How are areas/instances/checkpoints supposed to persist EXACTLY?

Several times in the first few of weeks of this league I'd teleport back to town, and literally 'identify, salvage, sell, stash - return " and the area had reset to the start!?

Doesn't happen every time - happened enough to put me off using portals tho!!

Today I cleared the Azal Bog, found the Bog Witch but I had stuff to do so logged-out. Came back several hours later and my character is still outside the Bog Witch's arena - map is still populated/active - HOURS later!?!?
(Note: checkpoints were all missing - just not shown AT ALL!?)

How is this stuff SUPPOSED to work exactly - I'm assuming some concept of 'persistant world' is intended here - and it's not working like that!?

I didn't ask for a tiny inventory with massive quest items either - if you're going to do that, don't add "portal anxiety" to the unnecessary micromanagement like it's 1999 all-over-again!?

I'd also raise a secondary issue of respawn rate - some areas have a rate which is literally "if you turn around the enemies you just killed will be back" whilst others remain empty indefinately - given the size/randomness of layouts, this can be frustrating and often even a bit silly???

Having played a bit further and experimented - I think I can fill-in some of my questions but the overall question of "how is this SUPPOSED to work" still stands

If you die/are disconnected/portal out - there is a risk of the CHECKPOINTS in that area being lost

If you were considered 'out' of the map - you'll be returned to the entrypoint - wheras if you were considered 'in' the map you MIGHT be returned to your last checkpoint but the other checkpoints are gone.

The map has "survived" - the layout has not changed - the respawn rate means it feels (and functionally is) like restarting the area from scratch (chests are closed - strongboxes are reset if they were open/unfinished too)


This cannot be intended behaviour - in one case I was 'stuck in the terrain' so I portalled out, returned, no-longer stuck! (GOOD!) but checkpoints were gone - in the 10 seconds I was missing!?...

So - how is this SUPPOSED to work GGG?

Waking this again because I noticed a tool-top

"If you die you will be reset to the last checkpoint and all monsters will respawn"

This is sadly wrong in every possible way!!

You don't always get reset to the last checkpoint - you'll often be thrown back to the entrypoint (not waypoint?)

Whatever is making checkpoints "disappear" in maps may relate to this but either way - checkpoints don't always work like this and I guess the tooltip suggests they should?

I've even encountered maps where there are NO checkpoints - my first run from Ngamahu and "Heart of the Tribe" contained no checkpoints OTHER than the one outside the final boss area (that may be deliberate - it's not ideal??)

Monsters will respawn in MOST areas and MOST maps but not all - some maps remain empty indefinately for some reason (the island where you encounter Omniphonbia didn't ever respawn as I was searching for something and no monsters came back!?)

tl;dr - I'd like to be able to teleport out of a map, sort gear and go back where I left off

Hell, I'd like to be able to logout and come back the next day and continue where I left off

Having to repeat stuff is wasting my time really - ideally it doesn't happen?

I don't really understand. The only time I've ever had a zone or map close or reset on me is when I left a map before I finished, and then like wandered off to make dinner or something before going back in. Iirc the timer is a bit of a variable number anywhere between 8 and 15 minutes of being out of a map and that instance will shut down. It is pretty easy to spend 8 minutes on town shopping and breaking down stuff and storing gear. Without a more specific repeatable step that's my current assumption.

The waypoint isn't a checkpoint, so you wouldn't respawn there normally, if that's what you were expecting to happen.

Are you in maps? That's the one big exception to all of this, if you die while fighting a map boss, it does reset the map and remove all monsters and mechanics from the map and respawn you at the new checkpoint in front of the boss room.

For clarity is this storing the campaign, or endgame maps?