Catshops: a huge, special island

ExELFine - Heavens Tear

Unless PWI's goal is to crash everyone's PC, let's face it, this game is getting more and more frustrating with each and every new addition. One word: lagfest. It's just unbearable.

Now, with everyone carrying their genies, and also, with all the enormous nienbeasts around, Archo (and most specifically west Archo) is to be avoided at all costs because of the lagfest. Really pathetic.The last time I can remember was around X-mas time, with all the snowmen and special events, all towns were impracticable, west Archo being the worst.

But now, it's even worse than X-mas time.

Why doesn't PWI implement a huge, special island where all catshops could be parked and whenever we want to buy those special items, we could just visit and shop.

Or something. In west Archo, things are getting so ridiculous with all those catshops standing on top of npc's like they own the friggin' place. I'll buy from any catshops, except from the ones who lack respect for their fellow players.

Most of us have to put up with PKers, KSers, Greedies and all sorts of unpleasant characters, and PWI just let them be, no matter how much real $$$ we put in the game. PWI should at least organize the shops to NOT interfere with everyone's enjoyment of the game by allocating them an important and yet special space in PW. I guess everyone would appreciate it.

Just my .02 non-US cents.

b:bye

Ussichu - Sanctuary

Well most people don't want to go out of their way to go there. Most people are there cause they are waiting for cs or making stuff (And i've made stuff before, it would be a pain to fly to buy mats, then need to buy more cause it didnt turn out the way i wanted). DQ items i guess are meh lol. IMO i'd rather it stay in arch for convenience. Or just have everyone go to the AH.

Briegg - Sanctuary

not gonna happen

besides even if they did create some instance
where catshops could be set up

everyone would set them up in the same place on the island
thus making the island lag like crazy..

Zand_pyrite - Sanctuary

well say if they were to set up an instance gate to this island right in west archosaur. That way no one really goes out of their way to set up or visit cat shops.

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear

Briegg - Sanctuary wrote: »

not gonna happen

besides even if they did create some instance
where catshops could be set up

everyone would set them up in the same place on the island
thus making the island lag like crazy..

Well, you could make it easier to handle. For example, no fairies, no genies, no pets, no mounts, no flying. You would walk around looking like you had no gear on (so the default look you get when you have no gear on but show armor selected). That would eliminate the need for the server to calculate your stats, and create any representations of players except the default ones, and the catshops. Should work pretty well.

Thelegion - Lost City

ExELFine - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Unless PWI's goal is to crash everyone's PC, let's face it, this game is getting more and more frustrating with each and every new addition. One word: lagfest. It's just unbearable.

Now, with everyone carrying their genies, and also, with all the enormous nienbeasts around, Archo (and most specifically west Archo) is to be avoided at all costs because of the lagfest. Really pathetic.The last time I can remember was around X-mas time, with all the snowmen and special events, all towns were impracticable, west Archo being the worst.

But now, it's even worse than X-mas time.

Why doesn't PWI implement a huge, special island where all catshops could be parked and whenever we want to buy those special items, we could just visit and shop.

Or something. In west Archo, things are getting so ridiculous with all those catshops standing on top of npc's like they own the friggin' place. I'll buy from any catshops, except from the ones who lack respect for their fellow players.

Most of us have to put up with PKers, KSers, Greedies and all sorts of unpleasant characters, and PWI just let them be, no matter how much real $$$ we put in the game. PWI should at least organize the shops to NOT interfere with everyone's enjoyment of the game by allocating them an important and yet special space in PW. I guess everyone would appreciate it.

Just my .02 non-US cents.

b:bye

That place exits and the name is Auction House the problem is the people no like use ... cauze they cant SPAM Like hell in Tarde chat or World chat b:angryb:victory

Kushua - Dreamweaver

I'd settle for an option to Disable rendering the cat stalls. I mean there are times when I Actually do wade thru the forrest of kittys hunting an item but most of the time I just avoid them. not having to avoid an area and beign able to turn off the stalls would be a nice touch.

