New Event End Times Feature Coming Soon

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Comments

  • NighteyesGrisu
    NighteyesGrisu Posts: 563 Critical Contributor
    Ben Grimm wrote:
    I think it's safe to say that this is the announcement most deserving of the happy dance since respec was introduced.
    indeed. After another horrible, horrible heroic with no subs I can't emphasize enough how much I'm looking forward to a feature like that.
  • Yasuru
    Yasuru Posts: 99 Match Maker
    Can't wait for this to go live! I hate going to bed, knowing my rank is going to have a couple hours to drop before the event closes.
  • Demiurge_Will
    Demiurge_Will Posts: 346 Mover and Shaker
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    The screen shot shows them staggered by 6 hours. Why it only shows 3 brackets and not 4 may just be a UI issue.

    The screenshot shows some rough values we were using to test the feature. After looking at where players live, when you play, and looking over all of our previous notes from y'all's feedback about end times, the latest plan has five end times:

    - the current end time (for example, Mondays at 1 AM Eastern for the weekend Versus event, 06:00 UTC)
    - 3 hours later (for the weekend Versus event, 09:00 UTC)
    - 6 hours earlier (midnight UTC)
    - 9 hours earlier (21:00 UTC)
    - 15 hours earlier (15:00 UTC)

    ...but those values aren't locked in and I'd love your feedback on them. Is there one in there that works well for your schedule?
  • TheHueyFreeman
    TheHueyFreeman Posts: 472 Mover and Shaker
    Demiurge_Will wrote:
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    The screen shot shows them staggered by 6 hours. Why it only shows 3 brackets and not 4 may just be a UI issue.

    The screenshot shows some rough values we were using to test the feature. After looking at where players live, when you play, and looking over all of our previous notes from y'all's feedback about end times, the latest plan has five end times:

    - the current end time (for example, Mondays at 1 AM Eastern for the weekend Versus event, 06:00 UTC)
    - 3 hours later (for the weekend Versus event, 09:00 UTC)
    - 6 hours earlier (midnight UTC)
    - 9 hours earlier (21:00 UTC)
    - 15 hours earlier (15:00 UTC)

    ...but those values aren't locked in and I'd love your feedback on them. Is there one in there that works well for your schedule?

    I think if you are going to have 5 slots, those are appropriate. However, you may want someone from Europe (I am not) to weigh in.

    Also, would the reward distribution be staggered as well?
  • Carnage_78
    Carnage_78 Posts: 304 Mover and Shaker
    For me in New Zealand, in the current example, I see at least one that would work out very well for me...

    - the current end time (for example, Mondays at 1 AM Eastern for the weekend Versus event, 06:00 UTC) converted to NZ time is 7 PM on Monday night which not ideal coming back from work & all.
    - 3 hours later (for the weekend Versus event, 09:00 UTC) converted to NZ time is 10 PM on Monday night which is a very good option as it would give me an evening of playing after work before the end of the event.
    - 6 hours earlier (midnight UTC) converted to NZ time is 1 PM on Monday which is business hours so I am at work which does not suit me at all.
    - 9 hours earlier (21:00 UTC) converted to NZ time is 10 AM on Monday morning which could serve as a backup if needed by playing in the morning before work & then shielding for 3 hours.
    - 15 hours earlier (15:00 UTC) converted to NZ time is 4 AM on Monday which is somewhat similar to the normal ending of the event so it could work as a fair enough option.

    So compiling the results, I get 1 ideal ending time, 2 ok-ish ones, one not so ideal & 1 absolutely no.

    Overall if I had these choices instead of being forced into whatever not so ideal ending time which I am usually stuck with right now playing the game then I would be very happy... icon_mrgreen.gif

    Those 5 time brackets seem to be well balanced to suit most everyone around the world I would say...I hope that helps mate! icon_cool.gif

    EDIT: During the year the daylight savings time between Canada & New Zealand overlap at different dates moving in opposite directions so depending on the time of year there might be another 2 hours variation between the time zones...but I think that the balance of choices stated above would still give me at least one good option all year around.
  • Pwuz_
    Pwuz_ Posts: 1,214 Chairperson of the Boards
    Carnage_78 wrote:
    Those 5 time brackets seem to be well balanced to suit most everyone around the world I would say...I hope that helps mate! icon_cool.gif.

