Game Uptime - Feedback?

[loshaenar]

basically i'd like some sort of feedback from players and admins about the *fairly* recent huge uptimes we're getting. i know people have opinions about this way or the other...so by all means postem..

i have some issues with continuous 60 hour plus uptimes because i do alot of quest work requiring rares etc. this, i acknowledge freely, is a very self centred reason however everyone has different motivations i guess. The obvious problem is, no boots, no crashes, no rares. I think most of us have seen what does happen when a boot occurs lately, places like GN, IC, CP, and greycloak especially become a circus for the first 30 mins for the once a week possibility of something being there.

long uptimes were fantastic in the past when people were lining up to do BC and tia and they were accomodated by such. Now people are hitting up SPOB, seelie etc inside the 20 and alot of players who can't be here for the same huge blocks of time log in... and log out.

a guildee of mine the other day suggested that some sort of alert or notice be given if the mud is going to be up over 50 hours. What do people think of that sort of idea? if i saw it, then i could take the 3 days to go and handle that whole RL thing, odd jobs etc.

anyway sorry for the long winded post, but i'd really like to hear other peoples thoughts on this matter..above and below..

cheers.

Losh, Tai, Ganj.

[Ihazim]

i enjoy the long uptimes

[Vahok]

Yeah, I'm probably the opposite of Loshaenar. I love the long uptimes since most of my fond memories come from them. 40 hours into boot? Well, what do we do? Zones like roots, attic, SG, IC and all the other mid-level ones! Long boots give me time to exp alts, explore zones, map, etc.
Mind you I'm not an avid quester so I do see their frustration with it. Maybe some rares could load 20 hours into boots?

Should have had a poll! I'd be interested to see how the mud is split. I'd figure about 50/50, but still would like know.

[loshaenar]

oh don't get me wrong, i can see how they are extremely useful. i exp almost constantly, and given we aussies at nights are almost alone here, we get alot of time to ponder the meaning of gormal etc.

what i'm saying is i would like some thought to this being a bit more in moderation, instead of 3 boots in a week and a half.

there are times when it's a blessing for sure.

[Birile]

Wasn't there discussion on the GCC a couple of months ago where Shev made the determination that if a boot got to 60 hours the Mud would be rebooted? I'm pretty sure this was the case, just interesting that it's never been implemented.

[Garal]

Wasn't there discussion on the GCC a couple of months ago where Shev made the determination that if a boot got to 60 hours the Mud would be rebooted? I'm pretty sure this was the case, just interesting that it's never been implemented.

Shev gave a 48 to 72 hour window, as I recall.

[Sarell]

I think the problem is some rares are just completely out of whack with the current status of the mud. Some rares you still have a reasonable chance of finding and getting some of the best items in game from them, so the uptime isn't a problem there. Others, like GN, that are needed for quests, are just ridiculously rare; not only in terms of what you get for them, but they make the quests completely only doable by people who have been told how to do them and what to find at boot rather than actually talking to mobs. I remember when I stumbled onto Gor after dying and trying to walk to WD many years back, ended up working out the whole quest by myself after reasonable period, no way in a bazillion years you could do that now.

I was thinking along the lines of a large zonefile that could have a small chance of reloading rares or gear into other zones as the mud goes along... So for instance, something like werewolf might get an extra 1% per 10 hours chance of loading with this file... If any areas folk love the idea i'd be keen to help out making it *shrug*

[Sesexe]

I was thinking along the lines of a large zonefile that could have a small chance of reloading rares or gear into other zones as the mud goes along... So for instance, something like werewolf might get an extra 1% per 10 hours chance of loading with this file... If any areas folk love the idea i'd be keen to help out making it *shrug*

Are you talking about one zone file for multiple zones, or one zone file per zone? I'm not sure what you mean and I don't know if you've read the zone docs?


I like the long uptimes. :) A stable mud is a good mud. I've just never been a big fan of rares that only load at boot. GC rare pop'n is very nice, as well as how air ship handles it's pop'n.

[Birile]

I've just never been a big fan of rares that only load at boot. GC rare pop'n is very nice, as well as how air ship handles it's pop'n.

Yeah, air ship's rareload pops are a great idea, but Savras is an amazing zonebuilder to begin with, so I'm not surprised. :)

[kiryan]

an amazing zone writer? Gave us the two most un toril themed zones to date and one of which has a stupid amount of eq. Yea for FFX air ships, ninjas and samurais. I do agree the zones are great, just wished one at least had less objects.

i used to hate long uptimes, but now that i'm pretty much done questing, I want the long uptimes so we can do the longer zones. Questing is pretty much stupid with a 50 hour average boot.

I don't know how many times I've been told that the eq calcr and crap takes into account boot length, but I still don't believe it. How can you create a point system based on a variable length boot ? Some months the uptime averages 25 hours some months it averages 50?

here's a better question, what length of boot are eq points based on?

