A Queue for When the Zone is Full

[TheZag]

  Certain zones are prone to becoming full during specific times of the day.  Specifically the Hive during a Hamidon raid and Rikti War Zone during a Mothership Raid.  Once a zone is full,  you are given a popup showing that it is full with an option of entering a second instance of the zone.... or 3rd or 4th or however many your server has managed to fill plus 1.  But when you are trying to join a raid you don't want to enter those other instances,  you want to enter the one that your raid is in.  So you stay at the entrance and move back and forth to keep getting a refreshed popup while you wait for a space to open up in the hive or keep clicking the portal to check the rikti war zone.  This works great if you are the only person but sometimes you are the only person for 10-15 minutes and then several people start to show up.  The first person to attempt to zone in when a space opens is the person that is allowed in.  Often the person that was waiting the longest doesn't make it in when only a space or 2 open up.

 

I suggest adding a 'Enter Queue' button for zones that are full.  When a space opens in the selected zone,  the player with the longest queue time gets a popup that allows them to enter the zone without having the space taken by someone lucky enough to have just shown up at just the right moment.  If the player ignores or declines, the now new highest que time gets the popup with an offer to join the zone.  This shouldnt be an afk space saver though and there could be more players waiting so I'm thinking the popup should only last 10-15 seconds.  Full zones should still discourage players from being afk and the full zone queue should reflect that as well.

 

This could also help for players who don't go to an event because they feel they cant get in anyway.  Your turn will come in the order you arrived and not to the player that happened to cross the loading zone at the right time.

 

A small display showing how many players are in que would be good as well so you know how many people are in front of you since you wont have to stand in the doorway while waiting for your space to open.  You could move around the zone and battle some enemies or grab some explore badges while you wait.  

 

 

 

 

[Oklahoman]

I think it's a great idea. But I also wonder if bumping the zone caps to, say, 58 wouldn't be easier and take care of the majority of the issues we are seeing. At one point bumping the cap up was an option, but I haven't seen much discussion of that recently. Worst case scenario is you have a Hami or an MSR with a full league plus a 10 person league. I'd love for us to just give that a month long trial and see what happens.

[TheZag]

For the specific reason that i decided to make the suggestion:  we were forming up a hami raid and were at 40-something members.  Someone mentioned that they had a first time hami raider coming and i looked at the league and we were at 45 members.  By the time the new person made it over the zone was totally full.  I said i would step out so they could join.  I zoned back to eden and i see the guy still hopelessly trying to get into the hive.  Someone else made it in when I zoned out.  Maybe they were waiting longer or maybe not.  Then 1 more person zoned out and the new guy was able to make it in.  And a few seconds later another person showed up so the new guy possibly only made it in by a few seconds.

 

New players especially may not know the 'process' to get in to a full zone to join a raid.  Im sure after a few failed tries the person would likely give up,  possibly to never try again if they feel they wont make it into the zone anyway.  Im hoping for something that lets players know that getting into a full zone isnt hopeless or left to chance.   

[SeraphimKensai]

Although I am not opposed to a zone queue I imagine there would need to be stipulations such as actively at the gate waiting as opposed to doing something like going street sweeping while killing the time or going to different zone or mission while waiting for the queue.

 

That said I still think Hamidon raids should have the option to be instanced from LFG. That would allow a group to do it on their own terms, whether as a supergroup event, or some kind of strategy deployment without the risk of unknown factors.