I am newer to the scene of heavier camped NM and HNM camps here on this server... and have been a bit curious as to how this auto-claim system works that Nas has implemented.
Is it 100% random, 100% nonsense? Does better ping benefit you? Do we actually know, are you willing to share input?
I have witnessed 12+ people camping for possibly a better chance to auto-claim, and only 3-4 people actually not AFK that fight it.
I have also seen a solo player and his low-level alt (two-member party); have success and achieve an auto-claim from standing afar from pop site.
TBH... I miss the days of competitive claiming. Especially knowing there are ‘anti-bot’ practices in place here.
From the long-time players on this server, is this auto-claim method working for you?
………… am I already beating another dead topic and should just get used to this claim method?

Better ping does not benefit you

We know 100% how it works:
The mob spawns, but is not visible or available to be targetted by players at all.
The mob does what it normally does on spawn, walk around, or just stand there, etc. Normal AI.
If the mob aggro's you once it enters it's "aggroing players" state, after it's done it's initial invisible spawn, it will appear and you will have claim.
If the mob does not see/hear somebody eligible, it simply pops without having claim on anybody. But it can still aggro somebody immediately afterwards if they move into range etc.

If multiple people were eligible for claim, it is essentially random among those people. Eligible means: sight aggro? You have to be in sight aggro range/cone. Sound aggro? You have to be in sound aggro range.

There used to be a bug with auto-claim that favored players based on their ID on the server because the list of players was always populated in order by ID, in reverse. So in equal conditions, players with higher ID numbers would get claim over lower ID numbers 100% of the time. The server had gone through an ID rollover around that same time so there were a lot of players with very high values (I'm like 62xxx or something) and also many with very low (it went all the way down to 1). This bug was fixed a long time ago.

This system -is- the anti-bot mechanic for claiming.

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I believe it's intended to now be 100% random, and I'm not sure better ping benefits you. If we actually knew, and I have some theories as I'm positive others do, there's little to gain from sharing it. Nas has removed the competitiveness to claiming some NM's, and that leads to the new competitiveness being figuring out how the auto-claim mechanic is coded.

There's not really "anti-bot" practices in place here, like retail had (where a mob was yellow for a random short amount of time so that someone spamming, couldn't claim), other than the fact that Nas is willing to ban some folks if there is proof they are botting in some fashion.

For newer players, prior to this, there was a previous version of auto-claim that was based on player age that we eventually determined the sweet spot of and abused to the point that Nas had to fix it and take down the player age page (Shout out to Nataleh, you damn fine golden girl. Thanks for the V Belt). The current system is certainly better than that one, as that one excluded large portions of the server from realistically ever having the opportunity to claim anything auto-claim at all. Is there probably something driving this new mechanic? Almost certainly.

Would I prefer he figure out a claim-shield, like retail had in this era? Absolutely. It's at least better now than it was, though.

The best advice is power in numbers. The more people you have, right now, the better chances you have. Unfortunately, the current system (in the manner that Nab explained more in detail) opens up to a whole different exploiting, that some folks are absolutely doing, and that's disheartening.

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KA appeared shortly after the final Knight died, appeared essentially mid-swing against a party member. To me, I thought it looked Red, but I'm old and slow. The party member even took damage from the swing.

Someone else Provoked KA, and the claim was lost.

Is this a case of item #4 you listed? The camp was packed, KA appeared swinging. It never was up wandering around Yellow. Does that mean it can become aggressive to someone (while Invisible), appear attacking, yet still unclaimed? Every other time I've seen KA pop he would show up Yellow/moving slightly for a moment before someone claimed him, I've never seen him lose Invisible while attacking (and be claimable by the non-targeted player).

This topic is going to go for infinity pages and be wildly disappointing and frustrating.

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Would I prefer he figure out a claim-shield, like retail had in this era? Absolutely. <--- Agree 100% with this statement, but will take time.

I understand everyone will have their theories and/or personal experiences with this topic. It wasn't intended for that purpose.



This is the information I was looking for; and the additional tips which were provided with :



Thank you for the replies !

It sounds to me like you just saw it later than others but it aggro'd after the auto-claim system completed but did not aggro anybody eligible in time. This is relatively common on sound aggro NMs (so, Spook too) since it's more likely someone will get aggro'd since it's a small area and all around it AFTER the autoclaim (but also less likely to ever spawn without having already claimed somebody). I guess it's -possible- that the duration of time it autoclaims is shorter than the duration of time it is untargetable for.

Additionally, if your friend did anything to unclaim, like hitting another mob, you can lose autoclaim. Or Hide, etc.


Yet will have been completed on the first page (in terms of actual discussion and information).

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That's a very Nabutso statement, for sure.

There was no issue with a system that allowed me to claim KA 95% of the time for 3 weeks straight for 150k a night, according to Nas either. Pretending the new system is equally infallible really only has the possibility of making you look silly, in retrospect.

We have no actual idea if the new system is completely random now, or that there isn't ways to enhance your odds. (And there is certainly one way to increase your odds, that I'd mentioned to Nas).


edit: Now your point is still probably right, because anyone with ideas of how to improve their odds, certainly won't be posting it on the forums.

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Yeah I know his area is incredibly small for auto-claim (Sound), I just wanted to clarify. It was one of those scenarios where I imagined it worked close to how you described, but didn't know for sure until just now.

Thanks.

Unless you mean like, resting in order to be eligible at all for certain NMs that are low level, like KA, or being in level aggro range to begin with, I don't know what you could be suggesting still gives an 'advantage'.

There was an issue with the previous system. I said as much. Nas changed it because it was an issue. The choosing of eligible targets is random now, that's it.

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