    Grumble. No, I still find these times to be pretty poor for me as an EST player with a job. The retail establishment I work at closes at 7, and I am more often than not stuck closing and unable to play till 7:30-8:00.

    1am is really late, especially on those days I have to be at work at 8 or 9 in the morning the next day.
    4am is even worse for bed time even if I don't work till noon (which seriously is next to never.)
    7pm I'm still working.
    4pm if I'm insanely busy, I might betaking my lunch to match this, but that's very unlikely and I'm likely to be both starving and grumpy by this point in the day as well.
    10am I'll be at work again...

    These times just seem so arbitrary. Why the weird shifts? 3 hours later, but not 3 hours earlier? 10 pm would be great. Well, the end times can't be perfect for everyone. It sure makes me wish I lived on the West coast of the U.S. though.
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    Demiurge_Will wrote:
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    The screen shot shows them staggered by 6 hours. Why it only shows 3 brackets and not 4 may just be a UI issue.

    The screenshot shows some rough values we were using to test the feature. After looking at where players live, when you play, and looking over all of our previous notes from y'all's feedback about end times, the latest plan has five end times:

    - the current end time (for example, Mondays at 1 AM Eastern for the weekend Versus event, 06:00 UTC)
    - 3 hours later (for the weekend Versus event, 09:00 UTC)
    - 6 hours earlier (midnight UTC)
    - 9 hours earlier (21:00 UTC)
    - 15 hours earlier (15:00 UTC)

    ...but those values aren't locked in and I'd love your feedback on them. Is there one in there that works well for your schedule?
    9 hours earlier would be very nice for European players, I think. It would work for me quite well.

    But - _please_ tell me this end time fix is not only for PVP? Because PVE end times is what _really_ needs fixing.
  • Demiurge_Will
    Demiurge_Will Posts: 346 Mover and Shaker
    TheHueyFreeman wrote:
    Also, would the reward distribution be staggered as well?

    Individual rewards would start being handed out when your version of the event ends. Alliance rewards would start being handed out when all versions of the event ends. (It will still take some time to distribute all the rewards, as it does now.)
  • Demiurge_Will
    Demiurge_Will Posts: 346 Mover and Shaker
    Bowgentle wrote:
    But - _please_ tell me this end time fix is not only for PVP? Because PVE end times is what _really_ needs fixing.

    We'd use these times for PvE too, yeah.

    (We have the ability to change the times per event - each lightning round will still have a single ending time for everyone, for example - but we'd like to stick to a common pattern for most events for predictability's sake.)
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    Demiurge_Will wrote:
    Bowgentle wrote:
    But - _please_ tell me this end time fix is not only for PVP? Because PVE end times is what _really_ needs fixing.

    We'd use these times for PvE too, yeah.

    (We have the ability to change the times per event - each lightning round will still have a single ending time for everyone, for example - but we'd like to stick to a common pattern for most events for predictability's sake.)
    Thank you for the confirmation!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I am a little surprised there is no "three hours earlier" option. I can only assume it is a technical limitation of some sort. What I really want to know is what happens to people in PvP that end earlier? Are they unhittable as soon as the event ends? Are the still hitable but thier points are "locked in" for their alliance? I fear viable targets diminishing for some of the later finishes, as well as if the all becoming visable but immune to point loss, helping the later finishes.

    I don't envy you having to sort all of that out.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Demiurge_Will wrote:
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    The screen shot shows them staggered by 6 hours. Why it only shows 3 brackets and not 4 may just be a UI issue.

    The screenshot shows some rough values we were using to test the feature. After looking at where players live, when you play, and looking over all of our previous notes from y'all's feedback about end times, the latest plan has five end times:

    - the current end time (for example, Mondays at 1 AM Eastern for the weekend Versus event, 06:00 UTC)
    - 3 hours later (for the weekend Versus event, 09:00 UTC)
    - 6 hours earlier (midnight UTC)
    - 9 hours earlier (21:00 UTC)
    - 15 hours earlier (15:00 UTC)

    ...but those values aren't locked in and I'd love your feedback on them. Is there one in there that works well for your schedule?

