New Doom Gauntlet System

[+Veritas]

There is a new system currently being tested in the gauntlet. When the first monster in the series is killed, a red wall appears that blocks players from coming into the gauntlet. When the first monster respawns, the wall is taken down. If the current player(s) leave the gauntlet before the whole cycle is completed (leaving the red wall up), new arriving players can speak a special word the NPC tells them to say in order for the system to check for players. If there are no players found, then the player will be teleported over the wall. This part of the system is not perfect because of two reasons. This still allows players to come in and fight after the new player arrives first, but they started the gauntlet after the first monster was killed anyway...so its not like they did a whole cycle and then players jumped in at the very end. Second, a 10-minute delayed search period is built into the system. This means that in the worse case scenario, a player could arrive at the very beginning of the search period and have to wait 10 minutes (max) for the ability to teleport over the wall when there are no players present. The chances of having to wait this long are slim.

This may be an annoying change for some, but considering the number of complaints I have seen about people jumping dark fathers...etc...It is something worth trying IMHO.

Let me know how it works out.

+V

[anarchy]

imo: i like this idea even though i really don't go to doom anymore, but i kind of wish that this was in place when i did go. :( thanks for the fix. :)

[Evadad]

First let me say I do appreciate you devoting your time to making this shard a more enjoyable experience for all its players.

Over the past 2 days I have been running in doom gauntlet... trying to find ways to break your new system (for the greater good of course) So far I have found out:
1. Players can still log out behind wall, and therefore join in any current run when logging in
2. Im not sure how the playercheck system works (have not tested using another player yet) but it would seem to me that someone could just afk inside gauntlet after first boss, preventing others from entry.
3. Worst problem I have seen is this can create a new type of trolling... example:
Lets assume for a min I am a naughty not-so-nice person. (I know, what a stretch...)
- I want the gautlet all to myself.... here's how I can do it....
-kill first boss, duh. Now the wall is up... at any point in my circut, I can take a break to make sure no players are waiting for me to finish by the wall... Oh! a player patiently waiting his turn. :> I can dictate the amount of time it takes me to finish my circut, hoping the player will leave of bordom (or check mirror gauntlet for faster players) .... Im at the dark father... player still there? (yup) curses.... I will now drag the dark father INTO the first boss room and combat him there.
---As soon as the DF is killed the wall goes down until the first boss is killed--
only problem is: It takes me roughly 30 seconds to kill first boss, and I am by far not the strongest/fastest player on the shard.
= any player trying to get into gauntlet may get a 10-45 sec window out of .... well, unlimited time really... to enter gauntlet.
Not to mention that by the time they get in and to 1st boss, he's dead, and they would then be violating the rules by just jumping in to an established gauntlet run...

I really wish I knew what an appropriate fix for all of this was... sorry :(

[Qualance]

Solution can be:
when player log out and login if 5-10 min passed change log on place (behind the wall)
when player kill first boss or any of other give player max20 min to kill other otherwise send behind the wall
when df killed, instantly teleport players near the first boss room (this may be crate another problem, i assume that they will not wait current player.

[Evadad]

Actually, I'd like to know what most of the complaints were about in the first place...
There's only 3 things gained from Gauntlet... Artifacts, Tokens, and Gold.
Artifacts - "equal chance" - first thing you say... so should be no issue there
tokens - never failed to get em when killin in a group, even an uninvited one
which leaves gold... maybe there should be a change in the gold delivery system in gautlet to mimic that of the artifact drop
I've never had an issue with others when in gauntlet, don't really see why so many people are.

[Larsa]

Really?!?

I do not go to the gauntlet as frequent as before and during those times I didn't had any issues at all. Many ppl think that in order to get an arti they need to deliver as much damage as they can to the DF (Dark Father). Well... I have done the DF with and without pets and I can tell you that is more of luck than anything else.

So what if I am currently doing the gauntlet? I will definitely let ppl join me... the more players the faster we can take down all the mobs and do more runs. If you take a second and think... do I want to take turns doing the gauntlet or do I want to be able to go in every run and have a chance of getting an arti? With the amount of luck I have I managed to get a SoT on the 3rd run and one time I didn't get anything in 10 runs. Again, I think it's more of a luck thing.

Gold... most of the time i am not in for the gold. If you run with 5 mules I think the most you can take is 180K ~ 200K per mule that is max 1mill gold. Ok...what if your mule die in the process? Unless you have a large/huge bag of holding I guess looting gold is worth the time.

A mirror of the gauntlet was created to avoid this type of problems and obviously it seems that it wasn't enough. More ppl joining in doing the DF doesn't take the chances from you getting an arti. And I state clearly to whomever is there at the moment that I am in for arties and not gold. Of course... if the player that wants to join is someone that you don't like then you have all the right to not let him/her join you or if the DF is almost half death when you get into the gauntlet, it is wise to stand back and see if they need your help. These is all common sense and respect.

Anyways this is what I think of the new system.... is it really necessary? Do we need to implement this type of system when we do the Christmas event? I cannot imagine what would it be like to wait for a player to kill/loot 50 reindeers? By the time everybody gets a chance to it, it will be Christmas 2012 so to speak....

[+Veritas]

There is no pleasing everyone.

This area causes very territorial moods with players, like champs…GoC piece spawns…Harrower…
As long as there are players who have no problem violating rules (even though they need to read the books STATING the rules to get in, in this case) and being rude when it comes to cooperative play, then I will be conceptualizing and testing methods of countering this behavior or removing the reinforcing factor of the behavior.

