RE: January 2012 ToH Appreciation Thread
The starting GM is not the only thing the timer could have been attached to.
Had I not known this myself from past encounters (namely Forge having seen the script and mentioning it), I would have assumed it was attached to the NPC, as that is far more logical than attaching it to a player??in this case.
There are multiple ways to attach a timer, and this is the downside to this one.
As for calling Glyph an "idiot" for it, I will point you back to the rules. Particularly the one about player respect. This also covers GMs. We've punished players for keeping such language against people up, and should it continue here, that punishment will stem from here.
One prejudice us GMs have, especially us scripters, is that we generally assume things will work how we would do it.
For me, if it was a player based timer, that there would be a check in in case this did happen, and would redo the ending of the unfinished wave.
As we found out, this obviously wasn't the case.
When we noticed that, we did do a blank wave, and warned everyone over broadcast not to enter. We still had someone entering.
The only reason that that someone was not removed from ToH as warned was that his last login date confirmed that he'd only just logged on as he claimed.
You'll remember me broadcasting asking for someone from the first wave to PM me, so that I could grab a first wave name. By this stage, Forge was online, and as he had seen the script before, was able to recall the name of the variable that indicted a players completion.
We did not know if this variable was set for entrance into the lane, or for entrance into the lane as well as exiting (ie points received).
Unfortunately, it only counts going in, so we could not just use this to check anyone who claimed to be from that wave (the one where it broke and did not give points) and warp them past the first portal, to run again.
We had no way to confirm who had been in that fine, first wave, and those doomed second and third.
We could have found the not entered at all 4 wavers, though.
As little as you may believe it, Bisu, we're just given a "this is how it should go" and that's that. With my first ToH, I even had Salt there to back me up and help me, and tell me every step, because I'm utterly pedantic and afraid I'll choose a wrogn option and break everything. However, even then, that was only the possibility of choose the wrong option in the menus.
It didn't even come close to start covering "what to do if the script borks".
Also, when we say "We're sorry for the delay and inconveniences" etc, we mean we. I fail to see why it needs to come from every single person. If you're on a phone call to a company, and were put on hold for an hour or two and they say "We're sorry for the delay and inconvenience", do you expect them to get every person in their company, or even any people in their call center/support department that also did not/were not able to answer your call during this time to file up on the phone and personally apologise?
The GM team is effectively a department. This is why, when we post things of our own, unattached opinion on official things or feedback, we point it out that it is not attached to the entire team.
We do not have access to every script. We do not have access to the database. We are not omnipotent.
... Except for Panda, obviously. Minus the omnipotent.
There are plenty of things that only she can see. There are plenty of things that only she can do. There are scripts only she knows exactly which way they work, when there are plenty of possibilities.
This is why we call her in when we do not have the ability to.
We alerted Pandoa as soon as it happened, but she was not around at that time. So, we began to troubleshoot, and try to fix it.
For reference, Panda arrived back well before I'd even started the trivia. I suggested the trivia to her at that time, and she said yeah, go for it.
Why? Because she also needed to look at things to see what should happen and how we should proceed. There was no blanket "just do this and voila!".
I have never, in my entire life, wished so much during that time that I could take on the same protocols that those working or troubleshooting for a call center or pretty much any business could do.
"I'm sorry sir, but if you keep that tone and attitude/abuse up, I will terminate your call/connection. Please calm down."
We were getting abuse in main. We were getting abuse in PMs. We were getting abuse in all chat. From the start. Not a 10 min wait in. Not a 20 min wait in. Not an hour wait in. From. the. start.
Even after, obviously, we were getting conspiracy theories that apparently, no DC-crash happened at all.
As for something you all seem to be forgetting.
It was the DC-crash that borked things.
Yes, attempting the next run also added a little, and had we actually had explicit knowledge as to how the event worked, or knowledge about what to do in a situation that had never happened before, we would have been able to continue without calling on Panda... still with a delay.
Had we had the script in our hands, we still would have been able to continue without Panda... still with a large delay. That script is huge, and doesn't read itself!
Second wave, where the DC happened, was still the major problem. We had no way of telling who had exited in that first half, and who hadn't.
Effectively, we did all the trouble shooting, and passed that info onto Panda, who, luckily, was returning at that time.
The upside is, we now know that to do in such a situation, which will still cause a decent delay, even if it doesn't actually address it, and people still complain that the compromise that the situation is. :/
It comes down to that we had to make the best with what power and information we had, and try to find the fairest, most accurate and balanced solution.
Thank you, Firenza, demishock and ChaosPrince.
Wordwordswords.
Gone! Thanks for the memories.
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