    I'm in EST, so:
    Current is where I'll probably stay, only because the other options aren't attractive.
    4am is no good.
    7pm is meh, probably my 2nd choice. It's workable, but would impact family life too much.
    4pm is ok for PvP, where I can play at lunch and throw up a 3hr shield, but is no good for PvE.
    10am is no good.

    Ideally I'd have wanted 10-11pm EST (04:00 UTC).
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Demiurge_Will wrote:
    Bowgentle wrote:
    But - _please_ tell me this end time fix is not only for PVP? Because PVE end times is what _really_ needs fixing.

    We'd use these times for PvE too, yeah.

    (We have the ability to change the times per event - each lightning round will still have a single ending time for everyone, for example - but we'd like to stick to a common pattern for most events for predictability's sake.)


    Curious how end times will affect rubber banding

    Currently rubber banding makes no lead safe. Any chance this will be fixed to reward the players who play the entire event? If you Are in an earlier ending time - people can slingshot past you basically giving a ton more points to the alliance score?

    How will alliance scores be resolved - will there be alliance rewards at each ending time? Or do alliances that end early just get screwed out of seeing how far they need to push for top 10 etc?
  • CrookedKnight
    CrookedKnight Posts: 2,579 Chairperson of the Boards
    I agree with the Smurf, I'd much rather have a 10pm-ish Eastern ending available than 7pm. That's the one on that list that I don't see as good for anyone - it's right after work on the East Coast, too late to get a real push together for the end of the event, while further west it's still working hours, and in Europe it's past midnight and not tenable. 10pm would let me continue my routine of running through an event one last time (or two last times) before bed, without forcing my bedtime to 12AM or beyond.
  • FaustianDeal
    FaustianDeal Posts: 760 Critical Contributor
    the staggered end times are a great tweak for individual prizes, but they seem to add bad twists for alliance prizes.

    In PVP
    People have wondered if it is better to start X-Men, but it seems to me it is better to start in the end-time that finishes last. If you are in the event that finishes last you can know that your team needs 500 more points in order to jump ahead of a team that has had all 20 players finish. Conversely if my entire alliance has finished we get to watch our final rank slowly erode; knowing that we have no one left in the pool to do anything about it.

    In PVE
    will each 'End Time' group have their own 'global leader' for determining rubber banding, or will there still only be 1 'global' leader? If so it again feels like the team with the largest number of players in the last close time have a disproportionate advantage, since the global leader would have pushed higher and then timed out, leaving an alliance in the last end slot several hours to benefit from banding off that leader's score and pass alliances who timed out when the global leader wasn't as high, and banding was weaker.
  • Pwuz_
    Pwuz_ Posts: 1,214 Chairperson of the Boards
    CrookedKnight wrote:
    I agree with the Smurf, I'd much rather have a 10pm-ish Eastern ending available than 7pm. That's the one on that list that I don't see as good for anyone - it's right after work on the East Coast, too late to get a real push together for the end of the event, while further west it's still working hours, and in Europe it's past midnight and not tenable. 10pm would let me continue my routine of running through an event one last time (or two last times) before bed, without forcing my bedtime to 12AM or beyond.

    While I agree that 7pm EST does not work for me, I'm 100% positive there is someone (who doesn't live in the U.S.) who would love events to end then. A few of my alliance mates are in Europe, that would put it around midnightish for them. Sounds WAY BETTER than currently where they are staying up till absurd hours trying to get those last points in.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I was thinking about this and started wondering. What if you did 6 choices @ 4 hours apart? I figure that would give everyone a decent end time while dealing with family and work. You already have five choices, which is the only reason why I ask. That way, taking a typical 9 to 5 workday, there would be an end time for everyone in the world between 6 and 10pm their time. And many options for those people who are outside of the typical work hours.
  • Demiurge_Will
    Demiurge_Will Posts: 346 Mover and Shaker
    LoreNYC wrote:
    Curious how end times will affect rubber banding

    Rubber-banding is relative to the other players in your time slice.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I'm in the same boat as the rest of the EST players that have brought it up. A 10pm EST end time would be most preferable. The other times are not very good options so I'll just stick with the same 1am EST end times, I've become accustomed to staying up that late over the last year of this addiction icon_rolleyes.gif
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    We have such fun lingo here. Brackets, Bubbles, shards, and now slices

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