Hoping they fix the clock/timing of end of event

Jonathan

I'm not sure if anyone else is in this boat, but it drives me nuts when I don't receive a reward for finishing an event because it took longer. Last night I participated in a Lightning Round and so 3 mins left (closer to 4) but because it took me too long to finish, I didn't get any rewards. I think that's wrong. I'm hoping I'm not the only one. I understand why they do this, i.e. someone stops playing before his event is done, and it's just hanging there. It'll affect the rewards.

I just want a system where if I'm still playing and trying to finish the event, it should count if I started it before the event ended.

MarkersMake

Did you ever have to interrupt a match because of some sort of RL event? Did you come back later and simply resume where you left off?

Most often, the answer is yes - and the only thing that limits how long you can effectively pause a match like that is whether your device decided it had to close the app to free up some memory.

So, given that you can pause a match for hours - how long after the event closing time should D3 wait before calculating final placements and awards? 5 hours? 3 hours? 1? Too long? How about 20 minutes? 10? 5? 1?

And once you accept that no matter where they draw the line, you must also accept that the line HAS to be drawn somewhere. And if that's the case, doesn't it make the most sense to just draw it right at the end of the event?

IOW - it's not "broken", and it doesn't need fixing. It sucks when it happens, but it is the way it is for a very good reason.

Also, I understand your frustration - I can't count the number of times I've lost out on a position reward because of some long-running cascade by the AI, or a bunch of animation spam that made my match last just a bit too long.

Jaedenkaal

Jonathan wrote:

I'm not sure if anyone else is in this boat, but it drives me nuts when I don't receive a reward for finishing an event because it took longer. Last night I participated in a Lightning Round and so 3 mins left (closer to 4) but because it took me too long to finish, I didn't get any rewards. I think that's wrong. I'm hoping I'm not the only one. I understand why they do this, i.e. someone stops playing before his event is done, and it's just hanging there. It'll affect the rewards.

I just want a system where if I'm still playing and trying to finish the event, it should count if I started it before the event ended.

Welcome to the forum

We've all been there. As the poster above says though, it's much better to get your event rewards promptly all the time then to get that one extra match-worth of points every once and a while, but have to wait days or even weeks for your event rewards because someone paused their game on steam and then went on vacation.

NewMcG

MarkersMake wrote:

Did you ever have to interrupt a match because of some sort of RL event? Did you come back later and simply resume where you left off?

Most often, the answer is yes - and the only thing that limits how long you can effectively pause a match like that is whether your device decided it had to close the app to free up some memory.

So, given that you can pause a match for hours - how long after the event closing time should D3 wait before calculating final placements and awards? 5 hours? 3 hours? 1? Too long? How about 20 minutes? 10? 5? 1?

And once you accept that no matter where they draw the line, you must also accept that the line HAS to be drawn somewhere. And if that's the case, doesn't it make the most sense to just draw it right at the end of the event?

IOW - it's not "broken", and it doesn't need fixing. It sucks when it happens, but it is the way it is for a very good reason.

Also, I understand your frustration - I can't count the number of times I've lost out on a position reward because of some long-running cascade by the AI, or a bunch of animation spam that made my match last just a bit too long.

I don't think 5 minutes of leeway would be devastating to anyone's schedules. They still wouldn't allow new matches to start after the event timer ends, and 5 minutes is a reasonable expectation for any single match to be finished. Beyond that it's safe to assume the "AFK, real life" scenario, which is unfortunate, but can't be factored in.

MarkersMake

New McG wrote:

I don't think 5 minutes of leeway would be devastating to anyone's schedules. They still wouldn't allow new matches to start after the event timer ends, and 5 minutes is a reasonable expectation for any single match to be finished. Beyond that it's safe to assume the "AFK, real life" scenario, which is unfortunate, but can't be factored in.

OK, I've got a secret that I'll let you in on.

I know one of the devs, and he told me that they've actually already implemented exactly the system you are taking about - it's a 3 minute delay. It's live in-game right now. In fact, they did it a while ago. But rather than showing the event end time (and confusing everyone), they decided to make it more clear and so they just show the points calculation cutoff time instead.

Jaedenkaal

MarkersMake wrote:

New McG wrote:

I don't think 5 minutes of leeway would be devastating to anyone's schedules. They still wouldn't allow new matches to start after the event timer ends, and 5 minutes is a reasonable expectation for any single match to be finished. Beyond that it's safe to assume the "AFK, real life" scenario, which is unfortunate, but can't be factored in.

OK, I've got a secret that I'll let you in on.

I know one of the devs, and he told me that they've actually already implemented exactly the system you are taking about - it's a 3 minute delay. It's live in-game right now. In fact, they did it a while ago. But rather than showing the event end time (and confusing everyone), they decided to make it more clear and so they just show the points calculation cutoff time instead.

Yup. Arbitrary cutoffs are arbitrary.

Jonathan

MarkersMake wrote:

Did you ever have to interrupt a match because of some sort of RL event? Did you come back later and simply resume where you left off?

Most often, the answer is yes - and the only thing that limits how long you can effectively pause a match like that is whether your device decided it had to close the app to free up some memory.

So, given that you can pause a match for hours - how long after the event closing time should D3 wait before calculating final placements and awards? 5 hours? 3 hours? 1? Too long? How about 20 minutes? 10? 5? 1?

And once you accept that no matter where they draw the line, you must also accept that the line HAS to be drawn somewhere. And if that's the case, doesn't it make the most sense to just draw it right at the end of the event?

