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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe pros and cons of raid IDs
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 11th 2009 at 5:00PM
Freya recently posted a plea on the forums: Please, Blizzard, get rid of raid IDs. Raid IDs were put in the game as a way to make sure the best loot in the game didn't flow freely: rather than just running endgame raids over and over (and over), Blizzard put a hold on just how much one player can run them. If you get saved to a raid ID, you're usually out of that raid until things reset on Tuesdays. But there are lots of issues -- at this point, agrees Zarhym, it's too easy to get saved to a raid. It's lame to jump in on a PuG where you do one boss and then the group breaks up for the rest of the week, and it's even lamer to have your raid ID ninja'ed by a few folks who decide they want to disband the group early. The mechanic is important to keep around, though -- if you think it's too easy to get endgame gear now, just think what things would be like if people could run Naxx or OS daily or even hourly.
But the actual saving is an issue, and one that the developers are working on -- they're planning on making it so that you would only be saved to an instanced when it's partially or even completely cleared (though that too would likely spread a little more loot around than wanted -- people would run the instance until the last boss and reset it to do it all over again). We'll have to see how this pans out.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Instances, Raiding, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Rage Feb 12th 2009 10:44AM
Rantank, take it easy!
Raiders not needing to farm; how is that a bad thing?
It’s a game not a job, one that I am paying to play! If I like raiding I should be able to just raid IMHO.
People will still be farming and selling that will never change. If you make your gold selling crafted epics then you probably fail at making money. They are a great way to level your skill and help out friends/guildies but making money?? However if your selling gems or enchants (includes leather working/BS) you will have a huge demand and you can do that if that’s the way you enjoy spending your time in WOW.
With this new system in place people can relax and play the game you don’t have to worry about having one chance this week to get a drop that you want really bad and getting pissed when something doesn’t drop or a group falls apart. For those of us that have jobs and have to get up early now we can go to bed when we need to and finish our runs later. You won’t have to farm like crazy to get into raids either because there will be tons more raids going on! Partialy completed raids should now have no problem getting people to join them to finish up.
I think this is truly a win/win serious people will go crazy with this and have a ton of fun. Casual people can be extra casual. Whiners and bitchers well the will QQ!
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 12th 2009 10:45AM
I think they should just cut the days it takes to reset. Instead of 7 days, put it at 3. I rather there be more loot flowing then not considering it is still chance on drop for tier.
In our guild, we have difficulty filling a full 25 man raid for Naxx, we can usually down the wings with 20-21 people in the raid. In our guild leader’s infinite wisdom (or stupidity) he filled two slots with two DK that were not mains. He allowed them to come because he needed to fill two slots. We didn’t really need them, but he wanted more people in the raid which is understandable. Here’s where the rest of this story will make sense. He promises them that if they pass on gear he will give them the first tier that drop to go to their mains (mains that were still not 80 at the time.) Doing that means, he is going to screw those players whose tier piece share the same drop with warlocks.
So think about this. Two weeks, the only tier that drops is the one you need, but your Guild Leader promised it to two other warlocks first. So the priests, paladins have to wait 3 weeks before they can even have a chance at tier... IF it drops again.
Honestly, if it was a tier that dropped in 10 mans, even I would have been okay. But 25 mans is the only place most of the good raiders in our guild can get upgrades from... I don’t think it’s fair that those poor classes have to sacrifice their tier TWICE, to two different warlocks, because the guild leader made a promise most people didn’t agree to, but felt forced into accepting. It’s easy to promise purples to people when it’s NOT your tier piece on the line.
Sure this is a "one" time thing (done twice btw), but it's a 2 week wait minimum on gear that doesn't always dropped in a guild that doesn't always have the chance to do a 25 man naxx every week. -_-+
DavidC Feb 12th 2009 11:52AM
No Raid ID is a teribad idea and not even worth mentioning in this article. It will NEVER HAPPEN as it would kill the game. Dead Horse, quit beating it.
Getting "saved" for just stepping foot into an instance is also a bad thing. It's caused countless grief for players, but has not impacted the overall game negatively.
I would prefer a zone-in pop-up that shows the bosses that are dead in the instance with a "accept" or "decline". If you decline, you get ported ... if you accept you get saved.
Hardest programming part would be some sort of debuff that would preclude you from getting loot / achievements during the pop-up / porting phase.
I think that is probably their main problem in doing anything like this.
SimpleSurvival Feb 12th 2009 1:59PM
Yah... considering the sheer volume of people who suggested various methods to exploit just about every single 'alternative' that has been suggested to RaidIDs, I sincerely believe that its 'working as intended'
It does suck that you occasionally get saved to partial clear sometimes... The "Do you wanna get saved" dialog would resolve that.
They don't need to abolish the RaidID, they don't need to change the timer for resets... all of those suggestions are ripe for exploits and abuse...
Now... lets find another dead horse! this one's bones have been powdered
Falcom Feb 12th 2009 2:36PM
I also think we should consider the idea of having two resets a week. Once on monday for weekday runs, and once sat morning so we can run on weekends. It would certainly make my schedule easier to work with since i could do guild runs on weekdays, and pug something on the weekend, or vice versa. Maybe make the saturday morning reset optional via a mouseclick so you aren't forced into losing out on finishing the raid due to lack of time.
