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Team Up Volunteer Not Working?

2
AuthorMessage
Champion
Feb 06, 2010
418
Fandango739 on Apr 30, 2021 wrote:
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.
Same with me, but mine was the side boss on Cyclops Lane.


Defender
Jan 16, 2010
158
I have a necromancer that is level 43ish and in MooShu right now, and I can't get any team-ups in either MooShu or Marlybone in order to do the Spiral Showcase, which has pretty much ruined my chances of getting any rewards since I'm missing 20 points right off the bat per day that this goes on.

I quested, checked - no team-ups. Quested, checked, no team-ups. This has been over the past few days - yesterday and again today. There are a few team-ups in Grizzleheim (and my character, additionally, saw a few dungeons for Ravenscar on her list and she hasn't even unlocked them yet, specifically Frostmantle, who I was very surprised to see listed - ordinarily the dungeons we haven't unlocked aren't listed on the team-up), and there were some in Wizard City, but none for Marlybone or MooShu at all, and when I'm on a busy server, there are tons of people there.

So, I'm not sure what's going on either.

Survivor
Mar 15, 2020
1
My lvl 15 storm has a problem with team up kiosk too. I can't see any team ups on Wizard city and Krokotopia which means I can't do the event quest for the 20 points and I'll prob lose the last reward. It's not that there aren't any to join, they just don't appear to my kiosk. I tested it out by asking a friend to start a team up in some of the wc main quests bosses.

Squire
Apr 18, 2013
507
Can this be fixed already?
-No team ups available for lower levels
-Volunteer asking us to join dungeon we haven't done yet
-Volunteer asking us to volunteer in the middle of us volunteering
-Are you serious when telling us we get a penalty for declining? Let me get this straight, if we become a volunteer and while waiting we go to our garden and in the middle of gardening a team-up becomes available, we are then forced between making sure our garden is fully tended or risk missing out on something we've waited a long time for? That's insane. How about adding an 'ask-me-again-in-60-seconds' option or not giving us any penalty whatsoever for choosing an option that the description inclines us to do. I do not recall seeing in the help section any mention a time penalty may be given. Also, yes I am going to decline edge-of-the-spiral because I do not recall ever seeing or knowing about this instance.
-Spiral Showcase has become much harder to earn event points for teaming up.
-It will be quite problematic if volunteer starts affecting Beastmoon. Once Beastmoon queue starts, the volunteer mode should go away.
Vice-versa, can one be pulled into Beastmoon if in the middle of volunteering?

Here is a question/request:
Can you please add a way to end the volunteer mode when away from the team-up kiosk?

Survivor
Oct 07, 2016
23
Now that we know rejecting a volunteer request does extend the next wait time slightly ... does this happen when the team up requester cancels the request once you've accepted the offer? I've had a couple of cancels immediately after accepting the request as a volunteer (this is normal enough when you try to team up a lot, I've found people ask for help without actually wanting it all the time), and I'm worried I'm being penalized for turning down the request instead of the system recognizing it's not my fault. Has anyone else experienced this?

Survivor
Oct 07, 2016
23
Since my separate topic has been grafted over to this thread, I hope it's okay to mention team up volunteer bugs that aren't about the wait times. Here's what happened:
I am requested as a volunteer, and I port into the team up (Baron's Retreat).
The team up is not considered a long instance because the three fights are all in one long room. I get another request as a volunteer during the third fight, which of course I have to decline. This is not the first time this has happened to me. (Could this be a specific glitch for longer instances that are not labeled as such?)
Our team completes the team up, and I leave the room.
... I am not ported back to my original place, I do not have my health/mana refilled, but at least my volunteer status is still up.
I'm not sure where the bug is exactly happening - if it's the secretly longer instance thing, or if it's because I denied a volunteer request (but that didn't happen the last time I had to deny a volunteer request because I was already in the middle of volunteering) or what.


Survivor
Mar 27, 2017
29
There are way too many issues with the new Team Up system. I don't know if that'd be possible to do, but it might be a good idea to revert back to before it was changed (until the issues can be solved properly). I spent the past few days getting all my lower level wizards to level 20 so they could volunteer, because otherwise there was no way for them to join a team. And then when they finally could volunteer, it took forever to get an offer, and half the time, it was dungeons from the Catacombs.

Plus, with the Spiral Showcase event going on, the timing was quite poor.

I've also noticed that when I request help, it takes much longer. I used to be able to find a full team of people for Sunken City in less than 3 minutes... I've done it quite a few times since then, and every time I was only able to find one person to do it with me, and it took about 15 minutes for them to join. Imagine how frustrating it'd be if one of them had chosen to abandon the dungeon...

I'm super thankful for a lot of the changes that came with the update, but I don't think this was ready to be put on live realm. Please fix it.

