Spiral Knights - Future SK Lotteries

Future SK Lotteries

23 replies [Last post]

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:33

RizuChan

Legacy Username

Now, don't get me wrong -- I think the idea behind this event is good and smart, and we all love free stuff right? Here's the part that irks me though, and how I think it can be avoided in a future.

So I'm playing throughout the whole day, having fun with my guildies and whatnot. We're excited about the Lotto, but we know the chances aren't in our favor so just enjoy our time around. If we win then hurray! If not then it's not the end of the world. We're doing the RJ run, because beating the jelly butt of that Royal one is just too much fun, and suddenly a red message pops up saying 2 mins to go for the next draw.

Bam, all hell breaks loose on the server as who knows how many people mass log not only themselves but any alt/mule accounts on any spare computers they can find and clog up the whole thing. I drop from 3-4 bars of signal to a single red bar and suddenly we're all wipping out over and over in the RJ castle against him because the lag just got so ridiculous it's single handedly whipping us dead every few seconds after reviving.

I went from usually wasting around 35 CE reviving (I normally make it to him without having to use CE for revival, whoo for team player guildies) to suddenly reviving all the way up to 80 CE fee. This happened twice, and after the second one I simply said "to hay with this" and just sat around the Guildhall chatting.

---

Now, here's how I think they can avoid all those massive lag spikes every few minutes before the next draw in order for the people that /are/ playing to not get penalized by it and suddenly drop dead everywhere:

Make it so that in order to be elligible you need to be playing for at least 60 mins+ before the draw. That means that if you logged at 5:59pm you missed the 6:00pm draw, but if you stick around and play/chat that WHOLE hour by 6:59pm you're already elligible so in the 7:00pm draw you have a chance of being the winner (maybe). This completely overrides the thousands of accounts and mule accounts spammingly getting online and causing massive lag spells throughout the whole game.

And, if you wanna take it further and actually ensure only "playing" players are being entered: make it so they have to have run at least half a gate before the next draw to be elligible. That means they have to at least have completed a half a gate (either start to basil, or after basil to the end) in those past 60mins to be elligible to participate in the lotto. Bam, you just got rid of all those alt/mule accoutns that were spam logging on minutes before the draw to increase a player's chance of winning -- that or they spend at least half an hour passing half a gate in between draws and that still limits the amount of alt accounts they can log on for each drawing.

Because I've heard of people with 10+ alts and actually logging them all in for each draw (though I have no idea what kind of gremlin trickery they are using to pull this off :/).

And just to clear this out, this is NOT a "woe is me, i have not won, boo-hoo i hate OOO you all suck" thread. I like this idea of PR event, and it's really cool -- it just has some tweaks that it needs to make it work WITHOUT screwing the players that are actually making runs and enjoying the games. 'Cause sure, the lag spikes won't always happen in a bosss, but sometimes they happen when you're in an arena or in a room with a mob of monsters and getting cornered with little shield left, and those deaths exclussively by "omg lottery must log in all mah accounts nowz" lag really bummer out the players that are constantly enjoying the game and coming back day after day after day to play it -- and probably dishing out real money in OOO direction to show their support.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:43

Shadownox

Great idea except for the

Great idea except for the idea that it wont work for me. and lots of other people as well. first of all, my mom only lets me play for 30min weekday, 1 hour weekend. so that means i can never win a lottery. and plus, wat if u ran out of energy from doing a run earlier? then you cant do a run and cannot be eligible for the lottery. totally sucks. im not saying your idea sucks, im just saying maybe we should thinik this over before actually making this rule.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:44

Shadownox

Great idea except for the

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:45

Shadownox

whoops double post

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:52

RizuChan

Legacy Username

That's life, kid.

If your mom puts a limit of time on how long you can play then that's not really much of a huge problem for all players, but more of a your problem only kinda thing -- just something you and your mom have to deal with. Ask her to make a special case the weekend the event is going and if she says no then too bad.

As for running out of energy, that would encourage people to A) use crowns to buy more or B) buy CE with real money -- which in the end is what OOO wants anyways. If not make it so you at least have to have at least spend a certain amount of energy (maybe the 100 ME) in dungeon diving exclusive to be considered for the lotteries -- and be online for at least 60mins+ of course. That way they encourage people to use the free 100 ME they get every 24 hours actually diving down depths instead of just mass crafting useless stuff and clogging the AH with it.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 19:58

Shadownox

lag is life too, kid

...
well, lag is also life. always happens. get used to it.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:06

Madadder

all that will happen is the

all that will happen is the masses will log in loiter around for an hour or better yet stay logged in with an periodic shake of the mouse to stay on. if you dont think people will do that then you dont know people well.

i have seen something like you said with guys with multiple alts logged in for something hosted by the game's company. i might not understand their motives as well as they do but they can do it.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:07

RizuChan

Legacy Username

*sigh*

Yeah, lag because you live far away from a server and have bad connection is life and you deal with it. Lag because your internet provider got derpy that day and screwed you over is your problem and you deal with it.

Lag because a thousand couple of players decided to log all at the same time for a lottery is not the same type of lag -- but rather a lag caused by lack of planning the event correctly by OOO.

Therefore it's not a lag I'm at fault, but a lag they're at fault. It's a flaw of game mechanics -- in this case, again, due to bad pre-planning before the event.

And as such the least they can do is try to take steps to correct this, and avoid people mass spamming log ins with mule accounts and then quickly logging back of after each draw. Because if I was a PR worker, I'd rather show my supperiors a chart where the amount of people online in the game was stable and slowly rising (or lowering) than one fillled with huge spikes at every hour interval of people mass logging on just to see if they won and gtfo-ing soon after.

You know, actually make people stick around and play, which is the whole end point for these kind of events anyways.

