6 replies to this topic

[BerserkedFrenzy]

The Grinch has stolen Christmist!

I have come to this conclusion at long last. This is the story of the Christmist quest at present, as apparently Necro Claus has had its spawn rate decreased so dramatically to the point of non-existence.

I tried to figure out who was the Grinch and perhaps one of you Nightmistians may be able to figure this one out. So far, I have come up with the idea that Bigfoot is the Grinch. Bigfoot does drop a bracelet that may actually have had its magic drained from it hence the briar-like appearance. There is also evidence that Bigfoot has had association with an Antelope or ten, I foind an Antelope Meat in its den. Perhaps, Bigfoot used those Antelopes to ride down to the Bone Gardens, snatch these Necro Claus and only the lucky Necro Claus might find its home in the Bone Gardens; the rest are taken to the den and eaten alive along with the Antelopes.

What a story! Thoughts?

[Gaddy]

I agree that the fast spawn was a lot of fun, and it had been really cool to get that kind of pace of play and everyone getting several shots at him, if they wanted to play the quest. A few per hour might have been excessive, but at least it was playable for anyone who was putting in the time.

And now it seems like we are seeing a few spawns per day. It feels like a pretty crushing blow to the event.

 

I do not understand how it would go from spawning as frequently as 3 in an hour to spawning 3 in a day, and that kind of order of magnitude change seems like ignoring how positive the feedback was about the event. I really wish "fun" was considered as part of the game, but fun gameplay kind of requires that the folks are interested in player experience.

Instead, it feels like the game is focused on staying extremely conservative on quests, pace of play, and somewhat unfair methods needed just to compete. That is the norm on Nightmist. However, I think it is more frustrating for Main players in this moment because we saw such a great alternative option. And it was working! People were having fun, being helpful to one another, and excited throughout the first couple days of this year.

 

Did those early drops from the quick spawning Necro Claus ruin something that we don't know about or give players some unfair advantage that we cannot yet understand? 
If not, why lay down the hammer on something players were enjoying so much? It's a holiday quest - fun should be part of the event's goal!

[Eilonwy]

All I can say, is that I feel that it is bad luck.  

 

I decreased the drop rate on 1-alt because we were getting it 3 times an hour due to a decimal error that was not intended or noticed immediately, but I changed that over 2 days ago.

 

Additionally, 1-alt is still getting it hourly, because that is what I changed it to, roughly; near hourly so we didn't end up with too many items.

 

My understanding is that multi was changed to the exact same, which was the original intent for the spawn times. While I can understand seeing a noticeable change could put a damper on the fun, it shouldn't have been quite as drastic as it sounds!

 

My guess is that when it was accidentally spawning 3 times an hour, more people had access, and now that it's closer to an hour, it feels like drastically less because sometimes it is quite a bit less, if it was 3 an hour before.

 

We still have quite a few days of the event left, as we planned to let it go for 2 weeks, so until midnight of the 4th as it was begun on the 21st at midnight. So, all the way through Sunday.

[Kreshnic]

Unfortunately this is not the first time a change mid event ended up with one server or the other being sourly effected. I understand that because of the state of the game code, it is very difficult to properly update things which can lead to very unexpected issues. I feel like there is a lot of testing that is not done before events are launched, this in turn leads to stuff not spawning/dropping at the expected rates, which leads to live updates. Live updates can cause multiple unforeseen issues, especially if the database is not being properly refreshed after each update. Now I can't say 100% that this is the issue, but when you update a live database and do not refresh/restart it after, you run the risk of conflicting numbers being held in the buffer as well as the code. It definitely sucks if every time you make an update you have to refresh/restart the server, but if you don't, there is no way to know what is being maintained in active memory/the buffer.

 

So long story short, it is very likely that every time an event is started, and then changes are made without stopping/restarting the event, the intended spawn/drop rates are potentially using trash data because of a "memory leak" where you are reallocating used memory with a new value before you cleaned up the necessary memory location. 

 

If my theory is correct, then all that would need to be done, is the event would need to be ended. The necessary scripts would need to be examined to make sure they still had the correct numbers. Then the event could be restarted, if the boss spawns as expected, then you know that is the issue. If that doesn't fix the spawn issue, then there is a more involved problem with the way live updates are handled and there is probably nothing that anybody other than JLH can resolve.

[Silver_Dragoness]

Main server hasn't been restarted since April... Whereas the 1-a has been restarted back in November. That could also be an issue. I know sometimes, some of the bosses on multi don't spawn for days. I'm not talkin like Creds but even Atrium, malok, Lyz, etc sometimes don't spawn for 3 days to a week. It's extremely frustrating as the GCB is in like sometimes twice a day and then Atrium not be in for days so, waste of a key. Same thing with other more popular bosses. I know some people get REALLY pissed off when they get a key to drop in Darksparrow but the boss boss won't be in. Guess that's the way the cookie crumbles but it's still makes for a really crap time and wasted. Just my 2 cents.

[Gaddy]

It seems like the quest was restored to a faster pace a day or two ago --- or we had a really unfortunate day of bad luck with spawns on the 23rd and 24th (statistically very unlikely, but statistics are hard and fickle).

 

If it was changed to spawn more, thank you for taking time to listen to our input and feedback, Stig! Thank you for being willing to adjust based on what players are observing and enjoying.     

If it was just a really weird spawn issue or bad luck, I apologize for the complaints. Even sysops cannot control fate!    

[Stig]

I did increase the spawn time again for multi-alt on Christmas Day... about half the speed as it was before, which feels about right.