[Arilin Nydelahar]

an amazing zone writer? Gave us the two most un toril themed zones to date and one of which has a stupid amount of eq. Yea for FFX air ships, ninjas and samurais. I do agree the zones are great, just wished one at least had less objects.

I'm really not paying attention to this thread much and personally I don't like airship either, but it's so not a 'un-toril themed' zoned. Go read a book on Halruaa before you comment, seriously :P The equipment in the zone i'm not commenting on just the fact that the zone is quite Faerun-esqe. :P

[Disoputlip]

If the mud is intented to be up for long then I think more globals should load late (still only once a boot)

I also think smoke should be invaded (if noone is in it) Or those spiders should come on smoke late in boot. Still rarely, but not only at boot.

To the other part that has nothing to do with this thread:
1k potato eq and holy water sprinkler should not be on this mud. But! as long as it isn't overdone then I can live with it.

SPOB on the other hand is the coolest zones on the mud. Both when it comes to theme and playablility. (its a demiplane, it could be a dream, if it wasn't for the tokens you took out of there).

[Ashiwi]

I'm probably one of the most hard-core "Faerunites" on the MUD, and I wish the big majority of non-theme crap would be yanked out. That does not include Airship, as The oriental influence can be found in FR. I'd still rather the ninjas, samurais, tantos and wakizashis be left out, because just because a gaming company wants to capitalize on martial arts fascinations, doesn't mean we really HAVE to include them when they seem so out of place.

Now, in spite of my distaste for the whole 'Shogun does Demiplane' schtick, and my wish that SPOB didn't carry so much high end gear, I still think Savras has written some of the best, most ingenious, most intricate zones in this MUD. I love Airship and SPOB... even with certain aspects about them that I don't care for.

Long uptimes... you kind of have to have people who can reboot the machine around to reboot it when the uptime gets that long, don't you think?

[Klurg]

What comes to heart is how constant the mud are. I think the whole world needs an overhaul when it comes to how static it is. It should in some respects be ever changing and highly randomized. Something to make us enjoy the game at all times regardless. It's pretty dull goin trough a static zone for the 150th times. The same old encounters every time. More randomness equals more fun and keeps the people on their heels. Just my copper!

[Dalar]

an amazing zone writer? Gave us the two most un toril themed zones to date and one of which has a stupid amount of eq. Yea for FFX air ships, ninjas and samurais. I do agree the zones are great, just wished one at least had less objects.

I'm really not paying attention to this thread much and personally I don't like airship either, but it's so not a 'un-toril themed' zoned. Go read a book on Halruaa before you comment, seriously :P The equipment in the zone i'm not commenting on just the fact that the zone is quite Faerun-esqe. :P

Hahaha Mike owned Mike! But yea, Savras made Trollbark too and PI, nobody mentioned that! I think.

[Yarash]

holy water sprinkler should not be on this mud

This is a real item used to deliver holy water onto groups of people during masses. It's not like a lawn sprinkler, if that's what you think it is... 8)

- Mike

[kragt]

How about if every X minutes a random zone gets a full reload.

[Gura]

imp pkill...that'll make things interesting with long boots :)

[Artmar]

I was thinking along the lines of a large zonefile that could have a small chance of reloading rares or gear into other zones as the mud goes along... So for instance, something like werewolf might get an extra 1% per 10 hours chance of loading with this file... If any areas folk love the idea i'd be keen to help out making it *shrug*

or the rares might get a chance to load not on per boot but per certain amount of RL hours basis (that amount could be specified individually for each rare, and should be randomized a little, so it wouldn't be easy to predict). For some mobs this timer could be cleared at boot, but for some it could carry over (so even if you got several reboots one after another, you would still have to wait for XX RL hours to pass before that mob would have a chance to load again)

[Birile]

imp pkill...that'll make things interesting with long boots :)

Yeah, I hate having to run Sunlireal all the way to arena to kick Gura's arse.

[Sarell]

Yeh it would be one zone file, with a 10 hour repop time. Checks what is done, what isn't, has a chance of reloading some stuff including rares. Would mean that at boot you still have the same chances of everything loading. But there is a little chance later on as you wander around aimlessly you might bump into something interesting. It would have to be worked out on eq calc what you could and couldn't load given average boot times or something, or just done by skeomeone who really knows their stuff in terms of questing.

One factor you have to consider is you don't want to make any zones into those ones that people say 'oh, we shuold wait another 10 hours before we do this so that X has more chance of loading'. I would want it generally to just be aimed at single loading rares, rather than zone stuff. All the zones never get done anyhow, but boot time isn't the problem there, it is new inflatorator zones.

Kiryan has a really good point about rares being taken into account but not average boot time.

I disagree with Klurg on the more random = more fun thing. Doing clouds / musp when nothing loads is annoying to many. I really like zones that you know you will get a few set items for your time and maybe something else. Actually I think I still like scorps best and it is pretty static....and can usually be done FAR into boots....