Holyman

Game server(s) is still up and running. Just the logon server(s) and Net-7 website that are unavailable...

Think the servers have popped. @ 22:30 GMT

Think the server(s) have just gone offline. @10:15am GMT

Think it just fell over again. @17:00 GMT

Just popped again I'm afraid Zackman. Was just about to kill the Controller too..! Everything seems to be offline...

Might have been a Server-quake. Been fine all day, but just popped. "Connection to Global Server failed" on all attempts to log back on now. @18:00 GMT

Also +1! ✌️

I miss the Game... I do occasionally logon to see if my rustic broadband connection is tolerable... But even with just a single 'toon logged on, the latency on my ADSL makes gating and docking a precarious affair. Still hopeful that a General Election, a Brexit and a de-monopolization of the UK's only ADSL provider may improve things in the not-too-distant future... But it'll be a while before I get anything like the 200Mbps Metropolitan Cable connection I used to have in the Glory Days. Do however feel fairly confident that I'll have 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home before the issues around the Raid Rotation are resolved though.

I wonder if making some/all of the four time-spawned raid's loot tradeable would i) mitigate the situation and ii) be more of an easy change for the Dev's than changing the spawn timers or making the raids trigger-activated? (BTW: Hi Efi!)

Haven't played in almost exactly 12 months... (Since moving from London out to the country and a *VERY* poor broadband connection...) When I *WAS* playing (rather more actively!), I dipped my toes into the Raid Rotation Discussion as a somewhat objective arbiter... And even proposed a few alternatives to the existing Raid Rotation System. It's a quiet day at the office today, and having exhausted my usual lunchtime websites, I thought I'd check in with Net-7 and see how things were going... And guess what? Discussions on the Raid Rotation still seem to be the order of the day..! I wasn't intending to post... But you know how it goes... Old habits die hard... So here are my thoughts, based on what I've just read in this thread, and in the other current Raid Rotation thread: It is the nature of human beings that once a competitive advantage has been gained, it is *VERY* rare for such an advantage to be voluntarily surrendered. The members of the “Big 3” Guilds gained/earned a big advantage several years ago, with regards access to the top raids in the Game. Whilst we might read the posts of representatives of those “Big 3”, and either silently or vocally criticise their insistence and justifications for maintaining their advantage… Are any of us honestly answering the question: would we behave any differently if *WE* held the advantage? ^^That isn’t meant to be a Magic Bullet to silence criticism… It’s just an observation to bear in mind, however we might honestly answer the question, whilst we participate in these discussions. Another observation-based thought: Kyp, the Grand Poobah, has stated in fairly unequivocal terms, his attitude towards the Raid Rotation System. In particular, he has emphasised that no player “owns” any particular raid. Quite rightly – and I suspect, based on painful past experience – Kyp (and the rest of the Dev Team) keeps himself out of Player Politics. Could he use his omnipotence to issue a ruling..? Undoubtedly. Would such a ruling from On High bring a full and final end to players expressing dissatisfaction with access to raids: undoubtedly *NOT*. On the issue of converting the time-spawned raids to triggered raids: I think we all recognise this would be an ideal situation I think we all understand that there would be… “x” amount of Development activity required to (re-)code, test, implement and balance this… But do any of us think that if it was a simple and straightforward thing for the (volunteer) Development Team to carry out… They wouldn’t already have done it? So… What popped into my head and compelled me to post, was this: Discussions around the Raid Rotation Agreement tend to be fairly binary. Either the Raid Rotation System remains as it is; or it is scrapped altogether. Actually, that wasn’t what occurred to me just now… That occurred to me a couple of years ago, when I was last contributing to the (on-going) Raid Rotation discussion… And I presented two or three alternatives that sat between the As Is-:-Nothing polarity. But I think I probably overthought those suggestions… And consequently over-designed them… (It happens…) No, what just popped into my head was what I think is a cleaner, simpler alternative, based on what I was reading. Assuming the Raid Rotation hasn’t changed in the year that I’ve been away, then it still consists of a four-weekly rolling schedule, with each of the “Big 3” getting dedicated access to a particular raid, for one week out of four. And the “Public” get the spare week. Given the change (/decline) in Server and Guild populations since that Raid Rotation was originally devised, how about the following: A two-week schedule. Week 1: all time-spawned raids are open to the Public; with “Big 3” Guild members discouraged, but not necessarily forbidden from participation. Week 2: all time-spawned raids are… “Prioritised” for the “Big 3”. And the “Big 3” can formulate a new Raid Rotation agreement amongst themselves, to figure out how they want to share the different raids amongst themselves, during their “On” week. I use the term “Prioritised” advisedly, because as Kyp has emphasised, no player (or Guild) “owns” any Raid. But as with the existing Raid Rotation agreement, any accord will succeed or fail on consensus participation. Respect for the “prioritisation” of “Big 3” Guild Week, will be reciprocated by the “Big 3” respecting the “discouraging” of their participating (or at least, initiating) time-spawned Raids during Public Week. Moving to a two-weekly turnaround in the Rotation means that “Public” players don’t have to wait a whole month, before getting another chance at the specific raid they are interested in. Giving all “Big 3” Guilds dedicated access to all four (is it still four..?) time-spawned Raids, means that they can still operate their Inter-Guild Accords. IIRC, the original purpose for the Raid Rotation Agreement was to resolve disputes *BETWEEN THE “Big 3”*… Not between any or all of the “Big 3”, and the Public. Seems to me that if the “Big 3” as they are today, aggregate the advantages they each retain from “Back in the Day”, the “Public” will no longer feel quite as disadvantaged as they do now… And have done for some time. And equally, the “Big 3” don’t completely lose the advantage that, whilst may not be quite as justifiable based on current Guild activity, reflects the contribution that those “Big 3” Guilds made in earlier days of the Emulator, and the contribution that members of those “Big 3” Guilds continue to make in terms of advice and assistance, to the current Player Base. Maybe the specifics of my suggestion above might require further tweaking and calibration, or complete rejection in place of another alternative. But given that this topic seems to have made no further progress towards a resolution than it had 12 months ago… It does seem to me that an alternative to either keeping things as they are, or abolishing the Rotation Agreement altogether, needs to be found. It’s all about Compromise, isn’t it?

