Gauntlet Buff

[Blumax]

Please fix A Single Strand of Glowing Dark Energy temporary timer. Timer shows 2 hours, but it is bugged and is possible to hold it infinite time. Some players has several of them in bank and they are asking 400m to delivery them to NPCs.

[jooo]

Agree! This item shouldn't be hoardable. Currently gauntlet instance is done daily but often the buff doesnt show on either side. People hoard the item. This shouldnt be possible. Raid is completed and the item should instantly go to use without expection. Fix the timer.

[DigitalBath]

That would be great if the people farming it for sale wouldn't be able to let it rot... but they are.
Thus, I fear some people may instead start saying "pay 1b or I'll let it rot" and farm Gauntlet in a rather obnoxious way if you actually make it temporary.

Reduced supply = Higher price.

I wish I was wrong on this..

[Baby]

How about letting some mechanic see which side killed the boss, and the buff automatically gets available at the respective NPCs? So we could get rid of the item entirely?

[DigitalBath]

How about letting some mechanic see which side killed the boss, and the buff automatically gets available at the respective NPCs? So we could get rid of the item entirely?

Not such a bad idea! What about Neutrals, though? What happens when they kill it?

[Awikun]

Why should Neutrals kill it?
We can use buff from both Omni and Clan, so for us it does not really matter

[Wakizaka]

How about letting some mechanic see which side killed the boss, and the buff automatically gets available at the respective NPCs? So we could get rid of the item entirely?

3 omnis, 3 clans ?
2 omnis, 2 clans, 2 neutrals ?
You're assuming that Gauntlet is only done with 6 chars from the same faction.

[Dysfunction]

Neutrals get to use it regardless of faction, is there even an npc for neutrals to turn the item in to? This is a legitimate question because I've never even seen or heard anyone say anything about it to be honest :/

[Baby]

3 omnis, 3 clans ?
2 omnis, 2 clans, 2 neutrals ?
You're assuming that Gauntlet is only done with 6 chars from the same faction.

No I'm not, because I know it isn't faction based. But could be. At least the last boss.

[DigitalBath]

Neutrals get to use it regardless of faction, is there even an npc for neutrals to turn the item in to? This is a legitimate question because I've never even seen or heard anyone say anything about it to be honest :/

Neutrals currently can choose to give the item to either omni or clan's npc as they see fit. Which is fun because it can confuse a good number of people as to what your affiliations are..
I know, because I have done it myself.

I don't know what other neutrals (Awi wtf man?) are doing, but Gauntlet is fun and getting the armor piece(s) by killing the last boss is good fun, too. (it felt better to get it like that than farming the lower floors..)
I don't want to lose that so my question stands. In the scenario that Baby proposed (not on live), what happens if neutrals happen to kill it? It's unusual, but it can most certainly happen.

[Baby]

Been thinking about it a bit now, but I can't come up with a super duper solution here. Of course there is always the option to add a 3rd NPC. Because what Awi said has something to it. Of course Neuts have just as much fun as any other side going Gaunt, but when it comes to the buff only, do they actually care much about the item? Knowing they can get it from either NPC anyways? Maybe a 3rd NPC would bring more action to the scene? Too far off?

And there is the option that Neuts get some sort of pop up after the kill, that asks them on which NPC they want the buff to appear. Doesn't seem too different from how it is now, where Neuts can just decide which NPC to give it to.

Or, some sort of mechanic as it is on BS. Neuts "sign up" to a side before entering the last boss.

[DigitalBath]

@Baby: A popup of sorts would be nice but it doesn't seem to be a common game mechanic for AO.. if it's doable it sounds like the best idea.
A 3rd NPC that would give neutrals a chance to give it to omni or clan would work out as well but wouldn't get rid of the whole item issue.

I'm sure there's a way to fix it, I'm just not sure it'll be even looked at 'til 2016 given the current AO roadmap (rebalance 'til summer/ engine next)

[Baby]

@Baby: A popup of sorts would be nice but it doesn't seem to be a common game mechanic for AO.. if it's doable it sounds like the best idea.
A 3rd NPC that would give neutrals a chance to give it to omni or clan would work out as well but wouldn't get rid of the whole item issue.

I'm sure there's a way to fix it, I'm just not sure it'll be even looked at 'til 2016 given the current AO roadmap (rebalance 'til summer/ engine next)

I meant a 3rd NPC for Neuts only with the mechanic. So the buff would be available for Neuts only and they lose their ability to get it off Clan/Omni NPC.

I guess it depends on how complicated it would be to implement a fix. Recently people complained about APT in decon and snap! there it was fixed. Somewhere in a thread someone says Biazu should get lvl req 150 and snap! there it is.