Rage Feb 17th 2009 3:44PM
No, sir this is not a dead horse.
Please try to open your mind.
I’m sure people said the same crap about flying mounts!
OMG, it will ruin the game!
I bet if Bliz wanted to take away your Flying mount now you would lose your mind.
Sure, allowing people to run as many raids as they want will make it easier for people to get gear but, if they can only loot a boss once per week then it’s not an exploit.
If you could reset and loot everything again that would be crazy. But, I like the ID of Boss ID’s where you get tied to a boss ID once you loot a badge and then you can’t loot him again till it resets on day 7.
Like some have mentioned earlier now you can decided how you want to make your money. You could make enough gold raiding to just raid if you so desire. You can be as hardcore as you want or as laid back as you want. Flexibility is the new key to this game.
Wikiwand Feb 12th 2009 3:27PM
I've thought about it. I think that in order to solve this problem is to add an extra digit to your raid I.D. Every time you kill a boss.
For example, lets say raid group A go in and kill patchwork. Great, add a 1 to the end of their ID. Raid disbands. One person from group A gets 9 more other people, (call it group B) and kills Grobbulus. Add another digit to group B's ID. The people who didn't kill Grobbulus will use the previous raid ID.
Now, here is the tricky part. If the members of Group A want to go to the progress of the Group B, Group A can because their Raid ID is compatible. Group A has the base of the ID, while group B uses a deviation of that ID. They can join that raid group, or continue from that point. However, once they kill a boss their ID will deviate, and no longer be compatible.
Now, in order to make this work you must be able to become saved after you kill a boss. Every time you kill a boss add one more digit to your raid ID. This system prevents players from walking into dungeons and being saved.
Richwarf Feb 12th 2009 8:24PM
I say keep it, but add more info about that raid ID, maybe things like...
Who got that raid ID as well, With a online/offline info :)
Who alive and who dead? (bosses here, maybe you dont care if the frist boss is dead cos he got not loot for you :))
A warning box before you enter!!!
(Player X is locked, the following bosses are alive/dead, do you wish to enter?)
This whold keep loot as it is atm, but will stop people getting locked ect, or if they do get locked, they know who alive and who dead :)
Richwarf Feb 12th 2009 8:27PM
Also i forgot to add...
Change the tone of hc modes, or do somthing, i mean come on i already run into hc mode, got locked cos of the dam rog, then got ask if i like to do 25 man run, after the 10 man.
anom909030 Feb 13th 2009 7:56AM
Well, i certainly get the idea of not wanting to be saved for a very bad pug run, but come on, right now you where all QQing about how easy is the WotLK raiding and stuff, and now you want to trivialize it even more? I for one have a job, that eats a huge chunk of my time and doesn't allow me to play as much as i'd like. On top of that, my guild was used to doing late friday, early we raiding, and on that time it was hard to get guildies to come. The ZA runs were particularly problematic to try and continue.
But having boss ID's linked to looting actually means that a lot of ppl won't loot, will drop group and reset and start over on a boss until it drops what they want. They'll just demand the link of items before even touching the corpse of the boss.
I know ppl want their shiny purples now, all of them, but all that gets ya is the state some say we are know (no hard raids, lots of hardcore ppl whining on thw net about being bored) and a more complex system put in place to please a few (an yes, 10000 out of 12000000 is a few).
Just make some sort of dialog box: entering "Kill the ugly whatchamacallit" instance will get you saved. (Y/N). Faced with that question most ppl being pugged could decide wether to join or not. Maybe even put a time stamp of the raidID creation time in server time, so the joiner could know the raid "age" and decide weather they want to get in or no.
Rage Feb 13th 2009 12:54PM
I think Boss ID's could work but, I also see the point about it having people drop if they a boss doesn't drop the loot they want. My answer to that is a 2 hour deserter flag. It should only keep you from joing a different raid in that 2 hour time frame. Incase you got D/C'd you should still be able to get into your raid. Raid hopping needs to be avoided while Boss ID's should make it very easy to replace somoene things would still get crazy if people can just come and go with no penelty.
Valar Feb 15th 2009 5:24AM
Well, one thing I see mentioned a lot this page is the not looting a boss thing and dropping the raid 'till the boss drops what you need. This isn't, I think, the point of a bossID. It's not a BossLootID, it's a BossID. As in, you killed the boss, now it's ID is saved to you, you can't get any loot from him after this kill 'till next reset. Fixes all the problems, imo. Stops raid farmers 'cause you still can't constantly run the raid 'till you get your drop, and it lets people who get stuck with crappy PUGs the option to wait 'till they can get in a more reliable group.
Another thing, from Blizz's standpoint, adding some kind of Debuff would be taxing to code and impliment, but if they used the same system they used to determine if you can equip something then it saves a lot of overhead. When you kill the boss you already have an ID for, the game just does a small check, "Oh, this player doesn't have access to this content" not allowed to loot or roll on loot.
People keep saying this would be "problematic" to implement, and it's cause their looking at it from a debuff pov and not a progamming pov.
Plus, I don't understand the point of the unique ID when it doesn't seem necessary. It's not like the game needs to keep track of when a raid was done or even who was in what raid, just that the raid was done and that you were there.