IOW - it's not "broken", and it doesn't need fixing. It sucks when it happens, but it is the way it is for a very good reason.

Also, I understand your frustration - I can't count the number of times I've lost out on a position reward because of some long-running cascade by the AI, or a bunch of animation spam that made my match last just a bit too long.

I want to say you're absolutely right. But what I'm suggesting is some sort of system that detects if you're playing. So for instance, my example. The system will know I didn't just disappear/pause/stop playing and count it. If it detects me not playing for say 1 minute straight (just an example) then it doesn't count it. This is of course based on the match starting before the time is up. I don't think that's wrong. But again, I absolutely agree with your post. If your example fit me, then I wouldn't care about the reward, because I left. But if I'm still playing, I believe it should count.

MarkersMake

Jonathan wrote:

I want to say you're absolutely right. But what I'm suggesting is some sort of system that detects if you're playing. So for instance, my example. The system will know I didn't just disappear/pause/stop playing and count it. If it detects me not playing for say 1 minute straight (just an example) then it doesn't count it. This is of course based on the match starting before the time is up. I don't think that's wrong. But again, I absolutely agree with your post. If your example fit me, then I wouldn't care about the reward, because I left. But if I'm still playing, I believe it should count.

It's not that I think you're wrong, per se - it's just that I don't think it would be a worthwhile idea to implement.

I mean, the reward is clear - one last fight for some people that will count despite finishing slightly after the end of the event. But the work involved in coding that (and making it bulletproof) is a fair bit more than you would think.

And don't forget the risk side of the equation. There are, "out there", certain undesirables who would take advantage of such a system, just to aggravate others. I mean, if you deliberately start a match with 1 minute left, take exactly 55 seconds to make each move, and bring a team of healers (and/or characters that create protect tiles for the opposition) - it could extend the event end by... Well, suffice to say, a very long time (and yes, a hard cap of 5 minutes could avoid this issue, but that doesn't really get you anywhere either).

But even without invoking the trolls argument, there are issues. What if you are looking for a t10 placement, and with 1 minute to go, you are in 6th place. Event ends, scores eventually appear, and you finish 11th because of people who finished their matches after the deadline. Can you imagine the rage posts?

Im not saying they couldn't do it, or that there would be no benefit. Just that sometimes a clear line makes things simple to understand for everyone, and keeps disputes to a minimum. And that's worth more than you'd think in a game like this.

EDIT - just to be clear, a hard node completion deadline of (event end + 5 minutes) is exactly the same as simply extending the event end time by 5 minutes and doing zero coding. So... You don't actually gain anything there.

Jonathan

MarkersMake wrote:

Jonathan wrote:

I want to say you're absolutely right. But what I'm suggesting is some sort of system that detects if you're playing. So for instance, my example. The system will know I didn't just disappear/pause/stop playing and count it. If it detects me not playing for say 1 minute straight (just an example) then it doesn't count it. This is of course based on the match starting before the time is up. I don't think that's wrong. But again, I absolutely agree with your post. If your example fit me, then I wouldn't care about the reward, because I left. But if I'm still playing, I believe it should count.

It's not that I think you're wrong, per se - it's just that I don't think it would be a worthwhile idea to implement.

I mean, the reward is clear - one last fight for some people that will count despite finishing slightly after the end of the event. But the work involved in coding that (and making it bulletproof) is a fair bit more than you would think.

And don't forget the risk side of the equation. There are, "out there", certain undesirables who would take advantage of such a system, just to aggravate others. I mean, if you deliberately start a match with 1 minute left, take exactly 55 seconds to make each move, and bring a team of healers (and/or characters that create protect tiles for the opposition) - it could extend the event end by... Well, suffice to say, a very long time (and yes, a hard cap of 5 minutes could avoid this issue, but that doesn't really get you anywhere either).

But even without invoking the trolls argument, there are issues. What if you are looking for a t10 placement, and with 1 minute to go, you are in 6th place. Event ends, scores eventually appear, and you finish 11th because of people who finished their matches after the deadline. Can you imagine the rage posts?

Im not saying they couldn't do it, or that there would be no benefit. Just that sometimes a clear line makes things simple to understand for everyone, and keeps disputes to a minimum. And that's worth more than you'd think in a game like this.

EDIT - just to be clear, a hard node completion deadline of (event end + 5 minutes) is exactly the same as simply extending the event end time by 5 minutes and doing zero coding. So... You don't actually gain anything there.

Can I just say, thank you for your well-thought out replies. I've been on message boards for a long time and I can't stand trolls and other people who just argue for the sake of argument. So again, thank you.

As for the programming/coding, I actually do that for a living, and can see your point about it. I'm tempted to suggest them not allowing a game to be played if there's say 2 mins left. Cause my other issue would be different opponents. Say there are 2 or 3 mins left, one opponent who uses all healers will take more time for a game to complete vs another time that doesn't have all that. I guess I just want it fair for everyone. Thinking about my posts, having no changes might be the best way to go. Though admittedly I'm still frustrated by what happened to me!

MarkersMake

Jonathan wrote:

Can I just say, thank you for your well-thought out replies. I've been on message boards for a long time and I can't stand trolls and other people who just argue for the sake of argument. So again, thank you.

You're welcome! Trolls annoy me too - I don't have time or patience to deal with them. Particularly now that I have 3 kids!

I was a programmer for 10 years before I went back to school for engineering, so I think that helps us see eye to eye on this. Sorry for being a bit of a downer about your idea, though. I totally understand where you are coming from, and have had similar notions myself in the past. Never could find a solution that worked better than the status quo, though. Oh well - c'est la vie!