an instance of Nexus, or anywhere else, should be fine, and doesn't seem like a huge burden to ask people..

What do you guys think?

 :P

Serverwide buffs would be fucking epic too. (like what Akka's Funhouse used to have).

It'll only take a week for someone to post the anti-afk script and then it'll just go back to normal, then the forum posts about people too lazy to use it complain about being kicked on all boxes for going to grab a drink, the circle completes  ;D

I log 12 toons in and while the lag in nexus is noticeable, it is also very bearable.  You could try instancing your own nexus to serve as a home base, or use stone hive if the lag is not workable for you.

i never go to Nexus, unless I have to.. I use / go to  Stone Hive ... you can do pretty anything in Stone Hive and more with 0 lag

We've been there, done that on this server.   No need for that type of solution.    The solution, as others have stated, is not to go to nexus or create your own instance of nexus. 

Thanks for the feedback.

Problem with using Stonehive or instance of Nexus is, all the clickies port you to Nexus, the charms, and later on the tier boots... I guess I could bind all my toons in SH and use the "gate" ring..


Back then the server also rebooted once a day... that helped clear it out too. I guess there have been some improvements since then... like I said, if the server can handle 100+ people being logged in the same zone idle, ok then?

Use your belt, it ports you to stonehive.

I can fix all problems instantly:

Have the nexus public banker DT anyone who stays in his proximity for more than 15 minutes.

You'll see the nexus numbers drop by 80% immediately.

The delicious irony of the buff begging is I was one of the last hold outs who'd still go and buff out nexus a few times a day.

Since the lag in there is so bad these days I really no longer bother. So they are actually discouraging the buffs they are trying to cheese with the little lemming party. Seriously there is like 200 people idling in the nexus. I've been here off and on since 2008  and its never been even remotely that bad.

Wow, 200 is a lot for the nexus. If its that big of a problem, maybe Akka can add in a zone wide skele buff that goes off every so often. That should lower the amount of models being loaded.

Sounds like a  player  made problem with an easy player  made solution...I always  had the opinion that buffers buff so people will like and or acknowledge them. Buffing the  shit out of a lower level player doesn't help them at all, it just allows them to blow through content at a ridiculous rate only to fuck themselves over when they get to content that requires the grind to progress. I  have no problem helping players in need of a boost...a bit of insight on their group make-up, content relevant questions or just casual banter but I am adamantly mindful of not enabling them by negating content that they are more than capable of doing themselves for them.  If  someone  dies on the 3rd floor of LDON and needs a rez I have no problem with helping out...if Shadow is a bit too much to handle before the zone starts respawning I am happy to come kill him, but if someone afk's to leech buffs that they neither need or have access to on their own then they can afk for days for all I care.

tl;dr Stop massing buffs because it doesn't help the people begging for them to actually play the game, but if you  think it somehow enhances their playtime, buff every hour on the hour if you want.

" I've been here off and on since 2008  and its never been even remotely that bad. " Agreed.

Crab used to buff in weird places, Butcherblock docks, Runneye banker, etc... Just to make the nubz work for it a little. 8)

if buffing lower tier people is such a issue and makes the game so much easier then what of higher tiers grinding out UWs and basically giving away all the loot they generate to a lowbie, if you wanna stand on the soap box that buffing them makes it to easy then you should probably refocus on giving away entire tiers worth of gear.  Unless of course thats not the real reason you have issue with it.

If mgmt feels the higher tier buffs trivialize the lower tiers they could restrict them by level (as they did with the XP mask).

As far as giving gear away, if you've made it to say Tier 5 and some Tier 9/10 guy is clearing the zone for ess's you're just going to get your gear/flags a little faster - you still need to get the flag to be in the zone in the first place.. That's a bit different than a brandnew 70 getting a 400k Hp buff (when they naturally have something like 8-10k) and solo'ing Plane of Time..

We used to have AFK code for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest ones was stability of the server. This was mostly a Hunter band-aid at the time.

It's a huge testament to how far things have come that a zone can even handle 200 players at idle.

And honestly, there's nothing to keep people from going into their own instances if client sided lag is an issue.

That lag is going to be a combination of mostly net-send lag even at idle, and graphical rendering.

Like usual, if there are thoughtful suggestions that people want to chip in about a resolution I'm never opposed. But I'm not seeing much of an issue here.

Huh? Please elaborate on the soap box comment relative to what I posted.

i wasn't so much replying to you directly and more replying to the discussion on buffs in general going on in public channels at the moment.

I'd argue that having a high level rush you through t5 is exactly equal to having high level buffs in pot. Both just cut time off of whatever thing you're doing.

My feeling is, let people play how they want to play.

If you don't want to buff, don't buff. If you don't want to rush someone, don't.
If the people begging for buffs bothers you, just ignore them.

