How many items have vanished into the electronic abyss and disappeared?

[nenetteblackmoor]

Hey Tonquin!
And I have a request for the other developers as well.

I think it's probably something that 99.9% of DDO players have on their minds, but I'd like a confirmation screen to appear when giving items from a chest to someone, displaying the recipient's name.

No matter how carefully you choose the name, there are often instances where the item is mistakenly given to someone else.
Despite being cautious as if threading a needle, it tends to go off course.

It's hard to estimate how many items have disappeared into the electronic abyss.

Reaper instances don't allow re-entry, and it's not reasonable to demand someone return to a Raid using a timer, right?

It's a simple task to just display a confirmation screen with the recipient's name, similar to when picking up special items.

 

[CBDunk]

I've literally never had this happen to me when I was re-assigning items to someone else... yet I've got a friend who runs into it all the time.

I suspect the difference has something to do with the manual details of how we are selecting the person to receive the item, but no idea what causes the actual glitch.

 

[Ellisaria]

I can say I've done this and have seen other people do this numerous times. It can be very frustrating to win a loot roll for an item you really wanted only to watch that loot be mistakenly passed to someone else. Maybe a confirmation message like "Are you sure you would like to pass "item name" to "player name"? Yes/No" would help keep as many items from hitting the floor/vanishing into the void.

 

[Blerkington]

This is by far the single worst thing about raiding in DDO and it would be great if it could be fixed. Adding some confirmation dialogue would be great, preferably as a toggle so people who don't want it don't have to use it.

 

[SpartanKiller13]

From what I've seen it occurs most often when someone leaves the group while you have the dropdown menu open for passing the item.

From what it seems like, each item on the list is mapped to a player slot, like the first name is to party member two (since you're #1), the 2nd name to party member three, etc. The links behind the scene update immediately, but the list doesn't refresh unless you close and re-open the dropdown menu.

So if party member #2 leaves while you're about to pass to party member #3, the links all slide up one and you pass to party member #4 while clicking on the 3rd person's name.

 

[nenetteblackmoor]

I've literally never had this happen to me when I was re-assigning items to someone else... yet I've got a friend who runs into it all the time.

I suspect the difference has something to do with the manual details of how we are selecting the person to receive the item, but no idea what causes the actual glitch.

There are people who immediately leave the group in a Raid if they don't get the desired item, right?

If the program manages the player sending the item not with a unique ID but with the offset number in the list window, there is a possibility of mismatch depending on the timing when the number of participants decreases.

While there may be various possibilities, I believe implementing a confirmation window alone could prevent this tragedy.

 

[Suggestion]

I have seen this happen a number of times over the years and have been a victim of it occasionally. While I like the confirmation window I have another solution. If anything in a chest (not just bound and/or named items) is assigned to someone who is not currently in the dungeon/quest then the current party leader can assign it to anyone. If the current party leader is not in the quest, they can name someone else as party leader (or drop party and so someone else is named party leader). This fixes the problem most of the time unless the leader goes afk for a long time and those in the quest don't want to wait.

 

[Ellisaria]

I have seen this happen a number of times over the years and have been a victim of it occasionally. While I like the confirmation window I have another solution. If anything in a chest (not just bound and/or named items) is assigned to someone who is not currently in the dungeon/quest then the current party leader can assign it to anyone. If the current party leader is not in the quest, they can name someone else as party leader (or drop party and so someone else is named party leader). This fixes the problem most of the time unless the leader goes afk for a long time and those in the quest don't want to wait.

That would hinge on the party lead/proxy honoring whatever was agreed upon between the person who lotted the gear and who they intended to pass it to. Nothing stopping them from keeping it for themselves or accidentally passing it to the wrong person themselves. If we are talking about adding completely new systems for unclaimed (named) loot, I'd propose that after x minutes, loot goes to a d100 lotting system with a fixed timer (so someone can't stall the roll) and high roll gets the drop.

 

[CBDunk]

It sounds like the easiest solution would be to fix the recipient selection list so that it doesn't update in real time as people are leaving. Maybe only when you close and re-open the chest dialogue. That would prevent the desired target from changing at the last moment. If you then assigned an item to a character who was no longer in the group it could just show an error message and leave you as owner.

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

I've passed an item to the wrong character numerous times.

On a few occasions, I've also passed an item to the guy who asked for it, only to have that guy leave the quest without taking it.

On my computer, the drop down list text is very small and hard to read.

 

[Buddha5440]

I've literally never had this happen to me when I was re-assigning items to someone else... yet I've got a friend who runs into it all the time.

I suspect the difference has something to do with the manual details of how we are selecting the person to receive the item, but no idea what causes the actual glitch.

You must be one of the 0.1%...Oh, wait...So am I That must mean that there are at least 2000 other people out there that have this issue on their minds.

 

[saekee]

fyi DDO is an electronic abyss

 

[Ahpuch]

It sounds like the easiest solution would be to fix the recipient selection list so that it doesn't update in real time as people are leaving. Maybe only when you close and re-open the chest dialogue. That would prevent the desired target from changing at the last moment. If you then assigned an item to a character who was no longer in the group it could just show an error message and leave you as owner.

I came to post this as well. I will skip my diatribe on ui developers who think dynamically changing the UI as the user is interacting with it is a good practice.

I also think it is better solution than a confirmation dialog. The stats on people who just click OK without reading should put to rest the idea that a confirmation is a good solution.

 

[Zaszgul]

If they're going to put developer resources into this problem, they should revamp it entirely. Nix the tiny drop-down entirely, and replace with a "Reassign item" button that pops up a whole new interface panel with each party member's head as a nice big icon to click.

 

[rabidfox]

If item is assigned to X person, has recalled, and is no longer in instance then item can be looted by anyone. No need for party leader to control it, nor anything complex. It also means I don't have to ask "Anyone want this (low level item I can't even be bothered to feed to my sentient weapon)?"; I can just leave the quest and anyone who wants the item can then loot it.

 

[Enoach]

Groups that I've run with see the miss assign happen most often if it occurs nearly the same time as someone recalling. Not 100% that this is the issue, but can say most of the time this occurs it was when someone was recalling. This would make me suspect there is potential that the chest may be running the "who is in the quest?" calc which may be affecting the assignment dropdown.

Or it is some kind of lag that appears to effect some more than others.

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

as somebody who has left a 5 reaper shard item in a chest, yes plz

 

[Timmius]

that UI needs to be waaaaaaay bigger. a lot of us are old and so are our eyes

 

[Ahpuch]

If item is assigned to X person, has recalled, and is no longer in instance then item can be looted by anyone. No need for party leader to control it, nor anything complex. It also means I don't have to ask "Anyone want this (low level item I can't even be bothered to feed to my sentient weapon)?"; I can just leave the quest and anyone who wants the item can then loot it.

I like this. But....

If they accidentally leave does it get unassigned even if they are coming back in? Does it matter if it's Reaper or a Raid and they can't get back in? And what if the player DCs? Do items stay as theirs until they reconnect and leave party? Put a timer in for that case? So there are some edge cases but I would still like to see this change as none of those edges are common enough to derail what makes sense most of the time.

 

[Mornyngstar]

The easiest way to fix is to make it a 2-part system: First click check box next to name then click confirm at bottom of list. Also, have a cancel button in case you accidently open the give to another screen.