ExELFine - Heavens Tear

That's pretty funny, 3 first replies out of 4 are from Sanctuary users. I'm addressing an issue with Heaven's Tear, not Sanctuary so, unless you have the same problem, I think your replies are irrelevant.

But if you have the same problem, then I guess your replies can be considered. That being said, this is the Suggestion box, isn't it? So to react to a suggestion by simply stating it's not going to happen is pretty illogic.

Instead of complaining, I'm presenting the problem with a possible solution. At any given moment when I'm online, the most recurrent complain from players is: "mega-lag" in all its versions/expressions and the second recurrent complain is "i got dc'ed". Personally, since the arrival of genies and nienbeasts -- from the same update -- the lag is horrendous.

One solution could be related to servers, either split them or make them bigger, but I'm a gamer, not a technician, so I'm not touching this.

Instead of denying either the problem or the good-will of the PWI staff, why not be creative and find solutions they may be willing to try?

IceJazmin replied:

Well, you could make it easier to handle. For example, no fairies, no genies, no pets, no mounts, no flying. You would walk around looking like you had no gear on (so the default look you get when you have no gear on but show armor selected). That would eliminate the need for the server to calculate your stats, and create any representations of players except the default ones, and the catshops. Should work pretty well.

That also would be a terrific start to reduce the lag, I second your idea.

About the catshops though, it is a real problem with the ones standing on the NPCs heads and, although this has been discussed before, nothing is being done about it. So why not relocate the catshops -- all of them -- in one special section of either the game, or of Archosaur.

Or even, above Archosaur? Well, any idea is welcome.

Elenacostel - Heavens Tear

I suggest an AoE boss that appears in West Archosaur (and only there) that goes and wipes out the catshops every few hours.

In order to complete your crazy stone, you either need to dodge the boss, or defeat it. With so many high levels on the server, that should not be a big deal.

Briegg - Sanctuary

Thelegion - Lost City wrote: »

That place exits and the name is Auction House the problem is the people no like use ... cauze they cant SPAM Like hell in Tarde chat or World chat b:angryb:victory

that'd be even worse
i mean there's already a crowd around the AH npc's

can you imagine if that was the only place anyone ever bought anything from?

there'd be soo many ppl in one spot you wouldn't even be able to tell what was what

Sellen - Harshlands

I can not stand west arch, its so crowded i avoid it at all cost just as you said, idk about some people but my computer freezes over that place and its usually quite nice performance on this game (surpassing requirements) but i think the game needs a "CASH SHOP LIMIT" try and make a shop and you get a (sorry you idiot there is no room for ANOTHER mat shop get lost) message i think THAT would really help out! they can say it nicer if they want but thats the main idea, once the game was updated and all chars where kicked off i went back on and within 10 minuts west was at like 100 stores this just isnt working and something clearly has to happen, maybe allow pking there? that'll stop them in desperate times...

Budika - Sanctuary

Well I guess alot of people are playing on subpar systems... West arch is only a bit laggy for my PC. And it's 3 years old. Worst part is the somewhat frequent Server Error relog when turning in the WQ. As far as Lag reduction I think if the program just loaded what was in the shop when you selected the shop there would be no lag from Cat Shops... (because only 2 designs male orange, female pink) So, it's not like the graphics are killing ya. It could be the people buying from the shops in their multitude of different clothing/armor/mounts etc.

For those with not so good systems (integrated video/audio) Cntrl F9 should work for you just turn it off when you leave the city.

As far as a designated catshop location I'd like that... (it's annoying to see them on top of or surrounding Quest NPC's) sure the Shift left click still works to target them but it's sometimes difficult to locate them.

@ ExELFine

Neither me nor my sister play on subpar systems. Our IP provider is hi-tech and our PCs run on Win XP (P4, intel, etc)

LOL like I said Sub-par system. A non-subpar would be a Core2duo, amd-x2, any tri/quad core system... As for XP well if you didn't have to install it over Vista that shows you have a pretty old system or a custom one and you didn't describe your Video/Audio cards... Your computer likely cannot play Oblivion at max settings with decent fps and that game is 3 years old (2006)

ExELFine - Heavens Tear

Elenacostel - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I suggest an AoE boss that appears in West Archosaur (and only there) that goes and wipes out the catshops every few hours.

