How long to wait for people with d/c problems?Follow

Okay, I did something this weekend I'm not 100% certain I'm proud of, and I would like some of your comments on whether I should be ashamed of myself or not.

In my LS Clan (which I run) we have been trying to do mission 3-3 (Appointment to Jeuno) since August but without any luck. The high people who needed it (myself and a few others) were rarely on together at the same time with enough of a window to do it, the lower people who needed it were taking a long time levelling up to where we'd feel comfortable dragging them along for such a harried journey. We had several failed attempts where we couldn't get enough people to go and a few false starts (for example, one of our members started Windy's 3-2 twice).

Long story short, this last weekend we were determined to do it come hell or highwater. After an hour of organizing, we had a good little crew. Several people from our LS, several others who needed the mission, and even a high level WHM to help (64WHM). We set out (only a few of us had maps, but oh well) and ascended the tower (actually, making record time). Only one death at the hands of a nasty Spirit, which our WHM prompty raised.

The problem is, one of our LS members kept disconnecting. All the way up, he would d/c and we would have to pause and wait for him. We didn't mind really, but our high-level WHM had a static he needed to get to and time was ticking.

We make it to the top, fight the NM, and got enough keys on the first kill for everyone in the group that needed one (obviously, we had two people who had already done the mission). Everyone lots... except this one guy that kept d/c'ing. We notice on the map he is still back at the staircase (and is only level 32, so he'd get slaughtered trying catch up with us). We call for him to lot anyway, and he promptly vanishes from our party.

He had d/c'ed sometime before the fight.

So we wait around for him, re-invite him, escort him to the room, and wait for the next spawn (they say the spawn time is 10 minutes, but I was personally able to fit 3 Chakra's in there before he spawned again, so I'd say it was closer to 15).

The next spawn happens, and he d/c's again. We repeat (wait, invite, wait for spawn) and he d/c's in the middle of the fight.

He kept d/c'ing every single fight. We waited around for at least 45-60 minutes trying to get his damned key, and he kept d/c'ing just when the fight started. We fought that thing 4 times, with a 5 being taken by a party near us while we waited for him to reconnect.

Finally, after the last time, we realize we really needed to get our 64WHM back to his static (they had already patiently waited an hour for him). Plus, two of our Clan members had work the next morning and it was already very late for them (they were East Coast, while I am in the West). So we gave him another five minutes, then continued on without him.

We he finally did rejoin, he was pissed (understandably so... we left him stranded at the top of the tower with no way to kill the NM and no way to get back down short of Death Warping). We knew there was another Alliance on the way up, so we advised him to wait for them and join them when they showed up, but he just swore at us (the whole LS) and disconnected.

So, I feel bad about this and all... but what could we have done? His connection wasn't reliable enough to stay on long enough to get the key, and we had already put around an hour into trying to work around his connection problems.

Thus, my questions are these:

1) Were we wrong to leave him up there? Should I, as LS leader, put my foot down when everyone else wanted to go? (Even if it meant I would be alone up there waiting for him and unable to really help as I was a 36 MNK).

2) How long to you have to wait for people with d/c problems? If you are fighting a quest/mission NM like us, is 45-60 minutes adequate, or should we have given him even longer?

PS: This person was also someone who had already caused two false starts for the mission by accepting 3-2 twice after he had already done it. This is why everyone else in the party wasn't really willing to wait for him any more.

Edited, Mon Sep 20 12:11:39 2004 by vismaior

I have had a lot of people disconnect and I usually try to wait at least 5 to 10 minutes to see if he comes back. However, DCing more than three or four times for me would be reason to exclude him. I don't blame your pty for wanting to leave. 3-3 takes long enough as it is and for some people time is a little more valuable than that.

It's not his fault, true, but if he is going to pty he's going to have to figure out the problem and solve it because it is rude to have so much downtime for the other players (like your 64 whm) who might have other things going on.

A shame, perhaps, but such is life on FFXI--I'm sure he'll be able to find another pty to help him out.


--Chef

Yeah, we didn't have a BLM. Our 64WHM was subbing WAR (he wanted Provoke so he could pull mobs away from us, but everything was merely EP to me on the way up, so it wasn't really necessary), and the closest we had to a BLM was this person who kept d/c'ing (he was a DRK).

I would estimate we spent and hour and a half getting there, and another hour fighting the thing for his key. During which, I'd guess he d/c'ed probably 15 times. The last time we actually did wait another five minutes for him to reconnect, and one of our clan members was chatting with him in AIM, so I can only assume he knew the group was getting antsy (unless this person didn't tell him what was going on).

It's really hard to give a set amount of time to allow for D/C's as it varies per situation.

Generally if it is an experience party I will give 5-10 minutes and then replace. In the event of repeated d/c that is happening often (I don't mind once and hour or so) I usually give the benefit of the doubt in the first several d/c's but after that I check with the rest of the party and see how they feel. If everyone agrees they need to be replaced I will wait until they log back on advise of one more try but let them know (politely) if they disconnect again they will be replaced. Generally people that are having repetetive connection problems will either give up and not log back on or respectfully bow out of the party out of fairness to others.

In your case however I feel you were more than patient. If he knew he was having connection problems prior to going then he should have waited until another time. If the problems did not begin until after you started ascending the tower then it is really a tough call as you don't want to leave him alone where he can be killed when he reconnects but nobody wants to have to stop every few minutes and wait especially with sneak/invis needing to be cast repeatedly.

The one thing I would have done different is, rather than leave him there wait for him to reconnect a final time and advise him that you have to get going. Have a blm warp him home or have the whm teleport him if the whm was one of the ones who did not need a key. Then just advise him people are willing to help when he isn't not having so many problems.

An hour and a half to get up there? Plus you waited all that time for him? Meh you did as much as you could have. You had a bunch of people with you needing the quest, people that had other plans, and others that had to, more importantly, go to bed for work in the morning.

People are always doing runs up the tower. He'll get his chance again. Sounds like you and the people there bent over backwards for this guy.

Yeah, but he was in the Clan's LS... so we were willing to do it. That's what made it so sticky.

He is really pissed off, BTW. I have since found out that he blisted a couple people from the clan... I havent been on since then so I have no idea if he blisted me to.