Spiral Knights - Lockdown queues - dumb question from a new player

Lockdown queues - dumb question from a new player

7 replies [Last post]

Wed, 01/22/2014 - 10:58

Troyfel

Hi sorry to bug someone or whatever.

I played a game of tier 3 lockdown about a week ago, and i got absolutely battered. It makes a lot of sense, but it bugged me.
Team still won, somehow, and after having spectated a few matches I now actually have a vague understanding of how it works.
Basically I built a set of gear for Tier 2 lockdown (because 5starring stuff is way more effort and ce for me at the moment), fully heated it, got the baby trinkets and the works (not at the stage of UV's on all my stuff but I'm sure that'll come in time)

So, proud of myself for having done all this work, I sign up for lockdown.

After realizing I was queueing for Tier 3 (because I hadn't changed my shield which I didn't think was important) I queued for Tier 2 in Europe.
I was in the queue for about an hour, almost permanently 4-8 waiting to play, never got pulled out of haven, yada yada. So I changed zones and made it sign me up for the US servers instead. I guess it's late am or early pm across the states right now, or an our or two ago, so I wasn't too hopeful anyone would be on, but there was all of this life there, 15-40 waiting to play, and so on.
I thought that was great I'd get some games in, work out what I needed (if I should get more weapons, its what 3 hours work and a few CE for a 3 star weapon; new armor, something like that) go get it while doing other stuff i need to do (heating 4star stuff and the like)
2 hours later I was STILL in haven, queueing for lockdown. I thought that this was a bit much, and kinda gave up, swapped to a 5star striker set and re-enlisted.
Again, an hour later, no movement, despite (now consistently) higher numbers in the waiting/playing area.
I guess when I pressed 'spectate' there weren't many tier 2 games to watch or whatever.

How does it work, is the number of people waiting the number of people waiting for lockdown in general or for your tier? Is there some other additional restriction on when you will be bumped into the game, or do you take further back positions in the queue if something's wrong? Why the hell did I waste 3 hours of life standing around in haven doing absolutely nothing other than check the AH? Can you not be moved into the arena when you are in a menu like AH? I mean i tried 15 minutes of just walking around and that didn't do it either.

Are lockdown games in general really so infrequent that you stand around for hours doing nothing?

Wed, 01/22/2014 - 11:27

Your-Buns

U queued for tier 2 right? Sometimes tier 2 doesnt have enough players but iwhen it says an amount of players are queued it shows both tier 2 and tier 3 players also tier 1. To check if there are any tier 2 games going on go to spectate and there you can see. If there isnt, either change to tier 3 or do something else but dont wait forever for the game :0 hope this helps

Edit i forgot to add, the players shown in the queue is only for the region ur playing in, but spectate is not

Wed, 01/22/2014 - 11:27

Seiran

The number of people waiting is for all tiers, AFAIK. You can have 3 people waiting for T1, 3 people waiting for T2, and 6 people waiting for T3 and no game will start. Alternatively, you can have 12 people waiting, with two people waiting for T1 and their game will never start.

You can be pulled into a match as long as you haven't logged off or entered an actual clockworks stage regardless of whether you have some UI (trade, AH, etc) open. If you have clicked 'play again' from a previous match, you can be pulled into a match even from a clockworks lobby (!!).

It's weird you weren't even able to get into a T3 match... those are usually lively enough to not have to be delayed more than twice, at least in the US server.

Wed, 01/22/2014 - 11:44

Feyi-Feyi

When you switch from EU to US, withdraw first -> change region -> Q again.
I've had it happen before that it still registers you as Qing for EU if you don't withdraw first.

Wed, 01/22/2014 - 22:02

Troyfel

Is it worth investing the

Is it worth investing the time and effort in a 1star setup just for T1 arena? I'm honestly not excited to play T3 when everyone has ASI VH GFs and stuff, it looks boring and monotonous.
I thought T2 was a lot more common than I apparently experienced...
At least tier 1 looks funny.

So the coliseum can steal you away from haven even if you're in a menu like the AH or something?

Thu, 01/23/2014 - 05:10

Feyi-Feyi

T1 games are very rare.

T1 games are very rare. They're usually organized via trade chat, and even then you'd be lucky to find one every week.
T2 is fairly common though.

Also if you feel like you can't play T3 just because people have better gear, remember that LD is not about gear.
There will always be someone with better stuff but that doesn't have to mean it's not gonna be fun.
T3 has its good sides, in that it's very fast paced and you can use more diverse weaps/armors than the T2 cliche.

The coliseum can and will steal you away in haven.

Thu, 01/23/2014 - 16:10

Leekcoco

We sometimes start T1 RLD in my guild when we have enough people online and interested. If you want to give it a try, feel free to send me a friend request and I can let you know if anything pops up (no promises though).

Don't expect it to be more balanced, just heart trinkets and hammer alone is enough for someone to sweep up as long as they're mildly competent. Guardians can also tank for days in T1.

Thu, 01/30/2014 - 23:34

Klipik-Forum

Hey Feyi, T2 isn't all that cliche. Today I played a whole session with only arc razor after a game of clone loadout, a game of gunning, and a game of shockburst/volttech. There's plenty of variety if you bring it and the TTKs(times to kill) are high enough that you can actually get away with more fun stuff.

As for your questions Troy. Lockdown queue numbers are for everyone in the region, regardless of tier. So if it says 40 playing, that's probably mostly T3. I know that today in the middle of the day there were no T2 games, but I'm not usually on at that time so idk if that is the norm. I can however tell you for sure that unless it's right after a server reset, there's going to be at least one or two T3 games happening and you should be able to get in fairly quickly. If you can't then maybe try what Feyi said, or you just happen to be extremely unlucky and everyone requeues for an hour straight. (Which never happens.)

IMO there's not much point in creating a T1 setup, mostly because T1 has around 5 armor and weapon choices and most of them work. Whatever you have usually rolls unless the entire other team is sporting triguard or fencing+circuit breaker with hammers and trinkets. As for actual games, never just queue for T1. No one plays on a regular basis, but you can usually get a game going if you know the right people and you can get some people interested in haven. There are some guilds like The Nights Watch, Rogue and mine(Celestial Vanguards) who usually have some players willing to jump into a T1 game should the situation arise.

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Lockdown queues - dumb question from a new player