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Team Up Volunteer Not Working?

1
AuthorMessage
A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
So, I am a level 140 Balance and volunteered as a Team Up Volunteer and it's been 30 minutes and I've not been prompted to join a battle once. Not sure if it's a level thing or what, but there are lots of Long Dungeons in multiple worlds that have been there for just as long that I haven't been prompted to join :/

Survivor
Jun 24, 2016
13
I second this, I joined a team up as a level 130 for all worlds and checked everything and waited 15 minutes and wasn't prompt for anything. I checked the kiosk and there is a lot of people waiting for help, so am very confused as to why I am not being placed in a dungeon.

Developer
Hey thanks for using the Volunteer system and your feedback!

While the Volunteer system was to make helping Wizards easier and filling TeamUp requests faster, we have been also experimenting with matching Wizards with level appropriate TeamUp requests. We felt that this would lead to a better adventuring experience both for the Wizard requesting the TeamUp and those answering the call. It ends up being a balancing act weighing both benefits.

Do you know if there were any higher level requests that were sitting for a long time?

A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
GraniteHeart on Apr 23, 2021 wrote:
Hey thanks for using the Volunteer system and your feedback!

While the Volunteer system was to make helping Wizards easier and filling TeamUp requests faster, we have been also experimenting with matching Wizards with level appropriate TeamUp requests. We felt that this would lead to a better adventuring experience both for the Wizard requesting the TeamUp and those answering the call. It ends up being a balancing act weighing both benefits.

Do you know if there were any higher level requests that were sitting for a long time?
Yes. There were higher level worlds that had requests for a long time. Please see my log that I wrote from Friday night:

It took 15 minutes to place me in a Empyrea Team Up.
15 Additional minutes later a second person joined the Team Up.
I got tired of waiting so I ported to the Kiosk and begged people to join.

This issue I feel like is due to the fact that they clicked the requires 4 people option. Most People will not wait that long and it’s not even required for 90% of dungeons. I feel like it shouldn’t even be an option unless someone specifically marks the farming option or it’s a cheating boss. (Another reason that we need a “Cheating” Icon)

After finishing the dungeon it prompted me to join Waterworks after about 5 minutes. But I was too slow to accept and a team filled up I’m sure. I waited about 30 minutes watching an Empyrea dungeon in the Kiosk with a Single Ice player waiting in the Private Wing. Eventually it just disappeared (player logged out or canceled team up?) Meanwhile I sat not doing anything. I chatted with people to fill the time, but that was ridiculous.

After that thirty minutes I started a regular Team Up (Abandoned House) When I returned it said that I was no longer a Team Up Volunteer? Did more runs of Abaondoned House and Still was not prompted to join anything :/

Basically. I gave up after 2.5 hours having only successfully completed a single Team Up Volunteer. I gave up.

Survivor
Jun 24, 2016
13
I am not sure how long is a "long" time. But there were definitely at least full page in multiple worlds from Khrysalis and up just sitting there with 1 person in queue.

Can we please get an explanation on how the volunteer system actually work?

Is there a minimum amount of time a dungeon has to be waiting for players before volunteers are placed in it?

Are Volunteers placed preferably in dungeons around their level, so they should volunteer for worlds around their level preferably so they get volunteered more often?

The way I thought it would work is that it would feed volunteers in dungeons as long as volunteer was available for that dungeon, but it's clear that is not how it works.

A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
Yes, there were many Arc II/III quests that were sitting for a while. Did I get banished to Volunteer Limbo somehow? I think that matching Wizards with more level appropriate players (when available) is the best solution. However, as you are probably aware, you'll have more max level characters than others when doing team ups. So you're gonna have some over-leveling no matter what.

This is kind of how I see it and perhaps others can comment as well.