That'd be cool

Kushua replied:

I'd settle for an option to Disable rendering the cat stalls. I mean there are times when I Actually do wade thru the forrest of kittys hunting an item but most of the time I just avoid them. not having to avoid an area and beign able to turn off the stalls would be a nice touch.

Very intelligent. (ATM, even turning the catshops' description off, it still lags.)

Budika replied:

Well I guess alot of people are playing on subpar systems...

Neither me nor my sister play on subpar systems. Our IP provider is hi-tech and our PCs run on Win XP (P4, intel, etc) (not vista either). Seems the lag problem happens with just everyone, even with best performance turned on, and the lit icons at the top.

As for the catshops standing on an NPC, sure, the shift key is great but oftentimes the problem is, esp with the CS questgivers, it's hard to tell if they have an orange flag over their heads. If players want to stand atop of the npc's head, why don't they just build a totem and stand each one on top of another. At least, that would be funny. And, oh yes did I mention, I never buy from those.

Sellen replied:

... maybe allow pking there?

Now, that's another good idea

Note that I have nothing against catshops, on the contrary. I like to encourage them and I find lots of useful things there. I like the idea of herbs catshops, for instance, gathering around the apo, or the pet-dealing shops around the pet-trainer, and so on, this is quite intelligent. It also takes a lot of patience to put one's char vendoring instead of playing, I understand all this.

The problem is with the system, and therefore, should be easy to fix, or to find a solution. Keep ideas coming in, it's very interesting

FuRiouS_One - Sanctuary

This is a problem on all servers and all MMOs as when you have a few hundred people in one area it will always result in major lag to the server itself as well as the user.

Only way they can fix this issue is to minimize the amount of players in one area. Few things they can do to achieve this.

Remove cat shops all together, but cat shops is and has been a part of the game from my understanding (im new to this game).

Limit the idle time a player can be logged into the game, forcing a player to log off if idled x number of minutes/hours. id say 1 to 2 hour idle time is sufficient for afk cat shops. This will prevent many many players from leaving there toon over night while they sleep just to sell but yet not prevent players that run 2 PCs 1 for cat shop and 1 for playing.

Like above mentioned force dedicated places to set up cat shops but then again thisis part of the game and dont think this will happen, also if this is done you will then experience major lag in these dedicated places and more complaints will continue.

If any of these or other ideas are used one thing that needs addressing is the auction house as there are lots of items unable to be sold in the auction house forcing people to use the cat shop to sale said items. Everything in game that is tradable needs to be placed in the auction house search engine.

Wierdonedemo - Sanctuary

Hey,here an idea:why do you have to see al people while trying to buy something,to reduce lag on that island there shouldn`t be players at all,i mean like a singleplayer area or something

Sirelk - Lost City

I started a thread in this forum about a new market system like the one that's in another mmo game (Atlantica Online). It's a menu that you can access from any city and put your stuff up for sale for a buy it now price only (it's not an auction system). The same menu is access by people who are hunting for something, and you can search through it to find what you want and see what prices things are going for.

It's an excellent system and one of the best mmo based market systems I ever encountered. They still have player shops and an auction house for people who had special items or whatever, but most people just used the market system.

This would rock for PW because it's such a headache to find what you want to buy (you have a million cat shops with all these obscure sale titles) and the whole system is a waste of energy (waste of cpu cycles and network congestion for PW servers, and waste of electricity for players who leave their computers on 24/7).

I am in love with PW right now, but a system other than the cat shops would rock. The lag isn't a factor for me on my dual core pc, but I still use the shortcut to lower the graphics settings in town at times.

I hope they come up with a solution similar to what I have described. It will definitely help the game out (money-wise too).

Glendir - Heavens Tear

You know Ive recently started hating the catshops as well but yes I still sit as one while at work or asleep but i try and sit out of the way as the others. Now on to my idea.....

