No Plans to Implement Balak Vuln Time

[Mrp]

When the vulnerability times were first implemented it seemed like a good time for both America and Europe to be able to get on and attend fights. The thought was if the vuln time started at 4pm EST then people from America could probably make it since a fight wouldn't start until 5pm EST (if placed right away) for them and EU people could make it as it would be evening for them, which has been true for the most part. (some people will be screwed by this no matter what and I understand that) With the introduction of this marathon and the who can pearl better part of conquest running against Elysia is proving very difficult with this current vuln time since 4pm EST is difficult for almost any American to make, since EP have several EU players they have an easier time getting people on for this. Numbers right at 4pm EST now count for a lot because if you do get out pearled to an inhib then you get teleported to spawn with your enemy then moving to the next inhib pad with no resistance to wait for you and if you don't have the numbers to completely wipe the enemy alliance you can't place your neutral fight due to the new combat tag restrictions.

People from the east coast struggle to get on at 4pm if they have a job or go to school but it is even more difficult is for people on the west coast or even central time zones. For them it can be 3 pm all the way over to 1 pm. There is virtually no way most people can get online for something at 1 or 2 pm with school/work/life etc. If the first two weeks of conquest is going to be who can get more people on at 4pm est and pearl better then I think we should rethink the vulnerability time by moving it to 5pm EST rather than 4pm. This could be a case of "it's too damn bad man sorry you have west coast and central time players" but that just feels bad to not be able to compete because of time zones. I know that moving it back would mean EU players have to stay up a little later but staying up late seems like more of a choice to me than going to school or work. I'm sure many people will want to weigh in on this, so feel free! I'm sure many people will want to say they are in America and can get on at that time just fine, and that is totally legitimate. But just because that is the case for you does not mean it is not really difficult for people in the west or central time zones to be online in general.

Something i'm not saying that I want to be clear about: proposing this isn't claiming we would have won all the pearl races/fights if we had more people, (EP has some God tier pearlers) just saying it seems EU favored and if you don't have EU peeps you kind of get screwed by this vuln time.

Just my thoughts on it as I have really struggled to be able to make this time frame myself and many others in my alliance share the same sentiment.

 

[Cryptite]

Short response here, since Mag can speak to this better but two things went into choosing the current range:

1. Firstly, Marathons at 4pm weren't thought of at the time, so having to have all your players on right at 4 certainly wasn't part of the calculation.
2. The peak of Loka in terms of numbers was looked at, statistically, and found to be right at the current vuln window (accounting for inhib times, etc). For better or worse, screwing Eastern EU or Western US over or not, the peaks of Loka tended to fall around the 4-7pm server window.

 

[Mrp]

Yeah, it was fine before the marathons started, I just think it is something that could be revisited now that the marathon is 1/3 of Balak conquest. Even if it meant shortening the vuln time from 4-7 to 5-7, we all only get one place anyways.

 

[DeceitfulPear]

The problem with moving it is then EU players will have to be awake at midnight if someone places right at the end of Vuln time (this is an issue already). Honestly each time zone has pros and cons that haven't been an issue before because of being able to choose Vuln times before Balak/Rivina. Due to this the only real fix I can see is forcing everyone to move which obviously isn't a possible fix. I do agree that it favors EU at the beggining but if its pushed forward then it makes late places more powerful for American players and nearly impossible for EU. As is our EU players join for a Marathon that starts at 10 and vuln time goes until Midnight. If someone places at last moment it begins right before 1 AM and an last until 2 AM.

I really don't think a time change will be helpful overall but if there is a way to make everyone have a better chance at being involved it will definitely make Balak more balanced and fun. I think the only fair change, if a change at all would actually make it more fair on both ends, would involve changing the timer for how long until a fight starts based on when during Vuln time the placement happened mixed with a slight shift in the Vuln time. But this may be too complicated of a solution and someone else could come up with something better/simpler

 

[OtakuBookWorm]

So I'm going to slide my idiotic opinions in here.