If someone Joins Team Up and it's marked as "This is a longer Instance." People that are grinding the Team Up Badges tend to avoid these. Therefore, I feel like they should be given higher priority (so long as they are not cheating bosses) as people will have to wait too long. One time after waiting for a while, I decided to run abandoned house and if I select Team Ups then it would remove me from the Volunteer Option. I feel like this is good and bad. I bet that it's supposed to remove players that couldn't be bothered to cancel team up, but I also don't know what I'm supposed to do for an hour while I wait other than Team Ups (that was what I had been hoping to do in the first place) I have heard some people say that they want a few minutes to like plant or something, but I feel like the people that are going to Volunteer are wanting to Volunteer. So a short wait time is preferred. (Personally I am trying for the Badges still, but I don't want to do the same 3 fights 2000 times and I like to help people.)

Some Observations:

The level limits are TOO narrow. There are so many dungeons that were available in Empyrea or Azteca and it never prompted me to join them. I sat there for literal hours not letting me join any rounds on my Max 140 Balance. I later tried joining on my level 29 Life and there were literally no Team Ups for me to join in WC, KT, MB or GH not even one to click on! I agree that having a level 120 in an area for level 20 wizards is a bit much, but a level 30 or even 40 should immediately be able to click on them. If there is no one in that range within 5 minutes, then start incrementally looking for higher level wizards every minute or two after that.
The dumb "Wait for 4 People Option." When it does have me join, it's for someone who has obviously selected the "wait for 4 people" option. Honestly that shouldn't even be available unless it's a cheating boss or farming thing. If a person who doesn't read sees that, they think "yeah I want for team mates, oh there was some popup I'll just click accept." That should only be an option for people that deliberately know it's there and even then probably not because you can just talk to people and look for a friend. It should probably be behind a second screen. So that people have to pick the Farming option first and then the # of players option. Maybe change it it to Team Up and then you have to select.
The Wait Times are too long. (on both ends). If I am volunteering the longest I should wait is about 1-2 minutes before I get put in the queue (and not one requesting 4 unless it puts two more people in at the same time). If I request help in Team Up, ideally, I wouldn't want to wait for more than 5-10 minutes. I also feel like Arc II is where there is the most issues (there are lots of Wizards that are at/near max and low level (especially FTP) but the middle worlds is where it gets to be the most difficult so the range of Wizards that are allowed might should be significantly broader than Arc I worlds. I feel like a lot of people won't wait that long for a dungeon anyway and either do something else or try by themselves. Perhaps you have Data on how long team ups are before they are cancelled though?
There needs to be a Reason to do Team Up Volunteer: It's amazing that your Health and Mana are restored at the end of the Fight. However, there should be more to it. Rewards (perhaps something similar to Hatch Peppers? To allow for more cool craftable housing items or cosmetic gear.) It might even be useful to include as an Event like Deckathalon etc. It might also be useful to prioritize certain battles (especially longer or cheating battles) to offer more of the Reward items. (2 or 3 instead of 1).

Thanks GraniteHeart!

I love the idea and can't wait till it gets to a workable form! Just right now, I volunteered, but was only able to help like 2 runs

Survivor
Oct 07, 2016
23
Trying out the Team Up Volunteer system, and I've noticed a few issues. I know it's annoying to see a list instead of separate tickets, but I didn't want to spam this forum. So here's what I've experienced:

-I received a request to volunteer for a team WHILE I was in a volunteer team up.
-I received a notice that my team had disbanded and the person no longer needed a team up WHILE I was in a volunteer team up.
-I received a request to volunteer for a team, said yes ... and then nothing happened, because the team wanted three people and I was only the second person. I think a mechanic that requests a volunteer when the team is only missing one person would be more helpful. By that, I mean only send a volunteer request when a team wanting 4 now has 3 and just needs one more, or when a team wanting 3 people now has 2 and just needs one more. That way, the volunteer isn't sitting around, doing nothing. I'm absolutely willing to volunteer for people who need larger teams, but it feels like I could be helping more people.

It also feels like a bit of a long wait time, but I don't really know what to expect, so I'm willing to wait this out.

