Mad King's Clock Tower Timer

[Bella Rikka.2387]

I have put in support tickets at least a dozen times on this over the past two years. Maybe no one else cares about it enough to ask for changes, but as someone who actually enjoys jumping puzzles, I must speak up here.

 

Please take the timer away for the Mad King's Clock Tower. Or at least make it a longer game, if you must, like the Wintersday one, and allow those who fall to immediately try again. It is unfair and frustrating to the point of wanting to rage quit to have to sit there and wait for 2 minutes after hitting an invisible wall or failing because of desync; or even just failing because you're trying to learn the jumping puzzle. My first year, I didn't bother to try to complete the clock tower after the first few tries because my horrible internet at the time made it impossible. Last year, when I finally had better internet, and finally completed the jumping puzzle, I was still left not actually enjoying it because of this ridiculous timer. Especially after you get the chest at the top, and the last 3 minutes of the 'game.' A majority of the time spent on this JP waiting for a timer is asinine.

 

Please, Arenanet, fix this! You have already shown us that you can do it better with Wintersday! 😊

[Fueki.4753]

Immediate retries might be impossible due to the rising green goo.

[Wild.1705]

I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I think there may be multiple "instances" in the same true instance. When I make it to the top, the other players have often alredy started. After I get the chest they are not there, even after falling off near the top they have sometimes alredy started jumping. But that shouldn't be possible because as you say, the spirit vortex should be covering the bottom.

The wiki says it restarts after 90 seconds so idk.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Wild.1705
I can't spell

[SnackParty.3178]

Messing up usually isn't long wait time, but yeah, need a fix for people who make it to the top. Maybe just have auto loot bags then port right to puzzle from top.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

On 10/28/2022 at 10:19 AM, Fueki.4753 said:

Immediate retries might be impossible due to the rising green goo.

Exactly. The system of the clocktower prevents immediate retries because everyone under the "green goo" gets sent back.

I imagine the best that can be done is shortening the timer further if everyone falls - currently it goes from 90 seconds (full cycle) to about 15 seconds. They could shorten that to, say, 5 seconds.

 

Similarly, due to the clocktower being made into an activity (done in order to prevent skill abuse that was present in 2012), a timer on the instance is probably required. But a longer timer would be appreciated.

On 10/28/2022 at 3:16 PM, Wild.1705 said:

I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I think there may be multiple "instances" in the same true instance. When I make it to the top, the other players have often alredy started. After I get the chest they are not there, even after falling off near the top they have sometimes alredy started jumping. But that shouldn't be possible because as you say, the spirit vortex should be covering the bottom.

The wiki says it restarts after 90 seconds so idk.

The players get sent into the next round immediately after you end inside the belfry. The 90 seconds is basically up when the window into it closes. Takes too long to load, loot the chest and load again into the lobby to make it. Might make it if you skip the chest though?

Edited November 4, 2022 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Luthan.5236]

What "skill abuse"? Don't see how you could abuse anything if they made it without timer. But I guess they wanted it like an activity so you can also have the leaderboards - and the jp at wintersday has this as well.

I do not think they should make it easier for people that reached the top ... to immediately restart. They can wait a bit and relax - and for the achievement you do not need to do it that often. Not much of a loss. Except if you want to farm it. (Which it is not meant for.)

If they made it so the "green goo" would not cover everything below itself ... then it might work to let other start early. (Only if falling down from above ... and then touching it - should resend you to the start. That might be harder to implement than it sounds though. (There ... I can see abuse already and people figuring out ways to avoid the green goo at all - if it does not cover the whole area anymore.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

42 minutes ago, Luthan.5236 said:

What "skill abuse"? Don't see how you could abuse anything if they made it without timer.

Two different matters there.

Back in 2012, players were allied and had access to traits (and skills in the lobby) which allowed them to spam AoE swiftness that threw other players off. Thus skill abuse. This was fixed in 2013 by using the activity system to lock all skills and traits entirely, and turn players into enemies so you can't ally-boon them. The instance timer is a requirement of the activity / pvp arena map format by all indication.
Basically the instance timer is a result of fixing the skill abuse issue.

The timer for the green goo was always there and is a structure required for the format and challenge of the JP, and that structure requires the 90-second timer.

45 minutes ago, Luthan.5236 said:

If they made it so the "green goo" would not cover everything below itself ... then it might work to let other start early. (Only if falling down from above ... and then touching it - should resend you to the start. That might be harder to implement than it sounds though. (There ... I can see abuse already and people figuring out ways to avoid the green goo at all - if it does not cover the whole area anymore.

The issue is that latency issues could basically mean people can fall through the goop into lower platforms, or even fall all the way to the bottom. Thus they would fail without being sent to the lobby if the send back wasn't "everything under this line that rises incrementally" but "from here to there that rises incrementally".

[Luthan.5236]

Oh I see. Thanks for explaining this. The thing with the traits makes sense. Though activities also can have allied players ... and it should be possible to change players to enemies even without the activity system. Swiftness applied before (in the lobby) could have easily been cleared upon entering the tower. I guess they then just opted for the activity system cause it was easier and automatically came with this stuff - without them having to manually adjust too much.