Survivor
Oct 07, 2016
23
stemogstel on May 2, 2021 wrote:
Can this be fixed already?
-No team ups available for lower levels
-Volunteer asking us to join dungeon we haven't done yet
-Volunteer asking us to volunteer in the middle of us volunteering
-Are you serious when telling us we get a penalty for declining? Let me get this straight, if we become a volunteer and while waiting we go to our garden and in the middle of gardening a team-up becomes available, we are then forced between making sure our garden is fully tended or risk missing out on something we've waited a long time for? That's insane. How about adding an 'ask-me-again-in-60-seconds' option or not giving us any penalty whatsoever for choosing an option that the description inclines us to do. I do not recall seeing in the help section any mention a time penalty may be given. Also, yes I am going to decline edge-of-the-spiral because I do not recall ever seeing or knowing about this instance.
-Spiral Showcase has become much harder to earn event points for teaming up.
-It will be quite problematic if volunteer starts affecting Beastmoon. Once Beastmoon queue starts, the volunteer mode should go away.
Vice-versa, can one be pulled into Beastmoon if in the middle of volunteering?

Here is a question/request:
Can you please add a way to end the volunteer mode when away from the team-up kiosk?
With regards to that last question...

As a random, private citizen of the Spiral, I do NOT want the volunteer mode to end when I am away from the team-up kiosk. I think that is its greatest strength! Instead of being tied to the physical kiosk (like you had to be before the Volunteer system), I can go and do other, low-time-commitment things while waiting for a volunteer request. If a wizard wants to end the volunteer mode when away from the kiosk, couldn't they just not volunteer, and join team ups in the normal, not-volunteer way?

It's just now occurring to me that you may have meant something like, "I'm done for volunteering for the day and would like to do other things now, but I have to walk all the way back to the kiosk to cancel being the volunteer mode." Oops! If that is what you mean, I just "quit" to go back to my log-in classroom and then log right back in - no more volunteer mode, no consequences, and none of the needless running around!

I've been working on defeating mobs for my badges in between volunteer requests, which works very well - if I do get pulled to a team up in the middle of a fight, I get put right back in a new fight in the same spot when I return, and it'll be with full health! I am very happy with that aspect of the system. I agree that doing Beastmoon as a volunteer is a bad idea, though! Seems like you'd be torn between two teams that both need and deserve your help. That's why I recommend doing low-commitment tasks, instead of doing something that really needs your attention and could have poor consequences if you leave in the middle.

Explorer
Mar 28, 2009
89
Arthur Wethersfiel... on Apr 29, 2021 wrote:
You have to be at least level 20 to be a volunteer.

Arthur (Gary)
Seriously - it should be Level 15, since that is when Derrick Blaze encourages Wizards to help each other at the Kiosk, and most Wizards are completing Wizard City and moving on to Krokotopia.


Developer
Thanks everyone for posting thoughts and issues related to TeamUp and Volunteers! As I mentioned earlier in the thread, we are monitoring discussion about these systems for places where it is broken or areas where it can be improved.

Thanks again and be assured that your feedback is being read and considered as we continue to work to improve these systems.

Squire
Apr 18, 2013
507
Calamity Cat on May 4, 2021 wrote:
With regards to that last question...

As a random, private citizen of the Spiral, I do NOT want the volunteer mode to end when I am away from the team-up kiosk. I think that is its greatest strength! Instead of being tied to the physical kiosk (like you had to be before the Volunteer system), I can go and do other, low-time-commitment things while waiting for a volunteer request. If a wizard wants to end the volunteer mode when away from the kiosk, couldn't they just not volunteer, and join team ups in the normal, not-volunteer way?

It's just now occurring to me that you may have meant something like, "I'm done for volunteering for the day and would like to do other things now, but I have to walk all the way back to the kiosk to cancel being the volunteer mode." Oops! If that is what you mean, I just "quit" to go back to my log-in classroom and then log right back in - no more volunteer mode, no consequences, and none of the needless running around!

I've been working on defeating mobs for my badges in between volunteer requests, which works very well - if I do get pulled to a team up in the middle of a fight, I get put right back in a new fight in the same spot when I return, and it'll be with full health! I am very happy with that aspect of the system. I agree that doing Beastmoon as a volunteer is a bad idea, though! Seems like you'd be torn between two teams that both need and deserve your help. That's why I recommend doing low-commitment tasks, instead of doing something that really needs your attention and could have poor consequences if you leave in the middle.
Volunteering should have an on/off switch or here's an even better solution, a pause button.

Some examples for pausing it are:
An old friend logs on and wants to talk wizard-to-wizard.
A friend queues you up for beastmoon. You then get a penalty if you quit-and-play.
Someone wants to hatch with you.
You have to go to the bathroom.
You got bored of waiting and started a different task that you need 5 minutes to complete.