I realize this is annoying…and that some of you don’t understand why it is there. However, you will begin to understand once you have just finished killing the abyssal horror, loot, res and heal yourself and pets, and move to the center to see the dark father almost dead while you approach mister six-albino-squirrels and are greeted with an “Oh, hi there ”. I realize that if the entire shard attacks and kills him with dealing enough damage to him, there is equal chance for all to get an artifact (this statement is independent of luck, of course). But, this is beside the point. Same can be applied to a player toughing it out through the Rikktor champ back when there was no 8 candle rule, and getting to the end to have 4-5 players start attacking him for a scroll. But everyone gets a scroll, right? All is good? Hmm?? But now…with that said, we have people getting upset that players are killing through champ tiers too quickly and then locking others out.

How can I win here? Haha!

This is still in testing…not a permanent system by any means.

[Larsa]

Haha +Veritas I feel your pain! Yes there is no winning in this... now that you put it in this perspective do you think if there is a way to block a player that just arrived to the gauntlet and start pounding on the DF?

Say if that player was not in the group of players that has gone through all the rooms to spawn it then a pop up message (same as the champs one) will appear. (e.g. Player XXX wants to pound the DF allow? Yes/No). It can also work from the moment the first room is active then no other player can go to the 2, 3, 4, and 5th room without the consent of the players that started the 1st room... (hold on! You cannot get to the other rooms without doing the previous one right?)

Hmmm.. I think I am getting out of topic. N-e-ways... I haven't test the new system and by the way it looks I better stay off the gauntlet for a while :) Not to add more work to your pile with my crazy suggestion but whatever changes it needs I believe most players will be able to adapt or just not hang out so often in those places.

[Trygg]

While you're changing things up on Gauntlet, might ye add a 3rd Gauntlet where pets are not allowed to be used? A pet free Gauntlet? Players showing up using 87 pets on the beast within leaves me looking around, kicking at the dirt, wondering what's the use.

[anarchy]

i think i suggested this before but how about who ever deals damage to the monster in room 1 gets tagged. the monsters after take no damage unless tagged player deals it. the tag is link to the wall but here's a catch the decay timer on the tag is 30 mins. when tag go poof so does wall. also, after DF is killed the tag goes poof. :)

other things to null tag:
hiding (time limit)
login out
stealthing
dead

[ahorton12]

[quote="anarchy"]i think i suggested this before but how about who ever deals damage to the monster in room 1 gets tagged. the monsters after take no damage unless tagged player deals it. the tag is link to the wall but here's a catch the decay timer on the tag is 30 mins. when tag go poof so does wall. also, after DF is killed the tag goes poof. :)

other things to null tag:
hiding (time limit)
login out
stealthing
dead[/quote]


i agree with everything u said anarchy except for dead. players can run to the ankh when they die. so they dont need other players to come in and save them. but if i were a younger player killing dark father and i died. i would not want the wall to fall and allow someone else to come in and finish him. id want to run to the ankh rez and continue my fight. maybe if dead had a 5 minute timeout id agree. but not just if i died. :) from what ive heard of veritas system it is a good one. other than the issue with ppl logging out inside the wall. you cant do much about it unless u set it up so if u log out inside the wall ur moved outside. but ive lost connection in gaunt before and think that would be a pain too. then u gotta wait for the group to finish once u get ur connection fixed.

[anarchy]

oh true forgot about that dead part. maybe a 5 min timer on the dead before wall falls, or something. :) i was just looking at it like someone died waited till df came then ressed and ran to kill. that takes a lot and really would only be a spite thing. ah well. :) the tagged idea works best invis gem in pack :)

[Evadad]

Ok, here is the best idea I can come up with: Set it up similar to the champ spawns.
-when first boss is killed the round is closed to anyone who did not attack....unless
-they are voted in by the player(s) who are currently doing round.
-set it on a decaying timer like Anarchy suggested
-expires upon hiding, logging out, death (suggest timer on those too) and leaving gauntlet
-uncompleted rounds would not have tag on them, but then its just the 1 round.

[+Veritas]

Okay guys, I am working with a very simple system and can't get everything working to the absolute best imaginable system that everyone came up with while at the same time making everyone respond with thunderous applause. =P

BUT...here is a new version.

First monster killed, wall goes up. In addition to this, a row of clocks spawn with the labels 40, 30, 20, 15, 10, and 5 minutes remaining. These clocks represent the time remaining until the wall falls. Assume that the northern most clock is the time remaining. After 40 minutes, the wall drops...regardless of where the players are in the sequence of monsters. Also, there is an icon to the left of the teleporting NPC that will spawn when a player is detected inside of the gauntlet. This will signify that if you say "search" while standing on the platform...you should be ported over the wall. If your pets are out and they don't go with you, there is a 10 gold pet retrieval stone right where you port in. If you are worried about players purposefully checking if people are waiting for people to leave before letting the wall fall...then there is a hawk statue that spawns with the wall and falls with the wall about one screen length north of the wall. Stand there and hide until it disappears.

Like before, when the DF is killed, the wall falls.

+V

UPDATE: Now there is a portal tile on the inside of the gauntlet that can summon a 3-second portal to the other side.

[ahorton12]

"Thunderous Applause" good work +V