Updated OP 12/29/2012: Please Add a 'Change Instance' Button for Towns. Your Thoughts?

(Slightly Updated OP Text)

Tired of those moments where you always have to go outside to a Waypoint and CTRL + Click towns to make a new instance or join an already-existing instance of a town? Wouldn't doing away with walking distances you go through in towns (notably Act 3) to get to a Waypoint just to change town instances be much better?

Here is the fix:



The image won't fit here, but here is what it all looks like FULL-SCREEN:

http://imageshack.com/a/img585/1774/1xtn.png

P.S. For those who may say, "OMG, but all this is going to do is make the game easier!"

That's right, but who says you have to use the feature? If you choose to CNTRL + CLICK towns or walk those long distances, that's your business. For those who would choose to do otherwise, that's their business . . . Either way, it's not going to affect other players or you just because one player uses the 'Change Instance' Button.



Thank You all for taking a look at this.
HeavyMetalGear

Better solution - make everyone join the same instance in towns.

Seriously, there is almost always only 1 town instance with any people in it - the others are just empty or have 1 player max. What is even the point of town instances? If towns were over-crowed, that would be good - it would make it seem like there were lots of players, and also it would make bots really obvious and easy to report.

OP's idea is good, but why make Town instance-management better, when there's no use for town instances in the first place.

(Maybe you should have some 'max players' thing where it creates a new instance if there's more than 100 players in town, or something, so that people can't just DDoS the town instance with lots of bots.)

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

Better solution - make everyone join the same instance in towns.

Seriously, there is almost always only 1 town instance with any people in it - the others are just empty or have 1 player max. What is even the point of town instances? If towns were over-crowed, that would be good - it would make it seem like there were lots of players, and also it would make bots really obvious and easy to report.

OP's idea is good, but why make Town instance-management better, when there's no use for town instances in the first place.

(Maybe you should have some 'max players' thing where it creates a new instance if there's more than 100 players in town, or something, so that people can't just DDoS the town instance with lots of bots.)

You are entirely wrong in that instances are of no use. Try telling the developers of the MMORPG Guild Wars (and other games) that instances are of no use. *Laughs* Except in Guild Wars, instances are referred to as 'Districts.'

Instances are good and have their purpose. Must I explain why? Here goes:

1. Town instances are good because when too many players populate a single instance (especially towns) it can lag players quite bad. Sure, if PoE's servers were much better, this wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately, GGG is a small team of Developers (so is the company) and better servers will require more income through Microtransactions.

Even if PoE's servers were the best, let's ALSO not forget that PoE's towns are quite small to fit 100+ players and for there to be no issues. Your suggestion is bad in that everyone should be able to join the same instance.

For your idea to be put in place it would 1. require better servers and 2. require the Art Developers to expand the size of all towns.

I cannot for the life of me understand why you think, for example, putting 100+ players in a single town is a better idea in a place like Act 2's town. It would be terrible!

2. Town instances are good because if it's just you and someone else wanting to meet up for a trade, it will be easier to find each other / see each other in town.

3. Town instances are good because, sometimes, players like me don't like to deal with Local Chat being spammed with messages. Local Chat cannot be hidden like Global Chat.

Therefore, the alternative is to create or join your own instance of a town when you want to be in a completely quiet place.

Conclusively, given all these reasons on what makes town instance great and necessary, this is the reason why I suggest to GGG to make town instance management easier.

@OP

So, when you select 'Enter' on an instance while in town, would your character just disappear from the original instance and re-appear in the same location within the selected instance? If so, that seems odd to me.

I think that players should simply be able to go to a waypoint in town and CTRL + CLICK the town on the 'World' panel to open the 'Instance' panel, without having to leave town first to access the Instance Panel.

A player shouldn't have to exit a town, select a waypoint, and CTRL + CLICK on the town they just exited to be able to change instances. This is kind of silly. The same goes for the Eternal Laboratory. It is so annoying that I have to exit the Lab to change instances. I should be able to use the waypoint to travel into a new instance or, better yet, simply be able to place a new map into the Map Device and run it without having to change instances in the first place.

My thoughts.

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

1. Town instances are good because when too many players populate a single instance (especially towns) it can lag people pretty bad. Sure, if PoE's servers were much better, this wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately, GGG is a small team of Developers (so is the company) and better servers will require more income through Microtransactions.

This is erroneous. There would be the same number of connections, and less instances. Why would this require better servers?
Sure, lots of people on screen (just like lots of monsters) might lag individual computers, so maybe 100 is a bit high, but most computers could certainly handle a lot more than we currently see without much issue.

"

I cannot for the life of me understand why you think, for example, 100 people is a better idea in a place like Act 2's town. It would be terrible!

