An introduction to Major Foci

Teani

I believe it said what phase it was in if you did LEYLINES, at least if you were in the right area.

Kendri

I don't recall seeing that, though I did look at Leylines several times during the first contention phase. It's long off my buffer now, so I can't look back at it.

Can someone confirm that it is the case?

Zsadist

It does show up in LEYLINES. It'll say what phase its in, what kind of major it is, and whether or not its in the intermission phase or not.

Moirean

Can we get gateways to last 2-3 times as long as they currently do? Currently it's really hard to get one done, in between back and forth fighting (and the combat kinda feels like it ends too quick). Longer would be more fun!

Teani

We couldn't even finish one without any contention because of time.

Moirean

Right and with 2 teams you really only get maybe one good fight in. Way too short!

Moirean

Riffing off alissandras post in artifact ideas it would be nice if major foci were a bit more predictable. Lusternias revolt system was great for that as was avalons harvests, with times able to be vaguely pinpointed. People set alarm clocks and aim to be online. This would make them a lot more fun and active.

Alissandra

Moirean said:

Riffing off alissandras post in artifact ideas it would be nice if major foci were a bit more predictable. Lusternias revolt system was great for that as was avalons harvests, with times able to be vaguely pinpointed. People set alarm clocks and aim to be online. This would make them a lot more fun and active.

Echoing Moirean's riffing, for me at least *some* predictability would be better than it being on a set schedule. So if I know that on the 14th at the Howling a Major Foci will spawn +/- 30 minutes, I know I should probably be online then so I can experience it. Meanwhile inbetween then they spawn randomly as intended. Likewise, folks in Oceania and other exotic locations can have one at 0300 my time on the 21st so they get one during their prime time. If I want to set an alarm and be up at that crazy hour, I can be. Or I can sleep. I'll probably sleep for that one.

Aldric

Agree agree agree.

An aspect of predictability added to major foci would undoubtedly do bounds for attendance. Like Ironbeard, I'm sure we'd see login rate increase pretty decently if this was the case.

I know personally right now with as busy as I've been, I log on whenever I've got a spare minute or ten, and as of yet haven't even gotten to experience one yet. If I was told, "Hey, there'll be a major focus point appearing +/- 30 minutes of x time" I'd be much more inclined to try and make it a point to show up specifically for that.

Cons:
- Any predictability or scheduling takes away from the spontaneity of the system.

- This would have to be balanced out in an attempt to make it fair for those in various timezones. (Not really a con though, we deal with this regularly enough)

- Predictability/scheduling leads to more people showing, which leads to (maybe?) laggier fights. Ew lag.


Pros:
- Scheduled majors means higher login rates at or around that time. Consider further that if you log in to catch a major and it pans out to be an epic fight you can tack on half an hour to an hour of additional login time just spent talking/raging about the results! Not to mention more people being logged in period leads to them potentially finding more reasons to stay logged in longer.

- With an aspect of predictability introduced the random factor of who's around at the time could greatly diminish, meaning that success would boil down to favoring skill and tactics slightly more. This could create more interesting fights altogether.

- Ignoring those that will undoubtedly whine about this side doing this, or that side doing that (hey, Aetolians are whiners, it just comes with the turf) getting the community interacting in larger numbers more consistently is almost always a good thing.

- We've still got lessers if you want that spontaneous sort of thrill! They've been running for quite a while now, and people are still quite interested in showing up for their chance at PK. The same could quite likely be said for majors if they were shifted.

Aishia

idk I like the randomness.

Jensen

I'm all about those 1v1 3am on a Tuesday major foci fights

Alissandra

Aishia said:

idk I like the randomness.

Which is why I don't think it should be removed entirely, but having it be nothing but random means that overall participation is pretty much that -- random. I think that for most of the time (~6/7ths of the time) they should be random, with basically one announced and scheduled say once a week at various times (times should cycle to allow a fair spread for everyone across all timezones) would likely do everything that @Aldric said. It seems like a fairly easy-to-implement thing and could do wonders for improving playtimes.

Malok

I'm honestly considering boycotting major foci until they are held at a time that isn't 4 am on random weekdays, when like 2 people are online. Come on, guys. I know you're better than this. Give us what we want/need.

Moirean

The timer does seem to be pretty borked. This is at least the 3rd that's spawned at nearly the same time (between 1-2am PST).

Serrice

IDK, the times are weird as balls yeah, but the last few I've been a part of have had more than 15 people total participating.

Kendri

I think once the two week thing is done, scheduling one a week then leaving the rest random is a pretty good compromise and as was stated, rotating the times of the scheduled one.

Xenia

Hey, if I didn't live in the US and all the major foci were spawning around those times, I'd probably be cheering that FINALLY something was happening at a decent time.

Mael

I am rather curious as to when Majors have actually been hitting. It seems as it's less random then I would expect and that randomness is throwing everything off.

Is it a flat 10% chance or is it cumulative ie does it go up 10, 20, 30, 40 depending on how many lessers have hit? I haven't seen very many of them hit, and I haven't heard about as many as I was expecting.

Serrice

The last one was at like 1:00 AM PST, and the last one before that I went too (which was like, idk, the major or two before this one?) was also late. I also recall logging in one morning at around 11ish to Valingar mentioning there was another major, so that one would've occurred between 2:00 AM and 11:00 AM PST as well.

Rashar

I just did one at like 6 AM PST.

I for one am happy that these are not events being held primarily in prime time, considering they're PK heavy and that is -not- a very balanced period of the day.

Zsadist

@Mael, I believe major foci are a flat 10% chance so long as no major has spawned in the last 24 hours. At least, that was the impression I got when I read their announcement. As for times, I've only been online for 2 of them and have been offline for 4 of them. The randomness is nice because it gives many people the chance for major foci interaction at any time and depending on online playerbase, not so much lag (because lets face it, those 15v15 are hella laggy).

The randomness doesn't really bother me, so I personally see no need for them to set up specific times for 1 or 2 majors. Thats the pros/cons of the major/lesser system, you never know when its going to happen. You just hope you get some action.

Dristin

There was a major earlier today. I'd say between 2-4 hours ago or something.

Teani

I'm just afraid that if it is made more predictable will mean it will happen more on American Prime time rather than being random and allowing all parts of the world to join in the fun.

Lim

Making it more predictable also means the side that typically has more numbers would turn up with more numbers. Remember to factor that in too.

Alexina

I don't think randomness is going to be a huge problems. The system is new and shiny and everyone wants to be around for all of them. A year from now, there'll have been dozens and dozens of them and the random factor will make it so people in odd timezones will be around for some of them too.

Aishia

it's pretty unlikely to go more than a 1-2 days without seeing one.

Alexina

Know what would be awesome? A skill in either vision or refining that tells you either when the last major focus was, or what the current percentage chance of a major focus spawning is (or the skill could do both).

Valingar

I think a major foci has a 10% chance of spawning instead of a lesser, if there hasn't been any in the past day. But yeah, seeing on Leylines if the major foci are on cooldown or not would be good.

Alexina

Oh, you're right. I thought it gained 10% to spawn for every lesser that didn't become a major after the cooldown wore off. My mistake!

Malok

I really don't think its appropriate for one side to be able to revive their members inside a gateway, and the other side cannot. Just some feedback from the one that just happened.