Finally in regards to the people who afk in nexus, I'd hazard a guess and say more than half of them are established people's characters staying logged in generally to save time. All of the lag in nexus is graphical lag, and even that generally fades as soon as you finish rending the stuff the first time (except that first time Rymo buffed 1k and destroyed the zone)    :)

Wholeheartedly agree with Fecs.  There is enough of a grind already that a few buffs and free drops along the way make it slightly more enjoyable.  If senior players want to make buffs and drops available to newcomers, THANKS!  If not, no worries.  But don't make a fuss when you see someone asking in ooc for something.  Asking is not begging so quit calling it that.  Also, suggesting that people stop asking and just wait until it is offered is kinda ridiculous too.  How does the proverb go? "Ask and ye shall receive."

If you are going to continue advocating for "no mass buffs" (you know who you are) just know that you are essentially saying "no we won't help you" and you are giving the server a bad image for newcomers.  If you don't have anything helpful to offer, just leave it alone or /ignore. It's better for an ooc /ask to go unanswered than criticized for no apparent reason.  It doesn't really matter if you would help in other circumstances.  That's not what everyone sees.  Everyone just sees you being rude in ooc.

/rant

There's a couple sides to this whole buffing conversation lately that I haven't seen people comment on, so here's my thoughts for fun.

First, this is a community of limited size joined together primarily by one global channel, OOC. There's no denying that over the past couple months it is an incessant stream of BUFFS PLS, BUFFS INC 1M!!, BUFFS PLS, and it gets to be grating. That's just how it is, when you see it non stop every day for months, it gets to be annoying. And here's the thing about putting those people on ignore or filtering out OOC all together -- it's nothing personal against those players, them asking for buffs doesn't mean they have nothing else to say obviously; and filtering out OOC is the same as excommunicating oneself from the community almost entirely. So I'm not really on either side of this, but this is the crux these hot topics in OOC always balance across.

Secondly, you'll notice the people fed up with all the buffing are almost entirely end-game players, and I think that muddies what they're really trying to express in this argument. (Though many, Dimur for example, have started to hit on it directly) The thing is, for all these high-end players, they have seen hundreds if not thousands of players come and go on EZ. And they know the patterns of who stays to play and enjoy the content EZ has to offer. They have a thorough understanding of that content and what it has to offer from many viewpoints. And they understand that when players get rushed through certain components, the odds of them still playing 6 months down the road is cut almost to nothing. It's not a one-time thing, we have seen this pattern over years and years and hundreds and hundreds of players. So again, I'm not saying NO BUFFS or otherwise, but please understand that high-end players aren't always trying to bring down the up and comers, they are trying to get them to stay and enjoy what EZ has to offer long term.

Hello.  My name is Noot, and I am an alcoho... I mean buffer.

When I was a young Noot, struggling through LDON and QVIC, there was a few times I just gave up and went to P99.  The spawn cycles absolutely ruined me, and I just couldn't keep up while I was recovering, which frustrated the shit out of me.  I can't remember what the highest tier was at the time, sometime in 2009/2010, but getting those buffs kept me going and finally pushed me out of that preinstance nightmare and I was able to be self sufficient.  I never begged for buffs, but I didn't shy away if they were offered, which was typically in places like Skyshrine, Iceclad Ocean, and Rivervale.

I don't indulge the beggars, and I don't do it every hour, but if I'm going to buff my team anyway I'm all about sharing the wealth.  I do, however, stay to the opposite side of the nexus platform from the banker, where people have been parking themselves lately.  I may start a sightseeing tour, and have my buffs in obscure places, as the veterans had done before me.  I agree that these buffs cause some people to burn through content and fly too close to the sun, slamming into the T5 brick wall without the proper gear, but I remember being that toon that really appreciated that extra boost to push me past the roadblock I had been unable to penetrate.  To those people, I will continue my enabling, but I hear the rebuttal loud and clear, and so I will not do it in Nexus anymore.

You don't have to /ignore players completely or filter out ooc.  You can use MQ2 to filter specific lines of text containing key words such as "buffs" or "MGB."


I understand the argument--spoiled players that don't have to struggle initially won't be willing to struggle later.   However, I don't buy it.  Any player that does even a modicum of research on the wiki will realize the grind that is in store for them, and that they will need to box and gear multiple characters to advance.  It's not buffs that ruins it for them.  The players that leave just simply aren't up for the grind, or other things become more important than EQ/EZ/video games in general.  So what's wrong with making things enjoyable for each other during the time we play together?  Do you not help people at work just because they might leave or you might get a new job?  That's silly.  Let's help each other and be kind to each other while we share a common interest.  If we decide to part ways later, at least we'll have good memories.

I remember when a couple of us would play those games. Make people come find us in out of the way places, then reward them with buffs or pp or even full guild sets. Good memories.

That is giving people a BIG benefit.  New players, from my experience of reading /ooc, do not bother to read the wiki.  How many times a day to you see questions asked in /ooc that were EASILY answered if some lazy schmuck would just take the time to read the frigging wiki? A LOT!  ::)

I guess I could break out the druid and do the old MGB Circle of Lavastorm in nexus... clear things out a bit :)

In their defense.....most of them are a product of US public education. I have my doubts many of them CAN read. My current theory is that they play using some form of text to simulated voice interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUM3uuAqBV0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUM3uuAqBV0)

Or just blow a stack of pearls with a mage to hide people all over the nexus.. Maybe spell out famous phrases or curse words from an aerial view.