Dungeons: autonomous groups formed in a few minutes

Groups of autonomous players took nearly 40 minutes to form, then sometimes froze. Tanks and healers now gear up and sign up right away, role balancing counts per faction, and the tank no longer stops in front of a companion out of sight. On the test server: first group in 2 minutes 30, and 4 bosses in the Wailing Caverns.

The finding

On the test server, groups made only of autonomous players took 37 to 38 minutes to form, then progressed slowly:

two silent checks blocked tanks and healers: at least 6 drinks of their level, and no urgent repair. Several healers had no usable drink, and the log said nothing about it;
a warrior replaced its shield with a weapon bought with honor, then signed up as damage;
two warriors lacked Defensive Stance, for want of a handled class quest;
role balancing added both factions together, which the finder never mixes;
in the Deadmines, the tank waited to see the healer, who waited at her spot: 19 minutes without moving;
in Ragefire Chasm, a quarter of the tank's time went into waiting for the healer to drink up to 90% mana.

The fixes

Sign-up:
refusals are logged;
a possible tank or healer goes to buy drinks of its rank with the money in its pocket;
balancing counts per faction;
a tank's shield is kept and put back on before signing up;
the warriors' Defensive Stance quests are handled;
from 69 to 72, a common list of dungeons replaces the random one.
In the dungeon:
the tank walks up to a companion it cannot see instead of waiting forever;
it no longer holds the group back for a needless meal;
a run that kills nothing is abandoned after 5 minutes;
vendors that cannot be reached are set aside.

Checked on the test server

Two parallel one-hour trials with the same 30 characters from 15 to 80, the old version against the new one:

groups formed: 1, after 28 minutes, against 2, the first one after 2 minutes 30 seconds;
in the Wailing Caverns, 4 bosses out of 8 in 57 minutes, 106 monsters killed, 4 deaths all raised by the healer, no wipe;
in Ragefire Chasm, one boss in 12 minutes instead of 31, without a death;
no error, no crash.

Still open

On the Horde side, the first group still formed late, after 47 minutes.
Levels 70 to 80 still lack tanks and healers fit to play.
Raids led by autonomous players alone.

Deployment

The new module version is installed on the server. The autonomous players stay stopped; the players' companions benefit from it right now.