IDOC timer.

Cookie

Hello Developers,

I've got a complaint on the IDOC timer, you've probably had it before, but it's very relevant, it annoys a lot of us.

Now I'm not an expert on IDOC's, I don't actually set out to do them, I don't really believe in the playstyle.

Part of me wishes the players stuff would all disintegrate and the stuff wouldn't be recycled around ingame inflating the economy to such a stupid place. It makes it so your normal player cannot compete. It also makes it so new players, are almost forced to become IDOCers to get a foot on the ladder in the game - I'm not sure that is a healthy way to have to play the game. It also recycles around the stuff that has been duped massively by certain bad players, who eventually, after many years, let their house fall. I myself was once a beneficiary of a dupers house falling, and it set me up for UO life I guess. And I don't know if you remember a thread of Mervyn's where he was selling unlimited amounts of resources (60k stacks of every single imbuing ingredient), he was also obviously a beneficiary in the same way I was.

But all of the above is beside the point - I'm not a fan of the system for the above reasons I mention, but I'm not moaning about the system itself, I do play it sometimes.

What I do want to moan about, is Felucca IDOCS and the Objective based PvP they bring. They basically create a lot of Objective Based PvP, which is what I'm all about and enjoy a lot. I like Team PvP, I like winning Objectives.

So last night, and this is basically the story of every single IDOC I've ever fought over, lets call it 50 IDOC fights in my time, have gone like this;

At about 20:30 we got a general chat notification there is a Felucca IDOC, we knew it was there, and we were going to show up anyway, we usually know when and where Felucca IDOCs are without being told. So we slowly showed up, as did other players.

Eventually, there are about 10 Wraiths {W}, a solid PvP team, and of course I challenge every orange on the server to overcome us, so about 20 oranges show up, we have an amazing fight, they overcome us once, we come back, numbers drop off on both sides, eventually by about 23:30 we have killed every single orange, blue, red, player that showed up, and we've finally won.

Then of course the IDOC does not drop. Now it's meant to be on a 5 hour, 10 hour, 15 hour timer? But we all know it never ever ever drops until the last one? And this is my complaint. IDOCS always drop at 5:00am in the morning server time? No-one can manage that in normal hours gaming time. Our guild showed up to the Objective based PvP, we won the PvP, we put the effort in, and then IDOCS always fall at a completely unrealistic gaming time. I looked this morning, and some random blue, who hadn't even taken part in the fight and just sat in a house on the sidelines had got the castle spot and whatever loot there may or may not have been.

My complaint, is this 3 tier random time system, that does not lend itself to Objective Based gaming, and the fact they always go down at 5:00am in the morning. Give us a set time, so we don't have to fight for 4 hours every single time, through seriously intense and fun gaming, but then to have it all mean nothing and some random blue Trammie who has no life and did nothing to earn it (except come from a different server and time zone), just walks away with everything.

Mordred

Welcome aboard...
Everybody already complained with @Mesanna and @Kyronix and @Bleak that the 5-10-15 hour system is broken, that the 33% between them is broken, 90% of the time fall at 15 hours only and only benefit the idocperson crew and his 20 bots on all shards. But they dont listen to us, i believed the past 5+ idocs on drachenfell and yesterday EU fel castle , all of them went 15 hours, which for US , is around 5am, so really????? We do have a life and we do like to sleep, Pls stop this broken system, like many others suggested, if this is the case and you guys have no clue on how to fix , may as well delete idocs from the game

Uriah_Heep

Mordred said:

Welcome aboard...
Everybody already complained with @ Mesanna and @ Kyronix and @ Bleak that the 5-10-15 hour system is broken, that the 33% between them is broken, 90% of the time fall at 15 hours only and only benefit the idocperson crew and his 20 bots on all shards. But they dont listen to us, i believed the past 5+ idocs on drachenfell and yesterday EU fel castle , all of them went 15 hours, which for US , is around 5am, so really????? We do have a life and we do like to sleep, Pls stop this broken system, like many others suggested, if this is the case and you guys have no clue on how to fix , may as well delete idocs from the game

This.
Fix it or delete it.

Cookie

Nice post

Like I say, I am no expert on this system, I don't follow it like some of you do, I just show up to the odd one or two when my life allows me to put a certain amount of time into it.

Nice to see some of your thoughts, and facts, they look like how I see it. I was not aware of how much has been said to the Developers, but of course I can guess a fair amount has already been raised, it usually has.

I was of course talking about the EU Felucca Castle last night.

Max_Blackoak

my experience with Siege idocs is a bit different. They seem to fall quite evenly spread between the 5, 10 and 15 hour mark. If anything they tend to fall earlier rather than later.

With Siege's international player base it always made sense in my eyes to have the three possible drop times.

I like idocs for the fights as well so I'm ok with having a chance of fighting over it 3 times if necessary. I admit it sucks though when you win the first two and lose the third and it falls then.

Tyrath

Max_Blackoak said:

my experience with Siege idocs is a bit different. They seem to fall quite evenly spread between the 5, 10 and 15 hour mark. If anything they tend to fall earlier rather than later.

With Siege's international player base it always made sense in my eyes to have the three possible drop times.

I like idocs for the fights as well so I'm ok with having a chance of fighting over it 3 times if necessary. I admit it sucks though when you win the first two and lose the third and it falls then.

   I was thinking for the PvP aspect if they dropped within a 2 hour time frame of going IDOC that it might be better for you guys and everyone else in general to randomize the time at which it changes to going IDOC instead of when it actually falls.  Just changing the timers on two of the stages.  It goes to IDOC at 5-10-15 hours and then Collapses within 2 hours of turning IDOC.  Seems that would give 5-15 hours to plan the battle and 1 minute to 120 minutes to fight the battle before the fall.  I personally don't care one way or the other about IDOCs but the Siege battles over the IDOCs are FUN to watch. 

Mariah

While I realise this is an important topic for some playstyles, we really don't need 4 threads on it all on the front page of General discussions. The longest is this one:

https://forums.uo.com/discussion/4787/state-of-idoc#latest

Please put all further posts on the topic on that thread.

Thank you.