What if Favors are like this...

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I live in Australia and have a little bit of lag here. Usually it won't matter at all if I am gathering a tad bit slower. But now, with Favors, it does. I have been taking records and comparing my # of favor items per favor with a lot of people, and my average is obviously lower (3.5 items per favor reported by most people, me only 2.5 items). I have taken almost every possible measure (like depleting all but 1 attempt on 4 nodes before starting), so it's probably not due to ineffective game play.

Anyway, I'd like to suggest a way to fix this. I know all methods have pros and cons, and I am raising this here to let you criticize on any possible problems.

What if.....

Each Favor gives a 15 min buff that allow you to spawn a Concealed Node by depleting regular nodes. The rate of popping a Concealed Node remains the same as right now (~25 to 30%), but the Favor buff automatically expires after you have spawned 3 Concealed Nodes. Thus, the RNG aspect of the game is kept - it spawns sometimes only. It may take you only 5 min to get 3 ooids, or it may take you 10 min, depending on your luck. But if you work your butt off within that 15 min, you will likely reach the maximum numbers of Concealed Nodes, just as everybody does, even if you're lagging a little bit. This way, the total number of items for 5 Favors can be hard-set at 15. Even if you're unlucky, it'll just take you slightly longer than others, but it won't leave you with a horrendous zero items per Favor (which has happened multiple times with me). Hidden items can remain just as they are with a 10% appearance rate per Concealed Nodes. It doesn't matter.

3 Concealed Node is just a make-up number. We can set it to 4. We can set it to 5. The point is to make the outcome more predictable, so you won't spent 200 Red Scrips, expecting 60-ish ooids, but end up with only 40-ish, due to bad luck. Let the RNG luck factor decide HOW LONG it takes for you to do it, NOT how many ooids you finally get from the same amount of Red Scrips you spent as everyone else!

Please feel free to comment or criticize if this is viable or not. Thanks!

[Silverbane]

I'd prefer to not have that change. I like the "racing" aspect of doing Favor nodes. It makes it a contest, me against the clock.

But it would be good to make Favor node gathering fair for people without fast low-lag connections without losing the racing aspect ... so where is lag having an effect? Perhaps not in the actual movement between nodes, but in entering, clearing, and exiting the nodes? If that's the case, then let me propose an alternative:

What if the timer on a favor node stops running while you have a node open? That's similar to your GP not regenerating while a node is open, so they could implement this, probably pretty easily. With this change, lag in the operations to clear a node would no longer penalize players distant from the servers. It would also mean you'd be able to handle RL interruptions without losing the use of a Favor, simply by parking yourself in a node. It would also stop me from cursing my luck when a node has the "+2 attempts" proc.

SE should and probably would reduce the duration of the Favor as a result. For example, I hit at least 14 nodes (including Concealed that pop) for each favor, and clearing each one takes a bit over 10 seconds, so that's over 2 minutes spent inside a node out of the 5 on the Favor. SE could reduce the Favor duration to 2.5 to 3 minutes in transit and my yield per favor (and per minute if I don't dawdle clearing the nodes) would stay about the same I think, might get a little better.

And it would still be a race between the nodes, as I prefer.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

What if the timer on a favor node stops running while you have a node open? That's similar to your GP not regenerating while a node is open, so they could implement this, probably pretty easily. With this change, lag in the operations to clear a node would no longer penalize players distant from the servers. It would also mean you'd be able to handle RL interruptions without losing the use of a Favor, simply by parking yourself in a node. It would also stop me from cursing my luck when a node has the "+2 attempts" proc.

SE should and probably would reduce the duration of the Favor as a result. For example, I hit at least 14 nodes (including Concealed that pop) for each favor, and clearing each one takes a bit over 10 seconds, so that's over 2 minutes spent inside a node out of the 5 on the Favor. SE could reduce the Favor duration to 2.5 to 3 minutes in transit and my yield per favor (and per minute if I don't dawdle clearing the nodes) would stay about the same I think, might get a little better.

And it would still be a race between the nodes, as I prefer.

Well, it sounds ok. But what if someone opens a node, and just go AFK... have a drink and come back... That'd be rather strange....

Yeah, anyway, that's the thing, I can only do up to 12 to 13 nodes per favor. There's nothing I can do to get it over 14. It takes about the same time for me to fly around as everybody, but the engaging and disengaging of nodes, and the time it takes when I spam click the items to deplete them are all slower than other people by a tad bit. Everything slower by 1 or 2 second, and it really hurts in the end.

[Silverbane]

Well, it sounds ok. But what if someone opens a node, and just go AFK... have a drink and come back... That'd be rather strange...

True, but I do not see how it could be exploited. And it's better than, for example, losing a Favor because someone rings the doorbell right after you use it, and there's no one else around to go to the door. Some RL things cannot wait 5 minutes ...