As much as I would love to have the vulnerability time moved back, I don't think it should be. Sure, I have class during the vulnerability time, and I would love to be able to come to a fight. However, the numbers seem to make sense with high activity being around 4-7 pm when school starts being let out with EST kiddos and EU kids having that afternoon gaming session. If you were to look any later then 7, the activity starts to drop with EU people going to sleep and people doing homework (ik ik I can't believe it either). It just makes sense to me to have the time set when the most people are on the server.

I'd also like to slide this in here:

I know that moving it back would mean EU players have to stay up a little later but staying up late seems like more of a choice to me than going to school or work.

Sure, it'd be okay for the beginning of the vulnerability period like it is now. However, fights between Iblis and EP always happen at the end of the vuln time therefore making it so they have to stay up late. Which you said was a choice however people feel required to show up to a battle especially if it's to defend. It's fairly similar imo on your stance on the Balak race. Sure, you could not show up to fight for your town, but the realistic approach is that people won't ignore something like this even if they should be getting sleep for their job or work. Sure, it's not a physical limitation like school is, but it has a similar effect with people having lack of sleep until they can no longer physically stay up to defend. I just think that as it is; it is the best melting pot of all the timezones we'll get.

That's the end of my ramblings. Thank you and have a good day.

 

[Walkers]

I know that moving it back would mean EU players have to stay up a little later but staying up late seems like more of a choice to me than going to school or work.

This is very unfair. EU people usually need to sleep because of school/work the next day so it isn’t a choice

 

[Kaph]

Unfortunately, it's one of those topics where you can never please everybody. That's just due to timezones, and the wide variety of players on Loka. I agree with Otaku, in that the current vuln time is a good melting pot - but it's difficult to find the 'best' time. The only objective approach to the issue would be to use the average time period with the most players. If I understand correctly, that's how we've arrived at the current vuln time, and so is a good argument for keeping it as is. As much as I miss my West Coast friends

 

[Cryptite]

That's it, everybody's moving to Iceland.

 

[Donutified]

That's it, everybody's moving to Iceland.

Pack your bags fellas.

 

[Skuhoo]

Looking at the average player count throughout the day can be a misleading statistic when trying to figure out what time the most players are able to play. There is a difference between when players do play, and when they are able to play.

 

[OtakuBookWorm]

Looking at the average player count throughout the day can be a misleading statistic when trying to figure out what time the most players are able to play. There is a difference between when players do play, and when they are able to play.

There will never be a time frame when everyone can play. There are too many timezones; you will have to compromise on who can play. It makes more sense to focus on when people do play since there will be shifts in power throughout the years. The better fit for players that come and go, the better. We're going to be screwing people over based on their timezones with the way Balak is set up. You can't figure out the time people are most able to get on since situations always change depending on the day. I do agree with what's being said on other threads that something on Balak needs to change with the races, but I don't think this is the solution.

 

[Noloite]

Why not 2 different vuln. times? The current one now at 4pm, and one 12hrs later at 4am?
If we had 2 different vulnerability times set 12 hours apart we could probably cover most of the world in those timezones.

 

[Skuhoo]

There's like, 5 people on at 4am. That's a terrible time for both EU and the US.

 

[OtakuBookWorm]

Also, a second time won't solve anything. It'll only push the race to the earliest opening. Plus, depending on when the time is, it can only frighten people more with surprise attacks (i.e. the example you used, people would be frightened that the enemy could get up at 4 am to place on them). All in all it just seems like a bad situation.

 

[Mrp]

Then we don't move the end time of the vuln back at all for EU players but we move the time the vuln starts up by an hour so instead of 4pm EST start time it's a 5pm EST start time and we change the warm up for a fight to be 30 minutes instead of an hour. If we did this nothing changes for EU and most of America can be done with school/work by the time fighting starts, some will still not be able to make the pearl race but we can't make it absolutely perfect.

 

[OtakuBookWorm]

That would be interesting. The only complaint I can hear people bring up would be that thirty minutes isn't enough to warm up, but I definitely like this solution to the situation.

 

[Mrp]

That shouldn't be an issue since the vulnerability period is so small, if you want to fight on balak you need to be around by that time whether we make this change or not.

 

[OtakuBookWorm]

That is true. Then, I definitely think this should happen. Good job Mrp