A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
Calamity Cat on Apr 24, 2021 wrote:
Trying out the Team Up Volunteer system, and I've noticed a few issues. I know it's annoying to see a list instead of separate tickets, but I didn't want to spam this forum. So here's what I've experienced:

-I received a request to volunteer for a team WHILE I was in a volunteer team up.
-I received a notice that my team had disbanded and the person no longer needed a team up WHILE I was in a volunteer team up.
-I received a request to volunteer for a team, said yes ... and then nothing happened, because the team wanted three people and I was only the second person. I think a mechanic that requests a volunteer when the team is only missing one person would be more helpful. By that, I mean only send a volunteer request when a team wanting 4 now has 3 and just needs one more, or when a team wanting 3 people now has 2 and just needs one more. That way, the volunteer isn't sitting around, doing nothing. I'm absolutely willing to volunteer for people who need larger teams, but it feels like I could be helping more people.

It also feels like a bit of a long wait time, but I don't really know what to expect, so I'm willing to wait this out.
I also have been asked to Join and then the original requester immediately cancels the request (likely because they already did it solo).

I agree that I am waiting WAAY too long. It looks like the requester is also waiting too long because they're just doing them themselves.

Also-the requesting of 4 people needs to be entirely disabled for non-cheating boss, hidden behind other menu options (like you have to select farming then 4 people) [however, I don't think everyone will like that] or have an ENTIRE team of Volunteers join at the same time.

Developer
As we were looking at Team-Up improvements, a couple of things came up which led to the Volunteer system.

The first was that we want to reduce Team-Up wait times. One of the spots in the Team-Up flow which we felt could be made more efficient was at the point the Team-Up was requested. Previously, the Team-Up would be requested then people would have to find and respond to that request through the Kiosk. We felt that if someone was actively monitoring the Kiosk for requests, we could allow them to enter the queue before the request and be added automatically when the request was made.

The second was that we wanted to allow those who want to join Team-Ups not feel bound to the Kiosk. By flagging yourself as a Volunteer, you make yourself available to help a Team-Up, but you are free to engage in other activities whether that's continuing adventuring yourself or doing some gardening or maybe playing Beastmoon! When a request is made, then you can join, complete the Dungeon, and return to what you were doing before.

At the moment, if you decline a Volunteer request, we then pause the invites for a short time (a few minutes), but then you should be added back into the queue.

We are always reviewing the work we'd done relative to the community's reaction and to some key data points related to the system, and make adjustments accordingly. We also monitor things closely to make sure they're working as intended.

As a more general comment, I do think we need a more granular social feedback system to 'reward' players relative to the level of effort required, however we need to be care that the rewards don't pollute the quality of the social interaction. That said, we could rework the badges where you get a number of 'points' per instance based on the length of the instance or something. A player should get more 'points' for helping on an hour long instance as opposed to a 30 minute one.

A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
GraniteHeart on Apr 26, 2021 wrote:
As we were looking at Team-Up improvements, a couple of things came up which led to the Volunteer system.

The first was that we want to reduce Team-Up wait times. One of the spots in the Team-Up flow which we felt could be made more efficient was at the point the Team-Up was requested. Previously, the Team-Up would be requested then people would have to find and respond to that request through the Kiosk. We felt that if someone was actively monitoring the Kiosk for requests, we could allow them to enter the queue before the request and be added automatically when the request was made.

The second was that we wanted to allow those who want to join Team-Ups not feel bound to the Kiosk. By flagging yourself as a Volunteer, you make yourself available to help a Team-Up, but you are free to engage in other activities whether that's continuing adventuring yourself or doing some gardening or maybe playing Beastmoon! When a request is made, then you can join, complete the Dungeon, and return to what you were doing before.

At the moment, if you decline a Volunteer request, we then pause the invites for a short time (a few minutes), but then you should be added back into the queue.

We are always reviewing the work we'd done relative to the community's reaction and to some key data points related to the system, and make adjustments accordingly. We also monitor things closely to make sure they're working as intended.