But then again, maybe that's just the over-achiever in me speaking. You know, maybe people just like half-assing things nowadays.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:13

RizuChan

Legacy Username

@Monkey

Which is why I suggest making them need to be playing at the time, or at least have played at some point in a certain period of time, in order to be pulled up for the draw. You know, actually make them work for it (especially sicne they ca'n't be playing in 5+ accounts AT THE SAME TIME) if they're gonna go ahead and spam the whole place with mules and the like.

Or maybe there are other possible solutions, it's just that nothing else comes up to mind right now -- which is why I posted this here and encourage you all to think of other plausible ways.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:13

Shadownox

yeah but it is your own fault

yeah but it is your own fault for playing at that time. if you werent playing, then you wouldnt experienced the lag, so therefor, it is your own problem. if you were doing something else, like chatting with someone in haven right before the lottery, then it wouldnt have been so bad. then you could do missions AFTER the lottery. Plus, it is not my fualt a bunch of people spend their lives on a computer playing for who-know-how-long and spending their money on a bunch of ce so they can get more money and while on like your 100th mission it is laggy again and you blame OOO and quit SK. Its life, kid. DEAL WITH IT.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:24

#10

RizuChan

Legacy Username

@Shadownox

Considering an RJ run usually takes around an hour and a half to complete (that's reviving one another in a party so we all get there without spending CE on revives and can do so against the boss) it really isn't my fault I'm playing at the time since the lottery is an hourly thing.

Not to mention this is an event to encourage people to be on the game and be playing -- so saying it's my fault when they're trying to motivate me to play is kinda bitting themselves in theor own behinds.

And yes, sometimes I'm chatting -- but sometimes I'm actually dungeoning and killing stuff, to get more crowns so I can get CE so I can upgrade stuff and keep progressing in the game. What you're supposed to be doing. If I just wanted to hat I could just use my steam chat or MSN or some other chat service provider instead of being logged into Spiral Knights.

I wouldn't complain, at all, if the lag was due to people being around in the thousands dungeoning and playing the game. That. Is. What. The. Game. Is. For. My complain is the thousand of people that just log on two minutes before with their main and their 3+ mules, lag teh whole place for people that are actually playing the game correctly. and then disappear.

I understand OOO used to do this same event in Beta, which is fine and dandy, but they have to rememeber Steam brought in thousands and thousands of more players -- and if their servers can't handle this correctly (because I dropped from my eternal 3 bar conenction to a measly little red bar every lottery draw) they should have consider this before running the event and coming up with was to ensure only accounts with people actively on them at the time (as in physically touching the mouse every single moment, instead of flittingly logging on in three comps at the same time and leaving and logging off once the draw has passed) to therefore actually obtain accurate data of how many people constantly play the game.

For real.

As for hoe people spend their money is not really my problem, or the focus of this thread here.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:26

#11

Metamare

Did you try going solo?

Did you try going solo? Usually any lag causes by mass loads of players doesn't effect people playing by themselves . :)

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:28

#12

RizuChan

Legacy Username

@Rebirth

Unfortunately yes. Even standing around in the Guildhall, whether empty or with just a couple of player, has most of us with a red bar every hour or so. And it's due to the mass amount of mule accounts logging in every time.

At one point I was actually in Haven, returning from finishing a gate, and suddenly accounts started spam logging in everywhere around me. Nonstop, for like a whole minute and a half straight. D:

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:34

#13

Madadder

rizu they would need to do

rizu they would need to do something for those without CE/ME or they will riot. im all for new ways of thinking but i dont think something like that would work

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:44

#14

RizuChan

Legacy Username

@Monkey

Maybe make it so they have to spend all their 100 ME in dungeons for that day then to be eligible. At least that way you ensure they were actually playing around for a certain part of the day, instead of just mass logging on and off. And not mass crafting useless stuff and further devaluatig things in the AH so no one can make a profit out of crafting.

Boom, two birds with one stone. :3

I realize it's a hard thing to do -- but there has to be some ways. If not to fully ensure that only active playing accounts are counted then at least so the majority are active, playing accounts.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:49

#15

Shadownox

i admit it is not your fault.

i admit it is not your fault. but it is not my fualt so much people log in when it is the lottery. heck, thats wat i do sometimes! so you have to learn to deal with it. thats wat i do.
P.S.: wat is RJ?

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 20:55

#16

RizuChan

Legacy Username

@Shadow

I don't mind people logging in. I mind people logging in to their main account AND their 3+ alt/mule accounts. That's what really lags the server -- 'cause out for all the people online for each raffle you can bet your pants at least 1/3rd of them are mules and maybe bots.

Also, RJ stands for Royal Jelly -- and in the Royal Jelly run to kick the boss' butt in tier 2.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:06

#17

Shadownox

i can do a RJ run in 30min

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:33

#18

RizuChan

Legacy Username

Good for you, want a cookie for it?

Good for you, want a cookie for it? I'm talking about realistic runs -- from beginning of gate, getting to basil and then the end.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:39

#19

Shadownox

you mean tier 1 too?

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:41

#20

Nodocchi

I'm not sure if your party

I'm not sure if your party realized this but you could have stopped reviving yourselves and waited out the lag. In any case I never experienced the lag you describe when I'm playing and it is 2 minutes to the hour, so it might possibly have something to do with your side. Have you tried restarting your computer? That works pretty well for me to ensure I don't lag during a run.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:42

#21

RizuChan

Legacy Username

*headdesk*

No, from beginning of Tier 2 to the end.

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 21:56

#22

Shadownox

that only takes an hour for

that only takes an hour for me

Sat, 07/23/2011 - 22:07

#23

RizuChan

Legacy Username

...

Even then, you're bound to hit the lag from the lottery at some point and die.

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