On iTrial invites (aka why doesn't this Q thing work?)
Definitely some info here that needs to be espoused... and not just to the Protector community! Is there a Mini-Guide to this stuff somewhere that I can toss around on Infinity when folks don't know what's up?
Two other common issues we have encountered:
1) If you are in the queue, the league leader cannot invite you to a league. You can either get invited OR join the queue. Not both.
2) If the league is in an coop zone and one member zones out, this will prevent the league leader from inviting people of the opposite faction to the league. It can also prevent league/team rearrangements. It also prevents queuing of another trial. So, yes, even when the league is idle between trials, one member zoning out can be rather disrespectful.
Ultimately, many players cause their own problems by not attempting to understand the queue system, and ranting at the league leader does nothing to resolve those issues. The league leader has no obligation to explain the queue system to any individual, any more than s/he has the obligation to explain to-hit/defense mechanics, or the purple patch, or mez resistance mechanics, or anything else. And trying to have that rant while the trial is in progress is truly bad form. League leaders have enough work to do organizing and explaining the trial itself.
If the queue system is really that puzzling, the only people at whom it might be appropriate to direct one's ire would be the people who designed it.
There are no hard iTrials, only hard peo-... er... wait.
Over the weekend, I got a couple tells during iTrial runs regarding invites and it's occurred to me that there may be some misunderstanding about how the queue system works.
Once the league leader queues the event, there is nothing they can do. They can't invite people to league and they can't move people within teams. That's why when people arrive to see a league standing there, you'll often be told just to join the queue (to join the queue, go to the LFG tab → Incarnate Trial tab, select either First available Incarnate trial or the specific trial you want), because the league is already in the queue. Players not in the league can join the queue right up until the button pops.
Once the button pops, only the people eligible (i.e. already on the league and those already in the queue) can join the event until the league zones into the trial instance.
Once the event has started, joining the queue puts you in the queue for the NEXT trial you will NOT join the league in the trial that is currently in progress UNLESS the league drops below the minimum number of people for the event. I've never seen a person join an event like that on a live server, only on test, specifically trying that.
In practice, the only way to join an event in progress is to have the league leader invite you. ONLY the league leader can invite you to join a trial that is under way. Be aware, however, that different people zone in faster than others, and that often times league leadership is transferred to someone who was NOT the leader before the event started. Many times, the new leader has to be made aware that the have lead. Sometime they are unresponsive when told and do not pass the star back to the original trial leader. The League Leadership transfer problem has been going on since day 1, and it seems it will never get fixed.
"Can play" is not a binary. It's a float.
There are some pretty low values of "can play" out there.
--Fulmens
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off