I liked this post for the 2nd part, just because it's how I've always played. i have never used any of the 3rd party stuff that was on "The list" https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Utilities and the rules for things like Autofire.exe (a simple key repeater applet), which was essentially indistinguishable from an already legal Gravis Pad, or programmable keyboard, as they did not give a character mechanical advantage, were legal, but if a GM sends a /tell, you'd best answer as unattended play was verboten.
As for the 1st part of this: Imagine if you will: ALL live servers with /pickzones for all combat zones. (Think Beza Missions for example) that just don't care what server is actually running it. Add to that a host of rulesets, PvP, PvE, Trade raidgear, TLPs, Live bluebies new XP, Bluebies Slowed X (that everyone knows before they roll up toons on it!) and... Boxing and even telecast key servers... Why not? I gotta say.. I have no issue with someone who wants to see if they can use F2P / krono & gear marketing to float their own raid force. Not my personal cup of tea, but, then.. a fair number of those 3rd party softwares came FROM EQ devs, past, present, and I daresay.. future. An aging game might be a great place to develop... developers Developers develop, that implies something different and also something "Next". Not all new ideas work out, welcome to life, eh? people's computing capabilities are vastly greater as a whole, than 1999 raids where 1/2 were on /gasp AoL dial-ups. Frankly, it amazes me that some people can (and have time to) manage so many at once. I'd be cool with a couple boxing friendly / specific servers and still play on live and on TLP and on a ghost town server with my family. Bet it would make for some fun streaming / Youtube vids Partly why EQs rollouts of Velious and Kunark were bumpy was it was testing the limits of what they, and the end user's computers could deal with.. I just don't see the harm of continuing that, just not on every server. If you think about it, EQ as a whole DOES give quite a variety of playstyle shift under the traditional rulesets and Quarm seems innovative at least.. I think there's room in our memories for all and then some. They don't have to be detrimental to the game and.. EVERY MMO has it going on to some degree or another, sanctioned or otherwise. Why not benefit from it, Now, if you'll Excuse me, I have HZ tasks to do.. Wizard: <Teleport Bind> Alt Tab Mage: Annul magic /pet attack Alt Tab Ranger: /assist petname, AUTOFIRE!!!!, DoT, Snare if needed Alt Tab Shammy: /assist, DoT, Heal if needed Alt tab Mage: burn, pull next. ------------------------------------------------------------ My point being.... these ideas (and even games / game mechanics / AI behaviors) START like autofire did.
There's some easily programmable things to discourage boxer pick farming, and some harder things to make it even more difficult to perform. Switching picks should place a person at the succor point in the zone. That's an easy fix for box farmers who pick switch. It gives people the ability to self-succor and/or skip one way through easy zones such as a full Commonlands, but honestly, who cares about that? There's some other things that can be done to deter pick farming too, some more difficult to implement than others, such as: res sickness for X minutes when you pick switch, inability to loot corpses for X minutes when you pick switch, named mob zone banish succor for X minutes when you pick switch and more. And I agree with the sentiments of the poster who said that instanced raiding is a way bigger draw than true box for Phinigel. If boxing existed on Phinigel, yes, players would have more frustrations with box armies camping grouping areas, but the population in general would have been even dramatically higher with all the people boxing multiple toons. Box armies don't affect your raiding when it's instanced. It would still be a tremendously popular server.
I didn't say they were, however, input cloning programs allow a player to become sufficiently independent that they can even enjoy raid targets without the support of others, thus not having to care if their actions gain the enmity of the server. Ragefire and Lockjaw showed that some will take the opportunity.
Well said. This I can and will agree with. Did not mean to imply that you felt all boxers are pariahs.
Oh hell no, there is already way to much bread to spread the jam on, we do not need more unneeded bread.
funny thing when phinny came out it became the most popular tlp server but despite that ragefire and lockjaw still have players on them which means there is more then one type of eq player,god and oow have a lot of instanced higher tier content ,i got into a group on the quarm beta server played a wizzie and then made a mage killed some low mobs bought some melachite went to poj and got bored. I missed my 6 boxing so i guess the true box quarm server is not for me,what a pity there will not be a second quarm server were people can box it would mean extra revenue for db.
