Host Trading Room Frustrations

[PirateDaisy]

[VENT]As some of you know, I've been after that Pirate 1/5 since it was first released. Through either the trading event or quests. But with the DC Fairy's personal vendeta against me, impossible times in quests; I'm afraid it will never happen.

2 hours went by today trying to get into that room while it was constantly full. Finally with 20 minutes to spare I finally get on the queue; it still took about 45 minutes to get in that room after the line was caught off 5 minutes after I jumped in. I was thankful I made it in the line and confident I would receive my pirate pin. Finally I get in the room, there are about 6 ppl ahead of me; and Fin announces she only has 2 minutes left and there are no pirate pins left. You can imagine how I felt; first I waited in line for a pirate pin; not a stinky tomorrowland pin. Second; she may have not even have time to trade me that pin because she only has 2 minutes left and with about 20 people still in line mind you. I continue in line, with 2 ppl ahead of me I disconnect.

I think the line was cut off for a reason and that was to finish up the last of the people in line. I think it's completely unfair to have us wait in line, to then tell us we waited that long and not even get the oppourtunity to trade. It's very frustrating for me as an adult, I can't imagine how the children must feel. I feel for the staff and understand that they work hard during these events but this is their job. The very least they can do is serve the players that waited in line that long to a room they cut off 15 minutes early and a pin they only have limited numbers on.

Anywhoodle, just needed to vent a little bit and find out if others feel the same way or I'm over reacting over the situation. [/VENT]

-Pirate

 

[Janomi]

Sorry to hear about your trading room problems/pains. I too have issues with dc magic and it kicking in when I don't want it to. My feelings stem from the fact that the time we invest is lost and nothing is gained from it. I always think about the old addage "Time is Money" when I've spent hours and hours to get into a room (then to dc).

Alas, I think we are stuck with the system and I too will be waiting in the queue looking for a Pirates 1 of 5 for the rest of the month. Good luck on your search. I feel your pain.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Here's a cool queue suggestion if anyone reading this has the right connection to pass it on: What if we could hop in queue, but still do things? Then when it is your time to enter the room - whoosh - off you go. There are other on-line games (I beleive) that have this ability.

Just an idea .....

 

[tinkcollector]

Wow, Disney Dreams sounds like fast-pass...I would be for that. I have had the same expierence of waiting in line to read sorry I'm done or last player does not feel good after all that time

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Arg, I feel like such a moron now. I finally managed to get in there to try and get a pin for another DISer at around 10:25, I think it was. With a mere 5 people in front of me, Phinny announced she only had 1 of the Pirates pins left. I wanted to bang my head against a wall, and hard. Reason I feel like a moron is because I meant to post it here on the DIS so people wouldn't waste their time, but I forgot. My brain was so fried from all that queue clicking that I just plum forgot, and I apologize PirateDaisy, and anyone else who met the same fate.

Unlike most trading events, it took me forever to get in that darned queue tonight. My best guess is people were muling it up big time because they see what those Pirates pins are going for in trade. I saw someone offer 5 star fireworks magic and 5 star bat magic for one today. Another person offered a full 50th quest, part of the Thrill quest, and a bunch of other rare items. Is it just me, or did the Tiki Room Opens pins not nearly go for as much?

On another note, I have heard of people finally getting in the room only to find something blocking their path. I don't think that's right at all. I've never been in a line at WDW at closing, but aside from things like the train and such, don't they let you go on the ride as long as you got in line before closing? Strike that, this past trip I hopped in line for the safari 10 minutes before it was scheduled to close, and we got in the jeep about 3 minutes after it "closed" as did everyone else in line behind us, from what we could see. If they can keep a real ride open for everyone in line to get through, then they can keep a virtual room open, even if the Host has to get a sub or something. Or send a staff message to all players in the queue early on to say "We are closing the room in X minutes." That's still not right, but at least it would be some kind of warning, you know? But I guess that's asking too much.

Disney is just annoying me to no end with all of this. My annoyance started with the baseball quests, seeing as girls couldn't get the costume any other way. And this is simply making me more annoyed. It's a free game, yes, but Walt wouldn't put up with this kind of stuff. Children crying, adults upset and/or frustrated, hours and hours of time spent doing (and achieving) nothing waiting in line only to not get the pin in the first place (or never even get in line, or dc in line or in the room). Seriously, the pin doesn't even exist. It's just a combo of pixels on your monitor. 1's and 0's in code, if you will. For them to "run out" is plain silly in my mind. All goes back to the "we need to keep it rare!" bull, ala the green car magic. Oh, I know, so people will have to go to WDW or DL to get quest items to try and trade for it, right? *snorts* Of course, trading is not applicable to green car magic, but you get my point.

