How about boot to be every 26hours or so?
That way it would cycle through all time zones and it would be fair to
everyone. And if some (European) player finds this unfair because the boot
might be at 21eet (and you can't start your 12h eq mob after school or work)
or at 05eet (when you can't run those precious once/boot mobs or items) then
you might understand how it must feel for Americans or Canadians etc when they
have to deal with that every day.

You could make the boot times constant every week.
For example, boot 12.00 on monday, 24.00 on tuesday, 12.00 on wednesday, etc.
And during next monday the cycle starts all over. This wouldn't probably be
all that confusing after the first month or so, you could even add some line
to login that says when the next boot will be.

I don't see these two as a problem. The chests do close automatically as
Armageddon arrives and the eq worn does save nowadays. Maybe Armageddon could
also arrive a bit earlier (say 30 min, 1 hour) before boot if the cycle is
altered.
The case b could be solved with some kind of in-game calendar that shows the
time of the boot for each day, let's say for a month or so. And probably the
skilled www site builders make such a feature out anyway.
All in all the difference of boot time would really cause some variance and
even make it possible for new people to do some eq. I'm certainly for this
change.

Like suggested, a info when you log in about time remaing to next reboot could
be provided (and us l33t coders could grap the info and make a neat countdown
thingy to our clients).
I fail to see how someone could loose his equ due the 15min countdown
combined with armas free tele combined with those rental lockers. Even if you
sudenly loose all your chests you can set your start location to church and
simply dumb everything in lockers.
But i could see prolems with badly CODED storage items (cabinets, ect) that
wont obey armas \'close all\' command (or close all <type> command in that
case) thus that way loosing stuff.
If the boot goes in steady X hour circle, making a nice calendar about it
showing the boot times will generate much less fuzz than 3/6/9/18 persons
waking up at middle of night to see if they can race some equ.
Players will anycase look \"omg plz its 6 hours to boot!!11\", not \"oh, crap
its 6 hours till midday\".


Here is (propaby) a wierd, but hars take for rape prots.

When a item is made it has possibility of having your name on it equal to {1
- [number of these items in game that have yourname / (number of these items
in game that have yourname + days since last this item with yourname was
made)]}*100 %.
In plain english?
If this is your first whatever equ your ever making, it has 100% chance to
have your name. If this would be your 10th time your grinding the same piece
of equ and you just yesterday made one with yourname, it would have
{[1-(9/9+1)]*100}, or 10%, chance to have your name.
Wait 17 more days, total of 18 days, so you would have {1-[9/(9+18)]}*100, or
50%, chance that the item has your name.
If you want to maximize your chances to get named one, you could wait 891
days before taking part making that equ and get a {1-[9/(9+891)]}*100, or 99%
chances to that item to have your name this time.
Note that this would allow you to kill same monster day after day, without
reducing your chances to get name in it, but if you want to make a trip that
would not be a likely waste of time, you would let the equ to be alone couple
days or weeks first.

This would generate namless equ to sales from those super rape...er hardcore
players (also compleatly waisting their time, maybe generating a \'TAKE A
BREAK FROM THIS MONSTER\' idea at their heads) and it would give those players
that want to make equ to themselves but got shity luck in dice/are poor
students/gets to play once peer month, also a fighting chance wihtout
producing a party wipe and/or fucking up the trip for others because of one of
the members did the equipment yesterday.
This would also produce nice tension inside of rape..er hardcore equ making
SS societs. If the items dont have automaticly all the makers names, does all
the members have enough patience to try to get their own name on the next
piece or buy the present one and do something else? Or should the member(s)
simply take a couple weeks off from that equ? Or would the member(s) be so
nice and loyal to sit for handfull of hours front of computer knowing that
they will propably get nothing out of this monster this time or give the equ a
break?

Atleast sales would come alive again and there would be reason to hold on
those named equs with your teeth and claws and horns and tails and roting
limbs and with those over tuned feathered wings.
Dunno about you people out there, but loosing dice on equ gives me a nice
warm feeling. Equ SS\'s rarely do dices but if the item has not your name, you
prolly wont bid as named equ is the thing we are looking for thus making you
waste your time. And the more frustrating the trip is, the longer you will
leave the monster alone, thus generating a gap for others to give a shot for
the equ.

A hits you.

would a 36 hour boot suffice for the needs of a "jumpy" boot? 12 hour boots
might be a bit too short, but with 36 hours every second day the boot would be
0000 eet, and every other it would be the old 1200 eet, wouldn't really take
all timezones in consideration but would be clean and simple.

--Pertulio

-- Pertulio, the paranoid little pinhead.

I am all for this idea. In fact, I had suggested it ages ago, though I forget
if I ever posted it publically as I don't really like to get involved much
with news arguments. I have two points to go along with each of the problems
gore suggested:

a)We now have in place a system that basically safeguards a person 'idling'
through a boot. Worn eq is saved, and any items/etc in ones inventory can be
bought back currently through BC. Granted this costs a TP, but the "cost" of
idling through boot is NOTHING compared to what it was even when I started
playing. For better or for worse, this new 'protection' of ones eq allows for
any adjustment old players will have to go through to accept the new system.
Also, Informs or Messages when you log in can help avoid problems too (maybe)

b) As I posted in a reply sent to BS to another discussion, if anyone
complains about the orginzation of parties as a result of rolling boot, they
are really bitching about the fact they are just unhappy they have to change a
little. AT MOST it would delay you a week, which in the mean time you can do
something else, but even that can be avoided if your groups management is
actually competent. You might not be able to macro every action you do for
your standard parties anymore, but gods forbid you actually plan something
with a degree of real time stratedgy.

That's all I got. Hope it was constructive enough to warrent a reply to this
group. If not I will flog myself at sunset. I promise.