[DigitalBath]

I meant a 3rd NPC for Neuts only with the mechanic. So the buff would be available for Neuts only and they lose their ability to get it off Clan/Omni NPC.

I guess it depends on how complicated it would be to implement a fix. Recently people complained about APT in decon and snap! there it was fixed. Somewhere in a thread someone says Biazu should get lvl req 150 and snap! there it is.

That specific 3rd NPC idea makes no sense for several reasons. I'm sure you can figure those out.

As for the more on-topic fix.. well.. comparing denying APT in decon or changing the level req on a DB entry (both are probably done in 2 minutes) to making a new popup mechanic when a boss is killed is probably not fair, as the latter would likely require more than using the tools to modify the DB items a little.

That said, it would be relatively easy (by comparison) to make it so that if the team side is omni or clan, they get their respective buff. If team side = neutral (which is quite rare, ofc), then it could just be random rolled between omni and clan, as neutrals would benefit from it anyway.

It makes no sense lore-wise but it would fix the current issue where people are charging 400m for delivering the item out of their stock of many gauntlet buff items.
After that a more "permanent" fix could be thought of by the powers that be (somewhere in 2016 though? lol).. possibly connected to the more SL-relevant Redeemed/Unredeemed factions as neutrals have those as well and usually one of them is higher
e.g. If one could grab the faction values from the kill team and see where things land after summing them up it would be fixed quite nicely.

[jooo]

How about after the last boss dies, there spawns an clone of both sides NPC's on that very platform. Now you must hand the gauntlet buff item to the side you want. After zoning from this instance the item dissappears, so you must use it instantly and not hoard it around.

...Or something similar. If it is a fear that some ppl farm it and then wont use the item on either NPC and lets it disappear so that nobody get the buff (or ask credits for it in that window)... Then the kill mechanism pop-up would be nice one to implement - on death pop up asking which side you want to give the buff. But asking who? Team leader? Or everyone, and side that got most votes wins?

[Baby]

@Digi That's why I said it depends on how complicated it is. I don't know what is needed to implement such a pop up mechanism, but I know that we already have yes/no pop ups, so *maybe* a design like that could be used for adjusting. Just clan/omni instead of yes/no. But that's totally theoretical from my side, as I have no clue.

@jooo It would be just like the temporary flag, people would let it rot if not getting paid. As for who votes - haven't considered that yet. I guess a vote makes sense, but what if its 3 clan votes versus 3 omni votes? I think the random roll Digi suggested is better, because Neuts rarely do Gaunt Dmg Teams anyway, so mostly it would be clear omni or clan.

However it still requires the raid to turn faction based first.

[Therrito]

Why not just fix the 2 hour timer on it?
That would force players to turn it in to their respective faction and not horde them any more.
Also, it would cause any that's already horded to disappear from their inventory/bank.
I think that would be the easiest solution FC could do.

[Baby]

Why not just fix the 2 hour timer on it?
That would force players to turn it in to their respective faction and not horde them any more.
Also, it would cause any that's already horded to disappear from their inventory/bank.
I think that would be the easiest solution FC could do.

That would be great if the people farming it for sale wouldn't be able to let it rot... but they are.

They don't *have* to turn the item in. It's not mandatory, so they wouldn't.

[Gaggee]

I would love to see a change to the whole Gauntlet concept. The way it works currently is just annoying, the timer primarly but also the way the buffitem is horded.
A cool fix to this would be if the whole thing got instanced, no more timer, make teams able to go as they wish, but feel free to add a lock-out for 17h or something to prevent chainfarming.
After the topfloor boss is dead the buffitem drops like it does currently, but instead of an NPC to hand it in too, make us able to place a little building in our citys, a building that we then "charge" with the gauntlet item from top floor, and that gives the buff automaticly to everyone inside the org, similar to /org city benefits we already have permanently, but make this buff last only as long as it currently does.

A change like this would encourage more orgs/people to do this instance togheter, not only for the armor, but also for the buff. I think a solution like this would prevent, or atleast minimize, the amount of people trying to sell this buff.

I can honestly not see any downside with a change like this, more people get their armor, more people team up as they can go on demand (once a day), and if your org need the buff for twinking, well then go work for it.

[Phargus]

Been thinking about it a bit now, but I can't come up with a super duper solution here.

No need to make it so complicated. Just assign the buff to the side of a random member in the kill team (random side for neuts). This would probably make people do sided teams to make sure their side got the buff, but it wouldn't be mandatory.

Then once the boss is down do a global announce of which side has the buff. (Can add the name of the char that provided it for epeen)