As a more general comment, I do think we need a more granular social feedback system to 'reward' players relative to the level of effort required, however we need to be care that the rewards don't pollute the quality of the social interaction. That said, we could rework the badges where you get a number of 'points' per instance based on the length of the instance or something. A player should get more 'points' for helping on an hour long instance as opposed to a 30 minute one.
I'll speak to each of these points individually if I can.

"The first was that we want to reduce Team-Up wait times. One of the spots in the Team-Up flow which we felt could be made more efficient was at the point the Team-Up was requested. Previously, the Team-Up would be requested then people would have to find and respond to that request through the Kiosk. We felt that if someone was actively monitoring the Kiosk for requests, we could allow them to enter the queue before the request and be added automatically when the request was made."

I don't think I fully understand what you are saying here. I understand how it used to work (and I guess still does), but are you saying that you get assigned a random instance that you are volunteer for and you are waiting for someone to actually request it? If that's the case I don't know if that makes the most sense. A system where it checks for the longest queue (in world/player level range) and puts players where they are needed makes more sense.

As Chris Legend put it, "The way I thought it would work is that it would feed volunteers in dungeons as long as volunteer was available for that dungeon, but it's clear that is not how it works.". I think that is something that players are looking for.

Again, just speaking from a player experience. If I request a Team Up I'll wait 1-2 minutes, but if no one joins then just do it myself. I know that there is the reverse of that and players that will wait until the end of time as well when they request one. However, if I'm trying to join a Team Up, it's still only 1-2 minutes of searching to find a good one to do. I think I/players see the Volunteer Option more as a, I want to help (either cause I'm nice or badge hunting, or want to pay it forward) but I don't necessarily want to do the same 3 dungeons (i.e. Loremaster, Abandoned House, Uwe, etc.) 2000 times.

"The second was that we wanted to allow those who want to join Team-Ups not feel bound to the Kiosk. By flagging yourself as a Volunteer, you make yourself available to help a Team-Up, but you are free to engage in other activities whether that's continuing adventuring yourself or doing some gardening or maybe playing Beastmoon! When a request is made, then you can join, complete the Dungeon, and return to what you were doing before."

Not having to stay at the Kiosk is fine, but how it is currently, this I feel like is an issue not a perk and again perhaps others can speak to this. But based on the interaction that I have had with others they share my opinion here. If I am Volunteering it's because I want to do Team Ups. It's very inconvenient to be in the middle of a Beastmoon Match get a request and leave your team behind. Even if you're Gardening the thing pops up and you have to click accept or decline and if you decline you get put further down the list or so it seems. If you're constantly declining what's the point of Volunteering anyway? (To have the flag, probably). I mean for example even, I was going to help someone with their Rattebones Master Duel, but right before we went in it asked me to do the Team Up (being it was the first one I'd received in literally an hour) I accepted it, but that left the Rattlebones people without a player (they got mad and unfriended me even). Getting pulled (or requested I guess is a better term) at relatively LONG random intervals is not conducive to the other game activities (perhaps apart from Quests involving dialogue).

"At the moment, if you decline a Volunteer request, we then pause the invites for a short time (a few minutes), but then you should be added back into the queue."

I don't know what the time limits are here, but as I said it's way too long in my experience. It's also a little frustrating that because they were so long I would try and join Team Ups "manually" and it would remove the Flag. I'm trying to help people hence why I want the Flag.

"We are always reviewing the work we'd done relative to the community's reaction and to some key data points related to the system, and make adjustments accordingly. We also monitor things closely to make sure they're working as intended."

That's good. I think currently a lot of players don't understand what it is (Friendly Flag is currently overshadowing it, and unless someone reads the Update notes religiously they're not going to find the Team Up Volunteer option). It still would be nice to be able to be Friendly and a Team Up Volunteer at the same time and get to choose which flag you display (but I know that a lot of people are looking for more flags in the future so perhaps that will have to come at that time).

