| Pavlod | Дата: Пятница, 09.03.2012, 01:31 | Сообщение # 1 |
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| Instance Finder in Update 6
By: Leo "Ransroth" Zelevinsky
Hi all, Ransroth here! I’m a Game Systems Engineer working on LOTRO.
Instance Finder was a feature that was released in Update 5 and we’ve been busy making updates and improvements to it for Update 6. This diary will only cover the new features in Update 6, so please see the Update 5 Instance Finder Dev Diary if you’re looking for a more general overview.
Advanced Tab
The new “Advanced” Tab is where you can go to specify exactly the instances that you want to match for. In the screenshot above, this particular player wants to run any skirmish other than Siege of Gondamon or Trouble in Tuckborough.
You can use the Role selection buttons to select your desired roles, same as before. The buttons have been shrunk to give more room to the instance selection tree below.
The configuration buttons have a dual-function. They allow you to configure the encounters you are looking for, and also serve to filter the tree.
For example, the screenshot above shows a user interested in running a 3-man scaling instance. There are only 4 of these, and they have selected Library or School. Because “6” is not selected for size, none of the 6-man instances are shown.
Note that only encounters that you (and your fellowship, if you are in a fellowship) are eligible for will be displayed in the “Advanced” tab.
The four buttons allow you to expand/collapse the tree and select all/deselect all encounters. The select all/deselect all buttons operate only on the encounters selected by the configuration buttons above.
The “Search” box will show only encounters matching the string specified. Note that you can search by header text as well.
Note that if you were to press the “select all” button when the screen is configured as above, all skirmishes will be selected, not just offensive ones.
The rewards will change dynamically based on selections in the tree. In the example above, the player was eligible for 17 encounters given their configuration selection. They selected 16 of them, which qualifies them for the full bonus effect. Rewards will be discussed in far greater detail in a separate Dev Diary by Zombie_Columbus.
Simple Tab
Because you can now use the “Advanced” tab to fully configure your request, the “Simple” tab got simpler – all you have to do is pick your role and the kind of encounter you want. The system will queue you up for all eligible encounters of that type (any size, tier 1).
Specific Tab
One of our other goals was to merge the old “Instance Join” feature into Instance Finder, and we’ve done this through the “Specific” tab. This tab allows you to launch a specific encounter with your current group immediately. After you select an instance to join, you can configure its size, tier, and level at the top of the panel before clicking the “Launch Now” button.
One nice addition to the old “Instance Join” functionality is the “Search” box, which will allow you to find instances in the list easier than before.
Note that there may be some encounters in this list that you or your fellowship members aren’t eligible to do. Selecting these encounters will grey out the “Launch Now” button with an explanatory tooltip.
Accessing Instance Finder
There are now four customizable keyboard shortcuts for Instance Finder, one for each tab and one that just opens and closes the entire panel:
You can also use the Main Menu to access the various panels:
Anywhere in the game where “Instance Join” was previously used, Instance Finder will now be brought up with the “Specific” tab selected.
Fellowship Voting
In order to prevent abuses by the leader of fellowships put together by Instance Finder, leaders of such fellowships aren’t able to unilaterally dismiss players, change loot rules or change the quality threshold. In Update 6, we introduced a way for the whole fellowship to agree on these decisions via a vote.
Every player can now try to change the loot rules or quality threshold the usual way (by right-clicking on their portrait and selecting the appropriate context sensitive menu option)
Every other player in the fellowship will get a dialog popup, much like for a Ready Check:
If everyone else agrees, the vote passes and the loot rules (in this case) will change appropriately. If someone says no, or does nothing, then the vote fails and nothing happens.
A vote cannot be initiated too frequently, nor can it be initiated in combat.
You can also vote to dismiss another player, in which case everyone other than that player will be asked to vote.
Q&A
Q: Can you use Instance Finder to find a group for a raid?
A: You can use the “Specific” tab to run a raid with your current group. You cannot queue up and have Instance Finder find you a group for a raid. This is something that I’m hoping we can address in a future release.
Q: Can you be matched with players on other servers?
A: There are some significant technological challenges that have to be crossed before we can even start implementing this. It’s on the radar, but definitely not any time soon.
Q: Can you use Instance Finder to find a group to do a non-scaling, non-levelcap instance (such as Grand Stairs, or Carn Dum)?
A: You can use the “Specific” tab to run the specific instance you want with your current group. For Update 6, you won’t be able to use Instance Finder to find a group for these instances, but it’s also something that I’m hoping we’ll be able to address in a future update.
Q: Why is <particular encounter> not listed in the “Advanced” tab?
A: Likeliest scenario is that either you or your fellowship members aren’t eligible to run this encounter. Only encounters that everyone is eligible for are listed. If you are in the appropriate level range for an encounter, you should see it on the “Specific” tab, and there you can hover over it to see which of your fellowship members aren’t currently eligible to run it.
Closing Words
We hope you enjoy the new features in Instance Finder in Update 6! We are looking forward to reading over your comments in the feedback thread.
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