My Email confirmations for Help tickets *ALWAYS* went into my Spam Folder... Until I instructed my Email client to stop flipping doing that! Once you've gotten a single ticket ID, hold onto it. 'Cos entering that single ID (even if it's for a closed ticket) will get you in to see any and all tickets you have logged.

Or... If things start getting out-of-hand/unpleasant/Community-destructive with the Raids on FFA..: Just revert back to the Raid Rotation. Just a thought. The primary justification for the Raid Rotation remaining in effect is that: [some time ago, before there was a Raid Rotation] there were lots of arguments and hostility. So the Raid Rotation Agreement was implemented. If the Raid Rotation Agreement is suspended, in whole or in part, permanently or temporarily, and all Hell breaks loose... Just reinstate the Raid Rotation Agreement. (Or a further refined version of it.) Not really clear why there should be any problem around this. Given the traditionally low server population during the summer, and the generally well-established and amicable community we have of committed players: is there really any fear that there will be a Community breakdown without the Raid Agreement? Or that if things do turn unpleasant, it would be impossible to reinstate the Raid Agreement? NB. I feel much more comfortable supporting a temporary suspension of the Raid Agreement now, because since I moved to the country and seen my broadband connection drop from 200Mbps to 1Mbps (I'm not kidding), I'm no longer in a position to be tempted into MB'ng Raids that should more fairly be done by real groups.

If you "sort" your cargo hold (by pretty much anything: value, name, type), all the items that are the same will line up next to each other. From there, it is fairly straightforward (if admittedly a bit laborious) to then manually stack them.   I did a Gate Raid last night, and there's a lot to do when multi-boxing one of those..! Whilst the added step of manually stacking the loot was a little more of a chore than usual, it wasn't particularly difficult using the "sort" method.   Wait until your cargo hold fills up; press "sort"; aggregate your stacks; continue filling up your hold: rinse and repeat.   Would be my tip!   I read the Dev's comments as stating this was a temporary dynamic whilst they looked into resolving the exploit potential of the "/craft" command. If we - the Players - are mildly and temporarily inconvenienced whilst the Dev's work to restore what was an innovative and very welcome function, I'm more than happy to accept that inconvenience whilst they see if they can figure it out.   Also:   "If that was not even close to the implied statement from Zack then my next suggestion would be that this information be posted in the ADV section and get Cimbad on the case so he can bring it to the team and see if he can help resolve the issue. That is what we have a player advocate for."   Would it be remiss of me to say that I *REALLY* miss the weekly "Dry Erase Board" and Alurra's outstanding performance as Player Advocate..?   Think this is just the kind of situation that the Player Advocate position exists to mitigate... I don't want to slight or criticise Cimbad, but Alurra was always going to be a tough act to follow... And I just wonder if there might be an option to review the State-of-Play with regards the Player Advocate role.   Just sayin'...

Actually have to say that I’m not too fussed if certain dynamic elements like Healer-Aggro, or skills like Enrage and Befriend are not working-as-intended…    If that is the case (though I’m still not clear that Enrage, Befriend and Healer-Aggro definitely are *NOT* W.A.I... And I'm definitely going to put your tips to the test Matt), then I figure that just adds an extra frisson of challenge to the whole experience.   I created this thread because it just hadn’t occurred to me to compare and contrast finished missions between my two TE’s to see where to pick up the Enrage Skill. But far from feeling embarrassed at my impatience/incompetence, I’m really pleased I did create the thread…   …Because I’ve received some really, *REALLY* helpful tips in the thread and In-Game as a result of creating it.   And I figure that ultimately, I’m playing this Game to encounter and overcome challenges…   Some of those challenges are built-in, and designed to be precisely as they are working… And other challenges are there perhaps because some of the millions of moving parts in this Emulator need a bit of oil and/or T.L.C.   If it’s a choice between diverting Developers to fix or tune micro-aspects of the Game, in order for me to achieve my Chosen Goal… Or having those wonderful moments of understanding when someone /tells you in Game and says: “Have you tried [.....] ?”   I’ll take the latter and keep the bugs, any day of the week.

Talesh, Talesh, Talesh...   My Nemesis.   At this stage, I'm willing to hurl anything I can find at that Healer-o-pathic monster.   Will let you know how I get on..!