"As a more general comment, I do think we need a more granular social feedback system to 'reward' players relative to the level of effort required, however we need to be care that the rewards don't pollute the quality of the social interaction. That said, we could rework the badges where you get a number of 'points' per instance based on the length of the instance or something. A player should get more 'points' for helping on an hour long instance as opposed to a 30 minute one."

That makes sense in regards to the social interactions as this system does seem more oriented to that player type. My only concern as far as changing the number of "points towards badges" instead of a new system is that the hardcore players will get to the point that they ONLY help the ones that reward the most points as is currently the case with doing a "quick" dungeon. If it was separated out into different types whether that is based on World or instance length etc. I think you'd get more participation and coverage overall. However, any improvement would likely be welcomed.

""
Thanks!

A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
Hi GraniteHeart,

There are no available team ups in Krokotopia or Marleybone for my level 29 Life Wizard to do for the Daily Assignment. I log onto my level 140 Balance and it shows some in both Krok and MB that are level appropriate (not end game dungeons like ZigZag or something).

I've heard other people complaining about this issue in game as well near the Kiosk. Just FYI.

Thanks

Survivor
Jun 28, 2010
2
I chose to volunteer for team up in Wizard City and Krokotopia on my level 20 wizard. I have been offered team ups for "The Edge of the Spiral" twice, and "Ninja Tunnel" once so far. These are not areas a level 20 wizard has unlocked or can be helpful in!

Developer
The way the Volunteer system should work is that if you Volunteer, then you are added to a pool of players that are pulled from first for any TeamUp request that fits the criteria you set up when joining as a Volunteer. So if you Volunteer for Marleybone, then when someone requests a TeamUp for a Dungeon in Marleybone, then you should be asked to join. This should help make these TeamUp teams fill up faster.

When you first join Volunteers, if TeamUps exist that you qualify for, then you should be asked to join the one with the longest waiting time.

In digging into it, the Level restrictions are not applied to Volunteers.

I'm making note of all the cases you mention about where the prompt is not behaving in a positive way or not the way we intended. I would not want a Beastmoon Match to be interrupted, but in the case of Gardening, its not a bad thing to allow people to maintain their Garden, while waiting, then they can decide to go or not at that moment or wait til the next one comes up.

We are considered a new system to be able to proportionally reward social interactions based on quality or level of effort.

Explorer
Mar 28, 2009
89
Is there a minimum level requirement for the Team Up Volunteer button? My Level 16 Storm wizard cannot see it at the kiosk, and he needs to do a Team Up for the Showcase.


Survivor
Jul 07, 2009
20
I have been trying to use the Kiosk on my newer character, level 25. However, there are no team ups at all, only the occasional one high level quest from Grizzleheim but nothing from Wizard City nor Krokotopia. I expected it was because I was in a low populated Realm or no one needed help, but that wasn't the case once I went to a highly populated realm and even had a few friends and I request help in the same realm. None of us could see low level requests, the only quests someone could see was a higher level friend seeing only high level quests like Catacombs. On top of that, our other concern was maybe all the quests were taken up because of the spiral event, but when we requested team ups, no one joined for a solid 30 minutes, so we think they cant see the requests either. I don't know why but lower level players can't see any requests in Wizard City nor in Krokotopia.

Champion
Feb 06, 2010
418
I, too, was wondering. My level 15 wizard has looked at the kiosk for an hour, and nothing shows up. Normally doesn't take that long. I only have access to Wizard City on that wizard and only completed the quests on Triton and Cyclops. It looks like he will be missing out on the extra twenty points for the Spiral Showcase this week.


Survivor
Apr 08, 2020
1
For some reason my level 13 storm wizard is unable to use the team up volunteer option as it does not show up the in the kiosk menu. Existing teams aren't showing up for that character either. And the team ups that I do complete are not earning any special event points for the spiral showcase even though it was the right world.