GraniteHeart, I believe a 'pause button' for volunteering is something to consider adding.

Can it also be considered to let us look back into the kiosk when we are in volunteer mode?

I was forced to volunteer or else I couldn't get those Spiral Showcase event points this past week. The wait times were atrocious and it would benefit all of us tremendously if we were able to inspect the kiosk (while in volunteer mode) to get it done quicker.
Calamity Cat, during the Showcase week, I just want 1 quick team up. I have all the other tasks to get done too and being able to pause or end the volunteer mode would be greatly appreciated to complete those tasks faster.

Hero
Aug 18, 2011
776
Two problems I've had in the past few days:

1- A level 24 character who has access to Griz was invited to team up for a level 50 boss (Frostbranch) in WT after volunteering. This should not be possible.

2- several lower level characters were unable to get a team-up in Wiz City or Kroc, even after waiting. This really hurt Spiral Showcase points (missed 20 per day on three chars). Mid and high levels didn't have problems.

Developer
stemogstel on May 4, 2021 wrote:
Volunteering should have an on/off switch or here's an even better solution, a pause button.

Some examples for pausing it are:
An old friend logs on and wants to talk wizard-to-wizard.
A friend queues you up for beastmoon. You then get a penalty if you quit-and-play.
Someone wants to hatch with you.
You have to go to the bathroom.
You got bored of waiting and started a different task that you need 5 minutes to complete.

GraniteHeart, I believe a 'pause button' for volunteering is something to consider adding.

Can it also be considered to let us look back into the kiosk when we are in volunteer mode?

I was forced to volunteer or else I couldn't get those Spiral Showcase event points this past week. The wait times were atrocious and it would benefit all of us tremendously if we were able to inspect the kiosk (while in volunteer mode) to get it done quicker.
Calamity Cat, during the Showcase week, I just want 1 quick team up. I have all the other tasks to get done too and being able to pause or end the volunteer mode would be greatly appreciated to complete those tasks faster.
I am monitoring the reaction and feedback to all the social system changes we're making and creating a list of topics for Arthur Wethersfield and I to discuss and make adjustments to as we feel are needed.

One of those is the access to the Volunteer system. The intent was to not only shorten wait times by having those interested in TeamUp be able to join before the request is actually made, but also to allow those same people the freedom to do other things while waiting for a TeamUp request. In which case, it makes complete sense to give those players access to the system while they're out and about doing other things in the Spiral.

Evaluating adjustments to large scale social systems can take time, so thanks again for taking the time to relay your experiences to us!

Squire
Apr 18, 2013
507
GraniteHeart on May 6, 2021 wrote:
I am monitoring the reaction and feedback to all the social system changes we're making and creating a list of topics for Arthur Wethersfield and I to discuss and make adjustments to as we feel are needed.

One of those is the access to the Volunteer system. The intent was to not only shorten wait times by having those interested in TeamUp be able to join before the request is actually made, but also to allow those same people the freedom to do other things while waiting for a TeamUp request. In which case, it makes complete sense to give those players access to the system while they're out and about doing other things in the Spiral.

Evaluating adjustments to large scale social systems can take time, so thanks again for taking the time to relay your experiences to us!
Just keep in mind that sometimes when someone starts a task while waiting for a queue to start, they do so knowing that task might require a little bit more time. So if I am volunteering for long instances and while waiting I decide it's time to check the garden, that garden then becomes priority #1 until all plants are tended to. One cannot risk a garden going PtD (Progress to Dead). This is just one example of why I think a pause button would be helpful. Just so there is less traveling, so we don't have to run back to the kiosk every time we feel a short break is needed. Would also be helpful for anyone who has to take that bathroom break.

During Spiral Showcase, I was forced to choose Volunteer as all low level worlds were empty. It was long wait times mostly and I went on to complete the other Showcase tasks. The rare times team up got done first is when I wanted Volunteering to end. So let's say I got the team-up done and am at the pet pavilion, I'd have to go back to a kiosk to end it. It'd be better if I am able to end the volunteer mode wherever I am.

I probably will not look at the team up kiosk again until an Event calls for it (or if I need to farm for those Brandon minion tc). I won't recognize any adjustments until then. Thanks for the response!

Defender
May 27, 2013
149
Though this may not be an issue for some, I do have an observation. When the box pops up asking if you want to join, there should also be an option to cancel the volunteer status completely. As it is now, one must find a kiosk to turn off the status.

Also, trying to join a team up when under level 20 is a massive pain. A number of my characters failed to gain the 20 points needed for the Spring Scroll. Not that this hasn't already been said by others.

Thanks.

2