100 people would be fine, but I can understand why some people might disagree. So maybe I chose the wrong number. However, 20 people in one town is much better than 10 people in one instance, and then 10 instances with 1 person each, which is what we currently have.
At the very least, everyone should join the same default instance unless they deliberately choose to join a different one each time.

"

2. Town instances are good because if it's just you and someone else wanting to meet up for a trade, it will be easier to find each other / see each other in town.

This is wrong. It's annoying atm *because* there are different instances. That was the main point of the OP. If you want to meet someone for a trade, using my solution, just join their party via trade-chat, and then when you're in town, right click on their picture on the left of your screen.

"

3. Town instances are good because, sometimes, players like me don't like to deal with Local Chat being spammed with messages. Local Chat cannot be hidden like Global Chat.

Easy solution is to make local chat blockable. It should be anyway.

"

Perfect_Black wrote:

@OP

So, when you select 'Enter' on an instance while in town, would your character just disappear from the original instance and re-appear in the same location within the selected instance? If so, that seems odd to me.

How is that odd to you? Life Globes and Magic Globes are weird too and not very realistic if you want to get so technical about things.

Of course when you press the 'Change Instance' Button and select 'Enter' to go in a different instance of a town you enter the same area, except it's not really the same area in that there will be different people in the new town instance you go to, or no people at all.

"

Perfect_Black wrote:

I think that players should simply be able to go to a waypoint in town and CTRL + CLICK the town on the 'World' panel to open the 'Instance' panel, without having to leave town first to access the Instance Panel.

I thought about this too, however, my idea/alternative is quicker and much better, regardless if it's weird or not to you. Your character does the SAME thing doing a CTRL + CLICK on a town's dot on the map as you would just pressing the 'Change Instance' Button.

The 'Change Instance' Button idea is far faster than what you're putting on the table here.

"

Perfect_Black wrote:

A player shouldn't have to exit a town, select a waypoint, and CTRL + CLICK on the town they just exited to be able to change instances. This is kind of silly. The same goes for the Eternal Laboratory. It is so annoying that I have to exit the Lab to change instances. I should be able to use the waypoint to travel into a new instance or, better yet, simply be able to place a new map into the Map Device and run it without having to change instances in the first place.

You seem to read a half and not a whole, quite possibly including but not limited to, my OP. My solution to the currently poor instance management fixes what you point out. You just copied what I said in the introduction message of my OP. Of course it's silly! Sadly, so are your comments . . .

As far as the Eternal Laboratory goes, a 'Change Instance' Button can go in there too. It just makes it faster whether you're by the WP or not to change instances. Who CARES if it seems unrealistic or is weird. That's not even a viable argument whatsoever.

I can list at least 400-500 things in games that are weird, easily, but they're so widely accepted by gamers to the point where it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because avid gamers are accustomed to a wide variety of game mechanics.

P.S. I have come to the conclusion a great many people will do anything they can to scrutinize a good idea or tear it down because they didn't think of it first or whatever the issue is.

You give no solid enough reason(s) why (you're not the only one) this is a bad idea. All you said to support your disagreement(s), along with other things I quoted from you is, "That seems odd to me."

Maybe to you it is odd, or to other people that don't know good game mechanics very well, but not to people like me and other people who do know game mechanics very well.

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

This is erroneous. There would be the same number of connections, and less instances. Why would this require better servers?
Sure, lots of people on screen (just like lots of monsters) might lag individual computers, so maybe 100 is a bit high, but most computers could certainly handle a lot more than we currently see without much issue.

We can go back and forth all day . . .

The better the server(s), the more people it could fit into one instance. Depending on the server(s), they only fit so much at a time. To put things in perspective, even IF PoE's servers can fit 500 people at a time and the towns were big enough, that still doesn't make it a brilliant idea.

Other games have tried their BEST to make it possible for everyone being in the same instance and for there to be no issues, including, but not limited to, lag. It doesn't work so well! If it did, every major PC title that ever was thus far would adapt to your idea, but your idea has been widely thrown out the window because it's no good.

Not only that, your argument for no instances is still moot because whether it's 20-100 people in an instance at once, it doesn't matter! PoE will still have to have instances because a single town will be too overpopulated when the server reaches its limit, be it a purposely set limit or a default limit.

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

100 people would be fine, but I can understand why some people might disagree. So maybe I chose the wrong number. However, 20 people in one town is much better than 10 people in one instance, and then 10 instances with 1 person each, which is what we currently have.

At the very least, everyone should join the same default instance unless they deliberately choose to join a different one each time.

There are not ifs, ands or buts. It's either fine or not fine. Technically, it is not fine. You're going on the notion as if every average PoE player has real good computers and can handle just about everything and anything. Even if that were the case, lag is still an issue no matter how good your computer is.

