Worried about this potential problem on Progression server...

[Asolandri]

Banded mail or any other smithing stuff might be VERY HARD to make. Why? Simple. Some people may leave their character holding the forges open, so no one else can use them. There are not many forges in just the old world, so only a few people with a few accounts each could block it all off. This is what some guilds used to do in PoP progression. Keep some of the progression mobs dead, so other guilds could not advance. Same principal. They can become the only high-level smiths and and charge what they want for stuff. SoE will have to monitor this closely.

[KyrosKrane]

If you find a toon holding a forge (or other tradeskill container) for an unreasonably long time, send them a tell. If they don't reply (that is, if they're AFK), petition and a GM will usually summon them to somewhere else in the zone, forcing the container to close. If they reply and refuse to share the forge, that's zone disruption and again petitionable. If they reply and share, problem solved. =)

[Asolandri]

hmmm...

True enough =) But, in my experience, GMs responding to petitions can generally take....awhile. Sometimes they never respond at all. I guess what I am getting to is that a single guild could easily "take over" the forges for the most part, rotating between players, at least making it very difficult to skillup/make stuff. Be silly to have to "camp" the forge hehe.

[Verdandi]

I've been playing since June '99, tradeskilling since October '99, and never had a problem with this even pre-Kunark. There are more world containers than people may realize, between all the various cities. A very big and organized guild could do it, I suppose, but if they're doing it often enough to pose a real problem then it'd be very easy for a GM to catch them at it. If even a third of the people being blocked petition and/or post to the SOE tradeskill forum, action ought to happen pretty quick.

[KyrosKrane]

I guess it's possible to lock down the cultural forges, when cultural recipes come into play, but again, that would be pretty easy to spot.

[zephur]

If you find a toon holding a forge (or other tradeskill container) for an unreasonably long time, send them a tell. If they don't reply (that is, if they're AFK), petition and a GM will usually summon them to somewhere else in the zone, forcing the container to close. If they reply and refuse to share the forge, that's zone disruption and again petitionable. If they reply and share, problem solved. =)

GM is about as rare in game these days as a Fabled mob in August. Maybe back when original EQ was all there was and they actually had a GM designated to each server you could get one in under 2 days to move someone off a forge, but these days they dont even bother to stop bot farmers that warp to zonein when girplan guardian AEs them and warp back when it resets.

[tnexus]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. As stated above, there are a lot of forges out there. I doubt many people will have multiple accounts just to hold a forge. Who knows, maybe the invisible, floating forge in Felwithe will magically be back!

[Eggborn]

Does City of Mist have a forge? or just a brew barrel.

Don't forget Kael and Dalnir. I miss dungeons with trade skill containers.

[Grolyn]

It would be nice if there weren't any intentional hogging like some on current server. For example, my guild had to scrub the plan to raid VT a few weeks in a row because a certain high end guild keeps cleaning out VT. Not only that but last night they /ooced they would keep doing it until everyone got clickies. This guild is well past anguish and one of the first to finish PoR end area. So yeah they could easily clean out VT anytime but they had to do it with no break for other lesser guilds to get in.

The last time said guild was hogging, they did it with emp ssra for almost the entire summer just so everytone could get horse mount, and prevented all other guilds or pickup raids from dealing with emp ssra and/or getting vt key complete.

While there's a chance of hogging a forage or 2, it'd be much easier if there were gm to handle petitions more quickly. I've had too many petitions dismissed because the situation no longer warranted it (ie offending party or guild left)

[Verdandi]

You can't really compare hogging a raid target or zone to hogging a tradeskill container. People are allowed to raid targets and zones endlessly, as long as they don't actively kill steal. Tradeskill containers, however, are meant to be used for a little while and then left. People standing there occupying them endlessly will be in obvious violation, especially if it's happening at all the containers and clearly part of a scheme.

And while I can't really say how quickly GMs do or should respond to petitions, I thought the system now is that they roam around to servers? That would mean that petitioning should bring someone to help you eventually, even if they wouldn't have come without a petition to answer. Am I wrong?

[KyrosKrane]

That's partially right, Dandi. The problem is that GM's will do everything possible to avoid logging on and entering the world. I once had a problem with an item that vanished from my inventory -- I forget the reason why, but I petitioned and the GM responded that yes, I should get it back. A few moments later, the GM adds a comment to my petition saying the item is now in my backpack. I check, it's not there, and I say so. A few moments later, I get a tell from the GM saying he tried again, and I should check. It still wasn't there. Finally, he logs in his toon, enters my zone, and hands me the item.

The problem is that logging in a toon is much slower than adding a comment to a petition, and GM's want to take as little time as necessary to handle each petition. It's roughly equivalent to a player sending a PM on a board (fast, since you're already here and logged on), using EQIM to send a tell (medium, since loading EQIM takes a while), and actually logging in, zoning to your target, and hailing him (very slow, due to loading and zoning).

[Amanty]

GM is about as rare in game these days as a Fabled mob in August

I dont know if they are doing it on all servers, but on Xegony we have a GM that has all of the abilities and such of a GM, but does not show up as a GM on a /who all GM and his name is not in Green. We had an issue with a disgruntled player repeated training us at the Cubbies camp in WoS. He trained multiple groups and there were multiple petitions put in about him. Within about 15 minutes the guy showed up. The toon was obviously a ranger, but was giving out rezzes to those who did not recieve one yet. This makes me think that Sony has somehow changed things to where they are online with GM abilities, but do not show up as actual GMs.

[Cloud]

Yea GMs are almost always on from what i have seen. We had 3 GMs in our general chat one day and all of them were anon. Was funny cause one guy was cussing and junk and the GM was like this is GM bah bah please don't repeat and he cussed the GM out because he didn't realize it hah. He got what he deserved.

[Rawckett]

Why would people do this? Then again, why would people want to play on this server? /boggle

[Amanty]

Actually there have been alot of people asking for Sony make one. There are some people who do not like what has been done with alot of the newer expansions and such. They dislike the mudflation that all of the uber gear has caused. They want a return to the older ways of Everquest.

Its kinda funny that people yell and scream about Sony not listening to the players, but then when they do something that a bunch of people ask for some of those same people say why did they do that?

Not implying you Rawckett, just people in general. I hear about it all the time in the General channel on Xegony.