Spire timers

[Faheuc]

Have any of you sat at the kos spires waiting to be ported up, and kept wondering why that last minute on the timer seemed to take so much longer than the other 5? Well I did, so one time i decided to time it with my watch. It turns out the countdown for minutes 3 and 2 (I got there a bit before the 3rd minute announcement) take 45 seconds each... and the last minute does in fact take two minutes. Yup, I was bored.

[Kaleyen]

Haha, little fun facts!

[DoomKat]

*bonk* Wizzies.... *eyeroll*

[Faheuc]

<cite>DoomKat wrote:</cite><blockquote>*bonk* Wizzies.... *eyeroll* </blockquote> GAH! I am being followed!

[Seagoat]

Well, they do say "approximately"...LOL.  I <i>knew</i> that last minute always felt like it dragged on forever!

[SteelPiston]

<cite>Faheuc wrote:</cite><blockquote>Have any of you sat at the kos spires waiting to be ported up, and kept wondering why that last minute on the timer seemed to take so much longer than the other 5? Well I did, so one time i decided to time it with my watch. It turns out the countdown for minutes 3 and 2 (I got there a bit before the 3rd minute announcement) take 45 seconds each... and the last minute does in fact take two minutes. Yup, I was bored.</blockquote><p>I don't know what's worse; the spires or that slow boat to Faydwer. For the second part of your homework, please tell us which takes longer. The spires or the boat. I put my money on the boat.</p><p>I guess I'm just unlucky. I always seeem to get to a spire with 4-5 minutes to go or see the boat sailing into the distance when I arrive at TS docks. I've contemplated making a swim for the boat. Is this even possible? </p>

[Geothe]

<p>"guess I'm just unlucky. I always seeem to get to a spire with 4-5 minutes to go or see the boat sailing into the distance when I arrive a TS docks. I've contemplated making a swim for the boat. Is this even possible"</p><p> If you see the boat just leaving the TS docs... zone over to Nek real quick.  That boat should be leaving about a minute-ish after the TS boat departs <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  (and the Nek boat has a more direct route to the BB docs than the TS boat as well. hehe)</p>

[bubbaj6]

I was thinking this weekend, how cool it would be if each minute/stage had a different particle effect. For instance: First minute, after having just ported a group up, it would look cold and lifeless. Second minute, the swirlies (technical term) would begin to appear. Third minute, that shaft of light would encase the portal. Fourth minute, swirlies began to get more "angry". That way we would know how long of a wait we had upon approaching the spires. (and all these graphics are already in the game) <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Hellswrath]

<cite>SteelPiston wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Faheuc wrote:</cite><blockquote>Have any of you sat at the kos spires waiting to be ported up, and kept wondering why that last minute on the timer seemed to take so much longer than the other 5? Well I did, so one time i decided to time it with my watch. It turns out the countdown for minutes 3 and 2 (I got there a bit before the 3rd minute announcement) take 45 seconds each... and the last minute does in fact take two minutes. Yup, I was bored.</blockquote><p>I don't know what's worse; the spires or that slow boat to Faydwer. For the second part of your homework, please tell us which takes longer. The spires or the boat. I put my money on the boat.</p><p>I guess I'm just unlucky. I always seeem to get to a spire with 4-5 minutes to go or see the boat sailing into the distance when I arrive at TS docks. I've contemplated making a swim for the boat. Is this even possible? </p></blockquote><p> Don't worry, you wizzy haters.  You won't find any wizzies or locks counting the time it takes the boat to get there.....we'll just port ourselves there.  <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[interstellarmatter]

<p>All I know is that back when I used to hit KoS all the time, the spire gave me enough time to nuke my tv dinner before joining my group.</p>

[Looker1010]

<p>I seem to remember reading somewhere that SOE believed the enforced waits would foster conversation and community involvement. All I see is stoney silence as aggravated people do nothing waiting to get to where they can play. There are too many time sinks in this game. </p><p>Before those of you who LOVE standing around line up to throw brickbats at me and talk fondly of the long, long, long boat rides through the ocean of tears in EQ1, please remember that not all of us want nor enjoy those long waits.</p>

[Isisalthea]

I like to throw snowballs at the spire attendants, that hurries them up.  lol <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Elizabette]

I prefer to have random senseless one sided conversations with the attendants. Does the Family Guy Episode where Chris is int he car with the dummies and is screaming at them ring a bell? I have seen some Guides out on the docks and when I do I make sure to give them a run for their money. Gotta keep it interesting!

[Thrashercat]

You know its funny, once I fell off the boat and I tried to make it back to it, thinking, against hope it would pick me up.....no such luck, so making a break for the boat is a no-go<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Thicket Tundrabog]

I once posted something about spire timers. I remember that it actually got a response from Moorgard. I think the title was "SOE Uses Psychology". It went something like this. How do make a long wait seem like a shorter wait? It's easy... you use psychology. You come to the spires and get the message that it's 4 minutes until port time. You think... 'oh man, this is gonna take forever'. 45 seconds go by and you get a message that says 3 minutes until port time. 45 seconds later the message is 2 minutes until port. 45 seconds later it's 1 minute until port. You feel pretty good because the wait wasn't that long. Unfortunately the last minute takes 120 seconds, but you don't feel so bad because you know it's not that long until you port out. Psychology. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Catsy]

Actually, if you manage to get yourself in the water right in front of the boat's path, it /will/ pick you up when it "runs you over". I've watched a friend of mine do this several times. Note: he plays a fae, so not sure if it's something that only works with glide, but it's worth testing.

[Faheuc]

Sotanyavejin@Guk wrote: <blockquote>Actually, if you manage to get yourself in the water right in front of the boat's path, it /will/ pick you up when it "runs you over". I've watched a friend of mine do this several times. Note: he plays a fae, so not sure if it's something that only works with glide, but it's worth testing. </blockquote> I have done this as well.

[Grimdeath]

You know, I always thought it was the case that the last minute took much longer than the other prior minutes of the countdown to use the spires. In fact, the last minute I essentially treat at 50 seconds as at 10sec to go, we get a message about teleportation in 10 seconds. Well, now we know for sure - the last "minute" is in fact two... I don't mind waiting for the spires or the boats to EoF however what does [Removed for Content] me off is when you are running/flying on carpet/riding horsey etc to the spires/boat, and you are just about to get there and then you see either the players in front of you disappear or the boat leaves... Now that is a major annoyance. I guess at least with the boats, you can quickly jump to TS/Nek (i.e. OTHER zone) to see if the boat is there...