There are also those players (including myself) who deliberately do create their own town instance for reasons already stated whether you agree with them or not.

There is hardly ever more than a page of town instances anyway in the 'Instance Manager' Window. What does it take, 3 (4+ seconds if you're slow) to pick and choose an instance you want to join? That's really not a big deal. It's not like your mouse's Scroll Wheel is having to go through 20 pages worth on the Scroll Bar.

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

This is wrong. It's annoying atm *because* there are different instances. That was the main point of the OP. If you want to meet someone for a trade, using my solution, just join their party via trade-chat, and then when you're in town, right click on their picture on the left of your screen.

Everything logical, it seems, is wrong to you. I do not compute with yours because it's not very logical, for the most part.

Your second sentence in the above quoted is moot. So what if there are lots of instances? There needs to be because player separation between town instances mitigates lag. I have already seen what the woes of lag with 50-100+ people (even in big towns in other game) can do. More than not, it can become so debilitating that you're forced to set your graphic settings, etc. to a ridiculous LOW in order to handle the overload. This may not apply to everyone, but as said, even for people with great computers suffer too in some way, shape or form.

And I know it's easy to click on someone's Avatar to Trade them, however, I still like to see who I am trading and friends face-to-face, notably in a new instance.

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

Easy solution is to make local chat blockable. It should be anyway.

Yeah, easy solution. Now tell me where in PoE's current Chat Window a 'Hide' Button for the Local Chat can be placed without cluttering it? There is really no room at all.

On another note, there will also be some changes to PoE's Chat Window, so it will be even tougher to add more 'Hide' Buttons for other chats besides Global and Trade.

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

How is that odd to you? Life Globes and Magic Globes are weird too and not very realistic if you want to get so technical about things.

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

Of course when you press the 'Change Instance' Button and select 'Enter' to go in a different instance of a town you enter the same area, except it's not really the same area in that there will be different people in the new town instance you go to, or no people at all.

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

I thought about this too, however, my idea/alternative is quicker and much better, regardless if it's weird or not to you.

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

Your character does the SAME thing doing a CTRL + CLICK on a town's dot on the map as you would just pressing the 'Change Instance' Button

"

HeavyMetalGear wrote:

You seem to read a half and not a whole, quite possibly including but not limited to, my OP. My solution to the currently poor instance management fixes what you point out. You just copied what I said in the introduction message of my OP. Of course it's silly! Sadly, so are your comments . . .

As far as the Eternal Laboratory goes, a 'Change Instance' Button can go in there too. It just makes it faster whether you're by the WP or not to change instances. Who CARES if it seems unrealistic or is weird. That's not even a viable argument whatsoever.

HeavyMetalGear, I am not trying to attack your idea in any way. I am simply taking a critical look at your idea and playing Devil's advocate. Convince us that your idea is great, if you can, and accept critical feedback as relevant and useful.

"

There needs to be because player separation between town instances mitigates lag. I have already seen what the woes of lag with 50-100+ people (even in big towns in other game) can do.

Yes, I have played games like that too. Usually the excessive lag is because of all the data that is sent to your computer, or because it has to load individual pictures for each character. A solution is to not update the movements of other players in game so often, or, load all of the individual character customisations incrementally so it's not one big hit to your graphics card.

If it is true that having more than 10 or so players in a town causes lag to a significant proportion of PoE players, then sure, set the limit at 10. However, I think the limit could be much higher. I'm not trying to argue that lag is never a factor, just that the current system makes trading annoying. As you said, in the OP.

My main argument is that the default behaviour should be to join people into the 'main' instance wherever possible, so that most of the time, potential traders end up in the same place

"

I still like to see who I am trading and friends face-to-face, notably in a new instance.

I do too! Which is why I want them to be in the same instance as me with as little hassle as possible on my part.

"

"

dudiobugtron wrote:

Easy solution is to make local chat blockable. It should be anyway.

Yeah, easy solution. Now tell me where in PoE's current Chat Window a 'Hide' Button for the Local Chat can be placed without cluttering it? There is really no room at all.

On another note, there will also be some changes to PoE's Chat Window, so it will be even tougher to add more 'Hide' Buttons for other chats besides Global and Trade.

There are lots of places to put it, but you don't need a button for it. Just a chat command, like /mutelocal or something.

I had a similar thought concerning streamlining instance manager, but not concerning towns.

The only things I use Instance Manager for are to connect with party and looping a farming spot. It seems the Instance Manager could be simplified to remove the modal popup window without losing these behaviors. Unless there's some other usage for Instance Manager I'm not aware of.

Streamlined Instance Manager:
Ctrl+Click switches to party's instance (if you're not already in it), otherwise creates a new instance. No need for a window, except Cutthroat I guess.