On a slightly positive note though, my connection lasted over 50 minutes tonight. First time that's ever happened. Perhaps they changed it for the event?

 

[Peacefully]

On a slightly positive note though, my connection lasted over 50 minutes tonight. First time that's ever happened. Perhaps they changed it for the event?

Changed it? You mean people dc every half hour on purpose? I just figured Disney was being cheap about getting good servers.

 

[Peacefully]

On a slightly positive note though, my connection lasted over 50 minutes tonight. First time that's ever happened. Perhaps they changed it for the event?

Changed it? You mean people dc every half hour on purpose? I just figured Disney was being cheap about getting good servers.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Changed it? You mean people dc every half hour on purpose? I just figured Disney was being cheap about getting good servers.

From everything I've read on here and elsewhere, it seems incredibly likely that Disney has a "dc timer" as others have called it. Meaning, every time you log on, there's going to be a window where, at some point during that timeframe, VMK will essentially boot you out of the game to balance the server load. Be it 30 minutes or 40, somewhere in that time frame you will get disconnected. I just used to assume it was my connection causing it, but the more I read, the more I started to think that the idea that it's done deliberately was highly likely.

 

[AmberDaze]

...Phinny announced she only had 1 of the Pirates pins left.

OK, now I'm confused...aren't these pins virtual items? How in the world can they run out? lol Unless of course, they are limiting the amount that they are giving...

Just a silly thought I had at 4:20 in the morning...

Best,

A Days~

 

[SorcererDonald16]

OK, now I'm confused...aren't these pins virtual items? How in the world can they run out? lol Unless of course, they are limiting the amount that they are giving...

Just a silly thought I had at 4:20 in the morning...

Nope, it's not a silly thought at all. That alone is what's got so many people steamed, and that's entirely my own point as well-- the pin doesn't even exist, and yet they "run out" after awhile, much like the Tiki pins. Hence my whole "we gotta keep it rare!" snarky comment. VMK is definitely more trouble than it's worth at times.

 

[KingKevinisCool]

it is very silly for them to run out of virtual items i think they just limit the number of them total in vmk to make them rare. but i have noticed in the past
with everest and basball and tiki when the items are new everybody want them but once new stuff comes out there old hat ive been trying to trade tiki opens pin with no luck at all but 2 weeks ago every one was screaming for them, i do think it is unfair that we wait in line for sometimes up to an hour or more to get a rare host room item when we should be playing and enjoying the VMK game.

 

[tigressjewel]

This whole situation is ridiculous!! Between the DC and then "running out" they have taken all the fun out of staff pin trading (assuming there ever was any). The game is supposed to be for kids anyway and I know for a fact my kids would never have the patience after about 5 clicks to get in that room, so they never get these "special" pins. They should not run out before the trade time posted ends, period. I tried for 2 and a half hours last night to get in too, never did. I strongly encourage all of you who are sick of these poorly planned and executed pin trade rooms to please write to vmk! I did already. Maybe if enough of us write in they will rethink it. Anyway, can't hurt to let them know how we feel, at least then we're trying to get things changed.

 

[CoolDisGirl]

I was 17 in line when she first opened up last night. Got in the room but had a heck of time actually getting in line because of the way it was set up. Get up to FIn to trade, get the trade window and bam! DC. I get in line later in the night finally and get into the room, heck of a time getting into line and when I was four people back she says she only has a few left. Traded with the next two people and with the CL who was having trouble getting into line too but made sure it was known he was there first...ran out right before the person in front of me. so she offered us any other pin. I chose the Madame Leota Pin. I was very disappointed but at least I did get something. Im not giving up. I want that PIN!

 

[mtlhddoc2]

for those of you who missed it in an earlier post - VMK does not have a DC timer, if that was the case, then everyone would get kicked off at the same EXACT ammount of time online - there is more than likely a diconnection script which bumps oiff people when the server hits tolerance levels - this script would look for specific circumstances before booting such as total time logged in and total idle time - idle time would be waiting in a room queue, or sitting idle in a room while clicking on the host room 100 times to try and get in. This is why disconnects are far more common when visiting host rooms than when just playing the game. Idle time reigns supreme in the world of online servers.... the more "idle" time you have the more likely you are to be bounced when the server requires a user to be bounced.

 

[PirateDaisy]

Thank you for your thoughts on ideas on this everyone, I shall be sending a strongly worded e-mail to the black hole. lol Maybe it'll end up with the countless ones I've sent about fireworks.