1. Why not set the catshops up like the auction house with a slight diffrence player goes to npc clicks view shops option. A list of shops would then apear in the window(like auction house but recent shops added in the last say hour).

2. Apon selecting a shop (BOBO'S Shop) the players bank/shop (whch ever is favored) will open up with selected items for sale. Now of course if a value is set for the item wanting to be sold it will be displayed in the shop. Example: SoF value is set to 0, General summers magic sword value is set to 9000, and elemental framents value is set to 5k. The lis would then only show the sword and the elemental fragments, the SoF's will remain hidden.

My two cents

Sky_queen - Heavens Tear

You are so right they have to do something. cAN'T TELL YOU THE NUMBER OF TIMES I WAS DISCONNECTED JUST FROM BEING IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THE KITTIES. its worst now with the genies and lets face it you don't need your genie when you are in catshop mode.

jamezneckbroke

isnt there a way that they could make it so you could turn off catshops so that they would be invisible to you it lags so bad and gets in the way of npcs and visibility

FuRiouS_One - Sanctuary

jamezneckbroke wrote: »

isnt there a way that they could make it so you could turn off catshops so that they would be invisible to you it lags so bad and gets in the way of npcs and visibility

That wouldnt solve the issue either, where there are 100s of cat shops there will be 100s more non cat shops (buyers), so you will still run into tones of lag just by having all the buyers around with all the genies and fancy mounts having to be rendered.

I logged in west arch soon as the servers came back up and there was maybe 10 cat shops running but yet over 200 people standing around (not in cat shop form) maybe setting up cat shops and the lag was still horrid.

Like i said above the lag will always be there if everyone chooses to gather in 1 area cat shops or no cat shops, but yes the cat shops will ad to the annoyance.

I think the best sollusion will be ading an idle timer to every character forcing them to log off after idling for more then 1 or 2 hours.

Slivaf - Dreamweaver

Someone mention the auction house as being a place to sell things without lag... well there is also the fact that it costs money to put your stuff in there, and even then it may not sell. (having to pay money to put something in the AH and it not even sells, and only getting a fraction of the price back, makes the AH a unpopular place to sell your items.

Someone also mentioned not wanting to fly to this island, but what if it was in a different dimension... or perhaps we could use our home teleport (much like if a faction own a piece of land) that would teleport us to the 'island.'

So aye I would really like to see this happen, west arch is a real bad place to go due to the lag, its like the only place I lagged. (past tense atm) (Power supply went out) The cat shops are taking over west arch, it really does make it somewhat hard to talk to npcs. (even with the shift + click.)

EDIT: I just read through all of the posts, and came across the mentioned 'lag is still there if too many people are in one spot' comment. If that really is the case, then perhaps this solution is better suited for actually fixing the problem?

What if the shops all had there own special room(s), and there would be multiple rooms, each having a limit of cat shops, and a limit of how many people could visit. Like 100 cat shops per room, and 50 visiters allowed to visit/buy at a time, and each buyer would have 30 minutes per room to look at the cat shops, with like a 5 minute cooldown. The rooms could be connected to each other. (To make sure everyone has a chance to get into each 'room' to find things they are looking for, could even make each room have a specific thing people are selling.) (Weapons in one room, armor in another, Items in another, but of course there could be more then one room assigned for the cat shops.)

Basically it would be kind of like a flea market.

Yamiino - Heavens Tear

Too many shops is not good for someone's crappy computer q.q
And I'm talking of mine, yet i know many people has worse computer specs so... either remove the cat shops and leave the auction house without the charges OR make a different map like stated on the post above this.

Rez - Dreamweaver

Simple really. All they need to do is set up an island of some sort, make it were you can port in and out form a NPC in all major cities, and bind personal market were you can only open a shop in that area.

This is one way of treating the issue.

Also, just like in Ether Saga have more Realms. 4 to 5 realms including a trading realm would be sufitient.

Since Ether Saga and PWI are similar in setup the realm idea might be more easy to accomplish.