The success of phinny is not due in part to the "true box code". It is due in part to the instancing of content. While I was active on phinny, I boxed with 2-3 comps at times. multiple people in my guild did the same, some playing as many as 5-6. None of us have numbers, only DBG knows how many people are boxing and how many are only playing a single account. Ignoring a play style that developed within EQ, that kept it alive while the game was struggling is a huge oversight by the devs. Many of us EQ players enjoy boxing because it adds another element to the game. You get to control your whole group like an RPG, you gear your "team" and then you take your team and meet up with others who have their own teams and see what raid content you can beat. The best thing about phinny is the blocking of third party programs. A quarm style server that allowed boxing but still blocked third party programs would be my ideal race server. People who 6 box are not a major issue. The people who 40 box are, take away third party programs and that's no longer possible..
Wouldn't have as much of an issue with that. I don't care if people box. I care when they only do so to farm epic pieces they don't need for krono trades. Basically, when they box so they can disrupt and block people's progress like some kind of troll tollkeeper
I fully agree with you Dariya. The style of player who is playing EQ to pay their rent, or just make money in general are the type that hurt the game. Krono's were a great idea at their conception, they have become too much of a driving force in the economy on TLPs. If the devs actually cracked down on RMTing and the third party krono trade, we'd be in a much different place.
I love boxing and can't play without it because of boredom. Plus, I'm afraid to try logging in to quarm or phinny in case they lock me out over a false positive. And if I'm sitting at an old school camp on phinny, why shouldn't I be able to run another copy of EQ and enjoy the company and play on my live server at the same time? Meh, it is what it is, and that's why I probably won't even log in to try phinny or quarm. But from reading this thread, it seems like instancing was a nice start. It sounds like the next step would be to allow players to make the instances private, so boxers (or anybody else) could not come and grief another player without an invitation. Would there be any more arguments about boxing then? Would "true box" code even be needed? I get that quarm is supposed to be a "race", but as others have already stated, there are plenty of people who box on multiple machines. Your dream of a level playing field is just as much a dream in-game as it is in real life. If you are trying to make it "competitive", you'll always need to accept that people with more money have an advantage.
You can. I log into live all the time on a separate account while playing on phinny. The true box code doesn't care how many accounts you log in as long as only one is logged into phinny.
That is great to hear and definitely makes me less scared to "try" the True Box servers. TLP is still not my thing, but good to know in case I want to try Quarm.
Just look at Phinny compared to the boxable TLP's (combined) Sure boxing allows for a few people to have a massive number of subscriptions, but it chases away far more than that by making the gameplay miserable. Monopolization of content (raid and group) leaves a nasty taste in people's mouths. True box has proven it provides a far more stable and sustainable population. I would imagine on a "competition" based server like Quarm excessive boxing would chase people away even faster. Why bother playing if you can never compete with the guy who has 12-30 characters.
I just want to point out that all TLP's have suffered from a massive drop off of players after a certain point. I don't believe any conclusions can be drawn based on the icons on the server status list, except to say that Phinny is more popular at the moment and it is the latest TLP server. For all we know, it's not actually any more popular than Ragefire and Lockjaw were when they were the same age. But even if it is more popular, the cause may not be True Box code. Instanced content, as has been pointed out, could just as easily be the cause of it's popularity.
I played on both Ragefire and Phinny, Phinny has seen much higher player retention throughout the expansions during times that typically cause drop-off. I have no doubt that instance raids has a great deal to do with that, but True-box and instance raids go hand in hand. You will never see one without the other. Phinny and Ragefire/LJ are in the same expansion btw, comparing the two isn't that far off. Having played on both I can confidently say that the grouping scene on Phinny was much less toxic, primarily due to the lack of mega (6+)-boxers locking people out of content. It is easy to see how this would reduce player attrition. Most of the game takes place at the group level, when that portion is no fun people stop playing. True-box just makes for a better community, and a more enjoyable game. I don't have anything against boxers, I even boxed 4 myself on LJ, but Phinny has shown me the light. (And, yes, I two box on Phinny.)
The OP is not asking to replace the server he is asking for a 2nd server that allows normal boxing. No harm in that, surely? A social game requires a lot of players to be online at all times of the day to be successful. The OP is Australian and there is not a huge Australian player base and even less are playing on the progression servers.
Because playing with 10 is *not* social, but 60+ is? /boggle. I have a small group of friends/players I like to play with - and I don't want to manage a guild of 60 people. Way too much work and drama. We all box a handful and like playing together and want to participate in this server, but doesn't look like we'll get to.
