People not rolling in duties - can we do something about it?

[Dzian]

There's a reason why this happens. and it's down to the loot system itself. you can obtain 1 item in a week, and this week for example I want the shaft from a12

if I roll on the shaft straight away. i'm probably rolling against 7 other people to win it. gives me what a 12.5% chance of winning the item.

if I wait however till the cranks and springs have been won. now there's only 4 people that can roll against me for the shaft I want. so my chance of winning now goes up to 20% maybe less if everyone has passed one of the drops.

so generally speaking i'm not going to roll on that shaft until the other 3 items have been won because waiting improves my chances just that little bit and i'd rather wait a couple of minutes than have to run the fight for a "n"th time that week.

what makes it worse though is my mate over there only wants the crank form a12 this week, and like me he won't roll on the crank till the rest of the stuff has been won in order to maximise his chances of winning.

and now we're at a stale mate. cos I wont roll the shaft till the crank has been won, and he wont roll the crank till the shaft has been won and perhaps some other guy won't roll the spring until the crank and shaft have been won and thus are we all stuck there waiting till the last second.

as a result I tend not to mind it so much because I know and understand exactly why people do it. to increase the chances of winning the item they want that week.

why not just let people need roll on ONE item. regardless of drops. if 2 shafts drop you can only roll on one. and you can't roll anything else from that fight regardless of whether you win or lose with that one roll...

that way people would roll faster. and loot would be won faster. but as long as people can roll on everything. then people will wait till the other stuff is won.

[StouterTaru]

there have been times where the guy who didn't roll was running around, so it was quite clear. Other were spamming emotes or chatting. Also, if it was something from real life it wouldn't happen so often.

I had an experience in LoTA, after the weekly lot lockout was removed. BLM piece drops, I need on it and wait. Everyone except me, another BLM, and a DRG in our party drop the instance, nothing has been said. So after about 30 seconds I get up to use the restroom. I don't make it back until after the loot has dropped and they have left, and look back at the chat log. Nothing was said for the first 4 minutes, after which the BLM said something like "OMG it's a direct upgrade for me why can't you just let me have it?" (He was wearing a HQ crafted item in the slot, with a higher ilvl, better secondary stats, and materia slots) After it dropped to me he expressed his disgust and left.

When there are no loot lockouts, it wouldn't be unreasonable to cut that last chest's timer in half or so. But when there's a weekly lockout, just get up and do something else.

[AlphaFox]

I usually just roll on what I need then go sit my happy tail down by the exit if I see nothing happening. Honestly all it really takes to get people to roll is to sit and show you don't plan to leave.

[Crysten]

This happens primarily in Alex and I've been guilty of this for the reasons posted above.

It's simply because of stalemates between people. If I have my eye on a first and second choice of item, I will lot the thing I want the most first and pass anything I'm not interested in. If other people have the same idea, then I'm more than happy to wait it out and lot the second choice item with a second to go.

It sucks, but if it means I'm more likely to get the item I have my eyes on, be done with that run for the week and do something else, then I'll happily do it.

This would easily be fixed by lowering the amount of time the loot is in pool, cos I'll never understand why 5 minutes is the norm. You really don't need that much time to decide.

[AlphaFox]

To be honest in normal dungeons I can understand the timer cus people rushing and you can't really check but Alex and such, seems like a shorter time would work out cus there is no rush, the fight is over a quick item search should be all that is needed for those to know which one they need.

[RyuSaarva]

just give me the ability to change into a crafter then I can wait with these selfish people.

[Alberel]

The reason people do this (besides the obvious selfish intent) is because they know it's hard to actually work out if it's them. A number of times I've even seen the very person that's not rolling call out for people to roll in chat as a way to distract from their actions.

The fairest solution to this would actually be to have a way of easily identifying who has and hasn't rolled. Losing the guise of anonymity would greatly reduce this practice.

There is one other issue that needs to be raised though. The loot in Alexander effectively encourages this behaviour due to how the loot lockout works. Four items drop per boss, yet each player can only take one per week. This results in people passing on the items they don't want in hopes of locking out other members of the party from rolling on the item they DO want. If everyone wants different items though then everyone is waiting on everyone else and you end up with half the party not rolling. I see this happen constantly and it's more an issue with the system itself than individual players.

[Caitlinzulu]

Well if they would do a table in the style of a ready check where they mark who rolled on what.
That way people couldnt hide that they havent rolled.

[Neophyte]

There are 3 groups of people:

1) They need a specific item. (my alt at a9)
2) They need 2-3 different items in whatever order. (my alt in a10)
3) They don't need anything and just roll occasionally and leave with low rolls or leave right away. (my main on some floors if helping friends)

Group 1 doesn't want to lose a needed item to someone of group 2 or 3.
While group 1 is biggest on tuesday, it shrinks 'till monday while group 2/3 gets bigger.
Group 1 waits a bit usually, they get an advantage by waiting.
Group 2 usually doesnt wait that long.
Group 3 do whatever they want.

Neither 1/2/3 talk about loot and what group they are.

That I can still need on bolts although I would only gear classes I don't play isn't that fair-play, too. But since no one can check this...
I don't mind if I'm 2/3 that 1 use their one advantage: They can cope with waiting for a specific item.

That's the system you get with people mentioned above randomly matched together, weekly lookouts and at worst 1 specific needed item for up to 8 players per run.

[alimdia]

Probably already suggested but, the chat lot mentions who rolls, find whose name isn't in the chat log and politely ask them in chat to roll, once everyone's eyes are on him he's likely going to roll.