No need to apoligize Sorcerer, it's not your fault they ran out, either way I still would have been peeved over the situation. Countless of hours wasted, for nothing. And really I should slapping myself upside the head right about now and talk some sense into myself. lol In reality I do VMK because of the people and my love for Disney, no other reason. I'm not a huge collector of anything, mainly because I don't have the time or money(ie visiting parks) to aquire such items. But as you can plainly see, I am pirate and have this sick obessision over these pins; they are just great work I love them! So this month I will bear through these trades and quests but never again! lol

About the entrance, these hosts should know by now how to set up these rooms. When I entered that room I became stuck, while other people just walked right infront of me. I begged and pleaded people to let me through since I was there first but as desperate as I was to get that pin, I'm sure they were too and no one let me through. I had to take my pirate skills and do a forceful entry. lol Anywhoodle, I'll be sure to include that in my letter and I encourage others to write as well.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

this script would look for specific circumstances before booting such as total time logged in and total idle time - idle time would be waiting in a room queue, or sitting idle in a room while clicking on the host room 100 times to try and get in. This is why disconnects are far more common when visiting host rooms than when just playing the game. Idle time reigns supreme in the world of online servers.... the more "idle" time you have the more likely you are to be bounced when the server requires a user to be bounced.

If this is how it worked, then it doesn't explain how my connection can last up to 40 minutes (on average) when I'm in line for a Host event, but if I'm playing games, it will dc on me in the middle of a third straight fireworks game (which would be around 25 or so minutes). Likewise, I can only play maybe 3 Mansion games straight before dcing. If you're idle too long, you get the "Please click here to remain logged in" message and you get a five minute warning. So I don't see how idle time affects it really. It's almost like once your computer runs a set number of the components of the game, you get the boot.

 

[mtlhddoc2]

SorcererDonald - I dont know the exact set of specifications for disconnect, but I know it isnt a set time - also remember, your computer has something to do with it too. You can disconnect because your computer runs out of virtual memory as well. I would give some suggestions, but really, as a tech, I wouldnt recommend playing with some of those settings as you could really mess up your computer. I do recommend making sure you have plenty of Hard Drive space though because your v irtual memory can only use what you have free. If you have a 20 gig hard drive with 18.5 gig filled, that leaves you with only 1.5 gig of free space for VM. Windows will use about .5 gig of that all by itself.

My recommendations for the average user:
1. Keep at least 4 gig of free space on your hard drive
2. make sure you do not restrict your temporary internet files folder
2a. To check those settings in Internet Explorer, go to Tools>Internet Otions>General Tab>Click on Settings>adjust the "Amount of disk space to use" to at least 3000mb
2b. Clear it out once in a while too, sometimes VMK makes subtle changes to rooms and such which may cause you some slowness - it takes longer to re-download evedrything but once a week should be sufficient.
3. I know this sounds harsh, but get a better video card with at least 512mb of video ram
4. Do not run anything else while playing VMK - especially memory hogs like Outlook and AOL (I realize this is not possible for everyone, especially AOL users)
5. Remove Spyware - the biggest memory killer of all

Those will only help, not eradicate, your disconnects. On a typical weekday, I can stay on VMK without disconnecting for about 2 hours or so, sometimes longer depending on the number of users which are on VMK at the time. When there are less than 500 users, I never dc - and my charachter is usually idle and I have to click that idle timer

To answer your comment about Idleness - the script would more than likely poll "total" idle time, or what it considers idle time, which may or may not be related to the idle timer (seperate programs/scripts) - again, I dont know the specifications for their disconnect scripts, but I know there is no set dc time. If there was, dont you think the hosts would be expempt from it? They are not. The hosts may have a higher criteria for dc, but remember too, the hosts are never idle, they dont have to wait to get into rooms and are always doing something.

 

[Dashzap]

From everything I've read on here and elsewhere, it seems incredibly likely that Disney has a "dc timer" as others have called it. Meaning, every time you log on, there's going to be a window where, at some point during that timeframe, VMK will essentially boot you out of the game to balance the server load. Be it 30 minutes or 40, somewhere in that time frame you will get disconnected. I just used to assume it was my connection causing it, but the more I read, the more I started to think that the idea that it's done deliberately was highly likely.

I doubt this. Some days I have spent many hours on vmk without any disconnections.

Other days I have been disconnected several times in an hour.

 

[PamCo88]

I finally made it into the quest room last night and started the quest. ( I am not good at quests) I was actually able to finish before getting DC. So here I am thinking I will get something for the effort, but no. I came in 543place and received nothing. I thought all host quests win prizes? Man was I Bummed.

Looking for red pirate pin and CROWN.