Delver
Mar 30, 2014
229
I'm trying to do the spiral showcase event, but there are never any team ups showing in the worlds I need. I know they are there, because I can see them on higher level wizards, just not the wizards who actually need them for the event. Many people are complaining about how badly bugged the kiosk is now. If it cannot be fixed in time for the event, can we just get the old kiosk back please? Or at least can we get points for completing this task? We are trying, and it's not our fault the kiosk is broken just when we need it for the event.

You have to be at least level 20 to be a volunteer.

Arthur (Gary)

Champion
Feb 06, 2010
418
GraniteHeart on Apr 23, 2021 wrote:
Hey thanks for using the Volunteer system and your feedback!

While the Volunteer system was to make helping Wizards easier and filling TeamUp requests faster, we have been also experimenting with matching Wizards with level appropriate TeamUp requests. We felt that this would lead to a better adventuring experience both for the Wizard requesting the TeamUp and those answering the call. It ends up being a balancing act weighing both benefits.

Do you know if there were any higher level requests that were sitting for a long time?
That’s great you’re trying to help others by making it balanced, but when it comes to the scroll of fortune/ spiral showcase. My level 15 wizard only has access to wizard city. I waited an hour before I decided to give up my 20 points. I know it doesn’t usually take that long. I wish we are informed when “patches” happen, as well as changes to the game.


Champion
Feb 06, 2010
418
Arthur Wethersfiel... on Apr 29, 2021 wrote:
You have to be at least level 20 to be a volunteer.

Arthur (Gary)
With all due respect Mr. Smith, why, when, and what? Did this just change to level 20? I'm talking about the Kiosk alone. The NPC Blaze already gave me the tutorial quest.


A+ Student
Mar 31, 2009
1713
Arthur Wethersfiel... on Apr 29, 2021 wrote:
You have to be at least level 20 to be a volunteer.

Arthur (Gary)
There is a separate issue not related to the Team Up Volunteer option which people are starting to mention.

There are no regular team ups available to complete at low levels.

Defender
May 27, 2013
149
I've been trying to join a team for the last three nights with my lower level characters and not a single thing has shown up on the kiosk for WC or KT. I know for a fact that a friend requested a team up for Foul Gaze, but it never even showed on the kiosk, even after refreshing.

Survivor
Jun 28, 2010
2
I also have met with quite a few issues in the new team up and volunteering system, but mine have been on the end of lower level characters. I have several kids and we play as a family. We have all been experimenting with this to try and get our daily points for the event.

-On my children's wizards that were level 16 and couldn't use the new volunteer function there was no way for them to get their points. We sat refreshing at the kiosk in the only worlds available to them (Wizard City and Krokotopia) and no teams showed up. We tried having one person go and start a team up in those areas while the other sat refreshing. We waited 5 minutes, the team ups never appeared on the list, and no one joined the team!

-On my level 20 wizard I tried the volunteer option, since there was nothing available on the list. It took a while but eventually I was offered a team. Thrilled I clicked accept. Then it loaded in and I discovered I was at the Devourer - it had offered my level 20 wizard a team up at the Edge of the Spiral. Since then I've carefully watched what it offers. When I decline an offer it seems to take even longer before another pops up, but a level 20 wizard can't help at things like The Edge of the Spiral, Shedders Tunnel, or Ninja Tunnel, and I'm getting these team ups as options just as often as level appropriate ones.

I agree with everyone that this is taking longer for team ups than it was before. My low level wizards have never had so much trouble getting help or giving help.

Survivor
Jun 16, 2012
37
This week I've been trying to get team ups for spiral showcase on my two lower level wizards (lv33, lv34) who are still in krokotopia. They see nothing on the team up ledger most the time but stray aquila or wysteria worlds. I log in on my lv51 or 56 wizard and I see many wizard city/krokotopia requests for team up help. Quickly switching to the lower levels to join and I see nothing, back to the mid level wizard and the requests for team up help are still there.

Not sure when this bug appeared as I don't team up all that often but I suspect this last update messed something up.

1