ExELFine - Heavens Tear

I really like the idea of installing a flea market inside buildings of Archo, that would simplify everything and make it more interesting than an island, whether on land or floating.

Keep them ideas sparking, tks everyone

Revolte - Heavens Tear

A shopping island would not only be nice to look at it would also be enjoyable to search through. I support this idea 100%

Xander_Cage - Heavens Tear

yes PWE defintely need to address this problem coz its getting out of control the lag is putting a lot of ppl off playing this game... please do something about it PWE

eldnar

my idea for fixing the problem is to add a designated NPC... when you go into shop mode all of your stuff is simply just listed there like the AH. Just in plain text what is being sold will appear... but there is also a side effect to this. Less sales of boutique items which is not good for the game. I mean if you could find everything easily this way... haha

Of course my second suggestion would solve this issue too... sale armor and other things in the boutique :P

FuRiouS_One - Sanctuary

After doing some testing i come to find out that this issue is with dual and quad core processors. This game is only using 1 core if you have a dual or quad so if your dual or quad processor is low such as 2.4 gig or lower then the game is only utilizing have of that which is not enough processing power to keep up with 400+players in one area.

I have tested this on my laptop that has a 2.6 P4 single core and a 5200FX 32meg video card dedicated and the game runs perfect even in arch getting up to 20-30 fps with 400+players standing around. Now if i should run into "west" arch on my desktop (normal rig) running a AMD athalon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3 gig and a 9800GT it crawls to a halt at 5-FPS cause it is only using 1 of my 2 cores which is only utilizing about 1.1 gig processing speed.

The only way i see this being addressed is the devs reconfiguring the game to utilize multi core processors like many other older MMOs out there (eq1 and 2, WoW and such). Or going about other methods such as limiting idle times, creating dedicated places for cat shops and such.

SolomonSmash - Heavens Tear

Slivaf - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Someone mention the auction house as being a place to sell things without lag... well there is also the fact that it costs money to put your stuff in there, and even then it may not sell. (having to pay money to put something in the AH and it not even sells, and only getting a fraction of the price back, makes the AH a unpopular place to sell your items.

In my opinion, the Auction House system tends to ensure that only serious business is transacted there. Everything I ever place in auction sells, although in some cases not the first time I place it in. Why? Because I carefully consider the value of the item to account for fairness to myself and the buyer. I do that because, as you said, I don't want to waste money on fees with no return on my investment. The Catshop system has no such "check" in place to encourage people to use them responsibly, which results in frivolous and absurd amounts of the things cluttering the system. I also believe it is common knowledge that many people have separate accounts for the sole purpose of maintaining 24-hour, 7-days-a-week Catshops. These do take up unnecessary server resources in my opinion. I feel that if there were some sort of check-and-balance system in place for operating a Catshop, it would address the issue quite nicely.

Possible solutions:

1.) A time-based fee is required to open/maintain a catshop.

2.) A time limit on operating a catshop; system auto-reverts you to normal character when time expires. (Less effective for the AFKers, but a start.)

3.) As mentioned before, a separate instance where one would be allowed to set up shop.


There is ONE thing I do love about catshops...... Typosb:victory
Late night, you're nodding off, getting ready to set up shop and call it a night, and in your haste/disorientation you forget a crucial zero or two. Then, I come along and what's this? A million-coin item for 100k? Don't mind if I do b:laugh

Serengetti - Sanctuary

Briegg - Sanctuary wrote: »

that'd be even worse
i mean there's already a crowd around the AH npc's

can you imagine if that was the only place anyone ever bought anything from?

there'd be soo many ppl in one spot you wouldn't even be able to tell what was what

yeah it would be like 1000 x valentine garden male quest (you girls had it easy)b:shocked

Balisan - Dreamweaver

That was a cool idea you had there. Some details on how it could be better suited to contribute to the reduction of lag:

1. You could have a teleport skill that took you to the island and back to where you were

2. There could be a menu that opens up the already-made auction house, similar to the boutique