PVE event start times inherently unfair...

The Bookman

These days there are a lot of people grinding nodes down to 1 to try and ensure winning covers for themselves and their alliance... And the impact on people not being able to play in the last two hours of an event has been well noted for a long time now.

My gripe is different....

It is hard to take it when I score more points than others but they place higher than I do in events... I've finished top 100 when others I know have scored less points and made top 10.

This is purely down to event start times... I am in the UK and there is only one start time that allows us to grind at the end... And all of Europe is in it.

Start times I am seeing are 12pm, 5pm, 10pm, 4am and 7am. So gaps between are 5 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours and 5 hours.

Blatantly loaded to help those in USA time zones (or those playing in other areas whose work allows them to take advantage).

So the one finish time that suits Europe is 10pm UK time... Great for grinding at the end but means you have to start the next sub at 10pm and take an hour... Means 11pm bedtime. If you want to wait an hour for a potentially easier sub you are starting at 11pm and finishing the clear at midnight. That sucks for anyone who has work or school the following day.

But even that suits the main part of Europe better than the UK cos for the rest of Europe it is 8pm or 9pm finish time... Gives them more chance to grind and still choose a start time for the next sub that allows them to get to bed at a reasonable time too.

So players in the UK are penalised because players in the USA and the rest of Europe all have more favourable start times.

So I would like to ask if there could be more start times for players to choose from. Maybe one every 2 or 3 hours at least so that it is a more even playing field for everyone. After all if America gets 3 hours between start times why can't the rest of us get that same chance as well?

I don't mind losing out on covers and other rewards when other people play better than I do... But it sticks in my throat a little when it is just luck that they have better start times. I am sure others are in the same boat as well and eventually will get really disappointed that they can never make the top places in any event no matter how hard they try.

Comments please.... I want to see what others think of this topic

The Bookman

Yes of course.. Sorry I worked the time difference the wrong way.

Cymmina

I'm in EST/EDT time (North American east coast) and those look like the same start times as the ones I'm seeing: 7am, 12pm, 5pm, 11pm, and 2am. No matter what times they pick, its going to be unfair to someone.

The Bookman

To even it up they could have consistent gaps between start times. 12 starts with 2 hours between wouldn't be too hard to implement because it is a change to existing coding not a completely new system.

And we all get the same opportunity then as players.

simonsez

The Bookman wrote:

It is hard to take it when I score more points than others but they place higher than I do in events... I've finished top 100 when others I know have scored less points and made top 10.

Unless they were in a noob bracket, this doesn't happen.

The Bookman

simonsez wrote:

The Bookman wrote:

It is hard to take it when I score more points than others but they place higher than I do in events... I've finished top 100 when others I know have scored less points and made top 10.

Unless they were in a noob bracket, this doesn't happen.

Noob bracket may be why it happened but that still doesn't alter the fact that start times are not an equal thing for all players. In fact a lack of appropriate start times may mean some players get more chance to wait for a noob bracket than others do.

Bowgentle

I'm on CET and would KILL for 10 pm end time.
I grinded out a t10 in the X23 release PVE because with the time zone shift it ended at 10 pm instead of 11 pm, which indeed did allow me to go to sleep at a reasonable time.
So enjoy your 10pm end time, OP. You actually have it better than central Europe.

12 times slices won't make things easier, you'll just end up with a single bracket in each time slot that never fills, and heavy grinders spreading out to make sure they occupy the t10 of every time slot instead of clustering like right now.

If you think more time slices will make things easier, you're mistaken. Everybody is just as inconvenienced as you by end times, if you have an easier time, so many, many others will too.

lukewin

simonsez wrote:

The Bookman wrote:

It is hard to take it when I score more points than others but they place higher than I do in events... I've finished top 100 when others I know have scored less points and made top 10.

Unless they were in a noob bracket, this doesn't happen.

It also happens if they played in a later bracket. They could score less points but have a higher ranking. Overall score shouldn't be used to compare your ranking to theirs. It might be hard to take knowing someone scored significantly less points than you did, but got more rewards, but there's other factors involved, not just the overall score. They might not be able to reach the LT by starting later, or weaken their alliance ranking by having a lower score and possibly cost their alliance a cover.

simonsez

lukewin wrote:

It also happens if they played in a later bracket.

You're right, but I was hoping the OP would understand that if someone joined the last day of a 3 day event, you can't compare scores and ranks and claim it was unfair.

TxMoose

but you can also catch a fresh bracket early during day 1 or so. that helps a ton. score might be slightly less but if you were one of the first 20-30 to join, t10 is much easier than joining pre-event, although you may have missed the first clear or so.