Wednesday 24 February 2010

Gone in 30 minutes

Over the last month or so Karak Norn has seen a bit more life in the Land of the Dead. The tedium of city sieges has driven players into the swirling desert sands. This has been visible not only in game, but also by an increasing number of LotD related threads on our Karak Norn server forum (the WHA forum obviously, the official forum isn’t used because of the dodgy GOA website). Most of the forum threads have been taunting vanquished foes or people complaining about being killed, usual forum banter really, but there has been two consistent gripes from both factions with a bit more merit. I’ve complained about them before, but recent events mean they must once more rear their oh so fugly head...

Solo and ghost bloody purges.

A solo player can invade a full groups instance, which to the outsider may seem as perfectly acceptable, they get butchered and all is well, right? Wrong! The problem is that what normally happens is the attacking solo player (who can release and resurrect inside the dungeon) gets killed a couple of times and then buggers off, but the purge’s public quest timer continues. That timer lasts 30 minutes and if your defending group wipes whilst it’s running, the group gets teleported back to the main city. Which of course means starting a boss fight is very risky and most groups will spend the remainder of the timer’s duration just sitting around bored.

That’s bad enough, but then there are “ghost” purges… A purge starts, you appear to have been invaded, but there’s nobody there. Presumably they entered, sat around for a bit waiting to see if you wiped on a boss to give them free loot and then they left. In this situation the defending team has nothing to do for the full 30 minutes each time. A mild irritation as a one off, but when you get 4 ghost purges in a row, that’s 2 hours of boredom.

All Mythic need to do is make it so that if the attackers leave the instance, the time automatically ends. Simple no?

On another subject and as you’ve no doubt already heard, it is patch day tomorrow. As ever I’m hoping for the best, but it’s a tough one to call this patch. It really depends on how each server’s community responds to it. I’ll comment on the patch’s impact on my server once it’s had a bit of time to bed in.

6 comments:

  1. The purges are horrible. I can't tell you how many times it happens and there's no one to fight. One night we were "purged" four times and not a single time did we see Destro creeping around hoping to gank us.

    There has to be a way for them to program the instance to know if the purgers have left. If they enter and start a purge, the timer starts. If they decide to fight ... COOL ... However, if they opt to leave ... then the timer should stop and those running the instance win and the group who left are now locked out for X number of minutes unable to attempt another purge.

    As far as single purgers ... perhaps it should not be allowed. Even the best DoK or WE can't take a party of 6 out -- especially a party geared for TOVL. Solo purgers should not be allowed, period.

    I think the premise of purges is cool ... just not how they are currently implemented. Seems like a vehicle for griefers to interrupt and waste others' time for nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems to be standard for poeple to just invade an instance solo and leave.

    I can't tell you how many times we never faced a single opponent in a purge. Or when we complete the PQ, there seems always be one or two people rushing to get into the Tomb.

    I've done it. Logged off one day, while still in the Instance. Log back on the next day pinned inbetween the entrance and the door. Why not? Invade, and then I scroll out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr. Meh brings up something I had not thought of ... those who logout in the instance and are trapped in the door.

    Again, when they login they are not in a party ... so solo players should not count as trying to purge and are therefore ignored or bumped out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Drives me sodding mental tbh. Amazed Mythic havent hotfixed it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. On a positive though, just got the Tyrant helm at sodding last :) And there was much rejoicing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gratz on the helm!

    I have yet to beat the Vulture Lord but Boss 7 is a constant ... have only ever gotten the boots. I do not like how the major loot doesn't drop all the time. Pain in the duff.

    ReplyDelete

About Me

My photo
Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.